Minnie Mouse present

Emma's cousin Mia turned 3 last week. Oh my how time has gone fast. That means that it's less than 4 months and Emma herself will turn 3 (Better start planning her party.. Just kidding, it's almost sorted already). But for Mia, I made a little Minnie Mouse bag and a Minnie Mouse mask. Cuteness. Emma was more than happy to be my model and try on the mask before we wrapped the present up.

 Poor thing would have wanted to keep the Minnie Mouse mask to herself. So it got me excited. I think it's time to make some more masks. The FARM ANIMAL ones have been really popular and now I've been drawing patterns for other sets.

I'm thinking jungle animals: monkey, lion, giraffe, zebra and elephant. Also maybe little garden bugs: butterfly, spider, caterpillar, ladybird. I only have 4 bugs in that list, but I'd want the set to always have 5 different things. So any suggestions of what would be a good bug to that list?

Old McDonald had a farm

Grandmas are the the best. They seem to have endless amount of energy to play (and to clean and to cook). I am so greatful for having my mum around. Emma absolutely adores her and it is going to be so hard to let her fly back to Finland. I will actually have to start wasing the dishes again and doing laundry and mopping the floors and still play with this one cheaky monkey. She's set the bar a bit too high for me to reach, I know I will fall short.

But I know I can continue this game of Old McDonald's farm with her. It's an absolute must and I think I need to make a few more of these animal masks as she also likes to be a trukey and a donkey and a goose. It seems to me that all the not so usual animals intrest her.

Thanks mummi for playing with us, you have been such a great help!

Oh and because people have been so interested in these since the spring festival, I thought I'd keep selling them. Prices are on my facebook page. And thank you all for all the lovely comments that you've left on my blog, they brighten up my day so much!

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.

Hairclips

We were invited to a birthday party on the weekend and this is what the little girl got as a present from us. And then my camera started to play up so I couldn't get good photos. But the main thing is that the birthday girl loved them and now I've been ordered some more after her mum posted some photos on facebook. Awesome!

I made my husband go to a textile shop to get me more material, because we live in a too small town to get anything like that. Apparently he felt like a fish out of water and got strange looks. What a good man I have, thanks sweetie!

Just because...

Do you sometimes give gifts to people just because. Just because they are special to you. Just because you want to make someone happy. Just because it's nice to get a little surprise, it brightens anyones day. Just because.

This week I decided to do few bookmarks (that I saw on pinterest) to people just because. I'll tell you the stories for two of them.

This first bookmark is for Lillian, the lady who does rhyme time at the library. Emma adores her. Last week Emma ran to her and spent most of the rhyme time on her lap instead of being with me. Lillian has made us feel so welcome and it means the world to us that she has taken the time to get to know us.

Then she told us that she will be moving and this week is going to be her last rhyme time with us. I nearly cried (I'm a bit emotional like that over silly things). So I wanted to make something little for her to say thank you and that we are going to miss her. And what gift would be more suited than a bookmark.

Lillian, if you ever read this, we love you! You are amazing!

This one is for my dear friends daughter, Holly. She is 11 and going through some rough time at the moment. It's not always easy to be the first of four kids, people expect you to help and count on you with many things.

I saw this text somewhere and I thought of Holly immediately. But different to the other bookmark, I'm not planning on her finding out who it is from. I just want her to get this and know that someone is thinking of her. Plus it might be nice to know that you have a secret friend. All I can do is hope that it will cheer her up, just because.

Have you ever given something just because?

Case for my phone, finally!

This time I want you to go and check out the blog Curly Birds! Helen is an amazing woman with two very cute twin girls. The things she creates and makes for her little girls are so clever and inspirational. I think I'm gonna be trying few of her projects as soon as my little miss grows a bit bigger. But for now I want to show a phone case I made following her this tutorial for an iPod case. Her case looks like this:

Amazing isin't it. My phone's been needing a cover for a long time, so as soon as I saw this I knew what I had to buy when I went to the material store. This is what mine looks like:

I have a feeling that I'll be making few more of these for some lovely people. I'm already thinking of different images that would look great on it. So stay tuned and mean while if you want to make one yourself go here.

Wishing you all a great Monday!

Mummi 89vuotta

Olemme olleet kiertelemässä Euroopassa pari viikkoa ja siksi en ole saanut pistettyä tänne mitään. Samalla missasimme myös mummini 89-vuotis synttärit, joten kun tulimme takaisin, piti keksiä jotain ja nopeasti. Mummille on aina ollut vaikea tehdä jotain, koska hän on itse kova käsityön harrastaja. Lisäksi haasteena oli nyt se, että tulosta piti tulla yhdessä päivässä. Niinpä syntyivät nämä huopatossut.

Sainpahan käytettyä vanhoja lankoja pois. En itse kovinkaan paljon ole pitänyt tästä langasta, jota äidiltäni olen joskus saanut, joten pääsinpähän eroon kahdesta kerästä helposti. Tossut on siis ensin virkattu ja sitten pesukoneessa huovutettu. Kuvion olin suunnitellut vihreästä hahtuvalangasta, mutta olin unohtanut sen kotiin. Jouduin siis koristelemaan tossut nopeasti sillä värillä mitä löytyi eli oranssilla.

Lahjan saaja oli kuitenkin haltioissaan tossuista ja niinpä ne pistettiin heti jalkaan. Ja kuulemma juuri oikean kokoiset, phew. :)