*Photo heavy post

This is part three of our doll’s house renovations. Having not quite finished the floors due to a lack of a piece of stiff cardboard (to put under the carpet like fabric for strength) we have moved on to the walls. K was in the right mood to continue working on the doll’s house today so we set to work. The other day I went to Riot Art and they had all their large scrap-booking papers marked down to 69c each. We selected a few, K particularly liked the butterflies and teapots and took them home.

The first thing to do was to make a template making sure we had the window in place. This was a good opportunity to explain to Miss K what a template was. She understood for the most part but I wouldn’t say completely (she’s only 4 after all). After trimming a piece of computer paper to the right size of the wall I did a rubbing of the window area so we could get an exact fit.

I’m a bit of a short-cutter in some things so I would suggest sticking the template to the wall using blu tak so it doesn’t move.

I then proceeded to cut out the window of the template using a metal ruler and knife and then cut out the scrap-booking paper using the template.

While I was at Riot Art I talked to the sales assistant to see if there was an alternative to Modge Podge. the small bottle was around $13 and the large pot around $20, a bit expensive for me at the moment. She suggested using binder medium for both sticking and sealing the paper to wood, decoupage style. The bottle of binder medium was around $12 and much larger than the modge podge one, so a cheaper option. Atelier is a good brand from memory so I figured it was a good choice.

K then went ahead and painted on the binder medium, she did a pretty good job too. Check out the concentration on her face.

and then, after helping her to stick on the cut out paper sheet she sealed it with the same medium.

At this point I had to stop to make another template for the next wall so after talking her out of putting the very busy butterfly paper next to the fake slate floor (she decided to go with the upstairs which will be carpeted, trying to teach a tiny bit of design here) I got on with it and she got distracted. It was a good distraction though, she went and sat in front of her sister and drew her pictures which was sweet. I proceeded to stick on the butterfly paper.

And then we did the bathroom with the blue striped paper (she came back to help with that one).

After sealing all of our ‘wallpaper’ she decided she’d had enough (and so had Miss L who wanted to join in) so we stopped there for this week. We still have several rooms to wallpaper and I think she’s enjoying watching the house change.

Each year after packing up the tree I remove the Christmas cards from their little line and pile them up. I used to wonder what to do with them as I always thought that most of them were just too nice to throw away. About 6 or so years ago I started to recycle them but not in the usual way.

I go through the pile and put aside any that I want to keep (extra special or personal ones) and then cut the covers off the rest. Most people tend to write only on the right side of the inside of the card which leaves the front cover back blank. I then proceed to cut up the covers into small shapes, mostly squares and rectangles but sometimes I cut around figures or stars too. Can you guess what I use them for (I’m fairly sure I’m not the only person in the world who does this)? Next years Christmas gift tags. I never buy them even though the sticky ones are tempting because I think these are just as good. The following year I get to look back at the Christmas cards again and remember some of their senders.

There are of course a lot of other things people do with their Christmas cards. You can keep them all (like my Nanna did), put them in the recycle bin, give them to Planet Ark or use them to make your own cards the following year. Once my cards are cut up and put away I know the Christmas season is over for another year.

If you were ever so inclined as to make a polymer clay cane with a gumnut pattern in it I’ve written a tutorial (complete with half good and half blurry photos) here on my Polyclarific blog.

Here’s what the finished result looked like:

The other day I needed to make a quick envelope to go with some gifts and was about to look up a tutorial for it when I thought, surely it can’t be that hard to make. After a little thinking this is what I came up with.

Finished Envelope

First take a square of paper and placing it ‘wrong’ side up, fold it in half corner to corner

Then fold the tip down to the middle

Open the square to reveal the fold lines

Fold the bottom triangle to the middle of the ‘wrong’ side

Next fold two of the corners into the centre

Fold the rectangle back up to meet the fold lines

Fold down the triangle and you will see your envelope form

Ta Daaaa! The finished envelope

You could easily trim the inside flaps and glue them down if you wanted to. I just used a sticker to hold down the triangle once putting contents inside.

A few months back my hubby asked if I would mind making a Pinata for the youth group which he helps with each week. I had plenty of notice so put it on my calendar to start 3 weeks beforehand. This turned out to be a good thing because in-between getting it dry during winter and having a lot of other things to do (including that week of sickness) it took me exactly 2 weeks from start to finish. Before you look at the photos below let me explain. The pinata is meant to be a calf and the reason its yellow is because it coincides with the story of the golden calf found in Exodus 32:1-35. I’ll admit, mine turned out to be more hippo-like than calf-like but somehow I don’t think the youth group kids are going to care. So here goes, the series of steps on how I made a pinata (including the things I’d do differently next time):

Gather newspaper and a balloon

Put flour (3 cups to 2 cups water) into a bowl (a nice wide one is easier to use)

Get your helper to stir the mixture till all the lumps are gone

After tearing newspaper into 1 inch thick strips, dip into the flour mixture and stick onto the blown up balloon

Layer one complete (make sure you cover every tiny bit of the balloon)

Layer 2 complete. I only did two layers due to time but I would recommend doing at least three layers. Make sure you allow the pinata to dry completely in-between layers, otherwise it will become moldy.

Add legs using cardboard tubes. I cheated a bit here and used wide packing tape (clear) to hold them on under the newspaper.

Add a head. I used half an egg carton

Cut a hole at the tail end of your creation (yes K is looking inside). Keep the piece you cut out.

Once the head and legs are dry, put lollies inside the pinata. Make sure they are sealed lollies. Put a hook of some sort at the top of your pinata before sealing the hole. (see how I did it two pictures down).

Seal up the hole using the piece you cut out. As you can see we had no newspaper left!

Create some way to hang the pinata. As you can see I used string but this is not the standard way to do it. Most pinata’s have a hook at the top but mine was not thick enough to hold the weight, this is why its a good thing to do more than two layers if you have time.

Add ears

Add Tail

And now the fun part…paint! I mixed a couple of colours to get mine more golden-ish.

Once dry do the very last step…..let your helper add eyes using a black marker

And here you go, one painted golden calf/hippo-looking pinata.

Most pinatas are brightly coloured and often have layers of crepe paper so you could add that too. I’m hoping someone takes some photos of the kids destroying this little guy and enjoying his contents. Hope you’ve enjoyed our pinata progression.

I have always thought that the humble tic-tac container could have a much higher calling. Before the days of recycle and upcycle I used to try to find ways to use these little boxes but mostly they ended up in the bin. Well, now I’ve found a very simple way to get more use of of them.

I must admit, this isn’t very hard and not something that took a lot of brain power, nevertheless its at least allowing me to formally enter the world of upcycling!! So, here’s a little tutorial on what to do with the humble tic-tac container:

1. Collect however many tic-tac containers you would like to use and proceed to eat the tic-tacs until all gone!

2. Remove labels from the containers, these should peel off without any need for soaking.

3. Once stickers are removed, gather the containers into a group.

4. Cut out a long piece of clear sticky book covering (contact) making sure that it will be long enough to go all the way around the containers. Check by laying them side by side.

5.Peel off the paper backing and lay the covering down. Start by placing one of the containers on the covering followed by the rest.

6. Carefully wrap the sticky sheet around the containers so that both sides meet in the middle. Make sure they are lined up evenly unlike the containers in the second shot which were corrected.

7. Fill containers with small items. I’ve used my own handmade beads here.

8. Remember that the lids will slide off easily with a little pull. Do this to put larger objects into the containers.

9. Voila! Finished product.

Of course, if you used the new large sized Tic-Tac containers you would have an even better storage system. I’ll have to start saving those up too! The great thing about this is that you can add to this container as you eat your way through more tic-tacs and as an added bonus, your items will smell like mint! Happy tic-tac storage box making!