How to cut DVDs / CDs for Craft projects

A few years ago, I made Reggie, our recycled dragon.  He was made out of old tyres and lemonade bottles.

How to recycle old clothes into cushions

Some of my son's clothes are just too precious to donate as he outgrows them.  I decided to turn them into cushions so he gets a second chance to love them all over again.

Craft: My attempt at decoupage using Harry Potter books

One of my good friends recently posted the image shown below over on Instagram and I loved it, admired it and stored it away in my brain under lovely.

Changing up your decor to match the seasons

Adding a little colour to a wicker heart

My local B&Q store has some pretty wicker hearts for under £1, and every time I go in the store I want one, but the colouring doesn't fit with my decor so I always leave without one, until now!

Craft Kit Subscription Boxes by Craftiosity

I am a big fan of craft and subscription boxes so when Craftiosity asked if I'd like to sample their current month's subscription box, I was extremely happy to do so! 

Who is Craftiosity

Craftiosity was born to make it easy for us to be creative, to try new things and to be inspired.  Craftiosity is all about you-time.  

How to make a dragon from recycled products

I wrote a piece on up-cycling old tyres, and the top 5 projects I'd like to try.  Well, I finally finished my dragon!

Reggie the Dragon was made out of recycled products that we had lying around the house and garden.  He took a long time to make but I'm hoping he'll be able to enjoy some summer sun before going away in his cave for the winter... or the garage to you and me.

How To Make Beautiful Scrabble Art

Quick and Easy Home Decor art that can be completed in an evening, allowing for the glue to dry, can then be hung up the following day.

How I made the Undesirable No. 1 stool

A few weeks back, I passed this tired-looking footstool at the car boot.  I originally walked by, but something made me double back and ask for the price.  £1!  How could I leave it there!

The Day I Created An Outdoor Chessboard

When the rain finally stopped, I created a new chessboard for our outdoor pieces, and just check out the finished product....

#Gifted

How to transform your spare room into a craft room

One of my assignments for my Interior Design course was to revamp my old box room into a craft room, and I was pleasantly surprised that this doesn't need to cost a small fortune to convert!

Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash

How to make a quick and easy Easter game for Fundraisers

I wrote how we'd made a few games for my son's school to help them raise much-needed funds for the school.  The fates and events held at the school hosted via the PTA are so important due to government cuts and schools struggling to keep their Teaching Assistance staff, Support staff and non-core subjects going!

Last year, two parents were completing a run for the MS Society and the PTA decided to put on an Easter Eggstravaganza event on the last day of school with 50% of monies raised going to the MS Charity and 50% going back into the school fund.

We raised over £559!

The Day I Made Hulk Into A Plant Pot

I had one of those moments, where I thought it would be a great idea to add Hulk's face on to a plant pot.  He wasn't the only one showing anger by the time I'd finished!!

Beautiful upcycled Valentine crafts to make with your children

I'm was very pleased to be part of Tots100 and Bostik's monthly blogger craft challenge for 2018, and for Valentines, boy did we have fun!

Handmade Valentine Blocks made with my boy

How I Made Homemade Bird Feeders

After a trip to the local car boot sale, I knew exactly what I was going to repurpose these lovely unwanted teacups in to.

5 quick and easy games to make for a school fair

I've posted a few times now that my son's Primary school has a very very tight budget and West Sussex schools have the worst in the country.  So it is very important for me to help where I can in raising much-needed funds to help his school keep his teaching assistants, school day trips and stationery paid for by the school!

One of the ways my family can help is to create games for the summer and Christmas fairs, thanks to my hoarding skills, free up pages on Facebook and brands that I work with we managed to make 2 new games for the Summer fete that cost us a grand total of £11 to make!!

I thought I'd share with you the games we've had at the fairs which went down very well and links to how to make them:

Buried Treasure

The school had been given a lot of costume jewellery a few years ago, so this year we decided to use one of the tuff spots, fill it with sand and have the children dig for treasure.  The game sold out within the hour!

Adapted version of ball in the bucket

When I'm at fairs and fetes I am always looking at the games to see how we can incorporate them for the school.  Throwing games are always popular so we created the Olaf ball game at Christmas (as he has such a lovely big mouth) and had the children try and throw 3 balls into it.

Spinning Wheel

You will need a cardboard cake board, MDF and a little bit of elbow grease for this one.  We had the board in the garage and the cake board was not very expensive, so a thrifty spinning wheel was born and drew the crowds in.

Play your cards right

If you thought the buried treasure was a great thrifty idea, then get yourself some giant playing cards!  The kids will love this one!  All you need is something to place your cards on and you have your own Thrifty card game for the summer fair.

I've left my favourite to last....

Homemade Hoopla game

With some MDF and a £6 Hoopla game from Asda, this one was a huge success at the fair.  The Smurfs are doubles from McDonald toys, which you can pick up at car boots, charity shops and your local freecycle pages - so for a lick of paint, some doubles and pegs we really did have a winner with this a thrifty Hoopla game.

Now my challenge is what new games can we create for this Christmas fair.... ideas very much welcome, I can add them to my Pinterest board....




 

How to recycle colanders into a bright bath toy storage

A while ago now one of my lovely readers suggested I watched Money for Nothing.  I'm not sure how I'd never caught the program before but I soon had this on my planner and watch it whenever I had a spare hour or when I was crafting.

When I saw that Sarah Moore, who is the presenter and skilled crafter of the program, had a book out I thought I'd purchase it for inspiration and helpful tips.  Like lots of my books, I've earmarked several pieces that I want to try, the first being a veggie rack made from colanders.

Colanders were added to my charity shop/car boot wish list until I found and bought 3 of them. 

In total I spent £3 and with some string, I made my veggie rack.

It sat in the kitchen waiting to be hung up for 3 weeks, in truth I didn't really have anywhere sufficient in the kitchen to hang it.  Then, I sorted out my son's bathroom toys and realised I had the perfect storage unit for them.... waiting to be hung up in the kitchen!

As I was no longer going to use my colanders as a veggie rack I painted them.

I have to admit I do love them painted blue!

I added a hook in the bathroom and now my veggie rack hangs in the bathroom filled with toys and sponges - great space saver.

That top colander is too high for my son and hence the storage of my sponges, some things I just don't want to share... with the boys!

 

How to use Polymer Clay thanks to JewelleryMaker

On the 14th August JewelleryMaker launched 16 new DIY Jewellery making kits! These range from DIY How to, DIY Personalised to my favourite DIY Kids Craft.

JewelleryMaker Kids Craft - Polymer Clay Kit

JewelleryMaker have put together a fantastic DIY Polymer Clay jewellery making kit which is ideal for kids and well the whole family really!  The kit contains 5 polymer clay packets, jewellery making accessories, instructions and links to video tutorials.

Although marked as Kids Craft, this is in-fact a family kit.  The jewellery to make are not just necklaces and bracelets, but also key-rings and buttons.

What we made with our Polymer Clay Kit

As you can see from the photo above we had a lot of clay to play with. To start us off we used the instruction booklet to create the panda and egg and bacon key-rings.  I say we, and by that, I mean the whole family.  All three of us got involved in this project and it was great family time.

There is no limitation to what you can make, just a little bit of skill and guidance.  I even used my phone to pull up a template and we made the images straight on the screen to make our Pac-man charm bracelet!

How to get the Polymer Clay Kit for the family to enjoy

If you pop over to JewelleryMaker you will see various Polymer Kits including the jewellery kit that I've featured here today.  Also until the end of September 2017, I have a special code for you that will give you free p+p AND the free tool kit if you purchase this set.

So what would you make?  Please tweet me or leave a comment below if you do decide to take up on this offer and show off what you've made, I quite fancy making a Tardis...... oooh watch Instagram for my next polymer piece!

Finishing off our jewellery making in the sun this morning thanks to #JewelleryMaker #DIY #kidscraft Polymer Clay Kit. @JewelleryMakerUK #PacMan charm bracelet #Panda necklace #Spiderman Keyring #deathlyhallows

A post shared by Rachael Jess (@rachaeljessblog) on Aug 27, 2017 at 2:18am PDT

I received the Polymer Clay Kit from JewelleryMaker.com to review.

The above wording is all my own and not influenced by products received.

How to create a popular card game for the school summer fair

At Christmas, we created a couple of new games for the school's Christmas fair.  These games are an important part of the fair as it raises much-needed funds for one of many schools in West Sussex struggling with their tiny budgets!

Craft: Chalkboard #StarWars seat

Having picked up some Ikea mirrors from the car boot, I redecorated them and made a couple of Gorjuss mirrors.  Proud of my work I posted my creations on my Facebook account.

A friend of mine asked if I was selling my mirrors!  As flattered as I was I am not confident in many of my creations to sell them on to anyone, I think this may be because I analyse my work to the nth degree and can see very fault and error no matter how small, and I believe this is what puts me off selling my products.

I did, however, notice that my friend had put a couple of seats on eBay so I responded with "I'll swap the sets for the mirrors" and much to my delight she agreed!

So here is one of my bargain stools that I got in exchange for my mirror.... and then I found chalkboard paint!

I found some fab Star Wars fabric when surfing online and immediately knew what and who this stool was going to be for - my geeky Star Wars loving best friend.

Having decided to make my bestie a gift, I then put myself under imminence pressure to a) get it finished to perfection b) get it finished for Christmas and c)..... just get.it.finished!!

I managed somehow to pull it all off and the look on my friend's face at Christmas was worth every second of pressure I put myself under - so what do you think can you see why she was so happy?  I have to admit, I'm very proud of myself.

Planting Cactus In Pots Around The House

I'm going to be honest here guys, I don't own houseplants for a very good reason.  I'm sure I'm not alone here but they just die on me!  I talk to them and water them (when I remember) yet they would rather die than live with me!!

So whilst at the garden centre this weekend I thought I'd try growing some cacti - surely I can't kill these off eh?  Saying that a couple of them already look a bit dodgy, so I'm not taking that ownership on if those 2 die!

Seashells

I wanted to originally plant these in seashells but let's face it, these are spiky little suckers and there is no way I was going to fiddle around trying to plant these inside little holes whilst they're trying to kill me!

Cans and Jars

For little succulent plants, I've found small tins such as tuna, sweetcorn and baked beans make ideal containers.  I'm often redecorating my food containers and repurposing them.  This is such a quick and easy way to transform junk into style to match your home decor.

Glass jars also make lovely containers and are possibly my favourite.  You can leave the jars clear with the plant inside, but as I mentioned earlier, that can be a prickly job if you've got cactus to plant!  Or, you can decorate the jar itself as I have done, and have the cactus sitting on the top.

Redecorating existing pots

I had quite a few plants so rather than having 9 small pots all around the house I decided to use one of my charity finds.  Earlier on in the year I'd picked up a 50p plant pot and sprayed it metallic with some Frozen snowflakes around the top.

I added some aquatic stones around the top, as I feel plant pots are a little undressed left with the mud showing, anyone else feel that?  I'm rather pleased with the results

So now I have 9 little cactus plants dotted around the house, let's see if I can keep these guys alive.