Design your own T-Shirt

I had seen this idea in our local ideas magazine and have always wanted to try it.

I found a fairly easy and cool picture to copy, a Star Wars Clone Trooper, via the  Coloring Pages for Kids website and printed it out. I used an inexpensive white T-shirt and a fabric marker/pen,
which is available at most craft stores. 

A white T-shirt is the best way to go if you are going to trace a design and not do it free-hand. Remember to place a thick piece of cardboard into the T-shirt and underneath the picture you are copying, otherwise the pen will go right through and make marks on the back of the T. You also need a fairly steady hand and good light.

Little One likes it!

If you are wanting more inspiration, I'm posting almost daily on Instagram. I would love for you to follow along.
http://instagram.com/loveandlollipops/

Till next time.

Using Photos to Make Cards

 

Using photos to make cards is probably one of the easiest and nicest ways to make a special card for somebody.

I really enjoy photographing natural elements and both my Mom and Mom-in-law's gardens offer plenty of opportunity to do this. To make a special and very personal collection of cards for each Mom, I used store-bought craft cards and I chose a selection of favourite photographs taken in their gardens. They both loved it. :)

More card making ideas:

Squeezy art cards - a fun arty way to make cards and Using your children's art to make cards.

Getting crafty with Shopping Bags

 

 

I really like Woolworths' re-usable shopping bags. Besides using them for shopping, I use mine as going-out bags to throw in extra clothes for the kids and I also love using them as beach/swimming bags. I have even made a few as Baby Shower gifts for friends, because with baby there is always so much stuff to carry around. And, I don't have a picture, but I once gave one as a teacher appreciation gift - I chose a black bag and added a nice red felt apple.

   

You can even decorate your bag to match a season or a special holiday.

All the designs here were cut out from felt (except for the bunting - I used an old pair of jeans for that one) and glued on with my glue gun. Really easy and fun to create. :)

Have you ever decorated or embellished a re-usable shopping bag? I'd love to see it. 

Till next time. 

PS. The Christmas tree template you can find here at Whimsy Couture Sewing Blog and the bunny here at Punkin Patterns.

Spring time Kindness

Late Winter and Spring are truly beautiful in the Cape. With our wet Winter, there is simply an abundance of green and fields of wild flowers all over. I am in awe of God's incredible gifts to us in this beautiful place. 

I do the school run three times a day. Each drive takes me past our local garden Centre and they often have trays of flowers right on the road, encouraging the passersby to come in and shop. At this time of year it's usually Petunias and Pansies... I love Petunias and Pansies.

 

For this little project I collected as many small plastic pots as I could (people seem to be happy to part with these) and I painted them white. The boys and I planted Petunias and I then gave them to anybody that I thought would enjoy them - just as a random act of kindness. I mostly gave them to people I know well, but want to do this again and bless some unsuspecting neighbours. Just leave one on their doorstep with a sweet note. That would be fun to do with the children. :)

One six pack of Petunias is very inexpensive and can bring six smiles... six different smiles. :)

Is it Spring time where you live? What kind of Spring time fun do you get up to?

Easter {Egg} Boxes

I have been so quiet this year on this blog, but this week I'm making a nuisance of myself. Hope that's okay. :)

Inspired by a lovely Easter gift at Sugar Lander, I used egg cartons to put together some Easter gift boxes. I love the simplicity of this egg carton (I like the pretty hen design), but I think adding the Humpty Dumpty finger puppets made it more fun.

I wanted to make a few extra gift boxes to give to some strangers, but we didn't make enough Humptys, so I needed a sweet and simple alternative. These lovely free bunny and chick templates from willowday were perfect and I decorated a few more boxes. Some ribbon may have been a nice touch, but I didn't have any extra and I think a good motto is to do the best you can with what you have! 

If I don't post again this weekend, I wish you a very blessed and special Easter time with your family.  

PS. Sharing at Shine on Friday.

Happy "I love you" Day

Valentine's day has come and gone and as much as I wanted to post this yesterday  - on the actual day -  real life often gets in the way of blogging :).

Many times I have great intentions that don't materialise - you too? - like sending Valentine's cards or giving Valentine's favours to our loved ones. Yesterday I sent some flowers and a Valentine's card to two important ladies in Little One's life...his teacher and the class assistant. It was such a good feeling to GIVE and to say THANK YOU. I lay in bed last night thinking, that if I had done that for every important lady in his life (excluding me) I would have had to buy a whole lot more flowers and we would have had to make many more cards. Isn't it such a blessing to have people around us that help us to love and to raise our children. I am grateful! 

Anyday can be "I love you" day ...who might you spoil today?

PS. Card via the super Allison from No Time For Flash Cards

Christmas Crafting

 

In the past few months my private practice has taken up more of my time and I worked far into December. It meant not having so much Christmas crafting time, but we did manage to sneak in some fun before the big day. 

At the top - our Christmas cards. These were printed with acrylic paint onto white cardboard. We used a round pencil eraser to make the red dots; an edge of corrugated cardboard to print the stars; and, a spaceship sponge - a modern take on a starry theme. 

This was our version of gingerbread houses - tennis biscuit houses :). They were pretty easy to put together. You need tennis biscuits, lots of icing and some sweeties to decorate. Next year, maybe I'll have a go at making actual gingerbread.

Homemade Christmas gift tags made by Big One. Every gift had a personalised tag.

Homemade wrapping paper by Big One.

This year Little One made this awesome handprint tree at School - all the children made one and it served as a forest - the backdrop in their small Christmas production. I decided to turn it into a ten day countdown tree to Christmas. Each day we decorated the tree with a sparkly pom pom and on Christmas day we added a star to the top. 

And lastly...a Christmas Elf made from a Lipton Tea Box. We spent the afternoon creating with some friends - it's become a lovely Christmas tradition. The idea was to create gift boxes from the tea boxes and this was Big One's creation. 

I hope you enjoyed these. See you back here in 2013! 

Squeezy Art {A repost}

I have never done a repost of an old post on Love and Lollipops before, but after 2 and a half years of blogging, I know that there are some oldies, but goodies, in my archives. So for those of you who happen to remember this post - firstly, thank you for still reading (!) -  and secondly, I hope you won't mind the repeat. With a short spring break coming up here in South Africa, this struck me as a super way to spend a rainy afternoon - spring may be here, but it's still raining  :).

This art activity has been one of Big One's favourites for a long time.

To do this activity, you need some squeezy bottles filled with different paint colours. I found these bottles at my local plastic shop and filled them with acrylic paint, using a vaccine syringe. It is a bit time-consuming, but well worth the effort.

 

Once done, all that is required is some squeezing , folding and fun! First squeeze and then squeeze some more. Use as many colours as you please. Fold your page in half and then carefully open your page to reveal a colour surprise!  My son enjoys this process so much, that getting him to stop is usually the only problem.

We are always left with a great number of these interesting paint surprises, so I decided to use them to make some greeting cards. To create these, I cut them into small squares and arranged them onto pre-cut coloured cardstock. I really like the end result.

Have fun :)

PS. Shared at the Weekly Kid's Co-op.

Get Well Soon Robots

I recently saw these wonderful CD case robots over at The Art Annex and thought that they would make great Get Well Soon cards for a few family members and friends who have been ill.

The robot holds the card in his (peg) hand and it reads :

 " Here's hoping that all your parts will soon be in perfect working order."

To make these you need some cardboard, pegs for the arms, odds and ends to decorate and a CD case to stick all the parts in. The little parts have to be fairly flat so that the CD case can close properly.

This was the last of our Robot Fun. Onto some new activities from the next post. Take care :)

Robot Fun {Felt Robots}

Time for another mini theme - Oh how I do love a theme!

My boys have been enjoying the movie Robots and a favourite new book from the library, called Wendel's Workshop, so I thought it perfect timing to have some robot fun.

Felt robots are the easiest to make. No sewing required and you don't even need a felt board, simply a nice big piece of felt for the children to make their designs on. Little One wasn't keen on the activity, but Big One made some amazing robots - so much better than mine.

Mine's the middle orange one. I love the detail in Big One's designs. Yes, even a pirate and exploding robot - so cool.

This last one is a birthday card that I made for a little friend. I stuck a piece of felt to card stock and added this sweet girly robot. I didn't glue the robot pieces on and I also made some extra pieces so that she can make another robot if she wants to. This is a modified version of an awesome felt card I saw here at The Mucky Macbook.

Some more Robot Fun coming up. Stay tuned.

PS. A felt robot set makes for a great gift, don't you think?

Sharing this at:
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars 

Making cards using children's art

When Mother's Day comes along, I'm always racking my brain for a great gift for the Grannies in our lives. I like making something for them - or letting the children make something. So I was grateful when a friend of mine reminded me of this lovely idea. 

 

I don't know about you, but I love having some blank cards (bought or made, although I prefer home made) in my writing box. They are nice to have for birthdays, thank you's or any other reason - actually who needs a reason - I love giving and receiving a card! It's great to have something pretty to grab and use when you need it. I knew that both the Grannies would love this... 

So here's how to make some:

• If you can, buy some pre-cut cards and envelopes - much easier than cutting and folding your own.  
• Scan your child's art work into your computor OR 
• If you don't have a scanner or the art work is too big for your scanner, photograph the art and download it. 
• Use a photo editing program to touch it up or crop it if necessary - I use Picasa - it's free and easy to use. 
• Cut it out and glue it on. 
• A nice touch is to write the Artist's name at the back of the card and their age when they created it.   

 

Some beautiful, personal cards for Granny, or any special lady in your life.  

Now I definitely need to make some for myself :). If I do, I'll share them too. 

Happy crafting! 

PS. Sharing this at  
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello