Instagram Photo Cube Project

Image: Well It's Okay

I've mentioned before that my mother seems to be the only person I know who still prints out photos. What I find even more amazing is, she prints them all from her phone. I haven't printed a photo from my own camera in about 2 years, let alone one from my phone.

All I seem to do now is back them up on to a hard drive whilst foolishly muttering something to myself about 'needing to sort them out.' As Travis Bickle would say, "One of these days I'm gonna get organizized"

Lamp Shade Project #3

Image: Under The Sycamore Tree

Lets look at the rule of 3.

Good things come in 3's - as do the bad. Films, books and plays have a 3 act structure. You could be 3 sheets to the wind or as phony as a 3 dollar bill. It is always: Ready, Steady, Go and after 3 strikes, you're out. Art and photography use the rule of 3rds and any novice interior designer will gabble profusely on the benefits of grouping in 3's. Goldilocks offended and annoyed 3 bears and there were 3 blind mice, 3 wise men and 3 little pigs.

In short, 3 is the magic number. 

Make Your Own Board Game Project

It's another cold and dreary day in cold and dreary Ireland but hopefully, with today being the 30th of April, that's the end of the infamous April showers. If not, here's fun idea to help keep the kids entertained indoors on  rainy day #120.

Check out these websites for ideas and inspirations when making your own board game.

Try alphamom
Use Lego pieces, recycled colour paint chips and add instructions like 'make a funny face' or 'do a silly dance'.

Image: alphamom

Or how about... One Crafty Mumma
Make your way to the fabulous farm house, picking up treats along the way.

Mini Polaroid Magnets Project

It seems to be that these days very few people actually print out photos or so I keep being told by my mother.

Everything now seems to be digital and it's just so much easier to email photos or post images on Facebook & Twitter, Flickr & Photobucket or Picasa for friends and family and the whole world to see.

In fact, last week I actually went through a large box of old photos searching for a specific picture that I wanted to scan and upload to this very site.

Immediately after I did it, I though "hey, I should scan all my old photos."
This is a great idea. I could have all those old pictures on a hard drive and I can access them when ever I wanted. Then I remembered my son threw my last hard drive across the floor just to see how far it would travel. Surprisingly it wasn't very far as he was only a year old and it's a pretty heavy drive for a one year old.

Not surprisingly though, throwing it "not very far" can still cause the absolute most amount of damage possible.
Everything on it was lost.
My movies, my music and most importantly every photo of my son from the day he was born.

Thankfully I had a backup of all digital photos but as I said earlier - or should I say, as my mother said earlier - "nobody actually prints out photos anymore".

So here's a great reason to select a few digital pictures to print out before they all go kaput on some drive.

Mini Polaroid Magnets.

Image: Ambrosia Creative

This tutorial comes courtesy of Ambrosia Creative who was inspired by this post at How About Orange.

She pretty much followed the tutorial with a few modifications.

What you'll need is:

1. A4 Photo Paper.
2. Craft/pva glue.
3. Craft knife.
4. Piece of cardboard (the back of a notebook/sketchbook) - preferably a used one.
5. Magnetic tape - you can get some from Arts & Crafts co. or check your local art supply shop.
6. A white marker or Tipp-Ex.

Using this link to a Polaroid frame, or just using the jpeg below, crop and scale down your digital photos to fit inside the frame.

Alternatively, you can use the photoshop template provided by Ambrosia Creative.

Jennifer then scaled her Polaroids down to about 0.8″ wide and then printed her selections on photo paper.

Image: Ambrosia Creative

Using craft glue, she mounted the printed sheet to chipboard (she used the back of an old spiral-bound sketch book) and then she laminated her mini photos by laying pieces of clear masking tape on top.

You should be able to pick up clear masking tape in any stationary shop.
Important: The paper glaze in the How About Orange tutorial won't work for this project as it will cause the ink in the photos to run and bleed.

Once the mini Polaroids were cut out, Jennifer used a white opaque marker from Martha Stewart’s craft line, and colored in the edges but you could use Tipp-Ex if you can't find an opaque marker at your art supply shop.

Image: Ambrosia Creative

Then you just need to attach some strips of magnetic tape on the back and you have a great little set of mini Polaroid magnets.

Image: Ambrosia Creative

Image: Ambrosia Creative

So, for the sake of my mother and little boys who like to throw hard drives.

Go get printing.

Shadow Theatre Project

Image: minieco

Here I go again with the cereal boxes.
A cereal box shadow theatre project from minieco, which is great little project for kids this Halloween.

Image: minieco

You will need
1. An empty cereal box
2. A4 piece of tracing paper/greaseproof paper/vellum
3. Sticky tape
4. 2 or 3 sheets of dark coloured A4 paper/card
5. Wooden sticks or the coffee swizzle sticks you can pick up with take away coffee.

All measurements given in this tutorial are based on you using a cereal box which is bigger than 21 x 30cm.


Instructions:
Step 1.
Begin by undoing all the flaps on the cereal box and laying it out flap.

Step 2.
Cut out two large rectangles on each face of the cereal box. The rectangles need to be 19 x 28cm.

Image: minieco

Step3.
With the printed side of the cereal box facing up, tape a piece of A4 tracing paper over one of the rectangles to create a screen.

Step 4.
Remove the two flaps either side of the screen.

Step 5.
Re-assemble the box so that it is now inside out.

Step 6.
Decorate! You can use this pdf template. Simply print out the template and cut round the shapes – or use it to trace the shapes onto a black piece of paper. Remember to stick the scenery on the inside of the tracing paper screen. Use the wooden sticks/coffee stirrers to stick the ‘skull’ and ‘bat’ onto. 

You can download more templates here to add more characters to your show.

Image: minieco

Step 7.
Illuminate the back of the shadow theater with a bright lamp in order to bring the set to life

(PLEASE REMEMBER lamps get hot – so don’t leave it unattended)

Have a look around minieco. There are some great tutorials from Pacman Halloween Garlands to an amazing cardboard guitar.

I know I'll be trying that out with my secret store of cardboard!

Subway Art Family Rules - Shop

Rules every family should live by.

A fun way to remind the family of important house rules.

Be Honest.
Laugh, Giggle, Be Silly.
Listen.
Say I Love You.
Speak Kindly of Others.
Dream Big.
Work Hard.
Hug.

and all to be done as often as possible.

Hand painted on pine board, sanded to create a vintage feel, each piece is coated in a satin varnish and then a final coat of wax is applied to protect the wood.

Recommended for indoor use.

Available in 4 different colours.


1. Dark Green
2. Light Green
3. Tangerine Orange
4. White Linen (with Dark green text.)

 



There are sawtooth hooks attached for easy hanging but would also look great propped up on a shelf or mantle piece.

Size : 58 cm x 48 cm







The cost of each sign is 45 euro

Details on how to purchase over at my shop.

Nursery Wall Art - Shop

I've added a few new items to my online shop. Click here to find more details.


NURSERY WALL ART

 





Nursery wall art as an eye catching accessory to any children's bedroom or playroom.

Each piece measures 45 cm x 38 cm

 





Each piece is hand painted. Sign can be custom made to include your own sayings or quotes.

Each canvas and frame is created from reclaimed wood and receives a light sanding to acheive a truely unique vintage look.

 





3 different pieces to choose from

1. You Are Feeling Sleepy
2. Twinkle Twinkle
3. You Are My Sunshine


Click here  to jump over to the shop for more details about prices.

Father's Day Project

 It's Father's Day tomorrow - June 19th - and it got me thinking about what the role of a Father is.


   Being a Father starts with 'Two o'clock Feed.'

Image: Norman Rockwell

        and probably ends with 'Breaking Home Ties.'

Image: Norman Rockwell

                                       
                                             And in between there's lots of 'Going and Coming'.

Image: Norman Rockwell

I've only been a Father for less than 1 Year so I have all that ahead of me but I wanted to get the celebrations off on the right foot.

So lets start with the obvious.

Please Please Please stay away from the following.

1. Anything with "World's Best Dad" on it. T-Shirt, Cap, Mugs, Pens, Cuff links and Socks.
These will just illicit an momentary "Aaahhhhh!" before being stuffed into the back of a drawer.

2. A Tie. This says "I spent about 3 seconds thinking about your gift"

3. Anything that sings.

It's not funny. It's not ironic. It's simply a waste of good batteries (now that's the Dad in me talking)


If you are going to give a gift for Father's Day. It's the simple things that stand out. The homemade and you can't get any more simple than this idea.

Image: Martha Stewart

All you need is some cardboard. (Maybe use an old cereal box.)
Some photos you are happy to cut up.
2 paper clips
Sellotape
Poster paint or left over paint from tester pots.

All you have to do is print out this template and then cut it out.
Place the template on a piece of cardboard trace around it and cut it out.

Paint the frame.

Select a couple of photos and trim them to fit the openings, making them slightly larger than the holes in the letters. Tape them behind the frame.

To make the frame stand up, bend open two paper clips and tape the small sides to the backs of the letters at the very bottom.

And that's it. A lovely homemade personal gift and it shouldn't cost a penny.


On a final note.
If you really must do the whole "Worlds Best / Greatest / #1 Dad" thing then at least have a look at this.

Here's a bunch of free printable images that you can use to stick around the house or to make your own cards.

                                                               
                                                               Click HERE for Card 1

                                                                       & HERE for Card 2

Next up is Banners. Click Here

Here

And finally HERE for a whole range of tags, flags, bottle labels, napkin rings, tented cards, party tags and banners.

 

My own personal opinion is that homemade is better than shop bought. I don't mind the bumps and crumples, the sellotape and glue, the tears and scribbles and fingerprints.

I know that time and effort and most of all love went into it, but saying all that, if all I get is "soap on a rope" with #1 Dad engraved on it I can be sure of one thing.

A Father's role is to pretend it's the best soap on a rope ever!

Easter Project(s)

It seems to be that Easter is the most recycled event in our Calender's history.

What we know about Easter is this.

For most of us it's about eating lots of Chocolate Easter Eggs.
Full stop.

For the rest of us, Easter Sunday is the day that marks the end of our 40 day self imposed prohibition.
Whether you have given up sweets, sugar, crisps, cigarettes, swearing, junk food, lying, caffeine, chocolate, salt, alcohol, texting, ice cream, television, the internet, shopping for expensive clothes, complaining, Xbox, biting your nails, or making long lists. Now is the time to indulge.

But these 40 days of abstinence are based on the Christian tradition of Lent.

In the Christian calender Easter marks the end of Lent, a 40 day period of fasting and prayer. A period of preparation which commemorates the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus, which happened to take place on or around Passover.

Passover of course is a Jewish festival.

Passover  begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian Calender. This is a spring festival, so the 14th day of Nisan begins on the night of a full moon after the vernal equinox. This also means that Easter takes place on the first Sunday after a Full Moon and therefore has become a moveable feast.


Christianity has about 25 more moveable feasts in it's calender but they are all based on when Easter falls.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't observing lunar cycles very much a pagan ritual and ...
....really, we could just keep on going down this rabbit hole, couldn't we?

So you get it. Easter is recycled and this is a really tenuous link to post a few ideas on Easter.
But hey, it's a long weekend and I've got a few days off work, because that, for me, is what Easter means.

So if you find you have some time free over this weekend and want to try your hand at a few ideas here is what I've found around the pages of the internet.

First up is a simple Origami Easter Bunny.

If you have a bit more time on your hands and are a bit crafty also why not try Bunny Bowling and make these Bunny Skittles.

The tutorial can be found on Etsy courtesy of Ellen at thelongthread.com


If that all seems like too much hard work check out the Martha Stewart website that has tons of last minute Easter Ideas.

Some of the easier, little to no cost, ideas are:

Easter Egg Ballons (link broken)
                           

Flower Shoes

 

Bunny Folded Napkins

 Jelly Bean Carrot

Eggshell Candles

Slide Lamp Project

Every so often you get to a point when you have to start clearing out those boxes that are stuffed under beds or crammed behind wardrobes.

You know, The ones filled with your "special" papers and trinkets from years gone by. The kind of stuff that's so important to you that when you moved House it was best just to leave them in the original tatty, sellotaped, broke down cardboard box used to transport them during the last move.....and until it's time to move again.

Well, this weekend I decided to tackle this enormous task. Amongst the broken License Plates (When did I get them??) and the Bags of Beermats and Napkins covered with scrawls that, once deciphered, appear to be just Random jabberings. I'm sure though, at the time, I felt they were an incredible insight into the Human psyche and would form part of my Epic First Novel.
(Actually, better hold on to these. They may prove valuable!!)

Anyway, in among all of this garbag...I mean memories, I found a box of old Picture Slides from an old photography project. Lots of perspective shots and out of focus flowers. Rather than throw them out I had an idea to recycle them but first I needed to change the Pictures. As much as I wanted to have an artistic life I was never a great photographer and it's safe to say, now with the help of Digital cameras - I can take hundreds of photos of the same subject and know I'll get (hopefully) one that looks OK.

So, the out of focus flowers had to go and instead I downscaled some family pictures. I then created my own unique slides and fashioned them together to make a Slide Lamp for my Son's room. The photos I selected are of his relatives that he would not see on a daily basis. Aunts/Uncle's & Cousins in California and Sydney. Family in London, Cork & Spain along with Loved Ones no longer with us. It's important to me that my Son gets to see and know this family as he grows up.

Here's a photo of the lamp.

Image: Patent Pending Projects

The great thing about this Lamp is that I can chop and change the photos as he grows up. It might even end up being a Lamp full of Superman / Batman / Spiderman Pics.

Or Barbie! (Just Sayin')