Sunday morning crafting with kids: homemade fishing game

Since my life has turned much more crafty (and I have a toddler to experiment with!), I make a point of doing some simple crafting on a Sunday morning, especially since this is the time I'm on duty with my little Miss, while daddy catches up on sleep. So silent games are the best at this time of the week.
This morning I didn't know what to come up with, though. Last week we did a giant butterfly collage, the week before we did a poster with all Christmas cards she received as a keepsake (you'll know if you are following me on Facebook...), but this week my tired mind really didn't have a clue... So, I picked up a book I bought in a charity shop ages ago called "365 things to make and do" by Vivienne Bolton. It's an old 1990s edition, but still a useful reference for parents when they run out of ideas to entertain their kids.
In this book, I came across a game I *LOVED* to do with my little brother when we were kids, the "fishing game". At that time we had a "sophisticated" version, it was a set of little fishes which had a magnet inside their mouth, in a rotating plastic pond; the scope of the game was to catch the fishes with little plastic rods with a piece of metal at the end of the rope. If you are about my age you'll know what I mean!
The one I saw in the book was the homemade version, using cardboard to make the fishes and paper clips to do the hooks. I happened to have some cheap Pound Shop materials that keep on turning very useful these days: magnetic paper and coloured foam sheets. These seemed perfect for what I had in mind.

So, if you want to do the same, this is what you need:

• Crafting foam sheets (you can substitute with cardboard, but this way the fishes are a little more resistant)
• Magnetic paper (you can use simple paper clips to do the hooks, but this way it's so much better!)
• Scissors
• String
• Sticky tape
• Two pencils or pens or chopsticks or any safe sticks you have handy
• Colours to decorate your fishes
• All purpose glue (this is slightly more toxic than kids' paper glue, but more effective in this case, so I suggest an adult does the glueing, rather than a child)

All you need to do is to cut the foam in little fish shapes (I cut a couple of special pieces as well, a sea star and an octopus: if you are playing with points, these could be worth more); I didn't follow a template or drawn the fish on the foam first, I just quickly cut the shapes, but of course you could download some templates off the Internet and do a much more professional job. I was after "quick-fun-who cares lets be quick so we can play with it". The limitation with foam is that you can't really decorate the fish (although my little Miss has drawn eyes on all of them; older kids could also do the cutting, glueing and assembling), but if you decide to use cardboard you can let your creativity go wild!

Once the fishes are all cut and decorated (I made an odd number of fishes so that there will be always one winner) you can cut little pieces of magnetic paper and glue them on the fishes, with the non-magnetic side to be glued on the fishes.

Now, the last part: making the fishing rods. Just cut two pieces of string of the same length, then tie each one to the end of each of your sticks (or pencils). At the other end of the string, glue or fix with sticky tape a piece of magnetic paper, slightly larger than the pieces you used for the fishes (the string should be stuck on the non-magnetic side of the paper).

That's it! Now put your fishes in a plate or tray and start playing by catching with the magnets at the end of the fishing rods as many fishes as you can in a minute. At the end of the minute, wins the player who caught most fishes. If you want to add another educational element (apart from the eye / hand coordination needed to play this simple game), number the fishes or write a letter on each and for example pick the fishes in numerical order or so that you form meaningful words.
Happy playing and happy Sunday! X

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Exciting exciting! First EVER giveaway!!!

On the 12th of February 2012 I wrote my first post (on the felt playhouse, remember?).
One year on, and many many crafts later, I am still here, happy as a bunny to celebrate the first birthday of Virtage Gets Crafty!
So, to celebrate properly, here it is the FIRST EVER giveaway of the blog...
So, if you want to win a lovely hand decorated tote canvas bag AND a handmade lotion bar (full of the richness of Shea butter and organic coconut and almond oils and gently scented with lavender essential oil - great for body, hands, hair and pregnant bellies!), read on!

To enter this competition simply log in in box below and follow the instructions!


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Note: thanks to those that have entered, this competition has ended, but I'm going to have another one at some point in the future...
What prize would you like to be offered?  

More upcycling: Mr Tango the Sock Monkey

Still on the theme of toys made with simple household materials, let me introduce you to a new friend for my (not so) little sister...Mr Tango, the sock monkey!

I pinned the sock monkey tutorial ages ago, but never made any sock monkeys because for some reason I didn't think they were cute enough for toddlers to be interested in them. Wrong, obviously. You should have seen my Little Miss playing with the body BEFORE I added ears, eyes and mouth...she was basically playing with a stuffed sock with legs...but, for once, the finished toy didn't end up in kids' hands. Instead, Mr Tango bravely flew a few thousands miles today to reach my little sis as a birthday present. :)
If you want to make your own sock monkey, good, step-by-step instructions can be found on Craft Passion's blog here.
This is a fun, one-evening project that can be easily done with used or new socks (I used new, Pound Shop socks, simply because my husband's socks are all block coloured and I was looking for stripy ones). I had fun deciding the expression of the monkey, all really down to the eyes, so I suggest you try a few eye types / styles (buttons, felt, big round, small embroidered...) and experiment a bit, until you are happy with it.
I also added a touch of femininity with the scarf, made out of a piece of particularly fancy ribbon. Another slight change from the tutorial I followed was not stuffing the tail; I just couldn't face stitching along the whole length of the tail and then turning the tail inside out...I think it turned out pretty sweet anyway.
Happy birthday Cele, love you loads... I know you'll make Mr Tango happy! X

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Earphone tidy and cosy...how to solve the tangled wire issue

Dear friends, isn't it wonderful when outside it is snowing and you are on the sofa, ready for guiltless rubbish TV?? What happens when, instead, your TV only shows you THREE channels, sort of 1950 style, due to lack of signal in your area and the most interesting programme of the lot is a snooker match??? What do you do? Well, in my case, I came up with a earphone tidy and cosy! Since I made my iPad cover (yes, I know, I still have to write to you about it...), the "tangle earphone wire" issue has been bothering me big time. I failed to think about a closure to the back pocket of my iPad, so the earphones, which I keep there, often fall in my bag and become a mess in no time.
So tonight, while a very exciting snooker match was shown on TV, I took all my scraps of felt and started thinking how to make an earphone tidy and cosy. I was inspired by this little rabbit tidy, but sort of made my own along the way.
So here it is, my earphone tidy and cosy. It looks a little like Little Red Riding Hood to me...

If you want to make one, you'll need:

• The free template I have made for you (not for commercial use please!)
• Scraps of felt; I have used red for the outer and yellow for the inner part, pink for the hair, white for the face and blue for the heart appliqué
• A little piece of sturdy but flexible material; I found the perfect material in a plastic disposable bowl. Or you could use some cardboard
• Thread to match
• Pinking shears
• A pair of snap fasteners (or Velcro)
• All purpose glue

First, cut two hearts out of felt using your pinking shears, one out the red piece, one out of the yellow.

Then cut the plastic bowl; shape it to make the inner support part of the earphone cosy using the template.

Cut the hole in the red (outer) heart through which the face will show.

Cut the face out of white felt; this will be slightly larger than the hole to allow it to be sewn at the back.

Sew by hand the white circle to the red heart; I used a simple running stitch.

Now have fun embroidering the eyes and mouth of Little Red Riding Hood...

Cut and stitch the heart appliqué (or any other appliqué you like...) on the front of the earphone cosy, and the hair. For the heart I've used blanket stitching, for the hair I have used again running stitching.

Now place the two snap fasteners on the yellow (inner) part of the cosy, so that they can snap easily leaving space for the earphone wire in the middle. Stitch them to the felt.

Glue the plastic support to the back of the red heart, centring it so that some space is left all around to stitch the outer and inner felt parts together.

Then glue the support to the yellow (inner) part.

Now stitch all around the felt to secure the two pieces together, using a running stitch.

And that is it! I hope you have enjoyed my first tutorial with template; and if you make an earphone tidy and cosy, it would be great if you could post a picture of it on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/virtagegetscrafty... and don't forget to like it! ;)

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The "while she sleeps" headscarf

These days I seem not to have much time or energy at all, for anything that is not working, cooking or spending a little time with my family. I noticed with horror that my sewing machine has a greyish layer of dust on it (for that matter, my whole house has a greyish layer of dust - hahaha - no time / energy for cleaning either!). It must be the depth of winter, and I hope I'll de-hibernate soon...

So the only projects I have the strength to see until the end at the moment are those quick 'n' easy you can do in an evening, or "while she sleeps". It's been ages since I sewed something in "instalments".

The reason for sewing this headscarf the other night was because my little monkey has a head full of hair, and I mean FULL...she was born with lots of it, her hair grows fast and somehow is always in front of her eyes. And I *love* that boho look a headscarf gives her. Of all the tutorials I could find on the Internet, the headscarf tutorial by Ivy Designs seems to be the clearest, with precise instruction, a range of sizes to choose from, full of nice step-by-step pictures and, last but not least, free...(you can find the tutorial following the link here.)

I think the final result looks quite professional (thanks to the great tut) and it only took me a couple of hours - I'm not the fastest, admittedly...especially since I haven't made friends with my rotary cutter yet, it still frightens me, so I go extra slowly when I have that one in my hands.

The funniest part was taking the pictures. Little monkey is two and a half, do you think she could pose for me nice and still? No, of course. I could only convince her to be still encouraging her to look at the sole of her foot... :) and this is the result:

 

Nice and simple! This is all we want! And oh...happy new year to you all! X

 

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Bye Bye 2012...and a Happy Sun Handmade Soft Toy

Bye bye 2012...thank you for having seen the blossoming of my creativity, and the birth of this blog. Thank you for allowing me to feel myself again and express my crafty side...
And thanks to the hundreds (or thousands!) of people that have visited the blog so far (last count, 8,600 and something visits...thank you!), I do hope 2013 will bring to you all (and my loved ones, of course)

"PANE, AMORE E FANTASIA"!!!

(i.e. bread, love and creativity)

Now, down to our favourite business...I shall close this year with a post that I hope will inspire you to use your hands a little more and create simple (but lovely), environmentally friendly things for yourselves and your loved ones.

This one is a cute Happy Sun soft toy I made for my new little niece, Ingrid.

Young babies really love staring at faces, so I thought I'd make a happy face for her. My own daughter, when she was a baby, loved also pulling and chewing tags, so I decided to give life to a "Happy Sun" soft toy, using several scraps of fabric to make the tags and, for the face, a soft cotton muslin that had been my daughter's (washed and washed time and time again, so really soft and environmentally friendly).
I added the blue cheeks cutting them out of a piece of microfibre cloth (but you could use any material, I like the microfibre because it's soft and has texture). I stuffed this soft toy with the usual cushion stuffing. However, for my next toys, I'll use pure wool. I have a lovely colleague at work who buys sheep wool and spins it, before knitting her knitwear. She very kindly agreed to give me some of her leftover bits of wool, so on Christmas Eve I decided to clean my first batch of smelly wool in my kitchen. Not much difference with a barn, but in the end I had a bag full of lovely, natural stuffing made out of Jacob wool.


The construction of the Happy Sun soft toy is super-simple.
You'll need scraps of fabric, ribbon, toy stuffing of your choice, and a little bell (optional).
I started with cutting my bits of fabric:

• Two circles out of the muslin cloth (I used a small side dish plate as a guide);
• A number of rectangular pieces from the scraps of cotton to make the tags, which I then folded in half. I also used a few pieces of ribbon. The tags will all need to be positioned snugly around the circles, so make sure you take into account their seam allowance when counting how many you'll need. You can always add more as you go if you need, though;
• Two small circles for the Happy Sun cheeks.

Next step, I embroidered my happy face by machine (but you could do this by hand if you wanted to) and stitched the cheeks on the right side of one of the two muslin cloth circles. See picture at the beginning of the post for an idea of how to do that (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step!).

Then, I sewed a small seam all around three sides of each tag (not the ribbons), and turned the tags inside out to reveal their right sides.
I took my tags, I arranged them and pinned them all around the right side of the soft toy embroidered circle as shown below, so that they would fit snugly, with their open sides one next to the other, and the rest of the tags overlapping as needed.

Then, I sewed all around the edge of the happy face circle to secure the tags to it.

I then put the other muslin circle on top of the first one, right sides facing each other, and sewed a seam all around, leaving a couple of inches gap to allow the toy to be turned inside out and stuffed.

Lastly, after I stuffed the soft toy firmly (and inserted a little bell inside to make a soft jingly sound), I sewed the gap by hand.

Ta-dah!  Soft toy finished and ready to be gifted to a lucky baby!

Happy 2013 everyone!!!

Last minute DYI Christmas Cards

HO HO HO! It is that time of the year again...I don't know you guys, but I found myself with lots to do still, and Christmas is only 10 days away...
If you are super-organised, and have already done everything you had to do (presents, baking, decorations, packing, cards...) then this post may NOT be for you - however, you may get inspired for other occasions, like birthdays. But if you, like me, are a last minute person for most of your life, please read on...

Today I'll tell you how I made some really nice Christmas cards, involving my two-year-old as a little crafty project, in just a few minutes and for very, very little money.

So, you'll need:

• ordinary paper
• cards - the size is up to you (you can buy blank ivory cards and envelopes for a few pounds, or you can cut your own cards from A1 card sheets, which will cost less but it's a little more hassle)
• scissors
• watercolours and paint brushes 
• stick glue
• a child (optional)

I wanted to make delicately coloured paper flowers, so I asked my little monkey to paint whatever she wanted with the watercolours on a piece of plain A4 paper. At the end you'll need a coloured square piece of paper, so you may want to cut it square before you (or your child) paint it. In my case, I cut it after.
This are the sort of things my little monkey paints at the moment:

I let the colours dry and then I cut two squares out of an A4 'painting' . For ordinary-sized cards (A6) you can first cut in half your A4 paper to obtain two paper flower decorations per sheet. I didn't measure anything, I just folded on a diagonal the short side of each piece of rectangular paper, on the long side, like this:

Now I had two colourful, square piece of paper, I folded and cut each of them following the Martha Stewart's paper snowflake tutorial. However, I wanted to make it a little more intricate, I found this paper flower on Pinterest and got inspired by it (apologies, but I can't find the original link):

The basic concept is, after you fold your square in eight as illustrated by the Martha Stewart's tutorial, you can have fun cutting your flower / snowflake the way you want, and be surprised by the results!
(P.S. I loved this technique so much  that I stuck a few paper snowflakes on my kitchen window = instant Christmas feeling)
I cut a few paper flowers like that, then I glued them on the back of my cards, with the centre fold of the paper right in the centre of the fold of the card. Be careful to stick the flower from the centre out, pressing carefully so that it glues flat on the card and doesn't lose its shape. Tip: use a ruler to press it flat; if you use your hands, the glue will get dirty and will stain the card and the flower, plus you won't have the same neat result.

I finished my cards off by writing a greeting message.
Done! Isn't that super-easy and cute?

And since Christmas is very near, let me wish you a bright, cosy, wonderful time with your loved ones - with a special thank to my mum who provided the image below of one of her wonderful cross stitch works.
Lots of love xxx