Bird Tweet Column Inserts

We have now added to our range of products the Bird Tweet Column Inserts..

Here's a short video showing the sound they make:

The Bird Tweet Column Inserts come in white and pink and can be purchased from our online craft store: www.tomnidesign.com.au/store

Toy making products - in use!

I just had to share the project one of our customers made using our toy making products..

It's an adorable sock monkey blankie toy Jingles!

Samantha managed to incorporate five of our toy making products into the toy - squeaker, jingle column, teether, rattle ring and triangle shape..

Here's the link to  more pictures and Samantha's blog :)

New Jingle Column Design

We have recently received a new shipment of Jingle Column rattle inserts..

Due to requests, here's a video which will give you an idea of the sound that these jingle coloumns make.. the sound slightly differs depending on how the jingle column is shaken...

These have the same diameter (25mm) but are a little shorter than the previous ones. They are white in colour and make a sound just like the original ones! The original cream coloured jingle coloumns will be available while stocks last...

The jingle coloumn rattle inserts can be purchased directly from our store here

FREE Cat Rattle Pattern

For a long time I've wanted to put up a tutorial featuring our toy making supplies.. I finally got round to making a pattern for the Cat Rattle which features the rattle ring..  I hand drew the pattern, so when you cut out your pieces you may just like to make sure that the straight lines are straight :) I've put up the pattern as a pdf file in our online shop right here, so feel free to download it - it's free!

I'll put up a detailed tutorial when I get some free time .. the making of the rattle is quite simple, so for those with more advanced sewing skills you may be able to work out how to make it by just looking at the picture :)

Here's a preview of the pattern...

If you have any probs with downloading it from our shop, please send us an email and I'll email it to you as an attachment...

New Stockist in Melbourne

We have a new stockist of our two green pears products - this time in Melbourne at

Kids in Berlin

472 Victoria Street

North Melbourne

Kids in Berlin is dedicated to stocking womens, mens and childrens clothing by Australian designers - and they also have an accessories galore.. So if you're in the area, pop in and check out their range of products

Plastic rings and shapes for toys

We've been flat out the this week with making our handmade items for the market, so it's taking me longer than predicted to add the new toy making supplies to the online store.. but here's a few more things we've added since out last post:

Big green plastic rings 

Plastic key ring buckle clips in two different sizes.. 60mm and 53mm

For the complete list of these new product additions, please visit the previous blog post HERE 

New Toy Making Supplies!

We have brought in some new toy making supplies from a manufacturer that produces products for some well known toy making companies...

We are very excited to be adding these products to the toy making product range we already sell...

Below is a list of the new products, with links to the online store... (we'll be adding the rest of products over upcoming days so please check this page soon for more updates):

Rattle rings - one of my favourites! These rattle rings are available in five different colour options and can be purchased by following THIS link 

Linkable shapes - great for adding to toys so they can be attached to prams etc.. These will be available in the shown star shape, as well as square, circle and triangle..

Teething rings that can be added to baby toys.. Available in five colours.. they are listed HERE 

These rings make a crispy ringing sound when they hit against each other.. so they are great for adding on the arms/legs/necks of toys to make a jingling sound... they can also be sewn on and used as a handle... You can find our range of rings HERE 

Big green rings - these are about 70mm in diameter, so they can be used as handles for baby rattles...

They can be found in the plastic rings / shapes category of our online store

Key ring clips / buckes: These are available in two sizes - 53mm and 60mm

 These can be use in a variety of ways, including attaching them to toys, so the toys can then be clipped to the pram, cot etc..

        

There's lots more... so come back soon for more updates... of follow us on facebook so you receive notices about when these are available for purchase!

Button Hairclips

I've just finished making and packing a new batch of button hairclips for this Sunday's market...
Here's a few pics of the available designs.. I especially love the designs with the new 'white dot' hairclips!

If you'd like to purchase any of our fabric covered button hairclips, please contact us via blog, facebook or 'contact us' link in either of our online shops.. or in you're in the area, pop in and say 'Hi' to us at the St Kilda market..

Pre Christmas Sale in Craft Store

We have some exciting plans for our craft shop, so we're having a sale to make some room...

Up for grabs are lots of bargains... so make sure you have a good look through all the categories...
Some of the specials include:

- 10% off Spellbinders products

- 15% off Carolee's Creations papers

- Dress it up buttons - down to $3.00 per pack

- 15% off Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock

- 10% off BIG squeaker inserts (5pc pack) 

- 10 to 15% off words  and quotes

- up to 20% off chipboard and laser cuts 

- 10% off black squeaker inserts

There's also other products on sale that have been reduced earlier on, so make sure you check out the different categories for all the hidden bargains! Sale for a limited time only, so get your bargains while stock lasts...

Penguin hatched..

Sidetracking from the usual craft focused posts... yet again... This morning we found out that another one of our eggs has hatched! So here's the pics of the new arrival - Penguin!

Here's some more pics of our cutesies!

 The black ball of feathers is the Midnight 2 - her head is somewhere in those feathers...

Fluffy keeping her chicks warm... can just see Penguin there too..

And here's all 3 of Fluffy's chicks.. they're still a little camera shy..

Chicks have hatched..

I just had to share what's been happening at our place.. so forgive my sidetracking from usual craft themed writing....

I've shown off our chooks before... it's been a while now since we've had them.. We've lost one of the 'dinosaurs' aloong the way, which was really sad, so we were down to 3 (2 bantims and 1 'dinosaur' - I think the real name is English something or other...)

Since all of our hens were feeling clucky, we decided to get them some eggs....

and today...


our family welcomed 3 super cute yellow chickies!!

Here's mum "Fluffy" with one of the babies...

And here's another one whose mum is 'Midnight 2'.. ('Midnight' turned out to be a rooster and we traded him in for 'Midnight 2')..

Aren't they cute??

Rattle balls to the market..

I've said before that I'm working on a few new project ideas.... Took me a little longer than anticipated to get the pattern right, but with some help of the hubby, I finally got there...!

All balls are made from new, lined, pre washed fabric - we use soft minky as well as cotton fabrics.. some balls have a jingle column, some a loud rattle insert... some have tags, some don't - for a bit of variety... :) They're about 15cm in diameter (cotton ones are a little smaller)..

All are filled with the eco friendly corn fiber (which you can purchase here ), are double stitched and made with care...

If you'd like to order one, just send us a message via the blog, facebook , or 'contact us' link in either of our shops...

Lego Cake

We recently celebrated our son's 3rd Birthday.. So it was time to make a cake!
A nice carrot cake inside from a recipe that can be found here .. and colourful cream cheese icing outside!

I baked twice the portion of the cake, which was just the right amount of cake for the lego man cake. We printed off an A4 sized lego man picture we found on google which I used as a rough guide for the shapes..

The cake was made in parts: head and torso, legs, two separate arms, head 'bobble' and hands... the hands were made from smaller rectangular pieces leaning into each other to make a rounded shape... I used some toothpicks to hold the smaller pieces (like hands, head 'bobble', arms) in place.

I added food colouring to the cheese icing and used licorice for the facial details.

Here's the before picture:

and here's the after:

 

  

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I thought it was a pretty good first effort!

Owls to be stuffed

I managed to get some free time today to sew a few more owls... Now they are just waiting to be 'stuffed' :)

New Badge Batch

Here's some of the badges made in the latest batch - to go up to the St Kilda market this Sunday..

As always, if you see one you like, just email me via the 'contact us' link in the online shop ..

Owls flying in..

Here's a few owls that I've managed to finish this week...

A couple large owls - these are approx 21cm tall...

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and Mama Owl - which is about 31 cm tall...

The owls are made from new, pre-washed, lined fabric, have hand embroidered details and are double stitched. The Large owls jingle and squeas.. the Mama - which can be used as a decorative cushion or a toy, has two squeakers in her belly..

Dinosaurs are walking

I've been saying for a while that I'm working on a few new projects..
The first one - which took me WAY longer to make that I thought, is the Dino taggie rattle squeaker...

It started off with a really rough pattern which after some adjustments turned into these cute Dinos... :)

Here's some close ups....

The Dinos area made from soft, lined fabric and are double stitched with extra stitching across the tags and filled with corn fiber...  They have one of our rattle inserts in them as well as a squeaker! If you'd like to order one, please contact us via the 'contact us' link in either of our shops..