London Mummy

Thrifty Playtime tutorial

I don't know a single child who doesn't like to play pairs, so here is a simple little tutorial to make your own from a sheet of wrapping paper and some card.

As soon as I spotted this sheet of "Playtime" gift wrap with it's wonderful retro illustrations designed by Sean Sims I just knew I could have a bit of crafty and thrifty fun with it.

It was the fox that really caught my eye - I'm just loving the foxy trend at the moment.

My immediate thought when I spotted this gift wrap in my local Oliver Bonas store, was that it would lend itself really well to a kids handmade Alphabet memory game - here's a shot of the whole sheet of paper (which is 50% recycled, so another yay) which gives you an idea of just how many sets of the alphabet are on it:

Yup, I'm going to get quite some mileage out of this - if you want to make your own set then you can order the paper, along with with lots of other lovely paper goodies online  from the nineteenseventythree website. - £2.00 a sheet.

So here's how to make your own little handmade memory game.

Gather your supplies:

1. One sheet of the gorgeous gift wrap
2. Cardboard - was £1.95 for a huge sheet from my local Art Supplies shop but you could easily substitute a cereal packet or any other suitable board which is probably lurking in your recycling box, rather than buying some cardboard.
3. Decorative paper sheets - mine were from Tiger down in Shepherds Bush, a couple of pounds for a bumper pack of about twenty different sheets if I remember correctly - again, not strictly necessary but I did want to pretty up the backs of my cards.
4. Scalpel or other cutting knife/blade
5. Metal ruler
6. Adhesive - I used Spray Mount as it's what I had to hand and it is fabulous but not cheap so just use some pva glue instead which you could also use to varnish your finished cards if you so desire.

Basically, I simply cut out two complete alphabet sections from the gift wrap, sprayed the back with my Spray Mount (in a well ventilated area) and stuck the sheets to the cardboard, making sure that all the edges were completely stuck down.

Then I trimmed it down to a manageable size, I found eight images worked well for me, and then stuck the decorative paper to the back

Make sure it's all nice and thoroughly dry and then cut out your individual cards - this is really easy to do as the all your lines are nicely laid out on the print for you already - easy peasy!

Of course being me, I didn't stop there, couldn't resist making a very quick little matchbox style box to store the cards in:

Or fail to notice that three images, backed with card and cut lengthways made really cute bookmarks - how sweet would they be tucked into a party bag:

And then I remembered some little wooden blocks I had in my project stash:

Yes I'm becoming somewhat obsessed and still have at least half the sheet left!

Dominoes anyone? 

To be continued .....

 

 

Something fresh for Spring

Am currently in the midst of making some baby and toddler quilts to add to my Limited Edition Handmade Range.  I've long been a fan of both coin and strip quilts as to me, they have a fresh and modern appeal. 

Originally I started out picking out fabrics for a neutral fabric after I had bought some of this adorable organic cotton fabric from M is for Make. 

It's part of the delightful circa 52 collection from Birch Organic Fabrics.  I'm hoping to make a strip quilt using all organic fabrics but need to add some more organic prints to my stash as I simply don't have enough different, organic ones for a strip quilt.

But impatience had set in and I was really in the mood for making a strip quilt,  right now - I'm sure you know that feeling :)  So I made a little dolls bed set with some pinks from my stash as a bit of a prototype for a larger baby/toddler version. 

Here it is all made up, washed and dried with a lovely little bit of crinkly goodness.

Of course, it's much easier making a small one as you don't need such a variety of prints but I was determined to make a larger size. 

Apologies for the rather washed out looking photo, in the flesh the colours are so much better.  I used three different  Aneela Hoey prints plus some other bits and bobs from my stash including the lovely Suzy Altman houses print for Robert Kaufman.  I have to be honest, it took me absolutely ages to make my final decision on widths, prints, placement etc but I'm happy now - would have liked a few more mixers but was determined not to rush out and buy a load of new fabrics - yet :)

So here's the completed quilt top, now I need to choose backing and binding fabrics and quilt it ......

Hmm, it is very pink! 

Playing with props

Really simple stocking fillers, or Christmas decorations even, depending on how you use them :)

Linen squares + applique stars + lavender = understated & simple.

 

Red & White for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability

On Friday I'll be taking some of my goodies to Putney, to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability to be precise, to help raise some funds for this fantastic charity at their Christmas Fair.

Being a huge linen fan and having a rather large stash to hand, I thought it would be a good idea to design and make some more grown-up stockings and will admit to having a lovely time playing around with my various scraps and the embroidery stitches on my sewing machine until I was happy with the design.  

As space tends to be rather limited at these events, well for me anyway as I always end up taking far too many different goodies with me, I wanted to make sure that they co-ordinated with my other handmade christmas bits

My Xmas houses, I know they appear every year but I just love making these!

My new Dala horses plus some linen stars which I haven't had a chance to photograph yet.

So if you happen to be in the Putney area between 10am and 4pm on Friday, please do pop along and say hi.  There will be around 35 stalls so I may even get a little of my own Christmas shopping done at the same time :)

I'll try and pop a few of these in the shop too.

 

 

Wrapping up for Christmas

Currently surrounded by a mass of hessian, linen, felt and christmas fabrics whilst playing with some new designs ........