Things You Can Do With Conkers This Autumn

So it's officially autumn, the leaves are changing colour and the conkers are falling. If your children are like mine, their pockets and school bags will come home bulging every day and you'll have more conkers than you know what to do with! I thought I'd put together some ideas I've come across for activities you can do to put these autumn chestnuts to use, from home decor to craft activities.

Crafting With Laura Ashley

Just before Christmas I was invited to attend a crafting event with Laura Ashley with lots of other bloggers. We all met at the stunning Rosylee restaurant in Manchester and had a lovely few hours crafting, chatting and eating the amazing canapés on offer.

I put together a little video from our day, which I thought I would share with you today.

It was really nice to take some time out and have a natter without constantly being interrupted by children. It was also lovely to do some crafting, which I always enjoy but never have time for - my poor sewing machine is collecting dust in the spare bedroom! We also got to get our hands on some beautiful Laura Ashley paper!

A huge thank you to Laura Ashley and Joe Blogs for a great afternoon.

Baby Boy's Nursery

After much time planning, buying and making, this last weekend saw the completion of Baby Boy's nursery - only one week before my due date! So I wanted to share some pictures of the finished room. 

My Week That Was

It's that day of the week again - Monday - and if you're anything like me you're wishing it was still the weekend! But that also means it's time to join Katie at Mummy Daddy and Me Makes Three for My Week That Was. Here's the recap of my week.

How to Ink Stain Paper To Create A Vintage Look

I keep flicking through crafting mags or various luscious blogs and seeing lovely embellishments or cards where the edges of the paper had been inked to make it look aged. I always thought how great this looked and how I would like to try it out myself. Now I know for some of you more experienced crafters this may seem very straight forward, but to someone who had never done this before I really didn't have a clue how to go about it. And clearly it's too straight forward for many a tutorial as I couldn't find that much to show me the way! But after hunting around I threw a few ideas together and came up with a plan of attack, and thought I would record it as I did - so here you go...

How To Make A No-Sew Cushion with Applique Design

As my sewing machine is currently locked up in a storage container in the UK and my hand-stitching abilities leave a lot to be desired, a lot of the ideas I looked at for creating things in Holly's nursery were unachievable. However I really wanted to make a cushion to go on my glider in the nursery and so had a hunt around for thoughts on how I could achieve this. I came across this beautiful nursery by the B-Line which has so many ideas that I wanted to try.

 The one I loved the most was this silhouette cushion with her dog on:

As Jasper, our Jack Russell Terrier, is such a huge part of our family (after all, we flew him from the UK to New York and then New York to California, if that's not devotion I don't know what is!) I really loved the idea of featuring him in Holly's nursery. B-Line had created this cushion with fabric she specially designed and ordered from Spoonflower. This was a bit costly for myself and I relished the challenge of figuring out how to create this without making one stitch! I had already used Wonder Web to create my bunting (see The Beginning of the Inspiration post) and so thought I would give this a try. So here is my method of creating a no-sew cushion with an appliqued design:

You will need:

Fabric (I measured a throw-pillow I already had and then added two inches all the way round for seams)
'Heat'n Bond' to adhere silhouette to cushion
Wonder Web
No-sew Velcro strips
Scissors
Pins
Stuffing
Iron
Ruler

Instructions:

1. First I cut my fabric. Making sure I added two inches on each side from my template cushion, using a ruler I drew two squares of fabric and cut them out.

2 I then found a picture of Jasper on my computer that would create a good silhouette. After a lot of trial and error I blew it up to the right size for my cushion, printed it off and cut it out.

3. Following the instructions on the packet, I ironed one side of the 'Heat'n Bond' to a contrasting piece of fabric big enough for my Jasper template.

4. I pinned the Jasper template to a contrasting fabric and cut out my shape.

5. Taking one of the pieces of fabric I had previously cut out for my cushion, I placed my silhouette in the middle and ironed it in place using the reverse side of the 'Heat'n Bond' to stick it down, again following the instructions on the packet.

6. I grabbed the other piece of fabric I cut out earlier for the cushion. With the wrong side facing up, I folded one edge down on both pieces by a quarter of an inch. I measured the Wonder Web along the length of the fold and cut. Placing the Wonder Web under the fold, I ironed it down to hold the fold in place. This was the edge I then created an opening on using the Velcro.

6. Next came time to put the cushion together. I measured my Wonder Web along my cushion pieces and cut a piece off the same length.

7. Placing the fabric wrong side together (i.e. inside out), I pinned one side together with the Wonder Web placed in between the layers.

8. I then ironed this side together, making sure the Wonder Web was in the right place. This created one seam.

9. Repeat this for three more edges of the cushion, leaving the edge with the folded sides open.

10. To create the opening on the final side, I cut the Velcro so it was about half an inch shorter than the folded seam at either end. Following the instructions, I pressed the two pieces of the Velcro together, peeled off the backing paper and then placed it on one side of the seam of my cushion. I pressed down firmly and held it for one minute. Next I pressed the other side of the seam onto the Velcro and held down for one minute. This created a firm opening for my cushion.

11. I turned the cushion the right way out and using the stuffing I then filled it to the desired size.

12. Finally, I pressed the Velcro opening closed and voila! A personalized silhouette cushion made without a needle and thread in sight!

Original Picture

Finished Cushion

In its new home

I love the finished piece and am glad to have Jasper represented in Holly's nursery. I hope you found these instructions helpful, please let me know how you did - I would love to see your creations too!

The Rug Challenge

As I was wading through the many crafting projects out there looking for something to grab me, I came across an idea that seemed impossible - making a DIY rug. After delving further, I found this great tutorial by Moda Bake Shop and had to share.

And, as always, I have to share my own version. It was more tricky than I thought and took me quite a while, so in the end its more the size of a place mat than a rug, but it's cute anyway!

The beginning of the inspiration

During my pregnancy I spent a lot of time alone in the apartment. My husband worked all day and had the only car and as we had just moved to the area I didn't know anyone I could go visit. This meant I had a lot of time on my hands and not much to do with it. After chatting with ladies on various pregnancy forums, such as Baby and Bump I became motivated to try and make some things for my daughter's nursery. I have always been a creative person and enjoyed craft projects, but it had been a while since I attempted any. I trawled the Internet in search of some ideas and came across many pages which inspired me. Not having a sewing machine did limit me, however when I discovered this 'no-sew' tutorial I was laughing.

Red Ted Art's Blog

After a couple of attempts with the Wonder Web, here is my own finished version:

I would definitely recommend anyone to have a go, it was quick to make and with Red Ted's great instructions, easy too!!