First Mummies Club - March 18th

Another lovely evening spending time with the amazing Ladies of the First Mummies Club.  This week's project was to decorate a flower pot with felt, buttons and ribbons.  I used my glue gun but most of the ladies using their sewing skills to create their pot wraps.

These are couple photos of my flower pot courteously of Lisa of First Mummies Club.

The LadyBug on the back was a last minute addition and in honour of the "little ladybug".  The wooden ladybugs and bees were provided by my Grandmother from the US.  My favorite part of the First Mummies Club is the Ladies that I have the pleasure speaking with.  I was very excited to discover that I was sitting next to Amie the brilliant person behind Mums in the Know Hemel Hempstead & Berkhamsted.  The website has lots of information that every Mum should know but I really enjoy the daily postings on Mums in the Know facebook page. Almost every morning (depending of Facebook's filtering), I get information from Mums in the Know regarding what activities are available that day or what events are coming up around Hemel Hempstead/Berkhamsted.  

I look forward to seeing these Ladies soon at the next First Mummies Event.

P.S. I came home to discover that we had a "Spotty LadyBug" in the house.  My daughter has chicken pox. She only has couple right now and spent today entertaining her father.  She was very happy but I have a feeling that tomorrow that we will have more spots to count. 

40 Bags in 40 Days 2014

This is an amazing idea from Ann Marie from The White House Black Shutters to focus on for the 40 days during Lent. I am not a very religious person so I normally celebrate Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) and then look forward to the Easter Bunny and 4-day weekend (Good Friday & Easter Monday).  I could do this idea anytime of year but I think the idea of having a lovely clean house by late April sounds wonderful.

We moved into our current house in June 2013 and shortly after that I had some health issues so we have tons of boxes that have not been unpacked or sorted.  We keep talking about how we would like the living room and dining area (LadyBug Home & Designs' craft table and office) but never have found time to make it a high priority.

We don't have anymore free-time than we normally do but it must be done.  I like this idea because if I breakdown each room into tasks over a 37 day period (no progress Wednesday - Friday) then it should feel that it can be accomplished.  Part of the plan is also to get my supportive husband and helpful 2-year old involved.

We are officially starting this challenge today, Saturday, March 8th.  I have taken photos but don't have the courage to post "Before" shots yet.  Maybe when all the magic has happened.

Day 1: Under the Stairs
Unpacked Boxes = 4
Bags of Trash = 3
Bags of Charity Items = 1
Other Items = 1 dirty bean bag chair
FOUND: my bedside/alarm clock, bubbles, missing Fringe dvd's, cupcake tablecloth, and Emma's baby journal

Day 1- Part 2

Sort through daughter's books in her room and set up her new tent. 

Day 2 - Bedroom (My Clothes)
Today's challenge was to pick up my clothes off the floor and sort them.  Unfortunately, I have not created any bags for charity yet but a bag of garbage. My favourite moment today was when daughter decided that her 15 cuddly friends/dollies need to gather in my room to admire my high heels that were uncovered during my sorting and then she walked around in my high heels. We purchased a wooden and canvas wardrobe for my clothes but unfortunately while hanging up my dressy clothes the centre rod decided to break.  Disappointing but a replacement can be bought from the Homebase this next week.  I need to work on this area again this week. 

Day 3 - Basket of Paperwork
After a long day at work and after putting my daughter to bed, I really did not want to spend time sorting but I convince myself to try to give an hour to sorting. I picked the white laundry basket that haunted me every time I sat down to work on crafting/blogging in my dining room.  Below are before and later photos.  I was happy to discover a brand new pack of Sharpies and some Clinique makeup.



Bags of Trash = 1
Bags of Shredding = 1


Missing: Timmy Time DVDs - Birthday gift for my Daughter

Keep checking back for updates on progress.

Best Wishes,
Christina

First Mummies Club - March 4th, 2014

At The First Mummies Club on March 4th, 2014, I was very honoured to meet Natasha Collins the inspirational artist behind Nevie-Pie Cakes. Natasha shared with us the journey she has taken growing Nevie-Pie Cakes business the that last 5 years.  The below photos from her website are only a small example of her amazing creations. (The images below are from the Nevie-Pie Cakes Facebook page but are not for reproduction.)

 

Our project for the evening was paint a fondant covered cookie with a floral design.  Natasha talked about the technique of applying colour with a paintbrush to the fondant on the cookie to produce a beautiful floral image with plenty of depth.  We used Sugarflair food colourings to gentle to create depth in the flower, leaves and ribbon.  Natasha very kindly help me fix my inexperienced mistakes. 

This cookie was created by my new Mummie Friend, Emma.

 And this cookie is mine.   It is not my finest work   

I should be positive and believe that I could paint a beautiful image on a fondant covered cake or cupcakes someday but I don't know if it is going to happen anytime soon.  Natasha did shows another option to decorating the tops of cookies. After applying the fondant to the cookie and while rather soft, you can cover a stamp with a product like Sugarflair and then stamp the colour into the cookie.  Assuming that I can bake and cover a cookie with a piece of fondant, I may try this method in the future. 

If you are interested in learning from Natasha, she does courses that can be booked through the Nevie-Pie website.  Spring 2014 classes including learning how to create the flowers show on this beautiful ruffle cake below. 

 

Exciting News: Natasha has invited me to have a stall at Westfield First School's Pamper Night on March 27th.  It is time to start making items to sell and get my ribbon organised.  I hope this will prepare LadyBug Home & Designs for future selling events.

The Cat in the Hat Bow

Happy World Book Day 2014.  I hope that I get to see some children dressed as their favourite book character today.  I was going to share how I exactly made my daughter's Dr. Seuss bow but honesty I pulled this bow together with lots of hot glue and a several moments of frustration.  "The Cat in the Hat" is currently one of my daughter's favourite book. 

 

I purchased the white 1 inch grosgrain ribbon with the "Cat In The Hat" characters but then decided use fabric glue to attach it to 1 1/2 inch red grosgrain.  The fabric glue allows the ribbon to still bend once dry.  I decided on approximately how wide I wanted the bow to be and what part of the print I wanted to see on the front of the bow.  I pinch the front and back ribbon together and used hot glue to join all the piece together.

 

I then decided on how long I wanted the bow tails to be and cute the ribbon. I sealed the ends with a tea candle to keep the ribbon from fraying. I used a 1 1/2 wide black ribbon to wrap around the bow.  Pinch the top of the bow tails and then glue them on the back side of the bow close to the centre ribbon. 

  

I glued a lined alligator clip to the back and glued the "Thing 2" on the front of  the bow. I was hoping to use a french barrette but the back was too stiff to mould the ribbon to the shape of the french barrette.  Another option is to glue a hair band on the back of the bow and wrap the centre ribbon across it for extra strength. 

I hope I gave you some ideas.  Keep Reading!

Rainbow Fairy Magic Wand Tutorial

In honour of World Book Day on Thursday, March 6th, 2014, I made two rainbow fairy wands.

The first wand was inspired by "Isla the Ice Star Fairy" book by Daisy Meadows. Available from LadyBug Home Amazon shop.

The 2nd wand was for my little girl (aka LadyBug Rainbow Fairy).

Materials:

Glue gun (low temperature) 

Plastic or wooden stick

3/8 ribbon (any pattern for stick and rainbow colours)

Glitter card stock

Instructions:

Wand Handle

- I reused a hard plastic straw that was originally the stick for hairband lollipop probably from the dollar store in the US.  Look around your house for a stick option or wooden cake lollipop sticks. 

1.  Starting at one end and start hot gluing (low temperature setting works fine) a piece of 3/8 inch ribbon around the stick starting at the top and working your way down diagonally.

2.  Put a line of glue on about a inch of the ribbon and wrap the ribbon diagonally around the stick by tightly holding the section of ribbon past the hot glue section. Don't worry if glue squeezing out between the ribbon seams.  Just wait a few seconds until the glue cools and then pick the excess glue off.  It is better to have extra glue than too little and the ribbon unattached.
3.  When you get to the bottom of the stick trim the ribbon so you just a small piece.  You can heat seal the ribbon to prevent fraying or my suggestion is to put some glue on this end piece and gently press down. Then pick off the extra glue.   

 

Glitter Star

1. Find a star template.  I used one of the daughter play dough cooking cutters.  

2. Trace the star shape onto the back of the glitter card stock close to a corner.

3. Fold the card stock in half so that you can cut two stars a the same time. 

4. I would mark a "x" on one of the points on the back of both stars so it is easier to match up.  (I did not do this and glued the star incorrectly on the LadyBug wand.  It required a little extra trimming when glued so the back sides was not seen.)

Ribbon Rainbow

1.Cut equal length pieces of 3/8 ribbon to create the rainbow (You could also use 1 or 2 pieces of 7/8 rainbow ribbon.)
2. Gthered all the ribbon together and cut a diagonal cut on the bottom the all the ribbon at the same time.
3. Put a dot glue on front side of the first piece of unfinished ribbon end and lined up the second ribbon piece on top.  Continue until the last piece is glued down. 

Almost Done
Time to glue all the pieces together.  Don't be afraid to use tons of glue at this time.
1. Glue the wand and ribbon to the backside of the back star.
2. Now cover the end of the wand, ribbon and inside of the back star with tons of glue.
3. Align up the front star and squeeze the stars together.  I found that I needed to put more glue inside the opening near the ribbon and wand.
4. Take scissors and trim the stars so you don't see any of the backing of the matching stars.
5. If you happy that the rainbow ribbon tails are even than seal the ends.  (Can use a flame or clear nail polish)

My LadyBug Rainbow Fairy enjoying her wand. (Even took a nap with it on Monday) A couple of her friends got to use it too.

Here is the 7/8 ribbon that I originaly thought I was going to use.  Please visit the Etsy - LadyBug Home & Design shop for this ribbon and other options.

Warning:  I used the "high temperate setting on my glue when I started making the Ice Fairy wand and badly burned my thumb.  Read this advice about using a glue gun.  If you do get burned, cold water immediately.  Let the glue completely cool and then it has been suggested to use olive oil to gently remove the harden glue.  Removing to much skin will cause infection to get into the wound.  Good luck!

Pancake Day 2014

In honour of Pancake Day 2014 (March 4th), I must admit that I ate too many pancakes.  My lovely boss at work had pancakes made for the team by the little cafe next door this morning.  They were super yummy with lemon and sugar.  Dreaming of pancakes still! For my USA friends, the pancakes are very thin and more like crepes.

Here is a link to a tradition recipe for pancakes from the Pipii website. LINK

 

BUT... 

I had the great privilege of meeting Natasha from Nevie-Pie Cakes at the First Mummies Club tonight.  Besides being a true artist as a cake designer, she is also able to create yummy pancakes recipes.  The below photo makes me want to have midnight pancake party.  Here is the yummy recipe. 

After some sleep, I think I will have to read more from Natasha's blog Amelie's House.

World Book Day 2014 Crafts

This Thursday, March 6th is World Book Day 2014.

Being a rather new parent and spent most of life in the US, this day of celebrating authors, illustrators, books and enjoyment of reading is a new experience for me. The last 6 months my little girl has really start enjoying books and loves looking at all the colourful illustrations.

Read the blog titled "Little Ladybug's Favourite Books" to learn about a couple of our favourite books.

My daughter will be with her amazing childminder on Thursday so I have been inspired to do some crafting in preparation for my 1st World Book Day.  

In celebration of World Book Day, children in UK and Ireland schools are encouraged to dress up as their favourite character from a book.  

My childminder has a daughter that is 6 years old and is dressing up as "Isla the Ice Star Fairy" from the Rainbow Magic Showtime Fairies book series by Daisy Meadows.  She has the costume but I offered to add some rainbow magic.  

With a little help from daughter (aka LadyBug Home's Product Tester and Model), I decided to create a purple headband with some rainbow glitter hearts.  I was worried about the resin glitter hearts not being securely glued to the ribbon headband but they look amazing.  I instantly wanted to make more headbands for myself and daughter.  A lady can never have enough rainbow sparkles  in their life.

Also, every fairy needs a rainbow glitter wand.

My daughter instantly wanted a fairy wand herself.  The story of my Ladybug Rainbow Fairy's wand will be posted on Wednesday, March 5th.

For my little girl, I decided to create a hairbow from one of her current favourite books "The Cat In The Hat" by Dr. Seuss.  I was inspired by "Sally" and her big red bow.  Below is a sneak peek of the ribbon that I used to create her bow.  I will showcase the making of the "The Cat in the Hat Bow" on Thursday, March 6th.

Keep Reading!  Feel free to send me details of your favourite children's book.  

German Glitter Easter Egg

Due to my recent obsession with german glitter, I wanted to find an project that I could complete in the next month and use some german glitter.  The below Easter egg was created by Karen from The Graphic Fairy.  

 

For the tutorial of how to create this amazing egg, please click HERE 

There are some eggs available from Ebay.co.uk but below is an option from Pipii. I love the insides with white with green flowers. 

  

While I try to figure out what german glitter I would like to purchase and import from the US, I think I may purchase these eggs for a more toddler friendly project. An tutorial example for this project can be found at Fancy House Blog.   I will probably cover each side of the eggs with tissue paper and then use 3/8 inch ribbon on the edges and as a loop for hanging.   

 

Some of my Easter ribbon has arrived and some more will be soon. Please follow LadyBug Home & Designs on Facebook for exclusive offers to purchase Easter ribbon.