Photo booth

Many of my Pinterest followers would have already guessed I was planning on making a photobooth due to the items I've been pinning.

I basically cut the front off the box we had the washing machine delivered in & wallpapered the inside of it (the box, not the washing machine). The central piece of the box (the back) I covered in blue tissue paper to try & resemble the blue background you can get in photobooths.

I printed out several halloween images such as mouths & attached a stick covered in white tissue paper (they were originally green which looked awful so I covered them) Other props I cut out of coloured card, sometimes adding embellishments.

I set up the "photobooth" with a stool inside & my camera set up on a mini tripod & a table. Then I got the kids to take it in turns posing ... heres what they came up with with the props

Kai even began adding his own props.

The kids had great fun with it so watch this space as I'm sure we'll be taking some more shots with different props soon.

Halloween Fun

As many of my long term readers know I love Halloween (or as I & many others call it, Samhain). I dont take my kids out trick or treating as I'd rather not take them out in the dark to knock on strangers doors for sweets, it holds all sorts of morally dodgy arguements but I sha'nt go into those. So instead, while Zack was at school I took Kai to his friends house that we'd been invited to & had a lovely day there. Kai dressed up as Mario...

...& I dressed up, minimalistically, as a witch. By minimalistically I dont mean I was half naked, that would have been a Halloween Horror, I mean I wore one of my long black skirts, blouse, green eyeshadow & black shoes. What made it more witch like was my purple & black striped tights, & my little witches hat I'd made...

.....which I slipped onto a head band...

We got home & I put the finishing touches to one of the main events of the evening.... my photobooth & halloween props! I shall show you these in a little while on another post as its rather picture heavy.

I then helped the kids make chocolate apples...

I stuck lollipop sticks into the apples before covering them with melted chocolate....

...before placing them onto baking parchment & allowing the kids to decorate with raisins, hundreds & thousands, and sprinkles.

These set in the fridge while we ate our tea of worms & eyeballs (spaghetti & meatballs)

While everyone settled down quietly I carved the pumpkin

One of my favourite movie characters "you're jokin', you're jokin', I cant believe my eyes"

**wanders off humming**

Jingle Bell Frame

As we have entered the last quaterof the year I like to start preparing for Christmas, including handmade decorations.

This is my latest decoration, a 3d box frame, but it started off as.....

...a fairly plain frame from poundland.

I removed the back & the front leaving the insert. To this I attached a cardboard frame I'd covered in blue paper to create a night time scene. & then a back piece covered in the same paper. The back piece also works as a stand when the frames put back together.

From here I could add the rest of the scene. I stuck peel off a peel off Santa scene onto card, coloured it in & layered them up. on the outer card I added peel off letters to spell "jingle bells". I finished off by putting sleigh bells loose into the frame before attaching the glass & putting it all back together.

This can now stand on my mantelpiece when I put my Christmas decorations up.

Dragon Light Shade

Lilac light shade with a red room, as churchill says "oh no no no no no no no", a change was needed.

So I took the material off to leave the hoop that fastens to the bulb socket, and made another hoop the same size out of florist wire and masking tape.

I then took 4 sticks of florist wire and hooked the ends, making sure they were all the same size.

And attached them to the hoops with masking tape

Get some large sheets of tissue paper, cover it with a solution made up of 50% water, 50% white glue. Now, carefully, cover the sides of the "lampshade" with it. Repeat 3 or 4 times.

If you want a design on the light do it at this stage. I traced some chinese dragons onto a sheet of tracing paper and coloured them in before attaching them to the lamp.

I tried using spray glue, thinking it wouldnt be as wet as normal glue so the colours wouldn't run. My spray glue was awful, not only wouldnt it spray properly, but the gloopy mess that did come out coloured the tissue paper yellow & made the picture run.
Having finished attaching my dragons I then discovered I had stuck them on upside down, aghhhhhhhhh! So I cut all the tissue paper off & attached it with masking tape.

I then hid the masking tape with thick black tape - its not what I wanted to do but it did work.

Tada, one light shade

Cot Bed Creations .... Part 4

This week I'm showing what I made out of Kai's cot bed that broke
On Sunday I gave the picture clue....

We had a move round of our bedroom, now that the weather is sooooooo much warmer we prefer to sleep closer to the window. Unfortunately it means the view as you walk into the room isnt as neat as I'd like...

Ryan & I began discussing chinese screens to hide it, far too expensive to buy but with the simplest ones being a basic frame, material & hinges I thought I could probably make one. Then **TING** light bulb moment!!!!

My new chinese screen!!! made from the cot sides, 3 hinges, cot feet, a duvet cover & tacks.
I love how the light shines through & shows the bars of the cot, it remonds me so much of the traditional chinese sliding paper walls/doors you see on tv.
Have you noticed my pouffes? Also covered with the duvet cover to match.

View from the bed.

A few close ups .... click to enlarge.

The duvet cover was bought by Ryan one day when we were out browsing the shops, not long after we'd started seeing each other, when I spotted it in Next & said how nice it was. Unfortunately it was waaaaaaaaay more than I'd spend on a quilt cover, next time I saw Ry he had bought it for me :-)
The buttons to do it up had fallen off (lazy me for not sewing them back on) and it was starting to wear, so this has given it a second life.

The pouffes my Grandad made when I was younger - every now & then I'll recover them when the covers wear or to match the room.

So not only is this probably the BEST looking thing I've EVER made, but they also mean a lot to me as well. 1 chinese screen & 2 pouffes that cost me nothing, I already had everything I needed in the house.

To see what the cot bed originally looked like check out THIS post, also to see the rest of the picture clues.

Well I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've made from Kai's cot bed this week, and that I might have inspired you to recycle some of your own furniture.

Cot Bed Creations - part 3

This week I'm showing what I made out of Kai's cot bed that broke
On Sunday I gave the picture clue....

Kai's new bed is a mid sleeper, meaning its about 120cm high, so he'd have more floor space to play on. He lost some storage space underneath his cot bed so I decided to make him something for his books and toys underneath his new bed. The only wood to hand was Kai's cot bed & some off Zacks bed (he also had a new one bought him)

sorry about the bad photo but it was a blumin' ackward photo to take!
I took the feet off the 2 end pieces of the cot bed and then cut these pieces in half width ways. To this I attached wood from Zacks bed for shelves. I also made a cube which was then attached to the cot bed sides, this was to house the draws along runners.

Tomorrow you'll find out what this is..

To see what the cot bed originally looked like check out THIS post, also to see the rest of the picture clues.

Cot Bed creations - part 2

This week I'm showing what I made out of Kai's cot bed that broke
On Sunday I gave the picture clue....

I bought a very cheap shoe rack a while ago ..... big mistake! It went flimsy very very quickly

& because of that (& lazyness) nobody usually uses it

so while moving the cot base I had a light bulb moment.

Using a saw, a hammer & a few nails....

..it became a new, 3 tier shoe stand with a tub for seasonal hats, scarves etc. It is sooooo much more study than my original stand.

Tomorrow you'll find out what this is..

To see what the cot bed originally looked like check out THIS post, also to see the rest of the picture clues.

Cot Bed creations - part 1

This week I'm showing what I made out of Kai's cot bed that broke
Yesterday I gave the picture clue....

I took the side pieces off the cot bed, lovely straight, thin pieces of varnished pine, perfect for.....

Shelves

Starting off simple, 2 pieces of wood off the cot bed, 4 brackets, 12 wall plugs & 24 screws equals =

2 shelves I put up in Zacks room for him to put some of his Dr Who figures on.

Tomorrow you'll find out what this is..

To see what the cot bed originally looked like check out THIS post, also to see the rest of the picture clues.

Nappy Cakes

Last Christmas I made my niece & nephew a 2 tier nappy cake each....

I thought they were perfect for babies who dont really understand Christmas, and dont need many presents.
I filled it with lotions, potions, nappy sacks, photo frame & a teething toy. These were surrounded by a layer of nappies, held together by elastic bands, and then a baby hooded towel around those. Finally a ribbon tied round completed the bottom layer.
The second layer was a solid layer of nappies tied up with a ribbon and bow.
The "decoration" on top was a pair of snowman booties.
To give it a professional look I wrapped the entire thing in cellophane

There are lots of tutorials online for making nappy cakes, or even nappy trikes!! They are a little fiddly but if you dont fancy making them there are also plenty of people who sell them online to order as well such as..
Tiers for Rears & Butterfly Meadow