A quick word on Baker’s Twine
I have a bit of an obsession with baker’s twine. I ordered 4 huge spools of it a few months ago and I am looking around for more. Now I’m no crafty, but even I can think of a million uses. In fact, we seem to be using it in some shape or form at least once a day (yesterday my daughter used it to make some bunting for her dolls house). Great for gift wrapping instead of ribbon, just team with brown butcher paper… It is also beautiful for wrapping baked goods. It adds a nostalgic, rustic look that is simple and classic. Traditional red and white baker’s twine is perfect but I am totally smitten with these delicious, eye-popping colors from The Twinery.
- Sara
DIY Stick Horses
Before the birth of Ava I had already concluded that my soon to be 5-year-old daughter should have a proper birthday party — no excuses. For months and months she’d been talking about a ‘pony’ birthday (probably secretly hoping we would get her a real horse), which is not an easy theme for a party, especially if you don’t want to end up with loads of plastic trash!! So, 9 days after giving birth, my husband (still on paternity leave — this is Europe!) and my mother-in-law and I spent a whole evening making 7 stick horses for my daughter’s party. I got some rough instructions from This Vintage Chica, went to the market to get broomsticks, stuffing, and decoration, and to HEMA for some groovy socks, biggest size. We worked hard and stayed up late, but the result was a HUGE success! Part of the party was about personalising the horses with letters and glitters, and part was a horse racetrack, and of course all the girls got to take their own stick horse home. The kids absolutely loved their horses and are still playing with them today.
If you feel like making your own stick horse — it’s pretty easy, you don’t need a sewing machine at all. An (old) broomstick and an (old) sock will do. Here’s the how-to:
Win! Genius Pads
A while ago Courtney sang the praises of the Genius Pads — the giant sticky note pads. Such a clever idea, and such an ideal product to have in the house! My children love to draw on them because they stick to the table really well and are easy to display when finished. And I love to use them for all sorts of messages around the house.
To celebrate their Genius Pad Life Cycle, a tree re-planting project in Sri Lanka, Arash + Kelly are giving away 5 Genius Pads to 5 lucky Babyccino Kids readers. Yay! Just leave one comment below by Wednesday, July 14th for your chance to win a super handy, giant sticky note pad, and we’ll pick 5 lucky winners at random. Good luck!!
xxx Esther
The Papered Parlour
I am so, so ‘can’t stop moving’, ‘ants in my pants’ excited. A couple of weeks ago I was reading one of my favourite blogs — do you know it? The blog of author, stylist, photographer, all round uber-chic gal Pia Jane Bijkerk. She wrote about a wonderful sounding place, the Papered Parlour in Clapham. I had to check their website out. The Papered Parlour is a new craft venue in London, which offers classes in classic crafting techniques such as silversmithing, dress-making, photography, screen-printing and quilting as well as offering subsidised studio-space for practising artists. It was set up last year by visual artists Claire and Louise, who met working at Battersea Arts Centre. The space has already received much critical acclaim for not only the skills they teach but the style in which they do it — they have a wonderful looking cafe and most workshops include a proper tea and cake break (you can see why I have been drawn into their ethos!). They hold regular exhibitions and can be hired for parties and events (their ideas for hen-parties are brilliant!).
So why am I so excited? Well I just booked myself onto one of their Summer dress-making workshops — maybe I will finally learn how to make this darling dress for my daughter that I have been cooing over from Oliver + S.
-Mo. x
Cute vintage magnet set
I just recently bought this vintage wooden magnet set from Present&Correct. It was made in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and comes in the cutest little box with a magnetic tray. I think I’ll probably just put the magnets on my fridge and let my kids play with them — how cute are those little faces?
Present&Correct is a great site for unique, often vintage pieces you can’t find anywhere else, and they are constantly getting new things in so it’s always fun to check their new page. It’s also a great place to buy cards, books, and cute craft supplies. I buy their colourful masking tapes for gift-wrapping, and it’s also fun to browse their book section.
-Courtney
P.S. If they’ve sold out of something you like, click to request a re-stock notice — they’ll send you an email as soon as it’s back in stock!
Artistic Collaboration
The other day my daughter went for a sleep-over at her best friend’s house. She’s not even 5 yet, but she takes the whole thing rather seriously. She packed her own little suitcase, her doll, and a separate suitcase for the doll. (I got her these suitcases at Elias&Grace last time I was in London, and they’re great for this purpose.)
Before she left, we made her this little horse to put in her suitcase and to play with in case she started missing her mama (which didn’t happen of course — her mama should have kept the horse herself).
I thought the artistic collaboration was rather successful — my daughter designed the horse, and I quickly copied it in cloth, using my sewing machine. (If you don’t have a sewing machine you could do a similar thing by hand-stitching.) I think it would be a cute idea to make some pillows using the same method. I’ll keep you posted!
xxx Esther
DIY Colourful Lanterns
My daughter made one of these glass jar lanterns at school for her Christmas dinner, and I thought they were so cute that I’d have her make a few extra — they’re just lovely on a summery (garden) dinner table! They’re really easy to make (a child can do it), and all you need are some empty glass jars, some coloured art tissue paper, Mod Podge, a brush and zig-zag scissors. Just cut squares of different sizes of the tissue paper and glue them on the glass jar, slightly overlapping. When finished, paint a layer of Mod Podge, let dry, insert candle and presto! Fun to make, and with great results. I’m planning on hanging loads of them in a tree for a summer dinner — I’ll have to put my daughter to work!
xxx Esther
MadeIt for unique handmade finds
Packed to the rafters with local designers and craftspeople, MadeIt is a virtual craft market containing a wealth of handmade housewares and goodies. It is my go-to source when I want something unique, affordable and hand-crafted. It is similar to Etsy but supports only local Australian talent.
What I love about the site, apart from the fact that everything is handmade and local, is that it brings you, in one spot, everything you can’t buy at your local shopping mall. It takes the legwork out of shopping for those unique, handmade goodies which I love to buy but can take me forever to look for. And of course there is something gratifying about buying a locally made gift, supporting your local economy. (more…)
Bunny Finger Puppets
Aren’t these bunny finger puppets just darling? Cute for your kids’ Easter basket, or just for a bit of creative springtime play. And easy to make too… even for sewing novices like myself (no sewing machine required).
Molly at The Purl Bee gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to make these little felt bunnies, including a printable pdf of the bunny template. How easy is that?
I think I’m going to give it a go. Just have to pick up some cute felt…
-Courtney
p.s. Thanks to Sarah for the tip.
Egg Heads
Last Easter we decided to make some Egg Heads with the mustard & cress seeds we got in our lunchbox from Kew Gardens. Now I’m not in any way saying this was an innovative idea — most of you probably grew some of these little men/women yourself as children. But for some reason my childhood missed this particular activity… something I now plan to take up with my Mum and Dad as it is a reaallllllly cool thing to do!
I am not the slightest bit green-fingered and manage to kill all plants/greenery in my care (even cacti have a hard time living in our house and my husband doesn’t understand why I still buy herbs in pots as they always die within days), but mustard and cress are stubborn little plants and grow despite a lack of due care and attention. And they grow very quickly so you see results on a daily basis — appealing to my impatient nature.
So if you never made egg-creatures as a child then I urge you to take this eggcellent (terrible – I know!) holiday as an opportunity to redeem your deprived childhood just as I did. Your kids will love it too! Here’s how to make them: (more…)
Personalised Party Bags
Another birthday party — I am feeling quite the party planner at the moment. My two favourite parts of the planning process are the cake (I love baking and eating!) and the party bags. I always set myself a budget per bag and try to stretch it as far as possible. My current thing is to try and make the bags themselves part of the gift, something to reuse. I was really lucky that I could utilise the post-Christmas sales to find sweet little wicker baskets for my daughter’s birthday but my son’s birthday required a bit more imagination.
In my search for inspiration I stumbled upon the Carrier Bag Shop and found these cotton shopping bags, which were less then 50p each (when buying 25). An idea was formed. Having fixed my printer the day before (it was broken for over a year and I finally found a small toy had been inserted deep into the feed tray – grrrrr!) I remembered some HP Iron-on Transfer printer paper I had bought ages ago and never tried out. I just chose a fun font (Rosewood std for any Mac users) and bright colours and typed the name of each child as big as I could so it would stretch across the length of the page. Then I flipped the image (it is important to do this so when it is transferred it reads the right way round) and printed. Then all that had to be done was to iron it on — as simple as that.
I was really pleased with the results and each child got their own personalised bag for under a £1.
p.s. Love these stripy bags from Carrier bag Shop — so chirpy to make up little treat bags!
Mo. x
Free downloadable colour sheets from Made By Joel
These days I’m so busy with work, I don’t have much time for my much loved little creative projects (sewing, baking, drawing). But I love looking at craft and cooking blogs instead!
Joel Henriques is a Portland-based artist who has two little kids and does the most amazing craft projects with them. Just have a look at his blog — these yo-yo balls are so sweet, and this design-tree-toy is to die for! Or this doll house…
If you have a printer at home you can print these cool designs for your kids to colour (just click on the picture to go to the original post for the download). I really love them!
xxx Esther
P.S. Through Vlijtig
Artist at work
Check out this YouTube video featuring Julie from Famille Summerbelle cutting out, by hand, her New York map. I saw it on the Famille Summerbelle website and could not resist writing about it. The whole thing took 20 hours to make, but don’t worry, the video only lasts 2 minutes. It is seriously insane to watch — I personally would have sliced off the tip of my finger in the first minute….
I really like watching someone work with pen, paper and scaple instead of a computer, just like in the good old days.
I also have to say that I have a real soft spot for Julie’s work, especially her cut-out maps. They are lovely and full of little details which are acute observations of the cities on the maps.
- Emilie
Easy and Sweet Valentines Decoration
If you have a sewing machine, this Valentines decoration is easily made, and my kids really liked the project!
Just potato-stamp hearts on paper; I used recycled paper but you can use any sort really, even newspaper. No need to be perfect here, my 2-year-old had quite some production going. Let the paint dry and cut the hearts out. Again, slightly outside the outline of the stamp is fine, my 4-year-old girl was perfectly capable of doing it all herself! How typical for this age…
My machine had black thread in it and I didn’t bother changing it. I think it actually looks quite nice like this. Make sure to leave some thread at the ends for attaching!
My daughter’s bed looked lovely instantaneously! (The wallpaper bird is from Inke, more about that later.)
xxx Esther
P.S. Inspiration for this project came from Maya*Made
The Toadstool Tea
I can’t believe my daughter has just turned one — time has flown. Now I know a one-year-old might not appreciate a proper birthday party, but I can’t resist one. And in the spirit of being ‘girly’ there was nothing for it but a fairy tea-party, to be more specific The Toadstool Tea (for those of you unfamiliar with fairy-lore, The Toadstool Tea is a secret party for all the fairies, elves and imps to celebrate the Fairy Queen’s birthday. It takes place under the thicket deep in the middle of the forest (according to Mo)).
Toadstools, it turns out, are not only a really great theme for a party but also rather fashionable. In my month or so of preparation I saw them everywhere (I couldn’t resist adding a cute Toadstool money box from Cath Kidston (stores only) and this adorable Shinzi Katoh print to her presents). Toadstools also make for a fun theme because they are easy to draw and craft. Here are some other toadstool ideas… (more…)
Christmas Stars
Thankfully my 6-year-old niece and God-daughter, Helene, is into all things crafty. Therefore she is my outlet for all the exciting ‘make & do’ gifts I find and fall in love with, as my own children are a bit too young for most of them. As she is German (and my Deutsche is not too great) I really enjoy sitting down with her to draw, paint or make something. Last week she showed me how to make these colourful Christmas stars — she had made loads in different sizes and colours and they looked fantastic on the window in their kitchen.
They are really easy to make and actually look really stylish cluttered together on a window. To make them you need two (or more) sheets of coloured transparent paper, cut into the same sized squares. And here’s how to make them… (more…)
Re-usable holiday wrapping
If you’re looking for an original AND environmentally friendly way to wrap your Christmas presents, and you’re moderately handy on a sewing machine, maybe these home sewn gift-bags are something for you! I made them for my Godson and his big brother for Hanukkah, filled them with their presents and sent them off to London. They’re really quite simple to make, and I like the fact that they can be re-used as pyjama-bags, toy-bags, sports-bags or the like. I made mine approximately 25 x 35 cm finished (about 10″x14″), and used Bondaweb to iron the letters (remember to cut out mirrored letters!).
xxx Esther
Clothespin Reindeer
My kids and I are with my family in Seattle for the holidays and we’re busy preparing everything for Christmas (my boys insisted that my parents wait for them to decorate the Christmas tree)! While going through all the old ornaments, we discovered these darling clothespin reindeer ornaments that my siblings and I made when we were little. I think they’re so cute — both on the tree (you just clip them onto a tree branch), and also as a present-topper to add a little bit of festive cheer to gifts.
We decided to make a new ‘generation’ of clothespin reindeer, and it turned out to be a pretty easy project once we got all the necessary craft pieces. (Can I just say that American craft stores are so impressive. I was like a kid in a candy shop in our local Michaels!)
Here’s what you need to make your own reindeer: (more…)
Eye can art — art project in a box
It’s such a great thing to do art projects with kids. They really enjoy it, and it’s so fantastic to see them explore their creative skills. My 4-year-old is especially fond of craft projects, and she’s getting really good at them too!
Sometimes, though, I admit that my life is a bit too hectic to plan around complex art projects. I always have the best intentions, but I just end up without the right materials, without a great idea, or simply without the time to plan the whole thing. And this is exactly why Eye Can Art is SUCH a great idea!
Every Eye Can Art kit is completely developed by professional art teachers and provides everything you need for a fantastic and original art project (including scissors!). There are currently four art projects in the range, and there’s enough material in every box to repeat the project multiple times. (more…)
The toy box at Cox & Cox
I know I haven’t known you long but I’m so sure you will empathise with the fear and dread I have of lugging my 2-year-old boy and 11-month-old girl around the shops to do Christmas shopping.
So this year I’m doing as much as possible online and one of my favourite places to do this is Cox & Cox.
They have just launched their new toy box section which is bursting with great ideas for kid’s presents — I’ve ordered Nellie for my daughter (her trunk goes up and she trumpets!), and presents for almost all our various nieces and nephews (ages 1 to 12).
They also have lovely gifts for adults and a creative diva section for fabulous wrappings, ribbons and stamps.
Enjoy 10% off your order from now until Christmas Eve when you enter BABY12 at check-out!
-Mo
