Indie Fix has a home decor challenge going on - (great prizes - see pic) - all details here.
For some home decor inspiration check out design*sponge before and afters and the sneak peaks
Image 1. Sarah Kramer. Image 2. Robin Lester
A lovely idea for a friendship bracelet - you could make a bunch of these to give to your friends or your kids friends - they would be great inside a party bag - or if you made a few plain ones, little kids could decorate them (party activity) or fantastic for older kids to make and give to their friends.
duckyknits posted a tutorial on the forum for this sweet garden gnome home
Homemade soap - from scratch heres a tutorial from Dinosaurs and Moustaches
homemade soap by ove jota [image]
homemade hair remover [recipe at bella sugar via not martha]
check out nature moms blog with lots of frugal and eco friendly beauty tips - link to skin care recipes
- soak in milky bathwater - use apple cider vinegar as a skin cleanser and toner - use oatmeal and water in cotton as a skin cleanser and scrub - also read up on the no-shampoo alternative - using baking soda and apple cider vinegar
did you know that honey is a perfect face cleanser and body moisturizer - read more homemade beauty remedies using honey here also check out other links on homemade makeup remover - simply Olive Oil, Castor Oil and Canola Oil - did you know that natural yogurt is a great skin softener
check out the worsted witches sugary skin secret treatment and check out all the gorgeous natural skin care recipes at ladies blend
make your own handcream - using this delicious recipe at indie Fixx by guest blogger Jessica Gonacha
making your own herbals for the home is a wonderful way to add some fresh and non-toxic love for the house and the family.
try some tisane [chocolate and zucchini] and home made tea bags [craft leftovers]
try some homemade tonics [worsted witch]
make some herbal bath tea [you grow girl]
tip nut has a great links and ideas for some herbal potions - like lavender water ( use in your washing to freshen the linens, put in a spritz bottle as a air deodoriser or when ironing), also lavender drier bags (freshen your washing - natural moth repellant, sleep aid and a natural antibacterial) you might also want to make the herbal sleep pouches.
more: whipups be your own apothecary
tip nut has a heap of links to online needlebooks patterns [via pipstitch]- my faves…
girl on the rocks woven needlebook case
duo fibreworks - felt case
more: check out whipups tutorial on turning a cigarette case into a needle holder
More online patterns for blankets - comfortable loving and warm blankets for the home and family.
Babette blanket is now available as a download from the Interweave online store. [image from gussetting at flickr]
Spiderman round ripple afghan [online pattern link] [image from lises]
hoodie baby blanket [pattern from magknits]
star blanket [online pattern]
bear claw blanket [available for purchase at veronique avery]
A knitted blanket for the home is so versatile - can add colour and texture to your decor, comfort and warmth for your loved ones. Make is a couch throw, a baby rug, an afghan, a lap blanket.
Here are some fabulous online patterns.
Pinwheel blanket [pattern link] [whipup link how-to] [image from persinable on flickr via ravelry]
Lizard ridge afghan [pattern link - knitty.com]
Moderne baby blanket from mason and dixon [online pdf link] [image from homemade original flickr via ravelry]
Tiramisu Baby Blanket [online pattern from Alicia Paulson]
perfect for keep those boiled easter eggs warm for breakfast
[via best of etsy blog ] these egg cup cosy animals at redmush
easter egg cozies at craftster and knitted novelty eggs at Jean Green Howe
and this bunny pattern at adelaide lemonade is adorable
love the mutant bunny hat at fiberfiend
purl bee bunnies and purl rabbits - tutorials for both.
spring tote from betz white - perfect to collect some eggs.
[more easter craft links at domestic diva]
Part of our toys and games month - this lovely fairy bed made from collected twigs and leaves from children’s garden.
nini makes sent in this idea for creating a paper doll of yourself or for for your kids.
A great game for boys and girls. To play, throw the fish “into” the “water” and fish them up using the magnetic fishing pole.
Project supplies: Felt rectangles (12 x 9 ½), piece of paper, scissors, pins, sewing machine, thread, stuffing, needles, ric rac, metal finding such as a button or a tag, ribbon, magnet, drill, blue cloth, bag
Make fish template from 6 x 9 1/2 paper. Fold felt in half and cut out fish, place the top of the fish template on the fold.
Add Scales: Open up the fish and sew on the ric rac to make scales.
Stitch Up the Fish: Start at the back of the fish and stitch to the top of the mouth. This leaves an opening for you to stuff the fish. Stuff fish with just enough stuffing to give him a little bit of shape. Then stitch closed.
Add eyes: a button or anything magnetic. NOTE: Be sure your eyes are magnetic and can be picked up using a magnet. Then make some water by stitching up the edges of a yard of blue cloth.
To make the Fishing Poles: First cut a length of dowel in half and drill a hole in it one end and tie on a length of ribbon. Consider where you will be playing: standing up? sitting down? That will determine ribbon length. Tie on a magnet or, glue two magnets together with ribbon sandwiched between the magnets.
When you have completed the fish, the water and the poles, toss all the supplies into a bag. Happy Fishing!
About the maker: Tina lives in Virginia with her husband and two kids. She enjoys sewing and crafting, particularly stuff for her kids. In her spare time, she works as a Museum Educator.
for more fishy fun check out mama urchin and here : catarina M : uniform studio : mushroom villagers : thanks Sarah for the heads up
When I was a little girl I loved doing crafty projects with end results that I could be proud of. I was no stranger to tie-dyeing my own tees, papier-maché, making kaleidoscopes out of toilet paper rolls, you name it! There is a fab new book from Black Dog Publishing called Making Stuff for Kids
What I think is a great added bonus to this book, is the “How To . . .” section in the beginning defining all different forms of fabric crafts, including Applique, Knitting and Felting, with step by step instructions. There are even pages dedicated to easy and popular sewing stitches. I certainly learned a few things while perusing the pages, and cant wait to share this book with my niece!
this is a modified version of the zodiac pattern from knitty by Jacquelyn Landry
Thank you to everyone for leaving a comment about your favourite kids craft activity and ingredients - so much inspiration … and thank you to kids craft weekly for the giveaways. - the five winners and their comments are listed below first [please email me ASAP whipup[at]gmail.com with your mailing address and full name etc. And listed below that are just some of the creative ways parents and kids create together … thank you all for a great month of kids crafts.
1. Rachael Said - Favourite everyday item would depend on the day and the craft! My kids definitely like string. My favourite kids’ craft project is the ones that the kids made out of their own imaginations. Can’t beat them.
2. Dawn Said - Our favorite everyday craft items are seashells (we live near the shore) and sticks — any kind of sticks including popsicle sticks, yard sticks, dowels — there is always something to make from them. My nomination for best kid’s craft project this month is that darn fish in a bag soap. How cool is that!
3. Desiree Says: Plastic drinking straws! Where do I start? Use them with paint, playdough, string, blow through them, cut them up, glue them… Our latest favorite project? Colored water “painting” on paper towels (using straws of course)!
4. Thien-Kim Said - Hmm, everyday crafting. I like to pull out the paints and let my toddler just smear paint on paper. She has a great time just dipping her fingers (ok, hands) into the paint, mixing it, swirling it, and spreading all over her paper. It’s just sooo juicy! I love watching her. I guess that’s my favorite kids’ craft project right now. Painting with no agenda, just having fun.
5. Rachel Said - Paper would have to be our all time favorite. Doesn’t matter if it’s construction, scrapbook or typing paper. They love the big paper that some shipping companies use to pack things with probably the most. We’ve made treasure maps and lifesize full body “portraits”.
other comments included:
- our current favourite is using freezer paper to transfer ‘original artworks’ onto t-shirts. My kids love to draw and very proudly display their own special t-shirts - good for presents and prolonging the life of special drawings.
- tissue paper and glue! Messy and fun!
- my favorite kids craft project is anything with popsicle sticks (you can do SO many things!)
- cooking ingredients. I love to make playdough, slime, salt dough and other fun mixtures to craft and play wth.
- Favourite crafting material? Paper, of course! Endlessly versatile. Cut it, paint it, fold it, draw it… What can’t you do with paper.
- leftover toilet paper + paper towel rolls. infinitely useful for crafting and imaginative play, especially for little pirates and star-gazers.
- As far as my favorite kids’ craft, I like the crazy crayons made from leftover crayon bits. Those are great.
- scissors are my favorite starting point……….a fresh notebook and a writing implement
- My favourite everyday item is things we find on our walks - sticks, bark, pebbles, leaves, seashells…we love making temporary sculptures in the garden and letting the garden gradually reclaim them.
- Favorite craft project is making books. My daughters (6 &4) love to make books for family and friends. They usually are about the individual person and the girls create collages about their stories. I love their creations and story writing ideas are endless!
- I love cardboard boxes (they can be cut up into pieces to make anything), egg cartons and toilet rolls. Recently I made a farmhouse, tractor and animals out of those items and my daughter loves it.
- My girls are always coming up with new ideas using crayons and found items, anything from beads to candy wrappers to toilet paper tubes.
- Our favorite everyday craft materials are tape, paper and string. My son can build all kinds of things with these - signs, bridges, buildings -
- My fave everyday item: cardboard box! You can add stuff to it, cut away from it, it can be transformed into anything from a doll’s house to a hiding place to something to store everything else into!
- I have to say my daughters favorite everyday craft item is the Popsicle sticks! It never fails that she can come up with a different idea or use for them every time!
- I asked my daughter about this and she said, “Blankets.” I never would have guessed this but she’s right. She makes temporary crafts all around our house out of blankets. She sets up little environments for herself and her friends.
- Some of our favorite projects aren’t really projects at all. We just sit down with a stack of scraps, a few embellishments, and have fun putting them together. I guess you could just call it collage.
- Favorite everday item: felt. You can glue it or sew it, you can make it soft and fuzzy with a needle point, and your can stick it to itself; we’ve made felt storyboards based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
- Our favorite around here would be yarn, especially the little leftovers from my projects. It’s amazing what kids can come up with.
- love love love potato stamps!
- My favorite kid craft (today) is making those crazy crayons by melting leftover crayon bitties into mini-muffin tins.
For my son’s seventh birthday party I wanted to make party favors that didn’t cost very much, were mostly hand made, and that weren’t stupid cheap plastic games that would break immediately. I made pirate booty bags out of some pirate fabric I already had, put some chocolate coins in each one, some fake dollar bills, a few plastic play rings, and one surprise bath bomb which the kids could use in their next bath and after watching the ball fizz for a couple of minutes in the bath a prize would drop out of the center of it.
Because the trinkets you use will be immediately immersed in water you need to choose water proof ones. Plastic bugs or rings (shown in this tutorial) are all good choices. They also need to be small. For all the kids I put a pirate button in the bath bomb, but for the birthday boy I hid a tiny corked bottle with a message inside it for him. He loved it!
This project is not difficult, but it has one tricky aspect to it which is that baking soda and citric acid combined will foam and fizz when in contact with too much moisture, which is what you want it to do in your bath. To get it to form balls you have to get it just wet enough, without setting off the chemical reaction that makes it expand. There is no exact science to knowing when the mixture is ready to form balls. Humidity levels in homes differ. It might take me fifteen sprays of witch hazel to get mine right, but that might not be true in your house. I highly recommend having a second person do the witch hazel spraying while you whisk it in simultaneously so that the moisture has no chance to set off a reaction. [might be a good way for the kids to help out -ed]
