It's a Creative World

Rainy days and ...Holidays

Holidays are here as parent crafters will be well aware. With good old Mr Sunshine making his appearances brief the kids are bound to be getting bored or costing a fortune to entertain. So I thought I'd show yo one crafty session I've had with Emma. You've probably seen it/done it loads of times but this magic coloured picture wallet always captures my imagination- and hopefully the kids! You will need white card, acetate, felt pens and a permanent marker.

Take a piece of card and fold it into 3 same sized sections. (approx 15x10cm)

Draw a rectangle inside the front section and cut out to create a frame. You should now have a cut ot front and two white layers behind. Cut out a notch to pill your picture out. 

Decorate the frame on the front.

Cut a piece of card that will fit inside your wallet. Draw the rectangle on it so you know where to colour and the create a colourful picture with the pens- but without black lines.

Attach a piece of acetate at right side end with sellotape so that it creates flap

Draw black lines onto the acetate.

Now you need to put the acetate and picture into the wallet. The coloured picture should sit behind the white centre section and the acetate should sit in front.

So that all you cab see is the plain black with acetate on a white background. tape the left and bottom edges.

And when you pull the picture the coloured one appears from behind!

 
Tadah!! :-)

Hope that's something to keep the kids ( or you?) occupied!!

Laura xx

Secret Spy Books!

Hello! I hope you enjoyed the Blog Hop - it was great fun to be part of - especially as we all created such different things!

It’s my turn today on It's a Creative World and it’s the start of the Easter holidays here in the UK. Finding things to do with the children can be a real bind sometimes but this is a project that could form the basis of a really fun holiday-long game (it certainly will in our house!)

Children love playing imaginatively and if your young people like to pretend to be spies why not start them off with a secret hidey-hole? My eldest, Freya (11), actually made the one in the step-by-step photos so you know it’s possible (her brother Tom’s (9) is the one on the right!!!).

Talking of spy paraphernalia you could always make ID badges, disguises, newspapers with eye holes, secret codes, spy missions…. I have so many ideas!

I hope you have a great Easter holiday filled with much creativity!

Gabrielle

 

Where do I find inspiration

When your brain goes blank and you stare at your craft supplies and don't know what to make where can you go for inspiration?

The library is always a good starting point. Spend some time sifting through all the creative books and sometimes all it will take is a glance at a picture to set you off on your creative journey. But, if you don't want to take off your fluffy slippers and brace the cold weather...

The internet is wonderful. There are so many creative blogs and sites ready to spark an idea in your brain. One such site that is wonderful for inspiration is Pinterest. If you haven't come across Pinterest yet, you are in for a treat. It is like a virtual noticeboard full of visual treats. You will need an invite to become a member, so find a friend to invite you...and if you can't find someone you know who has Pinterest, leave a comment here for me and I'll get in touch with you and invite you. 

Here is a glance at a corner of my Pinterest board...

What I find is that if I follow a link to an image that catches my eye, then I end up discovering lots of lovely blogs and lots more wonderful inspiration. In fact, I can waste rather too much time there if I am not too careful. But after spending a while browsing the internet, I feel ready to have a fresh look at the projects waiting on my desk.

If you have the crafting blues and don't kow what to do then grab a cuppa and browse Pinterest for a while.

Have fun

Doda x

 

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS

It's not who you know, it's what you play.

It's Eleanor here, with a simple but fun game. Individually and as a family, we all love to play games : board games, card games, word games, and pencil and paper games.

I recently stumbled across a fun game on leafcutterdesigns.com, that you can make yourself, with items you will have around and about. Their version is called Infinite Possibilities, but we call ours Creative Connections, because the game involves making verbal connections, however obscure, inventive or convoluted, between small objects.

These objects can be anything small enough to place within a circle on the gameboard (probably small enough to fit in a matchbox, if that helps you to decide which objects to choose). A quick scout around the kitchen produced a dozen or so things, several more from the sewing area, rather more again from the toybox and bedroom, and finally I found a handful in the lounge. If it hadn't been snowing I'm sure I would have found many more outside - a leaf, a seed pod, a stone, a feather and so on. The great thing is, your game pieces will be different to mine, your connections will be different to ours, and no game is the same as the one before.

Here is a selection of pieces:

The rolled up felt is the game board, simply stitched, but it could be made from paper, see it below.

You each select 6 pieces to start with, and the first player places one of their pieces on a circle, and replaces it in their own pile with a fresh piece from the box. That's it for the first go. The second player then selects a piece from their own hand (remembering to replace it from the box before their turn is over) and places it in another circle. If it is adjacent to a filled circle (sometimes more than one) they state what the connection is between the pieces. There isn't really a wrong answer, but their choice of connection might prompt interesting conversation, responses or recollections. You always have six pieces in your 'hand' to choose from, and when all the seven circles are filled, you take a piece out of a circle so that you can fill it with a fresh game piece.

Here's a game in progress:

The connections offered were these - the first piece was the gone fishing sign. It was followed by the peg, as you are sited at a peg when you fish with a rod and line. Next came the pig on the basis that 'change the e to an i and there you have it'. The mighty jumping bean was placed next - pork and beans was the connection there. Then the length of string joined the board, as a washline for the peg, and was followed by Woody, who might have used it as a lasso, and as the gone fishing sign was also connected, it was declared that Woody enjoyed fishing, a statement no-one chose to refute. Finally the elephant was placed next to the mighty jumping bean, as what is mightier than an elephant?, but I can't for the life of me at 20 to midnight recall what was the connection between the elephant and the peg. Any ideas?

The box can be refreshed every so often, and when you go about your day, you will find yourself filling your pocket with suitable small items, such as a salt sachet from KFC, a plastic medicine spoon, a lost button, a foreign coin and so on. Do try the game, it's a lot of fun.

Bye for now.

 

 

 

Crocheted Brooch

Hello everybody - Kerry here with my very first post on here so please be gentle with me.

My project is an easy crocheted brooch. 

Terms are the US version of crochet because despite being English I learnt using the US terms.

You will need a few scraps of leftover yarn. The thickness is totally up to you.  I used chunky which I believe is called bulky in other countries. It gave me a brooch of approximately 3 inches in diameter. You could use thinner yarns doubled.

I used a 6mm crochet hook.

Directions:

Using the magic circle method (explained here) chain 3 and then do 10 double crochet (explained here) into the circle. Join with a slip stitch into the top of the chain 3.

It should look like this:

Chain 3 and then do 4 lots of double crochet into each double crochet from the previous round. Slip into the top of the chain 3. Weave in your ends and your crochet part of this is done. The 4 lots of double crochet makes it slightly ruffled. If you prefer it to be flatter then simply substitute the 4 double crochet for 3 double crochet.

It now looks like this (yes I was naughty and took the picture before I got rid of the ends):

Now comes the fun part. Grab some buttons and beads and let your creativity loose.  I used just ordinary sewing thread doubled for attaching the embellishments as some of the items I used were too small to fit yarn through. Invisible thread would be great for this part.

Sew a pin to the back and you are done.

There are numerous other ways of using this project. It would be great to dress up a bag, for fastening a scarf, as a hair accessory or on your papercrafting projects.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first ever post.

Kerry x

 

 

 

Weekend Workout 20 - HP

 no, not the brown stuff in a bottle, Harry Potter of course.

Eleanor here, with weekend workout number 20. The theme this weekend is anything and everything remotely, vaguely Harry Potter inspired.

I haven't seen the last two Harry Potter films, I'm waiting until I can watch them both, one after the other, in the comfort of my own home, with the kettle on, and on, and on, and home baked goodies to munch.

My children and I have all loved the books, and so I decided to create another artist's canvas embroidery, like my Heidi one, this time printing a page from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, where the sorting hat makes a first appearance, onto artists' canvas, and stitching over it with the image from the title page of every book - the Hogwarts coat of arms. (It takes ages, the canvas is stiff, and my fingers are sore, but I love doing it.)

 Does Harry do it for you?

xx

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Hi, Dolly here.

I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I was one of those people who queued to get the books at midnight and devoured them within the next day. I love them. OK so I started pretending I was reading them for school - just to check they were OK for the children. But I convinced no one!

Both of these pages were made using Dawn Inskip kits from her store at Scrapbookgraphics, especially this one called, appropriately enough, Wizardry

 

and these have to be the two cutest little Hogwarts trainees ever!.

 

Have fun creating wizardry of your own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi!

Glittery Katie here and I love, love LOVE  the Harry Potter and I couldn't wait to get my hands on the last book of the series:

 

Hope you play along!
Love GlitteryKatie xxxx

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Hiya Claireliz here, I'm another one who is a huge fan of Harry Potter, the books reignited my passion for reading aged 21 & my love of Harry Potter is something I am lucky enough to share with my 5 year old daughter - who happens to be called Hermione :D

As the summer holidays are upon us & the weather has not been fab here by the seaside we put on the Harry Potter dvds (the less scary ones) & got out boxes of lego & here is what we've been making...

                                       
 
 
 

We have 2 Harry Potter legos sets, Dumbledores ofiice & 2 shops from Diagon Alley (I want all the Harry Potter lego sets & to build them all in my attic - a bit like the train sets people have - a full on Harry Potter World but I don't think hubs would let me lol) and we made our own huge Hogwarts...

if you look closely you can see a lego troll in the dungeon...

 

we also found a boat with oars from a Pirate set of Lego...so now they can cross the lake to Hogwarts...

                                      
 

Hermione asked if she could have some more Harry Potter lego for Christmas this year as we had such fun making these, so as long as she's good & I can play with it too I think I'll be collecting Harry Potter lego for her ready for Christmas :D

So show us your Harry Potter magic, looking forward to seeing what you make :D

C xx

I'm bored ..........

Yep, it's half term next week for my lot. DS should be revising (I need to drag him away from the XBox for that) but the girls will be wanting ideas for things to do to keep them busy. And I'm sure mine aren't the only ones.

Things I have definitely got planned are baking and knitting using the Sirdar Loopa system. There will of course be lots of cutting and gluing and maybe also another garden treasure hunt.

 

I'll have a wander around the garden and yard and see what needs tidying up and write them on the list, together with other things such as so many different types of leaves, 5 things that are yellow and so on. I print out the list and give them a clipboard, pen and carrier bag and off they go. Of course, ticking everything off the list does win them some type of treasure too.

 

Given that I have a room full of supplies, crafting often features heavily in boredom busting sessions. Here's some ideas of previous crafting projects we've done together (though I think it's important to let the kids have freedom in their creations so I will tend to be nearby to help but not hovering as I tend to take over and tell them what to do!). Also I will ask if they have any specific colour or pattern in mind and gather a selection of suppllies I don't mind sharing, together with basics such as adhesive, flowers, ribbon, gems, trimmer, scissors and punches. I put a wipe clean pvc tablecloth on to protect the table and they crafter either in the conservatory or kitchen as the floors in those rooms are easier to clean messes up from!

 

This one is using some cork backed coasters that were on sale for something like 70p for the set of 4. Covered with papers, stickers and diecuts from a Poundland scrapping pack. I used a Cropadile to punch the holes and ribbon to join the coasters together.

 

Using a selection of fabric die cut using my Big Shot and Sizzix dies and a variety of fabric pens and fabric texture paints. Any plain t-shirt will do and you will need to follow the instructions for setting the pens and paints. A sheet of cardboard inside the t-shirt saves any bleed through to the back and provides a solid base to create on.

 

Choose a simple image (Chiara googled on the clip art), print out several times (we printed it out twice, once for the body and once for the face and legs). Cut down the templates and decoupage scraps of co-ordinating patterned papers (here we used a freebie paper pad that came with a magazine). It's not necessary to glue within the shape as the edges are trimmed afterwards. Here the face was created with die cut felt flowers and stick on jewels for the eyes, a cut out flower for the nose and a stitched mouth.

 

It you've got any of the oversized pegs lying around, this is a simple project that is useful as well. The pegs were painted with acrylic paint and allowed to dry before gluing on the paper base then decorating with punched shapes and chipboard letters. A strong magnet was attached to the back of each and they hold the notes from school for each of the girls on the fridge.

 

This one requires a bit more planning. I created a cube template to fit on a 12x12 sheet (there are plenty of templates available on the web, but I don't have a large format printer and wanted the cube to be as large as was possible from a 12x12 sheet). A heavy weight patterned cardstock is easiest to use as it just needs embellishments adding. Some beads were strung through the top and bottom before gluing shut and a ribbon added to hang it from.

 

These oversized foam flowers were bought in a multi-pack from Hobbycraft. The girls simply cut pieces of patterned papers and stuck them down and used some die cut and punched butterflies and gems. Again I used my Cropadile and ribbon to create the hanger.

 

Some simple beaded necklaces are also fun to make, though you will need to have some basic tools and materials (beading wire, crimp beads, pliers, a fastening and selection of beads).

 

Well, I hope that's given you lots of ideas and I'd love to hear of your favourite crafty boredom busters too.

xxx's

Suzanne

 

Vamp Up My Vans

Do you remember back in July when Eleanor Pimped Her Plimps? I was reminded of her post today whilst looking at my sad but oh so comfy Vans. They are looking a bit tired and ratty now - not helped by the fact that our pup decided to use them as a chew toy last year - I don't think I can get away with wearing them for much longer.

But when I first got them it was a different story...

They arrived all shiny and clean looking like this. Aren't they just a crafters dream? Just begging for some colour.

I ordered some So Soft fabric paint from an on-line craft store in both shimmery metallic and some bright non-shimmery colours. After a couple of nights relaxing in front of the TV with my Vans and the paints this was the end result...

A year and a half on and I still love them. The paint has been so hard wearing - and the colours still shimmer even if the rest of the shoes are now falling to bits (I have worn them to death - literally!) So now I'm on the hunt for a new pair to colour in or maybe I'll follow Eleanors example and have a go at pimping some plain plimpsolls... I don't think my old faithfuls will be relegated to the bin just yet though - maybe just saved for garden use ;)

Thanks as always for stopping by :)

Carmen x

The Humble Notepad...

...or treasured journal? Hi everyone :) I thought I would share with you one of my youngsters most treasured possessions at the moment. I was trying to craft one day and she was trying to join in but it was a CJ of someone else's I was working on so she couldn't really help. Out of frustration I yanked a cheap blank notebook off my shelves and gave her a biro thinking it would keep her quiet for 10 minutes. Nearly a year on and no-one is allowed to touch Ruby's book without her explicit say so. She is so proud of it, I've tried giving her more books  to draw in, no, it has to be Ruby's Book!

Each time she uses it something else gets added to the cover. Nearly all the pages have something or other on but she doesn't mind, she works over the top. I find it so funny that something I am taking classes in - layering up and graffiti, comes so naturally to an almost 3 year old. How did we forget that freedom of expression?

   

 

Painting, stamping, drawing, gluing, sticking...

 

Some layering in progress...



I think I love her little book almost as much as she does. So if you're thinking of a way to keep your kids occupied this coming summer holidays. Forget all the gadgets, turn the tv off. Set them up in the garden with some paints and stickers and stampers and a blank notebook :) Who needs all that new fangled gadgetry anyway?

Thanks as always for reading - I hope you enjoyed a peek into Ruby's Book.

Carmen x

Quick & Easy Stamps

Hi all - Carmen here :) I must apologize straight away for my photos on this post - I'm fighting with sun glare or a dark, dark house at the moment :)

I use loads and loads of scented candles and have lots of these little glass jars from candles I buy from the pound shops - you get them in all the cheapy pound, 99p type places.

I hated to throw the jars away because, even though I've yet to work out how to get the dregs of wax out, I still liked the shape of the jars and lets face it... us crafters, we're born hoarders aren't we?
 
The other day I had a brainwave and decided to try and turn the lids into stamps. I drew around the bottom of the lids onto mount board - any thickish card stock would do - and attached to the bottom of the lid to give me a flat surface.

Then I got out the tub of foam shapes that we bought in Hobbycraft years ago - it's always in use and has lasted ages, am pretty sure it was quite cheap too. Knowing me it must have been!

 

I found 3 butterflies of the same size and layered them one on top of the other just to make sure there was a bit of space between the card and image. The shapes are self adhesive which was a big bonus making this a really quick little project. Stamp number one done.

For stamp two I found a grunge board skull in my stash. I layered that on to a larger foam flower with some double sided tape and cut around it to give that a bit of height from the card too. Any foam would do - I just liked that these bits of foam are self adhesive, I'm always hacking into them and changing their shapes for various projects :)

I'm quite pleased - I've now got two new stamps that I'm more than happy for my girls to mess around with and I love the images too. The knobbly handles make it easy for my youngest to hold and they have a nice rocking motion on them. I've got some dragonfly foam shapes left in the tub and I may cut some circle shapes out of the bigger bits of foam to make some button stamps too :)
 

Time to go buy more candles methinks ;) Thanks for stopping by everyone.

Carmen x