Fabric Sraps Flowers Wall Art

{or what to do with leftover fabric}

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks with a visit from Lovely Mum and mostly lazy days and  a lot of fun cooking – apple crumble, raspberry roulade, spinach lasagne and home made dough for pizza and Lángos - Hungarian deep fried bread which we usually buy at the Christmas markets here in Germany and eat with a generous sprinkle of icing sugar…yummy.

I was looking for something nice and interesting to make and I have a few nice ideas for Easter…but we are only in February, I think I’ll wait a bit.

Again my inspiration came from PIneterest, and it was a kids activity. Lovely Little Big Daughter had a play date yesterday with her friend H and the little girl is mad about crafting – mostly drawing, cutting, gluing…you get the idea. So it was the ideal opportunity to have fun with my girl and her friend, and boy did we have fun!!!

The original Poppy Art by Tonya at Multiples and More has a lovely tutorial and uses paper – definitely worth a look ! I didn’t have enough paper but I have lots of fabric so hence the decision to use fabric. I think it was a little bit harder for the girls to cut fabric but there were no complaints and both had lots of fun and were extremely proud with the outcome.

So you'll need:  

2 x canvases ( I used 20cm by 20cm) 
Water colours and brushes3 different circle templates ( we used two small cups and a lid from a jar) 
Magic pen or erasable marker 
Sharp scissors 
Fabric Scraps
Buttons 
Glue Gun ( only for mummy to use although the girls were allowed to hold it before it got plugged in the electricity - you can also use craft glue but the glue gun will ensure your little wall art last longer)
 

Step 1:  Draw a little wavy line in the middle of the canvas and let the kids colour the top with blue and bottom with green paint. Suggest the use of plenty of water to dilute the colour. Let it dry – it took about 20 min.

 

Step 2: The fun part – get the kids to chose the fabrics they want to use. We decided we are making spring flowers so opted for lighter colours…almost. Explain that each flower will need one circle from each size and let them combine fabrics and draw the circles alone. Let them cut the circles and resist the urge to repair edges and uneven circles – I had to sit on my hands…

Let them also choose the buttons.

Step 3: The canvases should be dry by now and it is time to draw the stems of the flowers. Bring back the water colours and suggest the use of a darker green colour to make the stems stand out. Use a hairdryer to dry the canvases if the little people are loosing patience – it took a few minutes and they giggled the whole time…apparently it was very funny to use the hairdryer for this.

Step 4: Use glue gun to glue the fabric circles to the canvas…the girls only got to watch this last part but never the less they were so happy and absolutely proud with their creations.

Lovely Little Big Daughter even found a little place on the wall to display her first proper art creation… 

Hope you are having a lovely week!

Love,
Irina xx


Linking this post to:
Topsy Turvy Tuesdays at I'm Topsy Turvy 
Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie 
We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado 
Sun Scholars: For the Kids Friday

House shoes

 {and enjoying the weather}

Autumn is really here, but it actually feels more like summer…warm sunny days…the kind of days we should have had in the summer but didn’t really have. I am not complaining but actually enjoying the Indian Summer despite the fact that Lovely Little Daughter is sick and off course I will be the next to get that cold.

Well before the weather warmed up I decided to make some house shoes. A certain little person in our house loves to walk barefoot but with the cold days just round the corner I though I’d make something she might actually like wearing in the house.

I made a pair of slippers from and old issue of Ottobre magazine. And although I even reduced the size the slippers turned out huge.

Well, I am sure they’ll fit next year but what about this year…so decided to make a pair of sock slippers, and making my own pattern by drawing around her feet.

 

I am not completely satisfied with the outcome, so I guess a third pair would be in order.

I saw this lovely idea for a hand print autumn tree on Pinterest and knew we should try it. So Lovely Little Daughter made it especially for daddy. She used wine corks dipped in colour to make the leaves. 

 

Hope you are enjoying some warm weather too!

Love

Irina xx

The First Day of School

 { The SchultüteTradition}

I usually do not write long posts but as  today is the first day of school in Hessen (different regions in Germany have different vacation times and hence different starting dates) I would like to tell you about a wonderful German ( and I believe Austrian) tradition which all Schulanfanger (School goers – applies only to first grade students) are looking forward to – the Schultüte (Schoolbag), easily the symbol of the 1^st day of school, possibly the most important day in the life of any six year old.

This morning on the way to our Kindergarten I saw many little people, with proud faces and school bags as big as themselves…a lovely reminder of my first day at school many, many, many years ago ( although not in Germany) and also a less lovely reminder of how quickly time flies and how quickly our kids grow.

Well let me tell you about the school bag – (no it is not the actual school bag), this one is a very big cone made out of cardboard and embellished in some kind of way. They are sold almost everywhere in the last few months before the new school year. According to Wikipedia the tradition goes back to 1810 and the only thing that seems to have changed since than is that less and less sweets can be found in the bag. Well, that is only partially true as the bag is still seen as a treat although many parents try to reflect in its contents the step towards independence with the start of the new school year.

Kids say that it is not fun if the Schultüte contains only the items necessary for school and therefore inside one can find anything from a car shaped alarm clock, watch, water bottle, a compass for the great adventure that school is, to the first nail polish, glitter glue, key chain pendant and little stuffed animals. And always there is a fair amount of lollies, chocolate and other kinds of sweeties.

Enough reading, now I would like to share with you some photos of some absolutely unique and cool hand created Schultüten I found on the web. The themes of the bags could vary greatly from football and unicorns, to fast cars and cowboys, to nature and planets, to princesses and pirates, believe me I even saw one which came with a matching dress:

Lovely themes Planets and Space and Bees and Nature – photo courtesy of Anke Lilli

One for the polka dot lover – have I ever mentioned I love polka dots? Photo courtesy of byFranca

Of course one with horses, how could I forget the horses – lovely! The little girls' face says it all! Photo courtesy of Bab's Bumblebee

 

A very cool one for the dinosaur lover or the budding explorer - I love the name detail, it makes it so much more personal! Photo courtesy of 3@12

And my favourite one - a real rocket Schultüte – and one very pleased and proud boy! Photo courtesy of Bab's Bumblebee

If you had the patience and the time to read through than I hope you enjoyed this little story about how German kids start their school life.

Hope you are having a lovely week!

Love

Irina xx