Day 19 - A thankyou card from 3 munchkins from a travelling campsite craft cupboard

We needed to make a thank you card from 3 little kidlets for some lovely people who very generously gave them some gifts recently. This is what we ended up making. It was supposed to look like a patchwork quilt with the 3 of them under it. We got the idea from a book by Anna Maria Horner. http://www.annamariahorner.com/  I don't think ours ended up looking quite like a quilt but I still think it's cute. You can use tiny scraps of fabric for this one and cut them up and stick them onto cardboard to make a little quilt.

Coming soon to a mailbox near you. xxx

Craft cupboard materials

- fabric scraps
- cardboard

Day 18 Banksia men

Today we down at the beach and there are lots of amazing banksia trees. This has inspired us to attempt to make some banksia men from those wonderful May Gibbs books. http://www.maygibbs.com.au/

Craft Cupboard Materials

Toilet roll to support banksia
Tiny bit of thread
Lots of found items
Our campsite is littered with banksia so we didn't need to go far for additional materials.

Day 17 - Origami Vintage tablecloth coffee plunger carrier - a life saving device for the coffee addict

Coffee, the good stuff, is very important in our house. I am very lucky that my husband makes me an espresso coffee on our machine every morning and brings it to me in bed. It's a perfect start to an inevitably busy day. We love travelling and having weekends away, and we really love hiking and camping, as do our 4 children.

We used to take our coffee plunger in the backpack wherever we went, hiking up a mountain, travelling through Western Australia, Thailand, Northern Territory, where we went so did the plunger. My husband always wrapped it in some clothing to protect it.

However, three plungers were broken upon returning home. We managed to travel around Thailand with a coffee plunger, only to have the jumper it was wrapped in pulled out of the backpack on our return and smashed. This happened three times, until we decided to forgo this pleasure, and stop packing the plunger. What a sad day that was. It was about 2 years ago.

We are heading off today for a few days camping, so I've decided the time has come for an invention. A purpose built coffee plunger carrying device that I needed to make in half an hour before we jumped in the car and journey off. A dedicated carrier that will not be used for anything else, will protect the plunger from breakage, and is easily identifiable.

Craft cupboard items

- Vintage tablecloth
- Wadding, bubble wrap

So here it is...It's a bit rough and ready, but it works. I chose this gorgeous vintage round tablecloth as a base because I thought it summed up the way I want to feel when I have my coffee.

Materials - vintage tablecloth, wadding, bubble wrap, coffee plunger

Lay out the table cloth and put the padding in the middle

Wrap the two side edges in

 Wrap the top edge over.

 Topstitch around the whole top, you'll be sewing through a few layers in some parts due to the way it's folded, then sew up the sides. Slip your plunger in.

Roll it up from one side and then secure the roll with a tie, I have used a canvas kids belt with d-rings.

All done, happy camping, road tripping, backpacking. Yay! And Happy Easter.

 I've got my portable craft cupboard packed and will try blogging and crafting on the road. See how it goes!

Day 16 - My son is a Pirate School Graduate

It's been a year since my 7 year old son Liam and I went to pirate school for the day down at the Pollywoodside in Melbourne (http://www.pollywoodside.com.au/). We had such a brilliant time at pirate school and imagine a mother's pride at knowing her son is now a fully fledged pirate? It seemed only fitting that we commemorate a year since this glorious day. And what 7 year old boy doesn't need a pair of pirate shorts?

Craft cupboard items

 

Skull fabric

Aaaargh! Away with yee, ya scurvy dogs. Here are some photos.

You will also notice that Terry Toucan from day 8 is doing a cameo in the photo.

http://365crafty.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/day-8-terry-toucan-dangly-thingy.html

Oh and here's my little pirate back at pirate school.

Away with yee all.

Day 15 - It's all about the button jar

We had so much fun with the button jar the other day that Juliet decided she wanted to make a button necklace with some of the other buttons she liked. It's school holidays and we just loved staying at home today, enjoying the delicious autumn weather and leaving our pj's on. We ended up making many trips to the craft cupboard doing some box painting, colouring in, drawing, cutting, stencilling and beading. It was a very happy day of sunshine and crafting with the kids.

Juliet (my 5 yo) threaded her buttons onto a piece of hat elastic which is really easy to use for kids to thread. She placed a couple of beads between each button to show off the buttons more and to allow them to sit better. Liam (my 7 yo) also made a 'boy band' with buttons he thought looked boyish. If you have little ones who can't thread very well yet like my 2 yo old a great start is to thread beads onto a pipe cleaner as it doesn't bend when they try to thread it.

Craft Cupboard materials

- Reclaimed vintage buttons
- Hat elastic
- Fabric
- Glue

Juliet's creation.

Liam with his wrist band.

I decided to make a brooch and I wanted it to look a bit like a flower so I started off with this kind of wool spun button and added a green button on top with a couple of beads. I just kept expanding on this theme as I really loved the colour of my green button, so, I cut a little square of green vintage fabric from a scrap and a little square from an old doily to put underneath it. To give it enough substance to sit like a brooch I glued it onto one of the giant wooden buttons I had then glued all of this onto a brooch back.

My Creation

 And just thought I'd share some other craft cupboard uses for the day too.

Day 14 - A skirt to a bag

We are still getting the hang of this end of daylight savings thing, so I was up early this morning and put it to good use.

It's my friend Carly's birthday today. Happy birthday Cags! A year or so ago when I started getting into making lots of things from recycled materials Carly gave me this skirt. She really liked the pattern but the fabric was too sheer and the design quite plain. She thought I might be able to make something out of it.

I decided the fabric suited a little evening bag so I have made her a little clutch for her birthday. I have lined it with a light canvas in a plain pink to give it a bit more weight. I'll pop it in the post. It's very girly and just big enough to have wallet, keys and a lipstick. Hope she likes it. There is still lots of fabric left for another project.

Craft Cupboard Materials

- Old skirt
- little bit of ricrac trim
- Vintage button

Skirt

Clutch bag

Day 13 - Tablecloth + sheet = Reversible wrap skirt

I'm really excited about today's challenge which began with a 1960's tablecloth that I was super excited to find in an op shop about a year ago - it was still in it's box. :))) I have loved looking at it ever since. I was scared to make anything with it in case it didn't turn out right. I teamed this with an old sheet, well used but still with lots of life in it - I'd say it's 70's. 

Craft cupboard items

- Vintage Tablecloth
- Vintage Sheet

 

It's a gore skirt made of 7 gores for each side so cutting out the 14 peices took a while, but the sewing was easy. I started this late last night so I wouldn't be disturbed by little people. I learnt how to use the fancy button hole foot on my machine after much frustration and I'm really happy with how it turned out, with a few imperfections.

My son took this blurry photo of me wearing it.

And here is the other side

Yay!! I love it!


You might also like......

http://www.amynjesse.com/

http://www.recycled-fashion.com/


http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com.au/