from the blue shed

birds nest tutorial

Inspired by a tromp through the bush, here is an easy, inexpensive family craft that gets you out there in the elements. Easy enough to whip up in time for Easter this weekend.

Head out to your nearest park or bushland.

Collect dry grass and reeds and any other small treasures suitable to feather your nest with.

Get nesting.

To make nest

1) Make a solution from white craft glue and water. This is not an exact science. The consistency needs to be not as thick as glue, not as thin as water.

2) Cut grass down to pieces a about 1 foot long and mix in a large metal bowl with the glue solution, coating all the grass.

3) Using a small round bowl (we found metal best) start building the nest by wrapping the long pieces around the inside of the bowl.

4) Let dry over night. 

5) Tidy up the nest and trim off any wild pieces of grass.

5) Run a knife gently around the outside of the nest to loosen from the bowl.

A scrumptious little nest any bird would be proud to nest in. A perfect place setting for Easter, ready to nestle some chocolate eggs into or to perch on a counter top with a few treasures inside. Another great craft from my mum. Clever lady. 

suburban farm - seeds

We have started the second stage of our suburban farm. I came home from a long weekend working at the shop to find my husband and the kids had built our veggie patches. This working thing is working out a treat!

Our keen writer labeled the toilet paper tubes.

The kids and I then set out planting seeds. Buying seedlings was so tempting but I really wanted to show them the wonders of growing from seed (which I have never actually done before) And what a wonder it was. It actually worked! Each tube was filled with soil, this stage almost ended the whole exercise. How do you fill a tube with dirt when there's a hole in the bottom??

 Now a week later, tiny little heads have started popping out of the soil. I went through this exercise with great hopes but really, I didn't think it would actually work as I generally can't grow anything, but hoorah! 

We may buy a few tomato seedlings as I am completely impatient. If all travels along nicely though, We can pay off the mortgage in watermelon sales! Will keep you posted!

the write start

I have been feeling a little uninspired lately. With life so manically busy there has been no sewing, crafting or catching up on the creative blogs that I so love. Quite frankly, it can get a girl down. I even found myself painting toilet rolls - alone (the girls quickly ditched me for something a little more exciting) just so I could make something. I finally had a few moments to myself to sit down and wander around the blogosphere and visit a few "old friends" to see if they could help break the spell. All those creative ladies are up to their usual tricks, sharing some great ideas both online and in print! Our copy of The Write Start, written by blogger Jennifer Hallissy, arrived a few weeks ago and just in time. Now that is one inspiring lady. Check out some of these spaces she has created for her little writer here, here and here
 

Our daughter has entered that exciting new stage of reading and writing. She is never with out a pen and paper writing lists (that's my girl) stories and notes. Although they have yet to resemble any actual words, in amongst the pages and pages and pages and pages... of writing you can see a few familiar words and names starting to appear.  One of Jennifer's many writing ideas is to have a pen pal. I love letter writing myself so this was the perfect first project to tackle from our new book. With brand new stationary set in hand Piper wrote, stamped and sent her very first letter. Joy.

Next was story writing. We found this idea in a deck of activity cards. Open a story book randomly to any page, close your eyes and point for the opening line to your story. 

Although most of the words in this story I needed to dictate, she knew all the letters herself. Oh how fresh minds learn so quickly.
And then seven more...

I'd like to meet that dinosaur. Perhaps it could dish me out some crafting powers. Pachow!

clay toadstools - kids art club

Materials

~ air drying clay
~ wooden skewers
~ paint
~ paint brushes
~ craft sealer

Mould clay into small toadstools and insert wooden skewers. Leave to dry.

Paint in colorful whimsical colors.

Seal with craft sealer.

Hide amongst the garden.

salt dough ornaments

Our first efforts at homemade salt dough ornaments was a lot of fun. On the tree, the finishing touch on a gift or wrapped around a jar of baked goodies, these little snowflakes are the perfect festive touch. I was found rolling and cutting long after the children had finished. I clearly need to spend a little more time with the kids when the playdough is out. 

We made (or should I say I made) a bunch of starfish for our by the beach themed Christmas table. I can wait to put these together with all of our beachy collections. Let's hope the vision comes together! 

Salt dough

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water

mix together to make a soft dough. Cut shapes and bake for 40 min at 100/200 degrees.
note: If your oven is too hot the dough will crack.  

painted gumnuts

Holiday prep snapshot.

recycled pop bottle flowers - tutorial

I love a good truly recycled project. I saw these amongst the garden in Kings Park and I have been looking forward to trying them out.

Materials

round plastic bottles
scissors
acrylic paint
paint brushes
corks
wire

 

1. Cut the plastic bottle off at the top of the funnel.
2. Cut petals around the raw edge of the bottle's top.  Bend some of the petals back to create a different effect.

3. Paint the outside of the plastic flower. 

4. Place a cork in the mouth of the bottle.
5. Insert wire into the base of the cork. I doubled over the craft wire I had and twisted it to make it stronger.

If you are doing this project with younger children, I suggest you prep the plastic bottles first. There was almost a full blown paint fight waiting for the bottles to be cut.

Enjoy!

first stitches

The season, and our holidays, are slowly coming to an end. Last week we were swimming, this week logs of wood have crept into the cottage and the fire is roaring. We are all rugged up in ugg boots and sweaters and finding cosy things to do. I kinda like it.

I have been waiting for the day when I could teach the girls how to sew. Piper has been asking to use my sewing machine for awhile now but I am not quite ready to share. This is the perfect place to learn how, by hand anyway. It reminds me of my summers on the screen porch at  our cottage. learning to sew and knit.
 



I gave Rowen a piece of plastic mesh so she could give it a go as well. I have to admit that there was more arguing than sewing, but in the end she was very happy with what she had accomplished.
 


I am going to miss lying around the place with my family, making and chatting. Did you know that it is bad luck to baste fabric with yellow or green thread? Just one of things I learnt yesterday along with the fact that my mum won an Oscar! Well, sort of. She worked on the movie The Young Winston in 1972 while working at Berman's as an apprentice seamstress. Among other costumes, she worked on this blue dress.

 It won that year for best costumes. How did I not know that?? She is full of surprises.

painted floor cloth - tutorial

Materials

Large piece of canvas
Matt latex/acrylic wall paint for base color
Acrylic craft paint for the design details
Fabric markers (optional)
Shoe glue (or something as strong as)
Clear water based varnished
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Paint brushes

First we cut our canvas to size leaving an extra inch on each side for the hem. We painted the canvas generously using an acrylic wall paint and allowed it to dry before applying a second coat. 

Now it's time to get creative! We used acrylic craft paint for the children's hand prints. We then attempted to use masking tape to create a striped border, but the quality of the tape thwarted our efforts. Cheap isn't always cheerful. We decided to use fabric markers to write all of the children's names and nicknames around the edge to create a border. This was a really cute result.


 
Once it was dry;

1. We used a ruler to draw a border around the outside of the canvas, 1inch in from the edge. We then drew a 45 degree angle at each corner.

2. We cut the four corners off along the 45 degree line. 

3. Flipped the canvas over. Ran glue along the edge and folded along our pencil line to create the hem.

4. We continued this on the other 3 sides.


We then painted the whole thing with varnish. We applied six coats, allowing the varnish to dry between each coat.


Voila! A personalized, durable floor cloth that can withstand washing, scrubbing and a whole lot of traffic.
 



The kids made this for my brother to say thank you for a great summer at his cottage. He's such a softie, he's going to love it. 

tie dye

We had such fun yesterday rediscovering the joys of tie dying. My SIL brought up all the accoutrements for tie dying with the kids. Well, it was intended for the kids, but we soon found ourselves scrambling for things to dye. I had forgotten how fun it was and how many different results you can achieve. I have to admit that I haven't been keen on the revival of tie dyed clothes, but as I wander through the shops of late I am starting to fall back in love with it, especially the dipped fabric (check out this months issue of Martha)
 
Our tie dye session in photos;




 

A colorful morning.