Sunday 10 May 2015

Incy Wincy Spider DIY


Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout, 
Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out, 
Out came the sunshine, 
and dried up all the rain... 
So Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again!


Like any child, my daughter loves Nursery Rhymes, so I decided to make her, her own little Incy Wincy to sing along with, she loved him! (And I love making pompoms, so everyone is a winner!) 


This is a fairly easy DIY, even for little hands, but some of the stages will need carful adult supervision, and I will suggest some changes along the way if you want your little ones to do the crafting. 
So, heres what you'll need... 



I used the A Beautiful Mess App to add the writing


First up is the spider himself, for this I used a pom-pom maker bought from a now defunct online store, these are quite easy to get hold of now and most craft stores stock them in a variety of sizes. 

If you don't have or want to invest in a pom-pom maker, (perhaps you aren't as enthusiastic about pom-poms as me) you could always do it the old fashioned way using two cardboard circles, theres a great Instructables tutorial for this here


                               

Once you've tied your pom-pom off, give him a haircut, use the scissors to trim off any    
                long ends of yarn so he looks nice and smart for his performance! 
           Do make sure you leave a nice long length of yarn attached to it though. 


Then it's time to add the legs, push the 4 pipe cleaners through the pom-pom body to make your spider. (In hindsight I thought that it may be better to pop your legs through the pom-pom maker/carboard rings before you tie it, but it will work either way) 

Take care to travel through the loop of yarn holding the pom-pom together, and don't worry if                   some yarn gets pushed out, it wont matter too much.


Now bend your spiders legs into the desired shape. I put an extra bend in mine as I thought it was cute, but be warned, this can catch a little on the bottom of the spout preventing the overall effectiveness. 

Do remember though, pipe cleaners can be sharp!


All Incy needs now is a lovely pair of eyes, although my eyes already had sticky backs I felt it was better to glue them on, after all this is for use with a child and I didn't want a rogue eye floating around the house so I used my faithful glue gun to safely stick them into position. 

If a child is doing this though, I would recommend a PVA glue as hot glue guns can cause nasty burns.



And there you have it. 
Incy Wincy Spider... Pretty cute right? 



                     He's not complete yet though, he needs a spout to climb up!

For this stage you'll need straws, sellotape, scissors and an old cardboard box, or if you're feeling up to a trip to the shops a sheet of shiny silver card would be lovely! 

I however found a battered old cereal box for this post *blushes*... 


Start by sellotaping your straws together to create a 'U' shape


I used jumbo straws from JYSK

These will help you push Incy Wincy back down the spout when the rain comes along. 

Tidy up the edge of your cardboard if you need to using the scissors, this is definitely another adult assisted job. 

A great job for kids at this stage would be to add a little decoration to the spout, perhaps writing out the song or gluing down sequins, whatever they choose, its a great opportunity to get creative!


On the wrong side of the box (the side you don't want to see) sellotape one half of your straw 'U' down, making sure you leave enough room for Incy to be hidden beneath it. You can trim the top of this star to no sit flush with the top of the cardboard. 

The other half of there straw 'U' needs to be left free to move. 


Now curl your cardboard into a cylinder, I used my sellotape to 
help me get the correct shape



Once you're happy with the width of your cylinder and happy that Incy can sit 
comfortably within it, sellotape it into position. 



And, you're done! All thats left to do is feed the long length of yarn through the bottom of the 'spout' and get your singing voices ready! 


Hopefully you will get as many giggles from your little one as I did! 

When sing along, pull the yarn to guide inch up the spout, then push the straw down to 'wash' him back out. 

If you have a go at this, I'd love to see your attempts, if you're an instagram user, simply use the hashtag #windupincy 

You could also use Incy as a prop in other nursery rhymes, for instance...

Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet, 
eating her curds and whey... 
Along came a spider, and sat down beside her, 
and frightened Miss Muffet away!

I'm pretty sure he'd be great fun at Halloween too.

Have fun! 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Charlotte


N.B. Please do not allow young children to play with this unsupervised as it will have not been made to CE standards and could cause injury to children under 3 years. 


Thursday 7 May 2015

5 things...

I really want to take this whole blogging thing seriously, so I tried to read up, even buying expensive magazines featuring my blogging heroes, so far my success can only be measured on one thing... 


The fact I own a pair of Swedish Hasbeens, which are apparently the bloggers footwear of choice... As lovely as they are, I'm pretty sure they won't get me far in this particular venture!



Upon further inspection of said magazine and the further research, it appears I still have a lot more research to do, but whilst I continue to find my feet and figure out this crazy online world I'd start by following advice and listing things I enjoy and can blog about. 





As 5 is my favourite number, I guessed I'd go for that. So here are my starting points, in no particular order:

1


Being a Mummy, ultimately the biggest change in my life. When Elsie first came along I considered starting a blog then entitled 'Eat, Sleep, Sh*t', as that seemed like a pretty accurate description of my life. My inner monologue gave me thousand of well versed, witty anecdotes about motherhood... However, upon reflection of these sleep deprived thoughts, the words were more likely a jumbled waffle, so its probably a good thing I was too exhausted.


2

Crafting, this is m favourite hobby, I love making and as a teacher, I love the crafts to be accessible to all, DIY's area real big plan of mine, and since beginning to plan this blog I've been unable to look at everyday objects in the same light, I'm constantly thinking 'what can this become?'. I also love to sew, this is probably one of the things I'll blog about most, and as a teacher of sewing, well 'Textiles Technology', I'd imagine this will feature a lot. 


3



Organisation, ok, so anybody who knows me will know this is something I do not have a control on, but as I mentioned before in my New Year Resolutions blog, I am aiming to get  a hold of this, and planning to juggle as many things as I do, I feel its probably necessary. Inspired by Claire Dunphy in the latest series of Modern Family, I may just set up a Pinterest page called 'Organisational Porn' to help figure out how. 


4



I'm not an especially active person, pretty much standard, I don't have wild adventures and I do get excited by the idea of curling up on the sofa with a nice glass of red. However, if I do happen to get up to something more interesting than that I will share it with you.

5

source (Photo from The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi)

Books. I love books. To the point I have to limit myself in how much I read, if I didn't I'm pretty sure I would cease any communication with the outside world. However, most of the books I plan to include will most likely be related to crafts and parenting. Although, if I find a really good book, I'll most likely be unable to resist!



Obviously, I'll just have to wait and see what works, 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Charlotte

Wednesday 6 May 2015

Letters to my daughter...

I have a beautiful daughter, she was born in 2013 and she's named Elsie, she's my world, she has beautiful rosebud lips, big blue eyes, and a head of auburn curls. She's also a lunatic, filled with giggles and totally fearless, never a day goes by when she fails to make me laugh. 




I've so much to tell her, I talk to her all the time, but alas my words mean very little now so I decided to save them, using this blog.

I've also created her an email address, to which I will send her each letter I write, and when the time feels right, I will pass on the password, so she can read to her hearts content. 

I can't predict everything I'll write, it may be nonsense, but hopefully it will mean something to her. 


So today's letter is as simple as;

'I love you, no matter what' 


I hope this will become a regular feature, keep your eyes peeled. 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Charlotte 




Monday 4 May 2015

New Years Resolutions...

This blog is a result of my New Year Resolutions, I must be the only person posting about this in May, but it's the reason for the beginning of this blog, so seemed entirely appropriate. In my last post I mentioned how starting this blog was one of my New Year Resolutions, I had others, all of which to be achieved at some point during the year. 


So first up, start blogging again, properly, with crafts and my life etc. 

Second, learn how to use illustrator. 

Thirdly, get organised and tidy (I'd post a photo of my desk, but I'm way too embarrassed!) 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Charlotte


Sunday 3 May 2015

May Day Yarn Daisy DIY

Happy Sunday Crafternoon...

May Bank Holiday Weekend is one of my favourite holidays, for one, I actually benefit from the day off bank holiday, two we always go to a great celebration with morris dancers and maypole dancing, and three, its when the lovely weather really starts to say hello!

So this year I decided to make a little accessory for Elsie to wear, I'm pretty certain it will end up on the floor, but at least it gives me a great chance for my first DIY!

(My model wasn't quite so willing, so teddy will have to do...)

This DIY is easy enough for little hands, just take care with the fork! You'll need the following supplies, you could use any colour yarn for the flowers, but I wanted daisies so stuck with simple yellow and white...

I used the A Beautiful Mess App to add the writing

First thing to do is make the flowers, wrap the yarn for the petals around the fork,making sure you start from between the middle prongs and finishing between the middle prongs...


Then take the colour yarn for the flower centre and tie it around the rows of yarn making sure you leave plenty of yarn at the end...


Carefully slip the flower from the end of the fork, then tie the yarn again, this time between the opposite petals to last time, spreading them out, this should make the petals look more like a daisy...


Flip it over, its should look like this... 


Continue making daisies until you have enough, trim any excess petal yarn off, but leave the yarn attached to the centre of the flower...


 Now its time to make the headband, using the head this is designed to fit, cut yourself lengths of yarn, twice the length you want your headband to be...


Fold them in half, and using the fork handle as a guide, knot it into a loop... 


Plait the remaining yarn, I used 12 strands, but you can use as many as you want...


Tie a knot at the end...


Your headband should now look like this... 


Time to position the flowers, use the remaining yarn from making the centres to feed them through the plaits...


Tie them off at the back and trim...


 Continue to fasten them all...


And you're done! feed the knot through your yarn loop and you're ready to go!!



I'd love to see your attempts at this, if you're an instagram user, use the hashtag #windupdaisy.

I think next year I may try using embroidery floss for a more delicate finish, and if I had one of those mini pom-pom makers I'd have used a combo of pom-poms and lots of daisies! The possibilities are endless...


Have Fun! 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Charlotte

Friday 1 May 2015

Hello, this is me...

Like most people, I had a list of New Year Resolutions, only I never promised myself I would make them happen on 1st January, I knew I could never stick to that and I'd end up putting it on my list for next year where the cycle would repeat.

Instead I promised myself I would do it at some point through the year, so that brings me here. Into the 'bloggershere', its nice here, I've done it before, but without the proper commitment, it fizzled. So here I am, trying again, and this time I'm a little more organised. (I think)

3 words that describe me... Crafty, Creative, Manic... Ok so 3 is hard, I'll just write it instead, I like in the UK, right in the middle, literally, you can't get any further away from the sea! I'm a teacher at a Secondary School where I teach kids how to sew, I'm a craft lover, sewing is my favourite, but I like to try other things too, and most importantly I'm a mother to a wonderful little girl.

So welcome to my new blog, I've plans for lots of features and ideas, including sharing my love of crafting and mostly sewing, my passion for teaching, and my life as a wife and mother.

As for the rest of my New Year Resolutions... Well you'll have to check back tomorrow!

Thank you for stopping by, 

Charlotte