Pea Pilly Bean * » Craft

Little Elephant

Sarah — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:28:15 +0000

This little guy is for our friends first ever little baby, I’m very excited. Glenn and I went to Uni with the Daddy (sorry didn’t check whether they minded their names being plastered all over the internet) so we have known them for a while and have been patiently wondering when they were going to produce a play mate for our horde.

I think he looks a little like an Eliphoctopus with legs like that. I like saying Eliphoctopuss because it makes Glenn think I’m saying a bad word and then he giggles, I’m probably going to get in trouble for writing that.

Their nursery seamed to be mostly red cream and green so the little elephant is wearing colours to match. His ears are made out of crocheted circles. I’ve only ever made granny squares before look at me branching out. The eye are hand embroidery, in fact every stitch in him is done by hand as I still don’t have a sewing machine (do you sense the frustration??)

I know, enough of the elephant already but this was Glenn’s favourite photo. Apparently he likes looking up elephant noses. I liked another one better so to avoid conflict you get to see both.

All jokes aside I am so very thrilled to welcome a new baby to that ring of people that dwell close to the heart. I hope and pray that his new little owner has a wonderful life and that she grows to love and appreciate the beautiful family she has been born into.

Softie Swap

Sarah — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:03:08 +0000

I Won a DRAGON!!!!!!

Well it feels like winning isn’t this little guy just amazing! He was crocheted by the incredibly talented Kelly from Kelgell Creations He He He I can’t get over how cute he is. She even went to the bother of finding out a little about me before choosing what she was going to make, read the note it just made me feel so special.

This is the book I am reading at the moment and it is packed full of dragons. My good friend Jo got me reading this series and I just have to tell the world, because it is so amazingly cool, that her little boy Finn has just today been officially declared in remission for cancer!!!

The little dragon is also just the right size for cuddles

So a huge thankyou to Tab for organizing this swap if you would like to see what everyone else has created head over to her site Small Things and have a peek. Mine is still in the mail so I can’t show you what I made just yet. And a huge thank you to Kelly this little dragon will be well loved here. ,

Joining Things

Sarah — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:01:26 +0000

We are joining an interactive envelope window display, cool hey!

It’s another fun play along from Pip at Meet Me At Mikes my second crush in the blogging world.

What you do is decorate an envelope and send it to Pip who runs Meet Me At Mikes, a shop in Melbourne. The envelopes are to be filled with all sorts of left over, useful and pretty crafty stuff. Pip will display all of the envelopes in her shop window for 6 weeks then one envelope will be randomly drawn and all the other envelopes full of goodness will be sent to them. We have no real dilutions of winning but it’s kinda pleasant to reach out and send nice things to a stranger far away. Lani, my 8 year old is really getting into it, they’re her hands decorating the envelope in the photo.

If you would like to send an envelope to Pip CLICK HERE to read her post about it.

I also joined a softie swap that Tab from Small Things is graciously organizing. Only just as I started my sewing machine exploded, well sort off GGRRRRED then WHRRRRRED and then refused to go up and down so I am hand sewing my softie. As soon as I can get it finished my softie will be heading over to Talia at Life’s Visual Journal. I can’t show you what I am makeing because it’s a secret Shhhhhh!!!! but you should pop over and check out Talia’s rainbow cupcakes they look spectacular only my brain wont stop jumping off the walls just from viewing the image. If we do make them it’ll be a day when we can stay at home all day till the effects wear off

I finally made something other than a wall.

Sarah — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:07:34 +0000

This little flower sprite was for a baby dedication

I was aiming for the type of flower sprite that could hide in the garden and appear to be a blossom so I thought petals for hair might work. When she was all finished Lani skips into the room, takes one look at her and asks,

"why did you make Fifi the Flowertot?"

Blahhh. But I still think she looks cute peeping out of her bag, rip off of popular kids character or not.

In the holidays we create

Sarah — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:04:31 +0000

To any of the uninitiated out there Miss Mousy Moo and her hodgepodge of friends are all made from air drying clay which is just the best stuff for entertaining bored little fingers.

The amount of focus that poured out of Lilly during this craft blew me away. The mouse and the snail in the foreground are hers, along with a bunch of lady birds and a cake and pizza. She even researched before she began looking through a few of the twenty odd craft books I have scattered around various book shelves. It is the most focused and dedicated to a task I have ever seen her and I am going to turn back fondly to these photos the next time she turns into a whirling dervish and runs straight into the sharp pointy corner of a wall.

Lani on the other hand jumped straight into squeezing the gooey stuff between her fingers. I think she found the squidging squelching and squashing way too appealing to actually stop and waste time forming the clay into recognisable objects. For a while the only thing she had finished was the slug you can see slap bang in the centre of the photo. Sorry to be a bother but I’m going to ask you to scroll back up and have a look…go on have a peek… right now imagine it painted a brownish colour and you can imagine how flustered Glenn was when he came home from work and she was all "Daddy Look What I Made"

Of course she did get productive eventually and made a large red thing with toothpicks in it and a heart pendant for a necklace which she painted pink (Like duh as if any other colour ever existed)

It was naturally Eli’s idea to embed the spiky toothpicks into the art works, I had put them out on the table in the hope that they would be used to create otherwise unachievable intricate details, but I suppose a giant blue echidna is a great use for them too.

We also made some wooden spoon puppets aren’t they just so sweet, well, other than Lilly’s demon possessed yellow glowy eyed one.

And major thrill of these holidays we had a very special blue bear sleep over and stay up way to late with our fuzzy brown lot, but that’s the point of a sleep over really isn’t it.

No related posts.

Softies for Mirabel

Sarah — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:10:25 +0000

Around about this time (sorry never been very good with dates) marks a momentous occasion. It was nowish last year that I gave up on living the life of a non practicing reclusive art freak and became a non practicing not so reclusive addicted to the internet art freak. You see, I just transitioned from vomiting every half hour to vomiting only three or four times a day (due to Sabrina growing inside me), a transition that enabled me to do something, and the NEED to do something was overwhelming.

One Red Robin, a gorgeous site by a very talented softie maker that I had been reading through all the yucky months, started imploring all the crafty people to make toys for something called Softies for Mirabel and Linked to a site called Meet Me At Mikes for more info. Meet me at Mikes is a great place to visit and to say that it is updated daily is the biggest understatement of the year, Pip is prolific on the internets with all things crafty and nice to look at.

What is ‘Softies for Mirabel’?
Softies for Mirabel is our annual appeal to benefit the kids supported by The Mirabel Foundation. We send word out via the internet, inviting people like you to make a soft toy (or two!) The toys are gifted to the Mirabel kids as part of The Mirabel Foundation’s Toy Drive.

Due to the rapid production of children I really haven’t done anything creative since leaving Uni, Oh art degree, what have I done to you??? So I was a bit hesitant as to my ability to make anything worth letting another person look at, but when i read the post over at Pip’s about the Mirabel foundation and what it does to support children who’s lives have been turned upside down by drugs I just had to give it ago.

This was Last years attempt and I really enjoyed making her. I used to make soft toys all the time when I was a kid, never being able to find the character that I was currently reading about at the shops. I always envisioned my house full of home made goodness but my creative side got packed up in a box somewhere and lost in one of the many times we have moved house. I will be making another Softie for Mirabel this year and hopefully many more things. Head over to Pip’s to learn more about this wonderful foundation.

The Doll is finished, finally

Sarah — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:30:24 +0000

The poor sewing machine is still in the hospital having his knob seen to, so it has taken me a little longer than the one night promised to finish this doll. The little girl who was in the car accident turned up for half a day today and collected the mountain of get well gifts off her desk. When Lani told me this as I was helping her into the car this afternoon I thought she was going to be upset because we didn’t get our little contribution finished in time. But thankfully Lani saw the positive side declaring that it was wonderful because

"if she feels well enough to come back tomorrow she will get one more surprise gift from me".

I feel like I forgot to bring in my homework only to discover that the teacher is away sick. Yay for patient and forgiving daughters.

The doll christened Suny because "That’s a happy name" is posing with the original design by Lani. We are giving the drawing to the little girl as well.

We hope the little girl enjoys her happy doll and we are sending prayers for a speedy recovery her way.

Doll Update

Sarah — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:52:09 +0000

All of you out there that had such faith in me, chose more carefully next time! The little knobby thing on the sewing machine that has something to do with tension (I empathise with how it feels) broke and so I have to sew it all by hand. So Lani is going to have to wait till next week to add her offerings to the little girl’s desk. The desk that I am reliably told is buried under presents already so I’m sure a few more days won’t hurt.

The Doll designer

Sarah — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:39:40 +0000

Lani’s little friend at school was injured in a car accident. The whole class made cards to send to her while she was in hospital. Then the next day in the car ride home Lani very seriously informs me that her teacher had mentioned, that if we wanted to we could think of our own ways to make this little girl happy while she is stuck in bed. So every night for over a week now she has been bugging me to help her make a doll for this little girl, and every morning when she wakes up she asks me were it is. Apparently I have the ability to pull gorgeous hand made Dollies out of thin air.

Hating to shatter her illusions about how talented her mother is I promised last night to give it a try. So just before Lani went to bed I asked her to draw a picture of what she had in mind so that I had something to work with. So while she is at school today I am going to attempt to transform her design into something I’m not ashamed to give to a poor girl stuck in a bed. Wish me luck.

Nose in a book

Sarah — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:32:55 +0000

School and I never really bonded. I did have some good times in primary school but I have since found out not many of them had anything to do with learning. It seems I became quite proficient at avoiding education. Most of my memories revolve around escaping class. I’d do anything, run messages, clean out the store rooms (they were actually really cool with ladder like shelves all the way up to a man hole into the attic space above the rooms. A space you could stay in all day if you were quiet enough to let the teachers forget that they had sent you in there), offer to help out in the Kindy room or just not come back from lunch. I’d convince the gardener that I had permission to spend the rest of the day with him digging holes, planting plants and all the other fun not stuck in a class room type things that gardeners do.

Some of the few memories I have that are based around actual learning are about Book Week. I probably have to thank my library teacher Mrs Fitzpatrick for her ability to read a story in such a way that you were immediately transported to another world and my Mum who read to me every night and read to herself every day. I fell in love with books, head over heels. I love immersing myself in someone else’s imagination and the chance to dress up and do that for a whole day at school was amazing. Plus and a big plus you get to meet a real Author, it felt a bit like having Superman come visit your school.

So I am understandably thrilled to be helping my own Kiddies to create their Book Week costumes. In less than a week that pile of gloves feathers and fabric will be transformed into characters from an absolute favourite book in this house at the moment, two books to be accurate but they go together. Can you guess which books?

Update: Here are the finished book week costumes