Happy Easter!

Blown egg made by the Tinker (3)

Have you decorated eggs this year?

What do you think of this?

Copyright of eierbaum-saalfeld.de

Please do pop over to Oddity Central to see more and be inspired for future Easter projects!

Fab!

 

A quick update!

As the weeks pass I am becoming more and more conscious that time is flying (and that I keep saying this!!!)!  I can't believe it is April, and that nearly a week and a half has passed since my last post!  The weather hasn't helped!  Quite a bit of time has been spent out in the garden, a bit of tidying has occurred, but lots of basking has been going on.  How fabulous it has been being able to sit outside and enjoy the sun!  Anyway, we're off to stop with my brother next week, so I thought I'd better catch up before we go!

Over the past few weekends I have done a few workshops.

The first was a couple of weekends ago when I ran a printing workshop with the Chorley Contemporary Crafters group and showed them how to do some relief printing using polystyrene.  You can read more about that here in their blog post.

The second was with an eight year old (and her mum), where she learnt how to use a sewing machine, cut around templates, and made herself some pretty bunting for her room.

She laid her flags on the floor, and grouped them exactly how she wanted them (despite a few protests from mum who had her own ideas!  It's so hard to stand back sometimes isn't it?!)

She soon got into the groove, and as my machine has the option to go very slow (even if you have your foot right down), it is ideal when showing people how to use a machine.


I am now really looking forward to a Make and Do after school club that I will be running at a local school after Easter!

This week I have been frantically getting orders together.  The first one I was working on was for Piccolo Bambino, a gorgeous shop selling some beautiful things for little ones, and that now have some lovely bandana bibs in stock!

Then I did a bit more work on an order for Ellie Magpie, which is due to open in Prestwich, Manchester after the Easter break.  I made...

... Mr & Mrs pillowcases...



(these will be on sale as single pillowcases so that people can mix and match as they choose)

... and some of my lovely pear tea towels.




Today, I suddenly realized that we really should do something for Easter, so we set to work with some eggs.  I taught my daughter the art of egg blowing, and we covered them in tissue and pva/water solution to make them stronger and easier to paint.  This will be done tomorrow (or Good Friday depending on how we do for time tomorrow!!!)

I also managed to squeeze in a little bit of chick making!!! 

Oh, and did I tell you I did the biggest ironing pile I have ever seen... I swear I will never let my ironing get on top of me like that again!!!

Have a lovely week everyone.  Get some egg painting done, and if you fancy making an Easter hat, this is one we made last year!

  

Making an Easter hat

Tomorrow is the day of the Easter hat competition at the Fairy's school.  She had seen a hat similar to this one and decided that she wanted to make a similar one.

On Wednesday when she was at school I raided my paper stash, I also planned out the crown for her to cut out, made her a few templates... a butterfly, a large flower, a small flower, and got everything out that she would need.  This included:

green card for the crown

yellow card (we used 2 different shades of yellow for the daffodils)

pink card (butterflies)

straws (for the stems)

pencils, pens etc.

scissors

 double sided tape 

sellotape

This is what she did...

... she (we) drew around the flower templates.  She used seven, but the amount needed would depend on the size of the child's head.

She cut everything out...

... and made the flowers, sticking the little flower in the centre of the large flower using a small piece of double sided sticky tape.  She made them 3D by bending the petals of the small flower towards the centre.  They were then stuck onto art straws (drinking straws would work just as well) - don't have the straws too long or they will bend with the weight of the flower heads!!!

I then wrapped the crown around her head and fixed it to the correct circumference before she stuck the flowers in between the blades of 'grass' using sellotape.  She finished it off by making and decorating some butterflies to go around the edge and stuck them down with double sided tape.

Ta daaa.  An Easter crown fit for a little princess!!! 

If you would like to make one, but are a little unsure of my instructions, please feel free to contact me.