Nearly there!

Christmas angel, made from a gold paper plate, paper napkin wings and a foam heaf with ribbon halo Toddler-rolled candles

Frankinsense and cinnamon bath salt

Microwavable hand warmers made with fleece scraps and fillled with rice

The gold ones are chamomile oaty bath parcels, the red ones rose and chamomile bath tea-bags

I've also done some bath melts, and a new creation that is body scrub - 1 tub sea salt, add blobs of olive oil until it's a 'scrubby' consistancy. Add peppermint oil, or eucalyptus, which is good for beating the colds.

More gifty bits

salt dough stars, made and decorated with home made glitter glue, threaded with hemp twine. shopping bags from here decorated with the help of fabric paints a carrot, and a paintbrush

More christmas makes

T has painted this 'man with Santa hat' onto a pencil case (here) to make a make up bag for his Auntie. I think they are about 99p, which is nice and cheap, but the quality is great, and now it's personalised too. Christmas on a budget? No problem :p He also handprinted this T-shirt from ASDA for his cousin. It cost me £1.75 for the t-shirt, so not an expensive gift, but made to be special

And I made this stocking for DP. With lack of inspiration for anything big to get him, I'm going to get lots of little bits and put them in here for him

Fabric

Sorry the pictures are so dark, not sure what happened there. This 1 is lighter than this this one is a bit brighter

This one isquite accurate

should be a bit brighter

this one is fine

as is this one

Jingle bells, jingle bells...

A froggy-fleecy cover for my brother's wheat wrap 2 felt jingle-jungle-bugs and a cocoon baby variation rattle for 2 babies' christmas prezzies

More christmas gifts completed

Jewellery for friends

Hat for T

Scarves for T and a friend of his (truck pattern) and also for Mimi and another Friend of T's (girly butterfly pattern). The rainbow piece underneath is a blanket for T's christmas dolly

All in one morning; I am so smug right now

Scarves!

My lovely big bag of fleece fabric from the lovely man at Abakahn. Sent by courier, so :p to Royal Mail ;) I now have a wonderful list of things I am going to be making for christmas, starting with...Toddler Scarves!! with Frill :D Also including, Pyjama's, buggy snuggle, fleece jumper and a blanket for T's bed. I made all the scarves for Toddler group this evening, and it was sooooo easy.

Gift bags!

Last christmas I spent an absolute fortune on recycled wrapping paper for wrapping presents in. This year, I realised that if I used a 3m stretch of fabric I bought for a fiver in the IKEA kids textiles section to make gift bags it would actually work out cheaper, while being more environmentally friendly, and giving me somewhere to store T's christmas presents once he has opened them. Also, it means I dont have to wade my way through a sea of wrapping paper on Christmas morning.

So, I started chopping it up and out of my £5 of fabric I can make 28 gift bags in various sizes, and with a few odds and ends of fabric I have enough to avoid having to buy wrapping paper at all :) At a cost of about 18p per prezzie - aren't I clever?

So, while T was napping this afternoon, a rarity in itself, I cut out all my pieces and pinned my draw string loop thingies. All I have to do now is get to the shop to buy some red cotton and brave the sewer

Long time since I posted on here

but then it's been a long time since I did any crafting. In the summer I have the urge to bake. As the weather turns, I get the urge to sew and knit. My knitting urges started back in early september, but as all my attempts at a scarf were destroyed by busy toddler hands I gave up, and from then until now, I have had no time. But in the last couple of days I have been feeling a bit down, and when I am down, I create. So here we go...
Autumn fairy with pine cone body, conker head, beech nut casing hat and sycamore helicopter wings. And a generous amount of glue (shhh!) Photo doesnt make it look great - it's actually fairly pretty. A caterpillar finger puppet inside a leaf sleeping bag which will be part of my niece's christmas present. I made a matching yellow one for DS and might make some more for various friends, as they were so much fun to make.

6 felt fishies ready to be part of a magnetic fishing game just as soon as I remember what I did with my magnets and find some rods.

I'm yearning after fabric again :S the lovely man at Abakhan (spelling) has brought in some beautifully patterned fleece fabrics, which I am intending to buy, to create scarves and hats, blankets etc for little ones. I'm going to use up my Ikea fabrics that were bought with good intentions of dresses, skirts and slings by making gift bags for christmas, rather than using wrapping paper. I have some satin that will be used to make play silk type things. When I pluck up the courage to get out the sewer (and find someone to take care of my little trouble maker of course)

Pom pom bumble bees

1 yellow pompom with some black embroidery thread :) These are now hanging on the season table tree

Felt ladybird

Few bits I forgot to post up

Fairy wings, and fairy decorations

Havent updated for a while, mostly because I havent been making things. I got on with a couple of things tonight though. We are celebrating Midsummers day tomorrow, so I made a pair of fairy wings for T, and some fairy decorations with dolly pegs and fabric scraps.

Still need to attach the elastic for the wings. Am thinking of doing myself a pair too

Fizzing Bath Tablets

These are suitable for older babies onwards. I wouldnt do them with a newborn though, because the bicarb might upset the pH of their skin.

1 container of Bicarbinate of soda
1 container of Cream of tatar (both found in the baking aisle of supermarkets)
a few drops of essential oil (lavender is good for babies)
If you arent making for a baby - add some dried lavender, or glitter, or both

Mix together

Fill a spraybottle with warm water. Add to the power a few squirts at a time, stirring well, until the mixture starts to stick together - starts to resemble the breadcrumb consistancy seen in the 'rubbing in' method of baking.

Divide into sections of a silicone ice cube tray, leave for a few hours.
Pop out and leave to dry for 24 hours

Moisturisor and nappy cream!

This is kind of a weird texture because the cocoa butter tends to set in 'bits', but once you rub it in it doesnt make a difference, and it is gorgeous and works really well.

Once you've got the hang of making it, you can adjust the proportions. More aloevera makes it more mattifying, more jojoba oil makes it more moisturising. Swap for olive oil for very dry skin.

2 bars of cocoabutter, cut into small pieces for easier melting
jojoba oil, roughly equal to cocoabutter. Swap for olive oil for very dry skin
2 tablespoons of aloe vera gel (available from Holland and Barrett) OR 1/2 tablespoons of fresh aloevera gel squeezed from a real aloevera plant. The shop bought stuff tends to have alcohol in it, and makes the finished product smell like chocolate liquers. Fresh is better for your skin though.

Melt cocoa butter and oil together in a double boiler or in 20second blasts in the microwave. After a 3/4 of blasts, the oil is usually hot enough to melt the rest of the cocoabutter, with vigourous stirring. blast again for another 10 seconds to heat the mixture.

Add aloevera to hot oil mixture and beat with a fork until VERY well mixed. If you cheat, the final product will feel a bit weird, although it will work the same.

Add a drop of teatree oil if you are prone to spots or greasy skin.

Transfer into clean glass containers. This mixture usually makes 2 small empty face cream pots full. If you want a solid that you melt with your finger, Wait until it cools slightly, and then set in the fridge to help it set evenly. If you want a more liquid texture, do not put in the fridge :)

EDITED TO ADD - add a few drops of teatree oil to make a nappy cream

Tissue blossom for spring tree decorations

Cut squares of tissue paper in spring colours, and give to toddler to scrunch up (they like this bit)Tie string/wool (I tend to keep wool offcuts for things like this) around, and rescrunch to cover the bit going round your blossom.Cut the ends off the wool; this picture was taken by a 22mo toddler, hence the reason its a little off centerArrange on tree Really easy, and kind of self explanitary ;)

Lip Balm/gloss

Lip Gloss
Melt 2 teaspoons of bees wax granule (Summer Naturals sells this) in the microwave or in a bowl over boiling water with 8 teaspoons of carrier oil (olive/sweet almond/jojoba/whatever you want) at 20second intervals.
Stir in 1 tsp honey. You might need to nuke it for another 20 seconds as the honey tends to set it slightly.
I like to put a couple of drops of vanilla extract in here, to make it taste nice. I'm planning to work with strawberry flavouring next, maybe leaving out the honey. How does honey and strawberry taste.
Pour into a small empty clean pot and leave the lid off until it is set.

This isnt as shiny as I would have thought, but it is yummy and I'm working on the shiny thing. I might revise this recipe sometime in the future.

Lip Balm
1 piece of cocoa butter (Akamuti cocobutter tends to come in nice soap sized blocks) melted in the microwave with 2 a generous sprinkling of beeswax. I tend to use equal amounts. 30 second bursts tends to work well.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of honey and zapp for another 20/30seconds.
Add flavouring at this point. Peppermint makes mint chocolate flavoured lipbalm. A Sprinkling of cocoa makes chocolate lipbalm. Orange makes orange chocolate... you get the idea.
Pour into small clean container and allow to set through before putting the lid on.

Some pics of recent makes

Snowdrop fairies for the season table from a pattern I found in "All Year Round" which I bought from Myriad.The primrose version A woven felt basket addapted from the instructions in the book above. I will post instructions when I make the next one

Home made san-pro! Again, will post instructions when I make the next few

Face wash for sensitive skin

1 teaspoon of ready-brek or other instant porridge
1 teaspoon water/milk/rice milk/oat milk
1 teaspoon honey

Mix well, apply to face and leave for a couple of minutes to dry if required. Rinse thoroughly, and dry carefully.

I tried this this morning and found it really soothing. It didnt dry my skin out at all, and I usually find even plain water drying. My skin felt very smooth and nourished. If you wait for it to dry a bit, it exfoliates gently as you wash it off

Ribbon Toy Savers

These were designed (by me ;)) for use with slings but thinking about it they would work just as well with pushchair straps. They are really easy to make, good for using up odd ends of ribbon, or you can colour match your sling. They are supposed to be for toys, but can be used for other things like keys, or, if you chose a very strong ribbon or a strip of fabric instead, it could hold things like juice cups to stop the endless retrieval from the floor :)

To make your toy saver

Cut your ribbon to the length you want. The shorter it is, the easier it will be for your child to haul things back up themselves, but longer ones help you manouver toys up and into back carries.

Tie a loop at one end of your ribbon. It doesnt need to be very big; big enough to fit the other end of the ribbon through it. Cut the excess off as short as you can.

Fold the end of the ribbon over and attach half of a press studd, making sure you tuck the edge of the ribbon in to avoid fraying. Attach the other half of the popper some way down the ribbon. This will depend on the size of the things you want to 'save'.

The closed end

To use your saver
Slide the ribbon under one of your straps.

Feed the ribbon through the loop and pull to tension

Attach toy by looping the poppered end through some where on the toy. A ribbon tied in a bow around the neck of a soft toy works very well. Other toys may need some improvising.

I apologise that is picture is upside down