Recycled Rainbow Windsock

I'm having a bit of a Rainbow LOVE affair!!

To celebrate a fine Spring day we decided to make some Rainbow "windsocks" for our tree!

Keeping it super simple, cheap, colourful and fun.

To make your own you will need:

tin cans, (any size)

primer

paint, (in rainbow colours)

varnish

ribbon

glue gun & glue stick

nail and hammer or drill

string

To begin prime your tin can…I used gesso to prime ours…you could just as easily

use white paint.

Then, paint away with rainbow colours!!  Leave it to dry…

when it's totally dry put on a coat of clear varnish.

(we used an outdoor varnish)

Then use a nail and hammer, or a drill to put a hole in the top of your can.

Cut your ribbon to whatever length you please.

Using a glue gun, glue the ribbon to the inside rim of your can.

String it up and enjoy.

While we're waiting ever so patiently for things to bloom, 

these make our bleak yard look so so lovely!

Rainbow love!!!!

Flower Print Sachets

With bright green shoots peeking out, but few flowers yet to be seen... we thought we would find something fun to do with these lovely pansies that were gifted to us. Then, with the added bonus that  Mother's Day is on its way, we decided we had some serious flower crafting to do!

I have always wanted to try doing flower prints on fabric and thought we'd give it a go. We were delighted by how beautifully and easily the flowers transferred! Not to mention... how fun is it to get to pound with a hammer. My littlest couldn't get enough of it! 

After admiring our flower kissed fabric we decided we needed to make something with it. Seeing as every mama loves flowers and these flowers never die, we thought why not fill them with more flowers!

So here is our flower printed ~ no sew ~ rose petal filled sachets.

Here is what you need to make them:

white cotton fabric (we just cut up an old pillow case)

hammer

fresh flowers for pounding

double-sided fusible interfacing or fabric glue

iron 

dried flowers (we used some roses we had dried)

To Begin 

Fold your fabric in half, measure out a square and cut it out.

Keep the fold, as that will be a seal for one side of your sachet.

Choose your layout for your flowers and then flip the flowers face side down.

 Fold your fabric over top of your flowers.

Take your hammer and on a solid surface pound the flowers.
Yep. I think she could have done this part of the craft again. and again. and again!

You will see your flowers begin to bleed through after a minute or so of pounding. 

I know. It seems barbaric. Poor little flowers. Just think though, this is a way they can have a much longer life!

By this point they should have transfered nicely.

Gently peel off the flowers and admire the results. 

Lovely!

I loved how the back of the sachet has the backs of the flowers transfered onto it. 

Hard to believe just a piece fabric, a few flowers and a hammer can create this!

Now to seal up part of your sachet for filling...

At this point you can either glue the sides (leaving open a hole for filling).

Or this process...

Cut out a square of interfacing the same size as your square, so that it tucks neatly inside.

Fold over your fabric over.

Carefully iron (an inch or so in) on two of the sides.

Be sure to leave one side open for pouring your flowers in.

Crush up your dried flowers.

Now you can fill your sachet with those sweet smelling flowers.

Iron the last side shut and there you have it. 

A lovely flower printed ~ flower filled sachet!

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Have a lovely day!

Toilet Paper Roll Butterflies.

I collect toilet paper rolls like a mad woman…

time to pull out a Springtime craft that will utilize my stash.

Enter the toilet paper roll butterfly!!!!

To make your own you will need:

toilet paper rolls

scissors

paint and brushes, (any colours you so wish)

twigs, (one thick one and two thin bits for antennae)

glue gun and glue sticks

creative enthusiastic helpers

To begin cut your toilet paper roll into 4 pieces.

Bend these at both ends so they form a "wing" shape...

like so!

To begin we painted our twig bodies and antennae black…this is optional…you can leave them plain.

Then paint some fancy designs on your "wings".  We did rainbows, polka dots…

we painted the inside of the "wings" as well.

Now let it dry…

Then glue it all together…glue the antennae onto the twig body

and then the wings onto the sides.

It should look something like this!

This was a great rainy day craft that channeled our creativity and LOVE of butterflies and Spring!

Not to mention it was easy to do, even for the littlest amongst us.

Bring on the butterflies!

Why I'll take imperfection anytime!

This is my little family…trying to take a "nice", (yes, I'm gonna put that in quotation marks),

 picture of us all together. 

 As I'm scrolling through all our photos of Easter time, there is not one picture perfect picture of MY family…but, this delightfully imperfect one…you gotta admit…it's much more entertaining…and heck, if I'll allow myself to admit it out loud…it's much more US!

This is the "pallet" that the delivery driver dropped off with some flooring…

it's been sitting outside for weeks now…have I found the time to get rid of it yet…

NO!

Does my daughter care…not at all…in fact she's decided that if she lays her booster seat on it just so, it becomes a rocket ship to the moon…SHE'S GOING TO THE MOON on my trash!!!

My procrastination inspired a moon trip…insert check mark here.

And here is my upstairs…I had a BIG wake up call when I cleared out a corner of my room and the contents of that corner FILLED an entire other room!!!!  

This wake up call has allowed me the opportunity to "give stuff away"…I feel like it's my karmic work…I've let go of dressers, desks, cabinets, craft supplies, vintage this and that, 

(that I will never ever use).  

I've make lots of people happy with my former stuff, and it's been such an experience of both growth and letting go!

In the housekeeping department, it should be obvious…I'm a work in progress.

Nope…we will NEVER be one of those "picture perfect" families.  You would think it's all gnomes and toadstools and fairy dust over here, but errr…not quite! 

It's taken me years to get over my quest for "perfect"…it used to be something I'd wear like a front, (or something I actually thought was attainable),

 if only I could paint my walls a certain colour and wear the right clothes,

 or buy the right toys I'd find it.  

I'd even judge people who didn't quite fit into my vision of what that would be, 

I'd look down on people too.

I've come to realize that my previous ideals made people feel badly about themselves, and really who the heck am I to judge?!

Behind all my former ideals there is this family…

(we are one of those real families…the ones that you will never ever see in a magazine, 

unless of course it's a "what not to do" article!)

today my 5 year old looked on my table and declared she "LOVED the PISSY willows" I had put in a vase…my eldest and I fell on the floor laughing…yes, before I corrected her I had to have a good belly laugh...and you know what, the joy…the laughter…the chaos...it sums us up perfectly!

Let us unite in our imperfection and celebrate our delightful and imperfect lives!

Lots of love

Spring Wreath

{Confession} My Valentine wreath hung on my door until today. Yep. Even though each time I looked at it I was reminded that I needed to change it up, winter was being so stubborn that I was left a little uninspired. 

Finally spring began to show her face and inspiration hit!

To create you will need:

grapevine wreath

mactac (also know as contact paper)

pressed flowers

moss

glue

To begin:

Cut two squares of mactac a little larger than your wreath.

Peel the backing off one of your pieces of mactac and tape it down, sticky side up.

 Arrange your flower design in the center.

Peel the backing off your other piece of mactac and firmly press it onto of your flowers. 

Glue it to the back of your wreath and trim off the excess mactac.

Glue the moss onto the wreath.

There you have it!
Ready for the door.

Love and light to you this Easter weekend,

Little Felted Chick

Being the season of new life we decided to create a sweet little baby chick.

This craft is a wonderful introduction to felting. These chicks whip up quick and are a very do-able activity even for little hands. If you have never wet felted before this process will delight you! It is wonderful how easily the wool felts beneath your fingers. 

To create you will need:

yellow wool roving

orange and black felt

glue

wooden or plastic egg

soap 

hot water

To begin:

If you are using a plastic egg fill it partially with dried rice or beans and seal it with duct tape.

If you are using a wooden egg it's ready to be used as is.

Wrap your egg tightly in thin layers of roving. Be sure to

alternate the direction of the layers with each new one added, until your egg is fully covered. 

 You want you egg to be hiding completely in the wool with no bare spots. Don't worry how bulky it looks. The wool will shrink a lot during the felting process.

If you are doing this next part with little hands, I recommend popping the wrapped egg into a (cut off) foot of a pair of nylons and tie a knot at the top. This keeps it all together and keeps it from sliding apart.

 Now it's time to felt all that wool together!

Squirt a good squeeze of dish soap onto your egg and dip it in a bowl a very warm water.

Begin to gently squeeze and pat your wool egg, dipping it into the water after every few squeezes or so. Go about this with care as the wool will shift easily. 

After about a minute of agitating the wool by rubbing and squeezing it,  you will feel the fibers knit together nicely and the egg shrink.

Once it feels fairly tight, run it under cold water to shock it and get the soap out. 

Let it dry and it should be good to go!

Cut out two small circles for the eyes, a diamond for the beak and two little feet out of felt.

Attach them with glue and admire your sweet little chick!

I think she made herself a new friend.

Have a wonderful day!