Month: June 2017

As some of you know we were fortunate enough to spend May travelling in the Philippines. We visited four Islands, Cebu, Bohol, Negros and Palawan, including 12 other islands off of Palawan. We had the most amazing time. As a nurse I have had the pleasure of working with many fabulous Filipino colleagues and am honoured to call many my friends. From my experience they are a very gracious, humble and generous community and it was truly incredible to learn more about their culture and explore their home.

This is Anthon.

We spent 2 days sailing around the most beautiful islands and beaches I have ever seen with Anthon as our guide. He casually showed us how to make some amazing animals out of palm tree leaves! After a couple of minutes of weaving and folding the leaves these animals, birds, fish, turtles, even a grass hopper, just evolved and appeared. We loved how simple and natural they are.

He very patiently sat and let me photograph each stage of how to make an adorably cute angel fish! And I have been having a think as to what I could use to replicate the palm tree leaves now that I‘m home. I tried paper and card but they just didn’t have the same effect as they were too rigid. Then I tried ribbon and you can see below how to create these lovable little fish!

First up find some lovely ribbons, around 50cm long, with a width of 1.5-2.5cm depending on how big you want the final angel fish to be.

If you’re making them out of a palm tree leaf, then separate the 2 sides of the leaf from the stalk. You can do this by running your finger nail along the stalk.

Once you have cut your ribbon fold it in half and slide one loop inside the other.

Then take the bottom piece of the vertical ribbon and feed it through the horizontal loop.

Bring the bottom piece of the horizontal ribbon through the vertical loop.

Then pull the 4 ends of the ribbons so the weave is pulled tight.

Turn the square over, and overlap the vertical ends of the ribbon as shown below.

Then bring the horizontal ribbon over and then under the vertical ribbon, first from the right hand side and then repeating this from the left.

Once you have done this, again turn the square over. Loop the right hand side ribbon over and under the already woven ribbon. Then bring the top ribbon down and weave it through.

You should now have something that looks like this… hopefully! Use some fabric scissors to form the fins.

If you’re making this out of leaf, then very carefully using a knife, cut a small piece off of the middle stalk of the leaf. Pierce a small hole in the leaf and poke the stalk through to create an eye. Then cut a curved piece of leaf and cut a small hole in the side of the fish and feed it through to create a little side fin.

If you’re using a ribbon with a pattern on only one side, using a glue gun, glue half of the ribbon and fold the end over and tuck it into the end of the woven centre of the fish. Once dry then cut diagonally to create the fins.

To make an eye in the ribbon fish, get some black thread and tie several knots on top of each other. Then using a needle, pass the thread through the fish and then fasten it by tying another knot and cutting the remaining thread off. You can then make the fish into anything you’d like!! For example, a broach, a decoration or even a hanging mobile for a nursery.

All my love,

God Bless,

Mims

xXx

During my recent travels to the Philippines I was fortunate enough to be taken to some amazing fabric shops and I might have been a little naughty and purchased a fair amount!! They were amazing, floor to ceiling filled with hundreds of different colours, patterns and textures. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. (Please excuse the goofy picture!!)

Whilst I was eeking at all the fabric, my travel buddies, Jordan, Jess and Emmil patiently browsed with me! Jess and Jordan even picked out some adorably cute fabrics and I made them into lovely cushions. Here’s how to make them!

Firstly select your chosen material like thee lovely summery patterns.

Once chosen, lay your material out face down, and look at the dimensions of your cushion inner. I brought mine for £1.75 each from Wilkinson’s. These were 18×18 inches.

Then using a measuring tape, measure your material to the dimensions of the cushion inner. Making sure you have enough material overlapping on one side to form the opening of the back of the cushion cover.

Pin down the closed side of the material to keep the shape of the material. Sorry about the dodgy pics btw!

To create the opening at the back of the cushion you’ll need to create a neat seam along the two overlapping ends of the material.

I folded approx. 1cm of the edge of the material over twice and sewed down this to make a neat edge to the opening of the back of the cushion.

I then pinned down the two remaining open sides of the cushion cover before sewing the edges together. Once down it’s time to turn the cushion cover the right way round before inserting the cushion inner.

These are a really simple, easy make but have the potential to change up your deco in minutes and the cushion inners are easily re-used! Just find some more fabric you love and repeat the process for a fresh new look whenever you fancy a change!

All my love,

God Bless,

Mims

xXx

I don’t know about you, but I love trying new things and this week I had a little fun experimenting! A friend of mine sent me this link a little while ago, and suggested I try and make these bath bombs for the blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPqp1hDsM6I

I tried a few recipes that created lovely soaps but I couldn’t get them to fizz, including the link above. But I finally found one to work. The link below is a really simple recipe that creates really cute effective bath bombs!! I have commented below on how I got on using it and a few changes I made from combining other tutorials. I hope you enjoy!

https://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/acatalog/Recipe-Bath-Bomb.html

It was a slightly messy process so I wore gloves. So to begin with I poured 150g of bicarbonate of soda in one bowl and the same into a second bowl. I then mixed 50g of citric acid into each bowl and mixed the contents well. For the colour, I used gel food colouring which worked really well, adding a little at a time until I got an even colour spread. I used some vanilla essential oil (10mls as suggested by TheSoapKitchen, 5mls in each bowl) to add a lovely fragrance.

Then add a tiny bit of water at a time, until the mixture starts to feel firmer and form some shape.

I then used silicone cake cases as a mould, gradually putting some of each mixture into each case, before firmly patting the mixture down. Next up is to let the mixture dry. That is completely dry as if you get over excited like me and remove the cases too quickly, you leave part of the mixture still in the case!

Then the fun really begins and you can watch your bath bombs come to life!!

All my love,

God Bless,

Mims

xXx

This week has been a little dull and gloomy and rainy!!  Summer is just around the corner and yet so far we have only been teased with a few lovely warm days. So this week I decided I needed to do some bright and summery crafting!

I was having a sneaky stroll around Hobbycraft the other day (always a little dangerous for my bank account!) and came across some lovely wooden box letters. I instantly felt compelled to fill them with little tissue paper pompom flowers.

First up I selected my colour scheme in tissue paper before cutting out multiple different sized circular shapes. I made sure there were at least 6 layers to each circle of tissue paper. I then stapled the centre of each pile of circles. To make different styles of flowers, I cut varying shapes around the edges, for example spiky edges.

Then carefully, I peeled up each layer of tissue paper and scrunched each piece up in the centre of the flower.

Using a print stick I stuck the flowers down inside the box letter having arranged them all to work out a pattern/make sure they all fitted in.

And then all that’s left to do is find a home for your lovely summery decoration!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

All my love,

God Bless,

 

Mims

xXx

 

 

 

 

So this week I have had major post holiday blues! We had an absolutely incredible time in the Philippines, and I will be doing a post all about it in a couple of weeks. But in the mean time, I’m trying to fill my room with pretty flowers to keep me happy! And I love finding new and cute ways to display them. This week’s crafting follows on from last week’s theme of light bulbs. Here is how to make these lush hanging light bulb vases.

First up is to dismantle your light bulb. This can be messy and potentially dangerous as your dealing with small shards of glass. I recommend putting the light bulb in a box to collect all the shards, and wearing goggles and washing up gloves to protect your eyes and hands.

1. I used a pair of side cutters to remove the initial pin.
2. Then using some pliers I gradually started to break the black glass. This is quite thick glass, and make sure you hold the metal top of the light bulb not the glass dome as it’s easy to accidentally squeeze too hard and to break the dome glass.
3. Next up you need to remove the glass that holds the filament in place. This again is quite thick. I used a screwdriver placing it on the thick glass and gently taping the end with a hammer. You have to be gentle but firm but watch out that when you free the filament, it doesn’t fall too quickly as it can smash the dome below! Remove enough of the glass so you have a smooth edge inside.
4. Then finally using your pliers gently remove the remaining filament and then you have your empty light bulb.

As you can see it’s a little messy!

To make the holes, I carefully used a screwdriver to push through the metal part of the light bulb. I made a grove initially with the tip of the screwdriver, so it didn’t slip on the rounded surface. Again watch out for your eyes and hands as you pierce the metal.

To make the hanging part I used some thin florists wire and threaded beads onto it at varying intervals. I twisted the wire around the beads so that they stay in place.

I then fed the wire through the holes and twisted it in on itself to secure. To add a little more decoration, I wrapped a thin piece of ribbon around the beaded wire and secured it to the back of the light bulb with my glue gun. To hide then bottom of the metal part of the light bulb, I used another thin piece of ribbon and secured it to the back of the bulb with my glue gun.

And there you have it, such a cute little way to display some happy little flowers!

All my love,

God Bless,

Mims

xXx