More Bird Decorations - Keeping it Eco

Similar ingredients to the last bird decorations - just in different measure. And no sewing.

The main bird bodies are recycled wallpaper - one side of the wallpaper is the height of seventies fashion - BROWN contrasted with BROWN, highlighted with A TOUCH OF GOLDY BROWN on a BROWN base. Mmm. Where's my crochet hostess gown, fibre optic lamp and shgpile carpet to match? Yes -but it's not so festive. However, the other side is a wholesome embossed natural off white. Goes well with recycled coffee sack, no?

Simple - cut, glue, bit of ric rac, pom pom trim feet, hessian scrap for a wing and a button eye...or not. I like mine eye free I must admit.

 Here's the template I made - (you will have to play around with the size because I haven't sussed out attaching pdf's yet.)

And here's another template to try...get crafting!

 

Enjoy! 

Valentine DIY links

Paper bling from minieco.....for a proposal perhaps? Find the intructions and download here

 Crochet hearts from crochet plaisir

Filet crochet  pattern here

Lovely little letter boxes for valentine messages from simply modern mom...

Keeping Christmas Eco - tassel garland

I have seen gorgeous tassel garlands around the traps (i.e. on the internet..)and think they look pretty good too.
But in the spirit of keeping it eco, I've made one from recycled materials.

Sewing patterns are just tissue paper, right? So I cut the rectangle I wanted and painted them with watercolour paint. The large tassel in the centre is a chip packet cut lengthwise down the sides. The smaller corn chip tassels are a single packet cut in half.

It did all those tassel-like things you would expect - it swayed inthe breeze, rustled and picked up the light. I should make more tassels and make it longer but I got distracted making something else....I'll show you tomorrow... 

Can you spy the apricots ripening in the tree? Yum!

Christmas craft: Paper

Well, it's finally time! December is here! And everyone is getting into the Christmas/Craftmas spirit here so I thought I'd share some of the things we are making at our place. In fact - the twins (aged 4) are so keen on decorating the house, that today they hung undies and kitchen utensils all over the house! Clean undies....but still... not recommended!

Garlands are my "thing" this year. And I'm still keen on reindeer. So I've made this template for a leaping deer with Adobe illustrator and I've used some vintage wallpaper to cut them out.

 I cut on the outside of the line to make it a bit easier. Once I have cut them out I glue them to a length of ric -rac just across the antlers. You could use any sort of ribbon really. I stitch little loops at each end for easy hanging.



I have also been making reindeer paper chains based on this template below which I also created on Adobe Illustrator. Cut out the template then fold the paper to size in a concertina and don't cut on the left side at the antlers and the right side at the back leg. I used old wall paper again - which was, quite frankly, too tricky! But it works well in lighter weight paper - crepe, tissue or even brown paper on a roll.

The template below I used for a felt decoration but it would work well in paper too! You could add a frosty layer of tracing paper for an icy effect!



 Happy Craftmas!