day eighty nine: a perfect card for spring :)

the finished card ... makes me feel like spring :)

day eighty nine and here in new zealand we are ienjoying our first days of spring for 2011 ... i wanted to do something with the feel of spring ... i pinned this gorgeous card by jen from JENerally speaking (such lovely crafty projects on her blog!) to my paper crafts board and it was exactly what i felt like creating today :)

have paper, will create!

i gathered some cardstock and some patterned paper and started with the easy things first ... the card size (6 x 6"), the tree and its trunk, then moved on to the more tricky parts!  i used embroidery floss as i couldn't find a twine that looked nice and nesty :)  the bird was drawn several times before one actually made it into the nest ... and that was the card done and dusted.

the easy bits

the finished card complete with bird number ...
yeah it was a few! maybe number 6 ;)

outcome: if i could come up with a magical fix for my lack of drawing skills i would make this card all the time ... it can be used for SO many occasions and even mine makes me smile and think of spring breezes and clear blue skies!  most of all i love the texture of the finished card, the nest gives it that unmistakable home-made feel and i really like that.

my sincere thanks to the talented jen, her cards and general crafty ideas are beautiful, if you have time i would definitely check her creations out :)

hello danielle our nz bottle winner

we still have a bottle of new zealand things to send to danielle ... if you would still like it, please email me on kahoonz@clear.net.nz ...

have a great day everyone, pinterest creation will be up later today :)

day eighty eight: embellished t-shirt

the finished not so linear t-shirt !

day eighty eight and i absolutely love this linear t-shirt design by kacey from the blog stay-at-home artist.  i totally understand what she means by opting for solid colour t-shirts ... that's me and unfortunately i also seem to have the same tendencies with pollyanna's tee's :(  sometimes i find the pictures on little girls t-shirts way over the top and end up making the safe, it will go with everything she owns, solid colour top choice for her too now.

i pinned kacey's tee to my general crafts board months ago determined to find some fabric pens but have not yet found any.  if anyone knows where to get fabric pens in new zealand please drop me a comment.  in the mean time i thought i could achieve this type of design with some ribbons on one of pollyanna's plain white t-shirts.

you need some ribbons and a boring tee :)

i picked out some ribbons from my stash and figured i would sew the ribbons on with some of my straight sewing ;)  i sewed the ribbon bottoms to the underside of the t-shirt first so they would have a nice finish and i figured that sewing would be hidden by the ribbons on the front side (see the picture below).

the under sewn ribbons

half way there :)

the finished embellished tee

who needs linear ribbons ;)

outcome: well clearly after i had sewn the first ribbon line went out the window and i seriously thought this was going to be my first pinterest creation that didn't work out with any success.  i carried on sewing and decided not to work about the straight lines of ribbon but to just sew in the middle of the ribbon and see what would happen ... and this is the end result ... and actually it's absolutely fine!  i am totally ok with the fact the ribbons aren't straight and actually it totally suits pollyanna's personality ... the other amazing thing is that when my sweet husband saw it on her, he thought it was supposed to be like that :)  he made my day, so this ones a keeper!  i am still after some fabric pens so i can do a linear one (which is much more in keeping with my personality!).

thanks so much to kacey and her wonderful creations, she has given me the confidence to alter some of my oh so boring t-shirts, and make pollyanna's ones much more fun :)

day eighty seven: bbq cupcakes for fathers day :)

our bbq cupcakes for a special dad :)

to my dad, my husband, my father-in-law, and all the wonderful fathers who give so much time, energy, support, and love to their children thank you from the bottom of my heart ... i hope your day is full of wonderful memories and that you realise just how special you are to me, our children, your son, and your families ...we love you unconditionally :)  have a very happy fathers day

day eighty seven and its definitely a day worthy of some celebratory cupcakes fit for the dad's in your life ... i think these bbq ones on the disney family fun website should do the trick and they are pinned to my holiday goodness board.

chocolate brownie cupcakes ... mmmmm!

i made up a mix of my brownie recipe and baked up a batch of cupcakes that looked fantastic and smelt delicious!  then the nerves took over as the kids and i hand to start decorating the tops of them to look like bbq's!

kebab maker number one

kebab maker number two

today i discovered piping straight lines of icing is a lot like sewing straight lines ... it takes A LOT of practice!

the finished product!

bbq for dessert any one?

outcome: we used a mix of gummi bears, jersey caramel chews, icing tubes, sugar, food colouring, and toothpicks to help our creations.  it was hilarious trying to make bbq food out of lollies ... there were some disasters and some wonderful successes! the overall effect was cool though and my sweet husband LOVED them ... they were a great dessert after we had finished the real bbq for dinner :)

i have loved what i have made and printed from the disney family fun website, they have such wonderful ideas, the instructions are always brilliant, and i honestly think they have something for every occasion imaginable!

day eighty six: fathers day treat jar

a jar full of goodies, perfect for our
hard working dad :)

day eighty six and its fathers day in new zealand tomorrow and we have a pretty amazing father to celebrate here so it was time to make a creation for him.  pinned to my holiday goodness board was this wonderful idea on eighteen25, inspired by one martha stewart created.

the bits and bobs you need to complete this project

i picked up a cheap square glass jar and then went through my paper scraps to find some tie quality pieces!  i couldn't find a pin stripe i liked so decided to make one with a couple of plain cardstock scraps. martha stewart has a pdf to print a tie (a nice pin stripe!) and collar if you don't feel like making your own or have no coloured card on hand.

the tie making in progress

my children's sweet and very supportive dad is a type 1 diabetic and often forgets to eat properly at work ... typical dad busy at work :)  we thought this jar would be perfect for his desk and good for quick fixes when he's having a low at work so we filled it with his favourite chocolate bars!

ready for filling with your dad's favourite
treats!

honey when you read this tomorrow fyi this is a treat jar, not a lunch jar ;)

the jar filling elves :)

outcome: well it was incredibly easy to make but really effective in terms of a cool jar for an awesome dad ... hopefully he will love it as much as the kids loved filling it with chocolate bars ... i think they are hoping to get lucky tomorrow!

i am a big lover of the projects from the sisters at eighteen25, and this is another one of their inspired beauties ... if you have a minute or two check out their blog its well worth it :)

day eighty five: stuffed owl

this is a REALLY cute owl!

day eighty five and its time for a little more sewing ... last night i repinned this gorgeous little owl with a pdf pattern from lisa at stubbornly crafty onto my general crafts board and thought he was too cute not to make today!

i gathered my supplies and some heat and bond so as not to test my ability to sew in circles ... not too keen to take that step at this stage ... at all :)  there are a lot of circles to cut when you decide to make one for spring decor and one for the christmas season but i thought this little owl was worth it.

the materials and the very good pattern

the making of the owls in my case involved a lot of ironing!

the pdf pattern prints out on an a4, so this little bird is about 6" when complete.  the instructions on the website are great as they cater for the supremo sewers who will sew and not bond and those of us who just want to bond and then sew the back and front together ... i love people who know there are less capable people than them and are happy to make allowances for them!

my two new little friends

this little guy is obviously destined to be used at christmas!

outcome: tomorrow i will be making at least two more!  i ran out of time today, but polly has asked for a pink one for her bed and i want to make one for halloween as well!  this little one is such a cute size for placing on a sideboard or a little peeps bed ... they will happily add to any season's decor and i am absolutely in love with the christmas owl we have affectionately named mistletoe :)

the tutorial for this little owl is brilliant and i am so grateful to lisa from stubbornly crafty for putting together such an awesome pattern and tutorial ... and she's right, its priceless watching the peep's face when you give it to her to cuddle!

day eighty four: me on the map

ben on the map and where he fits :)  fantastic learning
project ... thanks to pinterest or i never would have
found jenn's awesome learning idea!

day eighty four and we have social studies this afternoon.  i wanted to incorporate some web research, some art, and also provide the kids with a really good understanding of where they fit in the world.  i figured this idea by jenn from finally in first could be adapted to my older kids with regards to adding some research to it :)  my kids love visual learning so i am hoping the increasing circles will really resonate with them :)

the circles i cut out for today's project :)

i cut out the circles for both children and then asked them to do something different for each of the areas according to their abilities:

pollyanna (year two)
me - draw a picture of yourself
home - draw our home
street - draw our street and write down the name of it
town - using the internet, find some pictures of our town to print out and attach to the circle
our island - find out what the biggest city is in our island, draw our island
our country - find out what the capital of our country is and print out a map of new zealand to attach to this circle
out continent - find out all the continents and print a picture of the one you live in
our planet - draw our planet and research two interesting facts about our planet

pollyanna's project :)

benjamin (year five)
me - draw a picture of yourself and on the back describe you :)
home - draw our home, write down your favourite place to be at home and one thing you would change to our home if you could
street - draw a map of our street including a compass indicating north
town - find out when our town first became a town and what its main industry was
our island - draw our island and find out what the five most populated cities in our island are
our country - find out what our national flower and animal is and draw them .. print out a map of new zealand to attach to this circle
our continent - print a picture of our continent and name five countries that below to it on the back of the circle
our planet - draw our planet and research five interesting facts about our planet

benjamin's project ... they looked so cool finished!

outcome: this project was totally awesome ... i gave the kids the labels and i helped polly organise hers by size focusing on just adding one more circle at a time, discussing that and then moving to the next largest circle.  it was really exciting seeing ben researching with such interest, i guess because he could see instantly what the project was about and he was very inspired by the little size of his world compared to the ACTUAL world he belonged to ... visually and conceptually this project was outstanding for the kids with regards to identifying and comparing themselves to others and their communities because on geographical reasons.

my sincere thanks goes to jenn from finally in first for this outstanding idea, it really helped with understanding the world as a whole and how towns and countries fit into that space ... especially for pollyanna.  its wonderful teachers like jenn that make the little peeps of today so successful later in life :)