Wednesday 29 March 2017

Spring Easter Wreath

Here's a simple Spring and/or Easter wreath made with upcycled jeans.
Easter wreath with bunny garlands with upcycled denim  jeans

Do you like to welcome the seasons with some home decorating? I confess in our house we decorate the house for Christmas each year but don't do a huge amount the rest of the year. So when Hobbycraft sent me some Easter crafting goodies it seemed like a great chance to step out of my comfort zone and make some pretty things to welcome the spring into our home. 

I tried out 2 different garland ideas, one with bunnies and one with flowers, thinking it could be suitable for Easter or more general spring/summer decorating. 
Spring wreath with daisy garland and recycled denim
To make an Easter or Spring wreath you will need:
A Polystyrene wreath form, mine is this 25cm one from Hobbycraft
An old pair of jeans
Faux Flowers, mine are these from Hobbycraft
Scraps of scrapbook paper and thin white card
Pom Poms - I had this huge bag from Hobbycraft
Bakers twine or string
A length of ribbon for hanging

You'll also need: 
A hot glue gun, like this one from Hobbycraft
Scissors
A flower punch or cutting machine (if you have either of these it'll be quicker but you can still make this without!) 

Start by cutting long strips of denim from the jeans, about 2 inches wide and as long as you can make them. I used the back of both legs on one adult sized pair of jeans, and got 2 long and 1 slightly shorter strip from each leg. 

Wrap the strips of denim round the wreath form, securing at the ends with hot glue. 
Spring wreath with upcycled jeans
As you come to the end of each strip of denim, just secure the end with a blob of hot glue then start a new strip, overlapping slightly. If you end up with a silly little gap towards the end like I did, just start a new strip then cut off any excess.

Attach a few faux flowers in a cluster on one side using hot glue.
Spring wreath with upcycled jeans
Any idea why I thought my scissors needed to be in this photo??? 

To make the flower garland, punch 10 flowers from thin white card. You can draw and cut them out with scissors if you don't have a suitable punch or cutting machine, it will just take you a little longer! 
making a daisy flower garland
Curl the petals on half of the flowers just pinching them between your thumb and forefinger and pulling. Glue the flowers in pairs, a flat flower topped with a curved petal flower, staggering the petals.
Cut a length of string or bakers twine long enough to go over your wreath, and wrap round a few times.
Hot glue the flowers to the twine then add a pom pom to each centre.

I found it easiest to lay the flowers out in a line on a heat proof surface and apply a blob of hot glue and press the twine down into it. I did one at a time  - well... at first I did all the glue blobs together and quickly realised that they cool and harden too quickly for that and one at a time is better!
Daisy spring flower garland


To make the rabbit garland, make a tiny rabbit template from a scrap of old card. You can use mine, just right click and copy, or look online for a bunny template that takes your fancy.
If you have a lovely cutting machine of some sort I guess you could use that.
making a bunny rabbit garland
Once you have your template use it to cut 5 bunnies from pastel patterned scrapbook papers. I went for the slightly thicker papers, the ones that are like thin card. It's a great way to use up some of those little pieces that get left over from other projects. 
Attach them to a length of twine in the same way as the flowers, lay them face down in a line and then add the hot glue and twine one at a time. 
To finish, hot glue a little pom pom to each bunny as a tail.
Bunny garland for an Easter Wreath

Attach the garland of your choice to the wreath. You can just wrap the twine round a few times and tuck the ends under, it doesn't need to be glued. That way you can switch out the garland whenever you like.
I finished the wreath with a length of pastel ribbon I'd had in my stash for years to hang it up.
Spring wreath with upcycled jeans
Do you have a preference? I think I like the rabbits best, or maybe the the daisies ...... I'm not sure!

It has been fun to create some Easter decorations, Hobbycraft have loads more ideas here if you are looking for extra inspiration. 
You might also be interested in:
Carrot treat Bags
Carrot Treat Bags
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
Washi Tape Berry Boxes
Washi Tape Berry Boxes
Upcycled Spring Vase & Pen Pot
Upcycled Spring Vase & Pen Pot
I'll be linking up this project at all these lovely link parties, pop over for a look at loads of projects from other blogs

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Tuesday 28 March 2017

A little tribute to Ellen - Part 3

28th March was my Nan's birthday, so today I'm sharing another thing she made as a little tribute to her.
Watercolour painting by my nan
As I was growing up I knew my nan dabbled in oil and acrylic painting, but it was either when she retired or when my grandad passed away (I can't remember which) she went to classes and tried out lots of new techniques.
These pretty painting were some she did for us when she was experimenting with watercolours.
As far as I know she always painted from her imagination so sadly this little cottage and garden probably doesn't really exist!
Watercolour painting by my nan
I remember that we had them framed and on the wall in our bedroom in our first house but at the moment the are in a box along with a load of photos and other family memorabilia. 
Watercolour painting by my nan
Interesting that she signed her name in different ways on each picture.
I think I said it last year, but if my paternal grandma Ellen were still alive today I'm an absolutely sure she would have a blog. She would have loved the idea of sharing her ideas and makes with people all over the world, connecting with like minded people, being inspired by what they've been creating. 

The stories I've sharing in previous years showing items made by Ellen, my mum and my other nan can be found here.

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Sunday 26 March 2017

Handmade Monday #18

Hello, it's Handmade Monday time! Welcome to our weekly craft linky.
Come and join us, share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas or just find some new inspiration.

I'm SO sorry that Handmade Monday is a little late going up today. It's Mothers Day here in the Uk and I was sitting with a cuppa enjoying a film with the family when I suddenly remembered I'd not got our linky ready in advance this week! Ops! 

Here are last weeks features: 

Macrame has made such a come back recently, I really love this wall hanging from My French Twist.

Easter is not far away now, these paper treat bags are such a sweet idea from Pillar Box Blue.


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We have a Handmade Monday Facebook Group where we share tips and ideas. If you like to link up here regularly you are welcome to join us, just send a request. Every entry to Handmade Monday gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board too, send a request to join this group board if you love to pin.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:
  • Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
  • Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
  • Link up to 3 posts each week.
  • Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - sharelet's support one another and grow our craft community.
If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.



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Wednesday 22 March 2017

Easter Decoupage Book Bunny

I've had so much fun creating this Easter decoupaged bunny, repurposing an old book.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
I received a large polystyrene bunny from Hobbycraft, part of their Easter decorating range. 

She (I think it's a she, I'm not sure why) has been so much fun to decorate. I wasn't sure initially what I was going to do with her, but thinking about rabbits reminded me of a battered copy of Alice in Wonderland that I picked up in a charity shops ages ago. I had a plan to do some art work (still on my 'to do' list) but I knew that wouldn't take the whole book. I dug it out and on flicking through discovered that at the end is "An Easter greeting to every child that loves Alice".
I assume every copy has this but I don't know for sure. Still, it was like it was mean't to be!

I realise that batter copies of Alice in Wonderland might be hard to come by, if you can't find one don't worry. You can use any book, not enough really shows to matter and then just photocopy a page with an illustration from a copy of the actual book if you want to make a tag like I have. 

To make your own Alice in Wonderland inspired Decoupaged Book Bunny you will need:
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
A polystyrene bunny - mine is this one from Hobbycraft
An old book - As I said, I had a copy of Alice in Wonderland but you could manage with any old book.
Mod Podge - mine was the sparkly kind, I love it but you can use regular if you prefer.
Ribbon
A scrap of card, scissors, brush

Start by ripping a few pages of the book into small pieces. I put the ones with the illustrations I wanted to save to one side and ripped up about 10 pages in all for this.
Brush Mod Podge over a section of the rabbit and start glueing the book scraps on.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
Cover the paper completely over the top with glue too. You'll find it softens and has a little 'give' once it's all saturated with the glue but for curved sections it's also helpful to do little rips in the sides of the paper scraps too.
I did my rabbit all over save for the bottom inch and allowed it to dry throughly overnight.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
In the morning I decoupaged over the last bit going round onto the base.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
I thought the ears were a little bit fiddly, that was until I did the tail! For these extra curvy bits I just used much smaller pieces of paper, this made it easier. 

Whilst she dried I made her a tag.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
I ripped round one of the rabbit illustrations that I'd saved earlier and cut a simple tag shape from scrap card. I simple glued the illustration on and then added the happy easter greeting I ripped from the letter at the back of the book.

To finish her off I just tied a blue check ribbon from my stash round her neck and added the tag with a tiny length of embroidery thread. 
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
The sparkle Mod Podge I used is awesome, no where near as messy as using glitter and the sparkly is amazing once it's dry.
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
Just to check that this could work using a photocopy too I make another tag. I wouldn't recommend using photocopies for all the decoupage, the ink tends to smudge a little if you rub it too much with the glue brush, but for a single illustration it was fine. I just made sure I didn't fuss it too much with the brush and it didn't really smudge at all. 
Alice in wonderland Decoupage bunny
Alice in Wonderland decoupage rabbit
Made like this without the Easter reference this could work for any time of the year. It would be fabulous for an Alice in Wonderland themed party, are they a thing? If not they should be! Although having studied it as I ripped it up I have to conclude it is a slightly weird book! 

Hobbycraft have more ideas of how you can decorate these large polystyrene rabbits if you don't fancy book decoupage. I'm loving it, and now I'm looking for more things I can cover in scraps of old books! 
Easter Decoupage Book Bunny
When I was really little apparently I would spend a lot of time doing what I called 'cutting and sticking'. Some things never change! 
You might also be interested in:
Carrot treat Bags
Carrot Treat Bags
Spring Easter Wreath
Spring Easter Wreath
Washi Tape Berry Boxes
Washi Tape Berry Boxes
Upcycled Spring Vase & Pen Pot
Upcycled Spring Vase & Pen Pot
I'll be linking up this project at some of these lovely link parties

read more

Sunday 19 March 2017

Handmade Monday #17

Hello, it's Handmade Monday time! Welcome to our weekly craft linky.
Come and join us, share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas or just find some new inspiration.

How's your week been? It's been a busy one for me but I did manage to find some time to start a decoupage project, that I hope to have finished and ready to share soon.
I've also been multitasking in the evenings combining catching up with some tv and the knitting that I started last week. 

Now onto the features from last week's Handmade Monday. And can I just say thank's a lot - you are not making it easy to pick features, so many lovely ideas linked up last week! I've gone for yarn based features this week and there are 3 because I just couldn't choose!

Jo from Three Stories High shared a child's jumper she made from her left over stash. She even added some little crochet flowers which I love. 

Lina from Sew Historically was so clever and creative with this jumper refashion. She took apart the polo neck (turtle neck) of an old jumper (sweater) and then used the wool (yarn) she had just undone to crochet a new pretty lacy collar.
Sometimes I find it funny that we think we speak the same language in the UK as the US!

Over the Apple Tree was also on the recycle vibe with this great idea to take apart a jumper (sweater) carefully to source some lovely new materials for making new stuff.

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We have a Handmade Monday Facebook Group where we share tips and ideas. If you like to link up here regularly you are welcome to join us, just send a request. Every entry to Handmade Monday gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board too, send a request to join this group board if you love to pin.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:
  • Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
  • Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
  • Link up to 3 posts each week.
  • Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - sharelet's support one another and grow our craft community.
If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.



read more