Shabby Chic Bunting

 Making some bunting to brighten up a colour bond fence at work, it is painted Mission Brown and IT. IS. DRAB. I found a good selection of sheets, pillow cases and a couple of pairs of old pyjamas (used the legs only) Turns out the sheet was the easiest to cut the pattern from - that is the stripe-y one, so I used that one more than all the others. In hindsight I could have cut it so that on some of the pennants the stripes ran horizontally instead of all vertical, it would have added more variety without much effort.....next time !

Some of the pennants I had to sew together, then I worked out to fold them and then cut them which saved a step. The pillow cases made 6 pennants each and I had 6 different ones, 2 pyjama legs also gave me 6 flags and the sheet gave heaps as it was a single, I cut 18 from it. I still have most of it left - a vintage flannelette number that I got for 20c as it was in the Dog Blanket section of St Vinnies ! I put the template on the fold or seam of the pillowcases to try to avoid sewing as much as possible, but I only worked this out after a while and unfortunately had to sew about 10 together in the end....ah well....lesson learned for next time.

I had originally planned to sew them all onto the rope, but dumped that plan really fast when I realised I had 60 pennants to sew. Hemming tape was the answer because I had a good stash of that ! I just folded the pennants over the rope and ironed on a strip of tape underneath the rope to glue both sides of the pennant together, I did another blob of tape on the apex as well so that they didn't separate in the wind. I got a bit involved in this step and forgot to take a photo.....ooops !

I laid them all out first so that I could see which colours I liked together and also because my rope was pre-cut (a bargain op-shop buy - 6  x 2m lengths for 50c) I had 11 pennants per length and I wanted them to all be different.

I'm happy with that !!

Just wish I had had 1 more length for the bottom panel.

Upcycled Gecko Wall Art

 Found these little Geckos at The Reject Shop and transformed them into these brightly coloured little fellas, glued a few magnets on the back of each one (because I needed to stick them onto a colourbond fence) and stuck them up !

I think they look pretty good

I sprayed them with a matt white undercoat and then roughed out the design in pencil

I just used normal acrylic paint, laid on quite thickly and undiluted

All done. I sprayed them with an an exterior grade sealer which made them nice and shiny.

They wont last for too long outside in the Aussie climate, so I am sure I will have to repaint them at some stage.

Had so much fun I did another 3    lol

Dinosaur Volcano World

Cable Reel play table for Pre-school.

Dinosaur World !







Using Space Invader foam to make the cave



...and a volcano on the opposite side.


Looking pretty awful right now....this will be the cave...who knew ?? 😄



Just squirted some more on so that I have enough to carve out


Rough shape carved out



Paper clay applied and moulded into shape - the photo is upside down because I forgot to take one of it right way up....oooops!



....and the start of the volcano with a paper towel tube down the centre



Basic cuts before papier mâché application



Volcano is done - you can just see it on the back of the reel. Filling all the holes in the 'sky' with filler and sanding it all back - again !! No splinters allowed !



Nearly done....all painted up. Just have to glue on the 'grass' and carpet on the base





Cave, complete with slightly scary eyes......



Pterodactyls....of course



Totally finished now - changed a bit of the landscape. Grass glued on the top of the reel with a lake painted in (dinosaurs have to drink too!) and carpet on the base to prevent scratches



Just added some natural building materials from the wood pile (all sanded) for building caves and bridges, leaves for food and possibly branch-y looking dinosaur bones  😄😄😄

Christmas faux brick fireplace

Fireplace made out of baby wipe boxes all ready for Christmas decorations

Hot Air Balloon Mobile for the Nappy Change Room.



Starts off with a small inflatable beach ball - had to do several coats of Acrylic paint to cover up the bright colours. They were NOT the look I was going for....



Basket made from a random gift box that I had lying around that happened to be the right size and shape - covered with scrap booking paper to make it look 'basket-y'


Trialling the rope lengths and balance...



The balloon finally painted up....


Almost finished - sand bags are random bits of cotton....from a pillow case I think, the rings are 2 old bangles that don't fit over my arthritic knuckles anymore and the bunting is craft paper diamonds glued over string



All done - clouds carved from styro-foam packing are glued back to back onto fishing line, teardrop 'raindrops'are glued back to back as well. It is hung on a swivel hook so that it turns on any draft or breeze - the babies love it.

Anzac Day luminary and wreath made for a Covid safe/stay at home Anzac Day

Fairy House for pre-school

The little Fairy House made from a stump - made for work to give the kids something to look at !
It is situated behind railings so that the children can only look but cant touch.