e is for elephant

This week I felt like making elephants - and no, I don't know why!!!
So we have elephant mini bunting

Mini bunting

and elephant needle books. I made one last year and sold it straight away and was asked if I had a pink elephant, so I have made a pink one as well. I wonder which will go first? If you would like one of these, they are listed in my Folksy shop.

Needle book or needle case?

And of course an elephant key ring made from the cute wooden elephant buttons I found.

elephant keyring

d is for ... dinosaurs

dinosaur roll

I have been trying to make some more things for boys lately and so my dinosaur range has hatched! I know girls like dinosaurs too, so I am hoping they will be popular.

pop in a bag or pocket and ready to go!

There is cute dinosaur mini bunting ..

mini bunting

and a pocket purse in the same fabric.
A cheeky dinosaur note book made from felt.

notebook

Finally a dinosaur carry roll, complete with six dinosaurs but you can always add more.

dinosaurs rule!

cats, cobras, coyotes and cockroaches

I really like the black and coral colour combination

Yesterday as we were in the car on the way to school, Pickle-Lily commented that I hadn't done an alphabet blog post for a long while and what was I going to do next? We decide that 'c' was the next letter and as she was going to Bristol Zoo that day with school, she would look for animals beginning with 'c'. So we thought of a few to begin with, and came up with cats, cobras, coyotes and cockroaches! Not your usual sort of list! (On the way home we thought of loads more, but decided to keep to the original list!)
For cats, I thought I'd share the newest cat key ring I'm making. I still like my old design, but it wasn't really practical as a key ring as the tail got bent, it still works well as applique design.
Cobras are harder, so I googled 'felt cobra', then 'knitted cobra' and finally 'felt snake'. What it came up with surprised me - but in a good way!

http://www.craftbuds.com/felt-flowers-button-snake/



This is a button snake, made from a long piece of ribbon, with buttons at either end. You then thread the button through the felt shapes to develop fine motor skills. There is a great tutorial here. I will have to put this idea on the summer holiday to do list, but I can think of lots of children who would enjoy playing with one of these.
Coyotes I think I will have to think about and return to!
Cockroaches - see my post here !


Four for Folksy Friday and a a a

I've been toying with two ideas lately about doing something different with the blog - one is a crafting alphabet and the other is joining in with Folksy Friday. So today is my first fumbling step into this.
First the crafting alphabet idea. Well. my first thought for a - was ants! As an early years teacher who has taught phonics for many moons, a means 'a .. a ...a ... ants' (coupled with my fingers climbing up my arm). All the teachers and mums out there know what I mean!
Now I had ants on the brain, and I was - to admit it - stuck! I couldn't think of a recipe or a make to do (Actually I've come up with several, after the drive to school!) with ants, so I had a look on Folksy and it came up trumps.
So my Four for Folksy Friday are ...


Textile Mug by Miwary

This cute fabric mug from Miwary

Bean bag by Zoe Est Kids

A beautiful big beanbag from Zoe Est Kids

Backyard Party fabric by Michael Miller from Stitch Me Lane

Fab fabric from Stitch Me Lane

Card from Suzy Taylor

This amazing paper cut design from Suzy Taylor

I'm off now to make some ant related items (good for the beastie lovers out there!). I'll post some pictures when I'm done. As an aside, to all those in the know about Jolly Phonics, I have now got the song 'A a a ants on my arm' going round and round in my head!