Paper Pom-Pom*

I had a request to find out how to make the paper pom-poms in the window display of the ribbon wholesaler, Pan Pacific Distributing. I called up Pan Pacific and the welcoming lady I had met there told me she had learned how to make them from a Martha Stewart video. The video is on YouTube, but I found the step by step guide more useful.

We had friends over today and winged it a bit in the making of these tissue paper pom-poms. I bought a few packets of tissue paper from the local newsagency. So the pom-poms you see pictured are flat on the back (they are each half a pom-pom) as we made them with only 5 sheets of tissue paper (not the 8 sheets required), however the paper dimensions are pretty much the same as Martha's.

You just concertina the paper, cut the ends rounded, tie in the middle with string/wool and then tease out the sheets - to create the volume of the pom-pom. The success of your pom-pom depends on the teasing out of the sheets. It's delicate work for the little ones to tease the paper out sheet by sheet, but if bits get ripped along the way it doesn't matter. We decided the pom-pom's make great party decorations, I am already thinking I'll do pom-pom party decor for J's first birthday this year (instead of balloons). In the meantime, the little ones 7 months and 4 months, liked the temporary pom-pom mobile I suspended above them.

* We've indefinitely abandoned our half made wool pom-pom.

A rapture of ribbons

A rainbow of ribbons. A wriggle of ribbons. A wrangle of ribbons. A rivet of ribbons. I wonder what the collective noun for ribbon is?

This morning Baby O and I made a trip to Pan Pacific Distributing, 162 Marrickville Road, on the corner of Meeks Road. The name is a little misleading - I saw this ribbon wonderland a few weeks ago and have been wanting to pop in. They are a ribbon wholesaler, recently located from their Leichhardt premises and now taking up residence in Marrickville. So they do big jobs supplying florists and corporates and the like, but they are very welcoming to craft nuts (like me) who happen to find their showroom.

They have sale tables and we scored; a forest green grosgrain ribbon and a lilac satin ribbon (20metres each roll and $2 each ex.gst) and then I indulged and bought an imperial purple satin ribbon for $6.50 (not on sale). They don't sell by the metre. So be prepared for reams of ribbon. Which I think is good, I use it for wrapping pressies, endless craft gigs... we have a high rate of ribbon usage in this household!

They sell ribbons in all shapes and sizes; double satin, grosgrain, polka dots, zebra print, from very thin to thick...and more! Next time I am in need of a race of ribbons I will definitely pop back!

Note: there are five hefty stairs at the front door to pull the pram up, however once inside the lady (who I think is one of the owners) was very accommodating and friendly, taking us through the back door when we left - avoiding the stairs.

Gong Xi Fa Cai Play School

We had friends over today for a craft play date. Inspired by a Play School episode, O and I watched the other day, where a dragon puppet was made. It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon, and whilst we went to some Chinese New Year celebrations months ago at Burwood Park - I've been wanting to do some dragon-based-craft to celebrate this fiery sign!

So, "I have an idea", in the words of O - his favourite phrase of the moment! We traced the mask we were given at the Chinese New Year celebrations onto cardboard and cut them out for the kidlets. And then pretty much followed the Play School dragon... concertinaed some colourful paper for the body, cut out a tail, ripped some more colourful paper to make tail streamers and then used the straws to animate the puppet. We made the addition of cutting out the eyes of the dragon - it became the dragon-puppet-mask!

"Raaarrrrr"... we don't have any dragons in our house. We have two rabbits, an ox and a tiger!

Note: A friend then txt'd me tonight that there is a Play School Concert on at Marrickville Town Hall on Saturday 14th July.

Letterbox! A letterbox.

        

       

We made a letterbox this week! We've been hanging out a bit at home trying to mend our coughs, croup, sniffly noses and all the jazz that comes with a family cold. 

So, with all this hangin' at home it's been a time of role play. Scenario 1: I get to lie (I enjoy the horizontal rest time while I do) in O's bed, as the patient with a cold and O's the doctor who feeds me medicine and checks my heartbeat (his idea not mine). Scenario 2: O works in his study (at his little desk) and 'writes' letters, which he posts by sticking them in between books on his bookshelf. Scenario 3: O 'writes' a shopping list and then goes to his shop to buy me the groceries I need (if only shopping could so conveniently happen in my very kitchen!)... I picked up a little cash register at a thrift store which is placed inside O's shop cupboards. The list of scenario's go on... 

Anyway. So we were somehow inspired, through this role play, to make a letterbox. Things kinda went astray when we painted it. The paint did not adhere to well to the sticky tape and then we tried to enhance it a bit further with some silver contact we had.

What I like most about the letter box is we use it both outside and inside.

Revisit the unfinished...

Oh rainy day, rainy rain - we know we need you, but you have been a frequent visitor of late. It's not that we don't appreciate you... it's just that, well it's just that I have a two year old with bundles of endless energy a-go-go....

So today - let's finish or continue on with the unfinished alphabet wall we started some time ago. Sometimes I think I can get a bit too busy with 'the new' and I want to teach our kids the value of: revisit, finish, amend, adapt and improve upon...

A while back - we used some brown packaging paper as backing (quite a thickish paper) and stuck onto it this paper wall alphabet from an Early Learning Centre (ELC) shop. The alphabet was a bit torn, it was in the reduced bin and was only a few dollars... What we started doing each day was to find a picture from the old Nat Geo's (from Reverse Garbage) to illustrate our letter of the day. We kinda stopped at 'L' though and it's time we do from M to Z.

'M': Moon, Mars, men, monkey... lets go!

Ever so tactile... A cloth book.

Today I pulled out this cloth book I made for O (going to throw it in washing machine) to then give to J. I made this for O when he was six months old, the benefit of being the second child is that J will get to enjoy it from three months of age.

Both our kids, I suppose all kids, are so tactile! At the time I could not find the sort of tactile cloth book experience I was looking for - so I decided to make one. We weren't living in Marrickville when I made it and I went to Lincraft (doh!!) to buy all the bits = spent way too much on it! But now, living in Marrickville, which has several good fabric shops which are ripe for the making of such a wee book...

I made the pages in contrast - so one black page (cotton fabric) and one cream page (calico). It's easy - just sew all the pages up and then turn the seams inwards. Really you can put anything on the pages - wide ribbons with their silky feel, a big plastic button, velcro (the vertical and horizontal black strips pictured) for the soft and rough and great ripping sound too! You can add tassles and so much more. Just make sure it's all stitched on super well and can't be of harm to babes.

I used to tie this book to O's pram (with the the fluoro yellow elastic) when we went out, as it kept him amused for a while.

Note: I am going to update it, by adding a 'J' to the back cover (furry animal print).

Time taken: it did take me quite a few nights (once O was in bed) to make this book, it's not as quick as my craft has become with O these days. But if you have time, like sewing...then give it a go!

Reverse Garbage

An oldie but a goodie (and a personal fave) - I have a soft spot in my heart for Reverse Garbage.

I would visit often whilst a Uni student finding bits to sew on my pants, or materials to use for model making and just to browse, sift and search through all things used and once treasured. Reverse Garbage is a non for profit organisation that sells, as they say: "high quality industrial discards".

This afternoon we were doing some toy rearrangement and sorting and I decided to make this garage (pictured) an outside toy... when I realised I've not posted before on Reverse Garbage! What an oversight... as it's one of my fave places!

We are due for another visit soon. Last time we went, we bought this garage for $5, a roll of white paper and some exfoliating mittens (which we are going to make into hand puppets soon). There is an ever changing array of wonderful things to be bought - from old magazines, paint, wooden stensils, soft fluffy things, all types of materials you can use as craft - and more and more and more... so go, go and GO!

Our dishwasher was installed and I built a kitchen sink!

Very exciting news for our family - we had our first ever dishwasher installed this week! It's changed my life... giving me more time for craft activities and to celebrate today I built a kitchen sink!

It's been a very rainy Sunday so we finally had some indoor time to make a kitchen sink - which I have been wanting to get around to doing for a few reasons: 1. A friend of mine put me in touch with her friend who has recently built a stove and kitchen sink for her son (it's great and I've been inspired!!), and 2. a few weeks back O decided he wanted to clean and pretend wash with kitchen sink gloves on, so I gave him his own pair of gloves and now he needed a sink!

The basic structure is the same as the stove/oven we made a while back, and then I just cut a hole for a stainless steel bowl (which was a O's toy cooking bowl) and used some funny coloured piping pieces (we got as part of a bundle of toys from an Op Shop) - as the kitchen tap! The microwave (housed below the sink) I picked up at the Drummoyne Public School Fete for $2.

While I was making the kitchen sink today, I was thinking about my manifesto when it comes to craft / building things for O, and for me it's this:
* do the building and making with O (yes, it's a little tricky, but he gets so much enjoyment out of seeing, doing and helping)
* complete the build in one session (I don't like things to drag out, I find they never get finished that way, so even though things are not to my aesthetic-pedantic-fussy-taste**, I get it all done in say 30-40mins)
* use what I have (don't go buying things... improvise!)

** - the kitchen sink is far from perfect, we ran out of packing tape and I had to use black gaffa tape, which is too 'heavy' for the front and front facade needs more detail - these are minor bits, which we can revisit later!

Orange Grove Markets & Owls

Last week my friend in Melbourne sent me these gorgeous egg owl cartons to make. We did not get around to making the owls this weekend - Kate did, and sent me the owl she made with her 2 year old little man. I love it. You'll see these egg owl cartons are made by the folks who run Small Magazine a beautiful design mag for little people, worth having a look at!

On Saturday we visited Orange Grove Markets, I think it was my first visit - I may have been once before... my prenatal brain can't quite work it out right now!

My Mum loves this organic farmers market and has been telling me to pay them a visit for some time now... held in the Orange Grove Public School Lilyfield on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm. We ventured off and each found that which delighted us so. Firstly, my man was in taste testing heaven (sampling food is one of his great joys) and we took home pickled tuscan red onions, salmon rillettes, and a selection of gourmet sausages... I enjoyed pastries on site... and the little man had his first taste of chocolate from the barista!

If you keep going beyond the food stalls, you come to the grassy playground where we found little ponies which kids can take a ride on. Not sure how much a ride costs, we merely patted the ponies while our little man looked on disapprovingly - as he is not a fan of animals in the flesh. The playground also has swings, slides and all that jazz - which was much more to our boys fancy.