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Climbing Wall
Last Christmas, during yet another lockdown, we wanted to do something special for the kids. I had a crazy idea that we could build a DIY climbing wall in an unused alcove. It was a few days of work but well worth it as the kids love it, so here’s how we did it. You will need: CLS Timber for the studwork (we used 38x63x2400mm) 18mm softwood structural plywood for the walls (we bought 2 large sheets and cut to size) Wall bolts M10 x 50mm (we used BP Fischer FWB wallbolts) – 4 per upright stud 50mm decking screws – 8 per upright stud strong drill with masonry bit…
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Fabric Paint Meeple Curtains
Another lockdown, another lockdown project! This time, I wanted to brighten up our games room by zshushing up some plain curtains with brightly coloured meeples. Read on to find out how I created these fabric paint meeple curtains with a homemade stamp. You will need: craft foam cardboard pva glue scissors or scalpel to cut out the foam masking tape fabric paint paint brush or roller to spread the paint curtains / material To create the stamp, I (full disclosure – my husband did this bit as he’s a lot better with the scalpel than I am!) cut a large meeple shape out of the craft foam and then stuck…
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Rope Candy Canes
These rope candy canes are super simple to make and feature macrame rope and wool, so you can use up your yarn stash. You will need: Macrame rope (I went for 10mm thick to get chunky candy canes) Wool (I went for double knit red and white from my existing stash) Floristry wire Cut a length of rope as large as you want your candy cane, I did this by eye and these are roughly 17cm long. Wrap the rope with floristry wire, leaving 1cm at each end for fraying. I went forward and back with the wire so it was doubled before cutting off, making sure any sharp ends…
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Upcycled fabric Christmas tree wall hanging
I have a quilted wall hanging that I made a couple of years ago and I love it, but it’s autumnal so I always feel I have to put it away at Christmas. This year I decided to make it reversible so that back is now an upcycled Christmas tree wall hanging and I can have it up in my house for longer! This was also a great scrap buster for green material! First, I edged the wall hanging with red material from an old pair of curtains. This formed a nice 4 inch border frame for the picture. Next I arranged a selection of green fabrics into a pattern.…
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Easy upcycled face mask using a pair of leggings
I was so impressed when my daughter made this easy upcycled face mask from a pair of leggings that I wanted to share it with all of you! This pattern will fit a small adult’s face (the elastic is a little tight on me!) or a child. Firstly, take a pair of child’s leggings, ideally ones that have been outgrown or are never worn. Cut off the legs so you have about 22cm of fabric. Pin a 2cm hem each side. Sew the hems. You can use running stitch or backstitch or whip stitch if you don’t want the stitches to show. Make sure you leave a good sized channel…
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Crochet Temperature Blanket
I had a lot of fun making this Crochet Temperature Blanket for a present for someone special using an apache tears pattern. It was a great evening lockdown activity and as I did this for the birth year of my mum by looking up historic UK temperatures, I already had the data rather than sticking to one row per day. Full disclosure, getting the data was time consuming and took 3 evenings to copy down all the data! Then I chose my colours: Temperature (Celsius) Colour below 41 dark blue 41-45 blue 46-50 light blue 51-55 green 56-60 light green 61-65 mustard 66-70 light orange 71-75 pinkish 76- 80 red…
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Coronavirus in the words of children
Coronavirus in the words of children now available for pre-order.
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Autumn Wreath
An autumn wreath made with leaves and conkers
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Rope Rainbow
making a rope rainbow using rope wrapping techniques
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Pallet den
A wooden den, made from upcycling pallets
