Crafts to Make and Sell

Right now my life is totally consumed by craft! If I'm not busy making something for the upcoming school fete, then I am packing it and thinking of the next thing on my list of things to make.  It has been constantly like this for the last few weeks.  Thankfully I love to be creative, so it is a pleasant type of being busy.

Here is something I have been working on which is such an easy craft - bead magnets.

I made these using some glass beads I found in the garden section of a discount store, so they were very inexpensive.  Using a circle punch, I just punched out a cute picture for my magnet.  You could just trace around the bead and cut if you didn't have a circle punch.  The next step is to use a little Mod Podge and cover the back of the bead, place the picture right side down onto the back of the bead.  In case you are worried, the Mod Podge does not ruin the picture at all and it dries completely clear.  Leave these to dry.  Once dry use your craft glue to stick a magnet to the back and you are done.  So simple and you end up with some very cute magnets!!

 

Here are some close-up pictures

I've been working on some pretty hair clips too. 

I know it's being a bit fussy, but I do believe presentation does help to sell,

 so I've tried to package everything to look pretty.

Here is a basket of some of the hair clips, all packed and ready to sell. 

We have a few more styles to add to these.

I cannot take all the credit for everything that is being made for our craft stall.  I have been running a fun craft workshop one day each week at the school, where a few other ladies have volunteered their time to make things up to sell as well.  It is always fun to work together in a group!

One very talented lady has done lots of sewing for us - bags in all shapes and sizes.  One other very cute item she has made is this cute little bear in a bed.

 

A few of us have been busy sewing up heat bags.  I really like this style of making them with 3 separate panels.  It distributes the filling (rice) more evenly and stops it all going to one end, which means it is much more effective when heating and using it.  It actually stays in place too when you use it, rather than sliding off or down because of the weight of the contents all going to one end. 

We are putting a few drops of lavender oil into some of them,

then leaving the rest of them fragrance free.

Another lady has hand-stitched these beautiful Lavender bags.  The care she has put into each stitch really shows, she even has co-ordinating purple gingham on the back with a handmade gingham button.  

These are amazing and look like something you would expect to find

in some fancy gift boutique store.

While the night is still young I am off to make myself a cup of tea and get busy making some earrings and more hair accessories.  I have more photos to share but will save them for next time.  I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy a bit of craft and creativity this week!

Crafty Cupcakes & Clipboard Folders

My weeks have been busy creating crafts lately and I know I haven't been regular enough with my blogging - but I'm finding there are only "so many" hours in a day and I'm not able to accomplish everything I would like to sometimes, including my blog updates.  This next month is going to be crazy for me while I prepare crafts and run craft workshops for our upcoming school fete, so please be patient with me.  I will try and update you with my craft stall ideas as I go along.

 

Here is something I finished off today.  These cute little cupcakes are one of the items we will be selling.  They are made by using a facewasher, folded up to resemble the shape of a cupcake.  This is placed into a silicone cupcake holder and then decorated with coloured pins to represent the sprinkles and instead of a cherry on top - I have little rose bud flowers. 

I think they look quite cute and wouldn't they make a lovely little gift for someone!

This is closer photo to show you the detail.

I've also been shopping and picked out some great corduroy fabrics which are ready to be sewn into heat bags.  These are always a very popular selling item and we make them in all shapes as sizes to suit everyone.

Another project I have been working on is decorating clipboard folders.  These are all done using my papercraft supplies.  This is my first attempt at ever working with Mod Podge so I'm finding I am learning the best techniques to use with it as I go.  I've also used a sealer spray to finish everything off, I like this better rather than just leaving the Mod Podge as the sealer on top.

These started out as plain wooden clipboards.  I'm loving the colours!

Well that is about all that I have actually taken photos of at the moment. This week I am starting to work on decorating some canvases.  That should be fun!!

Have a great week everyone!

Craft Market Projects

I know that I am always saying how busy I am, and it is true, believe me! Well a few weeks ago I was asked if I could take on co-ordinating the craft stall for our upcoming School Fete - how could I say "no" to something I love so much?  So of course I said ÿes".  I probably did over-commit myself in the process, but this only comes around once a year and it is helping to raise funds for our school and my involvement is doing something I love - so not too hard really. 

 

Co-ordinating the craft stall means a whole lot of things, sourcing supplies and donations, making crafts and we are also running craft groups for school mums who can come along to help make things for the craft stall while the kids are all in school.  We start that next week, so I really need to get myself organized.  But for now, while we have been on school vacation, I have been making a few things here at home.

 

First up are these little babushka dolls which I made up from a drawing I did.  They still need keyrings attached and then they are finished.

Next are some ruffled tea towels - I love how they turned out - ruffles are amongst my favourites!

I do have quite a few other things I have made but haven't had time to take pictures of everything yet.  Over the coming weeks I will show you some more of the craft projects that are being made for our craft stall. 

 

I am still constantly searching the internet for ideas, so if you know of any simple, inexpensive crafts to make for craft markets/school fetes, I would be so, so, so grateful if you could reply and let me know.  I am relying on a team of helpers and I know that what might appeal to me may not necessarily appeal to someone else, so a wide variety of ideas is essential.

Above are some of my felt creations - chocolate and strawberry tarts and pancake stacks with berries and cream - don't they look great - and so edible!  If only!!! 

In my little part of the world it is now school vacation time and we have just been away on a camping trip as a family over the Easter long weekend.  We went with a group of friends and had such an enjoyable time together. The best part was that when you stay in a place like this which is so peaceful, it forces you to just stop and take a break from the usual frantic pace of life.  I really needed that! 

While sorting out my photos today on my computer I have come across some quilts which I have made but don't think I have ever shared with you - so I thought it might be a nice opportunity to do that today.

 

I really love the simplicity of this design.  It is called a Disappearing Nine Patch.  Made with 9 squares of fabric sewn into a block (3 rows of 3 joined together), then the finished square is cut into quarters, straight down the centre, horizontally and vertically. All you do then is rearrange the squares and you get this neat combination.  It makes the quilt look more complex than it actually is.

 

I fell in love with the Moda Charisma fabrics by Chez Moi when they were around quite awhile ago but couldn't think of a quilt design that would show them off nicely, until I came across this.  What I liked was that even with a collection of very busy looking fabric prints, it still looks great.

 

 

Here is another version of the same style quilt, this time made with Moda Nature's Chorus by April Cornell.  Again, these fabrics were around quite awhile ago.  I will often buy fabrics I see and love then put them away until I can the perfect use for them.

 

So if you are looking for an easy afternoon or evening of sewing a quilt, then why not give this quilt pattern a try.  To make it even easier, all you need are 2 packs of the Moda pre-cut Charm Squares and you won't even need to cut out the squares to begin with.  It really is that easy!!

 

 

Baby Gift Ideas

Today I thought I would share with you some more of my latest crafty ideas, all perfect for Baby Gifts.  I may be creative, but I don't always come up with good ideas on my own.  If you have read my blog before you may know that I am a huge fan of Pinterest.  It is a great online resource for connecting you with new ideas and often the original source of an idea.  I love it!  So these ideas I will share with you are a mixture of my own and some from Pinterest.

 

I often share with you about our Playgroup.  Yes I am biased, and I have been to my share of Playgroups over the last 15 years to have a few comparisons, but we honestly have such a wonderful group of ladies who come along to our Playgroup each week.  The group seems to easily attract new-comers because of it's friendliness.  The women have really emerged into a group of strong friendships, people who genuinely care for one another.  One of the things I love about them is their generosity and support for one another.

 

This show of support has been very evident this year when one of the ladies had complications with her pregnancy and delivered her baby at only 28 weeks.  It has been a long journey for this family, but they have received a lot of support and encouragement, people doing practical things to help, like making meals for them.  Well we were all very excited when this precious little baby came home last Friday to be at home with his family, after almost 11 weeks in the hospital.  Even more excited when he came along to Playgroup with his mum and other siblings.  There were lots of willing arms to cuddle this beautiful little baby!

 

We have a bit of a tradition at Playgroup over the past few years. When a new baby is born, everyone brings along a baby item to donate towards a gift parcel for the new baby. It can be as little or as much as people want to contribute, from a cute outfit to something as simple as a packet of baby wipes. Just all those things you need for a new baby.  I made up a nappy cake with all the small gifts.  It ended up getting a little lost amongst all the bits and pieces we had collected - but it is in there!   

 

Following on from my last blog entry, I was still in applique blanket mode when I had to make up this nappy cake gift, so I made up a baby blanket.  I have made up heaps of these in the past.

It's a nice personalised gift, soft and warm, just perfect for a new baby.

Here is another very cute idea I came across on Pinterest and decided to try make one up and see how it went.  Well it proved to be so easy, so I made up a few.  All this cute little baby is made from is a rolled up disposable nappy/diaper.  The hat is a newborn sock and the blanket is a baby facewasher. To add the finishing touch, just a couple of craft eyes attached - and you have one very cute little baby!  Because you are using a sock, you need to make two babies so that the recipient can then wear the socks. 

This is a cute way to package these babies up if you want to make a smaller gift.  There is a baby blanket/wrap folded up to make up a bed. The babies are partially covered to look like they are laying in bed.  Too cute!  Everything in this gift is very practical and can be used for the newborn baby - blanket, socks, facewashers, nappies and you can see I also added in another cute set of socks with this pack.  It was quite inexpensive to put together and I love that it is something a little different to what you usually receive as baby gifts. 

A little bit of creativity certainly can add some fun to gift giving!!

Personalized Applique Blankets

Over the last few weeks my girls have had a few birthday parties to attend and you know how it is, especially when it is a special friend, a lot of time and effort goes into finding just the right present.  We are just entering that transitional stage where little girls still enjoy playing with their toys "sometimes" but they are also wanting to be more grown up and starting to find other interests.  One of the most popular gifts amongst this age groups seems to be Smiggle stationery.  But when the majority of your gifts end up being Smiggle, well there is only so much Smiggle one little girl can use, so we wanted to try find a gift that was totally different.

 

The idea came when Aldi Stores recently had soft, plush blankets on sale in a variety of bright colours.  We've purchased one of these in the past and it has washed up well and been a much loved blanket in our home, so I wasn't in the least bit hesitant about the quality.  So with an idea formed, we purchased a few different colour blankets (in the recipients favourite colours)  and headed home to start designing our project. 

Here is the finished result . . . . .

A Personalized Applique Blanket

These are a nice size plush blanket and measure 127cm x 152cm, so just perfect to snuggle up under and keep warm and cozy when reading or watching a movie!

The designs are positioned around the centre of the blanket and each piece is approximately 8-10cm in size. 

Now the big question - were the recepients excited to receive them?  Yes, Absolutely!! 

 

This idea is particularly great if you have a child with a name that never comes on the mass produced personalized items you can buy in stores.  One of the girls was very excited because she finally was able to have something with her name on it.

If you need a gift idea then why not try making something like this.  I just used cotton fabrics for the applique pieces, vliesofix (a heat bonding product which sticks the fabric to the blanket) and then blanket stitch around the edges - this can be done by hand or by machine.  Honestly, it is so easy.

 

I now have some more to make for my own children - they figured if their friends could have nice personalized blankets then they wanted to have one too.

Coloured Rice & Pasta - Toddler Crafts

This year I am continuing on with my role as Playgroup Co-ordinator.  I felt like I quite literally hit the ground running ( as the expression goes) with the start of this year.  There is always a lot of administration type work that goes on behind the scenes and then there is the weekly program planning. 

I am so fortunate to have a great lady who helps me out each week and I'm able to delegate all the stories and music and songs to her - she has a background in early education and does an amazing job - the kids and parents alike all adore her.  She even has a great crocodile puppet she uses which the kids totally love.  

 

We run two playgroups each week, so that leaves me with organizing the activities and crafts for each week for the two groups.  We've seen a growth in numbers this year, which has been fantastic, but I'm finding it requires a bit more time for preparation, especially for the crafts.

I thought I'd share a couple of ideas with you which we have used recently. 

 

We actually did the coloured rice towards the end of last year.

This is one of the crafts we used it for.  We also used it to decorate sea creatures recently and they looked great - very colourful.  Sorry I don't have a picture of those. 

 

 

This week I had my daughters help me at home and we had a fun time colouring uncooked pasta. There are several ways you can colour rice and pasta, we just went with what we had at home. We used simple food colouring and a few drops of water - inside a zip-lock plastic bag. Add the rice (or pasta), seal the bag and gently shake around until the colour disperses and covers all the contents. We then spread the contents out onto trays lined with paper towel to absorb the liquid/moisture and left to dry. It was quite a warm day, so they didn't take long to dry. I removed the paper towel part way through the drying process to get rid of the dampness completely. 

You can see we had fun experimenting with lots of colours!

This is what we made with the coloured pasta this week.  All the playgroup children had fun making faces and their own versions of coloured pasta artwork - it was a huge success and so easy for little hands to work with on their own!

I have stored the various colours of rice in plastic takeaway colours and they seem to store really well - even through our summer heat and humidity.  I will do the same with the pasta and see how that goes.

I am always on the look-out for craft ideas for playgroup - so if you know of any or can refer me to a great website - please take the time to let me know - I would be very appreciative!

Enjoy the rest of your week!