DIY: Harry Potter Wands

I was feeling particularly lazy this year and decided that we would just do bought costumes for book week. So I asked the kids want they wanted to be and set about the expensive but a lot less time consuming task of ordering their costumes from ebay or raiding the dress up box.

I had a two week delivery timeframe so everything should have been here in time but NOPE! The wands didn't arrive for C and M's costumes and since we live in the middle of nowhere I couldn't just duck down to the shops and pick up something so I first raided the cutlery drawer and decided that the chopsticks were too small so my next move was my knitting needles. Luckily I somehow ended up with two sets of 10 mm wooden needles!

Then I had to hunt down my hot glue gun. That was no mean feat since my craft supplies are stored in many places around the house. But never fear I found it and managed to turn the needles into something resembling magic wands as well as not burning myself in the process. WINNING!

Anyhow, I thought I'd share here just how I did it.

WHAT I USED:

10 mm bamboo knitting needle- but you could use dowel, a tree branch, anything wooden really. The knitting needle is just a perfect size and shape especially because of their bulky ends.
Hot Glue Gun
Acrylic Paint
Clear Varnish- I haven't sealed these wands yet because I was on a strict timeline, but sealing them with some clear varnish will ensure that the paint lasts and doesn't chip away or rub off.

WHAT I DID:

All I did was spread hot glue around the base of the needles until I was happy with it.

There was no pattern in mind at all. Again, I was on a strict deadline!

Then I pulled out the kids cheapie acrylics and painted one brown and the other silver.

And ta dah! They were done. 

Both kids were happy with the results and that's really all a mother can ask for! 

Do you do handmade or store bought costumes for book week? 

DIY: Family Initials Wall Art

Back in June I shared two tutorials, one on And Sew We Craft

and on here on Actually Amy.

They were for two versions on monogrammed hoop art. The plan was for me to create family initial wall and well, last week I finally finished it. I know, slack!

The reason it wasn't all finished in June was because I had to order some new hoops as I had completely run out and there is nowhere for me to buy them locally.

They arrived in July and simply sat on my shelf. But my Mother in Law is here for a visit and she needed to sleep in my craft room so I had to clean up. And part of cleaning up meant finishing some half done projects.

But it took all of 10 minutes to finish them and hang them up on our wall.

And the kids love it. And so do I!

Now to work on the rest of the walls in this house. They all need some serious colour on them!

Bedside table re-vamp

I just found this post in my draft folder! It was all done and just needed an after photo! So yes, the watermarks are different on the before and after photo's but this project was done while we were still in QLD and before the blog renaming...


B and I have been together since we left school. I bought my first house at 18 and we pieced together that house with furniture from my childhood bedroom and bits and pieces my family and friends gave us.

B came with the clothes on his back and hardly anything else. Our couch was one he picked up for $45 from the Blue Nurses Garage sale that happens in town once a week. We steam cleaned it within an inch of its life and then had to sit on blanket after blanket just so it had some padding.

When we moved into this house that we built in 2006 we needed to actually buy some grown up furniture. But one of the items that you wouldn't class as grown up furniture that actually joined us on our move was this bedside table.

This little three draw thing is probably about 40 years old. I am pretty sure it was my mothers and then it was mine as a child. It was white back then, I painted it yellow myself when I was in my early teens. It has been Cadens bedside table for the past few years, but the yellow paint it really starting to show its age.

I asked him what colour he would like me to paint it and straight away he said red. So red it is.

We (I of course mean me!) set about stripping the aged yellow paint off and getting it ready for it's brand new look.

Then we smoothed it out with some sandpaper and prep it to be re-painted in Caden's colour choice.

Yes, it doesn't have any handles yet. It did, I left them outside to dry and Angus, our black Labrador ate them... Next time we are near a hardware store that doesn't charge the earth I will grab some.

DAVID TUTERA™ Celebrate Cards #Tuteracelebrate

Last month I recieved a rather large box on my doorstep. It was full of the new range of David Tutera Paper Crafts and I was just a little bit excited by this.

I mean look at it all! How could you not be excited by all that? The new range is called DAVID TUTERA™ Celebrate and the system is really easy to use.

It is a 3 step system- So you select your card and then your layer and then your embellishments and away you go.

And I am not joking, it really is so easy-

Okay so this card is for my Father In Law as his birthday is this weekend coming. So I chose a blue base-

Then a white spotted overlay and used a roll on adhesive to stick it down

And now it seems I got distracted and didn't take any photo's of the next step. But it is easy. All you need to do is stick on you embellishments and ta da! You are done!

There is still a tonne of things in the box that I haven't even opened yet, I have been hesitating because it has been school holidays here and I didn't want to share with the kids!

But now that school is back I have some big plans for all of these products. Not only do I see greeting cards in my future, but some other gorgeous paper crafts too!

You know what else is fantastic? You have a chance to win a David Tutera Celebrate prize pack valued at $300! Details are below!

Three lucky winners will receive a $250 grand prize pack of supplies from
David Tutera’s Celebrate cardmaking line AND a personally signed book from David
20 additional winners will receive a $50 Celebrate prize pack!

Sign up here for a chance to win:  http://pages.exacttarget.com/tutera-optin-blog/

If you would like to keep up to date with the goings on of the David Tutera Celebrate line you can find the details below:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DavidTuteraCelebrate
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TuteraCelebrate
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CoredinationsPaper/videos

The David Tutera Celebrate line is available exclusively through Jo-Ann's:
http://www.joann.com/tuteracelebrate
 
You can also check out a load of other projects made with this fabulous line below.











I am linking up with And Sew We Craft, My Creative Space, Skip to My Lou, Sew Chatty and Ninth Street Notions
Find my post disclosure here.

Totally Pinworthy Linky Party

This week my pins have been a bit eclectic. Some recipes, some diy projects, some spaces I would love to call my own...

Here are some of the DIY Wall Art projects I pinned:

Source: blog.mrhandsomeface.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: twogirlsbeingcrafty.blogspot.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: countryliving.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Amy- on Pinterest

I am hoping to try my hand at a few in the next few weeks. 

 

So anyway have you:

• posted about your favourite pins from Pinterest for the week, then link it up!
• posted a post that you would love others to pin to Pinterest, then link it up!
• If you have done both, well link them both up!

<center><a href="http://www.mahlimoo.com/search/label/totally%20pinworthy"><img src="http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t215/CadensMummy/TotallyPinworthy.jpg"/></a></center>

Let's get into it!

The rules or guidelines as such are all the same as what they were over at Tina's and if you aren't familiar with them they are:

• Grab the button (from above) and add it to your post and/or your sidebar. Because it’s good karma. A little link love didn’t hurt anyone. And the more people who see the button, the more that might join in and the more traffic we will get – hopefully.
• Add your blog link to the linky below – so other Pinners can come visit you and “pin it” to their Pinterest boards.
• Visit some of the other links, give some comment love and pin as many of the posts as you have time to do.
• If you are linking up a 'pinnable' post, please make sure that it is actually suitable for Pinterest. Please don't just link up a random post.

I will endeavour to visit each and everyone one of you that link up, it may take me a little while as I work some Sundays, but I will stop by within 24 hours of you linking up. 
Happy Pinning!

 

DIY: Photo Tile Coasters

For Father's Day we went the handmade diy route (no surprise there really!) and they were a hit.

We decided to make some Photo Tile Coasters and the great thing about this project? I had everything on hand! So it was great for the budget too.

I used this wonderful tutorial as a guide but I changed a few things to suite us.

We used some floor tiles we had in the shed from when we built the house and cut them in 4.

Then I selected some photos of the three kids and re-sized them, converted them to black and white and then printed them out on normal printer paper.

 

Then they fun began with some Mod Podge!

We glued squares of felt to the bases and then tied some twine around them and ta da, they were complete.

I would have liked them more if we were able to cut the tiles better, but we are still learning how to use the nifty tile cutter my grandfather lent us.

The kids loved making them and have already told me that we need to make some more.

Did you give handmade gifts for Father's Day?

Bathroom Update: Bath Mat Tutorial

Edited: All the images were hosted off site and have now disappeared I am slowly fixing this error. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Remember back here when I showed you my plainer than plan bathroom. It was screaming out for some colour and since I am on a limited budget, I did what any crafty diy-er would do. And set about sewing, printing and framing things.

I also wanted two colourful bath mats for the room. You might be wondering why I needed two, but I am sick of a soaking wet floor from Caden hoping in the shower but forgetting to get the mat from the bathtub first. So I grabbed a cheap bath towel from the shops and decided to use a Dream On Charm pack because I just love that fabric line and it goes with the lovely green towels I bought for the bathroom.

For one of the mats I patched together the top with a mix of the charm pack and towelling (left over from cutting the two mats out of the towel).

1x bath towel, 1x hand towel, 1x bath mat to take measurements from

towels cut to size

charm squares all placed out ready for sewing

Press the seam to one side.

stripes of towelling

Top all pieced together

This step is optional, but I zigzag stitched the edges of the towelling to minimise piling.

Lay out towelling how you would like and them pin to top.  Don't be afraid to use a lot of pins!

Zig zag stitch towelling to the patchwork squares

Pin right sides together and sew around the edges leaving a gap for turning

Don't forget to clip the corners

Now it is time to top stitch

To enhance it's durability I quilted along two of the towelling strips.

Ta da! All finished!

For the other mat, I decided to try something a little different and decided to sew some towelling feet on top of the patchwork charm squares, it is my kids bathroom after all so I wanted to keep it a little playful. But I will leave that for another post as I have already overloaded you with photos!

Stay tuned for more bathroom updates, I still have a few more things I want to do. Hopefully it wont be raining next week and I will be able to get you some decent photos of the whole room.



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