Toilet Roll People

These guys are a little bit cute :)  I tried drawing faces, but I have no skill in that department so I photocopied* these faces from my favourite fabric pattern covers and laminated them for extra durability.

We then used coloured paper to cover the toilet rolls for the 'body'.  The sky is the limit to what you could do here but with my two little ones being so small we kept it simple.  I think ribbon, wool, fabric and glitter pens would all be fun to try out one day.

A couple of slits in the top of each roll provided something to slip each head into and we now have a family of little people.

When these toilet rolls get ratty, it is a great excuse to craft some more :)

*Photocopying is probably against copyright, but I am hoping my toilet roll people don't offend the designers in question :)

Cowra Japanese Garden

A recent visit to the Cowra Japanese Gardens.

Their website claims that the best time to visit is for three weeks starting late September so when we happened to be in the area at just the right time we had to stop!

Sorry for the volume of photos in this post, but I had to share the beauty.

We are feeling inspired to creat something wonderful at home, but it will take us a lot of planning and hard work :)

Lacing Cards

Handmade Lacing Cards made from a children's book that didn't make it.

Plain coloured paper glued on the back, laminated and punched with my leather punch.

A shoe lace makes these perfect for small hands on a wet or windy day.

Dye Day

Last Thursday was Dye Day and we had a lot of fun with friends, food dye and wool.

Thanks to Em for hosting and taking the above photos, one of which I shamelessly snitched straight from her blog :)  It was wonderful to catch up with friends and create something with the children too.

Possum's wool above ready for me to knit into something and efforts from some of the others drying below.

It is wonderful to see all the different shades and colours produced all from food dye.

If you would like to have a go at dying your own wool using food dye, Suse has a great tutorial.

Dirt Boy

We have been enjoying the garden.  Blue loves being outside and he dirties at least two changes of clothes a day.  He helps me pull weeds and he loves running about chasing Sam the dog.  He can say 'Sam' really well but Sam is smart enough not to listen.

I have to keep a close eye on him so he does not trample the veggie beds but so far all is good on that front and I think we will be harvesting greens before we know it!

On a different and interesting note, today's date is 10-10-10!

Mum

I have a very clever Mum who is more than a little talented in the craft department.

She knits, quilts, and stitches away when she can.

Last week she gifted me this King Size quilt for our bed because with the pillow top mattress nothing we had seemed to fit any more.

Each flower block is hand appliqued onto it's square, and the stems are all handmade bias tape.  There are 56 of those blocks and hours of hand stitching went into it.

I kindly offered to help and think I managed to do two whole blocks before giving them back.  My stitches are not that neat either!

Mum has also done quite a few Petit Point tapestries. 

Petit Point comes from the French language meaning small point.

Mum stitched these, one each for my Grandparents in the early 80's and then they came to me.

It means a lot top have something my Mum made, from a Grandparent on each side.

This one Mum finished this year just for me and I love it in the petit point as there is so much detail.

 My low light/no tripod photos of these on my lounge room wall do not do them justice.  They are all beautiful and I love them a lot.

Thanks Mum

xx

Modelling Dough

The smalls and I made modelling dough for some outside craft in the sunshine fun. I discovered (or rediscovered) that I have very little talent for such things but luckily the small people did not seem to notice and they had fun regardless.

As per my lack of talent, you may be surprised to find that the above photo is Possum proudly holding a blue bird in a nest*

1 cup salt

1.5 cups of flour

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

food colouring

Recipe from the Play School Play Ideas book by Ruth Craft I picked up in a local op-shop.

This should keep awhile sealed in the fridge, and should set hard when it dries out, I hope so or these two Christmas ornaments might be a bit sad by December...

*Have you stopped laughing at me yet?