Just Made It!

Well, the last day of the month, and I am just writing another post.  I have been busy and will show you the results in a couple of days (or two)

We celebrated Australia Day on Thursday January 26th and I had fun making some little treats for a party I was attending

It was a hot day, so nice cool jelly and watermelon were my treats of choice!

Caramello Koala in Gum Tree (Green Jelly) and Freddo Frog in Pond (Blue Jelly) .  As we were going to have these around the pool, I made them in plastic takeaway cups, just to be safe.

 

Then I used by Australia Map Cookie Cutter to cut out some shapes from the watermelon

 

 

Lots of fun.

 

I have already started making my Christmas Cards for this year.  What?  I hear you say?  Well, last year I was so rushed during November and December I decided to start early, and you have to admit this is "early".  Will post some photos soon.

 

February tomorrow already.  The days are going so quickly.  I have to say, Cindy has had a health free month, so I am so pleased about that!.  We start some training next month, a little late, but it was extremely difficult to find a trainer within a 100 klm radius of where I live.  She has naughty traits already, so hopefully we can correct them with training, nothing serious, just naughty. 

 

 

Until next time

 

Judy

 

 

 

 

Happy Australia Day

It is Australia Day today, January 26th, and I usually create something to reflect our country.  This year I went away for the long weekend to visit family, and did not get a chance to make anything specific.  I did have these journal cards ready to make a card, which I will do sometime in the future.

The latest cards I have made, were based on a little clip art that my niece messaged to me.  It was so sweet, I saved the image and made it into two cards, each a little different.

The first card, was mounted on a red polka dot card, which looked great

The second card, was mounted on white card with a black polka dot washi tape behind the off angled mounts

I will be sending the top card back to my niece, I think she will be surprised, but these would also be great for Valentines Day, which is not very far away.

Did you have a great weekend?

Judy

Australia Day Crafting

I have used the Australia Day celebration as the theme for our crafts.


First up - a Australian Themed Fabric Box

 

The buttons used are available in store - Australia Destinations pack from Dress it Up.

Next - we painted a wooden Australia Mobile which consisted of a map of Australia, 2 x koalas and 2 x kangaroos.  This is what it looked like before we begun.

 

 

It was hard to take a photo of the finished item, as it kept on blowing in the wind.

Next, and my favourite, was a Cockatoo tin, this can be used to hold your pens & pencils, or scissors or just about anything.  We did not have any white feathers, and for one tin (RHS) we cut a set of Angel Feather wings in half.  My little cockatoo on the left, only has his little gold wings.

The instructions for making these really cute tins can be found here 

Lastly using a toilet roll and free printable we made this koala.  Super easy, check out the site as there are a lot of animals and characters you can use to decorate your toilet paper roll.

 

Nearly forgot - we also made a couple of gumnut  babies. 

 

 

A very creative afternoon, which resulted in one very tired Auntie.  

Have a good week

Judy

Australia Day Challenge - 3

For the third week of my Australia Day challenge, I have three little repurposed ideas for you.

1.  Convert a wristband into a Cup Cosy - this is the ideal size to slip over a cup.  Enjoy a cup of Aussie tea with your own Aussie Green and Gold Cup.

 

 

2. Using a paper napkin, convert a empty tin into a flower container.  These beautiful gum blossoms are from my sister Sue's garden.  Using just the top layer of the paper napkin, modpodge it to the tin.  Once dry, place another layer of modpodge on top.

 

 

3.  Convert Australia Flag Luggage Tags into serviette place holders.  Take out the name and address card from the back of the tags and replace with a photo.  I removed the plastic ties and replaced them with red ribbon to wrap them around the serviettes.  I love the look of these.

The photo shows both the front and back of the luggage tags.

 

These would also make great gift tags.

 

 

 

Just as a little extra - I wrapped some mini Hershey Bar chocolates with Aussie themed graphics. 

 

 

My last challenge, a good friend Sonia, dropped of this piece of fabric this afternoon and asked what I could do with it?  Any suggestions?  It is not a cotton fabric, and measures approx. 48cm x 35cm.

 

 

All I can think of is to make a cushion cover or a placemat.  I do not want to cut into it, as I think you would lose the detail.

 

Close-up of gum blossoms to finish post

 

 

 

Still waiting for the cooler weather to get here, stay safe AND cool

 

Judy

Australia Day Challenge - 2

For the second week of my Australia Day Challenge - see here - I have repurposed two plastic tablecloths into a sun shade.

 

Materials needed:

Tablecloth

Clips

Hoola Hoop

 

I found these little clips at a local discount store - they were ideal as they could slip onto the hoola hoop and clip onto the top of the tablecloth

 

 

Plastic tablecloths

 

 

 

Put them all together, hang under a tree, throw down a quilt, rug, blanket and you have a lovely place to laze protected from the sun.   Brandy did not waste any time, trying out the new space.

 

 

 

 

Until next time

Judy

Australia Day Challenge

I have set myself an Australia Day challenge

 

I am going to try and "repurpose" an Australia Day item into something other than what it was intended each week until Australia Day on January 26th.  That means I have set myself three challenges.

 

Just to show what I am talking about - I have converted two Aussie Silicon Wristbands into useful key chains ...

 

 

Now please take into consideration this was my first attempt, or I should say the keychain on the top was the first attempt and the Brad was not centred very well in the wristband.

 

All that was needed for the repurpose was to punch a hole through both layers of the wristband, insert a Brad and bend the ends of the Brad around the wristband to secure.  Thread your key ring on through the end loop, and you have now successfully repurposed your silicon wristband into a key chain. These key chains can easily be found in the bottom of your bag, or wherever you have left them. 

 

The silicon wristbands were purchased from "The Reject Shop" in Australia - pack of 2 - $2.00

 

If anyone else would like to take this challenge I would love to hear from you and see what you create.

 

Note: The little kangaroo with a joey in his pouch, is a "Teddy & Friends" soft toy.  What I really love about him is that he also has a little billy can and swag, which is very Australian.

 

Until next time

Judy

Koala Cupcakes for Australia Day

I think this idea came originally from the Australian New Idea magazine, but it is certainly applicable for an afternoon treat on Australia Day

Koala Cupcakes

 These were very easy to make, the only difficulty I had was trying to make a grey coloured icing for the koalas.  I was unable to purchase black food colouring in my small town, so I mixed red & blue food colour together until I got the desired shade.

For the actual cupcake, I cheated, and used a packet mix .. easy.  Spread with frosting and then dipped in coconut.  Sliced pink marshmallows for the ears, mini choc bits for the eyes, and a black jelly bean for the nose.  

 

Pity the children were not visiting so that I could share.  The grown-ups enjoyed the treat anyway.

I also used two flags from a purchased Australia Flag banner to make a new cover for my sunglasses.  I have a habit of just placing my sunglasses on the console in the car, and they usually slip to the floor.  Not an idea situation.

This banner was purchased from the discount store for only $2.00 - it had about 10 little flags on it

 

The flags were the ideal size for my sunglasses.  I did not have to cut them at all.

 

Lined with a nice red check fabric, my sunglasses will be happy

 

Sunglasses, popped inside and now safe with the Velcro closure

 

Hope you had a great Australia Day, it really is a fantastic country we live in!

Enjoy

Judy

Orphan Blocks - All Finished

This has been a great venture, converting all the orphan blocks I found into Breast Cancer Drain Bags.
The last block was a little plain ... and due to the age of the fabric, hard to match up

I used another plain homespun fabric for a narrow border, top and bottom,  and then brightened up the block with a pink and blue toned floral.  The same fabric was used for the back and lining.

I think it worked?

 

All eight blocks completed, now I will have to find another challenge to keep me out of mischief.

Australia Day is tomorrow, and I will be celebrating with family and friends ... so to everyone Happy Australia Day

Judy

 

Aussie Chocolate Wagon

My sister Sue wanted to know how to make the Chocolate Sleigh that I made before Christmas.
I had a few little pieces of chocolate left over from Christmas that we could use.

This is the result

We got talking, and decided that we should be able to use the same principle for other occasions.  Who doesn't like chocolate?

We have Australia Day coming up soon, so we decided to use that as our theme.

Using the following items from my online store:
Rusty Tin Wagon

                            
Aussie Slang Stickers

                                                      

Then added:
Chocolates
String and Raffia
Kangeroo Key Ring

We finished up with a fun rusty wagon filled with chocolates, with the Aussie Slang stickers on the side being pulled by a little fluffy kangeroo.  Very Australian . I loved the end result, what do you think?

 

Now l have to make another one, as my sister took this one home with her, she loved it so much!!

Do you have any ideas of how else we could make use of the chocolate sleigh idea?

Judy

Garden Day and a New FREE Website to convert HTML to PDF

Well, I have had a wonderful day in the garden, cutting overgrown shrubs back (yes I know, wrong time of year) however it needed to be done.  Cleaned everything up, now I just need to get rid of all the cuttings.

I found a wonderful new website than will convert HTML to a PDF.  What this means to us crafters is that all the wonderful tutorials that bloggers share with us, can now be easily converted to a pdf document that you can save for use at a later date.

You can find the FREE converter here ...  try it, it is great.  You may get a little more information than you want, like comments etc, however you do not need to print those off.

You just copy the web address (url) from the site that you want to convert (this is in the address bar on the top of the screen, and usually starts with http://......) 

See the example below where I have put the address from my blog about the casserole carrier I made.

Then you just click on the "convert to pdf" button

If the site has a lot of photos it may turn out to be quite a large file, but you can save it for use at a later date.

This is a screen dump of the information, saved into a pdf file from my blog

Try it out, you may find it useful.. I certainly have. 

I am starting off my Australia Day celebrations with breakfast in the park tomorrow, followed with a family lunch .... I am really looking forward to it.

Enjoy the day, no matter where you are.

Australian and proud of it.  

Judy