Mothers Day cards and gift

Last year I taught a lovely class of Year 5/6 for 5 weeks while their teacher took long service leave. During this time it was Mothers Day so I taught the students how to make their own stamps for wrapping paper, and how to make the little 3D flower bouquet cards. 

To make the stamps we used a milk bottle lid and some sheets of thin foam (http://www.warehousestationery.co.nz/product/B665760.html#q=foam&start=1) 

The children cut out their chosen shape from the foam, then glued it onto the lid to make the stamp. 

To make the ink pads just get some cheap plastic take away style containers with lids, place a sponge in each one and squeeze in some acrylic paint- enough to soak the sponge. The lids mean you can store the 'ink pads' for future use! The students used their stamps to print onto A3 paper to make their very own wrapping paper. 

For the gift we made bath salts- all you need is some rock salt, epsom salts and lavender oil- mix together and place into small bags. 

The cards were made using a piece of green scrapbooking paper folded concertina style into a bouquet, with little flowers cut out of coloured card stuck on. 

The students really enjoyed this activity and the mums appreciated it too from what I heard!

Megan

Family Photo Wall DIY

If there is one thing I would love to be more organised with since having kids it's all the photo's I take. And from talking with friends it seems like it's something we all want to get on top of, but one of the hardest things to actually do!  I did a massive cull of my digital photo's in my iPhoto recently - but still have a crazy amount in my iPhoto library.  And that's only from the last 5 or so years, I haven't got digital copies of photos from further back than that.  I used to print photo's out and put them into albums, but since Jack was about one I haven't done any photo albums (he's four and a half now!) So I have a big project ahead of me (as I'm sure many of you do too) and I decided to break it down into what I really want to do with all these photo's. 

1. Make a family photo wall

2. Print and frame photo's of friends and friends weddings to have around our home

3. Print photo's for the kids to have in their bedrooms 

3. Make a photo book for each year starting back with 2012. I have gone off printing photo's and putting them into albums as some of the ones I did when Amelie was born are already showing signs of wearing out, and I still have heaps of albums with the photo's all thrown in and no captions or anything describing the when/where etc of some of the photo's.  A friend of mine has started doing yearly phonebooks for her kids and they look amazing, plus it makes you far more selective with what photo's to put in! I think I have a whole album of the first 4 months of Amelie's life compared with 1 album so far for Jack...

4. Have an efficient system for saving and backing up photo's in case of broken or stolen lap top and/or phone, or a fire. 

So when I was asked to review the new Brother MFCJ4620DW printer I thought it would be a great chance to tick the first thing off my list- making a family photo wall. This printer is awesome- it prints wirelessly which is so handy, has a paper tray inside the printer (my old printer had a paper tray that stuck out of the printer so the kids were constantly taking the paper out of it!), prints really quickly, can print A3 size documents, prints great quality photo's, and can also scan and copy.   I use a home printer all the time for teaching stuff, my craft classes, printing out colouring sheets for the kids, and just general house admin stuff so I am loving my new printer :) 

http://brother.co.nz/Public/ViewProduct/MFCJ4620DW

So here are my tips and hints for making your own family photo wall at home. When I was on Pinterest last year for home ideas I saw lots of pics of 'staircase galleries' which seems to be a bit of a traditional thing,  plus it is a great use of a plain wall. But any blank big wall will do! 

Also I have pinned lots of pics of 'staircase galleries' on my Pinterest page for inspiration

http://www.pinterest.com/megsmousehouse/photo-art-kids-art-display-ideas/

Family Photo Wall Tips and Hints

Choosing photo's to frame

I went through all the piles of photo's I had already printed that I just had in boxes waiting for me to do something with and chose ones I'd like to frame for the photo wall. I wanted wedding photo's (not just ours but our siblings as well), photo's of the grandparents and great grandparents, photos of us before we had kids, photo's of special holidays, school photo's plus lots of my favourite photo's of the kids.  I also went through my iPhoto library and made an album of photo's I wanted to print using my Brother printer. You can buy A4 size and 6 x 4 size Brother photo paper for your Brother printer so for the 5 x7 and 6 x8 size photos I wanted to print I just printed onto the A4 sheets and cut them to size.

I had heaps of white frames already from other art works and displays from our old house (like this one I made using greeting cards http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/02/art-idea-for-childs-room.html)  so I just re-used the frames I wanted to change.  I also bought more frames from Warehouse Stationery and Farmers when they both had 50% off their frames. The other stores I would look for budget friendly frames are The Warehouse and Briscoes.

I have a mix of frames for this project so I can add to it over time- one day the wall will be covered in frames! If you stick to one type of frame it will be a lot harder to add to your gallery over time unless you go mad and buy a massive stash of them! I actually like the mix of frame styles as it adds a bit of interest on the wall too. My advice would be to keep an eye out for sales at any of these stores, and stock up on a few when you can. 

Lots of people change their photo's to black and white for this type of display which does look very stylish. I chose to keep the photo's colour but you choose whatever suits your style and your home.

You could always mix it up with a few frames of different shapes e.g.: a few oval ones can add interest. You could also add art works into your gallery, quotes, block letters or decals. I added two art works into my gallery- this family themed print I bought from Cheryl Rawlings

http://instagram.com/cherylrawlings/?hl=en

and I had a brainwave to google 'family quotes' so I typed one up using Pages on my mac laptop, and printed it out on my new Brother printer- love it!

Another idea is to buy the multi style frames where you can put a few photo's on the one frame- I have two on my wall.  Probably works out cheaper to buy these compared to buying single frames  and would make for less holes in the wall too. 

Try to mix up the sizes of your frames- if you use too many small frames your wall might look a bit 'bitty'- I used quite a few small frames as I was using a lot of what I already had (plus they are way cheaper to buy ) but just make sure you put a few larger ones in there too for balance.

There are lots of ways to get started on planning your gallery wall such as mapping out all your photos using brown paper templates of your photos, or measuring to get even heights, but for our wall we didn't that- we just stuck the first photo up by the light at the bottom of the stairs, and just worked our way up from there. So it was all done by eye, meaning it's not perfectly aligned but if we did that first it would be months before we managed to get them all up on the wall! There are lots of ideas for arranging your wall on Pinterest if you do like yours to be more exact with the layout! (search "staircase gallery' on Pinterest)

Buy a small level like this one in this pic below to line up your frames- they often come with a pack of picture frame hooks from dollar value type stores or hardware stores. Use a tiny bit of blutak if need be to keep them straight, as long as it won't rip your paint off when you remove it!

So there you go, lots of ideas for creating your own family photo wall- I love ours and am really pleased with how it turned out. Lots of room for more photo's to come too :)

And stay tuned for a special giveaway coming up on my Facebook page- thanks to Brother NZ I am giving away one Brother MFCJ4620DW home printer worth $249.95 to one lucky mousehouse reader!

Links: 

http://www.facebook.com/mousehouseblog

http://www.facebook.com/BrotherNZ?fref=ts

http://brother.co.nz/Public/ViewProduct/MFCJ4620DW

Thanks for reading, 

Megan

Home Sweet Home Sewing and Stitching Group

I mentioned recently on FB that I am taking a sewing and stitching group at my daughters school for the next 5 weeks one afternoon a weel- they do an awesome 'Adventure Time' programme where teachers and parents choose some of their favourite activities or things they are experts at and students get to choose what group they would like to join- it's a bit like what I remember of 'Clubs' when I was at primary school- I remember knitting and cooking clubs- and they are still on offer which is great but there's also movie making, computer coding, mountain bike riding, contact sports, fishing, art history, dance and more... lucky kids! So I thought I'd share a few pics of what we got up to today in my group- I called it 'Home Sweet Home' as all of our projects are going to have a little house theme (one of my favourites!). 

I brought it some hand stitching examples I have in our home- I wrote a blog post about the stitched handprints here if it appeals to you...

http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/my-creative-space-handprint-embroidery.html

I blogged about the babushka art here

http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/my-creative-space-little-stitching.html

I did the washing line one and the lady in the flowers needlepoint pieces years ago, before I even got right into sewing and crafting. They are designed by Jennifer Pudney and are really easy to do as the drawings are on the fabric so its like colouring in with stitches!

http://www.jenniferpudney.com/assets/store/Needlepointpostcards.htm

My nana, Noelene stitched the beautiful alphabet sampler- she was an exceptionally good seamstress and stitcher so it's lovely to have some of her work in our home.

I brought a few books in for the girls to have a look at to get inspired and see all the cool things they can make once they get into crafting.

And my favourite thing was this booklet I put together for each of the girls. I used to have to put booklets together all the time for presentations and workshops when I was full time teaching so it was fun to use these skills again to put it together.

I googled some 'sewing fonts' and found a few cute ones to use on the cover- the font for the 'Home Sweet Home' title is this one called Fabrics 

http://www.fontspace.com/cloutierfontes/fabrics

 

I left the second page blank for them to practice some stitches on hessian and glue it into their booklet. On the opposite page I found some clip art diagrams of different stitches. Today I taught them running stitch and back stitch.

I made up a sewing themed word find on the next page- there are heaps of free word search generators around - I used this one

http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/word-search/

I found a clip art sewing machine diagram for the next page.

For the last 2 pages I wrote a list of the projects we are going to do- and then my favourite page is the last page- I stuck samples of different fabrics on the page and the girls have to find out the names of each one.

Today's project was to create a house picture using running stitch and back stitch using yarn and a tapestry needle. I gave them each a square of hessian (I sewed around each one to stop them fraying) and showed them my one I stitched last night.  I used the house from one of my favourite picture books for my stitched picture (highly recommend this lovely book which is 60 years old this year- my kids and every class I read it to love it.) 

http://www.bookdepository.com/Little-House-Virginia-Lee-Burton/9780395259382

It was really fun seeing them stitching away- lots of needles needing threading and a few fix ups but on the whole they got the hang of it pretty quickly - but they only got a little bit done of their pictures so hopefully they will bring them back next week so I can take a few pics. I sent them off with a little house cookie each. 

Next week we are making little felt house keyrings and bag charms.

Thanks for reading :) 

Megan

DIY Pin Board with Scotch® Expressions Tape

For my last project as part of the Scotch® Expressions Tape 'Back to School' campaign I was asked to come up with a tutorial for making a school pin board using Scotch® Expressions Tapes.  I loved doing this as I think pin boards are a great addition to a child's bedroom for their treasures and keepsakes, and to keep them organised and tidy as well! I remembered this noticeboard tutorial I wrote a few years ago now http://domesticblissnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/my-creative-space-handy-noticeboard.html with the plastic pocket along the bottom of the noticeboard and it made me think I could do the same thing, but much easier and quicker, with the Scotch® Expressions Tapes, in particular the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape. So here is a tutorial for how to make this colourful and practical pin board for your child, or even for yourself- a bigger one would be great as a family organiser with a calendar, household essentials, and a place for invitations, cards, school notices etc…

DIY Pin Board with Scotch® Expressions Tape Tutorial

You will need:

*a pin board - this square one is from Warehouse Stationery- you can also find them at Spotlight, or office supply stores, or go to Bunnings and get a sheet of Pinex and cut it the size you want.

*Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape- I used their cute red and white polka dot one- you can find all the Scotch® Expressions Tapes at Warehouse Stationery

*Scotch® Expressions masking tape - I used this lovely coral red coloured one

* Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape- I used their bright neon pink washi tape

* Scotch® Expressions Magic Tape in multicoloured polka dots

* bulldog clip

*hook push pins (I got these from Bunnings in the picture hook aisle)

*push pins

*PVC clear tablecloth plastic for the pocket- enough to cover the width of your noticeboard plus enough to go around the back of the board, and height of around 10cm plus enough to go around the bottom of the board

1. Cover your pin board with the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape

2. Lay your piece of tablecloth plastic across the bottom of your board

3. Flip your board over and use pieces of Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape to attach the plastic to the board- don't pull it too tight as that will make it tricky to get things in and out of the pocket.

4. Flip your board back over and tape a stripe or two of Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape across the top of the pocket.

5. Use your Scotch® Expressions masking tape and Scotch® Expressions Magic tape to make some dividers on your board (I layered the magic tape on top of the masking tape).

6. Use a push pin to attach your bulldog clip to the pin board.

7. Choose where you would like to put the push pin hooks on the board.

 

8. Pop some things in the pocket that your child uses regularly, and let them choose a few things they would like to put on the board- certificates, photos, a timetable….anything goes!

And this week is the last week of the Scotch® Expressions Tape 'Back to School' campaign so head on over to the Scotch Australia and New Zealand Facebook Page and click on the 'Back to School' link to see lots more awesome tutorials, plus the chance to win a $100 prezzy card by sharing your own creations! I hope you've enjoyed seeing my three tutorials, including my 

DIY Chore Charts

and the DIY clocks

You can also follow Scotch® Australia and New Zealand on Instagram

instagram.com/scotch_ANZ

and on Pinterest

www.pinterest.com/scotch_anz

Happy crafting!

Megan