Christmas shirt #2

I made a second design after seeing all these pretty ruffle shirts on Pinterest... mine didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined, but Miss 4 loved it anyway :) I used the same fabric as I used on Mr 7's shirt but this one took a little longer.

Cut strips of fabric about 5cm wide using pinking shears.

Lay your strips out on your shirt to work out how many you will need. Sew each strip from the edge (1cm) using a straight stitch on your machine with the settings to the longs and widest, and cut with some length left so you can pull the ends to 'ruffle' the fabric. You could hand sew the ruffles if you don't have a machine using a basic running stitch.

Arrange strips to form your tree (you may have to trim some to the right size)

Once arranged sew the strips onto your shirt staring at the bottom. I hand sewed as I found the ruffles easier to control, but machine stitching would be much faster!

Once sewn, add your embellishments (beads, bows, bells, whatever, and your shirt is done)... Miss 4 insisted on shiny red beads as her shirt then resembled our tree :)

Christmas coasters

I made these as part of my husband's 12 days of Christmas presents (day 6 I think), and they were super easy so thought I'd share.
I purchased the plain coasters from my local craft shop 80cents each and used some scrap booking papers I had purchased earlier, added some cut out monograms (there will be 6 of us Christmas morning so I used all our initials) and Mod Podged to seal it and that's it, done :)

Christmas shirt

I was inspired earlier in the year by a tutorial from thisgirllovestotalk who is VERY talented and demonstrated how to make reverse applique shirts for birthday's, but I thought I'd test it out for Christmas.

I got the kids plain white shirts ($3-$4 each) and had some left over fabric from a quilt I made for Miss 4. I cut my Christmas tree out using my Cricut, but no need for that, and you can cut whatever shape you like... baubles, presents, reindeer, star etc.

First lay your shirt out and trace your picture onto it

Next place your selected fabric on top to ensure you cut the right amount out to cover your design

Turn your shirt inside out and iron the fabric (face down) onto the design using an iron on adhesive, be CAREFUL not to place the adhesive on the part of your design that will show through, I just put it along the edges. 

Turn your shirt back the right way and stitch, either by hand or machine, around the traced line of your design. I chose to hand stitch as I find it easier and I am much neater this way, but machine would be super quick.

Once you have stitched around your traced design, turn the shirt inside out again and trim any excess fabric using pinking shears to avoid frayed edges

Turn your shirt the right way again and CAREFULLY trim the top layer away to reveal the patterned fabric underneath. I left a 1-2cm edge when I trimmed mine as I was worried I might slip and cut through the stitching. 

and you are done.... 

Mr 7 modelling his new Christmas shirt

I did want to add some buttons on as baubles but Mr 7 decided he didn't like that idea and asked that I leave it as it was, but you could try the idea of buttons, or bows, or even little bells! MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

Grinch Dust

I have stolen this idea from Miss 4's daycare teacher (thanks Sophie!), who decided that we have all seen 'Reindeer food' a little too much, and was very clever to put a spin on it with "Grinch Dust" I told Miss 4 we may need it for Daddy!! Dr Seuss is very popular in our house and we have got our Grinch cartoon out to talk about the spirit of Christmas since we got our dust.

All you need is some shredded coconut, food colouring, and the cute little verse to add to your bag... and if you feel, you could always add some glitter in case you are a reindeer food addict!

Clay Tags

Every year I want to make clay tags and never get to it... well finally we got ourselves organised and found some white air drying clay at our local newsagent. I grabbed all my Christmas cookie cutters for the kids, rubber stamps and some embossing plates to make our tags a little more interesting, and away we went. I must admit, it was a lot more difficult than I had expected it to be and they didn't turn out as nicely as I would have hoped for, but after speaking to a friend I think it may be the brand of clay we purchased that gave us problems. Anyway, the kids had a great time and were busy for hours with this one, so if you're looking for a holiday activity, I highly recommend this :)

MERRY....

It's been a while since I posted anything, but I promise I've had good reason... study! Well it's finally over and Christmas has hit me (I think the day study was over was when the whole MERRY arrived), so I am happy to report I have started the crafts. First on the list are cards for the kids classmates. We usually do candy canes, but last year my boy had way too many candy canes in one day so I thought I'd try something else... crayons! and yes, I do know that kids like the candy canes better :) 

I'd been through the crayon box earlier in the year and saved some crayons for future crafts so decided we would test out the 'recycling' and mold them into stars for our cards. 

Find some old crayons

Chop them up into small pieces

Place pieces into OVENPROOF mold and bake at 150 degrees celcius for 5-10mins. I turned the light on and watched until the crayons were just melted so the colours didn't all run together to form an icky brown. Remove from over and set aside to cool completely before turning out of mold. 

 *we filled our mold with multi  coloured bits of crayon but you could do them in layers by colour if you wanted a different effect

Design your card and attach crayon as desired (I had to use sticky tape)... and DONE :)

 Hope preschoolers and year 2 kids like these :)

Mango Meringues.... super easy!

While everyone else is watching Kate and Will's big day, I decided to occupy myself with some experimental baking. *I love weddings but the media coverage over the last few weeks killed it for me so in protest I REFUSE to watch it!*


I had left over egg whites from our dinner of Cannelloni tonight and instantly thought I'd make some meringues, but with a twist. I found this recipe for MERINGUE KISSES COOKIES and adapted it a little to make some mango flavoured meringues as was voted by the rest of the family, even though I wanted strawberry or lemon AND I'd like to add that I think MY flavour choices would have been even yummier!


INGREDIENTS:
4 egg whites
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 packet flavoured jelly of your choice
pinch of salt
pinch of Cream of tartar

METHOD
preheat over to 130 DEGREES CELSIUS
line baking tray with greaseproof paper
in a clean, dry bowl, mix eggs whites and pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Once eggs whites have become glossy and form peaks, start adding sugar and jelly crystals SLOWLY (about a tablespoon at a time). Continue to mix on highest speed, until all the sugar and jelly crytals have dissolved. You can check this by placing a small amount of mix on your fingers and rubbing them together to make sure it is smooth and you cant feel any grains of sugar. Continue to mix until the egg whites and sugar form stiff peaks.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe 12 small circles onto your baking paper. I chose to pipe into small cup cake patties for something pretty, but the little piped 'kisses' were cute too. If you want, add sprinkles. Put into oven and bake for 25-30mins (less time will result in a chewier meringue as opposed to the longer baked that are crispy).

Serve with some cream and fresh fruit, or scoff down by itself... YUMMMMMMM!

Shiny Eggs

At Spotlight today I decided to grab a few things for an Easter craft I thought of. They came out prettier than I expected :). Be warned though, this activity does take some patience, but if you want to keep the kids busy for a while it's a good one! They will require supervision as there are sharp objects involved, but Miss almost 4 managed to do it without getting hurt - great for fine motor skills.

MATERIALS: styrofoam eggs, sequins, pins (we used Birch- Sequin & Bead Pins). 

INSTRUCTIONS: simply pin the sequins onto the styrofoam eggs until completely covered, or make a pattern... you may want to take a break in between (like my kids did lol).

sequins and pins in our paint tray

Mr 7- starting his pattern

trying to claim mummy's work!

Miss 3 and her efforts :)

our 3 completed eggs- they look prettier in person

EASTER rehatched

I know, I'm slack with my blogging. Parties, invites, felt food, study and my little family keep me so busy these days! BUT I can't NOT post something for Easter... so a re-hashing (rehatching) of our previous years Easter crafts/activities is what we have for you :)

An Easter tree!

Made from twigs we spray painted and stuck into an easter pail then covered in wool. The eggs were bought but you could make them by covering styrofoam eggs with tissue paper.

Easter Cupcakes

My son, who was 3, decoarted these (the icing looks odd I know!) but all you need are a packet of small hard shell easter eggs to decoarte some cupcakes with.

Bunny Ears

Window Decorations

Blank piece of paper, draw patterns onto it using wax candle. Paint over using diluted food colouring and then cut into egg shapes. The are so pretty with the light shining behind them and so simple to make.

String Easter Eggs

This is my favourite and they are on our table again this year, we just revamped them by adding some colourful ribbon bows :)

Blow up a water balloon. Cut lengths of string and place into a bowl of PVA glue. Coat string in glue and wrap around water balloon. Keep wrapping around balloon until you have a complete egg. Leave to dry in the sun and then pop the balloon and you have a lovely string egg to decorate with. We dyed our white string using food colur to get our coloured eggs, but you could purchase coloured string instead.

Egg Biscuits

Kids favourite this tiime. Arnotts Arrowroot biscuits, some icing (we love Betty Crocker Vanilla) and some more icing or tubes of food gels to decorate. Easy, fast, and yummy... and kids go crazy with excitement decorating their easter eggs.

Face-washer Bunnies

Lay face-washer out in a diamond, roll up starting from one corner. Fold in half, then half again and wrap a rubber band around a samll section to create the face. Pull top so that 'ears' stick out. Glue on some googly eyes and a pom pom for a nose, you can also glue a pom pom to the back for a tail. Place a chocolate egg in the back of your bunny and give to a friend HAPPY EASTER!