Flashback Friday - Lego Party

Jacob Loves Lego!

For his 6th birthday, which seems like a very long time ago (he is now 7) he had a Lego themed party at home. Pretty much all of the decorations were handmade my me. I planned to blog about this at the time but never got round to it. So here they are...

Decorations

I found a lego font online. I can't remember where from exactly but I found this one after a quick search. I printed out in Happy Birthday Jacob as big as I could to fit on an A4 piece of paper. I then cut them out keeping the black lines and stuck them to yellow paper, left a little yellow round the black, cut them out and stuck them to red paper. Next I hole punched the tops and threaded on to yellow gift wrap ribbon. I also made a small Jacob that fit on one sheet to go on the door.

Using Jacob's stash of bricks he made a number 6 out of lego on a base board.

I set up the party bags on the fireplace for decoration and for he kids to put their prizes in during the party. Using a black marker and yellow balloons I made a big bunch of lego mini figure heads for the middle of the ceiling.

Giant bricks made out of paper covered cardboard boxes and carpet tubes. They didn't last long as they were not strong enough to sit on!

We used some of Jacob's storage boxes and some models made by Chris and the kids for display items.

The rooms was set and ready for the kids to arrive.

Games

 When the guests arrived they had to find the lego brick with their name on it. Once found they could come to me and receive their chocolate mini fig prize. Made from this ice cube tray.

There was mini fig mask making, lego sheet colouring from here and lego on the head where the kids had to see who could lie still the longest with a lego brick on their head. I bought a medium size box of basic bricks and split them into coloured bowls. The kids had to see who could build the highest tower in 30 seconds. There was also a pass the parcel made to look like a lego brick and a Lego brick Piñata (there is a tutorial of that to come!)

When all the games were over it was time for...

Cake!

I was exhausted but Jacob had a great time and that's all that counts!

My mini figs :)

Ruby Makes - Valentines Cupcakes

I inherited my craftiness from my Mum and I want to make sure that I pass mine on to Ruby (and Jacob) so I am trying to do as much baking, sticking and making as we can before she goes to school in September (sob).

Continuing with the Valentines theme we made cupcakes today. Some for tea with Auntie Laura and some for the school valentines bake sale tomorrow. I found the marble in the pan idea for heart cupcakes on Pinterest and was intrigued to see if it worked. I made up a quick vanilla cake mix and added a drop of colouring to make it pink and quickly got them baked before the school run.

A couple of hours later... Ruby rolled out some pink fondant icing and cut out some cute little hearts. She then stuck them on and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and soft pearl balls.

The little ones have all gone! And this batch are ready for school tomorrow.

As for the marble in the pan idea, I think they look more like cats or moons. I'd use the marble again for  cats (imagine little buttercream faces and liquorice lace whiskers) but I'll keep searching for a heart tip, have you got one?

Happy Valentines Day!

It's gone got a bit pink and hearty here today.

I bought some mini heart rock sweets from M&S and put them in a little kilner jar tied up with a pink ribbon for Chris. The kids got chocolate hearts but they ate them as soon as they had finished their breakfast before I had a chance to photograph them. 

Ruby's pink bedroom door (always pink, not just for Valentines Day) with a really cute ceramic R heart that we got last May at an open house on Preston Park Avenue.

Jacob made us all paper hearts. Thank you Jacob we love you too (and you Ruby) xxx

Ruby made Jacob one too xxx

My present from Chris, flowers and a stapler! I love my stapler, it's just what I needed and matches my super cute elephant tape dispenser (you can meet him one day).

My gift to Chris. We have a bit of a Ruby theme going on. We have our Ruby. Chris has one on his arm, that looks a bit like this. I have a pair of earrings and I used them as inspiration to make this small tile. It's the first time I have painted pottery with out the kids "help" and I'm really chuffed with how it came out.

Paper hearts on top of my Polka Walk by Graham Carter

Have a lovely Valentines Day whatever you do xxx

Wordless Wednesday

Linocut

I received these Linocut tools and ink for my birthday in January. Thank you in-laws! Not really sure where to start and slightly lacking in inspiration I bought Learning Linocut by Susan Yeates. The book got great reviews on Amazon so as I have an hour to kill before school pick up I'm going to start reading. I'm a bit apprehensive because the last time I did any linocut was in junior school and most of the class had to go to the office to get a plaster for their cut fingers. It's a good job Ruby has the Hello Kitty plasters!

Tutorial - Passport Pouch

I looked in my handbag on Saturday and found a box of awesome Hello Kitty at Liberty plasters and Ruby's make up bag (she is 4 this is not good). It turns out that she decided that they had to live in my bag incase anyone ever needed a plaster or she wanted her lipgloss. My handbag is a mess, full of hats, gloves, random bits of paper and it seems whatever Ruby thinks I should carry for her. It is no wonder that I can never find my car keys. Something has to be done!

We go to Disneyland Paris at the weekend (ssssh it's a secret, we haven't told the kids yet and are hoping to hold out until we get to Kings Cross before we break the news). My "aargh I can't find my keys panic" is bad enough, but ask anyone who has ever been to a gig with me and they will tell you that there are at least 5 "have we got the tickets" panics on the way there. So in attempt to avoid passport/ticket/euro panic I am getting organised this week!

I've made little zip pouches in the past as gifts for teachers and friends (I like putting little note books or chocolates in them). My passport pouch is basically one of them and I thought I would share how to make it with you lovely lot! Here goes!

How to make a zip pouch

Perfect for keeping sweets, tampons, keys or anything else you like to keep safe in your handbag.

You will need:

2 different fabrics (I have used a red Liberty at the V&A fabric for the lining and a bit of blue tree scrap that was left over from shortening my new Ikea curtains)

Scissors

Pins

A zip (approx. 18cm long)

An Iron

Sewing machine or a Needle

Thread either in a contrasting colour (I used green) or a matching colour

A sheet of A4 paper (21cm x 29.5cm)

Take the fabric you have chosen for the outside of the pouch.

Fold the piece of paper in half and pin to the right side of the fabric. 

Cut out two rectangles. 

Pin fabric with right sides facing each other, making sure they are the right way up so that the image isn't upside down on one side of your pouch.

Sew along the bottom edge 0.5cm from the edge.

Press out the seam and set aside.

Unfold the paper and pin to your lining fabric.

Cut it out.

Take your lining fabric and outer fabric and pin together with the right sides facing each other.

Sew around the edge of the rectangle leaving a 10cm gap on one of the longer sides. 

Trim off any surplus lining fabric.

Clip corners of rectangle.

Turn the fabric out the right way so that the wrong sides are concealed inside.

Use the blunt end of a pencil or knitting needle to gently poke the corners out.

Press the fabric flat and carefully tuck under the seam inside the 10cm gap.

Take your zip and pin the right side of the zip to the right side of your fabric. 

If you are using a sewing machine attach your zipper foot and stitch along the edge.

You might need to carefully open the zip whilst the needle is down so that you can sew past the zip opener.

Turn the fabric over and attach the zip to the other side of the pouch making sure that the right side of the zip is facing the right side of the fabric.

Turn the fabric the right sides out and press the fabric next to the zip.

Turn the pouch inside out again. 

Make sure the zip is open or you won't be able to open your pouch when it's sewn together (I have made this mistake before!) 

Pin the pouch together making sure that the zip edges line up.

Sew along each side edge. For extra strength go over the stitching a couple times at the top and the bottom. 

Be careful not to sew over the zip, your sewing machine won't like it and it will make horrible noises at you!

Turn your pouch the right way out and carefully poke out the corners using the blunt end of a pencil.

Insert your stuff.

This is the back.

Ta da! you are done! 

Now I just need to remember to pack the passport pouch and panic 5 times on the way to London to make sure I have not forgotten it. At least my handbag will be tidy!

For Tomorrow!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit bonkers but tomorrow I finally have a quieter day. Which means that I've got time to make some stuff, yay! I'm going to start with the passport pouch ready for the weekend!

Ellen Jones, if you are reading this, do you like what I did with my Blur song reference? :)