Tag Archives: diy

Dec12

Home Made Christmas Cards – Kids Craft

Posted on December 12, 2012 by thestick81

Unlike most of our projects, where I get inspired by Pinterest or something else, I actually thought this up myself!

Really easy messy fun for all ages. Just take some coloured paper and draw some simple Christmas shapes. If drawing is not your thing, trace around some cookie cutters.

Cover inside the outline with a thick layer of craft glue. Smear around with a paintbrush or a finger tip if you don’t mind getting sticky.

Then sprinkle christmas theme sequins randomly over the glued area. Try to cover the outline as much as possible too.

When you can’t see much of the paper within the shape, give it a light shake. Then drizzle some more glue over the top to hold down any loose ones.

Allow to dry. We left them for 24 hours.

Once dry, Use some large sharp scissors, cut around the shape. If you can’t see the outline on the front, just follow the lines that went through the page as demonstrated above.

Once the shapes are cut out, we added some double sided mounting tape (commonly used for scrap booking) to give them a slightly more 3D effect on the card, but you could just use standard double sided tape or glue.

Position on the cards as you please, and there you have it. Sparkly Christmas cards. Mini ones of these would also make cute Gift Tags. Just line the other side with another piece of paper to write on and use a hole punch to make somewhere to secure with ribbon.

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: Cover with a thick layer of glue

: spread glue around

: Sprinkle heavily with sequins

: Covering with sequins

: Drizzle another thin layer of glue all over

: Allow to dry thoroughly.

: Once dry, cut out the shape

: Cutting out the shape

: The cut out shapes.

: Mounting tape.

: Finished product

: Finished cards,

: Hanging up.

Dec10

Christmas Cards, Kids Craft

Posted on December 10, 2012 by thestick81

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I couldn’t get my hand on any decent glitter paint pens to finish these, so this is just part one of the process.

To make these decorated cards, all you need is a hot glue gun, strips of wrapping paper, card and either some large buttons or as we used, some plastic jewels.

Cut strips of Christmas paper, approximately 3 – 4 cm wide and 30 – 40cm long. Fold back and forth to create a zig zag, approximately 1cm wide. As demonstrated by Mr 7 below.

Once folded the whole way to the end, glue both ends together. You can get the kids to do this with craft glue, but I chose to use the glue gun as it dries so much quicker.

Once the glue has dried, put a circle of hot glue onto the card where you want to place your decoration

Carefully turn the paper in at one side and out on the other, to create a flower type shape. Trying not to let it all go at the same time as you can see on the right above. The first one is the hardest!

Then cover the back of your jewel of button with hot glue and place in the centre. Repeat until you have as many decorations on each card as you like. You can experiment with different thicknesses of paper to create bigger and smaller ones.

Nov30

Christmas Craft – DIY Bauble Tree

Posted on November 30, 2012 by thestick81

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I had been wanting to make one of these for years. And this year, we did! I purchased a large piece of card from the newsagent for $1.50 and cut out a half circle (i just used a piece of string to make a giants protractor). Secured with some tape and we are ready to roll

The little ones had the job of pulling off the strings and clamps, Mr 2 thought that way great fun.

I knew that hot glue gun would come in handy one day. This is the day. Mr 7 demonstrates.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. We did red purple alternations with every 5th ball gold. Trying not to put the same texture finish beside each other, but it becomes difficult to avoid

This is the back side where things don’t quite meet up. If I was to make another one, I would be more conscious of the size and make sure it fits the balls around perfectly – however, all is not lost as you can see next.

Once all the balls are stuck down start inserting the tinsel between the cracks. I actually ended up using 10 meters (30ft) of this thin tinsel. I didn’t imagine it would require that much. The tinsel hides any ‘mistakes’ very nicely.

And there you have it. It really needs a bigger star, but over all I am happy with the results.

You can buy similar things pre made at Kmart for $12, but where is the fun in that? All up the project cost around $16.

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Nov30

Easy Christmas Craft – Mini Christmas Trees

Posted on November 30, 2012 by thestick81

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Easy Christmas Craft – Mini Christmas Trees

Inspiration for this idea came from something I saw at Spotlight. They used buttons though, which looked good, but buying enough buttons for the project would have blown the budget. I can’t believe how expensive those things are?

Anyway, What you need.

styrofoam tree shapes, sewing pins, aluminium foil, sequins and sticky tape.

Spotlight also didn’t have any of the cone shape styrofoam in stock, so I bought that from Riot Art and Craft. They are available in different sizes, I just chose 3 small ones to avoid arguments.

Wrap the foil around the cone and secure with clear tape. I crumpled up a ball of foil before spreading it out on one, to create a more rippled affect. I actually prefer how that one turned out.

Once you have the foil secured and are happy with the finish, start placing the pins! Be careful when working at the top of the cone to point them down towards the bottom as you insert, so you don’t go straight through and poke yourself on the other side. The kids managed this fine, even Miss 3. We only had one ouchy, and that was actually me!

Thread sequins onto pin and insert.

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Oct8

The New House – Part 1

Posted on October 8, 2012 by thestick81

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I had a long list of ‘must haves’ when it came to buying this house. One of which was a decent laundry. Out of the last 5 houses we had lived in, there was never a bench and I was over the moon actually, to even have a cupboard – lets not even talk about the ones that were part of the garage. As with just about every other person in the world, I HATE doing the laundry. So as much as I was looking forward to decorating the rest of the house, I decided to make the laundry as user friendly as possible first.

The blank canvas.

Notice the… nothingness. Oh, but there is space!!!!

We made some measurements to allow for a front loader washer and freezer to optimise bench space. Took the measurements to Masters and designed the laundry. At the last minute I decided against a bench the full length of the room and swapped that out for a broom cupboard. So happy I did this, it fits all the mops, brooms, steam mop, fold away clothes horse, ironing board, all of which I hadn’t actually thought about before! The existing dryer bracket was in a really bad spot, that meant you couldn’t really lean into the sink. That, and the door on the washer and dryer opened in opposite directions but were also offset, made it really awkward to transfer loads from one to the other – so I moved it right over to beside the broom cupboard. This also made fitting over head cupboards within the left over space easier.

At the last minute I decided to sacrifice some bench space for a broom cupboard – it was a good choice!

And finally the finished product. You can really notice in the bottom photo the difference in tiles, unfortunately we looked everywhere and this was the closest match to the existing tiles. In real life you can’t actually see the difference though – it was not worth potentially re-plastering the wall to replace the lot. The colour is actually the same to the naked eye, its just the ripple is slightly different which catches the light differently at this camera angle. We put the Dyson hand held into one of the over heads and ran the cord out to the plug, to keep things tidy. A little basket for odds and ends (random pegs and coins found in pockets etc) a nice lush ever green by the window and some artificial succulents to brighten the room – couldn’t be happier!

Yay!

The cat also has its litter box in the laundry, so it seemed like the logical place to put in a cat door. There is also a small fold away line again from Ikea. Positioned right by the door to hang delicates and my beloved Enjo products that can’t go in the dryer. I will probably hand a sheer curtain up at some point, but I am willing to wait until I find a good match in a bargain bin, rather than spending $150 on something I don’t really need.

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