All posts tagged: Home decoration

Easy Paper Flower Craft

Published by

Our season tree project got derailed when Bird Girl took such a shine to April’s incarnation – the rainbow tree – that any attempt to redecorate it was met with howls of protest. The rainbow tree now has pride of place in Bird Girl’s bedroom, and for a while I contemplated calling time on the tree-decorating over the summer months, while more exciting and demanding projects, like our vegetable patch, kept us busy. But when a twiggy branchlet got dislodged from our beautiful old silver birch tree, it seemed a shame for it to go to waste, so the seasonal tree project has been revived. Summer means flowers, so what better way to re-start than with some rather fetching pink paper ones? These were so easy to make – all we needed were a couple of sheets of tissue paper in two shades of pink, a pair of scissors, a glass to draw round and some pipe-cleaners. Here’s how we made them (this is a really great craft to let small children try,  although an adult will need to do / …

Valentine Decorations

Published by

February seems to have come round quickly, and it’s time to re-decorate our seasonal tree.  If it’s February, then it has to be Valentine-themed, which, as everyone knows, means hearts. But before embarking on our tree, I made a paper heart garland.  There are plenty of tutorials online for how to do this, so I won’t bore you with a step-by-step guide.  (If you want to try one yourself, click over to my valentine Pinterest board, where you’ll find links to several different online tutorials.) I used origami paper, cut into strips, and finished off with fabric washi tape to hide the staples, then threaded the hearts onto bakers’ twine (left over from Christmas wrapping!). And so to the tree… At Christmas we had jumped enthusiastically onto the salt-dough bandwagon to make tree decorations. But I found the whole salt-dough thing a bit disappointing. It’s not a great colour, it always takes longer to bake than you think it should, and it’s very difficult to get a flat, even, smooth finish.  You feel like you spend half the time …

Autumn Leaf Wreath

Published by

Friday was one of those beautiful autumn days where it’s sunny and still warm enough to be outside in t-shirts.  Bird Girl and I made the most of the fabulous weather to spend some time in the park after pre-school before we had to go and collect Chief Stick Collector from school.  Our local playground is surrounded by huge mature oak, plane, sycamore and horse chestnut trees. The horse chestnuts, who seem to get their leaves first in spring are all looking a bit tired, brown and droopy already; whereas the oaks, who are late with their leaves, are still wearing their summer foliage proudly.  But the plane trees are offering some spectacular autumn foliage, and the grass in the playground was carpeted in a blanket of reds, oranges, and yellows from the fallen leaves. After some time on the play equipment, we decided to collect some leaves, but one quickly led to another, to another, and soon we had armfuls of foliage. But what to do with them all? During some after-school quiet time, …

Mantel Makeover – Part Two

Published by

In Mantel Makeover – Part One I shared the story of how I thought I had really messed up renovating our playroom mantelpiece; and promised to show you the final outcome in Part Two. Where did I get to? … Ah yes, the Duck Egg Blue was an improvement on the disastrous Florence, but there was still something Not Quite Right. The finish looked a bit too uniform, which jarred against the old and imperfect tiles. It needed to look a little more lived-in, so, after applying a coat of wax, I gave some of the edges a light sand, focusing on the areas that would have become bumped, battered and worn with use over time; and on the bits of carving that would benefit from being highlighted. After that, it was starting to look much better! In fact, I dared to think it was looking (whisper it) quite nice.  In the areas that I had sanded, the initial coat of Florence, and even some of the original wood, was peeking through, which added depth and interest to the finish. It …