Angel Tree Topper That Kids Can Make - A Tutorial

There's Plenty Of Time
When you're asked to look after a friends children for a few hours what's the best thing to do? Keep them busy of course.  So rather than panic, I went to my trusty little craft room for inspiration and did some picking and plucking from my stash.

                                     
                                                                   Source: trendytree.com via Golden Lilly Crafts on Pinterest

As long as I had glue, ribbon, foam shapes and all sorts of other goodies I had a good chance of keeping the kids happy while mum was away.

She Doesn't Have To Be Perfect
Keep it simple and use whatever you can find in the cupboards.  Kids have wonderful imaginations so you'll get quite a surprise with the end result.

Angel Tree Topper

Things To Collect
Material off-cuts or coloured paper for the gown; cardboard; pipe cleaners or fine wires; foil paper; ribbon; lace; sequins; beads; curling ribbon; foam ball; dressmaker pins; craft  glue; scissors; cardboard; glitter; sticky tape.

Gather The Kids and Get Started

Material to make the body shape

1.  Use a piece of cardboard to make a cone shape and hold in place with sticky tape.  Check that the cone is the right size for the head, then trim the bottom of the cone if the form is a bit wonky. If you want the angel to be able to standalone, add some cardboard to the base of the cone.  Just like this, alternatively, skip this step if you want your angel to sit on top of your tree without falling off.

Check the head fits the shape

Add a base to the cone

Cover the cone with material or paper of choice, gluing the paper to the cone or you can sew a seam on the material so it fits the cone snugly.  Tuck the material into the top of the cone.  Glue the ball to the top of the robe set aside to dry.  

Material to make the wings and halo

Halo

Wing

2.  Next make the wings and halo using the pipe cleaners.  Twist two pipe cleaners together and join to make a circle.  Make two of these for the wings.  Make a smaller circle for the halo and leave a small length for the stem of the halo.  Wrap foil tightly around the pipe cleaners and I found that I had to cover the foil with sticky tape for added firmness.  Then shape the wings. Decorate the halo with sequins or beads, ribbon or foil.  Set aside to dry if using glue.

She's starting to take shape

3.  Glue facial features onto head and glue or use pins to attach curling ribbon to head.  We used a dressmakers pin for the nose, sequins for the cheeks and attached them with pins and then glued a red sequin for the mouth.

4.  Pin the halo stem to the back of the head.  Attaching the wings is the hardest but we found pinning the wings to the material worked best.  You might have to readjust the shape of the wings to suit the angel.  Same with the halo, adjust it to suit.  Tie bows using ribbon or lace around the neck.

Angel Tree Topper

Angel Tree Topper is completed.  The time went so fast making her and we had heaps of fun.  Think I might make a gold Angel next time.  Thanks for visiting.

Make a Dream Catcher

About Dream Catchers

 Dream catchers were originally made by the grandparents of the American native Ojibwa tribes.  The web represents a spider’s web and each dream catcher has a hole in the centre.  The web catches the bad dreams which melt in the sunlight, and the good dreams pass through the centre hole and travel down the feather suspended from the centre.

It is believed that when you make a dream catcher, you should clear your thoughts and be at peace, because whatever energy surrounds you will be transferred to the dream catcher.

Dream catchers look good against a wall as a decoration.  However, hang them near a bed if you want to catch your dreams and in a window that catches the sunlight to melt the bad dreams.

A dream catcher’s healing powers are said to be greater when it’s a gift.  You can personalise your gift by adding bits and pieces which hold special significance for the recipient.

Understanding more about dream catchers can be found here and here.

My dream catcher is in the shape of a heart, traditionally a dream catcher is a circle.

Six easy steps to making a dream catcher, instructions can be downloaded here

Christmas Gift To Make For Your Pet - Tutorial and Written Instructions

A TREAT TO HANG ON THE TREE

Hello everyone, today I am posting another tutorial, this one being a treat you can make for your pet.  The main focus will be creating a craft that doesn't require you to go out and buy new products, instead I hope you will be able to use bits and pieces from your home stash.  I encourage you to improvise where an item is not available and look at what you can recycle. They are easy enough to make that children can lend a helping hand.  Some basic straight stitch machine sewing is involved, but it can just as easily be hand sewn which may take longer to make.  I'm planting the seed, you go ahead and do it your way and most of all have some fun.

Written instructions can be downloaded here and if you scroll down you will see how I went about the construction of the pet treat hanger.  They look great hanging on a Christmas tree but put them up high enough so that your pet cannot get to them.



Here's how to construct the decoration.

Lay out the material and cut the patterned material about 1cm large all round than the felt piece.  I ironed the material and folded the edges in to make it a lot easier.

I folded each short end under the felt because later I will slide the end of the ribbon into this slot and then sew along the top edge to secure the loop which will be used to hang the decoration on the tree.

I pinned the long edges before sewing and I also ironed the edges to make it easier.  You could hand sew these edges with a blanket stitch if you didn't want to use a sewing machine.

Once I had the edges neat I simply selected a fancy stitch on my sewing machine and sewed around the two short and two long edges.  Finally, it was simply a matter of looping the ribbon one under the other.  These loops will hold the treat you have for your pet, so make them as big or as small as needed.  You can add bows, bells, plastic holly leaves to the decoration, whatever takes your fancy.

Once I had the loops pinned and the size I wanted, I sewed each loop in place using the sewing machine, this is probably the fiddliest part of the assembly.  You could just as easily hand sew the loops.

You could also place the ribbon loops on the felt before constructing the hanging decoration.  By doing it this way you won't see the stitching on the back of the decoration, it will be hidden when you add the larger patterned material to the back.

Alternatively, you don't have to use felt and Christmas material, you could use a special material like I did above and I added some bells to the ribbon.  The fact is I don't think your pet will mind how you construct this little gift, but he/she will be more interested in what is hanging in the loops.

Easy Pixie Decoration - Tutorial and Written Instructions

LET'S HAVE SOME PIXIE FUN

Hello everyone, today I am posting what I hope will be the first of several tutorials I have planned to share on my blog.  The main focus will be creating a craft that doesn't require you to go out and buy new products, instead I hope you will be able to use bits and pieces from your home stash.  I encourage you to improvise where an item is not available and look at what you can recycle. They are easy enough to make that children can lend a helping hand.  There's no sewing involved in this pixie, but if you don't have any glue you could hand sew if you prefer.  I'm planting the seed, you go ahead and do it your way and most of all have some fun.

Two completed pixies and here is the template and written instructions.  Scroll down to see how I went about the construction of the pixie.  They look great hanging on a Christmas tree.

Once you download the template and written instructions, you will cut out the different parts of the pixie in whatever colours you want and then with glue or sewing needle and thread put it together.

I used a small piece of pipe cleaner to give some movement to the arms and glued it in place.

Make sure you add a piece of pipe cleaner for the neck as this will go into the foam ball and secure the head to the body.

Looks a bit messy, but my glue needs replacing, fresh glue is easier to work with.  All this will be covered so it's not a concern at this stage.

I sewed the beads onto the vest and hat.  Then I made the hair from wool scraps, wrapping the wool around a piece of cardboard and then knotting the middle, like the part in the hair and I glued the hair to the foam ball.

The hair should look something like this when removed from the cardboard and the loop ends are cut.  Spread out the hair to form a circle and if you like you could cut a bit of a fringe.  Once all the bits and piece are assembled the end result looks like this.  But remember you can make them quite different if you choose, it will depend on what material you have at hand and your own personal preferences.

You can paint a face on if you prefer.  I kept it simple by glueing tiny felt eyes and nothing else.  Because there is a pipe cleaner for the neck you can bend the head so it's looking downwards, giving the pixie a shy look and hence the face is not so prominent.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and have fun making them.

I have a fun and easy gift to make for your pet next time. 

Living Art - A Childhood Memory

I've been thinking about if this project is really worthy of putting out there, but it got inside my head and just wouldn't let up until I did something about it.

Hey, if you like it, it has to be one of the most wonderful opportunities to share a garden and a craft at the same time with restless kids and I guarantee everyone will get something out of it.

Come and Play - Stuffed Pine Cones

I made this padded pine cone the other day, I remember making something like this as a kid at school.  I just wanted to sit and play, so this is what I did.

The finished result

You need a pine cone that's a bit old with lots of open claws.

 This is how I did it

Scraps of material, needle, thread, scissors and wadding, or you could be just a little bit fancy and put potpourri into each circle.
Now that's not a bad idea!!

Cut enough circles to fill the pine cone

Sew a running thread around the circle

Add some wadding or pot pourri if you prefer

Gather up the running thread and secure to make a little ball

Push the balls in tight and move or break the pine claws to make more room

You're done, a bunch of these in a basket look great, small ones make great christmas decorations and it took less than hour, but hey it might keep the kids quiet if you put them to the task