Halloween Hair...... Boo!

Halloween fell on a working week day for me this year so the morning was a busy one getting school lunches and uniforms sorted as well as myself looking half human for a day of work. Then Little Miss Giggleberry asked me, “what Halloween hairstyle are we going to do this year?” - eeeek! I hadn’t even thought about it to be honest!
A quick think and dig through my sewing room and I came up with a ghost idea...... (similar to a Christmas tree hairstyle we did a few years ago for the festive season).
A half up half down pony tail then two braids down the sides of Little Miss Giggleberry’s hair to start. Then I thread some white silky ribbon between and through the braids to make a triangle type shape on the back of her head. I just used a Bobbie pin at the beginning and end of the ribbon to tuck them out of sight. Then I used a little dab of hot glue to attach two large googled eyes to the ribbon and finished it off with a orange Halloween bow that we have had for a few years! Done!!

Minecraft Easter Hat Parade

This year was the last year my babies (soooo not babies anymore but I can dream) had an Easter hat parade to be a part of. At the Jnr Giggleberry's school they only do a hat parade up to a certain grade so Little Miss Giggleberry has finished and Master Giggleberry's final year was this year.
With that being the case I let him have free reign of choice for what to have on his head...... we hit Pinterest together and he spotted a Minecraft inspired one and exclaimed "YES". Decision made.
I purchased a Minecraft Creeper head (I probs could have made one but, ugh, too hard) and then added green cardboard ears and white cardboard teeth to turn it into a Creeper bunny.
Master Giggleberry and I then painted some foam easter craft eggs together. Then, using electrical tape of all colours we cut tiny squares and turned each painted egg into a Minecraft animal/character/TNT.The hot glue gun then got busy to attach them to the Creeper bunny..... TaDah!

One much loved hat by my boy, his mates and teachers.... too fun!

Crazy Sock Day!

Surely you know by now I LOVE to get my craft on when my kiddies bring home a note from school announcing a special event day like Book Week or Crazy Hair Day. Well I recently pulled out the trusty hot glue gun again. This time for Crazy Sock Day!
The kids wanted their socks to kinda match.... hmmmmmmmm sure. I popped over to Pinterest, found some inspiration and got cutting!

Felt is a great material to use for this kind of stuff. Fab colour choices, doesn't fray when cut and is relatively cheap.
I cut everything out by hand and just eyeballed it for size against the kids socks. Dosen't have to be perfect for one day of fun!!

The kids loved them and they got lots of giggles as they walked into school.... not too much popcorn came home again though LOL

Ghostbusters Proton Pack DIY

Yes, yes, yes. It has been over 2 years since my last post. I can bore you with all the "I've been really busy" excuses or I can just get on an get blogging again.
Its Halloween in 4 days! Yay!
The Jnr Giggleberrys decided just last Saturday that they would like to dress as the Ghostbusters for Trick or Treating. They asked two of their cousins to join us to make the awesome foursome complete and got a big fat YES in reply. So decision was made now over to me apparently to make that all come together!!
I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday so haven't had a chance to do much more about the costumes besides a bit of Pinterest hunting until today. Today was the day I got stuck into it.... Starting with the Proton Packs!! You know, those backpack things the ghostbusters all carry to blast/suck up/kill/collect ghosts with?
To make four of them on the cheap took a bit of out of the square thinking but I got there.
I started with 4 empty cardboard boxes. These were all different shapes and sizes but I figure so are the kids so go with it! I then poked black elastic though one side of the box to create backpack 'straps' for the kids arms and taped the boxes shut.

Next up - raid your recycling bin!! Go nuts! Look for smaller containers, yoghurt tubs, bottle lids etc etc. I then rifled through the 'everything draw' in our kitchen. You know the one that has everything in it and is a complete mess?(or is that just my household) in that bottomless pit draw I found bolts, plastic thinga-ma-jiggys and an old spiral bound note book that I stole the spiral from!

Now arrange the bits and pieces on your box until you are happy with the layout then hot glue it all down. I had to make four so tried to make them as similar to each other as possible with the bits and bobs I had gathered.
This is when I decided to add the tube thing on the side that will join to the 'gun' the ghostbusters hold. This was just light plastic tubing I bought from a hardware store. I guess ducting would work too.
I cut a small hole in the side of each box and poked the tubing in. I didn't bother glueing it but you could if you wanted to.

Spray paint them black. I picked Matte Black paint for this.

Then with your hot glue gun again, stick on a few coloured 'wires' I used some craft piping stuff I had lying around. I also stuck on some round red sparkle stickers to look a little like lights.....

I bought 4 super cheap guns from the $2 shop. All black ones. The shop had three of one style so I had to get a forth that is little different. No biggie. Out came the trusty hot glue gun again and I half glued, half jammed the end of the gun into the other end of the tubing until it would not budge. No real trick to this just go nuts.....
Ta Dah!! Four homemade Proton Packs - DONE!

Now I have 3 days to get four outfits made on the cheap..... but thats another blog post!

DIY Retirement Ambulance!

One week ago today, my dad officially retired! Such a huge milestone to reach after 38 years in the NSW Ambulance Service. I couldn't be more proud to call him my dad and Papa for my kids, he is truly a super hero!
Dad let his immediate family know about his impending retirement 2 weeks before the official day it came into action. Instantly my mind starting to race with what little gift or trinket I could buy or make him in celebration of such an event.
Finally inspiration hit (thanks for the one zillionth time to Pinterest) and I was off.

From eBay I found a second hand walking frame for a few $$ that by sheer luck was the colour I needed it to be - red. Saved me painting it!!
Next stop was somewhere that had a novelty horn that would sound like a siren. I must admit I went into quite a number of places from bike shops, to hobby shops, to car parts stores hoping to get what I was after but found nothing to suit until one of the auto parts store salesmen suggested Jaycar. Within 5 mins of explaining to the gentleman that asked what I was after I had a siren, a red flashing light and a battery pack to make it all work. Winning!!
Another eBay purchase of some red and white reflective checkered tape and a simple first aid kit to sit inside the basket of the frame and I was sorted.

I would love to claim I wired it all up myself but I wasn't too confident I could get it all right so my brother came to the rescue - (pun intended).

Dad, and the rest of the family, had a good laugh when he was presented with his new 'Retirement Ambulance'.

LEGO Gift Wrapping DIY!

Do you have a little LEGO fan in your house? or maybe a friend of one of your kids? a niece, nephew, grandchild? Who, like my little guy, LOVES LEGO?? If so, how about this little idea for the next time you are wrapping a gift for the LEGO fan...
LEGO Gift Wrapping!

Master Giggleberry turned 5 just last week so a few days before I was thinking I needed to get his presents wrapped. I like to have a bit of fun with gift wrapping but bows, ribbons and 'pretty' things would not be quite right for my little Superhero, Ninja, Star wars loving boy. Then **DING** I had a light bulb moment. I would wrap his gifts (that were mainly boxes of LEGO) to look like blocks of LEGO!

What You Need:
Plain coloured wrapping paper (I went with traditional LEGO colours of red, yellow, green and blue)
Single pieces of single coloured cardboard (make sure they match the wrapping paper colour)
Sticky Tape
Scissors
A Round Circle Punch (mine is a 2 inch punch)
1) Wrap your gift in the wrapping paper trying to keep it as tight to the square or rectangular shape as possible (maybe even pop the gift inside an empty box if it is not quite the right shape top wrap alone)
2) Take a piece of the coloured cardboard and punch a set of circles. Depending on the size of your gift will determine how many dots you will need. I had some with 6, some with 3, some with 4 and some with 12 to suit the different gifts.
3) With a loop of sticky tape (just a small piece of sticky tape looped around on itself) stick the coloured spots to the gift evenly to look like the bumps on a LEGO piece. (You could also use double sided foam tape)

You are done. Write in a card or gift tag and hand it to the receiver - I bet it gets a great response!!

You could easily do this in pinks and purple for any little LEGO Friends lover too! Have fun xx

Christmas Lights Hair Do!

2nd last day of school today for Little Miss Giggleberry - woohoo!!!! (I can. not. wait. for Thursday mornings lazy start!!)
Anyway today is Christmas Party day at her school so all the kids were allowed to wear mufti clothing and were also asked to bring a plate of food to share with their class mates. In the festive fun I thought why not do something fun with her hair too...

With a small battery operated pack of christmas lights I made a braid down each side of her hair while weaving in the lights. Any extra cord between the lights I pinned under the hair as best I could to keep it out of sight. The end of the cord is then fed down the back of her shirt and the battery pack is in her pocket so she is able to turn it off and on as she likes.

This is really easy to do and got lots of giggles and gasps from the kids and teachers this morning when I dropped her at school. It would be the perfect hair style to do if you were heading to a night time Christmas party or Carlos by Candlelight.

Lollipop Class Christmas Card!

Spotted over HERE on Makerland, this is such a simple but fun way for your kiddies to hand out a Christmas card/class gift this year. I had this all done in such a short space of time so even with 20 days now till Christmas day you will have plenty of time to get these done.

How To:
(1) Take a photo of your child (have them stand with their hand in a gentle fist out to the side but infront of them). These can be as fancy/dressed up/set up with a particular background etc as you want. I honestly snapped these of my kids on a school morning after breakfast with my iPhone.

(2) Upload the pics to Picmonkey (or photo editing site of your choice). I cropped the pics a bit making sure the side I planned to have the lollipop go in the hand had more space. Picmonkey is also where I added the text to the photos - my kids chose the colours and fonts with me.

(3) Print! I don't have a printer at the moment so we went to Officeworks to print ours off. I did them in a smaller square size rather than a regular 4x6 photo size but this is completely up to you.
(4) Grab some lollipops. I happen to spot a bucket of mini Chupa Chups while we were in Officeworks - Perfect!!
(5) With a sharp box cutter/craft scalpel slice a small slit in the photo just above the childs fist and just below too.
(6) Feed the stick of a lollipop thought the two slits to make it seem like the child is holding it.

Told you it was simple! Now sit back and watch your kiddies have a ball handing these goodies out!

Crazy Hair Day - Mr Potato Head!!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at little Miss Gigglebrry's school. Most schools and preschools hold a day like this yearly and most kids come with teased up and colour sprayed hair.... I wanted to do something a little different.
Inspired by a pic I spotted on Pinterest we pulled out our mini Mr Potato Head toys and hairspray and started to play!!

This was really fun and different hair style that, let me tell you, got sooooooo many compliments, "wow's", "oh my's" and "how did you do that's" - it needed it's own blog post!!

A basic how to:
* I did an upside-down braid from the base of the head just to half way up the head and secured with an elastic. Then brushed the end of the braid and the rest of the hair into one ponytail right ontop of the head. Secured with lots of hair spray and a tight hair tie.

* Open the ponytail out to find the middle of it and so a little but of hair is hanging down all around the head. Lightly spray the toy potato with hair spray and place it ontop of the opened hair. Close/wrap the hair up and around the potato so you can not see any of the toy. Secure with another hair tie tightly and a bit more hairspray.
* Poke your choice of Mr Potato Head face pieces into the potato.... we decide to not do arms but you absolutely could add arms in the side too.
* Split the hair right ontop of the potato in two and secure with two hair ties.

We then added a little glitter hairspray just for fun too.

Have fun!!

Bridesmaid Dress to Baby Blanket!

Just two short years ago one my sisters married the man of her dreams and I was lucky enough to be one of the three bridesmaids who walked down the aisle before the gorgeous bride.

(That's me and 'the dress' on the far right)

Fast forward two years to current day and more exciting news can now be shared. The 'newly weds' are now expecting their first bubby - YAY!!!

Of course, as 'Aunty Amy' to be, I had to create some sort of unique gift to give the excited parents. So into the depths of my cupboard I went and dug out the very bridesmaid dress I wore for their wedding (and haven't worn once since) and I attacked it with my sewing scissors....

With a few other coordinating and super cute fabrics I pieced together a piece of their wedding day into a quilt for their bubby!!

Lil' Miss Whippy - Cozy Coupe Makeover!

100% inspired by some very clever and creative people I came across online I just HAD to give a Cozy Coupe makeover a go as a first birthday gift for my Niece.
I scored the 2nd hand, ride in (Playschool brand) car, for $20 on eBay. A quick inspection showed me that the two screws on the front of the roof were the only "hardware" so I undid them the the rest of the car kind of puled/popped apart easily. I also popped off the back wheels without any tools - they then literally popped back in place when it was re-assembled.

Master Giggleberry was my little helper for this part and together we got to scrubbing and cleaning and peeling off the stickers. We then wrapped the steering wheel, tyres, and any other bits I didn't want painted, with newspaper and painters tape.

I had decided to turn the car into a mini version of the classic Mr Whippy Vans. You know the kind, pink on the bottom, white on the top playing 'Green Sleeves' as it slowly cruises the streets on a summer night. So a quick trip to Bunnings to find the perfect colours in spray paint and some cardboard boxes thrown down to protect our pavers and I was spray painting away! It did take a few coats to fully cover the blue nicely and I probably went through 3 cans of pink spray paint in the end.

Next I hopped on good old eBay and found stick-on reflector lights and mini mirrors. I also measured up the 'boot' of the car and found the perfect clear perspex icecream cone holder to fit it.

Back together it all went and was starting to look the part!

We needed some 'branding' I thought so with a quick email to the every so lovely Christina of CC Design Management and some measurements I took of the car we created the Lil Miss Whippy, number plates & ice cream stickers.

Now, no ice cream truck is complete without a selection of soft serve cones. This was all sorted by one very talented lady I found on etsy. You must check out Duncan Creative by Karen Swimmer. Her amazing crocheted designs!! Karen made a bundle of soft serve ice creams in different flavors and toppings just as I requested and then even made a sundae in a cup too!!

They fit perfect in the ice cream holder on the back of the car and Ta Dah we were ready to roll!!

Wrapped with a big bow this bargain car I found on eBay was very well received by my cutie pie niece and will hopefully see lots of love!