That's a Wrap!

The day has come to wrap the Xmas presents. I had this idea to stamp our own paper this year and Ed loved the idea. Ed gets the last word in this matter as he is resident present wrapper of the house. Whenever I wrap anything it just looks like a bear has tried to tie paper around a spiny tree.

I bought some brown paper, some festive coloured acrylic paint and some yuletide stamps. I was going to make my own stamps out of foam card but I decided that with the time I had left, ready made stamps were the way forward. 

We had a stamp cube each and kept our cube to our own colour! Ed was green and I was bronze. I thought it was cute how much Ed enjoyed it.

We didn't mind that some of the stamps were a bit smudgy and some were laden with a touch too much paint, after all we wanted to make our own paper so it had that cottage chic flare to it. 

Ed is so good at wrapping gifts that I decided to make him take pictures of all the wrapping steps, to help those poor bears with spiny trees out there like me.  I made the brown paper rosette out of small strips of brown paper glued together and I think the paper looked super cute when the gifts were wrapped up in it. We will definitely be doing it again next year. 

Here is the start of the pile of presents that is growing by the minute as Ed is totally on a mission tonight to get everything wrapped. Instead of labels we decided to write directly on the brown paper in a green pen which has worked out really well. This paper worked out soooo much cheaper than the stuff you buy in the shops and it was really quick to do and didn't take long to dry either because we used acrylic paint. 

Only 2 more sleeps to go!

Getting Ready for Halloween... 7 Weeks to Go!

It is 7 weeks until Halloween! My all time favourite time of year. I have started making my Halloween cards already and this is what I have been playing around with so far. I am addicted to doing embroidery on paper and card, it is just so rewarding. 

This is my practise ghost before I do one with my glow in the dark thread, I can't wait to see how it looks when it is glowing away! 

It is so simple to do embroidery on card and paper, just sketch out your design on some tracing paper. Lay the tracing paper on to the card then punch holes through with a needle leaving smallish gaps so the card doesn't rip (you may need to experiment with how big the gaps need to be for different stitches). I find it useful to put a thick cushion on my lap so when I am making the holes with my needle I know I won't stab myself. Once you have all your holes in the card just stitch away and make something beautiful.

EEeeeekk I just can't wait for Halloween <3 

Machinarium Inspired Stitching.

So here, as promised is my first embroidery on paper project that I did for Ed. I have loosely based it on the robots in the Machinarium game as Ed was totally obsessed with it for ages. I am really glad how it turned out and I learnt so much! Especially not to get the holes too close together or whole chunks of paper will fall out. 

I LOVE embroidering on paper and I am really excited to do more. I bought some black card and some glow in the dark embroidery thread today, so my evening is going to be spent experimenting with that. 

Ed's Shed - DIY Shabby to Chic Table.

We love shabby chic and we especially love how you can achieve this look by being thrifty and not spending a lot of money. If you take a look in high street furniture shops you'll see new vintage inspired tables, chairs, shelves, everything to give your home a splash of 1950s colour. And you will be pleased to know that all you needed for this this project is some matt spray paint and a very shabby table and you can create a unique piece for a snip of the price on the high street. 

I used Plastikote spray paint, but you can use any brand and colour that you like, as long as it is a matt finish. It is also best to do restoration work outside, that way the dust and paint can't make a mess. First, sand down the table, this gives it a rough surface for the primer to stick to. Sandpaper comes in various grades, from course to fine. Course sandpaper will work fast, but might leave big scratches, so I tend to use finer paper and take my time. Fold a piece of sandpaper into a square and work your way across the surface of the table using a circular motion. Fold up smaller pieces for the hard to reach areas.

Shake the primer can up for a few minutes. Keep the can around 30cm away and start spraying. The trickiest part is resisting the temptation to cover everything in one go. Spray a light even coat, let it dry a little then spray again. Repeat this until the primer covers everything then leave it to dry. Then use exactly the same technique to spray your matt colour layer. 

And there you have it a one of a kind, shabby to chic table.