Lego Jewellery for big kids

Lego makes me happy. Our house is full of it. And if the truth be known I play with it as much as the kids do. In fact when the olympics were on this summer, I spent an entire day building a lego olympic village ‘for the kids’ = loser?

I love all the lego jewellery I’ve been seeing around so when I visited the Crafts for Christmas show at the NEC Birmingham recently, I picked up some silver jewellery findings with making some Lego jewellery in mind. I finally got round to it Friday, just in time for my latest Christmas Fayre at ParkView Day centre in Solihull.

It did also get me thinking what else you could make out of it and how cool it would be to have actual working household items made out of lego. I’m clearly not the only person who has thought of this – check out these crazy lego items I found on other sites….

Some people have too much time on their hands!

Lego Kitchen Island & Lego DIY

For the fashionistas

Hmmm this olympic village makes mine look a bit ridiculous – Lego skill envy!

I wouldn’t want to be putting this one together at 5am on Christmas morning.

Santa’s Secret Key

When we moved house last year, my children made a very good point that the new house doesn’t have a fireplace so how in the world would santa get in to deliver the presents?! Thinking on my feet I said he has a special key – remembering seeing santa key’s in shops over the years. This year I thought i would do some extras to sell at my Christmas fayre’s. The keys where purchased in a pack from a craft store but you could use any old unused keys lying around in your kitchen drawer. I then stamped out a tag and attached some red ribbon to hang it from the tree or like us, we just hang from a nail in the wall by the door.

Melted Snowman in a Jar

I bloody love Christmas. Anything I can add to my decorations each year that it is interesting and unusual I’ll be all over it

Check out this melted snowman in a jar which can be bought out year after year and will always be a talking point.

My jar is from Ikea and is filled with general household salt for the melted snow, felt  or card carrot nose and currants for the snowman’s eye’s and buttons. If you have a small jar you can use black peppercorns which are great as the don’t sink in the salt. If you do use currants, take them out before storing your snowman for the summer and replace them when you bring him out each holiday season to prevent them going a tad mouldy. Add a ribbon bow to your jar, striped ribbon would be great and double as the snowman’s scarf.

I made some bauble versions of these too for a Christmas fayre recently. The same principle but just fill clear glass baubles with salt and add the peppercorns and felt nose. Festive ribbon is great for hanging them from your tree.

#holidays are coming……..holidays are coming……

The Felt Gingerbread House update…..

Well I started making the gingerbread house from Jeanette Lim’s Big little felt universe a couple of weeks ago and here is the finished article. I did some adjustments as I just didn’t have the time to sew on all the individual felt sweets to the roof – I would have been there til next Christmas!

I love that the roof comes off the store your gingerbread people and any other christmas bits you fancy.

 

 

Read my review of Big little felt Universe here

Big Little Felt Universe by Jeanette Lim – Book Review

The book shelf in my lounge is currently buckling under the weight of my growing collection of craft and cookery books. It drives my husband round the bend. My solution would be to have a nice ‘craft’ room of my own that I could hibernate in, surrounding myself with fabric and wall to wall books for every type of craft. A girl can dream.

In the mean time, I can just about squeeze a couple more in and ‘Big Little Felt Universe’ by Jeanette Lim is my new muse. I have recently been looking for some felt food patterns online when I stumbled upon Jeanette’s etsy shop which is packed with fabulous looking patterns for all sorts of felt food and toys. Struggling to decide which one to buy, imagine my excitement when I realised she had also published this book with Lark Crafts.

And what a craft book it is. There is not one pattern in the collection that I do not want to make. Each project is beautifully photographed with clear instructions, although some projects are trickier than others so maybe not all will be suitable for beginners. Most of the patterns are full size and even the few that aren’t can be enlarged or even measured out yourself as all the measurements are given.

I started with the felt veg and the results are really pleasing. The patterns are sized really well and everything fits together perfectly. This really is a fun and exciting book of the felt food projects that you will really want – fruit, veg, cakes, tools, burgers and hotdogs and loads more. Great to start off in the wonderful world of felt food and then progress into Jeanette’s other etsy patterns. All will produce amazing toys that children will adore compared with the sad mass produced plastic offerings of most stores.

A must buy for any lover of felt.

Next project for me is this super cute gingerbread house for the holiday season!

Felt Bear iPod Touch Pouch

Will the iPod touch get scratched on it’s first outing on Christmas morning? Knowing my kiddies the answer is yes. But in an attempt to keep them safe as they get knocked around in pockets and bags I have made them these cute felt bear pouches. Not sure how long they’ll last…….

Handmade Knitting Bag with Bamboo Handles

Mom – if you reading this then look away because this is part of your Christmas present and Santa won’t come if your naughty!

My wonderful mother has been keeping her yarn in a plastic Woolworths bag for about the last 35 years so I thought I’d treat her by making a nice knitting bag for all her wools. She loves this Cath Kidston print as it features Classic British Tourist spots including the beautiful St Michaels Mount in Cornwall. And we are both a little bit in love with Cornwall – well, aren’t we all?!

It’s made with Cotton Duck which is heavier and more hard wearing than standard haberdashery cottons. The handles are bamboo which I picked up on ebay for just a few pounds.

I have no pattern for this I’m afraid as I just made it up but I’m sure you can see it’s just a very basic rectangle shape with the top two corners taken off to allow it to shape round the handles.

 

Merry Christmas Mom!

Felt Hanging Bird Hanging Decorations

Yep the felt came out again the other day for some cute little hanging bird decorations. These work especially hard as they can multi task as Christmas decorations for your tree, add a touch of dried lavender and hang on your clothes hangers for a fresh wardrobe or even use for a baby’s mobile.

You will need:

1 sheet of beige felt

scraps of material

scraps of ribbon

buttons

embroidery thread

Soft toy filler

Draw your bird shape on a piece of paper and cut out for your template. You will be able to get 3 birds out of a standard 9″ x 12′  sheet of felt if you size it well.  Draw round you template 3 times then flip the paper over and draw round another 3 times.  This will give you a front and back piece for each of the 3 birds and enable you to hide any pencil or pen marks inside. Cut out your birds. Now cut three chest peices out of your material scraps.  I used this red floral print to give a christmassy robin feel but you can use whatever materials you have to hand. Pin the chest onto the front bird piece and stitch it on just around the top edge as pictured below. Sew on a cute button for his eye. Now take a 20 cm piece of ribbon, fold it over and tuck it between the front and back bird pieces. Pin together. Blanket stitch round the bird in a contrasting colour, leaving a 4cm gap to fill him.  Add some stuffing and carry on the the blanket stitch until he if fully sealed. To finish off take your needle back into the bird and out again at the back of the body. Pull tight then snip the thread and your end will disappear inside your bird so you have no visible knots.

Repeat until you have made up all three and hang with pride! If you like these – also check my felt Christmas Robins which are made from all felt and have cute little wings.

Lavender Bag Stacks – Crafty stocking filler

Need some crafty stocking fillers ideas? Everyone love lavender bags. You can knock a few sets of these up in an evening with very little skill and make a gorgeous stocking filler when tied up in threes with some lovely ribbon.

You will need:

Selection of fabrics (min of 30cm x 15 cm for each bag)

sewing machine

thread

ribbon

soft toy filling

dried lavender

Cut two 12cm x 12cm squares for each lavender bag you want to make. Pin the two together, right sides facing. On the sewing machine, sew round 3 sides using a straight stitch leaving a 1cm seam allowance. On the 4th side, sew half way across.  This will leave you an opening so you can fill your bag. Turn right side out and fill with a spoon full of dried lavender and some soft toy filling. Over stitch the opening. Repeat until you have three then tie up your favourite ribbon.  They look nice when made in contrasting fabrics.  I have a small Cath Kidston obsession so these are made with Provence Rose fabrics.  Or try a Christmas colour combination? Happy stitching.

Christmas Tree Pin Cushion

I wanted to make a simple cute pin cushion to go with my Christmas Needle felt case. It had to be christmassy (naturally), so check out this Christmas tree pin cushion.  Only a few bits of felt and some stuffing needed for this simple project as the pearl headed pins are themselves the decorations on the tree! I just added a bit of ribbon on the top for a final touch.

To make this cut out a circle for the base and a larger semi circle to make a cone. Stitch the two ends of the cone together and attach the circle to the bottom of cone, leaving about a 3cm opening. Turn your cone right side out, stuff with soft toy filling and over stitch the opening. Add pins and any other decoration you like!