Potions

Halloween is surely the best day of the year to try making some magical potions. We used food colouring (some of which went out of date over a decade ago - oops!), glitter, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to create some fabulously fizzy magic.

Mosaic Decoration

The clocks are about to change and it's nearly November so it must be time to start making Christmas decorations, right?! Our first one to share this year is a hanging mosaic ceramic heart tile. 

We cover the ceramic tile in double-sided sticky tape then attach the mosaic pieces before applying grout over the top. We got all the materials for this little project from Hobbycraft. 

Black Kite Creations

I have just launched my new Facebook page Black Kite Creations. I will be turning children's drawings into simple, beautiful decorations for Christmas. I love creating keepsakes from children's drawings. I can shrink or enlarge images to fit the desired decoration so you don't even need to get your child to do a drawing for the purpose. If you have a doodle that you've kept but don't know what to do with it this could be your solution. Grandparents would also adore these personalised gifts this Christmas and you'll love rediscovering the little treasure with your decorations year after year. Go on, visit my page and have a look...

Diwali Lantern

I am told that they were making rangoli from coloured rice at nursery this afternoon, which sounds like a brilliant activity. This inspired our own afternoon activity, which was to make a Diwali lantern. We decorated some tracing paper with crayons and wrapped it around a lid before inserting an LED nightlight (or two) into the lantern. Happy Diwali to all those celebrating today...

Hot Glue and Pastels

My glue gun gets used for all sorts and certainly not always for glue. I particularly liked this idea though. We've tried using PVA glue to resist paint before but it takes great patience waiting for the PVA to dry. Hot glue, on the other hand, dries really quickly and leaves a solid border to be filled in. Jessica used chalk pastels to fill in the design on this occasion. She scribbled in the gaps and then used her fingertip to spread the colour and fill in the gaps.

She coloured the leaves green first and then decided they should be brown as it was autumn! She also added a sun and some lovely fluffy white clouds. Here's her final piece hanging in the conservatory.

Fingerprint Tree

This was our last week at Toddler Group under the leadership of Aimee and Kay. They've done a tremendous job for the past year and a bit so we wanted to send them off with a keepsake from the group. They turned out pretty well, don't you think?!

Drawings to Decorations

When I was in Wales in September I asked Kat to do some little sketches for me so that I could make some sample Christmas gifts as I am hoping to offer these personalised decorations for sale this year. After going straight to YouTube to get some inspiration she provided me with this little Santa Claus drawing which I have made into a decoration for her Mum's tree this year. I'm really pleased with it but I particularly love turning young childrens' drawings into keepsakes, which is what I'm hoping to focus on doing this Christmas. Once I've got my samples and wooden blanks ready to go I plan to set up a facebook page and will post details on here. Keep your eyes peeled!

Blue Tit Cake (design inspired by Magpie)

I love Magpie, who produce beautiful homeware and gifts. Their "Birdy" range is probably my favourite and it is this range that inspired my decoration of my husband's birthday cake this year. I have to admit that it was a bit of a rushed job and I should have used templates rather than cutting freehand and hoping it fitted together but you can at least tell what it's supposed to be!

Jessica and I used edible ink pens to do the writing, which was nowhere near as easy to use as I had hoped because the icing was fairly soft so the nibs sank in if you weren't really light-handed. Jess loved the cake and couldn't wait to tell Daddy all about it. So much for surprises hey! Happy birthday, David!

Woodland Friends Garland

I've been busy stitching this week in a desperate attempt to get this woodland garland finished before my friend, Laura, has her baby! When her maternity leave started I thought it was probably time to pull my finger out and get it done! She and her husband have a woodland theme running through the nursery and asked if I'd like to make them something like this for the baby. I jumped at the opportunity and was pleased to be able to make use of a book I bought back in May. Mollie Makes Woodland Friends is a lovely book with some fabulous, simple projects in it. I used the ideas and templates as inspiration for my own make here.

I have used felt from Hobbycraft, a single strand of embroidery silk for stitching and bondaweb to adhere the details to faces etc. The animals and toadstools are lightly stuffed and the pieces are all threaded onto a length of narrow green ribbon. Here's a closer look at some of the individual creations...

Finally, here's the finished garland hanging in my craft room, waiting to be delivered to it's new home next week...

Granny Square Poncho

Jessica constantly wants to wrap a blanket around her shoulders so I thought I'd make her a crocheted poncho. That way she can at least keep her arms free. I've essentially made a granny square blanket with the middle missing and a tassel attached...

I began by making a chain long enough to easily fit over Jessica's head and slip stitched it back together to form a loop. I then stitched the sixth round of a standard granny square (6 lots of 3tr 1ch on each side followed by 2ch for each corner) and continued to the twentieth round before completing with a double V edging. Once I'd sewn the ends in I threaded a piece of wool through the neckline (so that the poncho can be tightened once on) and attached a tassel to finish it off.  

Here's my little model showing it off...