Diy flower rosette Numbers for birthdays

As my daughter is turning 5 , I am fully in the decoration mood.... I want to make a huge 5 symbol to match the yellow theme we are following. The yellow crepe paper I had was too light.Plain yellow would look normal so I used yellow and red rosettes made from crepe paper to make it look more rich.

I just love the way it has turned out. Here is how I did it

Step 1 : I cut a huge 5 in a thermacol/ styrofoam sheet that's 10 mm thick.

Step 2 : since the edges were rough I covered them by sticking with crepe paper ribbons on all the sides.

Step 3 : I then made the crepe rosettes. It is very simple. Take a crepe ribbon about 15 cm in length. 

Start crumpling from one side to look like fan folds

Now stick the edges with glue.

Now you have a loop. Just flatten it by bringing one edge to the center.

Pinch a little in the center and pick the rosette. Apply glue on the back side and stick it to the the number 5 we did earlier.

Now u leave it like this or you can secure with a push pin as I did for more dimension.

Start filling the flowers alternately red and yellow.

And stick on the wall or hang it on the door.

Rapunzel princess hair braid - DIY

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Rapunzel princess has become a favourite character for my daughter from the moment she saw Disney Tangled movie. She always wanted to have long hair and would pretend so by holding my dupatta/ stole on her head. So I decided to make her one. After browsing the web, I finally landed up with this one. I used 2 small bundles of cream yarn and few ribbons that I already had at home.

The braid would me much more pretty if I had used 4 bundles but would also be heavy on my 5 yr old daughters head and it can slip off her head

Here is how I did it :

Step 1 : I kept two chair wide apart and started rolling the yarn bundle from one chair handle to the other. (1/3rd of your initial length gets reduced after plating the yarn, so decide the length you want depending on that)

Step 2 : I snipped off one end and attached 3 ribbons as long as the yarn hair and tied tightly the ends with a small piece of yarn. I used one purple ribbon in the center and two pink ribbons for the sides.

Step 3: I the cut the other end and hang it on a high hook on the wall. Be careful not to tangle the yarn.

Step 4: slowly make 3 equal sections of yarn with one ribbon on each section and start to braid the hair as usual. Stop when you have about 4 inches down and tie a knot with ribbon or yarn.you can attaché flowers in-between the braids if you wish.

Step 5:  then I rolled the top end of the braid around my daughters head and hid top end under the longer end and secured in place with clip. I didn't  glue it so that it can be used on anyone's head. She can try on her friends hair too and play.

My daughter just loved her new Rapunzel hair and couldn't stop playing with it.

Magic wand tutorial

I made this magic wand for my daughter's 5 th birthday.  She always wanted to be a magical fairy princess.I made them in yellow color to match her yellow princess dress. 

It is very easy to make. I made them so quickly.

You will need:

Yellow chart paper, glitter foam sheet, strong glue, quilling paper strips / ribbon, sticky tape

Step 1: For the stick I rolled the chart paper like a straw and secured them with stick tape.

Step 2: Cut 2 star shapes of same size from gold color foam sheet.

Step 3 : with a strong glue attach the quilling strips/ ribbon to the backside of each star. I have used mettallic paper quilling strips.

Step 4 : now apply more glue to one end of the wand and stick the stars on both sides at the same level. Once the star gets fixed, stick the ponited ends of both stars. 

Voila your cheap and handmade royal magic wand is ready. Now your little one can throw her wish and enjoy !!!

Bean mosaic art

Rice and beans are not only for cooking. The grains can also be used to make mosaic art on cardboard or cloth.

First draw the design you want to mosaic. Then chose different grains to lay. Make sure the color combination goes well. Then apply glue on the outline of the design and arrange the grains neatly. Complete the borders of all sections in your image. Then fill glue inside each section one at a time and sprinkle the grains. Wait for them to dry. Once done secure them with a coat of varnish and frame it.

Types of Kolam

There are many types of kolam. We will discuss a few of them.
I )Kolam with Dots : dots are used as the guidelines to draw the designs.
1. Straight Dots (Naer Pulli in Tamil) Here in every line the dots are parallel to the previous line. Pattern may be same in number, ascending, descending or follow a unique pattern but all are parallel and straight. Then the kolam is drawn by connecting the dots.

  

2. Alternating dots (a.k.a Edai Pulli in Tamil)
Here the dots in the immediate next line are inbetween the dots of the previous line. Normally these kolams are either in diamond shape or hexagon shape. Kolams are drawn by connecting the dots.Dot pattern may be ascending, descending or follow a unique pattern but all lines have alternate dots.

3. Continuous Chain kolams
Here the dots are marked either straight or alternating. But the kolam is drawn like a chain pattern around the dots unlike connecting the dots.These kolams are very challenging and interesting. The best part about this type of kolam is that its difficult to find the beginning or ending of the kolam. Mostly the huge kolams starts and ends at the same point. It looks complicated but once you learn the pattern then its simple. To start with there are few simple kolams in this category.

II) Freehand Kolam with Lines: Here kolams are done freehand using straight and curved lines forming a lovely pattern.Sometimes even complicatedwith 2 or 4 parallel lines. These kolams are drawn on special days with cloth dipped in a paste of rice flour( soaked and ground to a paste with a pinch of turmeric). So that the kolam stays the whole day.

III) Colorful Kolam: Any type of kolam or designs - like a carpet on the floor, peacock etc. is drawn and then filled with colors.

here again there are lot of varaitions. Colors can be filled as follows
1.Colored rice flour or stone powder

2. with flowers and petals - a.k.a Pookalam in Kerala drawn on ONAM festival.

3. colored rock salt or colored glass crystals

4. with lentils and dried beans - a.k.a Navadhaniya Kolam

5. kolam designs decorated with lighted diyas - for deepavali festival and Karthigai deepam festival.

IV) Floating Rangoli - kolam is drawn on the water surface. This is done by first sprinkling french chalk powder with a seive on the water surface and then filling with colors to make designs.

V)Readymade Stonework Rangoli- This new and easy to arrange kolams is getting very popular nowadays. You just have to display the pieces and cleaning up is very easy. Many people living in other countries prefer buying these designs as they are very easy to use and looks very rich and modern.

Thats all that i have heard and learned about Kolam. If you have anything to add please do write on the comment section.

Fringed felt flower clips

These flower clips were born as a combination of two different ideas. There is a wonderful tutorial for the felt flowers in Craft Snob's - Pomela. and the hair clip idea is from Purl Bee's - valentine heart barettes. Don't forget to have a look at the original versions. I thought of combining these two into my version :). So here it goes

You will need :
Felt cloth, hair clip, needle, thread and scissor.

Video Tutorial:

Method:
First draw 2 circles of the same size and slightly bigger than your hair clip.

Cut a long rectange piece of cloth that is 15inch by 1.5 inches. Fold into half lengthwise and stitch the loose ends.

Cut slits halfway on the folded ends. Place this piece on top of one round cloth with the stiched side facing inside and attach it to the edges of the round felt cloth.

After completing one circle slightly overlap inwards and stich another round. Keep doing this till you reach the center.

Attach beads or button in the center and finish it off.

In the second round felt cloth, just poke a hole slightly away from the center. Open a snap clip and insert the pointed end in to this hole. Now attach this cloth to the flower you have already made.

Paper craft - Christmas tree from magazine

Handmade Christmas tree- Paper craft

This is a recycle project. Your old magazines can be put to good use this Christmas. I have used my old Readers Digest magazine.

Just tear off the first 30 pages(i.e; 60 page numbers) from the book but make sure the binding is strong enough. Watch below to see my animated image expling the fold...

step 1:Fold the page diagonally from right to left to form a triangle as shown below.

step 2: Then fold again towards the center from right to left as shown

step 3:Then fold upwards the paper portion that is pointing below the page size as shown.


step 4:Then open up and fold inwards the small triangle as shown and do step 2 again


Keep doing this for the first 15 pages. Then make the same folds on the left hand side of the book starting to fold digonally from left to right. Do this on the remaining 15 pages.

Now the tree is ready, paint it with green color and fix a Paper star on top to finish. Place it on top of a paper roll or round box to finish it.


Merry Christmas!!!

Painting tutorial- Coffee painting

I have heard about coffee painting long back but didn't try it out. One final day when I found my instant coffee powder all dried up I decided to add little water and felt like giving it a try. Surprisingly it turned out to be such a great work and I couldn't stop with just one painting. Coffee painting is just like watercolor, but you create different shades of brown color to bring fantastic effects.

You will need:

Instant coffee powder

Water

Tissue paper/cloth

Watercolor paper

paint brush-round tip

Here is a quick tutorial on how to do it.

Flamingo wall hanging - Tutorial

A quick and very easy way to do a wall hanging which is cheap and easy to do with leftover pieces at home.

You will need:

Last page of an old greeting card (I chose a red card)

A design to outline, like a flamingo

Some leftover white lace (white looks good on red )

Fabric glue
3D Outliner pearl color ( if don't find one use glue to outline design and stick around with a white wool)

Select a design like flamingo and draw it on a paper or just print it out from the Internet and cut out the image. I have used 2 different size flamingoes facing each other.

Keep the cut out on top of the red card and trace the design. With the 3G Outliner draw over the traced design. If you don't have a 3G Outliner try draw the design with white glue and stick white wool on them.they should give you the same effect.

To finish the borders, I have just used the old white lace that was sleeping in my draws. Apply fabric glue to fix them on the borders .Using ribbon is also a good idea.

After they dry out turn it over and fix a ribbon loop with a sticky tape to hang it immediately. If you have more time you can get it framed for an expensive look.

Your wall hanging is ready in no time and you have made it free of cost with items in your supplies.

Short Video Tutorial