How to make a String Decoration

My children love making these. It can be very messy depending on their age but that’s part of the fun plus the finished result is a decoration for their bedrooms.

We used coloured string but you can also use plain string and leave white for a shabby chic look, or add some paint to your glue for colour.

What you will need:

·         String 

·         Bowl

·         PVA Glue  

·         Round balloons  

·         Scissors

·         Newspaper or something to protect your work surface

·         Paint – if required

1.      Cover your work surface with newspaper

2.      Blow the balloon up to your required size. We use between 5cm and 20cm. Remember the bigger the balloon the more string you will need!

3.      Pour the PVA glue into a bowl. If using plain string add paint if required and mix.  

4.      Cut the string into 50cm lengths. This prevents knots and is easier to handle

5.      Place a length of string into the bowl and coat with the glue. To prevent the string slipping around the balloon, remove the excess glue (glue & paint) with your fingers.

6.      Wrap the string around the balloon. Overlap the string to create a lattice effect. Keep going until you have the desired effect you wish. Remember not to leave big spaces.

7.      Hang the balloon to dry. Leave for at least 24 hours. Check that all the string is completely dry and feels hard. Pop the balloon and remove it carefully from your decoration.

      

     

If you pop the balloon too soon the string will collapse with the balloon. This happened to us! We use coloured string instead plain string and adding paint as my 4 year old gets a little carried away with paint! To re-use the string I simply soaked the string in warm water to remove the glue and separated the lengths again.

Remember if your string decoration gets wet it will also collapse.

You can add glitter to the glue or use some decorative ribbon to make these hanging ornaments or Christmas tree decorations. If you leave a small space when you are latticing your balloon you can fill with small chocolate eggs for Easter. The ideas are endless!

Enjoy crafting!     

Written by Victoria.

Getting Crafty

If you are like me,  and love doing crafts, and you also love your children,  but the idea of mixing the two gives you palpitations with the  thought of  mess and the clean up job afterwards, I'm afraid you're going to have to suck it up and get on with it, like me, as it can be really good fun for all involved.

Crafting with children doesn't have to involve the dreaded paint..
The thing to think about is, is it just for fun? i.e. messy play or would you rather make something to keep?

There are so many choices,  but I'm going to give you a simple idea. Making a bag.

Sounds tricky right?, but it's easy!


My daughter outgrew her favourite denim skirt.
Trust me she wore it until it was so short it was verging on looking like a belt! -Now I sound like my mum!

Anyway, following yet another conversation on why it was inappropriate for her to wear it anymore, we decided to turn it into a bag!


This made her happy but sceptical, as she is the better sewer out of the two of us and she couldn't work out how we would do this. Hard to believe an 8 year old is better than her mum but I owe it all to my own mum for teaching her. (Thanks Mum, I will always have someone to sew on my buttons!)

Here's how we did it:

First, turn the skirt inside out.

Put some pins in along the bottom to keep it secure.

Sew across the bottom of the skirt. (We used 3 different colours to make it a bit funky).

Turn the skirt back and pop something in it to make sure your stitching holds!

We then used a bright pink material belt from a pair of jeans that she had outgrown to make the handle.

A few pieces of ribbon or twine plated together would be great too.

We sewed one end of the belt to the inside of the side of the waist of the skirt. Then the other end to the other side.

The good news is all the sewing is inside so it won't show on the finished bag.

As our skirt had some details with zips and coloured stitching on it, there wasn't much need for anything else. But I did personalise it further by stitching the first letter of my daughters name on the front then added a flower sequin
.

You could add buttons or tassels to make it perfect for you.

Don't forget you can do this with almost anything! Why not make a back pack for a little boy by using some old shorts, and adding some badges to funk it up?

My daughter loved the end result, and so far, her new bag has lasted a year, but the most important thing is that we spent time together, having fun!


Written by Victoria