No Sew Easter Baskets

My lovely sister and I have quite a few family traditions that we enjoy doing together, and one of them is making handmade Easter baskets and bunnies each year.

The oldest three still love the baskets we made last year and they often get used in their imaginative play games. Lately Max's one has been used as a shopping basket, a catapult and as a means to carry the toys he likes to 'reclaim' from Lincoln's room...

This year I wanted to make something again that they could keep using year round, but this time I decided to go down the 'no sew' route. I absolutely love how they turned out!

These were so fun to make and nice and quick too. I did all four in a day (including working out how I wanted to make them).

Here's what you'll need to whip some up:

   - round kraft box with lid
   - fabric
   - batting
   - ribbon
   - fabric glue
   - hot glue
   - scissors
   - wool
   - scrap cardboard
   - paintbrush

Start out by smearing fabric glue around the outside of your box and then wrap the batting around it. Hold for a minute or so until dryish, then trim your batting down level with the top and bottom of the box.

Next up lay your fabric right side down on the table and measure off a section the same height as the sides of your box (mine was 7cm). Paint that section with fabric glue and then wrap around your batted box. You want the edge of the fabric to be even with the bottom of the box and all the excess to be up at the top of the box because the excess fabric will be folded in to cover the inside.

Once you've folded all that fabric in it's time to make the inside base (which will cover up all that extra folded fabric). Take your lid, cut the lip off of it and then trim it down so that it will fit snugly inside the box. Using your fabric glue again stick some more batting to the circle and trim it into shape. Then cover your circle in some more fabric (I used some cheap white poplin I had left over from making Max's headboard).

Leave it to dry from a couple of minutes before pushing the circle down into the inside of your basket.

To make the ribbon handle, attach some ribbon to the underside of your basket with hot glue and then secure the ribbon up the sides of the basket using some more fabric glue. Then glue a thick ribbon around the base of your basket.

Last but not least make a sweet little pom pom (tutorial here) for the bunny tail and hot glue it to the front of your basket.

 

 
Done! One very sweet little Easter basket (or in my case four of them!).

Jenny's working on some co-ordinating Easter bunnies to go in the baskets, I'll share them as soon as they're ready to go :).

Easy Washi Tape Magnets

Something happened this weekend that's pretty rare in my house. I completed a DIY project without spending a cent. It's a miracle! Seriously though I almost always get a great idea for a quick and easy project, then it spirals out of control and ends up costing my at least $50-$100 (like the icecream shop for Max that I'm currently planning in my head). Not this time though. I had everything I needed already for these magnets. Even if I had needed to buy supplies I think it would have only cost a few dollars.

I've seen magnets like these just about everywhere already on the internet and they were so easy to make. It was just a matter of sticking the tape on my magnets (which came in a packet with the ones I used for Max's fishing game) and trimming the tape down to size. I cut each one in half and then snipped the ends of each magnet to give it that 'torn tape' look.

It took me less than ten minutes to make them and they look so cute on the fridge!

 

What do you think about sticking things on the fridge? Before I had kids I was 100% adamant that my fridge would never be covered in photos, invites or scribbled artwork. Of course that changed the minute Max drew his first picture! Now I proudly display everything on the fridge and I wouldn't have it any other way!

(Oh and if you love the washi tape I used you can find all of it at Chibi Run one of my favourite online shops).

DIY Headboard and Bed Make-Over

The bed in Max's room at the moment is uggg-lllly. It's functional and actually used to be Sean's bed when he was (a lot) younger, but there is absolutely nothing attractive about it... For ages now I've been planning on making it over, the Pinterest Challenge was just the kick in the butt I needed to get it done.

I ambitiously gave myself a day to do the make-over and even thought to myself 'I might whip up a new doona for the bed if I have time'. Ummm no... It took me two days to get the whole thing done, but now that's it's finished I'm so glad I finally tackled it!

Here's what I started with...

A king single ensemble. Like I said, functional but not exactly stylin'.

I split the project into two parts. First up I covered the base of the ensemble and added legs, then I made a headboard. I got my inspiration from these three pins below.

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Materials:

• linen
• cheap white poplin 
• batting
• 2inch thick foam
• mdf board
• button covering kit
• furniture legs

Tools

• screwdriver
• drill bit
• staple gun and staples
• embroidery needle
• embroidery thread
• nails
• plyers
• hammer

I started out by covering the base of the ensemble with my cheap poplin, which I used because I didn't want that bright pattern showing through the loose weave of my linen. I pinned each strip in place and then went around with my staple gun to secure it to the underside and top of the base.

I then did the same thing with with the linen, only I paid a bit more attention to the detail and made sure the corners looked neat and tidy.

As I was going around securing the linen I noticed the staples weren't holding the fabric to the top side of the base. Underneath was fine because the staples went straight into plywood, but on top they were only going into fabric which meant they came out really easily. I ended up using nails for the top because they went through the fabric and back down into the ply. In other words I made things up as I went and wished for the best!!

Once that was all done I attached the legs and moved on to the headboard.

I measured up Max's bed before hitting up Bunnings and decided that I wanted my mdf to be 1100 x 1100 and got them to cut it in store for me. Lucky I did, there is no way I would have fit anything bigger into the back of my car :).

To start off the headboard I measured out where I wanted my buttons and then drilled holes through the mdf (gorgeous hand model used as I was behind the camera, thanks J!!).

I though about using spray adhesive to stick the foam to the board, but ended up using fabric glue. It was raining outside and the house was full of people so I didn't want to fume up the place. No biggie though the fabric glue worked just fine.

Then it was just a matter of covering the board and foam with batting, then my el-cheapo lining and finally my linen (I used the poplin underneath the linen again because I didn't want the batting poking through the weave of the fabric).

Then came the most time consuming and difficult part. Covering the buttons and sewing them onto the headboard to get that tufted look that I love so much! Soooo much harder than I expected, but so definitely worth it!

Covering the buttons was just a matter of following the instructions on the packet, attaching them was a whole other ball game... After a fair bit of trial and error I worked out the best way to do it.

I threaded the needle with embroidery thread and then tied it into a loop. Then I tied it onto the button. I didn't take a photo, but if you can picture the needle with a decent amount of thick thread on it and then a button tied onto the very end of the thread.

To get the buttons in the right place I pushed a nail through the pre-drilled holes in the back of the board, felt where the point of the nail touched my fabric and then pushed my needle and thread (with the button attached) up through the the fabric, batting and foam etc until it came out the back of the board. With one hand pushing my needle through, and pliers in the other hand I grabbed onto the needle and pulled it right the way through. Then I would tie a big knot in the thread, pull it as tight as possible and secure it with staples.

That probably made no sense what-so-ever... If you want to give this a go and have no idea what I'm on about email me and I'll try and explain it better :)

I'm sooooooo happy with how it turned out and Max absolutely loves it! He knows it's the same bed, but he still likes to call it his 'new bed' and he's so excited to go to bed in it tonight. The real test will be whether or not he stays in there the whole night I guess!

Phew, now that I finally have it finished I'm linking up with Katie, Sherry, Megan and Michelle (and checking out all of the amazing projects that have been shared).

Thanks for reading!!











{If you would like to see any of my previous pinterest challenge projects you can see them below}

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