Growing up, our heights were marked in my mums italic hand on a spare piece of wall next to the alcove where the recipe books and toaster were. When we redecorated (which wasn't often), she traced all the marks and annotations onto paper, and copied them back onto the newly painted wall.
I'm itching to get our living/dining room repainted (white, with a yellow painted floor, since you ask), and think this idea in Cookie mag is a very sweet and simple treatment for keeping track of the kid's growth.
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What a great room by UK designers Amok.
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Love this Sydney home. Oh, what a gift, to have space.]]>
I printed out two pages each of the colour blocks and of the wallpaper background, and stuck down (blocks backing onto wallpaper) to both sides of a piece of card. I used spray adhesive because it's easy for repositioning, but I imagine you could print out directly onto the card if you had the right printer/card combination.
I cut them out to end up with two sets of 8 cards. The first game we played was pretty successful - I scattered one set of cards face up on the table, and from the other set said 'I have red! Can you find red?' etc. Allowing for the usual two-year-old chaos, it went pretty well. After a few minutes playing that, he wanted to practice picking up all the cards and laying them out again saying 'yellow... yellow... yellow...' I guess we will be able to use the cards to play Pairs (Pelmanism) when he's a little older.
For a 5 minute project, I'm already pleased with how much play these have had.
(Many thanks to Spoongraphics for the free wallpaper pattern.)
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The kid will be 2 in November, I'm not doing a birthday party. My policy is (at least, until it changes), that he can have a birthday party when he asks for one. I'm pretty sure that by then a circus party like this is still going to look pretty sweet to me - although maybe not to him.
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1. You will need: 1/2" wide ribbon for flowers (Allow 6" per flower, more for wider ribbon). 1" wide ribbon for leaves. Thread to tone (NB it doesn't need to be a very close match). Seed beads OR embroidery silk in contrasting colour. Scrap of fabric. Scrap of backing fabric (something stiff like tapestry canvas). Ruler. Needle. Safety pin or brooch pin. Small sharp scissors. And pins, I forgot to get the pins in the group shot. And a little scrap of felt, I forgot to include that too. If you have a hot glue gun, I'm sure you could use it for steps 11, 13 and 14. But I don't have one.
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2. First make the flowers. I'm using red thread so you can see where I'm sewing but you obviously will use a thread to tone with your ribbon. Cut a 5-6" length of ribbon, and thread your needle. Secure the thread at one end of the ribbon with a few small stitches. Make a line of running stitches that make 4 continuous 'U' shapes along the length of the ribbon like this:
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3. Then, carefully pull the loose end of your thread and 'ziiiiip' gather all the stitches and you end up with a little flower with four petals. Arrange the petals so that the raw edges of the ribbon are at the back of the flower, and secure the whole lot with a few big stitches.
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4. Sew a little cluster of seed beads in the centre of the right side of the flower. Or instead you could make french knots with embroidery silk.
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5. Make a few more flowers. As a rule of thumb, groups generally look more natural when they are of odd numbers rather than even.
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6. Here's how to make the leaves. The first one is a bit fiddly but you will quickly get the hang. First thread your needle with green thread. Cut a short length of ribbon (about 2" of 1" wide ribbon) and secure the thread to the centre of one long edge, using a few small stitches. Fold both cut edges down parallel to the edge of the ribbon so that you have a triangle like this. The point of the triangle is on the opposite edge of the ribbon to where you have secured your thread.
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7. Next, fold the two bottom points of the triangle into the centre again, like this:
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8. Holding all your pleats in place, pick up your needle which is still hanging from the back of your leaf, and sew through from back to front, piercing all the layers of ribbon. Pinch the stem end (where the stitch is) of the leaf and wrap the thread tightly round a few times, then fasten off the thread with a couple of small stitches. Make some more leaves.
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9. Now start to compose the brooch. Put your scrap of material over your canvas. I pinned them together.
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10. Then turn them right side up and play until you find an arrangement you like. The important thing is to squeeze them in so they are really close together, that way the flowers will cover over those messy leaf ends and there will be hardly any background showing through. When you've settled on a grouping, lift off the flowers and pin the leaves down.
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11. Sew the leaves in place through all the layers of fabric, close to the stems. Once they're all sewn down, pin the flowers in place and then sew them down too. If you sew the leaves through their 'stems' and the flowers through their centres, your brooch will have a more natural, 3D look and you will be able to mess with the leaves and the petals until they are just right. Try and get the centres of the flowers over the messy leaf ends. Don't worry about the stitching on the back of the brooch.
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12. Nearly there! Don't pull my favourite trick and stop when the fun part is done and never finish your project! The next thing to do is trim the backing fabric to a small rectangle. Use that messy stitching on the back as a guide to the size. Basically you want it to be pretty much as small as it can go without going less than about 1/8" from your stitches. Be careful not to cut anything except the backing fabric! When you've done that, cut the other layer of fabric so that it is about 1/4" bigger than the backing fabric all round. Be extra careful not to cut anything except the fabric!
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13. Fold down the fabric all the way around the backing fabric and sew in place.
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14. You could skip this last bit if you're pushed for time (crafting to a deadline!) but it's nice to neaten it up by adding a little square of felt to the back. Cut it to size and sew in place with neat stitches, then sew on the brooch pin or safety pin.
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There it is!
Fairy tale play kitchen
More play kitchens
Vintage style play kitchen
Billy and Traby play kitchens
Ah, brilliant. A tutorial on turning your 'normal' trousers into the maternity kind.
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So much good stuff here.]]>
I love this idea for the simplest ever handmade stuffed animals. Would really like to try this.
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