Explosive props: how to make your own fake TNT style dynamite prop

For anyone planning a Wild-west / Frontier party or looking for props for a play or production here is a guide on how to make it quickly and for very little cost.

Apologies in advance for the grainy images, it was quite late at night and needed these by morning ;)

Competition winner

First competition run on the Facebook page, to win this Sunshine "HAPPY Birthday" card.

Every liker who commented was assigned a number according to chronological order and random.org was used to select a winner

Congratulations:
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*Joni Riley*

Please contact me ASAP with your UK postal address and I will get your card out to you :)

Teacher Gifts and cards 2014

It's that time of year again, another school year coming to an end, and you think everything should be calming down and wrapped up for the summer. But no, your 5 year old needs a costume for their party, not to mention Thank You cards for Teachers, TA's, parent helpers.... Oh and a thoughtful teachers gift! Thank goodness for pinterest!

Firstly my Teacher gifts: I had seen this idea and free printable from Lisa Storms a while ago but not seen any of the tumblers in the UK. Found these apple green ones in The Range and got to work. I printed the free download onto kraft card for the straw, shredded brown and ivory paper to fill the cup with faux "iced latte"

Probably more of an expense than planned but I ended up buying starbucks coffee vouchers for each of the 3 teachers and asked if I could have a cup-holder with each. The cup-holders didn't quite fit, but that gave me the opportunity to fill the void with a die-cut apple printed with the teacher's name and thank you message.

Next, an orginal idea I had (but so simple I'm sure it will have been done somewhere before. I got Little Lady to make her own cards this year:

I printed the teachers name on the front, and a little quote she has said about each teacher. We then cut out triangles from my scraps of scrapbook papers, and then I gave her the felt tips and told her the triangles were dresses, could she draw the head/arms/legs and write her own name inside. I am so pleased with the result they look great, didn't take long and every card is unique :)

Frozen Party: The Invitations

As you may have gathered, despite the May weather here finally starting to brighten up, our house is becoming a flurry of snowflake themed crafting, no I'm not getting prepared for Christmas early, we are planning a Frozen Party :) And like many Parents up and down the country I am having to work harder than usual to find theme related paraphernalia, because of the sheer demand for all things Frozen being at a pinnacle and the fact that shops everywhere seem to have the bizarre notion that snowflakes belong in winter ;)

So I am obviously making a lot of my own things for the Party..... who am I kidding - I'd have been doing that anyway! So first up (not including that Glass bottle favor post, because who makes favors before they have actually invited anyone...) is the invites. I had some idea that I could do some Anna and some Elsa, but the Elsa ones were so pretty I got a bit carried away, and if I had been thinking I would have made some Olaf ones for the boys.

Firstly I should point out that as the Elsa image is a Disney Trademark, therefore copyright, so I can not reproduce these for sale. However that's good news for all of you crafters as it does mean I can share the details of how to make it....

Frozen Party: Glass bottle favours

Firstly, my apologies I have been a blog deserter for favour of quick updates on my facebook page and completely neglected my updates. Somehow I still haven't added a party round up for the TMNT party J had back in November let alone Christmas - must try harder!

I am brought back here today because I have been planning Miss L's June birthday :) She wants the 'hot trend' of the moment: A Disney Frozen Party as a theme.

Firstly ... Do you know how hard it is just to buy snowflake related items in April/May?

The Disney store itself seems ill prepared for this sudden run away merchandising success, our local shop sells out of anything Elsa related before it even makes it to the shop floor, and anything from a certain auction site is priced high due to supply and demand. So I will be making everything from scratch in a largely bluey/white theme. The only saving grace is that we have managed to get our hands on one of the very elusive dresses, so at least I won't be needing my sewing machine this time around :)

Obviously I can't share too many party details yet as I'd hate to spoil the surprise for any of the attendees, but I can share this one: Glass bottle favors for the Party bags.

OK, so this isn't going to be some big turorial of a post, because if you know how to pour small things into glass bottles you are pretty much sorted, you just need to decide what to fill it with.

Firstly I tried, faux pearls, silver beads, glitter and tiny snowflake confetti, the idea being that the girls could use them as ornaments, and this one is certainly going on our tree this year.

I did ultimately shelve this idea for the party thou, as I was worried that some of the 3-4 year olds might accidentally ingest the contents. However this probably wouldn't be an issue for older party goers or if you included a safety tag/label.

This brought me to my next bright idea: edible contents. Here I've used Bubble gum millions - but any theme coloured tiny sweet or sherbert would do. I've added a paper punch snowflake and gem to keep it in the Frozen theme.

Other ideas that would work well might be just glitter, beads, feathers, or even make a melted snowman: (use firmo to make a tiny carrot nose, twigs and coal lumps and fill the bottle with water so they float). Good luck, and I hope this gives you yet another idea in your hunt for D.I.Y party perfection.

 

ps- apologies for the awful photo quality for some reason I can't photograph these in good light today!

Mojo Monday - #335 Steampunk and burlap

Nothing like a bit of steam punk and burlap :) The moment I saw this week's Mojomonday challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

This is really my type of card,  I even managed to sneak a little signature twine in :D

Here is this week's sketch if you fancy a try yourself, worth a visit to see all the other innovative entries [click here]

Mojo Monday - #331

I don't mind admitting that I've had a bit of a creative block when it comes to card making recently an seemingly lost my confidence after a Chritmas crafting burnout. What better way to get my Crafty Mojo back than to take part in a MojoMonday challenge?

I was in need Valentine's day card for next week and this challenge provided the perfect excuse to make one early, get my creative juices flowing and use up some of my scraps at the same time?

Here is this week's Sketch from Julee if you're feeling inspired to have a go yourself, and check out all the other lovely entries [HERE].