One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns

Where has the month of March gone?! Only one week left of term one for the children, and next weekend is Easter, I can hardly believe it!

While Easter conjures up thoughts of rabbits and eggs and chocolate it also means hot cross buns in our part of the world. I like the traditional ones with fruit. The children, of course, love the chocolate ones.

In my quest to make felt food with an Australian twist I decided to give hot cross buns a try. I also used this as a chance to test some new felt (100% wool from the lovely Plushka).

What do you think? Good enough to eat? Cyndy
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My Creative Space

This week the children are on school holiday. I can't believe how fast the term went! I think littlest going to kinder was the accelerator - there was so much more to do and more of a schedule for me.

In contrast to the craziness of term one, so far the school holiday has been about doing nothing. Yes, that is right, NOTHING. Nothing scheduled, no where we have to be and I am loving it!

I am, however, using this time to plan birthdays. Littlest and middle are both April babies. Middle wants a craft party (hmm, wonder where she gets that from:) and littlest wants a princess party. I have middle's birthday gifts all sorted, but do have some work to do for littlest. My plan had been a doll's house, but with only two weeks to go not sure that is going to happen. I do have some new clothes for Miss Polly in process and I think there might be a winter skirt or two that gets done.

And then there is Easter. Usually I am quite prepared, but this year it has snuck up on me. Sadly, I haven't been able to find any white eggs so no egg dying:( We also make Easter cookies, but we probably won't do until Easter Monday. I haven't even put up the Easter decorations! Yes, I really am slacking! Today, today I promise:)

In anticipation of putting up the Easter decorations today I made an Easter bunting from vintage children's books last night.

Over the last couple of weeks I picked up a few Little Golden Books featuring bunnies with the idea of making an Easter bunting from them (I don't think I paid more than fifty cents for a book).

It was pretty simply; I pulled out the pages with nice pictures, traced the bunting shape on them and cut them out.

I then folded the top of each flag over paper twine and glued them down to string them together.

It's bunnies, not Easter per se, but I think it will add a little Easter flair to the house:)

I hope you are getting lots done in your creative space this week or you can visit Our Creative Spaces to get inspiration from others:) Happy Easter, Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space

I know it's the third week of term 1 but we are still settling into the school year routine in our household. Littlest's kinder schedule has been a bit truncated (to help them settle in I guess). It has made things are a little hectic as her schedule has been inconsistent. But next week she starts her full schedule so that should all change. It will also mean almost 12 child free hours a week for me - not that I am counting or anything:)

Despite the inconsistencies, this week I have been working on some items for a market coming up next month. As it's just before Easter I thought I would create some more of the  Easter finger puppets that are in my Madeit shop. They include a bunny, a chick and of course, since we live in Australia, an Easter bilby:) So lots of cutting felt and embroidering sweet little faces. Just sewing them together is left to do; hopefully I will get to that this weekend.

Hope you are settling in if you have children back at school/kinder and getting some child free time to get more things done in your creative space:) Check out more at Our Creative Spaces this week. Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space - Easter Finger Puppets with an Australian Twist!

My creative space has been a bit hit or miss over the summer holiday. With all three children home there just hasn't been the time I would like (or space for that matter as they have taken over all spaces including my crafting studio, the kitchen table:) as keeping them occupied has taken centre stage.

But amongst the strawberry picking, beach going, op shopping, movie going, play dating, board gaming, video gaming, crafting and legoing I have been working on one little project for my Madeit shop - Easter finger puppets! I know, I know Easter already? But for once I am trying to be ahead of the curve:)

I find the focus on chocolate at Easter a bit overwhelming, so I try to minimize the chocolate by giving the children a few small bits and bobs in their baskets. I came up with the idea of Easter finger puppets last year. I know pretty mundane, but there is an Australian twist, as they include not only a bunny and a chick, but an Easter bilby:) They seemed to be a hit last year with the kids and friends, so I decided to make some to sell in my Madeit shop this year.

Despite the lack of routine and the feeling of constant chaos and clutter about the house, these summer holidays have passed quickly. Oldest and middle start back to school next week and littlest starts 4 year old kinder. Now that will be a big change - not sure what I will do without my constant shadow of almost 4 years!

Hope your holidays have been enjoyable whether you have been creative or not:). For more creative spaces this week check here. Cyndy Pin It

Last Minute Easter Crafts with the Children

With Easter only days away and the children still on school holidays yesterday we did a couple of Easter crafts, including decorating Easter eggs. Decorating eggs is a tradition in my family. I can remember my mom carefully blowing out eggs instead of cracking them in the weeks leading up to Easter and making a stockpot full of boiled eggs for us to decorate. My mom would cover the kitchen table with newspapers and make bowls of dye using hot water, vinegar and food coloring. We would use a variety of methods to decorate our eggs, including wax, crayons, string, and rubber bands. The blown out eggs would be used to adorn our Easter egg tree (a branch from a tree in our yard) and the boiled eggs would be used in our Hungarian Easter food (this is a cold dish of meats, hard boiled eggs and homemade cheese).

Getting white/light colored eggs is difficult here, so only about two dozen eggs for us to decorate. The kids tried using rubber bands, but found them a little hard to keep on the eggs. They seemed to favor using crayons (before dying) and using markers and stencils (after the dying). I made punches out of masking tape to make my eggs (for our Easter egg tree)

My middle daughter (age 7) also tried her hand at making a couple of "spool" bunnies from a printable we found here. After cutting them out and gluing them together, she added some cotton wool to their fronts and tails. She also decided they needed a home so she created this little woodland setting for them.

Hope you have a happy Easter! Cyndy Pin It

Easter Goodie Bags

I was feeling the need to make something for Easter and decided to make goodie bags for the kids and some of their friends. In my head I could see these cute bags with little bunnies on the front with flowered fabric. Here's what I ended up with:

So how did I do it? To create the bunnies I found a cute graphic over at the Graphics Fairy. While I thought about using the citra solv method to transfer the image, I decided I wanted something a little darker, so I turned the graphic into a freezer paper stencil. Note, when creating a stencil, especially a small one, it's often best to only utilise key elements of the original graphic. I was able to use the same stencil multiple times (wasn't sure if I could do that with a freezer paper stencil).

I then stencilled the basic bunny graphic onto pieces of scrap fabric using black fabric paint.

I then added detail (nose and whiskers) to the stencilled bunnies using embroidery thread (I did have to add some interfacing to stiffen up the fabric a little). I thought the embroidered elements added dimension and interest to the bunnies.

I then made a simple drawstring bag using white cotton fabric on the outside and the same fabric I stencilled each bunny on for the lining. Finally, I hand-sewed each stencilled bunny onto the white cotton fabric side of the drawstring bag that had the matching fabric lining. See here and here for some tutorials on how to make a drawstring bag if you don't know how to make one.

And viola, cute little bunny goodie bags! Cyndy

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