Day 103 - Newspaper Cubby

It's the first day of the school holidays here and it's also very cold and wet. My husband and my daughter have gone to Melbourne for the day and the boys and I needed an indoor activity.

We decided on a newspaper cubby.

First we rolled the newspaper into rolls and added a little tape to keep them together.

 Then we put them together.

 

And here is the finished cubby! Ok, so we're not architects, but what a fun rainy day activity.

Day 102 - Soft toy baby

I have to admit that sometimes I just do things because I can, and because they make me laugh. Today is one of those days.

I made a soft toy of my baby boy Dylan using an ipad app to first put his head in a chicken suit, then printing it onto some printer fabric. His little little legs are felt and the back is a fleecy lined cotton.

Day 101 - Owl Pencilcase

And while I had the zipper foot out - how about an owl pencil case?

Day 100 - House Zip Purse

Today is my 100th creative day in a row. Wow! Can't believe I've made it this far.

The last few weeks have been really hard to get through to be honest, and I was starting to feel as if everything I made was terrible and rushed. Today I wanted to make something using some vintage scraps, because I do love my vintage fabrics. I also wanted to make something that just evolved as I went along, so I started off knowing I wanted to make a purse with vintage fabrics but that was it. Ric rac seemed essential too. Who doesn't love ric rac?

About 10 months ago we moved from Melbourne to a new city, Bendigo. Then a week or so before Christmas we moved into our house on 8 acres of bush and found a house that we truly love and call home. I can really see myself growing old here. So, here is a fully lined (gingham) zip up pouch with a house, to symbolise my happiness, love of the life we have, and to celebrate 100 days of creative chaos.

Thanks again to all those who have ever stumbled upon my blog and taken a bit of time out to read it, if it wasn't for the blog I probably would not have kept going for the 100 days. Just 265 to go!
 

Day 99 - Lollie Lamp

This project is for the long hallway that runs down the middle of our house from the front door. I'm told by some members of my family that it's perfect for kicking the footy.  Except, that is, for the glass light fittings on the roof.

Yesterday I bought this cheap paper light shade and glued some coloured 'lollie' beads onto it. I decorated the bottom section with mini cupcake pans, which I'm not so happy with, but I need another idea to cover that area if I pull them off. What do you think?

Day 98 - Love Gloves

Hello! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I have had lots of sick kids lately and all of my craft has been a bit rushed. I can't wait to make something I can spend a bit of time on one day soon.

I got the idea for these gloves from one of my favourite magazines.
http://www.frankie.com.au/blogs/fashion/felt-love-gloves

Here they are. It was quite tricky sewing inside the glove and getting the heart proportions right, but for a first time I'm pretty happy with them.

Day 97 - Shrinky Charm Bracelet

Today we made a shrinky charm bracelet. Thanks largely to Alex toys who put together the shrinky kit.

Juliet coloured them in, we shrunk them in the oven, and then I hung them on the bracelet for her.

Day 96 - Dress to tunic top.

I had this dress that I haven't worn for ages because I didn't like the uneven hemline. Otherwise I love the dress, so I decided to make it into a tunic top. I used the bit I chopped off the bottom to make some flowers, using some buttons of course.

Day 95 - Knitting Nancy - 80's

You're allowed to laugh at today's creation. I certainly am.

I dug out my eighties knitting Nancy and gave it a workout. Something tells me that back then I either had more time, a lot of patience or more skills. Maybe it was a combination of all three. Anyway I spent about 2 hours and got a callous on one finger and all I ended up with was these three little bits of rope.

The first red one was wool, then I thought a finer one might be nice so I used some embroidery thread. Then I made an earring using the top of an old broken one. I don't think I'll be setting up and etsy shop in the near future to sell these. Oh well, at least I gave it a go. Nancy is going back to the box where she came from, unless my daughter wants to give it a try in a couple of years.

Day 94 - Day 7 of the 80's celebration - The Ra Ra skirt

The late 80's was the time of the ra ra skirt and, of course, giant hair bows. Today I've created my answer to the ra ra skirt.

Here's me in my ra ra dress in 1989 and Madonna in 1985 with the giant bow. Those were the days!

Enter a plain denim skirt with a couple of bleach marks near the hem, some fabric, and some lace. There was a little bit of gathering required.

Ta da!!

I hope you've enjoyed this visit to the 80's as much as I have. Celebrate good times C'mon!
 

 
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Day 93 - The 80's rocks on - Raggedy Ann

Still working on the 80's flashbacks, today's is raggedy Ann. Not actually sure how huge she was during the 80's, but she was big in my house and the small town I grew up in. And I seem to be creating a little trend of redheads after Annie yesterday. Any rangas out there - you are awesome!

Here is a picture of my son Aidan with the Raggedy Ann and Andy my Mum made me when I was little, and another one of my brother and I dressed as Raggedy Ann and Andy for some dressing up occasion during the 80's.

I found some Raggedy Ann fabric at spotlight a few weeks ago, a lovely soft flannelette, so I have made Juliet some new PJ's with it. Now she won't have to wear her brother's old ones all the time. Pretty cute!

Oh and lastly, a photo of some very happy people after they arrived home from seeing the Annie musical yesterday.

Day 92 - The 80's continues - Annie

We are about to head off for the drive to Melbourne to see Annie the musical.  http://anniethemusical.com.au/show.html. So excited! Since the original movie is from the eighties, and one of my all time favourites, I thought I had better make something to befit the occasion.

I have made some more scrabble tile pendants, by printing out some Annie related pictures and lyrics and using some 3D lacquer. I started them last night and finished them off this morning since they need a couple of hours to dry. There is one for Juliet and one for me.

While I was coming up with something to make I found this awesome vintage pattern for sale though. I'd love to make that! Annie and Sandy.

http://www.amazon.com/McCalls-Vintage-Sewing-Pattern-Annie/dp/B004XY3ZQA

We've got a busy day ahead, but I'm really excited and I know the kids will love it too. YAY!!!

Day 91 - 80's flashback part 4 - Swap Card wall mosaic

Swap cards were huge when I was in primary school in the eighties. I still have my swap cards and I love them. I wasn't so much into the swapping part of it - I always thought the ones I bought were the best, but I loved looking at them and arranging them into pairs and groups. Sarah Kay were one of my favourite types.

Hollie Hobby was also pretty huge at the time. Here I am below with my new holly hobbie place mat - which I still happen to have.

To incorporate this into my eighties craft, I decided to make a swap card wall art for my daughter's room using some nice cardboard from my stash and some swap cards.

Here are some of my swap cards in their album (Sarah Kay) and my place mat.

 This is my brother and I back in the 80's when I got this Holly Hobbie place mat for Christmas one year.

Work in progress.

Here's what I ended up with.

Day 90 - Living in the 80's part 3 - Friendship pins.

A huge craze during the 80's at my school was friendship pins. Little tiny beads were put onto safety pins and given to friends. We used to wear them in a line on our watch bands.

The funniest thing about today's activity is that once I had decided to make them I was looking through my craft boxes for some beads and I realised that these two packets of beads were the ones I had bought during the 80's to make some of these. You can tell how old they are by the price tags. So this is a very authentic 80's experience. I think they used to live in my jewellery box for years and that's how they have escaped being shipped off somewhere.

Juliet loved making them with me this afternoon and she couldn't believe how beautiful they were. Perhaps this will be the next craze to take off with the little girls at her primary school? For a more modern look we decided to hang them on a chain.

Day 89 - The 80's part 2 - Acid wash jeans and Choose Life

No trip back in time to the 80's would be complete without acid washed jeans. I attempted to recreate this look today, teaming it up with a 'Choose Life' tshirt, also very popular in the 80's.


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I googled how to make your jeans acid washed and discovered it involved soaking in a bucket of bleach for five minutes and scraping across the denim with stones.

OK - mine came out looking a bit different. More like stone washed jeans, also pretty cool in the 80's. But have a look at the brown that came out when I poured the bleach in. Yuck!

In fact my whole crafting day was a bit of a comedy of errors. Does anyone else have those days?

before

bleaching

after

Then came the tshirt. This required printing onto the transfer paper using the mirror image print setting. My printer appeared to get a little confused. :) Silly me had already ironed it on,

How to fix it??? OK, going to have to do some sewing. Enter the sew-in printer fabric.

And here is a little man completing the look with his acid washed jeans, choose life T and big hair. Oh and he's meant to be looking angry in this photo. Rock on!! Now where is that old ACDC cassette???? :)