Sunday 27 December 2015

Crochet Ear Warmer


I recently bought a lovely ball of wool which I used to make a crochet hat, I previously blogged about this here:  http://www.karimascrafts.com/2015/12/crochet-hat.html

I made this ear warmer for my 8 year old daughter. She loves the colours and loves wearing it when the weather is a bit chilly. Below is a photo of the hat Imade myself using the same ball of wool. I still had spare wool left and will share with you another project very soon insha'Allah.




Sunday 20 December 2015

Crochet Hat


It has been a very long time since I last crocheted. I saw some lovely wool in a local shop recently and just had to buy it and try it out. I decided to make a nice hat, one that would be big enough to slip over my hijab on the cold winter months! We did have some snow and cold days so I have already had the opportunity to wear it.

As usual I didn't follow a full tutorial, I am a novice and start struggling sometimes with certain stitches and end up just making my own design! I did start off following a youtube tutorial for a man size slouchy hat, but then just changed the shape. I then added a crochet flower to the side using the same wool.  I just looooove the colours.


Wednesday 9 December 2015

SLH Crafts Review


Most who follow me will also be aware that my 13 year old daughter is also a blogger and has a crafts website SLH Crafts. http://www.slhcrafts.com/  She has recently been quite busy with different crafts and also won a local art competition recently so I thought it was about time I showcased some of her recent work here on my blog too!  I am so proud of her achievements and her talents continue to amaze me masha'Allah.

The main photo above shows her receiving her prize for the Alice in Wonderland Piece of art she did for the Art Competition.  The photos below show some of her lovely paintings she has recently done.




Below are some other art pieces she has created and shared on her blog over the last few months.








I used to show her crafts on my blog when she was younger but now that she has her own blog I only show hers occasionally and as a group post. My 8 year old is now also asking for her own craft blog, soon I won't have much to share on my own blog haha!





Monday 30 November 2015

Paper Making Tutorial


My girls were lucky enough to attend a homeschooling educational visit to a recycling centre. There they learnt how to make paper using old newspapers.  They really enjoyed learning about the process and seeing their finished results.  I have put together a quick tutorial of what they did at the centre, as this could be easily made at home with some basic equipment. I will share a video tutorial I found showing the process.

Requirements:

Old newspaper (cut into small strips)
Water
Basin
Flat sieve
Towels
Potato Masher (or an electric mixer)


Instructions:

Step 1: Tear up small pieces of newspaper and place into a basin.
Step 2: When finished tearing paper fill the basin half full with water.
Step 3: Squash the paper with your hands to make irt mushy, once slightly mushy use a potato masher to make it more mushy.
Step 4: Once the paper is all mushy then add more water to the basin.
Step 5: Using the flat sieve place into the basin and pull up slowly so that the sieve grabs the mushed up paper. Drain away excess water.
Step 5: Dab slightly onto the seive to make it flat and then tip the sieve upside down to place the flat mushed up paper onto a small towel.
Step 6: Allow the paper to dry overnight or 24 hours.

Optional: If you wish to add things like dried flowers or glitter then you can do this when it is wet, so will dry as part of the paper.

Here is a link to one of many tutorials showing you how you can do this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdQYRc5Dis

I hope you liked this new craft post.





Monday 23 November 2015

Enchanted Forest Painting


This weeks art theme was 'Enchanted Forest'.  My 8 year old chose to do another watercolor painting for this task. She roughly followed an online tutorial but used her own style and colours for this. The tutorial she followed is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvDtrVURDw


Hope you liked her latest design.




Monday 16 November 2015

Spooky Painting



Recently my 8 year old daughter painted a 'Spooky' Themed scene for her weekly art project. She came up with the design herself and she was really pleased with the end result.





Thursday 12 November 2015

Fireworks Painting



My 8 year old has been painting a Fireworks scene for her art project this week. She followed an online tutorial to do most of the watercolor painting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aURZl-KT_iA


She really enjoyed painting with the vibrant colours.


Thursday 5 November 2015

Mermaid Plushie Tutorial


My 8 year old daughter wanted to make a mermaid plushie as part of the Art/Crafts weekly event she has been participating in recently. The week's theme was 'Under The Sea' so instead of a painting she wanted to sew something. She chose the design herself and hand sewed the doll by herself. We used the spare fabric from some old woolen jumpers we had previously felted for older projects that we had spare.




Items Needed:

Felt (various colours)
Embroidery Thread and needle
Stuffing
Scissors for cutting
Paper template (we drew our own)


Step 1: Draw the design you want and cut out a paper template of all the pieces you would need to make the plushie.

Step 2: use the template to cut out the fabric pieces you need, remembering you need a front and back piece for the plushie.

Step 3: Start hand sewing the pieces together, I would suggest sewing all the front pieces together first and then the back pieces next. Then start sewing the front to the back. My daughter used a blanket stitch for all the sewing. Remember to leave a small gap to insert the stuffing.


Step 4: Insert the stuffing and then close up the gap.

Step 5: Hand sew a face design of your choice.


The photo below shows my daughter holding her completed mermaid.





Wednesday 28 October 2015

Glass Painting Sun Catchers


At a recent visit to our library they were running a craft session for the children to do some glass painting. My youngest wasn't going to miss such an opportunity. She designed some lovely pieces of glass which can be used as sun catchers. She painted a space theme, showing planets with stars in the background.


These were fairly easy to make. She painted onto the glass with glass paints. She then allowed the paint to dry. Once dry we then had to place these into a cold oven and turn oven up and leave for 20-30 minutes and turn oven off. Leave in the oven until they have cooled down. This is toprevent the glass from smashing in different temperatures.


These already had a hook glued onto the glass so that they can be hung on a window. She loves her new handmade decorations.






Wednesday 21 October 2015

Dinosaur Crafts


The last few weeks have had my daughter interested in dinosaurs and making dinosaur artwork. Our local museum currently has a dinosaur exhibition which I have visited a few times with my children. So when dinosaur crafts were offered my 8 year old loved joining in and made a dinosaur model and drew her own design of dinosaur too!

Below are some photos of the dinosaurs currently on display in our local museum.


The photo below is my daughter making the dinosaur frame out of pipe cleaners, then she added the mouldable dough to the pipe cleaners to make the body of the dinosaur.


The photo below shows the completed dinosaur she designed, looks like it is hungry for those cookies!


The photograph below shows her drawing her own imaginary design of dinosaur, she never did come up with a name for it though!








Saturday 17 October 2015

Home Education Academy of the Arts


My girls have just started joining in with a new project launched on Facebook this month for Homeschooled children. This is a project which aims to to run weekly theme-based arts and craft challenges for children to participate in and share their work for all to see. Here is the website showcasing the children's work. https://homeschoolacademyofthearts.wordpress.com/

Every Friday a poll will be on the Facebook page, for members to choose which theme they would like to do on the following week. The poll will close on a Friday evening and the votes will be counted. Whichever theme wins, is the theme that will be running as the challenge for the following week. The children have until the following Friday to submit their work.

I am excited for the girls to join in with something arty/crafty and this is good because it gives them something to focus on which also has deadlines. So far they have managed to complete the first 2 tasks of providing artwork.

The theme for the 1st week was 'Autumn' so my daughters' both did some watercolour painting with an Autumn theme. Below are their pieces of work. The first photo is a painting of Autumn leaves designed by my 8 year old daughter. The photo below that is an Autumn tree theme designed by my 13 year old daughter.



The theme for the 2nd week was 'Wildlife' and again they both did some watercolour painting for this task. Below are there entries for this task. The first photo is of a fox designed by my 8 year old daughter, the second photo is of a bird designed by my 13 year old daughter.



Next week's theme is to be 'Under the Sea' so I can't wait to see what designs my girls will come up with for that one insha'Allah.