Entries for the Royal Show

Tis that time of year again in Brisbane when the Ekka comes to town. The Ekka is the Agricultural Show when ‘country comes to the city’. It’s also the most competitive show in the State for Crafters. This year I’ve opted to enter three categories:

• Funky Fabrics and Wearable Art
• Christmas Decorations
• Childrens Toy

And for once, I’m actually somewhat organised.

So I thought I would share with you what I am making. The first is the Christmas decorations. Given many people celebrate ‘Christmas in July’ now is a good time to share with you my Burlap Christmas Trees.

Here’s the final product:

If I were displaying them around the home, I would probably sit them on top of wine or champagne glasses at varying heights, but for now, they are just sitting on the table.

To make, they are really simple. Take a large sheet of cardboard (I used old manilla folders) and roll them around using one corner as the point to form a cone shape.

Sticky tape the cone shape to hold in place, and trim the bottom with scissors so it is level.

Paint the cone with PVA glue. Lay on a corner of Burlap and roll to cover. Overlap the end about 1 cm then trim the burlap. You will need to apply more PVA to the Burlap where it overlaps so it sticks together.

Trim the Burlap at the top and then the bottom leaving a 2cm edge at the bottom. Then apply more PVA glue around the inside bottom edge and fold in the Burlap and glue down.

Once dry, you can then embellish with ribbons, sequins and beads using a hot glue gun to apply them.

As Burlap comes in so many great colours, you can make trees to suit any colour scheme. And the best part is how affordable they are. So if your celebrating Christmas in July, get busy with these Burlap Trees for your centrepiece, or you may like to get an early start on some fresh decorations for this Christmas.

Next week I’ll show you my funky fashion, wearable art entry.

New Tea Cup Pin Cushion for the Studio

Whilst my studio was completed almost 3 months ago now, I still find myself adding bits and pieces to it every week. This week I decided I needed a new Pin Cushion, as I have been storing my pins in a tupperware container for the past few years so they could be stored between projects. Now that I have a permanent studio where I can leave things out, it was the perfect time to create somewhere more permanent and user friendly to store my pins. So I created this cute little tea cup pin cushion.

It was so quick and easy to make. I had found three of these cups in a box of my Grandma’s things. The  matching saucers were missing, but I will continue to search thrift stores until I find a suitable replacement.

I cut a circle of Burlap about 10cm wider than the top of the cup.

I then inserted polyester stuffing into the cup and packed it down until it reached the top, so I knew how much I needed to fill the cup. I then took is out again and wrapped it loosely in the burlap circle.

I then inserted the whole bundle, open side down into the teacup.

I then glued the burlap in place to contain the stuffing using a hot glue gun, pushing it down into the cup as I worked my way around the edge. If I had of had a matching saucer, I would have used the hot glue gun to attach the cup to the saucer as well.

And voila! One practical and pretty pin cushion. I especially love that it’s a little reminder of my Grandma in my studio everyday, making it extra special!

Lorax themed 5th Birthday Party – A Burlap Picnic in the Park

As I said April is birthday month in our house, so I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of my 5 year olds Lorax themed birthday party.

We had the party in the park after school. Before the children arrived we set up some tables for food and party bag goodies. We also set up a large picnic rug for the kids to enjoy their afternoon tea on. As usual Burlap abounds in our house, so we recycled the Burlap we used for the smash cake back drop the week before, and laid it down as the picnic area. Then created a table runner out of another length of printed burlap with a crazy red chevron print which looked like a graphic from a Dr Seuss Book! We also hung tissue paper pompoms from the tree over the picnic area.

The food table was set up with Barbarloot bears (Tiny Teddies cookies in individual packets), Barbarloot snacks (Marshmallows), Traffula trunks (Musk sticks) and Traffula Trees (fresh pineapple, watermelon and kiwi fruit, cut into circles and mounted on kebab sticks and inserted into a paper covered polystyrene base.

We then played pass the parcel (with the soundtrack from the Lorax movie), and each layer of the parcel had three bean seeds. Once a child got their bean seeds they then went over the the party bag table and planted their seeds by filling a plastic cup with potting mix. They then had the opportunity to ‘Adopt a Lorax’ which was a grasshead that I had made and stuck on some eyes and then cut a Lorax moustache from felt and stuck it on. They could also choose a traffula tree, which was a pencil with coloured felting wool stuck to the end with PVA glue. And they got a small packet of ‘Edible Traffula Seeds’ which was 8 Jelly Beans in a small plastic bag.

We then cut the cake which was a simple green iced vanilla cake. Just before lighting the candles we put Fairy Floss tufts on the end of Lollipop sticks and stuck them in the cake to create a Traffula forest.

Overall the kids had a great time. The parents loved the party. And the kids had an ongoing reminder of the party whilst they watched their grassheads and bean plants grow. Parents are still commenting to me two weeks later about how their kids check the grassheads and beans every morning.

It was a really cost effective party as I didn’t buy lots of lollies or nic naks for the party bags, just a few items to create the traffula pencils, grassheads and bean seeds. There were 30 kids at the party and I only used 2 packets of jellybeans for the lollybags.

I find with kids parties (and believe me I have done more that the average mum in my previous life as a Indoor Play centre owner, over 300), that creativity will win over budget every time. You don’t have to spend a fortune on jumping castles and caterers to have an awesome party. Just pick a theme and spend some time thinking about how you can bring that theme to life. I guarantee you will have a rockin party that the kids remember for a long time to come!

And of course – use Burlap wherever possible:).

Australian craft swap

Don’t you just love receiving handmade gifts? I do. That’s why I’m thinking of starting an Australian craft swap. Basically If you join, 5 times a year I will send you the name and address of another member and you make them something fabulous, then post it off to them. At the same time you will receive a beautiful handmade gift in post from someone else! Cool huh?You can bake, sew, photograph, craft, make cards, sculpture whatever you like as long as its handmade.I’m trying to get an idea of whether there is enough interest in Australia, so if this sounds like something you’d like to do simply leave a comment ‘I’m in’ and I will post more details shortly if we get enough interest. Be sure to ask any of your crafty friends and family to.

It will only be open to Australian members to minimise postage costs.

So lets share the handmade love!

Bendable Burlap Flowers

Well it’s been almost 4 weeks now since our phone line went down, and our Telco has just fixed it. No phone line, no broadband, no blogging. So in lieu of being able to blog I have spent some time recently in the studio creating numerous things which I will share with you over the coming weeks.But to get things up and running again I would like to share with you these gorgeous bendable Burlap Flowers I found on Hani’s Blog (before loss of Internet connection!).

Hani over at Craftionary created these beautiful Burlap Flowers. The great thing is, she has used wire to give them structure so you can bend them into all sorts of realistic positions. If you want to get the low down on how to make these gorgeous flowers head over to Craftionary where Hani shares a really simple step step guide on how to create these gorgeous flowers.

Her cousin has used them to decorate a wreath, which looks fabulous. I’m also thinking unique wedding bouquet. So many uses for these flowers!

Last minute St Patricks Day gift for the boys from a Leprechaun!

This is a great last minute St Patrick’s Day gift that is quick and easy to make.

My boys are now 7 and 5 and I thought this year it would be nice for them to celebrate a bit of their heritage with St Patrick’s Day. They are also old enough to start to understand where they come from and the concept of generations past. So I thought why not surprise them this year with a gift from a Leprechaun to get into the St Pats spirit!

I plan on leaving this Pot of Gold on the front steps St Patrick’s Day morning.

It’s super easy. I just cut a length of Burlap long enough to go around a mason jar. I use foam stamps from the dollar store and green acrylic paint to stamp ‘Pot of Gold’ on the burlap. Once dry I used a hot glue gun to stick the ends of the burlap together at the back of the jar.

Then I filled the jar with gold coin chocolates.

For the top I made a Leprechaun Hat from black felt. I cut a circle the same size as the lid of the mason jar. Then I cut a rectangle of felt 10cm x 4cm and rolled it into a tube and hot glued it together. I then glued this tube to a square of felt just larger than the tube and then the other end of the tube onto the large circle. Once dry I trimmed the square to the circumference of the tube.

Then I choose a small gold button I had (appropriately with a clover leaf – unfortunately not four leaf though!) and glued it onto the felt hat. I then glued the hat onto the top of the mason jar.

I think the boys will be thrilled with their gift from the Leprechaun on Sunday! It’s not too late to make one of these for your kids or neighbours.

Burlap Wrapped Mason Jars great gift for Valentines, Mothers Day, Easter

These Burlap wrapped and stencilled mason jars were originally created for Valentines Day, but would be easy to adapt and use for Mothers Day, Easter or any other event.

Janis from Rust blog posted a great tutorial on how to create these gorgeous jars for Valentines Day. But I think they are too cute to save for Valentines and should be given more frequently throughout the year, so use your imagination and add and image or saying you like to create a special gift year round.

To get the low down on the ‘how to’ visit Janis’ blog Rust for the full tutorial, it’s super simple and makes for a fabulous last minute gift idea. Thankyou Janis for sharing such and adorable idea with us all!