Crochet party favours

It was B’s birthday last month and we had a little party for her. She invite a handful of friends to do laser tag, then back to our place for cake, treats and playtime. Normally I would make up some lolly bags for the guests to take home at the end of the party, but as there were only a handful of girls coming I thought it would be nice to make them something that would last longer than the car journey home.

I made up some little crochet hearts with each girl’s initial embroidered on using chain stitch.

I bought some sweet little jars from the discount shop at $2.50 each. I filled these with lollies, then hooked the little heart around the handle on the lid.

I thought they were rather cute, and cost very little to do. My girls loved them and demanded I make one for each of them too! The hearts are super quick to make, there are plenty of crochet heart patterns available on the web. I used this free crochet heart pattern. I made most of these while waiting for the kids doing their various activities.

The jars can be used to store coins or trinkets in once the lollies are gone. My girls have hung their hearts on their bedroom door handles. They could be made into key rings or bag tags afterwards too. Let me know if you give these a try, you can make some lovely colour combos.

card making

Its amazing what you can do with a few scraps of fabric, yarn, card and felt hanging around in the craft cupboard. A friend of mine had her birthday at the weekend and we are meeting for coffee tomorrow to celebrate. I had forgotten to get her a card, so I decided to quickly make one before the school run. I crocheted a flower, found a little button to sew on for the centre, cut a piece of fabric for the background and made a card using some leftover white card from a school project. I stuck all the bits on with craft glue. I think it looks rather cute.

I hope she likes it. Its not perfect, but then that is what makes handmade cards all the more appealing.

The little one and I spent an hour making cards for Fathers Day which was last weekend. We came up with these designs using scraps of felt and card from the craft cupboard again

I think we will be making more cards in the future. Definitely cheaper than the shops!

Have a great week 🙂

Five on Friday

Hello! So nice to be joining Amy for her Five on Friday link up again after the UK summer break. We are getting some nice spring weather here in Australia and some much needed rain. Our water tank is overflowing and things are looking nice and green.

I have a red and white theme this week, as all my projects this week featured those colours. Firstly, I made the yummiest strawberry ice cream from the strawberries we picked at the farm last weekend. They were getting a bit too mushy for normal eating so I tried this strawberry ice cream recipe. It worked out beautifully, although my picture does not look like the one on the link. I think its because my egg yolks from our eggs are so orange they have muted the pink strawberry colour. I have made strawberry ice cream before but it didn’t work out so well as it developed ice crystals and had an icy crunchy texture. This one is much better.

 

I made my first dress this week for my daughter with the fabric I bought last weekend (remember the fabric splurge). I didn’t use the scary simplicity pattern in the end, but made up a modified version of a pillowcase dress. I am very happy with it and I think B is too. I originally made it with a straight hem border, but it didn’t look right, so I unpicked it and made a ruffle hem instead which is much prettier. I found some great tutorials on the net for making a ruffle hem and actually, I remember learning how to gather fabric many years ago at school, I had just completely forgotten. The best and easiest tutorial I found was from make it & love it, and I thank the lovely lady for posting such great instructions and pictures. I will finish the dress off with a little belt made from the hem fabric, as B wanted an elastic waist but it won’t work as it is a reasonably snug fit (I had intended for it to be much more flared). A little belt should pull it in nicely.

 

I have started making some crochet christmas decorations. I can’t believe how quick and easy they are. 30 minutes and they are done! I made this little christmas tree.

 

I also made a star, but ran out of yarn before the last point, arghh!

 

Finally, our mulberry tree is bearing lots of fruit and we have red berries all over. I have never had mulberries before so I’m looking forward to experimenting with a few recipes for these. If you have any good mulberry recipes and don’t mind sharing them that would be great. I’m hoping they will make a nice jam.

Have a great weekend!
T x