Bedroom Makeover and More

Remember all those projects I have been doing lately with paint cards/chips? The reason I had a stash of paint cards on hand is that we are in the process of updating Sarah’s bedroom. We are still finalising a wall colour (although I can safely say that red and green won’t be making an appearance!) so will show you the finished room when complete. 

We have been looking at quilt (duvet) covers and finally found the perfect design. Unfortunately the manufacturer has stopped making it in single (twin) bed size. Our solution was to purchase the King Bed Size and use the left over fabric in some co-ordinating projects.

First up, I have cut the quilt cover down so it now fits the single bed quilt.

I have made a little cushion using squares of the fabric and have sewn a strip of the fabric onto some white sheets to create co-ordinated linen.

Here are the matching sleep shorts with co-ordinating top featuring appliqué detail.

Next up, to make a matching sleeping bag cover and some wall art. 

I have also made up some more tissue covers for gifts.

I have also been doing a spot of shopping lately. I found these gorgeous fabrics at Hot Possum.

These fabrics at Textile Traders (AUD$10.99 m!!)

Wheel and Barrow had some new patty pans to add to my extensive collection!

I recently acquired a 1974 set of World Book Encyclopedias (thanks Mum and Dad!) to use in various projects. Sarah has dubbed it "encyclopedia craft".  I have used  sections of the text and pictures to create cards,  envelopes, and bookmarks. Does anyone have any other projects using old books that they can recommend? I will devote a post soon to some of the best ideas.

Posted by Lisa

Spooky Chocolate Ghosts

This week at Girl Guides I made these white chocolate ghosts.

Ingredients:

White Chocolate

Chocolate chips

Popsticks 

Start by melting the white chocolate, then spoon a few spoonfuls of chocolate on to aluminium foil and shape like a ghost. Then place a popstick on it and cover with extra chocolate. Finish by adding two chocolate chips for eyes.

These are great to give to trick or treaters and are very easy.

Yesterday I made some of my own only using milk chocolate because I prefer it. I call them 'dirty' ghosts.

Posted by Sarah

    

Cupcakes, Cookies, and Craft

This week I have been busy and have baked some M & M cookies. 

125 g butter
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup plain flour
¾ cup self raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
140 g M &M’s Baking bits

Preheat oven to 190 degree C. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift flours, salt, and soda into mixture and beat. Stir in choc chips. Grease a baking sheet. Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls, place on baking sheet, and press with a fork. Bake for 10 mins until golden brown.

A few people asked for the recipe for the Coconut Cupcakes that I posted about here. Here is the recipe, it is from Donna Hay latest magazine. 

125 g butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ¼ cup plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup desiccated coconut
½ cup milk
Shredded coconut to decorate

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (320 F). Place butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl of electric mixer and beat for 10-12 minutes or until light and creamy. Gradually add eggs and bat well. Add flour, baking powder, desiccated coconut, milk and beat until well combined. Spoon into 12 muffin tins lined with cupcake liners. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until cooked when tested. Cool. Ice as desired and sprinkle with shredded coconut.

Continuing on with my Mothers latest obsession with paint charts, I have made a cute little gift tag. 

Posted By Sarah

Quick Christmas Gift Tags

I know - it is really early to be talking about Christmas but we had some Paint colour cards in red and green colourways, and made some little festive tags. (The hardware store was closing down and I was in the right place to get a bag of paint chips).

These would make a fun kids craft. All you need is some paint cards (if you have any left over from a DIY project), a Christmas punch, a hole punch, and some ribbon. After punching the tree, I cut the top of the tag into a 45 degree angle, and used a corner punch to round the tip. I then punched a hole and threaded some ribbon, and now have a whole batch of tags ready for Christmas.

Posted by Lisa

Paint Colour Card Crafts

I am really into the three R's right now - reduce, reuse, and recycle! What better way to embrace this philosophy than to find ways to use the paint colour cards that you can easily source at the hardware store!  Don't you just love the names they give to all the paint colours?

Present gifts of cash or store vouchers more creatively this holiday season with these easy to whip up gift tags. I made these using colour cards I had on had - using seasonal colours would be more effective.

A paint colour card is trimmed and placed on top of a buff coloured tag (available from newsagents). Sew along the sides and bottom of the tag. Add a ribbon and you are done!

Tip: Use an old sewing machine needle as sewing on card can blunt the needle.

Check out Whimsy Love for this great Paint Sample Notebook Tutorial

Here are the ones I made:

We would like to thank Lee from Just Like Martha for giving us the Kreativ Blogger award. Lee has some great paper craft ideas, good recipes, and wonderful photographs of her life in Far North Queensland. 

Posted by Lisa

School Holiday Activities

During the school holidays, I have been busy and have made some Coconut Cupcakes. I found the recipe in the current issue of the Donna Hay magazine. They were so moist and delicious!

I have also made this decoupaged message hanger for my bedroom door. I bought the wooden hanger from Spotlight and then used Mod Podge to glue on scrap booking paper. I then added a pad of sticky notes and a pen and it was ready to hang on my door.

Thanks to Jill and Nature Girl for sending me some Sacagawea dollar coins and information. I am making up my own Sacagawea coins of the chocolate variety to have at my information stand.

Posted by Sarah

Mini Notebooks

When we built our house a few years ago, I collected quite a few samples of laminex and formica on little wooden cards. I kept them, thinking they would come in handy some day for a craft project. I found them recently when I was sorting through my craft supplies and was inspired to use them to make little notebooks - the perfect size for your handbag!

They are a great activity to do with children during the school holidays and would make for a fun activity at a pre-teens birthday party. This is the notebook made by Sarah.

What you need:

Laminex sample cards (a laminate used in benchtops)

scrapbboking paper

Mod Podge

ribbon

paper

stapler

hole punch

scissors

Trace the shape of the laminex samples onto scrapbooking or other patterned paper and cut out. Mark the position of the hole and cut out using a hole punch. Next you adhere the patterned paper to the sample card using Mod Podge, and allow to dry. Apply 2-3 coasts of Mod Podge to seal and add a glossy finish. Cut plain photocopy paper into rectangles that measure 0.5 cm smaller than the cover. Staple the paper pages together and add a hole to the top. Layer the paper between the covers and thread some ribon through. Tie loosely so that the notebook can open freely. Voila!

These little notebooks can be embellished with stickers, buttons, ribbon - the sky is the limit! I made a Christmas themed one - perfect for storing those Secret Christmas lists.

Posted by Lisa

And the winner is...

...Picklesticks. Congratulations! We will contact you shortly and mail you the goodies early next week.

This week I have been decoupaging like crazy! I have made this journal with the cutest paper with things on it like 2 peas in a pod, best friends, soul mates, birds of a feather and combo. After gluing on the paper with mod podge, I added a ribbon tail down the middle. I plan on giving it to one of my friends.

I have also made this decoupage key chain. I have also added some cute buttons to it.

You should check out You Go Girl's site so you can enter her cool giveaway to win a cute pincushion!

Posted By Sarah

Strawberries, Smiggles and Socks

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and entered out 75th post giveaway - we have met so many lovely new blogs as a result - each and every comment is always appreciated. We will draw the prize on Saturday - so stay tuned.

With all the lovely strawberries coming into season, I tried my hand at freezer jam this week. I first heard about this quick and easy method of making jam from some of the US blogs I visit. After having only made preserves using the conventional method in the past, I was amazed at how fast it was, and may never buy commercial jam again. I also tried my hand at raw edge applique to make the labels!!

Ingredients (to make approx 3 cups of jam)

250g punnet of strawberries
2 cups sugar
One third cup of water
25 g jam setta with pectin
Glass jars

Thoroughly wash and dry jars. Place empty jars in an oven set at 150 degrees for 10 minutes to sterilise them. Wash and hull strawberries. Place berries in a bowl and crush them. You can use a blender if you prefer a smoother consistency to your jam. Measure one cup of crushed berries, and add sugar. Let it stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix water and jam setta in a saucepan on low heat. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for 1 mixture while stirring constantly. Add jam setta mixture to the berries mix and stir constantly for 3 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Fill prepared jars. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Jam will keep for up to 3 weeks in the fridge or in the freezer for up to one year.

Our local shopping centre has recently opened a Smiggles store - lots of great stationery products. They had some cahier style exercise books - with a stitched spine. I did a simple applique on one to customise it.




I also experimented with a quick kids craft this week - making non slip socks. This would be a great technique to ensure the soles of little baby shoes/socks are non slip. Place a piece of cardboard in the sole of the shoe or sock. Using dimensional fabric paint, paint motifs on the sole of the socks. Leave to dry for 24 hours and voila!! I am sure kids would enjoy creating their masterpieces on the soles of their socks.

Posted by Lisa