Making a Big Bright Splash with Project Jelly

The Ultimate summer shoe is back. Hands up who had a pair of these in the eighties? We certainly did, beautiful sparkly ones that were on our feet every step of the summer adventures. Worn as much around the playground, garden and fields beyond as they were on the pebbly beaches of our holidays.


We're thrilled that these are back in fashion and back on little feet albeit now our children's rather than ours. I'd happily give up being a grown up and hand over my car keys and mascara to be six years old and wearing these skipping about this summer.
With two delicious colours to choose from there's Watermelon Rocks, a bright cherry red with neon green sole, and, Raspberry Pink Mivi, a sparkly pink style shimmering with glitter.

These shoes look as good with tights and ankle socks as they do bare foot which is just dandy as we know once the kids get hold of these they'll never want to wear anything else.

An enterprise founded by Natalie Collier, the limited edition jellies are made by the original UK makers of the eighties jelly sandals, Juju Footwear. Waterproof, flexible and loved by kids there's no better reason to be donning a pair this summer. But, if you need a little encouragement then know that this is not only great British design but that it's also combined with a fundraising edge with 25% of the profits going to MENCAP, the charity for the voice of learning disability.

Project Jelly, let's get our jelly groove on!

Monday Makery - Prize Pinboard

With another Birthday Party approaching and of course the girls wanting to stick to their love of all things circus we've had a weekend crafting for the preparations. We've been busy decorating party hats, and making yet another photobooth (pictures will come soon) along with all its masks.

We created this 'Prizes' board for the party but to make sure it lasts beyond the special day we created it so that it can be used as the girls own noticeboard that they can put pictures and postcards on, hang their invites and all those oh so special things that kids love!

Here's what you'll need:

• cork-board / piece of light plywood. we up-cycled out kitchen one cork-board.
• paint - spray paint is best.
• wooden clothes pegs
• glue
• glitter

Here's the how:

1. Spray paint the front of the board, if you want to create a pattern use masking tape to hide where you don't want the layer of paint to go. Leave to dry.
2. Now for the pegs; brush one side of a peg with pva glue and sprinkle with glitter. Put to one side and continue with your other pegs. Leave to dry.
3. Once both the cork-board and the glittery pegs are dry you can finish it off by adhering the pegs to the board. Use a good all purpose super glue, this board will get a lot of use and those pegs need to be firmly fixed.

it's ready to hang

Our prize bags will be filled with little jokes as well as sweets, temporary tattoo's, whistles and bouncing balls. 

I can't wait!

If you'd like to make a Photo Booth for yourself take a look here

For more circus party ideas take a look at our circus creative here

Look out for more party pics along with some great printables and ideas at the end of the week.

Askey Print Dolls - Creative Girls with a Voice

introducing; Afrah, Aapti, Zhen, Felicidad, Anna & Abeo

Create your own original screen-printed girl with these DIY set's from Askey Print. Learn about different cultures, different places around the world as well as an appreciation of how things are made.

No ordinary doll, this is a doll with a voice, a girl with a mission; spreading the word of The Girl Effect around the world each doll comes with an info card supporting sisters all over the world to find a powerful voice in their communities and effect real change where it counts.

Handmade and hand printed by London sisters, who, like us, have combined their skills and passion to create something original, something positive and something to celebrate.  We know you will celebrate with us when you discover AskeyPrint too.

AskeyPrint Dolls are a keepsake to treasure through childhood and one to be handed down to the next these doll's are a delight to make and give an appreciation of craft as well as time spent together.

Each pack includes 100% cotton fabric with original water based ink design screen printed by hand and when finished your doll will measure 33 cm tall. You don't need to have any special skills to create them but if you need a little help the instruction sheet comes with a link to an online video you can watch for tips and hints.
The pack also includes polyester stuffing but you could be different and try stuffing her with lavender and she'll smell as beautiful as she looks.

Young and old children will delight in the creative aspect, sharing a sense of pride of their own original and unique doll. Whether creating them by themselves or alongside a parent or older sibling made together she'll become a part of the family, a part of childhood memories and the beginning of new adventures.

Visit the collection here and decide who you'll bring to life.

send us your photo's via email, twitter or facebook and we'll pin them with your name alongside the dolls name.

And we look forward to more creations from the AskeyPrint sisters too...

x

Baines & Fricker

fill them, stack them, hang them, mount them, love them.

With great design comes great versatility combine that with a great aesthetic and you've got the perfect recipe for fabulously designed interiors. We couldn't wait to get our hands on this brilliant revival of the classic fruit crate, and now we're happy to announce that the Baines & Fricker fruit crate is now in the boutique showing off one of Britain's great creative talents.

Brighton based Baines & Fricker are a husband and wife team bringing creative, innovative products to the design market. Snapped up by the likes of Liberty and Paul Smith their unique designs and individual stamp are being appreciated and are already having a big influence on how we choose to style our interior space.

It is no wonder that Steve Baines and Eliza Fricker's collaboration is such a great success; Baines has has a background in furniture making and Fricker illustration and screen-printing.  Together their utilitarian approach to design influenced by a wide range of elements; early modernist through to post war utility furniture, industrial architecture and the even the more mundane and everyday such as street signs, their inspiration is full of the often overlooked aspects of our heritage. They believe that things for the home should have longevity and they use this philosophy when creating their pieces, keeping British heritage at the heart of it all.

Taking on the fruit crate using strong lines and saturated colour these 'nutility' pieces are made with birch ply sourced in the UK and made in their workshop on the south coast of England.

The fruit crates are brilliantly versatile you can use them in as many ways as you'll find things to store inside. Used for storage in any room in the house you can sort them into existing shelves, stack them up or mount them on the wall. 

get your hands on them here

Monday Makery - Miniature Circus

Roll Up! roll Up! Watch the daring death defying mice jump through the ring of fire!

Celebrating all things circus the girls have asked me to create something for the Maileg mice whilst they await the arrival of their circus tent and circus troupe.
A little rummage around in our crafts cupboard found some wooden cotton reels, pipe cleaners and red felt to create a ring of fire for the most daring of mice.

Here's what you'll need:

• a pipe cleaner
• cotton reel
• red felt
• colouring pens or paints
• fabric glue
• scissors

Here's how:

1. Cut a strip of felt 3cm smaller than the length of your pipe cleaner and about 5cm wide
2. Using fabric glue, glue the pipe cleaner to the felt so that it sits in the centre and has 1.5cm free at either end, fold over the felt and press firmly
3. Now cut into the fabric to create very rough triangles of various sizes to give a flaming appearance.
4. Decorate your cotton reel.
5. Bend the flaming pipe cleaner into a hoop shape and push the two ends together inside the hole of the cotton reel.

you're now ready to perform your daring ring of fire act.

Happy Making!

x

Find the mice here

You can discover the Circus Here!

Where Will You Go Today?

with 25% OFF the Dressing Up Box where will your imagination take you today? 
 

A tea party with garden fairies, a forest where all the wild things are, a ship set sail to a land where monkeys rule and music plays or join the circus and be back in time for supper! The dressing up box awaits with a magical 25% OFF everything inside. An invitation to furnish your imaginings; discovering animal masks and capes, tutu's, caplets, treasure chest capes, sparkling centre stage onesies and much more as dreams become play and you enter a world of make believe. 

Jump in to your world of wonder here
offer ends *02.05.13 - Thursday 2nd May 2013
enter code 'BECOME' at the checkout

pic source: top left image 'events by shelbi rene' all others sisters guild

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Face It

"WE TRY TO CAPTURE POETRY. WE ADORE THE UNSAID -IT INSPIRES YOUR OWN IMAGINATION TO CREATE" camilla & camilla of Lucky boy sunday

Face it Pillow

50 x 50 cm

handmade in 100% baby alpaca wool

available here

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Shine & Dandy

Shine under a Dandy Star sky

Available here 

never underestimate a great t-shirt 

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Monday Makery - Invisible Ink

Great for games of espionage and its clandestine intelligence operations, playing private eye with its hush hush hidden covert messages, for secretly marking the X on a treasure map, magic shows, wizardry and even little love notes passed between one another.

Here's what you'll need:

• lemon
• q-tip
• paper
• a secret message

Here's how:

1. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into a bowl or cup
2. dip the q-tip into the juice and use it as 'ink' to write your message, a fine paintbrush would work too. 
3. To see the message hold the paper agianst a heat source.

Here's why:

Lemon juice is acidic, the acid in the juice weakens paper and stays there when it dries. When the paper is held near a heat source the acid will burn faster than the paper and as it heats up it turns brown enabling you to see the message that has been written.

Milk, white wine, apple juice and orange juice work too, why not try other things; see what else you could use to make invisible ink.

Alternative: 

Great for younger children; use a white crayon or even a candle on white paper to draw a picture or write a message and have your child discover the hidden picture using coloured crayons or paint.

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Discover more fun things to make in our Monday Makeries here

Cardboard Creative

With wonderful pop out cards, totem books of animals, people and figurines as well as play houses, trojan horses with a little secret bell hidden tinkling inside, lucky swallow mobiles, trees full of birds and the new collection of magnetic shapes for endless creations. There's countless ways to play, genius gifts to give, pieces to inspire within the home and lots of ideas to spark children's imagination.

A wonderful world of cardboard creativity awaits. 

kidsonroof = creativity + imagination + sustainable approach + great to play with - / - visual pollution for the grown ups!

Take a look at the collection here.

Qubis Haus - Rocking to the Rooftops

The dual designed Qubis Haus is a multifunctional piece for the home. Part coffee table part dolls house its a piece that will be played with and around and used by all the family. The transformational design invites play; with sliding walls made from wood and perspex the 'designer' can arrange the rooms and alternate the layout. The house itself with its beautiful simple lines is made with solid birch ply wood lending itself to a sleek and contemporary aesthetic.  

It is a beautiful piece that invites both a pot of tea shared with friends as much as the curious child who's imagination can play amidst the conversations around them, bringing family together in a creatively shared space.

Collections of magnetic furniture that click together to create tables, beds chairs and lamps and much more have been made from locally grown sustainable oak and cleverly hand crafted into varying shapes and sizes, they snap together with the help of embedded magnets magically transforming them into piecs of furniture. There are suggestions for designing the furniture though there really is no limit to the ways in which you could create different pieces and design your own arrangements. 

Amy Whitworth's designs are a welcome addition into the boutique. Rocking to the rooftops with possibilities for play Amy has joined child's play with something a little more grown up, and we love it!

Take a further look here.

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MT Inspiration

image credits: decorated jars flickr, pin-board  decor8 , diary decor8, orange vase 'how about orange', Rosa wall decor, striped vase and book covers 'the natural wedding company'

image credits: decoarted eggs, MT tape tree, MT taped pencils, decorated storage jars, 

MT tape bunting,  MT tape & feather arrows, Wooden letter art 

image credits: bicycle & mt collage via pinterest, Jenna Templetons studio space (discovered here) discover Jenna's inspiring blog here, cardboard mt castle, bus decorated with MT, cardboard forts.

Get Inspired. Go Create.

Find your washi style here

Monday Makery - Circus Creative

Come one come all to the Cirque de Sitting Room

With daughters who want to join the circus, who love nothing more than acrobatics and daring feats; walking imaginary tightropes dressed in tutus and striped tights, jumping hoops, stilt walking, grand introductory speeches standing high on stools, and hilarious attempts at juggling, it was obviously going to become the theme for next birthday. So, in preparation for Oona's 4th Birthday we got busy creating a circus....all whilst she was sleeping.
With balloons, a tightrope, a balance board, dressing up box, a flaming ring of fire and strongman weights it's all the daring fun of the fair with its vibrant colours and promise of performance. The girls woke up, ran away with the circus and were back in time for birthday cake!

Tightrope Walk

Imagine you're far up in the sky walking the wire as you navigate the tightrope.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 wooden plank measuring 160cm L - 10cm W - 5cm D
• 2 wooden blocks 50cm L - 8cm W - 5cm D
• MT tape for decorating

Here's how:

1. Decorate the large piece of wood using MT tape making sure you cover all the corners. Create a stripe down the middle of the length of wood to give it the illusion of the tightrope.
2. Decorate the 2 blocks with matching contrasting colours.
3. Set the blocks under each end of the board and you're ready to go!

Use props, like an umbrella held high for theatrical effect!

Balance Board

How long can you balance for. Try to keep the edges from touching the floor as you thrill the audience and challenge others to do the same with the daredevil balance board.

Here's what you'll need:

• wooden board: 65 cm L, 22 cm W, 3cm D
• MT tape
• pool noodle / foam strips
• cutting knife/blade
• wooden pole / heavy duty cardboard roll: 60cm L, Diameter 6.5cm

Here's how:

1. Decorate your wooden board with strips of MT tape.
2. Measure 2 lengths of foam to match the width of the board and cut into it giving a slot of about an inch deep.
3. Slide on the foam to the edges of the board.
4. decorate the wooden / cardboard pole
5. set the board onto the centre of the pole and be ready to keep your cool as you try to stay balanced.

Strongman Weight Lifting

Who is the strongest of them all. Can you lift the wight above your head and prove to all that you've got the strength of a lion.

Here's what you'll need:

• wooden pole / length of bamboo 90cm L, 2.5cm diameter
• 2 balloons
• marker pen

Here's how:

1. decorate a thin wooden pole or length of bamboo with decorative tape.
2. adhere a balloon either end
3. using the marker pen write the weight of each balloon....... can you lift 50kg?

Ring of Fire

Would you dare take the leap with this death defying act and jump through a ring of burning fire. Roly-poly through the ring of flames and gracefully land upon a cushioned floor.

Here's what you'll need:

• Hula hoop; the bigger the better, ours has a diameter of 94cm.
• red tissue paper

Here's how:

1. Layer several sheets of tissue paper one on top of the other and fold in half.
2. Cutting away from the folded edge,  cut out a flame shape (a wriggly triangle). Repeat along the folded line until you have as many as you need.
3. Open up each doubled flame, fold over the edge of the hula hoop and use double sided sticky tape (or fold over ordinary sticky tape to create doubled sided) and tape the inside of the flames together securing it to the hoop.
4. Hang by attaching a length of strong string to either side to a high point on either side of the room, or if you're unable to hang have someone hold it an inch or two off the floor.

If you can't bring the circus to you; create it!

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Discover more fun things to make in our Monday Makeries here