Birthday balloons // HOW TO

Here's another step to keep my new years resolution. Nothing says more birthday than balloons, and even more balloons that say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! So instead of cards I'm sending balloons around! Wouldn't it be fun to get a balloon in the mail and then when you blow it up, there is a message on it for you. I also thought of putting some little presents inside some of them. That way the birthday girl/boy has to first blow it up so that they can see the message and then pop it to get the present.

If you want to make them too, here's a quick how to. Just write your messages with permanent pen and go nuts.  

Urban turban // TUTORIAL

There is no better way to start a new year than by making something really chic for yourself! Hence I started my new year by making a very cool urban turban. I saw the idea somewhere in the internet on a Finnish site that I can't find anymore (if anyone knows where the instructions are, please let me know, so I can give the credit to who it belongs). So it is not my idea, but I will share you the instructions, the original was in Finnish anyway.

Super easy, very quick too and I think it looks darn cute. And the best part, you DON'T need a sewing machine!

1. Cut two pieces out of strechy material. First one will make the turban, second piece will be the rose on it. First measure your head circumference and half that. Fold your strechy material to that measurement. Then measure about 35-40cm up the piece. Start cutting straight up the piece and about half way start curving as in the picture.

The piece that makes the rose can be as long as you want. The longer your piece, the bigger your rose. Mine was about 35cm. Again fold the fabric in half and start cutting so that you are making more narrow all the way to the end. I started at about 8cm and when I finished the width was about 4cm.

2. Make foldings to your turban and hold them down with pins. Notice how I've turned the bottom and left few cm unfolded.

 3. Then take some thread and a needle and sew the foldings. Super easy, just go up and down with yout needle.

 4. Pull so that it gets a bit tighter. You can take the needles out now.

 5. Sew the straight part together at the front. I did all this by hand! Now all you have left is the rose!

6. Take your rose piece and start from the narrow end, sewing the two pieces together, again just up and down with your needle.

7. Pull it tight and you have yourself a rose! You can sew a bit at the bottom so it holds together.

8. Then all you have to do is to attach your rose to the turban and your urban turban is ready to be worn!

Lastly take a picture of yourself and admire how cool and talented you are. Yeah I did that, as you can see. Feeling very chic!

I want to be like daddy - dress

It is Father's day in Australia and it is needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway) that our little girl is her father's biggest fan. Last night we made him a card, we made him a goodie bag for work with all his favorite treats (as he had to work today) and wrapped the presents. Then after daddy's little girl was fast asleep, I thought what next? And so this super easy and quick I want to be like daddy - dress was born.

I thought, how nice would it be for her to prance around all Father's day wearing a dress that is made of daddy's old shirt! Perfect way to also recycle a shirt that he isn't going wearing anymore. And daddy thought she looked super duper cute.

Here's a how to picture:

1. As you can see, I used her other dress to get the right size. First thing is to cut it the right length.

2. Then cut the sides and the arm holes. I wanted this dress to be a sleeveless. Remember to leave about 1cm-2cm seam allowance.

3. Finish the arm holes. I just used an overlocker, because I was lazy and wanted to finish the dress quick. Then sew the sides together, remember to have the right sides together. And lastly finish the hem. Again I just went around with my overlocker.

That is it! How easy and quick was that!?? Well I did make a belt for the dress too which took a bit more time, but that's a totally different tutorial. You could just use an already existing belt or not wear a belt at all, looks cute that way too!

From a cereal box to a mailing envelope // TUTORIAL

Yay, this tutorial has been long time coming. Just like all the parcels I've been meaning to send to my family and friends in Finland (they are coming, they really are).

All you people who send mail to your friends and buy those bigger and more firm envelopes from the post office, well this one's for you! It's pure recycling and you can decorate them how ever you want (I did mine with some stamps). And the best part: they are super easy and quick to make!

You can use whatever card board boxes you have, it doesn't have to be cereal boxes. They just make the biggest ones in size. I've used berry boxes and bisquit boxes too. One of them was even pleading to be recycled:

So are you sold yet? Let's start! I've written all of the information in the pictures, but I might just explain a bit in text too, if needed.

Here's what you need:

Stamp and ink are optional because you can just as well decorate them with other methods like drawing or painting. So all you really need is 3 things!! Choose as wide double sided sticky tape as you can. I ran out a while ago, so I just used a bit narrower for this one.

First thing is to cut your box into two pieces, the front and the back piece. Pretty simple, yeah?!

The small text in the previous image might be a bit hard to see, but it just says that you can trim the long sides of the box to make them a bit narrower. This depends on the size of your box. Usually I don't do this, but in this cereal box the sides were very wide, so I just cut a bit off.

I recommend to stamp at this point, because it's still a flat piece. Once you've put the envelope together, it can be a bit tricky, especially if you're using a bigger stamp. But again it's your call. You can decorate it once you've finished the whole thing. If you do decorate it now, you have to keep in mind that the short side's flap is the top of the envelope, the place where everything goes in.

Wow, it's finished! So simple, so easy, so quick. Feel free to ask if some step doesn't make sense. Now all you have to do is to remember to keep those boxes and make some more! And of course send some love to your friends. I bet they'll be super happy to get this parcel!

P.s. if you don't trust in your double sided sticky tape to hold, you can put clear sticky tape around the edges at the post office. It's good stuff!

Heart means I love you (a little tutorial)

... or I lylyy as my darling daughter would say.

Yes mothers day has come and gone, but I haven't had any time to share what we made with Emma for the women in our lives. I had a great vision of Emma pressing her fingerprints into heart shapes. So here's our idea that you can do with your kids for any occasion! We are sending these out as birthday presents and Christmas presents too, so not just Mothers day presents. Actually they would be great for Valentines day too (thinking ahead is always a good thing).

Turns out Emma is still a bit too young to make heart shapes with fingers. We did try and managed to do five hearts like that. Then I decided to do a stamp out of a piece of cardboard and that was easier and quicker for her to do. So I've put together a little tutorial of how to make these lovelies.


You get the idea from the pictures, but I've added a few lines of extra insight if you want to read them too.

What you need is:

• some light coloured material
• fabric paint
• a cap of a bottle to draw a circle (and a pencil of course)
• some felt
• fray stop (optional)
• cardboard for a stamp if you want to use a stamp
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• sewing machine
• safety pins 

First of draw some circles on your material. This helps your child to know where the hearts need to be and will save you a lot of material since they won't be making them randomly all over the place. It'll also help you to cut the hearts out in a circle shape, dah!

If you want to use a stamp instead, you could cut out a heart shape straight away. I wanted to make it a bit more challenging for Emma so I made a rain drop shape and she had to stamp twise to get the heart shape. I did have to help her out with the other half of the heart but it was fun doing it together.

I placed the stamp I made of cardboard on top of a pen with double sided sticky tape.

 Once the hearts are dry, you can just cut out the circles of the material.

You can make a patern for the flowers if you want them all to be the same shape.

My material was fraying a lot so I used a fray stop around the edges of the circle. It's awesome stuff and helps out a lot in small projects like these. After applying fray stop around the edges it was easier to sew the circle on the flower.

Now I know that all you people in Finland won't find fray stop in the shops. I've tried and the sales people haven't had a clue of what I've been talking about. So the best way is to order online if you want some. And in Australia, you can buy these in almost any craft/material shop.

I sewed around the circle twise.

It depends on how old your child is, but obsiously the older they get the more they can do themselves. Cutting the flower, and even sewing is not a problem for older children. But even though my kiddo was only able to do the hearts and even in them she needed help, I'm still writing in the cards that it's made by Emma.

Here's still the ones with the finger print hearts:

 How cute are they! A little piece of love for someone special.

Last minute gifts - for home

Are you ready for the last quick present idea. I realized that all of these are also very small and light so they could also be named "last minute and cheap to send in the mail gifts". Yeah you can guess that I'm going for all those sorts of gifts since I have been sending lots of things to Finland.

Yay for cute magnets! You can make these individual for the person you're giving them to. You could put art images on them, alphabet or draw your own pictures. Use your imagination!

Here's what you'll need

- small images (you can get them from magazines or print them)
- glass pearls, or whatever you might call them. They need to have an even surface on the other side. You can buy these in almost any craft shop
- super glue
- magnets

You all know I love the little miss and mr. men characters, so I wanted to try this out with them first. Your images need to be really small. The glass pearls make them look like much bigger.

Start by getting your pictures ready and cut them out to the size of your pearl. Then put glue on the smooth side of the pearl and drop it on your image. Turn it quickly other way around to dry so that it won't stick to the table.

Glue all the images on the pearls and then get your magnets ready. If you want strong magnets, use the round thick ones that you can find in the craft shops. I used some magnet strips that I pulled of from an add. Super glue the magnets on and let it dry. And you're done!!!

So remember how I said that you can use this idea to make the cufflinks and earings? Here's what I did.

Superman logo's are to be cufflinks.

Audrey Hepburn ones are going to be earings for my friend and the Peter Pan ones are going to be earings for me. The image doesn't give justice so I might get a picture of them in my ears.

Enjoy your Christmas preparation and have a wonderful weekend. Next week I will share a few things I've done to remind us of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.