Washi Tape Stationary Set

Coordinated Stationary Set With Washi Tape

It seems that everyone loves Japanese Washi paper tape and I can see why as it is so addictive, has many uses and comes in pretty colours and patterns. For those that haven’t come across Washi tape it originated in Japan and traditonly was made from natural fibers like bamboo, hemp and mulberry tree bark. It feels like paper and comes in many designs and patterns, enough to make any crafter swoon! Most Washi Tape is strong and this makes it great for everyday and decorative use.

Now that the kids are back at school and bringing home homework we decided to get creative and pretty up their desks with some stationary items covered with Washi Tape.

First off we covered some pencils by cutting lengths of Washi Tape. We laid the pencil along the edge of the sticky side of the tape and carefully rolled it around the pencil. As we rolled we ensured the tape was smooth and any air bubbles were carefully pushed out and flattened. We then trimmed any excess tape from the ends.

One of the pencils was fatter so we rolled the Washi tape diagonally along the length of the pencil for a different effect.

We decorated plain note paper with a strip of Washi paper down one edge and personalised a ruler with washi tape down the center.

A comment was made by one child that their glue stick and highlighters always get borrowed and not returned so we customised them too with more tape to make them easy to identify.

A plain, clean yoghurt container got the tape treatment too and became a pencil holder. To finish off our desk decorations we found an empty glass jar and added some rings of tape and turned it into a pretty vase.

Many other objects have got the Washi treatment too – erasers, drink bottles, scissors.

Once the kids started they couldn’t stop!

Felt Cupcake Tutorial

Chocolate Cupcake Tutorial

You will need: 
Patty cake cover for your pattern in what what ever size cupcake you would like.
Felt - dark brown and white.
Filling
Fabric flower embellishment
Cotton and needle

Cut patty cup cake wrapper as shown in the photo above. cut a circle to fit the top of the cupcake wrapper.  This is your pattern. The bigger the cupcake wrapper the larger the finished cupcake will be.

Cut out one round top piece, one side piece and one small round bottom piece from the dark brown felt.
Sew the sides of the cupcake side piece together, then sew in the bottom piece. The cupcake will be very floppy at this stage but don't worry, it will come together nicely.

Sew the top of the cupcake to the wider side of the cupcake sides. Leave a small gap for stuffing. Add filling and sew up the gap. Ensure the cupcake is firmly stuffed so the cupcake at the end is firm and holds a good shape.

Cut out the icing for the cupcake from the large circle pattern piece in white felt. Select the flower embellishment.
Sew the white icing piece onto the top of the cupcake and sew the flower in the center of the icing.

Now make a whole heap more.  Experiment with different coloured icing and flower embellishments.  Make cream by twirling and sewing on strips of white felt, embroider on hundreds and thousands in pretty colours.   Change the colour of your cupcake by using cream or tan coloured felt for variety.

No Sew Felt Play Food

For those who can't sew or who just want to whip up some quick felt play food then here are some quick and very easy ideas.

Felt Pizza

Use a dinner plate as a template and cut out one pizza base in a tan coloured felt.
Cut another circle 4cm less in diameter from red felt. This is the tomato paste.
Use white felt to cut out mushrooms, black felt to cut out round olives, green and red felt to cut our capsicum, pink felt for bacon strips and yellow felt to cut out cheese.

Felt Spaghetti

Cut out 10, 16 x 2 cm strips of cream coloured felt for a plate of fettuccine spaghetti.

Pasta

Make ribbon pasta from square pieces of felt in apricot, pale green and cream felt. Cut two opposite edges of the squares with zig zag scissors. Tie a small piece of yarn or cotton around the center to get the ribbon shape.

Felt salad
Cut out lettuce leaves from green felt, cherry tomatoes from red felt cut into circles, grated carrots from orange felt.

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Tutorial Doll House from Shoe Boxes

The kids have just gone back to school and that has meant new shoes.  So since I have lots of empty shoe boxes I have been making some shoe box doll house rooms. Each shoe box can be a different room and the boxes can be stacked alongside one another or on top of one another if you want a multi story doll house.  I have made a living room opening out to a garden.

1. Gather supplies including shoe box, patterned papers, cardboard frames, glue and sticky tapes.

2. Cover inside of the shoe box with patterned paper of your choice. I chose a pretty patterned pink for the feature wall and white walls for the sides.  I have made a mirror from one of the cardboard frames by glueing foil behind it and then attaching it to the back wall.

3. Use the lid of the shoe box as the garden.  Add green paper as grass and some flower embellishments. I have added material for carpet, another frame with blue paper behind as a window and a black box as a seat.



4. Now its time to get creative. Add a garden path made from brick shaped pieces of paper, a garden pond from blue cellophane, a picket fence from some twigs or cut a door into the side of the shoe box. As you get more shoe boxes extend the doll house to include different room of the house - bedroom, kitchen, garage, bathroom etc.

When not in use the shoe box doll house can be packed away and stored easily without taking up too much space.

Photo Display Tutorial

Fridge Photo Display Tutorial

You will need:
Cardboard
Patterned paper
Glue
3D pop dots
Photos
Plain cardstock
Magnet sheets

1. Cut out 9 cardboard rectangles(I have recycled cardboard from an old box) to measure 8 x 6 cm (3 x 21/4 inches).
2. Cut out 9 pieces of patterned paper to measure 13 x 10 cm (5 x4 inches). Mitre the corners of the paper.

3.  Glue the patterned paper onto the cardboard, folding the edges and glueing to the back.

4.  Select 9 photos and print out to measure 5 x 5 cm (2 x 2 inches). Select photos with a common theme such as travel photos, baby photos, flowers, family members etc.

5.  Cut out 9 pieces of cardstock slightly larger than the photos.  Attach the photos to the cardstock using the 3D pop dots.

6.  Glue the photos onto the covered cardboard.  Attach a piece of the magnetic sheet to the back and display on your fridge for all to admire and enjoy!

 



Felt Tutorials with Off Cuts

You may remember me mentioning in a previous post that I am on a mission to use up the mountain of felt leftovers I have.
My latest project is making brooches from felt (and some very cute fabric too).

5 other great ideas to use up felt offcuts.

1. Felt Mushroom Pincushions

2. Felt needle book.

3. Felt Flowers

4. Felt Penguin Ornaments

5. Felt Play food

Biscuits in a Jar Gift

I had planned on sharing this before Christmas but was a little concerned that the recipients would see them.
In line with giving more home made presents this year some little cooks got given these -
Biscuits In a Jar

I found a few recipes but ended up going for this one.  The cookies were really tasty and delicious.  I used a few different ingredients like M&Ms and coconut.
The layers of the different mixtures would look better in a taller thinner glass jar and next time I will try sourcing different jars.
They all looked so pretty when packaged up and they were a really loved present.

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Dukkah in The Thermomix

I am coming to the end of my Christmas gift list with just another one or two things to make.
I have made a lot of presents and gifts this year.  Of course the kids are easy as they are getting Creative Wishes toys and games.

Some of the adults are getting homemade Dukkah with a lovely bottle of olive oil. I'll tie it with a string and add a cute tag and vioila, a quick and easy pressie (and yummy one too).

Thermomix Dukkah

Ingredients

• 150g Sesame Seeds
• 100g Hazelnuts
• 30g Cumin Seeds
• 50g Coriander Seeds
• 1tsp Salt
• 1/2tsp Black Peppercorns
• 1tsp Dried Thyme

Instructions

1. Place Sesame seeds, hazelnuts, cumin and coriander seeds into TM Bowl and dry roast for 8 minutes at 100degrees C on speed 1.
2. Remove lid and allow to cool
3. When all ingredients are cool, add salt, peppercorns and dried mint or thyme and set dial to lose lid position and pulse a couple of times with Turbo button to form a coarse powder
4. Keep in an airtight container in fridge until ready to use

If you don't have a thermomix then try this recipe HERE

When I make Dukkah I tend to deviate from the recipe and experiment with extra herbs and spices and seeds.  I made a deliciously spicy mix with some dried chilli and paprika and it is divine!

Homemade Baileys Irish Cream

Every Christmas for years now I have been making homemade Irish Cream. 
The recipe I have used is over 20 years old and uses eggs.

Irish Creme3 eggs
1 tin condensed milk
300ml thickened cream
1 cup whisky
1 1/2 tsp chocolate topping
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp coconut essence

Blend/beat

This is my original recipe but over the years I have adapted it.  I found it was too eggy with 3 eggs so usually use 1 or 2 at the very most. The original recipe tastes more like an eggnog than a Baileys.  I also use more whisky.  It stores well in the fridge and is great served over crushed ice.  I blend mine up in the thermomix for 20 seconds or less (don't blend too much or the cream will whip and become really thick.

I just searched online and came up with loads more recipes not using eggs.  Tomorrow I am going to try this one out using coffee and no eggs.

Handmade Baileys Irish Creme makes a great homemade present too.  Pour into some lovely glass bottles, label and tie with some festive coloured ribbons.

YUM!

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Reindeer Cupcakes

I came across the cutest photo of reindeer cupcakes yesterday at Hoosier Handmade.
Since we had a Christmas party to go to last night I decided to make a batch.

I used my favourite chocolate cake recipe for the chocolate muffins. It is a Nigella Lawson recipe called Old fashioned Chocolate Cake.  The beauty of this recipe is that it is so simple and never fails.  I simply bung all the ingredients into the thermomix and a less than a minute later it is mixed and ready to spoon into the cupcake holders.
I used pretzels for the antennas,Chicko lollies for the ears, milk chocolate buds for the eyes, a vegetable chip for the snout (yes weird but the only thing I could find the right size), red, brown and one blue M&M for the noses and black icing in a tube for the mouth and eye balls.

We ended up with a lot of brown nosed reindeers and rudolph red nosed reindeers and one lonely and sad blue nosed one.
I never got to taste one but the kids all loved them  and all that was left was a few crumbs.

Sushi Felt Play FoodTutorial

It is time to share!
One of my favourite sellers and the felt food most often commented on is my sushi.  Here is my tutorial for Sushi.  As with all the handmade toys and felt food I make, it is made for little people to play with.  So with this in mind I make my felt food for little hands and the food is slightly smaller than real food of its kind.  I also take great care to double stitch and make every little bit very secure.

SUSHI
1. Gather supplies.  Green felt cut in strips 2cm wide and 13 cm long.  White felt cut in 2cm width and 39 cm long.  Various little bits of felt for inside of sushi.

2. Place your preferred coloured bits of felt on edge of white felt strip and roll up.

3. Stitch through the whole of the roll and the edge of the felt.

4. Roll the green felt around the white and stitch the ends and through the roll so it is very secure.

Well how easy was that!  Childs play isn't it!  Be sure to let me know if you give it a go.  I would love to see your sushi.  Remember if you want yours bigger simply adjust the measurements given by a few centimetres each.  Good luck!

I would like to invite you to come and join my Creativity List. 

It is chocca block full of fantastic content from freebies and special offers to kids craft ideas and small handmade business articles.

As a thank you, you get not one but two free Ebooks.

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50 Boredom Busting Ideas For Children.

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Tea Bag Felt Food Tutorial

Felt Tea Bags are super dooper easy to make and lots of fun for the kids to play with too.

1.  Gather supplies.
White felt, tea bag for template, coloured felt for top of the tea bag (jiggler), string, needle and thread.

2. Using a real tea bag as a template cut out one tea bag on the fold from the white felt.  Attach an 18cm peice of string to the inside of the top of the teabag.  I like to loop the string and sew through it so it is really secure.

3. Sew up sides of teabag.

4. Using coloured piece of felt (2x 2 cm) sew to the top of string.

These are so easy and quick and even little kids can make them (with a little help from parents).  Handmade toys can be easy to make, really!
Get sewing and have fun!