A Swarm of Butterflies

On one of my many excursions into the world of Pinterest I stumbled upon this pin, of a gorgeous butterfly mobile. When I looked for more such pins there appeared to be a small market on Etsy for such cute creations, though the price tags left a lot to be desired. So I decided I could and would DIY-it!

I found a paper cutter with a gorgeous butterfly design in Lincraft for $25. I also bought an embroidery hoop for $3 to form the base of the mobil. I decided I would use paint swatches so that I could create an ombre effect. I collected A LOT of paint swatches from various hardware stores around our area (& I mean A LOT)! And I began punching out the butterfly stencils. This was far harder than I had anticipated and left me with a really sore wrist. I also had not thought through the fact that the back of the paint swatch has printing all over it.

So I gathered even more paint swatches and cut out even more butterflies and decided I would stick two cut-outs together for each butterfly on the mobil. This also helped with gluing the butterflies to the fishing line as it formed a sandwich around the line.

Unfortunately my husband was working some extraordinarily long hours and so I had many hours to spend cutting and gluing butterflies to fishing line and hanging the strands to dry on the clothes hoist. I used ribbon from my ribbon-vase to hide the embroidery hoop and wire, tied some tule to the top and it was ready to hang in Kyah's room.

I really love the little hints of pink that are featuring in the beautiful orange nursery we created for her. I love this delicate  mobil that hangs between her cot and her changing table so she can enjoy it in both places. And I really loved making this little craft project for her.

Do you want one? I will make you one far cheaper than the $70-$100 I saw them advertised on Etsy for. For full DIY instructions see this pin.

Hand Made Gift Wrap

In our family there are a flurry of birthdays from May through till August. With so much gift giving, there comes a need for much gift wrapping, and I took the opportunity to let the kids do a little craft. (plus it provided half an hour of entertainment - perfect when I needed to sit down and feed the baby). The hand painted wrap by Beau at Christmas was a lot of fun, but Noah is loving his new-learned writing skills and so we decided on crayons and pencils for this round of DIY-gift-wrap.

There was name writing, hand and foot tracing and Octonaut drawing. Even ambidextrous colouring at one point. It was all alot of fun. The boys were very proud of all their colouring and writing.

The presents looked great and were enthusiastically received by all the birthday people. I believe this wrapping has even been recycled as a wall hanging in my nephews nursery!

Have you done any fun craft activities with the kids laterly?

Thanksgiving Crafts

We like to continue the American celebration of Thanksgiving back home Down Under. With 2 little American boys it is nice to keep a few American traditions alive for them. And we are loving any excuse to have people over for a meal cooked out of our new kitchen!

So began a 4 day cooking extravaganza! But more on the actual cooking festivities at a later date. I also wanted to decorate the table with something "Thanksgiving themed", and whilst Pinterest in always ripe for inspiration, it can also be a little overwhelming with all the ideas and choices. Then I saw this pin and thought writing on maple leaves is an achievable and tasteful table decoration. The only problem being that we don't have fall-coloured maple leaves here in Australia in late spring! But I think we came up with an even better solution.

What fun the boys had painting and finger-painting on their easel. I have to admit this is a craft activity I am not very good at doing on a regular, or even irregular, basis. I do struggle with the containment of mess, or lack thereof, and the clean up associated with painting. But after talking with my sister recently about "just having to roll with it sometimes" I decided I need to embrace the mess of 2 little boys a little more widely (especially as there is 3rd little mess-maker on his-her way). This activity certainly helped me do that! But it was actually an easier clean up than I anticipated - everyone just went in the shower.

After the paintings dried we cut them into maple leaf shapes and Noah was so excited to be able to show off his improving writing skills by writing each of our guests names on the leaves! He even asked, "Do you think everyone will fall over in surprise when they see my good writing?" Bless!

It was a simple Thanksgiving table, but the maple leaves added some color, some fall-spiration to the table, and most importantly, a bragging point for Noah to talk about his writing! Everyone loved them and took them home with them as a little Thanksgiving momento!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One Persons Trash...

...Is Another Persons Treasure!

Whilst I recently read an article about the "crazy phenomenon [that]... devoted mothers get on Pinterest" and how really all our children want is for us to be present and loving. I totally agree.

But I also know I am a Pinterest-addict. And every now and then I find something amongst the 1000's of items I "pin" which gives me an activity to share with my family. So yes, once again Pinterest has given me craft-inspiration. Of course, I saw this idea months ago, but I finally took action a few weeks ago and tackled this project. All that I needed was some empty bottles, kitchen string, PVC glue, and some sample pots of paint which I picked up at the Hardware. The best part of the project, was having my little helper paint the bottles!

I used a wine bottle, a beer bottle and an olive oil bottle so that I had "vases" of varying sizes and shapes. And I chose to paint them in 3 different colours as I was thinking about using them for my sister's baby sprinkle next month.

It was a quick and easy project (though truthfully I stretched it out over a number of weeks, as I took awhile to visit the hardware and then actually paint the vases). The flowers I bought to display in the vases when they were completed are cheap carnations - a flower I usually ignore and avoid, but once again Pinterest showed me they are an often overlooked flower (and so cheap!).

What do you think about the role social-media, such as Pinterest, play in our roles as Mothers? Do they make us feel inadequate because we aren't living up to the ideals we see there? Or are you a fan/addict?





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crayon Art C/O Pinterest

Of late, I have become quite fascinated with the world of Pinterest. There is a myriad, a kaleidoscope even, of DIY craft ideas and art projects. One of the first ones I saw was this amazing art with crayons and I have been dying to try it out.

Of course I was hindered for several weeks by the lack of crayons available in retail outlets around the Northern Beaches of Sydney, and gone are the days of Amazon.com delivering next day (sad face). But I finally found a pack of 64 crayons at Humphreys on Manly Corso, along with a canvas and I was all set to go.

Whilst I invited my 2 year old son to help me glue to crayons to the canvas, we both realised pretty quickly I was not actually going to let him do much participating. So whilst he played with the spare paint brushes, I glued the crayons to the canvas.

Then we had to wait for the glue to dry.

I finally got back to the task at hand whilst Noah was having a rare nap, but I soon realised watching the crayons melt down the canvas would be more fun with him beside me. So I woke him up. He was not very impressed with me, and less impressed when I suggested he sit on the stool to watch and help. The hair dryer was too loud and he was hungry. But he had to agree that the colours were pretty spectacular sliding down the white canvas.

What a fun project (for me anyway) and I know this will look great in the kids playroom!