nickety nackety noo

2013-06-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been over a year since I blogged, but now it's time to get back to it - but not here! Nickety Nackety Noo has now moved, you can find my new blog over at

nicketynacketynoo.wordpress.com

I hope you'll come over and join me, I will soon be listing new projects, musings and other stuff and nonsense from my head and home! I hope to see you there!

Nikki

Milk Crate Bookshelves

2012-03-07T05:20:00.013-08:00

This one is really easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and really requires no DIY or crafting skill at all - plus it will only take you about 10 minutes to do! I had intended to include this amongst the "last bits and pieces" blog post before the final reveal, but this week it seems I have nothing else to blog about, since my 5 or 6 ongoing projects are all in various stages of completion...so it's a quick little post today!

I acquired a pile of milk crates from freecycle, and picked out four of them. I game them a good scrub with soap and water and let them dry.

From Dollarama I purchased a pack of these pull ties - the kind with the little teeth so when you pull them tight you can't loosen them again.

I took two of the crates and began to attatch them together using the ties - a couple where the handles meet, and a couple more where the sides meet.

I then did the same with the other pair, then tied both pairs together to make a square of 4 crates. And it's really as easy as that!

Depending on the amount of crates you can come up with, you could make this as big as you want - floor to ceiling, wall to wall! I do recommend however that if you go much taller than 2, it's probably best to secure it to the wall with something.

We have lots of shelving in our family room for the kids books, I just wanted something small to fill the space at the end of Brodie's bed, and where he can put his current favourite books! I really like the different colours, and particularly like that each of the crates has a slightly different pattern that you can see against the wall. I also threw a small, colouful blanket over the top to finish it off.

milk crates - free

pull ties - $1

Total cost of Milk Crate Bookshelves - $1

Total cost of room to date - $26.82

Nikki x

You can see more about Brodie's bedroom makeover below:
The Bedroom of Doom! - Before the transformation began
The Manga Dresser
Paint Chip Bedside Table

Bike Wheel Notice Board

Linked with

Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #41

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell

Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #107

Sew Much Ado - We Did It! Wednesday

We Are THAT Family - Works For Me Wednesday

The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share

Creations by Kara - Look What I Made Link Party

DIY by Design - Winter Blues Wednesday, It's a Party #55

My Girlish Whims - Your Whims Wednesday #49

Sugar and Dots - What I Whipped Up Wednesday

Handy Man, Crafty Woman - Wicked Awesome Wednesday #53

The DIY Dreamer - From Dream to Reality #6

Oopsey Daisy - Wednesday's Wowzers {10}

Bike Wheel Notice Board

2012-02-28T15:25:00.043-08:00

So far I am pretty pleased with my projects versus budget ratio - and here's another cheap and cheerful addition to Brodie's bedroom! The bike wheel notice board.

I was inspired to try this when I saw My Tattered Angels version. I originally found this old bike wheel on a beach last summer - in actual fact, the worst beach the family has ever been to (we are all in agreement with that, but it's a story for another time ;O) - I brought it home with the intention of making a bike wheel pot hanger similar to this one from Apartment Therapy, but on closer inspection it wasn't quite perfect enough for me since a couple of the spokes were missing. However, I didn't think that would be too much of a problem for this project.

I was so keen to get started, I completely forgot to take any "before" pictures of the tattered old thing prior to painting - sorry! Suffice to say, it was pretty scabby looking. I gave it a good scrub with soap and water and then got on with it.

I had bought some spray paint with this in mind, so went to work with several thin coats of green, and here's how it turned out.

I really didn't like this Krylon spray paint - it was supposed to be no mess but after the first coat my hand was covered in spots of green - after that I donned the good old rubber gloves, and they ended up covered too! I'm just glad I did this over a large drop cloth! The paint job may not stand up to close inspection, but it's not too bad.

Once it was dry I also attached a little piece of protective sticky stuff (you know, the stuff you put on the bottom of your furniture to stop it from marking the floor) to the middle of the back side, so it wouldn't mark the wall.

Then I had to figure out how to hang it on the wall, and dug these hooks out of the shed, which we bought last year but didn't use.

When I tried a dry run with the wheel hanging off the hook, it turned out to be too small - the bottom of the wheel was sticking out too far from the wall, it wasn't hanging level - so I broke out the big guns! The hook below was another unused one from last year, and although it's pretty big, it was all I could come up with (I'm not sure how Apartment Therapy did it with concealed hanging, clever things! Maybe they removed the middle bolt entirely and replaced it with a really long screw?)

The wheel hung much better, and those missing spokes actually helped it to hang better! I know this hook is pretty big, but the "pokey outey" bits could also be used to hang things from. Then it was on to the pegs I decided to use to hold things on there.

I grabbed some pegs from my washing line...

And some paper from my stash (these were from a "page-a-day" origami calendar from a few years ago, but you could use anything - wrapping paper, colourful flyers or construction paper to name but a few) and got out the white glue.

I painted one side of the pegs with glue and placed them face down on to the paper. Once it was dry I cut around and then did the same with the other side. Another coat of white glue on each side as a protective coat, and they were done.

It's looking a bit empty here, but once I added some of Brodie's bits and pieces, I think it turned out really good! As seen on the right of the photo below, the pegs can be stored on the outside rim when not in use. I think I may have to make him some more as they didn't go quite as far as I thought they would (I made 13 initially).

Wheel - free
Spray Paint - $4.84
Hook/screws/rawl plugs - from my shed
Pegs - from my washing line!
Origami paper - from my stash
White glue - from my stash

Total cost of Bike Wheel Notice Board - $4.84

Total cost of room to date - $25.82

I am still well on course for my $100 budget. I am delighted that I also finished painting all of Brodie's walls this week, and managed to get the ENTIRE ROOM done with the paint I recently got from Freecycle - I am really chuffed, as the paint was probably going to take a fair chunk out of the budget. And so, on to the next project - tune in next week to see what's next!

Nikki x

You can see more about Brodie's bedroom makeover below:
The Bedroom of Doom! - Before the transformation began
The Manga Dresser
Paint Chip Bedside Table

Linked With

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #103
House of Grace - Twice Owned Tuesday #84
Hope Studios - Tutorial Tuesday!
Tip Junkie - Homemade Projects - Add Yours!
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New Nostalgia - Anti-Procrastination Tuesday #88
I'm Topsy Turvy - Topsy Turvy Tuesday
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Strictly Homemade Tuesday
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The 36th Avenue - Show Me Extraordinary

Bedside Table

2012-02-22T02:25:00.024-08:00

Next on my list - a bedside cabinet.

This was one of a pair, given to us by my buddy. It was actually in hubby Dave and I's bedroom, but I decided one will go in Brodie's room, and the other in Lucas's.

It's not massively fun and kid friendly at the moment, but we'll sort that out right now! First thing to go was the floral pattern over the middle bar. Bring on the polyfilla!

Next, the handles. Sorry, but they're just not "kid" enough for me. You can see from the next picture, once I took the handles off there were actually two holes in the front of the drawer, but only one going all the way through. I filled in the "fake" hole, leaving the real hole for the new handle.

Let me just point out - this is not a "themed" bedroom. There is nothing tying all the pieces and colours together, apart from my intention to make it bright, fun and cosy. However, saying that, the ONE thing Brodie really wants is a Super Mario mural on his wall. More on that later, but I wanted to tie in this little cabinet with a Mario theme - I thought the shape was great for doing something like this:

Picture the above on it's side so the brick portion is on the bottom, and the yellow portion is on the top. This was my cunning plan!

However...

After FOUR coats of yellow paint, it was not looking good (in my own defense, I did sand it like nobodys business before the first coat) - should have primed it, but didn't. DOH!. That lovely chocolately brown was NOT loving the yellow.

To add insult to injury, I stupidly assumed that both drawers were the same size (we all know what assuming does, it makes an ass out of YOU and ME, however YOU had no part in this dear reader, it was all ME), so it actually turns out that I painted the bottom drawer yellow instead of the top. ARGH! Epic fail, as my son would say.

So, I have decided it is time for plan B. Paint samples!

I re-sanded all that glossy, yellow paint, and went at it again. I am on a paint sample roll just now, did you see the bookmarks that the kids made for valentines? Again, collected over a period of time from different stores.

I started with the drawers. The one in front is still wet with mod podge in this pic.

Then on to the main part. I did the sides and top. In the shot below, you can see the bottom edge plus the edge on the left still need to be sanded off.

I tried very hard at all times to keep the white lines between the colours straight, to give it a bit of continuity, and managed pretty well. I also made sure that all of the samples were the right way up so that you could read all of the paint names without turning upside down. If you are going to try this yourself, I recommend doing what I did - I did one section at a time (top, side etc) and laid the unit so the side i was working on was facing up - once I had mod podged the surface of the unit and laid the paint samples on, I covered it all with cling film them put lots of heavy books on top for a few hours to keep it flat.

The fiddliest parts were those small sections - the rim around the top, then the three sections above, in the middle and below the drawers. I thought it was quite apt that the very last piece I put on was called "Scottish Waltz" - it was the first time I had noticed ANY of the names on the whole piece!

I finished it off with wooden handles painted in that same yellow as my first attempt, and painted the legs in the same colour. You'll notice from the picture above that one of the drawers is still yellow on the edge, while the other is brown. Adds to the colour, don't you know! I suppose I could have done the edges too, but I was running out of samples. Also, I did the "sanding off the edges" technique as seen in my Manga Dresser, but the paint samples are way thicker than comic book pages, and some of the edges were not as neat as I would have liked, so I was just happy to get it looking like this.

I painted the handles seperately, and before I attached them, I gave the whole thing 2 coats of mod podge and 3 coats of spray varnish.

So in the end, no Super Mario tie-in, but Brodie loves it anyway!

Bedside cabinet - free
paint samples - free
yellow paint - from my stash
wooden handles - from my stash
mod podge and varnish - already counted in my total

Total cost of Paint Sample Bedside Cabinet - $0.00

Total cost of room to date - $20.98

A score for Brodie's bedroom makeover, look at this colourful bedside cabinet for ZERO addition to the bedroom total. Yes please, I'll have some of that!

Nikki x

P.S. Don't forget you can follow me of Facebook!

You can see more about Brodie's bedroom makeover below:
The Bedroom of Doom! - Before the transformation began
The Manga Dresser

Linked with:

Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #39
Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell
Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #105
The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share
Free Pretty Things For You - Whatever You Want Wednesday #65
DIY by Design - Winter Blues Wednesday, It's a Party #53
My Girlish Whims - Your Whims Wednesday #47
Handy Man, Crafty Woman - Wicked Awesome Wednesday #51
The DIY Dreamer - From Dream to Reality Linky Party #4
Oopsey Daisy - Wednesday's Wowzers {8}
Tales of a Trophy Wife - Will Craft For Laughter and Grace
Seven Thirty Three - Sugar and Spice #99
House of Hepworths - Hookin Up With HoH #88
Somewhat Simple - link party
Tales From Bloggeritaville - Thrifty Thursday #149
Katie's Nesting Spot - A Crafty Soiree #78
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday
Beyond The Picket Fence - Under $100 Thursday
Suzy's Artysy-Craftsy Sitcom - Commercial Break Thursday
Christina's Adventures - 20 Below Thursday #61
Between U & Me - Crazy Cute Link Party #39
Thrifty 101 - DIY Thrifty Thursday #55
The Brambleberry Cottage - Time Travel Thursday #85
What Allie's Making Now - Making it With Allie
A Glimpse Inside - Catch a Glimpse Party #68
Rhinestone Beagle - Doggone Dirty Craftin Link Party #22
Fabulously Flawed - Super Sweet Thursday #22
Crafty Scrappy Happy - Crafty Scrappy Happy Me Thursday {23}
The 36th Avenue - Party Time!
Stuff & Nonsense - Fridays Unfolded #55
Momnivore's Dilemma - Creative Juice #60
Sassy Sites! - Party in the FFA!
WhipperBerry - Friday Flair
Thirty Handmade Days - Pity Party #76
Freckled Laundry - Air Your Laundry Friday #55
The Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday
Redoux - Friday Link Up Party #44
Simply Designing - Link Party
Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Night Special Link Party #122
Craft Envy - Saturday Spotlight #78
Be Different, Act Normal - Show And Tell Saturday
Lolly Jane Boutique - Watch Got Weekend #52
Little Becky Homecky - Fantabulous Friday #1
Flamingo Toes - Think Pink Sundays No.50
I Heart Nap Time - Sundae Scoop Link Party
Brassy Apple - Make it Monday #20
DIY Home Sweet Home - More The Merrier Monday #51
It's So Very Cheri - It's Party Time
Craft-O-Maniac - Craft-O-Maniac Monday Link Party #26
I Should Be Mopping The Floor - Mop It Up Mondays #5
Get Outta My Head Please - Show It Off Party #13
Sew Can Do - Craftastic Link Party

Hearts and Flowers

2012-02-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

So, Valentines Day is upon us once again!

Valentines Day in Canada is a much bigger deal than it is in Scotland, the kids all hand out Valentines to each of their classmates every year (In Scotland, it's Christmas cards, but they don't do that here in Canada - aye well, each to their own!)

The last 3 years I am ashamed to say they have handed out piddling little shop bought cards, so this year I decided to plan ahead and get them to make their own. Here is what we came up with:

Paint sample bookmarks! The above is but a glimpse, there are a few more...

I have to point out that I take absolutely no credit for this idea - I came across a website with paint chip valentines (sorry, I can't remember where) a while ago and then did some research - there are LOADS of sites on the internet where crafty people have made all sorts of different valentines using paint samples, some of them very clever and oh so sweet. We decided (with 4 kids in the family!) to keep it simple and make bookmarks!

I broke out the hole punch, plus some other little punches (heart, flower, star), some different shaped stamps and red ink, valentine stickers, a few different glitter glues and some dollar store ribbon, and let the kids run amok.

Some of them are downright GLAM (my daughter has discovered a love of glitter glue which I'm sure will last a lifetime!!) while others are quite minimalist - it really depended on their mood while creating.

They had really great fun making these, I tried to limit them to 2 or 3 per day over the last couple of weeks so as not to make it too much of a chore, but most days when they got home from school the first thing out of their mouths (even before asking for something to eat, and THAT'S rare) was "Can we make some Valentines??"

FYI - these paint samples were collected over a few weeks and from different stores, I didn't clean any of the chain stores out of their samples. Just sayin'.

Almost as an afterthought, the day before Valentines Day, it occured to me that the teachers should have something too. I am really into using paper at the moment (see my Manga Dresser) in various ways, and I saw these really cool paper roses made from book pages at Market Nine Home, so thought I would give them a go!

I dug out an old romance novel (fitting, don't you think?) and followed the tutorial (and of course, had to add some of that GLAM glitter) and here is what I ended up with:

Personally, I like the unglittered look, but hey, they are for the kids teachers, and the kids can have their say...

Lucas chose "TARDIS" blue (of course) for his teacher...

Brodie went with traditional red...

Naomi has 2 teachers who job-share, so she went with silver and pink. The pink is glitter glue while the blue, red and silver were done by painting white glue on the petals and then pouring over loose glitter. My kitchen was very sparkly!

I had some containers that we got chinese food in a while ago, and they were perfect for these flowers! We don't want them getting smooshed on the way to school...

Nikki x

Linked with:

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell
Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #104
Sew Much Ado - We Did It! Wednesday
Domestically Speaking link party
The Trendy Treehouse
Creations by Kara - Look What I Made link party
Free Pretty Things For You - Whatever You Want Wednesday #64
DIY By Design - Winter Blues Wednesday - It's a Party #52
My Girlish Whims - Your Whims Wednesday #46
Handy Man, Crafty Woman - Wicked Awesome Wednesday #50
House of Hepworths - Hookin Up With HoH #87
Somewhat Simple - Blog Link Party
Tales From Bloggeritaville - Thrifty Thursday #148
Katie's Nesting Spot - A Crafty Soiree #77
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Link Party
Beyond The Picket Fence - Under $100 Linky Party
Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom - Commercial Break Thursday
Between U & Me - Crazy Cute Link Party #38
Thrifty 101 - DIY Thrifty Thursday #54
The Brambleberry Cottage - Time Travel Thursday #84
Allie Makes - Making It With Allie
A Glimpse Inside - Catch A Glimpse Party #67
Fabulously Flawed - Super Sweet Thursday Par-tay!
Crafty Scrappy Happy - HUGE link party!

Manga Dresser

2012-02-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

And so, the quest begins, to make my 8 year old son Brodie's bedroom much more fun than it currently is, and honestly, that won't be hard since it is dull, dull, dull! I am trying to do this on as small a budget as possible, hopefully under $100. Is this stupidly optimistic? I guess we'll find out!

The first project I embarked upon - a Manga chest of drawers! Isn't it COOL!!?

So, here is what I started with. A chest of drawers, which was given to us about a year ago by a friend, and was being used by my son in all of its chipped, white glory.

Some paint from freecycle

and a couple of nice, thick, black and white manga comics from Value Village.

I tackled the handles first. After removing them from the drawers, I sanded and wiped them, then attached them to some cardboard so they would sit nicely without falling over during the painting process.

I cracked open that lovely freecycle paint as fully intended the paintwork on this project to be that nice, dark red. However, this is what happened when I began to paint...

Yes, it was rather pink! I don't think my son will appreciate a pink dresser in his bedroom. Also, it was very translucent - it just wasn't going to work, I think the previous owner has mixed something into it. So, I wiped it off and started again. What did I learn? When I get lovely free paint from freecycle, I may not be getting exactly what it says on the tin! I cracked open a tin of green paint, from the same freecycler, and once I had established it was just good old regular paint, I made a(nother) start!

Once the handles were set aside to dry, we started getting the rest of the parts ready - we removed the drawers, sanded the fronts and put them aside, then started on the main body - I actually attracted a helper for this part! No, this isn't Brodie, it's his older brother. If you look closely in the background, you can see part of another dresser which I previously gave a good old overhaul to!

Once the sanding was finished, we got out some flyers and tape and taped off all the parts that I didn't want to paint - namely, the top and the two side panels, then got going with the green paint again!

It took 3 coats of paint until I was happy with the coverage (no pics of that stage, sorry) - then came the fun part! Brodie and I went through the comics and randomly chose pages we liked. For about a nanosecond I considered trying to have a flowing story, but it never would have worked since every other page would be the face-down part pasted to the wood. So we just went with stuff we liked! I cracked open the mod podge, and started to paste!

The side panels are sort of self-contained/recessed a bit, I did have to trim some little edges to get a good fit. With the top, I made sure to get a nice, straight line at the front, then left the overhang at the back, but made sure to fold it over the edge to get a good fold line - hopefully the next picture will explain it better than I can.

This is the back edge of the dresser where the overhang was. Once the mod podge was dry, I took my sanding block and sanded along the edge, which shears away the excess and gives a lovely, neat line. The white you can see in this pic is the edge of the original white paint on the back on the dresser and dripping down the back a bit - the edge of the paper is really neat, honestly!

Then it was time for the drawers. I again left the pages to overlap on all 4 sides and once it was dried, sanded the edges off.

A top coat of mod podge on the drawers and the main unit (comic book pages only, not paint) to seal it all, and finally 3 thin coats of spray varnish (during the varnish stage, I put some tape over the painted edges that met the comic book pages so they would stay matt and not get all varnishy!) Finally, I reattached the handles, and voila!

Now, I have to be honest - despite much smoothing of the paper during the application stage, there are still some wrinkles here and there. But I'm not going to let this bother me. I think the finished product turned out pretty awesome.

Chest of Drawers - free
paint - free
comics - $1.99 each so $3.98 in total
flyers - free

Other items I bought for use in this project, and will use for others too as still have some left (so will add them to the running total):

tape - $1
mod podge - $10
varnish - $6

Total cost of Manga Chest of Drawers - $3.98

Total cost of room to date - $20.98

Eek - project number one is under my belt, and a fifth of the budget already blown. Not looking good for my $100 budget - I guess I have to go even cheaper on my plans!

You can see more about Brodie's bedroom makeover below:
The Bedroom of Doom! Before the transformation began...

Linked with:

Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #103

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell

The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share

Not Just a Housewife - Show Me What Ya Got #60

Sew Chatty - Made With Love Link Up

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday No.100

Rae Gun Ramblings - What We Wore and Made

Funky Junk Interiorss - Dresser link-up

Tatertots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party

Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #37

Sew Much Ado - We Did It! Wednesday

We Are THAT Family - Works-For-Me Wednesday

Creations by Kara - Look What I Made Linky Party

Primitive & Proper - Piece of Work Wednesday

DIY by Design - Winter Blues Wednesday

Night Owl Crafting - Hoo's Got Talent?

My Girlish Whims - Your Whims Wednesday #45

Reasons to Skip the Housework - Tuesday Time Out

Strictly Homemade Tuesday

Pinkapotomus - Pink Hippo Party #66

House of Hepworths - Hookin Up With HoH #86

Somewhat Simple Link Party

Tales from Bloggeritaville - Thrifty Thursday #147

Katie's Nesting Spot - A Crafty Soiree #76

The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday

Beyond the Picket Fence - Under $100 Link Party

Suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sircom - Commercial Break Thursday

Christina's Adventures - 20 Below Thursday #59

Between U & Me - Crazy Cute Link Party #37

Thrifty 101 - DIY Thrifty Thursday #53
The Brambleberry Cottage - Time Travel Thursday #83
Making it With Allie
A Glimpse Inside - Catch a Glimpse Party #66
Rhinestone Beagle - Doggone Dirty Craftin Link Party
Fabulously Flawed - Super Sweet Thursday
Sassy Sites! - Free For All Friday
Whipperberry - Friday Flair
30 Handmade Days - Pity Party #74
Freckled Laundry - Air Your Laundry Friday #53
The Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday
At The Picket Fence - Inspiration Friday

The bedroom of doom!

2012-02-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's pretty bad!

I really want to decorate all 4 of my kid's bedrooms this year, and am starting with Brodie's. Brodie is 8 years old, but sadly his bedroom doesn't reflect this - in actual fact, every single room and hallway in our house (with the exception of the hubster and I's bedroom which is a disaster of a whole different colour) is painted this light mustardy tone - it is pretty inoffensive, but very, very dull.

I can't believe I am even publishing these pictures on the internet, but you can't have a good "reveal" without the pitiful "before pictures", eh? So here goes.

These double doors are the entrance to his bedroom (on the other side of these is our family room) - yes there are TWO tellys in here - one doesn't have the necessary sockets for his little plug in video games, so he has a TV exclusively for gaming! One will have to go in the revamp however...

I have to point out that no Brodie does NOT use a drum pad for a pillow, and his blankets are usually more extensive - last night was Saturday and he and his brother had a sleepover in the family room last night.

Here is the wall opposite the bed - the whole wall has a ledge running along it. The black TV is on the floor as I already removed the first dresser to work on it - that will be in the next blog post!

And the next few shots are taken standing over by the tvs, showing the other end of the bedroom - his bedroom narrows into a corridor for the last part of it.

And here is the "corridor" part of the room - it has become something of a dumping ground in the last few weeks (this is why I am embarrased to share these pictures with you - what a midden, as we say in Scotland!)

The tall thing in the foreground is a piece of papier mache furniture I made about 2 years ago, and have yet to finish - I could never decide what I wanted to do! That's a blog post for another day!

Below is a project that didn't turn out quite how I wanted - yes, it's a duct tape dresser! It never did get finished, and once Brodie's TV went on top of it, the tape got all torn in places. I bought some "goo gone" so I am hoping I'll be able to strip it back and re-do it for the new room.

So, there you have it. I am hoping that by the time I photograph this bedroom again, it will be a room of much awesomeness and colour. Wish me luck!

Nikki x

Hey! It's been a while...

2012-01-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

I am embarassed to admit it has been something like 6 weeks since my last post on the blog. Originally I was very busy trying to make some hand made gifts for my four children for Christmas so didn't have time for any new crafts to post, then it turned into a bit of a health saga - long story short, I have had psoriasis since my teens but always manageable - for some reason in mid-December I had the mother of all flare-ups and I went from a couple of patches on my torso to full on, 100% coverage, which is where I still am right now. Anyhow, am waiting for a dermatologist appointment and have decided to try to pull myself out of the doldrums and have a positive outlook - and hopefully start crafting again!

I never did get the gifts finished for my kids, and think they are more likely to be Valentine or Easter gifts now! I did get one finished, for my daughter, so am posting some pictures for you to have a look at. Her name is "Miss Bitsy" because she is made up from bits of my daughters out-grown clothes - geddit?

She is entirely hand sewn using t-shirts, jammies, jeans, wool sweaters, dresses and trousers.

She took a LONG time to make!!

above is a close up of her tummy...

and this is her back.

Due to the length of time she took me to complete, I decided that for my three boys, the pattern would be simplified - instead of seperate arms and legs, they are more along the "cut two pieces the same shape and sew around the edges" ilk - I have all pieces cut and have begun sewing, and hope to share them with you at some point soon!

Incidentally, the other three are to be called "Patches", "Scrapper" and "Piece, Man" (my eldest son's favoute saying) - all along the same lines as "Miss Bitsy"!

I hope to be back blogging on a regular(ish) basis from now on, so please come back and see me soon!

Nikki x

Link with

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell!
Not Just a Housewife
Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday No. 95
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up
Skip to my Lou - Made by you Monday
Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt it Friday No. 86
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Lovely Crafty Weekend #54
504 Main - Tickled Pink No. 80
Thirty Handmade Days - Pity Party #69
Kojo Designs - Friday Fun Finds
Fingerprints on the Fridge - Feature Yourself Friday
Its a Hodgepodge Life - Hodgepodge Friday

Christmas is coming...

2011-11-17T12:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not long really, is it?!

The time is coming for the mantel to be re-done for Christmas time, so I have started on some crafts to adorn it. And what says Christmas more than Christmas trees?

I do like to use things I have to hand wherever possible. Last week we got rid of an old double bed, so of course I removed the legs from the base before it was thrown out! I removed the threaded pieces from the bottom where they were attached to the bed, and thought they had a vaguely Christmas tree shape.

I got out my green and red craft felt. After applying white glue to the entire leg, I placed it on the felt and rolled it up, then left them all to dry - the red ones were done a little later so only the green are shown here.

Once all 6 were dry, I trimmed the felt around the bottom, up the back "seam (which needed another bit of white glue to get it to stick properly on most of them) and the top I trimmed about 3/4 inch from the top of the actual wooden leg.

To finish the top, I snipped from the top of the felt to the top of the leg 4 or 5 times and then using hot glue, glued each piece down to cover the top of the wood. Here they are all ready to be decorated!

The decorating was super quick thanks to my glue gun - I gathered up a few craft bits and bobs in red, green and gold (yes, I am going for the traditional Christmas colours this year), and here's what I came up with:

For the first one I used a spare piece of ribbon left over from last year - I glued it at the top then wound it around, finishing by gluing and trimming at the bottom.

Next, I used some little jewel stickers which I originally bought for my spooky spider eyes back before Halloween - luckily, the majority of the pack was green, red and a pale green/gold.

Next up was some gold craft thread - similar to the ribbon tree, I glued it at the back then wound it around before finishing it again with glue at the back.

Then I raided the button box looking for red, green and gold buttons - I didn't find any gold ones but did find some interesting green and red ones - trusty old glue gun again, and voila!

I had a small length of red ribbon from somewhere - I decided this one should have a bow tied around it to look like a Christmas tree present! I say "tied" in the loosest sense of the word, I am a bit rubbish at tying bows so I assembled a nice neat one with hot glue and then attached it on top of a ribbon band I glued to the tree itself.

Last but not least, I gathered the green scrap felt I had left over plus one other mid-shade of green, and cut some narrow lengths. I again glued them with hot glue, starting and finishing at the back seam.

This project was so super easy and quick, the only lengthy part was waiting for the white glue to dry on the wooden legs - if you do this part before bed and let it dry over night, all to the better!

You may not have spare bed legs lying around(!) but fear not, this could be easily achieved with rolled up cereal box card, or foam cones are pretty cheap at the dollar store or craft store - if you go down that route, you could also use pins and sequins to decorate, I obviously couldn't stick pins into the wood...

I like this little collection of Christmas trees! I swithered about finishing them at the top with stars, but decided against it. I may change my mind when they actually go up on the mantel.

They don't look fantastic from the back, but hey, who's gonna see the back? I think they look awesome from the front, and that's the main thing!!

Nikki x

Linked with

Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt it Friday #79
Remodelaholic's Annonymous #97
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Simply Designing - Simply Link Party
It's Fun To Craft - "Look At Me" Party!!!
Someday Crafts - Giveaway Directory
Lovely Crafty Home - Lovely Crafty Weekend #47
504 Main - Tickled Pink #74
At The Picket Fence - Inspiration Friday
Tater Tots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party
Be Different Act Normal - Show And Tell Saturday
Craft Envy - Saturday Spotlight #68
Uncommon Design - Home For The Holidays

The most fantabulous coat in the world...EVER!

2011-11-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

I have been a fan of Katwise on Etsy for some time, her garments are simply, jaw droppingly gorgeous. Well, just look!!

I mean - just LOOK at it! Words fail me. Look at the awesome length of the hood! Look at that magical flare as Kat spins around! Look at the WONDEFRFUL colours! I simply must posess one! And this is Kat's house in the background of the shot - WOW!!

These have proved so popular, that they sell out pretty much immediately - however, Kat is now offering a tutorial in her Etsy shop which I eagerly snapped up for a mere $9 - it is a wonderful read full of photos, tips and insights into Kat herself. It's just as colourful as her wonderful clothing too - what an amazingly talented woman!

I don't know if I will ever get around to making one, although I'd love to for both myself and my daughter - however at the moment, I don't even own a sewing machine, let a lone a serger! Kat mentions in the tutorial that while it is possible to do it by hand, it will take a LONG time and the sweater pieces may unravel at the edges :O(

In the meantime, I will thoroughly enjoy re-reading this tutorial whenever I need a colour pick-me-up, will continue to make my own far more modest projects (hand sewn, of course!) from my felted sweater stash, and maybe one day down the line when I have all the necessary equipment, I'll be the talk of the town wearing my very own elf coat everywhere I go!

Kat is always so friendly the few times I have spoken to her via email, and I am in awe of her talents!

For an instant shot of colour and fun which is sure to make you smile, check out Kat's website and her Etsy shop. Happy browsing!

Nikki xxx

Autumn Mantel

2011-11-08T02:56:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously, my Halloween bits and pieces were packed away on the morning of November 1st, but I couldn't leave my mantel bare, so whipped up a quick Autumn mantel in it's place!

I put this together in just a couple of hours, including craft time - not too bad, I think! My base for the mantel was an Alpaca pashmina which sneaked into the wash and was felted - the brown colour gives a nice autumnal feel.

First up was a project similar to my Boo Halloween artwork - I had a further 3 left over wooden frames, so I painted one red, one yellow and one orange, then finished then with a brown wash which was wiped off with kitchen paper, to make them less bright.

For the frame insert, this time I used paper lunch bags glues to the card from the aperture - once it was dry, I dry-brushed some brown craft paint on before cutting to size and re-inserting in the frame. They were finished with some leaves from the pile I made last week (see below).

I got out my hot glue and a big box of twigs and driftwood I have collected throughout the year - they have all been well dried, I don't recommend crafting with new wood and glue as it has yet to dry and settle - and made a wreath which I hung over the mirror with some gold ribbon.

I knew the leaves from my Fall Table Runner (kind of) would be nice and versatile - I'd like to tell you I made a whole new pile, but no - I swpied them from the kitchen table and scattered then along the mantel. I held a few back and added some thread to them, to hang from my driftwood and twig "tree".

Finished with a couple of pillar candles, my Paper Lunchbag Pumpkin and a small lamp, I am pretty pleased with the overall result, and I guess this will stay up until December when I re-do it all again for winter/Christmas. I am so glad we got this mantel, it's fun to decorate!

Nikki x

Linked with

Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday
Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #87
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up
Making The World Cuter Monday
Sumo's Sweet Stuff - Market Yourself Monday
Craft-O-Maniac - Monday Link Party
Skip To My Lou - Made By You Monday
Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday #48

TARDIS junk art

2011-11-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

Today I was planning on showing you my fall mantel - all the Halloween decorations were taken down first thing Tuesday (I hate keeping decor up once the event is over, I have to grind my teeth to keep the Christmas tree up until after New Year) but no such luck - I find myself without a working camera - Grrrr!

My little point-and-shoot seems to have a wonky charger - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This week it doesn't, even my pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes are trapped on there :O( I'll keep working on it.

I would dearly love to buy a fancy big SLR digital, but it's just not feasible at the moment. So, I had a look on kijiji yesterday and ended up with another little point-and-shoot, just to tide me over. I picked it up today to take some pics and there is no memory card!! I really wish the seller had mentioned this...

I am hoping by the weekend I will either a) have the charger working for the old camera, or b) an SD card for the newer camera, and I can show you my Autumn mantel! In the meantime, this is the only thing I currently have pics of on my laptop, which you haven't already seen - junk art!

It's not much of a tutorial, but you don't really need one for junk art - just go with the flow!

Junk art is great fun, for kids and adults alike (although kids may be better with white glue instead of hot glue) - it's great to get the imagination working! There really are no limits to what you can make, it doesn't have to be WHO related!

I had a plain wooden frame which I painted a dark red, and then the board which is the backing of the frame I painted directly with blue, getting lighter towards the middle. You can see the texture of the board in the picture above.

I drew a rough shape of the TARDIS/11th Doctor Logo and raided my junk pile - I keep all sorts of weird garbage like pieces of plastic, zippers, broken things etc, just for this purpose! I played around with the layout and broke out the hot glue. FYI, you can see the logo better if you squint your eyes, haha!

Some of the "ingredients" for this were: broken crayons, pieces of kinder toys, broken beads, pieces from an old board game, marker lids, those black plastic thingys which have twist ties wrapped through them in new toy packaging, a plastic bubble blower, glass beads, zipper pulls and more. I keep a box of empty ice cream tubs where I sort things by colour, I throw things in there as I come across them - I have even been known to pick things up off the street and bring them home to wash them!

It was finished with a silver sharpie which I used to write "Bigger On The Inside" (which, of course, it is!) and some random dots to represent stars in space.

And that's pretty much it! I have another few pieces of junk art I'd love to share with you, when I can get some pictures of them! Have you ever made juk art?

Nikki x

Linked with

Momnivore's Dilemma - Creative Juice Thursday #46
Somewhat Simple - Strutt Your Stuff
Fireflies And Jellybeans - Show Off Your Stuff #99
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday
Seven Thirty Three - What Are Little Boys Made Of? #84
Hooking Up With House of Hepworths #73
Blue Cricket Design - Show And Tell
The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share
Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday
Bella Before Abd After - Amaze Me August #61

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

I was saved time this year as three out of four of my kids opted to wear a ready made costume for Halloween, either that we already had or that was given to them as a gift (thanks Granny!), so I only had one costume to worry about, or so I thought...

My eldest son received a last minute invitation to a Halloween Party on Saturday evening - he is the one I was making a costume for, and it wasn't ready yet, so I had to come up with something fast - I found this on the internet and loved it!

He's a "Smarty Pants" - geddit? Yes, his trousers are a little on the short side, this is why they were chosen for the glue gunned smarties, they will be thrown out afterwards...

As for the main costume (to be worn at school and for Trick or Treating in the evening), we came up with something a bit similar, as it is another "play on words" - he is going as a CEREAL KILLER!

Now, this costume may be nothing new to you folks in North America, but I certainly had never seen or heard of it before and when I found it online it made me laugh - and it's so easy to do!

We bought an oversized black t-shirt from the thrift store (so we could fit layers underneath for warmth) and splattered it with red paint.

While the paint was drying on the t-shirt, I got some plastic knives and tried to make them look more authentic by painting the handles with black craft paint, then wrapping the "blade" with foil. I took a bunch of small cereal boxes and glued then closed, then used an exacto knife to make a slit in each, and put a knife in, securing it with hot glue.

Then I went back to splattering, this time over the boxes/knives. Finally with a brush I painted around the spot where the knife meets the box - it makes it look more like a wound, and it covers the hot glue too.

And finally, we glues the boxes in place on the t-shirt using hot glue - I put a garbage bag in between the front and back layers of the t-shirt before starting this, just in case the glue seeped through and glued the shirt together!

For school today he is wearing just the t-shirt, when we take them out Trick or Treating tonight I am going to have some face paint "blood" on his face, and stick a few pieces of cereal around his mouth too!

Nikki x

Linked with

Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday #47
Keeping it Simple - Motivate Me Monday #94
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up
Making The World Cuter Monday
Sumo's Sweet Stuff - Market Yourself Monday
Skip To My Lou - Made By You Monday
The DIY Show Off - DIY Project Parade
Not Just a Housewife - Show Me What Ya Got #47
Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday
Bella Before and After - Amaze Me August #61
Sew Chatty - Made With Love #50
Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #86

Fall table runner...kind of!

2011-10-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a nice Autumn table runner for our kitchen table, so decided to cut out some leaf shapes from felt. I went with the traditional Autumn colours of brown, orange, red and yellow, but also decided to mix it up with some different shades of brown (from very dark brown through to light beige) a bit of green (well, there are SOME green leaves on the ground outside...right?) and even a couple of shades of purple.

I drew some basic leaf shapes, after checking out the garden to seeing what was around! I came up with 3 shapes - one is supposed to be a maple leaf (there are a LOT of maples around here!) but don't ask me what kind of trees the other two come from! Possibly an oak for the leaf on the left?

I ended up cutting out 28 leaf shapes from the various colours. It took me about an hour to pin the template, cut, re-pin etc. The perfect job to do while watching your favourite TV show...

And this is what I ended up with.

I had originally planned to artfully arrange these into a runner for the table and then either sew or glue them together (although after all that cutting, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up using hot glue - super fast!). But as I played with them, I started to see the potential for leaving them unattached.

1) I can arrange them in all kinds of different ways, whatever takes my fancy (see pictures below);

2) Craft felt doesn't wash very well - if there was a spillage at the table (and with 4 kids, they are not exactly rare) I am hoping I can scoop up the few leaves in the firing line - if they get ruined so be it, at least I don't have to thrown the whole project away!

3) I can make a few new leaves every year to add to the pile - maybe one day the pile will be big enough to require a garden rake :O)

So, here are the ways I tried - I'm quite sure the options are almost limitless though (sew them into an Autumn mobile? Put them in frames for Autumn artwork? Make a bunch of them into an Autumn wreath?) - my ideas are all to do with the table.

Spread them out randomly to cover quite a long distance...

Gather them closer into the middle of the table...

Or even try to arrange them around a centrepiece. Obviously, I don't have a centrepiece in this picture, I'm planning to carve my pumpkin with the same leaf shapes and sit it on the table too, so that would work.

Those sharp-eyed readers amongst you may have noticed that 3 of my leaves have some embellishement.

I added some veins to the purple leaf, I outlined the orange (in blanket stitch - a tried and trusted favourite of mine!) and on the yellow one I did both.

Over the next few days I am planning to grab a few leaves whenever I have a spare half hour, and eventually do one of the above to them all - it adds a little texture and interest, I think. They don't all have to be done, even just a few "accent" pieces would be nice!

I will be sure to post a couple of updated pictures once I am done!

Nikki x

Linking with

Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #88

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell

Seven Thirty Three - Sugar & Spice #82

The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share

Not Just a Housewife - Show Me What Ya Got #46

Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday

Bella Before And After - Amaze Me August #60

Sew Chatty - Made With Love #49

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #85

Mom On Time Out - Taking a Timeout Thursday Link Party #02

a twist on the Perpetual Calendar

2011-10-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

Just a quick, picture lite post today - and completely non-Halloween related!

I am a big fan of Bon Temps Beignet and loved one of Liz's recent posts for making a perpetual calendar from a picture frame.

Now, the last thing I need in my house is another calendar having ordered one myself for 2011 and we received several more as gifts. However, I decided to alter the idea slightly and voila! Now I have a great way to keep track of the kids' school activities and after school bits and pieces too!

If I could change one thing, I think I should have used papers with a bit more contrast, and may re-do it at some point.

It won't have to be adjusted too much during the school year, and if I do need to change anything, I find a cotton wool ball and some nail polish remover is a great eraser (I used a sharpie for all the writing)! I have this in my kitchen so I can see at a glance each morning who needs gym gear, when homework is due back and when I have to hunt for the kids' library books!

AND it looks so much better than the limp piece of paper which I had stuck to my kitchen wall with all this info last year ;O)

Thanks for a great idea Liz!

Nikki x

Linked with

Not Just a Housewife - Show Me What Ya Got #46

Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday

Bella Before and After - Amaze Me August #60

Sew Chatty - Made With Love #49

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #85

Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday #46

Complete Halloween Mantle

2011-10-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

So, I think my halloween mantle is complete!

We picked up this mantle a few months ago through Freecycle, you'll notice (obviously) that I have yet to come up with a permenant idea for the space, and our "hearth" is a shelf we bought from the hardware store and cut to size so the mantle wasn't simply sitting right on the floor. Anyway, that big glaring gap is a project for another day ;O)

Here is the top half, including a few of my blog crafts: my BOO artwork, Halloween Countdown Blocks, Papier Mache Pumpkin, Spooky Spiders and web. I decided to off-set the mirror from the centre and quite like it, and my spider is kinda filling the gap above the other half.

The kids and I also make a ghostie garland, and used the leftover bat embellishments from my Halloween Wreath to make a pattern above them.

Here is the lower half, on the "hearth"

A friend of mine was throwing out the little green foot stool, so I thought I would try to make use of it!

You'll notice there is a particular author who is a favourite of mine - with the dust jackets off the colours are nice and muted for the most part, and the books help to fill up a bit of that empty space.

I added some seasonally coloured books on the other side to add a bit of height - the bowl is a papier mache one I made a few years back.

I'd love to know your thoughts on the overall look - I look at it one minute and think "Hell yeah, it looks awesome!" and then the next time I look I think the combo of the top half and the bottom half makes it look too busy!!

I guess now that this is finished, I need to start thinking about Christmas crafts...!

Nikki x

Linked with

Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt it Friday #75
Remodelaholic - Anonymous #93
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Redoux - Friday Link Up Party #26

BOO Halloween artwork

2011-10-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

BOO!

I had a bunch of cheap wooden frames from Michaels ($1 each) left over from a craft themed birthday party so decided to do some more halloween decor. One of the frames had been partially painted by one of the kids, but no problem, this should be covered up with the black paint!

These frames didn't come with glass or even plastic, but they did each come with a piece of card in the gap - I ripped 3 pages from a book called "Spells, Charms and Talismans" which I thought was appropriately witchy and therefore good for halloween, and mod-podged each piece of card onto one of the pages.

After the two coats of black craft paint were dry...

I cut off the excess paper from the card...

And put the car back in the frames.

I toyed with a few ideas for the letters for BOO, including cutting out black felt and then making small white felt pumpkins to make the gaps in the B and the two Os, but discovered I used up all my black felt on my Halloween Countdown Blocks, so back to the drawing board!

In the end I decided I wanted to finish these super fast so I had a look online for free halloween fonts and found a good one where all the letters were made from bones, and adapted it a little (including adding some shading) - I drew them freehand using a fine tipped sharpie.

I like the way they turned out, you can still see the majority of the text as the letters have not been filled in.

I also like the fact that the letters are not too in-your-face BLACK black but a more subtle black, they almost feel like a part of the print.

These frames came with a little dowel each that can be inserted in the back to make them free standing, or they would look nice attached to some black ribbon and hung on the wall - mine are just set up on the mantle.

Nikki x

Linked with

Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #87
Blue Cricket Designs - Show and Tell
Seven Thirty Three - Sugar & Spice #81
The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share
Under the Table and Dreaming - the Sunday Showcase Party
Not Just a Housewife - Show Me What Ya Got #45
Oops, I Craft My Pants - "Tute"-in Tuesday
Bella Before and After - Amaze Me August #59
Sew Chatty - Made With Love #48
Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday #84
Momnivore's Dilemma - Creative Juice Thursday
Somewhat Simple - Strut Your Stuff
Fireflies and Jellbeans - Show Off Your Stuff #97
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday
Seven Thirty Three - Sugar and Spice #81
Hooking Up With House of Hepworths #71

Doctor Who TARDIS finger puppet

2011-10-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here's one for fans of the Doctor (who knew he would be appearing on my blog again so soon!) - finger puppets! Easy to make with basic sewing skills, and the craft felt and thread are very inexpensive. This tutorial is for the TARDIS, but if you have a look at the end, you will find another bunch I made too!

Here is the TARDIS pictured with a Cyberman and a Vashta Nerada (the three were my last order through my Etsy shop, which is now defunct)

You'll need some blue, yellow and white (not pictured) craft felt, and matching craft threads or embroidery floss - also a small amount of black thread.

The first thing to do is make a paper template - draw a rectangle measuring 4cm x 7cm, and then add the little extra piece at the top where the TARDIS light goes! Pin the paper to the blue felt, and cut out three of these. At this point, I also used a scrap of white felt to cut three small squares and a narrow band to go across the top.

Pick out which of your three shapes will be your front, this is where you will be doing most of the work!

Using your black thread, attach the narrow band (this is where it says "Police Public Call Box" on the actual TARDIS, the black thread represents the words in this case. Once done, leave the black thread unfinished at the back for a few moments.

Thread your white thread and attach the three white squares - each is held with a stitch in each corner. Then, re-thread your black thread and put the "writing" on the lower of the white squares.

Thread your blue thread and make the "panels" on the windows - each window has one line horizontally and two vertically. From there, sew a line starting underneath the white band, almost to the bottom, which will be where the TARDIS doors meet.

Go back and sew on the outlines of the remaining squares in the same blue thread.

Take a tiny scrap of yellow felt and cut it to the same size as the little light piece at the top - put a couple of stitches in the bottom, the rest will be secured when you sew around to complete the puppet.

To finish it off, take the remaining two TARDIS shapes - and line them up all together with the front on top - pin them to keep them in place while you sew.

I used blanket stitch on my puppets as I like the way it looks. Sewing through all three pieces, begin to blanket stitch around the shape - however, DON'T FORGET when you get to the bottom of the puppet (where your finger will go) to continue with the blanket stitch but ONLY through the front and middle pieces. Pick up the back piece again when you reach the far corner. This ensures your finger actually has somewhere to go, and all the messy thready bits that you sewed are now all hidden between the front and the middle pieces! When you've gone all the way around, finish by threading through to the far edge and snipping off the thread.

Hours of fun for Who fans, big and small! I have included some pictures below of the others I made, they are all based on that original 7cm x 4cm shape, with some shape adjustments to fit each character.

Here are Amy Pond (in her police uniform), a Dalek, the 11th Doctor (complete with Fez!) and a Cyberman...

Vashta Nerada, the TARDIS, Rory Williams in his hospital scrubs, and an Ood...

And finally, the 11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, an Adipose, the Master and a Scarecrow!

Nikki x

Linked with

Keeping it Simple - Motivate Me Monday #92
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up
Making The World Cuter Monday
Sumo's Sweet Stuff - Market Yourself Monday
Craftomaniac Monday Link Party
Skip To My Lou - Made by you Monday

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-14T06:08:00.000-07:00

I think it's a little early to carve this years pumpkins, so would like to share the pumpkins I carved last year!

We had 5 last year, as myself and each of the kids planted a pumpkin seed at a local farm in June, then went back to collect our haul in September. We decided to do something a bit different than normal, and we all chose something for our pumpkin before I got to work.

A bat...

A whole bunch of love hearts...

Spiderman...

As for the last two (belonging to me and my eldest son), well I must confess that we are pretty big Doctor Who geeks, so we both chose something Who related.

The 11th Doctor's logo for my son...

and finally, a Dalek for me - he looks very cool in the dark, you'll see further down in the post ;O)

I took some pictures with the lights off and the pumpkins lit with candles on the inside - please excuse the picture quality, when I took these last year I wasn't expecting to be blogging about them at some point!

And all of them together!

I knew Doctor Who would be mentioned on this blog sooner rather than later, and probably not for the last time...

I wonder what ideas we will come up with for this years pumpkins? Watch this space to find out in the next week or so!

Nikki x

Linked with

The Tablescraper - Seasonal Sundays #70

Halloween Wreath

2011-10-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

The only time I have had a wreath in the past it at Christmas time,but this year I decided to make one for Halloween too!

I didn't want to spend too much money, and managed to get all the things I needed for around $10 (besides my glue gun, hot glue, a bit of yarn and wreath hanger), so it really wasn't expensive.

I bought this 18 inch wreath at Michaels for $3.99, and their halloween ribbon was on sale for $1 so I bought two designs I liked.

I had some orange coloured yarn so I began by tying it on at the back out of sight then wrapping it around the wreath and then back again.

Then I took the first ribbon and again knotted it on at the back of the wreath, and wrapped it around. With the second, I went in the other direction to get a criss-cross look.

All I really had in my head when I was planning this wreath was that I wanted a pile of skulls on it - so, I went to the dollar store and bought two sizes of plastic skulls, and I threw in a fake crow and some little shiny bat embellishments for good measure!

I attached the crow first, off centre. There was a little wire attached to the bottom of the legs but it wasn't really long enough, so I also used a bit of hot glue to help keep him in place, on both feet and where his back met the wreath too. Apologies for this picture quality, but I wanted to give you an idea of where he ended up.

I then got out my large skulls and began to glue them randomly on the lower side of the wreath opposite the crow, and a couple under Mr Crow's feet. Then I went back and filled in the gaps with the smaller skulls.

I hot glued a flock of bats above the skull pile, and again placed a couple on the other side, behind the crow. I had actually bought some white ghost embellishments too but thought this would be too much so left them out - I'm sure I'll find another use for them...

And here is the finished product hanging on the front door!

I love the way my skull pile turned out!

The bats gave it an extra ellement and an added shine...

And of course Mr Crow lends a nice, spooky, halloween edge!

Nikki x

Linked with

Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday #87
Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell 12/10/11
Seven Thirty Three - Sugar & Spice #80
The Trendy Treehouse - Create & Share 11/10/11
Momnivore's Dilemma - Creative Juice #43
Somewhat Simple - Strut Your Stuff
Fireflies and Jellybeans - Show Off Your Stuff #96
Hookin Up With House of Hepworth #70

Spooky Spiders!

2011-10-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember I posted my yarn web last week, and now here are the spiders to match!

I know technically spiders are supposed to have one web each, but I couldn't resist making two!

I took 2 of the large polystyrene balls (each about the size of a tennis ball) and one smaller one, which I cut in half with an exacto knife.

I scooped out a little of the insides of the two halves of the smaller ball, to make them fit a bit more snuggly against the big balls...

Then glued them to the big balls with hot glue. I then used small pieces of torn kitchen paper and slightly watered down white glue to cover them both - I wanted to do this to hide the polystyrene, add a little bit of extra strength, and give a nice texture. I find kitchen paper much easier to work with than newspaper on small items, especially those with curves.

While I left those overnight to dry, I took some plastic covered green garden wire, and cut 16 x 9 inch long sections - I wanted the legs to be about 8 inches long and added a little bit extra which would poke into the spider to attach it.

I wrapped them each in masking tape after straightening them out as best I could.

Once the bodies were dry, I began to attach the legs, I liked the look when they were all attached around where the body meets the head. I poked them carefully into their position, then removed them one at a time and used a little spot of hot glue on the hole before popping them back in. I twisted masking tape around another small piece of wire and cut it into 4 small sections for the mandibles, which were attached in the same way.

Not looking very scary at this point, but at least a little more like spiders and a little less like tiny snowmen!

Next was bending the legs into shape - the wire bends really easily and holds its shape - I bent each leg in 2 places (resulting in 3 "sections" per leg, if you know what I mean) I bent the 2 front pairs forward, and the 2 back pairs backwards. Looking a bit more spider-like now!

Then it was on to the painting - it took only one coat of black craft paint with a few minor touch ups once dry - and finally I added 2 small jewel-like red eyes to each spider with a spot of white glue.

My web is on the mirror over my mantle, so that's where my spiders were destined for. Unfortunately the only colour of sticky tac I had was white, so I tried to limit it to very small pieces - one on the end of each leg. These spiders are so light weight, I'm hoping there will be no problems with them staying put!

The first has been positioned over the web at the top of the mirror...

And the second as though it is climbing from the mantle onto the mirror...

And here's a shot of my whole mantle with the spiders attached - you can also see here my Halloween Countdown Blocks, my Papier Mache Pumpkin, my Lunch Bag Pumpkin and of course my Yarn Spider Web. I never claimed to be artistic when it came to arranging mantle's, I know it's a little busy and needs some reorganising..!

Nikki x

Linked with

Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday
Craft Envy - Saturday Spotlight #63
Fish Who Like Flowers - Monster Mash!
The DIY Show Off - Project Parade
The Tablescraper - Seasonal Sundays #69
Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday #44
Keeping it Simple - Motivate Me Monday #91
The Girl Creative - Just Something I Whipped Up
The Swell Life - Terrorific Tuesday
The Tablescraper - Seasonal Sunday #70

Paper lunch bag pumpkin

2011-10-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with a pile of lunch bags (as you do) trying to come up with something for halloween/autumn (as mentioned before, I much prefer to use what I've got instead of spending money, wherever possible!!) and came up with this - the lunch bag pumpkin!

I used 3 lunch bags for this project. First, cut a template from card stock - I made a long, leaf kinda shape with flat ends instead of pointed - I made sure the length would fit onto a lunch bag. Cut the bottoms off two lunch bags and cut up the seam, so you can lay them flat. Use the template to draw the shapes on, and then cut them out. I used 8 but you may prefer or require more or less, depending on how thin or fat you make your leaf shape!

Again from the white card stock I cut out a circle and using hot glue, began to attach the pieces to it - I found it easiest to begin by gluing the first 4 pieces opposite each other, then filling in the spaces with the remainder.

I cut another circle this time from the brown paper, and covered the pieces of white card which were still showing - this will be the outside base of the pumpkin. I them took a full length section of lunch bag (this is where the 3rd bag came in, but if you have enough left over from the first two, save a lunch bag and use the scraps!) and simply twisted it around - no glue was required to help it hold it's shape. This will become the stalk.

Turn the pumpkin (yes, it looks more like a flower at the moment!) over and using hot glue, attach one end of the stalk to the centre.

Now it's time to start bringing each section up to form the pumpkin shape. I used hot glue for this, but double sided tape would probably work too. If you look closely at the "flower", the leaves make up 2 layers - the first 4 you attached, and the last 4. It is easier if you bring up the first 4 and glue them first.

I was so eager to get on with it, I didn't stop to take pictures - sorry! Here it is with all 8 sections glued - I tried to curl then back down onto the stalk and glue them, to give a more realistic pumpkin shape.

The final touch was to tie a bow of rafia around the stem. This if course won't stand up to much abuse, but the stem inside lends it a bit of strength, and stops it from sagging down on itself. A nice easy project, which took me about 15 minutes!

Nikki x

Linked with

Someday Crafts, Whatever Goes Wednesday #86

Blue Cricket Design - Show and Tell 4/10/11

Duct Tape handbags

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to show you a couple of other handbags I made - from DUCT tape, no less! I love these critters.

First up is the red and black number with a calla lily on the front - I love cala lillies and picked them for my bridal bouquet all those years ago (12 years this month!!)

The entire bag is made from duct tape, apart from the base which is cardboard covered with duct tape to give it some stength.

I made a template of the shape I wanted for a base, sides, front and back and then cut my pieces from duct tape "sheets" (made by me) - then taped them all together and made tape handles too.

I then made a similar sheet of green and white to make the lily petal and the leaf and cut them to shape, and a yellow stamen of rolled tape - I used hot glue to attach them to the bag. And, voila! It is lined with black duct tape.

The next one is what I like to call my "bacon 'n' eggs" bag!

Cut from the same template as the calla lily bag, this one I chose to make in a bright and cheery turquoise, and I cut out white friend egg shapes with yellow yolk centres and an extra white stripe to give them that glistenly look (the fried eggs are on each outer side apart from the base).

The handles were made from bright pink duct tape, and I hand cut wavy slivers of white to go on top, to make the handles look like bacon rashers. Hungry, anyone?

I had such fun with these, especially the bacon 'n' egg one! Amazing what you can do with a bit of tape!

Nikki x

Linked With

Trendy Treehouse, Create and Share 4/10/11

Papier Mache Handbag

2011-09-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

While I am working on new crafts and tutorials for this blog, I thought I would share with you some other crafts I have made previously, starting with my papier mache purse / handbag! I don't have tutorial photos for this older stuff as wasn't blogging in those days, but will try to explain as best I can...

A shot of the front

I started out by cutting two matching pieces from corrugated cardboard for the front and the back, then used thinner, cereal box card to make one large loop which became the bottom, sides and handle. I made this loop slightly narrower at the handle and wider at the base. Then I used masking tape to attach the loop to the front and back, and began to papier mache!

I use different recipes for papier mache, this one was made using slightly watered down white glue.

Here is a shot of the back

I used old newspapers for the first three layers, both inside and out. When it came to the final layer, I cut out words and phrases from newspapers that I liked, and I added the phrase "It's a Woman Thing" over the top of the handle.

For the inside of the bag and the inside section of the handle, I ripped out small pieces of coloured newsprint from newspaper ads - I didn't want any text on the inside, just a patchwork of colour!

To finish off the outside, I cut (again from corrugated cardboard) a heart shape and a circle - the heart I papier mached the same as the interior with the patchwork of colour, the circle I cut out a newsprint star and finished it with that.

Once the bag, the heart and the circle were all dry, I finished them with 2 coats of white glue to seal it all - you could also use varnish for this. I then poked two holes in the "buttons" and the bag, and sewed the buttons on to the front with yarn - I finished the stitching on the inside, then brushed over it with glue to make it extra strong.

This bag is strong and perfectly functional, although it doesn't close (and I wouldn't recommend taking it out in heavy rain!). At present, I prefer to display it in my bedroom and it's great for popping bits and pieces into to keep them tidied away.

It's definitely a conversation piece if you take it out and about!

Nikki x

Linked with

Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt it Friday 72!
Dittle Dattle's Amaze Me Monday! #43
733 blog - Sugar & Spice #79

t-shirt blankets

2011-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Having 4 kids who pass clothes down the line once they are outgrown, and generous friends who pass things along too, I have a huge amount of clothes stashed in various places just waiting for the kids to grow into them.

There seems to be a surplus of t-shirts - I mean, who really needs 30+ t-shirts in their drawer? So when packing away the summer clothes last week, I had a lightbulb moment - grab a bunch of each child's favourite t-shirts which are now too small, and make a keepsake - a t-shirt blanket!

I started out by cutting 10 inch x 10 inch squares from the t-shirts with my rotary cutter, cutting through both front and back together to produce 2 squares from each t-shirt, and trying to keep any design fairly central to the square. I suspect when I get around to doing this for my younger 2, I may have to go down to 8 x 8 or even 6 x 6 since the t-shirts will be smaller.

I went for my old favourite, blanket stitch - well, it is a blanket after all! Here I have put together the first 6 pieces.

I'm not yet sure how big to make these, but I think at least 6 x 8 squares at the 10 inch size. They will also have to be backed so I will either get some fleece, or if I have enough t-shirts and time I may even make the other side the same as the first - we'll see, as it will effectively be doubling my work...

My kids love to snuggle in the family room while watching a movie, and I think these will be ideal for snuggling once they are finished! I plan to make them one each and wrap them up for under the Christmas tree - this of course means I can only work on them in the evening once the kids are in bed, so maybe it's just as well I started in September!

Nikki x