Craft Blog

This is less tutorial (it’s as simple as drawing on a plate) and more review, but I recently discovered these porcelain pens in Spotlight and I am completely in love.

You Will Need

• One Porcelain pen – they’re made by “Pebeo” and I found them in my local Spotlight in the craft section with the regular ink pens, they had them in thick and thin, I’m using the thicker version (150). I Also have it on good authority that Lincraft are stocking them as well, and I’m sure they’re available in local art shops.
• One side plate – mine was $4 from Target, but you can use anything so long as it will hold up to being put in the oven – check out op shops and thrift stores, or even the dollar stores, you may want to pick up a couple of spares to practice on first.
• An oven

Lets get started

1. Practice your design plenty on paper before going at the plate with the pen, if you want to get really precise you can trace around the outside of your plate to get a better idea of scale. Use the pen a few times on either paper or a spare plate to get an idea of the flow.
2. Once you’ve finalised your design, put pen to plate!
3. Allow the ink to dry for 24 hours then bake in the oven for 35 minutes at 150°C (300°F)
4. Enjoy your full functional plate! The ink is non-toxic and microwave and dishwasher safe.

This is my first time using these pens and I am so impressed. The flow is great (I was worried about it coming out blobby) and the finished result is excellent, completely flat and flawless. I’m seriously considering investing in a few more colours and making over our entire white dinner set with my own design.

Keep an eye out over the coming week for a new valentines cookie recipe to put on your plate!

I love the classic look of silhouette profiles, and they’re a great way to keep track of how your family’s features change over time, cheap and simple to do.

You will need

• Black card
• Scrapbooking paper
• Frames – I also picked up some acylic paint to stain them black
• Sharp scissors or a craft knife
• A clear picture of the profile of your chosen person and a printer

Lets get started

1. Print out your photo – it doesn’t have to be high quality or on photo paper, you just need to be able to see the picture clearly.
2. Cut out the profile using scissors or a craft knife. I got away with just a small pair of scissors, but if you’re dealing with a lot of hair and tricky bits then a knife would make the job easier.
3. Lay the cut out on your black card, facing the opposite direction from where you want your final piece to face. Use a sharp pencil (mechanical pencils are awesome for this) and trace around the outside of the print out, keeping as close to the edge as possible.
4. Cut along the pencil line, again using a craft knife or scissors, you’ll have to do this is very good light to see the lead marks clearly.
5. Frame them! I ended up placing them on scrapbooking paper as I felt the yellow made them pop a little more, but they would work on white or a whatever colour fits in with your decor. Just use a few dabs from a glue stick to put them in place. The frames were $1 each from Ikea and I gave them a quick coat of black acrylic paint to stain them.

I plan on redoing these every January to keep track of the kids and how they change over the years. I’m also planning on going back through my photo archives and doing one for the previous years as well – assuming I can find a suitable photo!

Only a mild fail this week with a canvas that went wrong, making this week officially better than the previous one!

I’ve been wanting to make up some silhouettes of the boys for a few months now, but I rarely visit the paper section of any craft stores and so kept on forgetting to pick up the black card. I’m super happy with how these came out, they only took about half an hour each, and I had a lot of what I needed already on hand, so they only cost about $3.50 in new materials. I’ll be putting up a tutorial for these later in the week so keep your eyes peeled

I fidget. I think most crafters do. I love movies, and watch a lot of them, but I really struggle to sit still for more than half an hour, so this is what keeps me amused. It’s a granny square measuring about 2 foot either way, just using left over balls of acrylic from my amigurumi projects. I would love to do some embroidery whilst I watch movies, but that means I need to concentrate too hard on what I’m working on, instead I just work on this, and when it’s done (3-4 foot across) it either ends up as a baby present for somebody or yet another blanket for Declan to build forts from – and I have it on good authority that Granny Square blankets are the best for this, the holes mean you can see the bad guys (aka little brothers) coming!

And finally, baby wipes, not exciting in the slightest, but we were running short. I tend to grab flannelette when it’s on sale and just save it for odd little projects like this or for a hidden layer in a rag blanket – if memory serves me right I think this was $2 a metre. So I didn’t think much of my fabric choice when I made these up, I  just grabbed whatever and am now regretting it. My husband now won’t wipe the baby’s bum without singing “Burning Ring Of Fire” and making as many “hilarious” jokes as he can squeeze into one nappy change.

This week I’m hoping to get some sheets made up for the boys’ beds, a pouch sling for the new babe and if it ever cools down I want to perfect a cookie recipe I have in my head for a Valentines day tutorial.

Please welcome Christie Burnett of Childhood 101 to CraftBlog! In preparation for her daughter’s second birthday, Christie made an easy three point felt pirate hat and kindly shared the tutorial with us.  And in the tradition of all great pirates, this hat is unique… it’s pink!

What you’ll need

• About 1/2 metre felt (of course, it depends on the size of the head you are making it for!)
• Sewing machine or needle and thread for hand sewing
• Decorative touches – contrasting ribbon, felt and/or feathers

Full tutorial behind the jump >>

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I read A LOT of craftblogs, I love the huge amount of inspiration out there on the internet and the generosity of people wanting to share their skills with the world. So yesterday when I stumbled onto Knock Off Wood after finding a link on Craft Rookie, I was gobsmacked. I sat there for a couple of hours and read through Ana’s entire archive, and promptly made a list of every single project I wanted to make – preferably before the baby falls out.

Ana has developed plans to recreate (and improve on) pieces of furniture that would cost you hundreds, maybe even thousands from Pottery Barn, West Elm and other big department stores, and then she’s published them all (for free) on her blog, everything from simple benches to a four poster bed. Building yourself means you can guarantee the quality, make it in exactly the finish you desire, it saves you money and there is an awesome feeling of pride associated with using a piece of furniture that you’ve created with your own hands.

I have several projects that I’ve already picked out:

We come into our house via the garage and I would love to organise the garage so the sunhats, coats, school bags etc don’t just end up dumped in the laundry on the way in, so this entry way system is definitely on my list, I also love that it’s so easy to add to, so when number #3 needs his/her own space I could just put another locker and drawer set on the end.

Declan’s room needs more storage as his book collection almost doubled over Christmas, and I love the bin at the bottom of these shelves – great for cars and Little People that tend to end up scattered everywhere.

And the grand daddy of projects (which my husband is insisting he wouldn’t sleep on – he doesn’t trust my handiwork, that’s fine, he can move to the sofa!) is this queen size bed. I love beds with storage under them, so this would be absolutely perfect. I’m considering making this my big goal of the year, I figure if I can build my own bed then I can build anything, but I’m also a little daunted by the enormity of a project like this.

Unfortunately being very pregnant right now and feeling like my back is about to split it two, I don’t see any of these happening anytime soon, but I did have the crazy idea that I wanted to make something before I have this baby. Something inexpensive, simple and that we actually need. I was stumped for a little while, and then I looked at our two Ikea LACK tables that the kids use for playing/eating/drawing etc. one of which only has three legs (amusingly enough, 100% my fault – not the kids!), and the other has peeling veneer on the top that I tried to fix up with contact paper, and it hit me that I probably had my first project.

Just the table – so far I haven’t broken any of the ikea kids chairs, so they’re not required just yet. It’s simple, we need it (+ I love the storage) and it’s inexpensive – meaning when I bugger it up horribly I haven’t wasted our entire food budget for the month! I also love the idea of painting a road on the table top for my car obsessed kids.

I’m going to give myself three weeks to get started crank this table out. I’m 32 weeks at the moment and I certainly can’t see myself being all that willing to lug around wood and work with a jigsaw past 35 weeks. If I haven’t completed it by the 5th of February then I will officially hand in my electric drill and throw up my hands in surrender never to even consider woodwork ever again.

But if I do manage to make it, well then Dan better learn to love the smell of sawdust in the morning, because I intend to take over the garage even more so than I already have

Between going away for the weekend, and spending the week preparing for going away for the weekend, I haven’t managed to get much done this week. What I did get done was enough to consider this officially a week of craft fail.

There was a failed playmat for a new baby in the family on Monday. It’s now sitting in an angry heap to the side of my sewing table where I occasionally swear at it and bemoan the fact that I love the fabric I used so much that I’m eventually going to have to unpick it all and rescue it.

Then there was a vanilla slice with custard that refused to set, meaning I ended up with two soggy pieces of pastry and a rather large mess all over my kitchen.

Finally on Friday I gave up on the play mat and instead I sat down to make a ribbon blanket for Dan’s new baby cousin, Alexis. Instead of measuring it out I traced the outline of one plastic boxes we keep toys in, but decided that was too small, the box was flared so I flipped it upside down and traced around the top lip instead – and because I didn’t have any chalk to hand I used a blue crayon instead – it was on the back of the fabric, no one would see it, right?

I did freezer paper applique (FYI, it took me a while to get into the process, but the finished result has made me a total convert) and added an A to the top, sewed the 40 ribbons on to the top and backed it with some pink fleece.

Then I noticed a few crinkles, and figured, as it was a gift, I should probably iron them out before handing it over.

The iron barely touched the cotton when it melted the first crayon line I’d drawn and soaked it into the fabric, there was now a perfect dark blue echo on two of the sides about three inches from the edge.

Bugger.

We were due to leave for Sydney at 8am the following morning, I’d stupidly started sewing at getting on for 9pm, and then spent until the early hours washing that damn blanket, by hand, by machine, tumble drying it, anything I could think of to get the stain out. Eventually I had it faded to the point where it wasn’t immediately obvious, and fortunately the applique held up through all of that abuse.

The recipient loved it – at least her mum did, baby Lexi seemed somewhat ambivalent as most babes are at 3 weeks old. Most importantly I learned a lesson about getting up off my arse and going and getting my chalk from the garage instead of raiding Declan’s pencil case.

Here’s hoping that your crafty week was more positive than mine!

My lovely friend Shanni showed off her new camera strap the other day and I was instantly jealous. I have no idea why it had never occured to me to cover up the big chunk of black with “EOS” written all over it, so, inspired by Shanni’s purchase, I set about giving my camera strap a facelift.

This is literally a tube of fabric, so it’s a great beginners project and it only took me about fifteen minutes, so perfect for a quick crafty fix.

You will need:

• Your current camera strap
• Some fabric

Tutorial behind the jump ->>

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Rachel from Melbourne asks:

My gran gave me a couple of jelly rolls for Christmas and I’m a bit stumped on whether I’m supposed to pre-wash them or not? (or even if i’m able to).  To wash or not to wash?

I’ve confessed before that I am not a washer, the quilting world is pretty much divided when it comes to washing yardage, and I sit firmly on the side of no. Unwashed fabric has stiffening agents that I find make it easier to sew and handle, I hate losing yardage in frayed edges and shrinkage and I honestly can’t be bothered a lot of the time, all that washing, drying and ironing is not for me.

Fortunately it is agreed within the quilting world that washing precuts such as charm squares and jelly rolls isn’t wise idea. The washing process will turn those neat little squares and strips into a bundle of threads with only a small bit of usable fabric in the middle, so no, don’t go throwing your brand new precuts in the washing machine.

If you’re concerned about shrinkage, be sure to only combine them with other unwashed 100% cotton fabrics, that way any shrinkage will be quilt-wide and you’ll avoid any warping or distortion. Most fabric is preshrunk now during the manufacturing process so it’s not quite the issue it used to be.

If you’re concerned about colours running (not something I worry about unless it’s a red/white or red/deep blue combo) I’d recommend collecting similar colours from your precuts and soaking them in individual tubs (Tupperware/ice cream tubs/whatever you can find), let them soak for half an hour in warm water, give them a swish and replace with fresh water for another half an hour. This should minimise any bleeding of your colours.

If you have a craft-related question, feel free to get in touch and ask.

Tiffany Bird of Simply Modern Mom recently wrote about making over her master bedroom on a budget. The transformation was amazing, turning a fairly standard mismatched bedroom into a sanctuary within her home.

One of the things that stood out for me were the tree canvases above the dresser, like most artwork they’re simple but very effective. Tiffany has posted a quick tutorial explaining how you can achieve the same look at her blog, all it takes is some canvas, magazine cuttings and plenty of mod-podge.

Remember the Moo Cards I used on our Christmas gift tags?

Well the season is now very much over (although I still have yet to pull our Christmas tree down!) and I’m left with about 50 cards with pictures of the family on them and “Love, Fern, Dan, Declan, Connor & #3″ written on the back. About half of them have gone to my mother in law so she can keep a stack of photos of the grandkids in her handbag to pull out whenever she wants to brag about them and a few have been framed and placed in the pile of pictures I will frame but will probably never get around to putting up, but there’s still quite a few that need homes, and I knew if I didn’t do something with them now they would forever sit in that little box waiting for a day when I pull them out and look at them again.

Inspiration struck this morning as the fridge repairman was trying to work out what was wrong with our brand new refrigerator – magnets!

So, you will need:

• Moo Cards or photos printed on heavy card stock, or you could use regular photo paper but laminate it so it’s strong enough.
• Promotional fridge magnets, we get these in the mail every few weeks from carpet cleaning services and pest exterminators. If you don’t get these in your junk mail you can buy sheets of “magnetic paper” from most craft stores.
• Scissors and superglue.

I don’t think instructions are really required here, simply cut the magnet down to the size that will best support your image (long thin strips were best for the Moo Cards), run a thin line of superglue along the middle of the picture, wait for it to dry (no, really) and stick them up on your fridge.

These would be great for matching type games for toddlers, get a set of photos and a set of names printed up and you can match the photo of a relative to the name, capital and lowercase letter matching, or for younger children grouping similar colours.