Sunday 21 April 2013

Teaser - How To Make Bangles From Bottles

Just a little tease for you all, my next post will be on how to use soft drink bottles into jewellery, bangles to be precise.



I saw this photo on Facebook which did not have a source, so I decided to try them out for myself and so far I am having fun with them. My young daughter started on one herself but gave up part way through so these can probably be made with teenagers and older due to how fiddly they can be.

So I got started on my bangles and decided that a cool and easy project like this must have a real author on the web somewhere. So I did a reverse images search on Google and found it here on this blog: http://fashion.onblog.at/en/diy-advent-17-beautiful-recycling-bracelets-from-plastic-bottles

I noted that there were differences to how they made theirs slightly, which made me happy that I started the project on my intuition as to how to do, I think my way is a little easier. The bottle they start off with is too big so needs adjusting, where as mine is an ideal size (well for me anyway). You don't get as many bracelets from the bottle size I have used but that's ok, you just need more bottles if you want to make more.

So stay tuned to see how my bangles made out of bottles turn out, I will post pics and all the steps to create them yourself very soon.

Thanks for reading  :)

Saturday 20 April 2013

Cupcake Decorating


This is such a fun activity that I love to do with the whole family. On this occasion I had the two kids involved as well as my partner, sister and mother. We all sat around the dining table decorating these cupcakes and it was great!




Directions:

1. Using a box of cake mix, cook cupcakes according to packet directions. Let them cool.

2. Spoon half of the icing from a tub of ready made frosting into a small bowl, leaving the remaining half in the     tub. Put a few drops of food colouring into the bowl and tub (a different colour for each), then mix until completely combined. As you can see I used blue and yellow. My partner decided to get creative and put a little of both colours on his cupcake at once and mix, creating green. Clever cookie he is  :)

3. Set up the table (or other preparation area). I put the different lollies into separate small bowls in the centre of the table. I bought sprinkles and 100's & 1000's in tubes (they were easier for the kids to use than a dispenser) which I snipped the end off and stood upright in a tall plastic container. The 2 bowls of icing were passed along to whoever needed them at the time. The cupcakes were to the side on the table and one person was designated to hand them  out as needed. Everyone had a paper plate in front of them to work on and were given a plastic tablespoon to use for icing the cupcakes (knives leave funny marks, the back of spoons create a smoother finish).

4. Now get decorating. If you have other lollies or decorations feel free to use those, my kids wanted to make faces as they could make cupcakes that represented the family and their friends, many laughs were had over  some of the results (my daughter even made one of her best friend, she then took it into school the next day to give to her as a gift, her best friend was so delighted).



We mostly made faces, using smarties or jelly beans for the eyes and lolly teeth or sour worms for the mouths. The sprinkles (or 100's & 1000's) we used on some to create hair which was a cute touch.
Some people got tired of faces so there were a few more original pieces made.

I really recommend this activity for the whole family, I have made these at playgroup with kids as young as 3 (with supervision), but it is also quite fun for the adults to join in as well. Not to mention that everyone can join in on having a yummy afternoon tea right after and eat them  :)

Let me know if you try this, I would love to see your pics  :)