teapot challenge...

Hi everyone :)

I am lucky enough to be one of the 40 businesses taking part in chook shed designs teapot challenge!

My Facebook page been sitting at around 1,298ish likes for AGES now, this means I'm part of the 10% of pages taking part in the challenge who are in the same boat :D

It took a little while for inspiration to strike...I had quite a few ideas, but none were grabbing me.  

I knew I wanted to create a teapot that was for boys (the little monster loves to play tea parties and have picnic tea parties too!),  my ideas were wide and varied: 

A boat

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A digger

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A fish

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A space ship

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A gameboy

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I have more of my ideas pinned on my challenge Pinterest board, if you want to have a peek :)

In the end, I decided on something a little different, and it is still in the planning stage...

But I am super excited about it...

Wish me luck!

Emma

Mood Board Monday | Geometric

Hi everyone

Well its Monday again :P and I'm joining in here:


Here is my geometric mood board:

1. Spirograph wrapping paper; such a cool idea for personal and unique wrapping paper - and the kids can even get involved!

2. Modern Chevron baby quilt; I love this quilt...I don't quilt (yet?!), but if I did I would LOVE to make this :)

3. Travel kit; see more hexies :P

4. Embroidery; my current obsession is making hexies - they make me smile :D

5. Modern block hexagon tutorial; even more hexies...this would also be on the list of quilts to make if I was a quilter :)

6. Pocket pillow case; the little monster would LOVE this (but maybe without the pink :P)

7. Crotchet rain; I found this via Meet me At Mikes...and I think its lovely, I hope one day I can crotchet well enough to pull something like this off...

If you would like to see some more items that I have pinned (that didn't make it onto the mood board above)...have a look at my Pinterest board.

Next weeks theme is Black and White, are you going to join in too?
Emma

WIP Wednesday

Hi everyone

I'm a little late...but today I'm joining in over here:

Here are all my Works In Progress (WIP)...there are a few of them :P

1. The Little Monster quiet book (for his birthday - in EARLY September)
2. The Little Monsters hobby horse (for his birthday - in EARLY September)

3. This gift for a little friend...almost finished...

4. I'm thinking about my tea pot for a teapot challenge...

5. My crochet scarf for the ASWC crochet along (we are supposed to me doing a blanket...I decided something smaller will be more achievable for me :P)

Emma

Mood Board Monday | Flowers

Hi everyone,

I've decided to participate in Mood Board Monday over at Life as we know it this week, even though the theme is "flowers", and generally I'm not a flower sort of person :P

I started out looking at mainly photos of what I would consider to be wedding themed flowers and then moved on to looking at lots of different crafty "flower" themed projects including, crochet (did you know I'm learning to crochet and participating in the crochet along over at ASWC at the moment), paper flowers, flower washi tape, pretty flower nail polish and embroidery flowers (as I will be participating in another swap soon...this one is a "hoop art" swap - if your interested head over here to join - so looking at all the lovely embroidery designs was good research ;D ).

By the time I had finished, I realised flowers weren't that bad and there were lots of flower themed items that I LOVED and couldn't decide Which items to share in my mood borad...so your getting 3 :P

CRAFTY FLOWER MOOD BOARD

1 - Origami paper flowers - a tutorial written by Andrea from this pugs life.

2 - Felt and Button Boutonniere - a tutorial written by Nancy from do small things with love.

3 - Washi tape flowers - a link to purchase this piece on Etsy.

4 - String flowers - a tutorial written by Connie from crafty goodies.

5 - Ribbon flowers - a tutorial written by Brynde a team member of the Ribbon Retreat.

6 - Watermelon flowers this is a great summer idea that your little monsters would love to eat!

7 - Crocheted flowers - a tutorial written by Anna from protsenka.

8 - Crochet flower headband, hopefully I enjoy crochet enough that one day I can make my own version of this :)

EMBROIDERY FLOWER MOOD BOARD

1 - Embroidered flowers - a link to purchase this pattern (and others), over at Button, button...

2 - Vintage Button flowers - a tutorial written by Ruby from Ruby Murry's musings.

3 - Embroidered flowers - a link to purchase this piece on Etsy, made by Jillian of Islay’s Terrace.

4 - Felt and stitchery portrait with flowers - a tutorial written by Nancy from do small things with love.

5 - Easy felt flowers - a tutorial written by Nancy from do small things with love.

6 - Tea towel flower embroidery - a link to the FREE pattern from Coats Crafts.

7 - Felt flowers - a tutorial written by Nancy from do small things with love.

8 - Crochet flowers - a tutorial written by Elise from Grow Creative.

9 - Embroidered folk art button flowers - a tutorial written by Nancy from do small things with love.

WEDDING FLOWER MOOD BOARD

1 - I love these Hair flowers!  I wonder if I'd seen this picture before my wedding if I would have changed my mind on my hair do?

2 - These Nail polish flowers are a fun way for guests to dress up at a wedding.

3 - Cute Cupcake flowers...YUM!

4 - Table center piece flowers, these would be beautiful at a wedding or at a garden party.

5 - Pretty flower "have it all wallet's", this is a great pattern review written by Messy Jesse of this pattern - found via Monkey Mai's Pinterest, thanks Kirsty!

6 - Flowers in jars are just so pretty...

7 - More flowers in jars, again I love these :)

If you want to participate or have a look at all the lovely flower themed mood boards just click on the button below :)

Next weeks theme for Mood Board Monday is"Geometric" incase anyone else wants to join in :)
Emma

The ASWC Crochet Along

Hi everyone

I have never crocheted before, and I am keen to give it ago, I just hope its more fun than knitting...in fact I tend to get really really board when I'm knitting - about 5 years ago I decided to learn to knit and started on a scarf...lets just say, its obviously not my thing as I'm still working on it :P

When Crafty Mummy from the And Sew We Craft (ASWC) team blogged about having a crotchet along, I decided to join in :)

Last week I collected my tools, a size 7 crotchet hook (a hand-me down) and some 12 ply acrylic wool (less than $5 from Big W).

And last night I sat down to give it a go...

The 1st row of chan stitch wasn't that difficult, and I found it quite easy to follow along with the instructions.

The 2nd row that required me to double crochet is where I got really stuck...I found it hard to understand what I was doing wrong with only the written instructions and photos for help...so I headed to YouTube and found this video very helpful :)

And then 2 hours later I was well on my way! 

Yay :)

I'm still not sure if crocheting is for me, but I like it better than knitting - so I guess that is a good sign :D
Emma

Teaching the little monster about the days of the week

Hi everyone,

I've been wanting to start teaching the little monster about the days of the week so he can learn what we do/are doing every day, so I decided to make him a calendar :)

Of course he wanted to help :P

Here is what I did...

I purchased a large collage photo frame from K-mart ($25) - the one I chose has 14 photo spaces of varying sizes.

In case you are wondering why I chose a 14 space frame over a 7 or 8 space one...this is why - as some of the spaces for the photos were quite small, I decided that for some of the days I would have 2 spaces that would be used like this, space 1 - title and weather (*more about this later on) and space 2 - for the activity to be written and maybe for a small photo of the little monster doing the activity or a similar activity.

So, back to making the calendar...

I collected some of my favourite scrapbooking papers from my stash:

(I went through a scrapbooking phase a few years ago and bought 

quite a few children's themed papers when I was pregnant 

with the little monster - I just haven't gotten around to 

making him any scrapbooks yet - oh well :P)

And then using my guillotine I cut the papers down to the size of all the spaces in my frame, (see what I mean in the image below)

(I made sure to add and extra 1/4" to each edge so that

 the papers weren't too small for the spaces.)

To help decide which papers to use in which photo space, I laid them out in the frame and moved them around until I was happy.

Then using some plain white and brown scrapbooking papers I cut some title plates out and using some lettering stickers I spelt out the days of the week:

Then using more of the lettering stickers, I added a title "Little monster's Calendar":

I then put everything into the frame and hung it on the wall ready to use :)

At the moment I'm just using a white board marker to write up when activities we have on each day during the week, but what I would really like to do is take some photos of the little monster completing different activities (eg. seeing friends, going to swimming lessons or music class, etc.), and put them up on the calendar as well.

Let me know if you have made something similar for your little one, or even if you have used this post to create your own - I'd love to see!
Emma

Linking up with:

Pinning on Pinterest

Hi everyone

I love Pinterest!  I know you probably all do too...so here are 5 of my most recently pinned favourites :)

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These woodland animal masks are so cute and would be great as party favours for any little monsters birthday!

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A hexie zipper pouch!  I'm really enjoying doing some English Paper Piecing at the moment ;)

I might have to keep this pouch in mind for a future project...

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A lovely way to dress up some very ordinary bull dog clips :)

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This lovely skirt looks simple to make, maybe I might think about joining in on imagine gnats selfish sewing week?

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I LOVE this top!  

If I do end up joining in on the selfish sewing week (September 23-29), this one will definitely have to be on the list!  But I will have to get over my fear of sewing with knits first :P

You can follow me on Pinterest here :)

What have you been Pinning?
Emma

 

The little monster's handmade birthday presents - progress...

Hi everyone

A few months ago I set myself a challenge to make at least 2 handmade items from this list, for the Little Monster for his birthday (in September).

So far I have finished 1 present for him - a travel car mat!  It can be viewed here.
I have also finished another item on the list - a hooded vest, but he was given this early as it is soooo cold in Melbourne at the moment, it can be viewed here.

I have began a 3rd project...a quiet book, and I have to say I will not be making another one any time soon, I'll be leaving the quiet book making to people like Rachel from BaBee Blocks, who's work is absolutely AMAZING! They are fun to make though, so I probably will make another one eventually...

I will be using both felt and fabric to create the quite book - hopefully this gives it more durability and longevity - its nice to hope that he will be able to give it to his son to play with when he is much...much...much older :)

Anyway, here is what I have worked out for the book so far:
Page 1-2, A Mr Potato head page, I found the templates for this page here and here.

Page 3-4 A bead counting page (like this one)...but with a different theme :)

Page 5-6 A shape, button matching page (like this one), but I would like to make it a transport theme.

Page 7-8 A robot page (like this one), but with no LED's - that is just too hard :P

Page 9-10 A buckle page, I would like to do this by using some baby overalls (that have a pocket and maybe a belt) and make an opining and closing activity for him - and include some items like on this quite book page, for him to put in and out of the pocket.

And if I get time...
 - A sock matching game, I will be using this template.
 - A tool kit and doctors kit page (like this one and this one and the tools here)

The front cover will have a title...maybe something like: "The little monsters playbook" (but I'm open to ideas and suggestions!) and
The back cover will hopefully have a lovely message from me and his daddy on it.

Here is some photos of my progress so far...

Yes...I have only finished the Mr potato head page.  I think I will be working on this at every opportunity to make sure I finish it by September :P

Oh...and I'm adding something to the list...I also want to make the Little Monster an I-spy bag :)

Hopefully I can get through one or 2 more of the items on the list before his birthday...And I will keep you updated on the quite book progress :)
Emma

Play dough and the Little Monster

Hi everyone

I have been meaning to make play dough for the little monster for ages...so when I came across a post by Abby from things for boys on play dough, I just had to give it a go :)

Abby's instructions were perfect and after a total of 20min I had this lovely play dough all wrapped up and ready for the little monster to play with later!

A little while ago I bought some transport themed biscuit cutters at my local $2.80 store, as well as some great little see-through boxes, all of which are perfect for creating a play dough busy box :)

I have used a similar box for this busy box - which was a hit with the little monster :)

Now to see if the play dough busy box rates as well with the little monster...

I think it is a hit :D

Thanks so much Abby, for the recipe!

Emma

July wrap up of finished projects

Hi everyone,

Here are the items I finished in the month of July:

 

My 1st noodle head super tote :)

A thank you gift for Ros - actually...these were for her daughters - (for organising the winter sewing day)

Some hoop art advent calendars and a tutorial on how you can make them yourself available in my guest post for sew mama sew :)

 

A hooded vest for the Little Monster, you can view my post about this item here.

A new item for my Etsy shop

Another new item for my Etsy shop

Another new item for my Etsy shop

A playhouse for Kris B :)

A wedge pouch :)

A pretty pouch for a Monkey Mai 's pouch swap

A playhouse for Patsy R :)

A "Peacock" inspired nappy clutch.
This clutch has an originally designed (by me!) wrap around strap and will be available to purchase on August 1st over at Button Couture by Nikki

Lots of lovely items were finished...even some that can be purchased from my shop :D YAY!

Emma :)