Tuesday 31 May 2011

Crafting with the Kids this Half Term ...

Today I thought I would share another use for the painted pegs that I showed you yesterday...

Here is a fridge magnet that my girls made recently.  They used a template to cut out the shape of the body and covered it with pretty paper.  They added a face and punched a hole to add a little ribbon for a tail and finally drew some hooves on the bottom of the pegs with a permanent marker.  We added some magnetic tape to the back of the pegs so that we could attach it to the fridge and hey presto!




Alternatively why not use the templates to create place settings for Sunday Lunch...  The girls spent all afternoon making these for a recent family lunch.  They made 9 in total.  After the lunch we put magnetic tape of the back of each and the guests took them home to stick onto the fridge.




Templates...




Hope you have lots of fun with these !
Happy Crafting
Teresa

Monday 30 May 2011

Hanging out the washing ...

Good Morning!

I really wanted to say 'and what a lovely morning it is' ... but I am afraid that it looks like rain today - not great as I have already hung the washing out this morning before coming into the shop! 

I love this time of the year when it is light early and I can finally get the washing off the radiators and onto the washing line where it belongs.  Each morning Mr P takes the dogs out for a walk at 7am so I take the washing from the machine and go outside to hang it out before making breakfast.  It is a lovely time as I usually talk to the chickens and they talk back as they come to see what I am doing, always in the hope that I have brought them something nice to eat!!  This is my time before the rush of breakfast, spelling tests, lunch making and nagging the girls to make sure that they have done everything before we have to leave for school.

My time only lasts for 5 minutes but that's just enough fresh air and catching up with the gossip from the hen house to set me up for the rest of the day... Oh and yes, I usually give in and fetch the Chickens an apple or a few oats before feeding the rest of us - just to make sure that they put all of their efforts into making us some nice eggs for breakfast the next day!


This year I thought I would make myself some nice little pegs to not only hang out the washing at home but also to peg up work in progress or other little bits around the shop ...


I purchased some cheap wooden pegs and painted them with Farrow and Ball emulsion tester pots.  They take 2-3 coats to get a good even coverage of paint.  Once dry I took a paint brush, dipped the end into some white paint and used the tip of the brush to 'dab' the spots onto the pegs in a random pattern.  Once completely dry I varnished the pegs just to make sure that they were shower proof if it rained whilst they were outside.

The Dolly pegs were created in exactly the same way but to make sure that I got a straight line on the bottom I used some masking tape to create a neat edge which I pulled off once the pegs were dry.

They do take a bit of time to make but very therapeutic if you like painting and I think the result looks great!

Hope you like them!
Happy Crafting
Teresa