It’s a New Year, and I’ve been in a craft funk (since my Advent calendar, actually). It’s time to get back onto the sewing bandwagon, starting with a simple project – cushion covers. We’ve recently made a few changes to our backyard, ripping down an old (asbestos-ridden) lean-to shed, and replacing it with decking and […]
Revamped Christmas Tree Star
The star on our Christmas tree had seen better days. I’m not sure when we got it, but multiple house moves and not being stored very well resulted in a scratched and scruffy-looking star. The poor thing needed some loving! Silver spray paint, mod podge and glitter, and the star was looking as good as […]
Advent Calendar Craft-Along {Finished}
Time for an update on the Advent Calendar Craft-Along. (See the introduction post here, or the last update here). I finished, and just in the nick of time! I finished hand-stitching the binding before making dinner on 1st December, just in time to hand the first decoration! After my last update, the end was in […]
Advent Calendar Craft-Along: Ideas
For years, I’ve meant to make an advent calendar. I was first inspired by the Advent Calendar Sew-Along at Homemade By Jill in 2010 (!). To stop procrastinating, I’m hosting an Advent Calendar Craft-Along this November. It was originally planned a sew-along, but why limit it to just sewing. There’s a million and one ways to make an advent […]
Beach Scene Corkboard
A few days ago, I discussed ways to organise and display kid’s artwork, and briefly shared my corkboard display. Today I’m going to share with you how I made it. We’ve been in our house just over two years, and I’m slowly adding a personal touch to the place. I have a picture in my […]
Geometric Art by an Engineer {Tutorial}
When we moved into our new house (umm, almost two years ago), we had a huge space on the wall behind our couch that was just desperate for some artwork. But well, art can be expensive and it’s hard to find something I like. I’m a big fan of geometric prints (it’s the engineer in […]
Butterfly Quilt Cover
After making Jacob’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles quilt (doona/duvet…) cover, I had to make a quilt cover for Celeste when she moved into her big girl bed. She was in baby sleeping bags last year. I had to make it before winter so she’d have something to sleep under! I fell in love with the […]
Paper Christmas Wreath (mini-tutorial)
After making all the snowflakes for the indoor Winter Wonderland, I started getting into paper folding. Soon I was googling Christmas origami ideas and found this origami Christmas wreath tutorial (after finding this pretty version on Go Origami). The tutorial is in Portuguese but the pictures really tell you the story (and Google translate fills […]
Merry Christmas Banner Tutorial
My parents had one of those (very 70s) gold fringe Merry Christmas banners (I wonder if you can still get them!). I didn’t want to go the gold fringe, but thought we needed a Merry Christmas banner too. So off I headed to my local chain fabric store to look at the Christmas fabrics. It […]
Indoor Winter Wonderland Tutorial
There’s no white Christmas here in Australia (and Christmas is forecast to be a scorcher in Perth this year). Instead, as I showed yesterday, I created a Winter Wonderland inside for my kids. I crocheted a chain stitch “ladder” to hang the snowflakes from so I would have lots of loops to attach my decorations […]
Christmas Decorating
Christmas decorating for us has always been a bit random – put up the Christmas tree and maybe throw a bit of tinsel on our entrance table. Now that the kids are getting into the Christmas spirit, it’s time to put more effort into Christmas decorating. One reason I haven’t done a lot of decorating […]
How to Recover a Lampshade Tutorial
My son has been in his big boy room for well over a year, and I still haven’t shared all the projects! For a refresher, I started with this transport-themed appliqued quilt (doona/duvet) cover, matching art work and fabric bookends: Since I seem to like things matchy-matchy, I decided he needed a matching lampshade […]
Dollar Store Platter Tray
I was knocked out of So You Think You’re Crafty just before the Dollar Store round, but I still made my craft for that week. So here it is! I’m one of those people that only sees junk when I head to the dollar store, so this was quite a challenge. Wandering around aimlessly, I […]
Car, Boat, Train: Fabric Bookends
My husband and I are both bookworms. To instil the same love of reading into our kids, we have a growing collection of kids books. When decorating my son’s room, I wanted some bookends to go with the transport theme, but really couldn’t find anything I liked. So what is a craft blogger to do, […]
Sneak Preview: Car and Train Bookends
So once again, I’ve failed to get a craft tutorial together (but to be fair, I’ve actually been on holidays this week and scheduled posts before I left). Here’s a sneak preview of a tutorial-in-waiting: I made these fabric bookends to match the quilt cover and wall art that I’ve blogged about previously. I […]
Bedroom Door Name
Here’s a quick and easy project to start the year off – wooden name for a bedroom door. Yes, I’ve done this before, but thought I would show off the version for my daughter’s room. All you need is wooden letters (available in craft and hardware stores), different colour paints, a paint-brush and some Blu-Tak. […]
Planes, Trains and Automobiles Wall Art Tutorial (with templates)
After making the transport-themed quilt cover for the little man, the next step was to make matching wall art (so I could move the nursery animal wall art I made into the baby’s room). I had space on the wall for 4 pictures, so I decided to skip the bicycle from the quilt as it […]
Planes, Trains and Automobiles Applique
If I had to describe having two kids under two in one word it would be: relentless! It feels like someone is always crying, wanting to be fed, needing a nappy change, wanting a cuddle… I don’t think I’ll be going for 3 under 3! But somehow, I’ve got two sleeping kids and a few […]
Big Boy Applique Quilt Cover
A couple of months before our beautiful bub arrived, we moved the Little Man into a big boy bed (actually, at the moment, it’s just a mattress on the floor as I was worried he’d fall out and I like that he can get in and out of bed by himself). Looking in the shops, […]
Tutorial: How to Sew a Box Pleat
Box pleats are a different touch to the standard gathering and pleats. I’ve used them for curtains and skirts, but I’m sure there are a thousand and one other uses for them. The three sets of London Blinds I’ve made use a box pleat to create the decorative pull-ups, and I’ve also made simple box […]
How to prevent clothes living on the tallboy
Clothes always used to appear on top of the tall boy (chest of drawers) in our bedroom. It was my husband’s preferred location to drape his trousers after work, although hardly-worn T-shirts and other clothes would also appear on top (and not all due to my husband, to be honest). Clothes hanging over the edge […]
Car, Boat, Train Fabric Bookends Tutorial
My husband and I are both bookworms. To instil the same love of reading into our kids, we have a growing collection of kids books. When decorating my son’s room, I wanted some bookends to go with the transport theme, but really couldn’t find anything I liked. So what is a craft blogger to do, […]