Felt Owl Purse - with Printable Pattern

 We made Felt Owl Purses this week at Mencap

They are so cute and very easy to put together.

We used magnetic fasteners (from eBay) but  this is optional - can be made just with the flap as is...

Buttons for eyes!

 

So get your felt out and start making your own Owl Purses - would be a good item to make for a fund-raising stall...!

Here is the link 

Felt Owl Purse Patterns 

Enjoy choosing the colours for your unique Owl! Cut out the pieces and sew them as per our samples!

Enjoy!

Picture / Photo Frame Fridge Magnets - Tutorial

We made Photo / Picture Frame Fridge Magnets!

 

Here is how we did it...

What you need...

Aperture Greeting cards - the kind with a ready-cut "hole" in the card like this...

Crayons or Felt tip pens

Stickers or other Embellishments to decorate the frame (optional)

 
Glue Stick

Double-sided Adhesive Tape 

Self-adhesive Magnetic Tape (we found ours on eBay)

Picture (colour-in or draw your own) - sized to fit into frame

 
or select your own Photo

How to do it...

The card has three sides - the centre with the aperture (cut-out hole) and two back flaps.

Attach one back flap to the centre card across the bottom only - using double-sided adhesive tape.

Then attach the other back flap using your glue stick - apply glue over the whole flap and press it together.

You will now have a Picture Frame with an opening at the top

Decorate the frame... some of us pencilled in a mosaic design like this...

Colour-in your picture (or draw your own) or select your photo

Insert into the picture frame

Attach a self-adhesive strip of Magnetic Tape (about 5cms) to the back of the card, about 3cms from the top 

Paula

Angela

The picture or photo can be changed as often as you like, so put the frame up onto your fridge and have fun choosing what to put into it today!

Stringing Beads - Always Relaxing and Fun!

 We had a Bead Stringing session at Mencap last week - always popular with the girls. 

Here they are showing off their new necklaces...

Watch out for a Keyring Bead tutorial! Coming up soon...

Wall Hanging to Celebrate Mencap 60th Anniversary

As Mencap is celebrating its 60th Anniversary, we decided to make a crafty Wall Hanging at our Art and Craft group.

First we made the woven "squares" using the cardboard loom method.

Then next we made some felt flowers like this 

Easy Button Felt Flowers

The "60" I found on eBay

The straps we made from strips cut from an old T Shirt, plaited with lengths of coloured wool, to brighten the grey.

The material was in the 20p box at the local charity shop

After stitching on the squares and the 60 (on my sewing machine) we attached the flowers with little gold safety pins. 

Folded the material up to make a "Cushion" which we filled with toy stuffing.

Attached the straps and there it is - bright and bold and made with such pleasure...!

Printable Quiz - "Richard and John" Famous men - Fill in the Surnames

 An easy quiz, all about Famous Men called Richard or John!

Twenty printable Questions and Answers to ponder over...

A cup of tea and biscuit will always help to make this an enjoyable activity - a quiz that will stimulate the memory and encourage reminiscing, while having fun...

Quiz - Richard and John

If you want more quizzes have a look at my eBook...

41 x10 Easy Printable Quizzes with Answers

Easter Basket to Make - A4 Printable Template

This Easter Basket is made of thin card and can easily be printed, as the Template is A4 in size. This is how we made it up...

You will need...

A4 Sheet of thin card

Paints or felt tip pens

2 Split Pins

"Nest filling" - we used toy filling, but you can use cotton wool or shredded tissue paper just as well.

Stickers for the handle (or draw your own pictures)

Mini Easter Eggs

Chicks - we bought ours at our local craft shop.

How to Make it...

Print the Easter Basket Template directly onto your thin sheet of card.

Colour-in the Bunny and Easter lettering.

Cut out the basket and round off the corners.

Cut along the four lines as in the picture.

Cut out the handle.

Fold up the two ends and fold the pieces with the rounded corners over them. 

Slip the end of the handle against the inside, so you now have four layers. 

Make a small hole through these four layers (we used a large darning needle) and hold them together with a split pin (also called a Brad)

Decorate the handle with stickers.

Place your Nest Filling into your basket and arrange your eggs and chicks.

 

Have fun making your Easter Baskets! And eating all that yummy chocolate...!

We Painted "Frozen" Calico Tote Bags!

 At Mencap this week we painted on Calico Tote Bags...

The choice of picture was FROZEN characters (of course!) 

But you can do any picture you like - endless choice!

So using the print-outs of Princess Anna, Princess Elsa and Olaf (Google search for "Frozen Colouring In" gave us many to chose from) we got started...

 You will need...

Calico Tote Bags-we bought ours on eBay

Fabric Paints

Brushes

A sheet of card slightly smaller than bag size.

Printed picture
 
We found the easiest way to trace the image onto the bag, was to slip the print of the picture into the bag. It can easily be seen through the calico and so the image is traced onto the bag with a soft pencil - we used a B pencil.

Slip a sheet of card into the bag before you start painting - this will prevent paint seeping through to the back of the bag. 

Remove it before the paint dries too much (within half an hour we found) otherwise the card will become stuck to the inside of the bag.

Using Fabric Paints we then painted the pictures as you can see... 


Notice Olaf has Red Soles (as seen in those famous Christian Louboutin shoes!!) 

Allow 24 hours of drying time and then iron on the wrong side to fix the colours. 

Easy to do and great fun...!

New Year A4 Posters - Printable Colouring In

Ease into 2015 with some A4 Posters

ready for you to print and colour-in 

with your family or groups. 

2015 Dog

2015 Flowers

2015 Crinoline

Thanks to Raising Our Kids for sharing their free pictures, two of which I have used in the posters.

May the New Year bring Peace to our world

 - after all, it is the only one we have...