Easter Wreath

{it is not too early to start crafting for Easter, isn't it?}

It is the season of tulips and a few days ago I bough some yellow, light purple and dark purple tulips and fell in love with the lovely combination. I never suspected that they can complement each other so beautifully.

Since I loved it so much I decided to have my Easter decoration this year in yellow and purple – it makes my life easier as I can never decide when it comes to Easter… do I like yellow and green, yellow and orange etc. Now I am set.

And since we have never had a wreath for Easter I decided to make one. It is only a mini wreath (not sure you can tell from the photos), but it is really cute and it looks very pretty on the front door.

Now you might wonder why I say yellow and purple when the colours actually look yellow and blue. It is not blue, I swear…I have no idea why it looks blue, it is purple. I guess this is a clear reminder that I need to work on my photo taking technique and learn a bit more about photography. Off to Google it now...

The wreath…

 

The inspiration…

 

The step-by-step…

 

You’ll need:

Twig wreath – my one was bought white, but I guess it could also be painted.

9 to 12 Styrofoam eggs

Piece of Styrofoam to leave your eggs to dry

Tooth picks to stick your eggs onto to be able to paint and dry – for standard size eggs use wooden skewers instead of tooth picks

Acrylic paints in your choose of colours plus white – for pastel colours use a dollop of white mixed whit a tiny bit of strong colour

Ribbon and burlap – I wasn’t sure which one to use

Glue gun – off course

Hope you have a lovely week!

Love

Irina xx

Linking to:

Too Cute Tuesdays
A to Z Celebrations: Tuesday - Craft and Parties

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

Pink Chocolate Dress

{ three dresses in five days}

What have I done, another dress…I don’t really have an excuse…well maybe because Lovely Little Big Daughter can’t really wear the summer dress so I decided to make one for her to wear now.

I bought this flower corduroy fabric at the Dutch Fabric Market last autumn and it was supposed to be a bag for my Lovely Best Friend in the UK (sorry Lovely BF!). I didn’t mean to combine it with gingham, but one I was looking for a fabric to do the inside part and two the gingham matched the dress perfectly.

I wasn’t sure about the style of the dress. I just started and although I did a few new for me things, I tried not to venture out of my comfort zone too much. Can you spot a trend…I love wide borders on skirts and wide sashes with big bows hence the big border and the bow.

Little Big Daughter has a play date this afternoon so she hasn’t seen the dress yet and I really hope she’ll like it.

Oh, and about the third dress I mentioned at the beginning of this post – I promise to show it to you in the next few days. It is a part of a cat outfit for Carnival next week...more of this in the next post.

It was a rather gloomy day today so I couldn’t really take any good photos, sorry. The dress is much more cheerful that it looks on the photos.

 I made the body of the dress using this tutorial from Cool People Sew. I love this blog, what a pity it is no longer active.

Hope you are having a nice week!

Love

Irina xx

Linking this post to:
We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado
Show and Share at Southern Lovely
Lil Luna 
Made By Me at JAQS Studio
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Happy Valentine's Day

{ quick and easy candle holder}

I didn’t manage to resist to all the Valentine’s creativity out there so today I had 20min to spare and I wanted to make something quick. I had this jar on my kitchen shelf with a candle inside and I decided to transform it into something prettier...so here it is - a Red and Pink Valentine Candle Holder.

Here is what you'll need

Step-by-step:

1. Cut a piece of the lacy part of the doily and leave it on the side…it is up to you how much of your jar you’d like covered.

2. The technique I used is called decoupage and it is very simple. Begin by applying one layer of glue around the body of your glass jar. Be as quick as you can as the glue dries fairly fast. Do not worry if it looks white or you feel you might have applied too much – the glue will become transparent once it is dry.

3. Gently apply the doily over the glued jar and start applying a second layer of glue over the doily, making sure you smooth down bubbles and dry bits.

4. Once this was done, I used a towel dipped in warm mater and carefully wiped/ rubbed off any glue that was visible outside the doily covered part.

5. At this point I lit the candle and placed it inside the jar – that really helped with the drying process. The glue  dried within 5 min. Warning – the jar became hot. Make sure you handle the jar at the very bottom part.

6. In the mean switch on your glue gun and prepare the ribbons. 

Start by wrapping up the ribbons, one by one around the neck of the jar, making sure they overlap nicely. Secure in place with a drop of hot glue.  Trim the length of the ribbon. Lastly add a drop of hot glue and attach the heart.

 

 

20 min later there is a pretty little candle in my kitchen and my creativity urge has been completely satisfied.

Hope you have a Valentine’s Day full of LOVE!

Love,

Irina

Linkin this post to
Tip me Tuesday at Tip Junkie 
Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings 
Take-A-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts 
Topsy Turvy Tuesdays at I'm Topsy Turvy

Summer dress in February

{ longing for summer}

The weather here in Frankfurt has been absolutely freezing -10C during the day. Don’t get me wrong I like winter but not this type of city dry cold winter with no snow. So I was looking for an excuse, to put some summer thoughts in my mind and to make something summery.

I wanted to make a dress out of an old t-shirt for a while now; I just didn’t have the right fabrics, or a t-shirt which has been worn but still looks good. I stumbled upon a couple of lovely blogs ( links at the end of this post) full of gorgeous girls dresses which provided the inspiration…so here is my Saturday morning creation. Lovely Little Big Daughter is in love with her new dress…and so am I.

 

 

I didn’t really use an old t-shirt. I had none witch matched so I got a vest from H&M on the sale for 1 euro.

I love the big bow...it makes the dress ever so girlie...

Summery fabric...

Ruffles…so nice and not so hard to make...

Check out : How to make a t-shirt dress tutorial by Cool People Sew and Dress with ruffeled neckline tutorial by Two Giggle Boxes.

Stay warm and have a lovely Sunday!

Love,

Irina xx

P.S. Linking this post to:

Dresses for Girls Party at Threading My Way
Toys In the Dryer 
Nifty Trifty Sunday 
Polly Want A Crafter
Made by you Monday at Skip To My Lou
Tip me Tuesday at Tip Junkie 
Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings 
Take-A-Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts 
Topsy Turvy Tuesdays at I'm Topsy Turvy 
Uncommon Designs

Unicorn Birthday Party

{ Pink, more pink and a dash of purple}

Our little big girl had her 4^th Birthday Party yesterday, and boy, was it fun! I loved making the preparations over the past few weeks and it was very satisfying to see my girl so pleased and happy together with her friends.

I must confess, the Unicorn theme was more of colour set up – it was great justification to go all pink, purple and white. I’ve heard that pink obsession only lasts for a few years so I took full advantage of the pink / purple wishes… Here a few photos…

The Birthday cake took centre point and was decorated with white and pink pearls and a Birthday bunting.

A huge plate with healthy snacks was strategically placed to catch attention and outweigh all the sugary treats – well, it didn’t fool anyone…all the girls wanted was sugary treats.

Popcorn in cones – it was a real hit and really easy to make. The cones where made of pretty wrapping paper and double sided tape ( my send favourite after the glue gun :-)

Marshmallows dipped in chocolate and decorated with a pink smarties (no, I did not eat the rest of the colours and saved just the pink one’s, I was lucky to find some special edition Breast Cancer Research packets whilst in London last week. 

I found the Marshmallows idea on Pinterest and here is a tutorial.

Jelly flowers – I saw them and loved them, but completely forgot to use the oil spray and although they turned out nice and tasty it was a but of a night mare to take them out of the little silicone moulds. Here is the tutorial I used – very clever.

White chocolate dipped grissini sticks sprinkled with Hundreds and Thousands, real hit with the girls and soooo easy to make.

Chocolate or pink icing decorated pretzels. Absolutely yummy and fun and easy to make. Tip – use bigger pretzels, it will be so much easier and quicker. Here is the tutorial I used.

We also had a crown decorating activity, with lots of stickers and pink and purple feathers. All the girls enjoyed making and wearing their crowns and happily took them home at the end.

Another big hit was the face painting. I totally forgot to take photos but I used pink and white face paint and made some pretty (simple) painting on their cheeks and foreheads. I gave out numbers, so there was no arguing and each girl patiently waited for her turn. 

Whilst waiting the girls did some Unicorn colouring pages. I had prepared four different types and each girl took home the one she did together with one each of the other three to colour at home

And this is what each little girl took home as a favour – a glittery bag, a unicorn rubber band, a magic wand, a balloon,a ring, a hand made rose hair clip and  a little bag of sweets. You’ve already seen the tutorial for the magic wands and I used this tutorial to make the sweets bags. 

 

Lovely Husband and I had so much fun playing and dancing with the girls and Lovely Little Big Daughter said this morning “ Mummy, the party was wonderful”…aaahhh.

I am going to have some rest today and dream up my next project.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Love,

Irina xx

Linking to:
Uncommon Designs

Denim Purse

{ don't you just love winning giveways}  

Wow, look what i got in the post yesterday. An absolutely gorgeous little denim purse, with white lace made by the very creative lady behind Mami Made It...and yes I won it in a recent give away. I am absolutely delighted with my gift and have to find an immediate use for it as Lovely Little Big Daughter already asked " Is that for me, mummy", and I had to say " No sweetie, that is for mummy". You can imagine the disappointed face. Please go over to Mami Made It blog for some wonderful ideas, and lots of creative inspirations. It is one of my favourite blogs!

Also I want to say a huge Thank you to some lovely ladies who have all awarded me the Liebester Blog award in the past three months. Check out their blogs for more fabulous ideas, great tutorials and inspiration.

Simone from Handmade by Simone - all the way from Brazil

The lovely lady from  The Domesticated Mama

Amy from A Home, Made - there is a lovely girls Valantines Day t-shirt tutorial

So the Unicorn party is only two days away and funnily enough I am not stressed, in fact I am looking forward to it as I hope my Little Big girl and her friends are going to have so much fun. I will put photos here as soon as possible, so stay put!

Keep warm and have a lovely weekend ( I know it’s only Thursday :-)

Love

Irina xx