Money box from a plastic bottle - great upcycling idea

 

Here is a tutorial on how I made some money boxes from used plastic bottles. I actually prepared the bottles but the decoration was actually done by my 10 year old daughter.

 

My daughter just raided the scrap fabric bin and printed off some designs on the printer to make these lovely money boxes, so this was a very inexpensive project.

 

 

Requirements:

 

Plastic bottle and lid

Printed pictures

Ribbon / Lace

Glue / Double sided tape

Knife / Scissors

 

Instructions:

 

Step 1: Remove all labels and clean the bottle.

Step 2: Puncture a hole into the lid (I used a knife but you must be very careful this can be dangerous!) I used a screwdriver to make the hole wide enough for coins.

Step 3: Decorate your bottle. New labels added using double sided tape. Ribbon was glued around the neck of the bottle.

 

 

Below is another money box that my daughter decorated. This really is an easy project that the children can join in with. As long as the hole in the lid is done by an adult the rest of the money box can be decorated by the children.

 

 

 

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Eid Mubarak - Happy Eid 2012

Eid Mubarak - Happy Eid to all

Today is Eid Ul Adha celebrated by all Muslims across the World.

Here is part of the Wikipedia explanation and the link: wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid al Adha

Eid al-Adha, also called Feast of the Sacrifice, the Major Festival, the Greater Eid and Bakr Eid, is an important 4-day religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to honor the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his young firstborn son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of submission to God and his son's acceptance of the sacrifice before God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead.

Different cultures celebrate Eid differently but most celebrate today with either new clothes or gifts for the children. Many people spend Eid visiting friends and family.  I think it is important to inform the children of why we celebrate Eid otherwise I think it would end up similar to how I believe Christmas is celebrated for the Christians where most of the children automatically expect all the presents but don't celebrate the meaning of the day itself.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Used Tissues Bin - Great Ideas

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and thought this would be a great idea, as my kids seem to leave used tissues wherever they wish! To give credit, here is the original link: www.meckmom.com
 

This is such an easy thing to do, just two matching tissue boxes and one elastic band. To be honest I don't normally buy the nice decorative boxes of tissues but because I wanted a nice photograph for my post I bought these cute black and white tissue boxes especially for my blog!
 

I really do like this idea especially as winter is coming and the kids will no doubt be coming home from school with colds very soon.
 

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How to Detangle Doll Hair Tutorial

 My daughter had quite a few dolls that after a while had hair that was all tangled up and frizzy and looked unfixable.  I thought there must be a way to fix these dolls to make them look better!  I did some research on Google and found that there were a few recommended ways to fix this. I decided to follow the way that seemed easier and involved using things that I already had in the house!

So if you are interested in how I managed to fix my daughter's doll hair here is my tutorial which is very easy.
 

Step 1: I used a large bowl and filled half full with luke warm water.

Step 2: I added 1 cup of fabric conditioner to the water and mixed.

Step 3: I placed the basin onto a table and placed a small towel beside it.
Step 4: I placed the dolls hair into the bowl of solution and left for about 30 minutes.
Step 5: After making sure all the hair had been wet I removed the doll.
Step 6: I towel dried lightly the hair and using a normal brush I brushed through the dolls hair. The brush went through much easier.
Step 7: I allowed the hair to dry and my daughter then styled the hair.

The dolls hair now smells really nice too because of the fabric conditioner that I used.
 

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Plastic Bags as Garment Covers / Clothes Protectors - Great Ideas

Don't throw away those large bags used for packaging toilet rolls!  I use them as garment covers / clothes protectors. They are great to cover suits in the wardrobe to stop the dust settling!

You can also use these to line your waste paper bins too!

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Felt Pumpkin Tutorial

The photograph above shows you the simple steps to make your own felt pumpkin.

Requirements:

• Orange Felt
• Green Felt
• Brown Felt
• Stuffing
• Paper for patterns
• Needle and thread

The steps below show you how to do this:

Step 1: Cut out some templates for your pattern. I just drew a rough leaf shape, a shape for the pumpkin leaves and a shape for the stalk.
Step 2: Cut out 6 felt leaf shapes (orange) and 1 pumpkin leaves shape (green) and one stalk shape (brown).
Step 3: Start sewing the leaves together joining at the sides. Make sure you secure the bottom of the ball shape this will make. Make sure you have enough space at the top to turn the fabric inside out to hide the stitches and to allow space for the stuffing.
Step 4: Place stuffing inside and then secure the hole at the top with some stitching.
Step 5: Attach the brown stalk to the top centre of the pumpkin with some stitches.
Step 6: Place the green leaves piece over the stalk and secure this to the pumpkin with stitches too.

You now have your completed pumpkin. These can be used as play food for children and can also be used as lovely pin cushion gifts.

I actually used an old jumper that I felted for the orange and brown part of this pattern. The green felt was shop bought felt. So this was also a great upcycling project!

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