Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jan8

Upcycled pallet planters

Posted on January 8, 2019 by thestick81

As part of the never-ending garden makeovers going on around here, I wanted 2 large barrels. I needed something off the ground so that my darling chooks and dogs would not dig them up, and the plants in them would have some chance of becoming established. But then I saw how much barrels were and the idea went wayyyyyy down the list of priorities. I mean who is going to spend $200 to save some $3 petunias?

The blank canvas.

I happened to be at Bunnings just a few days after Christmas, and their pallet recycling pile was massive, presumably from all the extra Christmas stock. I grabbed a long pallet for another project then inspiration struck! I called Mr. SAHL and he was on board. What better reason to pull out all those power tools I buy him.

Unfortunately, heaps of the photos of the progress have gone missing, so what was going to be a step by step guide cannot be. But hopefully, this blog can be inspiration enough anyway. I was aiming for pots at least 70cm tall to deter the chooks. But you can make them any size you like really.

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I was originally planning on painting them, but now I kind of like the rustic finish, even with the random chunks of blue. 🙂

And we have progress. The temporary fence is in place to keep the dogs and chooks out while the groundcover, lychee, and pomegranate trees get established. The middle section is where we will be building an aviary in a few months time. Stay tuned!

May14

Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

Posted on May 14, 2018 by thestick81

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I don’t know why, but I always seem to find myself at these gardens in autumn or winter. Annoying really as I would love to see them in full spring bloom. None the less, the gardens have a pretty impressive display of succulents, cacti and other odd specimens that are impressive all year round.

So if you are wanting to get out of the house for a few hours, pack up the picnic blanket and head down to the Mount Coot-tha Botanical gardens. Open 8am to 5pm daily, with an onsite cafe to grab a bite to eat if you don’t feel like packing your own lunch.

May13

Pockets.

Posted on May 13, 2018 by thestick81

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The outcry surrounding women’s clothing and the lack of pockets is nothing new. It’s been a problem recognised by just about anyone that wants to carry like anything since forever. When I was younger I’d console myself with the idea that it was a money saving sacrifice. I can sew, pockets would be an absolute time-consuming bitch to add to clothing. Sounds reasonable? I’m all for a bargain and certainly couldn’t afford any designer labels to prove my theory. So, it was a justified sacrifice to affordable fashion I could live with. Then I had a baby boy.

Baby Levis Image Courtesy of Levi.com

Not being a fan of pastels and ‘soft’ baby fashion, he owned a pair of 000 jeans before he was even born. Yep, jeans with not one, not two, but FIVE functioning pockets. I guess newborns have a lot of things they need to carry, pacifiers, breath mints and all of their mother’s hopes of ever fitting back into their pre-pregnancy wardrobe or jumping on a trampoline again without their insides falling out. Big human clothes in miniature versions are super cute though, right? We can deal with the fact that our babies have more on-the-go storage options than us mothers for the sake of fashion? Lucky these milk-engorged breasts allow me to store my mobile phone AND a dummy in my cleavage. Sadly, when I whip the credit card out of those sweaty babies due to both arms being full of said pocketed up baby and other seemingly important stuff, the shopkeepers are less than impressed…

The lack of pockets sparks some pretty entertaining debate. My very favourite conspiracy theory is that handbag companies pay designers to leave us with nothing more than ‘fake’ pockets to force us to buy handbags. It’s a pretty solid theory when you think about it, and I do have a decent handbag collection, so it’s probably working for them. I doubt these designers have seen how excited we really get when we do find pockets, especially in a dress. Ohhh a dress with pockets. That is the stuff dreams are made of.

She’s just found a pocket on her dress and it’s made her day! Image courtesy of Kobomo

But do you know who else appreciates a good pockets? Dogs. Why else would my dogs new winter coat have pockets, functioning pockets?

That’s right, much to my pleasant surprise this winter I could purchase fully lined, semi-weatherproof, hooded with fake fur lining, dog coats for the grand total of $9. What a bargain. I mean the price alone was cause for celebration, but then I discovered not only that you could clip back the faux fur hoody, but it has a FUNCTIONING POCKET! That’s right, my dog no longer has to worry about where he will carry his emergency tampons, paracetamol, house keys or phone because he has an actual usable pocket on his back. Never mind that he has no opposable thumbs to get that shit out of his pocket nor the ability to reach his front leg around to that part of his back, but he can if he wants to! Yep, this is the world we are living in. Where dogs have pockets and women don’t. What the actual fucking fuck?

A fake pocket for aesthetic reasons I can appreciate, but a real pocket on a dog coat all for $9? Meanwhile women around the world are replacing phone screens every few months because they are constantly dropping everything they are forced to carry in their hands!

Even he thinks it’s ridiculous.

Feb24

DIY Party Favours

Posted on February 24, 2018 by thestick81

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We only have parties every 3rd birthday in our house as organising parties for 4 kids every year would be a full-time job (plus I’d need a 3rd job to pay for them). So when we do have a party, I like to try to make it ‘next level’. This month my daughter will be having her 9th birthday party with 10 close friends at home. I thought rather than just the usual party bags filled with cheap lollies and plastic noisemakers, I’d try to make it a bit more grown up and special for them. Here is one of the ideas we came up with to include in the party favours. They worked out to $1 each and took about an hour for the 2 of us to put together.

You can purchase these packs studs in an assortment of colours and sizes from most Kmarts for just $2. With only 10 guests we just split a pack in half, but there is no reason you couldn’t break them down further if you were to have more guests.

Image from http://www.kmart.com.au/

The background ‘thank you’ note was created on PicMonkey which is a really fun and easy editing website that even the kids can navigate. I inserted the image into a Word document to make it easier to adjust the size and estimate how big they needed to be on an A4 page.

Once we decided on an appropriate size for our image, we simply printed and cut them out and stuck on the strips of card that came with the earrings, using a glue stick.

Then it was simply a case of transferring the earrings over to the new home pushing them through the pink layer of paper.

If you plan on doing this project buy one more pack than you need as unfortunately some of them did break as we were removing from the cards – but at $2 for 10 pairs it’s hardly worth complaining about nor making another trip to Kmart. 🙂

And there you have it. Thank you cards with a gift, all for $1 each plus a bit of ink and paper. Happy party planning. 🙂

Dec26

Rustic Clay Wind Chime

Posted on December 26, 2015 by thestick81

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It has been entirely too long between entries. Life gets like that though I guess. I actually made this wind chime back in May, but have not had a chance to blog about it. Pretty sad when you can’t find a spare half hour in 7 months… but hopefully I will make up for that over the next 3 weeks while my schedule is not so hectic.

I am really happy with the way this project turned out, but it may not be something everyone can make at home, as you will need access to a kiln for the baking of the clay. I am lucky enough to have that access 🙂 The discs were made from potters clay, available from any good craft shop, about $30 for 10kg (it’s really heavy when wet!). I rolled some clay out to around 5mm thick, then cut the circles out using a metal egg ring. I then used a variety of leaves and flowers from around the garden, laid them over the clay and rolled over gently with a rolling pin, just enough to create the patterns as you can see.

Clay circles with leaf and flower prints.

Once baked and cooled, it was time for assembly. Mr 5 and Miss 6 were happy to help decorate the pieces of fishing line with some chunky transparent glass beads I had in my bead stash.

Threading the beads on fishing line before assembly

We then went on a hunt for the perfect stick, attached it to a chair and began assembly. I wanted the discs to taper down, so this was not something the kids could help with.

Assembling

Once I was happy with the positioning of each string, I tied them in a few more knots and decorated the top hanging twine. Cut off any loose ends and it’s done. As simple as that.

Each disc touches the next ever so slightly, making a lovely sound in the breeze, without being too noisy.

Clay and glass bead sun catcher

Wind chime

Beads in the sun – sun catcher wind chime

Jul4

Egg Carton Daffodils – School Holidays Craft

Posted on July 4, 2014 by thestick81

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School holidays! Woot! First cab off the rank, these simple little daffodils made from egg cartons.

All you need is an egg carton, paint, pipe cleaners or skewers, glue. I used split pins to attach the centres to the petals, but you could just glue them too. One carton makes 5 flowers.

Cut the centres first, as shown above. Then cut out 5 of the cups to make neat little flowers. Daffodils technically have more than 4 petals, but I just worked with 4 as the egg cups have a squarish shape and it was easier to cut that way.

Paint the middle sections inside and out. We used orange, but you could use any colour you like. Then paint the outers a lighter colour.

Once dry, I poked some holes through the centre of each piece and using pliers inserted a gold split pin (my fingers wouldn’t fit in there, so had to use pliers).

For the stems, pipe cleaners would have been easier, but I decided to use some skewers wrapped in green raffia. It gave them a more natural texture. I secured the raffia at each end with some sticky tape.

Then it was simply a case of attaching the stems to the flowers. I used hot glue for this.

Apr13

DIY Bingo Craft Ideas

Posted on April 13, 2014 by thestick81

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Bingo’s rich history can be traced all the way back to Italy, where a game known as Lotto D’Italia spread in the 1500s. In the late 1770s, the game spread to France, and later, in the 1800s, Germany picked up the format of the Lotto game and turned it into an educational tool, assisting students in learning spelling, history, and maths.

Years later, bingo became a hit in the United States, with hundreds of people regularly attending bingo halls in the 1960s. Today, bingo has become a multi-million industry. In the U.K. alone, the online bingo industry enjoys revenues of $557 million annually, prompting even British supermarket chain Iceland Bingo to launch Bingoiceland.com

Today’s bingo games are a far cry from the games held in Italy and Germany in the 1800s, but they can still be used as a tool to teach children.

If you still have old bingo sites lying around in your house, you can certainly use them to create great arts and crafts that you can use to teach your children different concepts. Here are some ways to make full use of those old bingo sets:

Glittered Wooden Bingo Chips

Image credit http://igottacreate.blogspot.com

This glitter project for bingo chips that can turn them into push pins for your children’s cork boards. The craft is fairly simple too: Collect all your used wooden bingo chips and apply clear nail polish to the edges. Roll the bingo chips onto the glitter and allow them to dry. Once the glitter and nail polish are no longer sticky to touch, finish the chips off with another coat of nail polish.

Bingo Dauber Easter Bunnies

Image credit http://kidsactivitiesblog.com

This Easter bunny art craft is an easy project that your kids can make. Give your kids a dauber each and give them a piece of paper to daub. Let them go crazy and daub wherever they like, but make sure they stop before the sheet of paper becomes too crowded. Next, grab some smaller markers and draw the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and limbs to your bunnies. You can use these Easter bunnies themed papers as a gift wrapper or as an Easter card.

Wooden Bingo Chip Charms

Image credit: April San Pedro

Create a one-of-a-kind charm with bingo chips. For this project, you will need bingo chips, eye hooks, alcohol ink, and jewellery charms. Pre-drill the wooden chips with a 1/32” drill bit. Apply alcohol ink to create a vintage look, then screw the eye hook on the pre-drilled hole. Add jewellery charms like a jade turtle, or a four-leaf clover.

Learning the Alphabet with Bingo Daubers

Incorporate lessons into playtime with this bingo dauber dot art from DLTK’s Crafts for Kids The site offers free printable bingo dauber projects. Print out these blank alphabets and let your child unleash their creativity using bingo daubers.

Apr6

Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Posted on April 6, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Inspiration for this project came from Alpha Moms blog. I thought I’d adjust it into an Easter themed project, given it is already that time of year.

All you need is some of the whitish milk or juice cartons. We actually used a cordial bottle for the grass. The stickers on the milk bottle where quite hard to remove and left a sticky residue. I managed to remove this with some mineral turpentine.

Once you have your clean pieces of plastic, draw or as we did, trace your shapes using a black permanent marker (Sharpie etc). Then let the kids colour as desired. Once coloured, cut away the extra plastic and you’re done! They turned out even better than expected.

We attached ours to the windows using double sided tape rather than suction cups.

Mar19

Pom Pom Easter Wreath

Posted on March 19, 2014 by thestick81

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The girls at All Tizzies Up do love a pom pom or 700! Here is a simple easter wreath they put together using basic craft materials and a pile of pom poms!

Card and hand made pom poms

The pom pom maker.

Trace out wreath to desired size

Cut out.

Attach pom poms using hot glue, as close to gather as possible.

Continue until wreath is completely covered.

Attach some ribbon to the back for decoration and to hang wreath

Create a bunny face from pipe cleaners and felt.

Attach to the wreath again with hot glue.

Mar14

Make Your Own Easter Head Bands

Posted on March 14, 2014 by thestick81

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The girls at All Tizzied Up had a busy weekend doing Easter craft. Their first creations were these cute little hand made head bands.

Mum has taken step by step photos that do all the explaining themselves.

Felt, plain headband, ribbon, scissors and pipe cleaners.

Trace around your ear shape

Cut out

Do the same again with your ear centre.

Cover the head band with ribbon in your choice of colour.

Twist pipe cleaners

Once in position, glue the 2 sides of the ear together,

glueing ear.

Add the centre

And there you have some easy bunny ears

Some other Easter themed variations.

Easter Chicks

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Mar2

Cardboard Roll Easter Chicks – Kids Easter Craft.

Posted on March 2, 2014 by thestick81

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Cardboard Roll Easter Chicks – Kids Easter Craft.

I’d like to say I came up with this all on my own, but that would be a lie. Ms5 and I made some owls inspired by this post from Kerrys Craft Blog. It was from this concept that I came up with these easter Chicks. I thought the fact you can hold eggs or treats in them was ideal for an easter craft project.

All you need is some coloured paper, cardboard rolls, tape and glue. You can make them just as cute without the feathers, goggly eyes and pipe cleaners, but if you have some of those handy, you could use them like we did too. The main difference between these and the owls is that the top and bottom folds are in opposite directions to each other, so the head comes to a peak in the middle rather than making two ears like the owls have. The rest of the instructions can be found by running your curser over or clicking on the photos below.

This is how you fold the ends in, but first, cover your roll with coloured paper.

If you are adding legs, secure them in before folding the bottom in, with tape or hot glue.

Attach the head feather to the inside of the top of the roll before folding it in.

Ms5 cutting out the paper circles using a 1″ punch.

Starting at the bottom, run some glue or double sided tape along and attach your first row of paper circles.

Work your way up in layers with the paper feathers then attach eyes and a beak. We made this beak from pipe cleaner, but paper looks good too.

Cut down some feathers to make little wings.

Attach the feather wings with hot glue or double sided tape

We also attached a tail to the back.

Cut a small sec on of pipe cleaner then twist it around let to make a foot shape.

Fill with eggs or just use as decorations.

Easter Chicks. Paper craft.

Mar2

Looming Up A Storm – Our Rainbow Loom Gallery

Posted on March 2, 2014 by thestick81

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If you have kids over the age of about 4 and you have not yet discovered Rainbow Loom, I highly recommend getting yourself… I mean THEM some. Even the boys in my house get into it. I won’t bother doing any tutorials because there is thousands out there already, check out youtube for videos on just about anything you can think of. We just make bracelets mainly, but you can make charms, pencil grips, animals, flowers, heaps of different things.

It will keep the kids entertained for hours. You can pick up small bags of bands from cheap shops, or bags of 600 bands from spotlight or ebay for around $5. Each bracelet requires 80 to 100 bands, so while 600 might sound like a lot, you’ll go through them quickly once you get addicted!

Here is a few of our creations.

Mar1

School Hair Clips and Hot Glue Burns.

Posted on March 1, 2014 by thestick81

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So Ms5 started big school this year and she has been wearing lovely hair bows every day thanks to the wonderful All Tizzied Up. But I figure at the rate we lose hair bands in general, she will soon be requiring more. So I thought I’d give making some a go.

I ordered a stack of plain clips from ebay, I think it was $5 for 100 or something equally ridiculously cheap. The ribbon was the only kind in the school colours that I could get my hands on at the local $2 shop. The various widths limited my design options, but I am pretty happy with the results for a first attempt.

I have been warned by the pro not to get addicted! I can see how easy that might be though! Beside the row of buttons one, they are all basically just loops or figure 8s of ribbon, glued on top of each other. The buttons nicely cover up the mess in the middle too! Might have to watch some tutorials on other kinds of bows when I get my hands on some more ribbon.

By the way, just in case anyone was not aware, hot glue burns like fire. Yep, true story, just ask my finger.

Feb27

Soup Mix Scale Creatures, Sensory Craft

Posted on February 27, 2014 by thestick81

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I actually stole this idea from Mr3s current favourite show, Mister Maker. We used soup mix, but you could use lots of different things, dry lentils, rice, couscous, anything that is going to give you a unique texture and that is fun to run through your hands.

I just printed out some basic shapes from the internet. Keep them simple as you’re going to cover up any detail anyway. Smear the area with some craft glue and attach an goggly eye. Then let the kids sprinkle the mix over the rest of the glue area to completely cover it. Gently shake off any excess into the bin. These took about 24 hours to dry. Once fully dry, cut out. We created a simple background with some coloured paper and put them in $2 Ikea frames.

Feb26

Easy Sun Catcher, Kids Craft

Posted on February 26, 2014 by thestick81

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Everyone loves a sun catcher – well according to Pinterest they do! This is basically the same concept as the Valentine Hearts we did a few weeks back, but instead of random shapes, we used a punch to make stars and circles etc from the cellophane. Once laminated, we cut out smaller shapes and hung them from a branch with some beads.

Ms 5 cutting out the shapes with a punch

Sprinkle over the laminating sheet,

All spread out

Ready to go through machine.

Trace out some shapes with a marker then cut out.

Cut out

Hang on fishing line or string of your choice

we added some beads for extra colour

Sun catcher kids craft.

This is yet another almost impossible thing to photograph, it looks so much more bright and colourful in real life. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself, or maybe I just need to do a photography coarse, or even read the instructions for my DSLR…

Feb2

Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

I was determine to do some Valentine craft today with the kids before we ran out of time. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, but we couldn’t find the type of paper I needed. While picking up some other bits and pieces from the grocery store, we found A4 laminate sheets on special and decided to grab some for the craft cupboard. I had a look around Pinterest for inspiration and then it finally came to me, lucky we grabbed those sheets!

The steps are pretty self explanatory I think, but you can see more instructions by clicking on or running your mouse over each photo below.

Ms 5 cutting the cellophane up into squares.

I drew a large heart on the back of some silver card then cut it out with scissors.

I then cut the centre out with a Box cutter.

Ms5 placed the pieces into the laminate sheet, using the middle of the heart under to give her a rough guide of the area she needs to cover.

Mr3 having a go, not quite understanding ‘don’t crumple them up!’.

Ms5 puts the close sheet into the laminator.

Mr9 prepared the heart boarder with double sided tape.

Double sided tape on the frame.

Mr9 cuts away the excess ‘glass’ from the frame after sticking it down.

The back.

Stained glass heart window.

The similar projects I have seen on Pinterest use clear book contact, which you could also use if you don’t have a laminating machine. The laminate sleeves give a much clearer finish though. I was worried at first that the cellophane might melt as it went through the heat, but it was fine.

Jan25

Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger Part 2

Posted on January 25, 2014 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger Part 2

This is another variation of our earlier Valentine Door Hanger , the main difference is rather than hanging the hearts from strings, we hot glued them to a flat ribbon. The finer details can be found in the previous post or by hovering over the images below.

Method and recipe for making the hearts can be found on the previous blog entry.

kneading the dough.

Bake for 2 – 3 hours at 120C

roll out to 7mm thickness and cut shapes.

Mr3 painting

Ms5 painting the hearts

Create a loop that will sit flat against the door.

Jan21

Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger.

Posted on January 21, 2014 by thestick81

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Valentine Craft, Love Heart Door Hanger.

We made 2 different variations of valentine door hangers, but both styles use the same materials. The hearts are made from salt dough, the same as those DIY Christmas ornaments you see all over Pinterest. There is plenty of recipes and methods available online. The bows are a basic bow that again you’d see on Pinterest. There is hundreds of bow tutorials all over the internet too, but I kind of made it up as I was going along.

We used the following recipe

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup fine table salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2/3 cup chilled water

Mix all ingredients as you would biscuits, using some extra flour as necessary along the way to stop it sticking. Roll out 7mm thick, cut into shapes then bake at 120C for 2.5 to 3 hrs. Once cooled, we painted them with craft acrylic paint.

The top bow feature for this one was made by cutting 4 equal lengths of ribbon, putting a small line of hot glue in the centre of one at a time, folding each end into the middle to create a single bow shape. Then doing the same with the next ribbon, pilling them up as I went. You can see this in the photos. Finished off with a button.

Then it was just a case of threading the hearts, adding some extra ribbons and glueing all together at the back.

Mr 8 in the kitchen making salt dough (he did this all by himself, it is very easy)

kneading the dough.

roll out to 7mm thickness and cut shapes.

Bake for 2 – 3 hours at 120C

Ms5 painting the hearts

Mr3 painting

Create a loop that will sit flat against the door.

Small line of glue in the middle,

fold in each end onto the glue strip.

Finish off with a button

Jan18

Sew-less Softie. Easy Craft Project.

Posted on January 18, 2014 by thestick81

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This was one of those moments I love, when something just pops into your head and you think ‘yes, yes, yes I know what we’ll do!’ and it WORKS! Originally it was supposed to be an octopus (8 legs) but Mr3 is calling it a spider and I think it looks a bit like a jellyfish, so what ever floats ya boat I suppose!

Mr8 chose green fabric, but I really wish we had used something a bit more fun. The purple and white string livens it up a bit though. Just run over or click on each photo for the steps.

All you need; Large piece of fabric, stuffing, scissors, marker, rubber bands, cotton or wool, eyes (or you could draw them)

Trace out a large outside circle and a smaller inside circle. We used a hula hoop and large saucepan lid.

Cut out the large circle only

Using a ruller or similar, make 8 sets of 3 lines around the middle circle as shown.

If they cross over a little, just split the distance as seen in picture.

Cut out the triangles in between

then cut the strops, leaving you with 24 strips around the centre circle.

Place stuffing on the lined side and gather the fabric around

Work out where you want your eyes to go and mark,

Release the stuffing and insert eyes (you need to access the back of the fabric to fasten these type of eyes.

Stuff again and temporarily secure with a rubber band. Add any extra stuffing to achieve desired shape and feel.

Once you’re happy with the body, go over the rubber band with something more permanent.

Plait the legs, I secured with more rubber bands, but you could use matching string.

Then it is just a case of decorating to make it the creature you want. I threaded some large loops through the head.

Then cut them in half and tied to each other to secure.

I also hand stitched a mouth in, but if you are not handy with a needle and thread, you could just use a permanent market or glue a button etc on instead.

Octopus softie.

Jan17

Turn Recycled Cans into Cute Garden Ornament

Posted on January 17, 2014 by thestick81

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Turn Recycled Cans into Cute Garden Ornament

This little piggy went to market… And this little piggy just wants to play in the garden! How cute is this? Made from recycled cans and a tin bucket, some pink paint, wire and a few screws!