DIY Vintage Inspired Lockets

As I am feeling a bit vintage inspired this christmas, I have been thinking of handmade gift ideas for christmas as well.This is a great christmas gift idea, make your own vintage printed locket. They are so simple to make and you can choose to make them as you like, with wire or with embroidery thread. If you don't generally make jewellery it is hard to find the right materials at home so I am demonstrating these lockets with embroidery threads. You can use your old chains or just buy any chain from a dollar shop, they are cheap but look just the part. Rest of the design can depend upon what beads or trims you have in your drawers.

You will need some self adhesive laminate sheets, vintage image printed out and cut to shape, needle and embroidery thread (preferably a blanket needle), glue gun or craft glue, beads or pearls, scissors and chain for the lockets.

Steps:

1. cut the vintage floral or any print of your choice in a any shape you like, circle, oval etc.

2. laminate these cut circle of prints by sandwiching it between two laminate sheets and cut the laminate sheet along the printed edge

3. start adding beads or feather or jewel stones on the edge of these laminated print outs. You need to make a hole with the needle in the top centre of the printed locket and attach locket to the chain with the embroidery thread or a wire. Don't forget to know the thread.

4. make sure you tie a couple of knots after beading the thread and attaching it to the chain.

5. feathers can be inserted in the beads. Glue the points which you think are weak and might open up while wearing the necklace.

Get creative with these lockets and gift it to someone who loves vintage jewellery. If you like the images that I have used ,then download these prints for free by clicking here Enjoy!

Vintage inspired Alphabet Wall

Exciting times ahead as I embrace the opportunities to teach my little one. It is such an amazing feeling to see your child understand and respond to your teachings. Elina is at such a stage in life that she wants to imitate me, try and communicate with me and respond to me, I have realised that when I introduce toys or activities early to her she enjoys them more and takes her time to explore them. It might be a bit early to have an alphabet wall for her but she responded really well to this wall full of pictures and some that she recognises like "D for Dog", yes my baby is a dog lover just like her mum!

I have used a very earthy chevron printed paper for the background, which I stuck on the wall and then pasted these vintage printout over them. I liked these colour tones as they are more easy on the eye and yet quite attractive and bright.

These vintage alphabet images are from Red Wagon. I changed a few images on some alphabets just to make it simpler for Elina's understanding, you can download these files here 

Handprinted gift wraps

Gifts, they are great to give and get! The best part of the gift is how it's wrapped, if looks nice from outside it will be nice on the inside for sure and opening a beautifully wrapped present is all the more exciting. There can be so many possibilities and ideas to wrap a present and it all depends on the wrapping paper. I am so over the regular "Merry Christmas" printed wrapping papers and the ones which are different are really expensive. Here is a great idea to make your own wrapping papers. You can customise them to any design, print or colour as you prefer and play around with the idea. 

I have printed random geometrical motifs on Gold coloured tissue paper with poster paints.

I used pumpkin and leek to create these patterns. Just carve out your vegetables or use them as is and dip them in paint and start printing, make lines or circles or just random patterns on the paper. I used tissue paper as the gold colour paper is slightly more dense than the other colours. you can use crepe paper or any plain coloured wrapping paper and print on them. White base with bright colours will give a really nice effect.

I used black contrasting paper under my ribbon and also punched a lace edge pattern on a plain white paper to lift the printed pattern on the wrapping paper. Play around and you don't have to be perfect with the print placement, that is the beauty of this idea.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

Doctor Who is one of our family favourite TV shows, there is drama, action, sci-fi, adventure all in one. The most exciting television experience ever and it has completed 50 years now! Time travel would be so interesting and dangerous (not so with the time lord!) that I so wish that someone would make this possible in my lifetime. 
We are crazy about Doctor Who gadgets, aliens and especially the Tardis. We spent this weekend watching the 50th Anniversary special with coffee and the most moist butter cake I baked. I had to mark this occasion with some handiwork of my own so I decorated a onesie for Elina. Well what better memorabilia could I have given my daughter! I also printed out some quotes and put them in frames to create simple yet expressive wall arts. 

The doctor's fan looks absolutely divine in the red bow, searching for her screwdriver. Beware Daleks and run for cover Master, the doctor is here!

It is so simple to make this onesie that you can make more than one version. You will need some fabric paint, an old tooth brush,paper cutter, fabric and sewing thread to make the bow.

Really simple steps:

1. Print out the pattern you want to spray paint. Doc Who logo for starters.

2. Cut out the pattern such that the design you want to print has been cut out (negative part). The middle part of "D" was detached after cutting out the motif so I stuck it in the centre with sticky tape.

3. Place the stencil on the t-shirt or onesie, use a card paper on the inside of the onesie to prevent any colour leaks. Also cover the exposed clothing with some rough paper.

4. Spray fabric paint on the stencil with toothbrush. Do not use water.

5. Remove the stencil carefully and let the motif dry.

6. Make a gorgeous bow preferably with red fabric and attach it to the onesie.

Here is the butter cake I baked with chocolate frosting and Jaffa for the love of the Doctor who has saved mankind on numerous occasions. I heart The Doctor ! 

#ChristmasTraditions#AdventCalendar#DIY

'Tis the season to be crafty fa la la la!! I love this time of the year as there is so much happening and there is a mad mad rush all around. The markets are flooded with ideas and so is the web. Everyone is making something or the other, food, gifts and so much more. My favourite bit is to go and drive around neighbourhoods looking at christmas lighting, amazing how much thought and effort some people put in every year and I for one want to encourage them more by visiting. Christmas at home and at school used to be quite different from what I have celebrated for the past seven years in Melbourne. At home mum had a christmas tree in a pot which out grew the pot every year, we would decorate the tree and light it up with the most gorgeous coloured lights. Mum would bake cakes and cookies, we would put out our stocking and mum would fill them up with chocolates. My fondest memory was dressing up as Santa for my little brother when he was four year old, he was asleep and I woke him up and mum said "look Santa is here" he said " Hello Santa" and slept with a big smile on his face. School was all about christmas crafts and carols, just beautiful to be in the chapel during these days.

My Christmas Crafts begin with the Advent calendar. I never had one growing up but I would like Elina to have this as a tradition. I made two, just because I enjoyed it so much! Here is the first one which is more of a discovery calendar for Elina as I have put little tokens for her in the pockets to take out every day until christmas.

I printed out some vintage numbers to stick on my calendar but you can use scrapbook cards or stickers as well. Here are the really simple steps to follow:

1. Cover a canvas or board with wrapping paper or fabric of your choice. I just used a wrapping paper and sticky tape to cover my canvas.

2. Cut your number print out in any shape or along the lines of the artwork.

3. Paste them on card paper in contrasting colours which will go well on your canvas background colour/pattern.

4. fold three sides of these number cards leaving the top side open, this will be the mouth of the pocket. Fold around 1 -1.5 cms on all three sides or bigger if you have enough paper.

5. cut the  two corners to create a notch as shown in the picture below.

6. make another fold on these three sides.  Use sticky tape to hold the bottom fold together with the sides to form the closed end of the pockets.

7. Move around the pockets or numbers to decide on the placement on your canvas.

8. Stick the pockets with sticky tape or glue on to your canvas and hang the calendar. You can fill the pockets with anything you like from christmas crackers to candies.

Pockets on Vintage inspired christmas calendar. You can make your own variations of this idea. Watch out for my next post with another easy idea for Advent calendar.

Summer Coolers

A hot summer day and a glass of chilled summer cooler, what more can one ask for! My favourite season is summer, I love the sunshine, feel happy getting out of bed, love dressing up, entertain, vacations and above all iced drinks. Although it gets really hot in India but I have never felt the heat like I feel in Australia, a hot day is really hot and you can only cool down in the sea or by ice creams.It is refreshing to eat all the juicy fruits or drink fruity coolers on a beach under some shade. Today after a month into summer we finally had a really hot day and I have been happy from the time I woke up. Hubby can home a bit early today and we enjoyed some refreshingly cool drinks while our daughter played in the sand pit.

I have added my touch to these coolers and renamed them. They are really simple, quick and refreshing and here are the recipes.

Minty Ginger- 
Ingredients: 1 inch Ginger crushed
                      two sprigs of mint leaves
                      a pinch of crushed white pepper
                      3 teaspoons sugar  or to taste
                      juice of half lemon
                      a glass of water

Boil water, ginger, one sprig of mint leaves, sugar and white pepper in a pan for 1 minute. strain the drink and allow to cool. Squeeze half lemon juice. Pour over ice and garnish with a sprig of mint leaves.

Sunshine- (my original concoction)
Ingredients: Juice of one orange
                      One part apple juice
                      Crushed Strawberries

Mix two parts freshly squeezed orange juice with one part apple juice (I like it cloudy with fibres) over ice and top up with some crushed strawberries.

Cucumber limeade-
Ingredients: juice of one lime
                     2-3 tea spoon sugar
                     thinly sliced cucumber
                     water

Mix lime juice and sugar in one glass water. Add sliced cucumber and let it rest for 10 minutes to infuse cucumber in the limeade. Serve over ice. 

Cucumber and lime marry very well together. I had a cucumber lemonade at a cafe some years ago and tried this with lime today, it definitely tastes better with lime. You can add white rum or vodka to any of these drinks and enjoy with friends in a dinner party.

Oats and Blueberry Pancake

My daughter's taste changes ever so often that it is hard to keep up with it! Well I think it happens to all toddlers as they are more interested in what is happening around them than what is on their plate, so as long as it looks good it is good to get their attention. She used to eat oats with fruits when she was 10 months old and since then I have tried everything but there is no way she will eat anything that resembles porridge as it is not chewy enough for her and she cant eat it with her bare hands. So I thought won't oat pancakes be a great as she can hold them and eat them by herself. I searched for a great recipe but unfortunately there are none that I could find so this is my own recipe and it did taste good. It's not quite doughy as a standard pancake, more like a quiche sort of texture.

Ingredients:

1 cup instant quick Oats (microwave ready in 90 seconds)

1 1/2 cup milk (full cream for kids)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon sugar

a pinch of baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

few drops of vanilla extract

handful of blueberries (chopped if you like)

butter to grease pan

honey for drizzle

cream/ice cream to serve

Recipe: Cook oats and milk together in microwave for 90 seconds. If you don't have the instant oats just cook regular oats in microwave for longer time. Once the oats have completely cooled down crack the egg in the same bowl and whisk. Add baking soda, baking powder, vanilla essence, sugar and blueberries and mix well. If the mixture looks too thick add some more milk. Grease a pan with butter as the pancakes get quite sticky with oats. flip them over like regular pancakes. Serve warm with honey drizzled on them and some cream on the side. A glass of apple/fruit juice would go perfectly for brekky!

I am sure there can be more delicious variations of this pancake and would love to see you my reader make some of your own! How about  trying oats, banana and walnut pancake?

Nautical Themed Party

This is a very special party I planned as it is for one of my favourite baby boy Vihaan. He is adorable and very close to my heart just like his parents. When I was thinking about themes for his Birth Announcement party all I could think of was whether he would like his pictures when he grows up or not as I sure want to be a cool aunt! My husband was super excited when I told him that it would be a nautical theme and I want him to make a boat. Yes, I did want him to make a boat to display drinks for the party. Vihaan's dad, who doesn't say much was really excited to see the boat taking shape, I could see he had just realised how much fun he can have with his boy. So hubby dear made a fantastic boat and added a spoiler at the back just to jazz it up, only problem being the boat wouldn't stand with the spoiler at one end. He was really disappointed that the spoiler had to be removed to the back of the boat for support. The next much loved idea I had was to add a fishing net over and behind the food tables in the marquee. The boys loved it and we decided to add some miniature rum bottles along with thermocol fishes in the net, I did find a squashed up empty coke can in the net at the end of the party and all the drink bottles were empty too quite obviously! The colour scheme for the decorations was navy,red and white. This is the same party from my previous post Nautical Themed Cake so I haven't added cake pictures for this post.

I added fringes made from tissue paper on white paper lantern that I bought from the $ store and then we added some solar lights inside as the party was in the evening. I made star fishes with fringed tails from party hats these hung in between two paper lanterns. I used cardsheets to create the pom pom fishes, they might look nice with googly eyes as well.

 Fishing net with fishes which were printouts on thermocol. Here is the Boat my hubby dear made and I am so proud of his craftsmanship as it looked just amazing! Vihaan can use it for his room to keep his books and toys as long as it is screwed to the wall. I made an anchor with streamers on the wall inside as well as in the marquee.

 The Blue dolphin looked great part of the decor and I am in love with the polka dot balloons. A kids party is not fully accomplished if there are no balloons, just looking at the little ones' faces make it worthwhile. I had to have some AHOY buntings since it is a nautical theme.

Food was amazing and I was able to enjoy it as I didn't do any cooking that day! Vihaan's dad is an amazing cook and he cooks meat exceptionally well.Although he had organised for catering for this party we forced him to cook chicken as he is so good at it, I'm glad we did.

Chevron partyware looked splendid on the waves printed table cloth and I made a "V" shaped table centrepiece with cardboard and cupcake wrappers. Some clean seashells on the tables around the plates added to the decor.

 This is the invitation for the party. I kept it just in tune with the decor, handmade invitations are my favourite and just a little addition of ribbon lifts up the whole invite. I didn't  do these graphics myself just played around with the pictures I found on this website http://www.aweddingstoryblog.com/ really grateful to the awesomely generous blogger out there as it makes it easier to celebrate themed events.

Nautical Themed Cake

My fascination with the wide ocean goes way back to my days in Mumbai but my love for all things nautical grew when I moved to Australia. There are so many beautiful art and crafts that are on display in any beachside small town all around Australia. The lighthouses are just like my school text books, majestic,serene and white! I still smile looking at a beautiful sea shell on the beach and try and keep myself from touching a beautiful jelly fish floating in the water. It is all so beautiful and calm about life around sea.

When I was planning my good friend's baby boy's Birth Announcement Party, nautical was the first theme that came to my mind. When it's nautical the colour scheme has to be navy and white, I added red to add some fun to the colour scheme. I made the cake as ocean waves with a tiny sail boat as the cake topper. A sailor duck sailing a boat in the very blue ocean was the cake which sat perfectly in a nautical themed party.

I used the newborn's gorgeous picture as the cup cake topper on the red velvet cupcakes. A giant golden foil balloon in "V" shape, first letter of baby's name, made a contrasting backdrop to a blue and white colour scheme. It took me a while to get the waves in order but I was pleased with the end result. I just added some white stars for star fish on the waves and yellow heart at both ends of Baby's name. The sails needed to be delicate a light so I used tissue paper to make them instead of fondant.

DIY Jute lampshade

I love looking and admiring innovative lampshades and chandeliers in cafes or stores. 
It is all about good lighting and lights to create that perfect ambience and the more in tune with look of the place they are the better. I don't deny that there are brilliant products out there in the market and very tempting to buy as well, yet some of the designs look so simple and easy to make that I can't resist the urge to make them for myself! These jute lampshades are very similar to a chic cafe lighting I saw recently, only theirs were more round and mine are teardrop shaped. I found lots of different ways and recipes to make similar hanging decorations with wool and cotton yarn using glue/cornstarch/wheat paste etc. The best result we found was from the one we made using starch, it worked like magic.

These lampshades look just as great during daytime as at night. I love the colour as jute is so earthy brown and looks so organic.

To make these lampshades all you need is Starch powdered (any brand starch used as clothes stiffener can be found at local departmental stores), jute string (thickness of your liking), vaseline and balloons. Vaseline would keep the balloon from sticking to the jute string. Just blow up a balloon, apply a layer of vaseline on the balloon and tie it to some sort of suspension in your backyard or indoors if you prefer. 

It would be good to put a piece of cloth or some newspaper under the balloon as the starch drips. Add around one cup starch to one and half cup boiling hot water. Stir it until all the starch is mixed with water and it should be a thick consistency. Dip the jute string in the starch water and keep wrapping it around the balloon in any pattern of your choice. It is best to start wrapping from the knot of the balloon and work your way downwards. 

Just wind the end of the string to the top of the lampshade and hang the ballon to dry for atleast 8 hours or overnight. Now it's time to pop the balloon! Sometimes when the balloon pops your lampshade might look distorted, try to pull it back in shape or just insert another balloon inside the shade and blow it up. as the balloon blows up the jute strings will start to get back in shape. let out the air in the balloon and you will find that the jute retains its shape.

Hope you enjoy making these lampshades with jute or any other cotton string. You can even paint them later in any colour of your choice!

Harry Potter themed Cake

It has been a very eventful month and I have had my hands full cooking and crafting, thanks to my wonderful friends! A very dear friend of mine is a true Harry Potter fan so much that he read all the books before seeing the films just so that the movies cannot influence him and he can experience what the writer intended first. We have spent many weekends watching Harry Potter movies with him and there have been times when we have had to say "Let's watch something else". Since he is such an ardent fan it was only fair that he gets his own Harry Potter cake for his birthday. I wasn't sure where to start and the Sorter Hat seemed like a good choice to start with. I love Harry Potter as well and especially when he was young and wore the sorter hat for the very first time praying he gets Gryffindor. Snitch was the next best part of the movies, the games were so interesting and I love the way they were filmed. Although I wasn't really prepared to make a gold fondant snitch as a topper, I did attempt one with golden sparkle on copper coloured. The possibilities for this theme are infinite and if I would have allowed myself more time I am sure I would have come up with a lot more. However, the ever so generous birthday boy was really pleased so I have no regrets! I made a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate butter frosting for the chocolate lover.

Not sure if you think the same but I feel that Harry from my cake resembles Gru from Despicable me quite remarkably if we change the scarf. A funny thing happened when I woke up in the morning and saw my little one ate Potter's face which I had made the night before, chewed the front of it completely. She didn't miss the opportunity as soon as she got her hands on it in my absence, so this is the second face I made for the cake. I didn't have much time left for decorations so just hung some candles with fishing line from the ceiling and the birthday banner said"Happy B'day Muggle". The candles were not very stable hanging with a sticky tape but they did stay long enough to cut the cake! I did stick a sign for Platform 9 3/4 on the main door and it looked quite good too.

We had a lovely time and our gracious hostess made the most amazing party food. I am glad Harry Potter theme was a success and the cake looked great. Guess sometimes a little effort can make great happy memories.

Dress and Decor for Diwali this year

I promise that this is the final post about Diwali this year! I have given you my readers an insight into my crafty festive world of  diwali through my previous posts and this is the conclusion. I had to make an Indian dress or Lehenga for my daughter so that she would look just the part and she did look gorgeous in red! It is hard to do indian embroideries when you can't find the right materials for embroidery and most of them are quite expensive here as compared to India. So I picked up an Indian printed fabric and used it to appliqué on red silk. It is a peacock feather print which I cut around the outline and then hand appliquéd on the bottom of the skirt. Embellished it with copper coloured sequins and finally added a contrasting green silk on the hem. I used the peacock printed fabric for the back of the sleeveless blouse.

 Doesn't she look gorgeous!! Dressing Elina up is easier than accessorising her as she loves to play with bangles and shoes more than wearing them. Although I don't think she needs much accessorising. Here are some pictures of how I decorated diyas and candles around the house on Diwali this year. i always have to have floating candles with flowers every year as I just absolutely love this combination. This year I used a blue coloured bowl filled with water with contrasting pink flowers.

These globes are from my daughter's Pinwheel birthday party and I have just added golden glitter on these globes to blend in with the festive colours. I just loved these shapes so much that didn't want them going waste and guess this is a good way to use them as well.

Hope you enjoyed Diwali this year, even if you don't celebrate it my intention was to spread the festive spirit all around with these posts. So I hope it was a happy experience for you and you would use some of these ideas too.

Traditional Indian Paper Lanterns with a difference.

Every year on Diwali we would go out to the markets shopping for diwali decorations with mum and dad. Although we would make our own decorations, paper Lanterns or Kandeel was something we would buy every year. Kandeel is an integral part of diwali as every house has one hanging in their verandah or porch. Beautifully hand crafted paper lanterns which light up at night amongst the diyas, candles, fairy lights and rangolis. When I was in India it all seemed so simple, just go to the market and choose what you like in color shape size and just buy one kandeel. However, it is different when you are away from home. craft helps me re-live those memories from home. I just make what I want and it doesn't matter how it looks as long as it is there for diwali. Here is a picture I took from the net to show how a traditional kandeel looks.

Making these kandeels is hard work and they are not very expensive. There are much more expensive versions available in the market nowadays. especially the boutique ones made from handmade paper or handcrafted fabrics.There are many variations in the market now for kandeels and each one is just as beautiful. I still love the traditional handcrafted ones with multicoloured tissue paper on wooden frames. It is a whole industry that thrives on festivals such as diwali and by buying these handmade decorations we support this small industry. This year I tried to make a variation of these beautiful kandeels. 

Finding material was not so hard as it was to come up with the frame. I used wooden skewers and tissue paper to create beautiful shapes and frames for my Kandeels. Just chop off the pointy ends of the skewers and tie them together building the frame. It wasn't easy so i used sticky tape first to hold them together and then tied a string to make them stronger. Later I cut out tissue paper the same size as each wall and used craft glue to stick them in place. Then I cut out a motif with a contrasting tissue paper and glued on each wall. Added some fringes to each corner of the bottom side and hung the frame under a light bulb or use a battery operated fairy light inside to illuminate the kandeel, like I did for the polygonal one.

These lanterns are not so hard to make and look absolutely gorgeous. They don't just look nice for diwali but can also be used for just any occasion or party. Daytime look is just as great as at night with the light coming from inside the tissue paper walls.

 My diwali started by hanging these beauties outside my front door and in the verandah out the back. I hope This diwali brings good luck and happiness for everyone around the world!