Valentine's heart

With Valentine's just around the corner, I started looking for some ideas... I came across this cute heart - made from felt.. It makes a cute basket that can be filled with little treasures, chocs or notes for your Valentine

 

(you can see the post here at mama smile's blog: http://mamasmiles.com/valentine's-day/)

I thought this was so cute and such a good idea, so off I went in search of a tutorial - and Voila! I found one here at Crafty B's blog

Kelly drew up a tutorial on how to make these hearts - and the best thing is you can make them without pasting or sewing anything!! The parts just get woven together..  Perfect!

Tomatoes

We've had a vegie patch for a few years now - it always seems to die off a little during winter, but when spring comes, things just 'pop up' in it...

I've had the most success with tomatoes - each year I end up throwing the 'worm munched on' ones on the ground and miraculously the following year they turn into new bushes!


Here's some of the first ripe ones from this year - I'm not exactly sure what variety they are (it's been a few years since I planted the original ones from seedlings we made) but they are a small 'cherry tomato' type... And it looks like we're going to get quite a few of them... Last year we had so many that I ended up spending days drying them, so that we could freeze them and use them throughout the year... they were great for making soups!

Last year the bushes grew so tall that I ended up trimming the tops.. But this year we headed off to Garden World on Springvale Rd, and they had this little hot house set up with tomatoes hanging everywhere!! (They also had a set up like this for cucumbers - so cool!) So this year instead of trimming the bushes, I'm training them, tying them up with countless ties, hoping that they will make a cubby house like shelter, like the one I found at Garden World:

And on the topic of tomatoes - came across this idea in my internet travels - isn't it great?
(If anyone knows who originally posted this, please let me know so I can link to it).

3 rabbits - mirror stickers

When we first got the mirror material in stock, I made up some simple shapes that ended up in our bathroom, which my son ended up using as a mirror for brushing his teeth..

I wanted to make a mirror rabbit family, and I thought that they'd be great for replacing the star and circle mirrors... I used a template from Cindy Ferguson's blog (see the tractor post for link). I resized the rabbits to give me three different sized rabbits and I also did a mirror image of one of them.. Here's the rabbits in the making:

And here's the end result in our bathroom :)
I think they look much cuter than the previous mirrors!

Mirror stickers - Tutorial

I mentioned in an earlier post that our new mirror material with adhesive back can be used for making wall stickers. Here is a picture of the tractor sticker I made, which found its way to the front of my son's wardrobe...   :)

So here's my simple tutorial on how I made the sticker.

I used the tractor template that I found on Cindy Ferguson's blog. Cindy has kindly shared some free paper cutting images, which I found were great for making mirror stickers. Here's the link to the tractor and a lot of other designs: http://papercutting.blogspot.com.au/2010_02_01_archive.html


So to make your sticker you'll need:
- a template (I used the tractor outline)
- a sheet of mirror material *
- double sided adhesive sheet *
- scissors, cutting knife and a self healing mat / cutting board


* These products are available from our online store: www.tomnidesign.com.au

So let's get started :)









1.  I like to use the mirror material and adhesive resourcefully, trim the paper template and adhere it to one side of your double sided adhesive sheet.

2.  Trim the template.

3. Peel off the backing from your template and press it down on the 'wrong side' of your mirror material sheet.

4. Cut out your sticker by cutting along the lines. I used a combination of scissors and cutting knife to cut out my shape.

5. Here is the finished result - This is the back

and here is the front showing the nice mirror material.

6. To adhere the sticker, peel off the adhesive and mirror backings. You can re-use the adhesive backing template on a new mirror sheet by peeling off the adhesive that was originally attached to the mirror (the adhesive will still be sticky so you can re-use the same 'sticky template' on a new mirror sheet).

 7. Position the sticker on a flat surface and peel off the protective layer.

It's that simple! If you make these stickers, feel free to email me some pics :)

Camper Pincushion Tutorial

Today I'd like to share a link to Amanda Herring's post..

 
She shares a fabulous tutorial for this gorgeous camper pincushion!
This would make a super cute gift, but I think I'd struggle to give mine away if it turned out this good! Here's the link

Cute present

It was recently our son's fourth birthday.
He received this super cute present from his cousin - who is a bit older than him and has a very clever mum who sewed the bunny. But the house was all decorated by my nephew! I was very impressed!! I love all the little details!

Tutorial: Adding crinkly to your projects

Today I'd like to show you how you can incorporate the crinkly material (available from our shop at www.tomnidesign.com.au) into your projects..

I've been making some elephant softie squeaker toys lately and thought that the crinkly would make a nice addition..

Adding the crinkly is really simple and I'm going to show you how I sewed it inside the elephant ears, but the same technique could be used with other toy parts that are made from two pieces of fabric, such as blankies, taggies, wings, fins, etc.. You can also use the same technique to sewing the crinkly to toy segments e.g. parts of a soft ball, so that it will crinkle when you hold that area of the toy...

1. Sew your two pieces together as per usual. Here I am sewing the front and back of the elephant ears together.

2. Once the pieces are sewn together cut a piece of the crinkle material - I like to cut it a little bigger than the fabric.

3. I like to double stitch my seams when I made baby toys, hence the two lines of stitching in the above pic.

Now to sew the crinkly - Place the crinkle material on top of the fabric and sew through all three layers just outside the original stitching line. This way when the kids pull on the ears when they play with the finished toy, they won't be pulling on the stitching that attaches the crinkly.

4. I like to scrunch up the crinkly a bit when I sew it in, to give it a little more 'slack'.

5. Once you've sewn the crinkly in place, cut off the excess. It's as easy as that!

Here are my pieces ready to be sewn into another elephant.. :)

NEW ONLINE STORE - TOMNI design

It has been a long time coming, but we have FINALLY given our toy making supplies store a facelift!

The landing page now looks something like this:

To celebrate the launch of our new store, we are having a 10% sale across all of our stock - including a range of BRAND NEW products that have not been available for sale previously!

Here's a preview:

We have also changed some categories and added new ones, so take some time out to browse through our new store! Here's the address: www.tomnidesign.com.au

We'd love to hear any comments and feedback so feel free to comment here, or on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/tomnidesign

Sensory Blankie Tutorial - mirror, crinkly and more!

Here is a tutorial for how to make a sensory blanket using a number of products from our online store.. For anyone new to our shop and blog, you can purchase the featured items from our toy supplies store at www.tomnidesign.com.au

Today I'll write what I did to make this blankie, but it could be made with a range of items (like teether rings or flowers, and in different sizes..

** I added some Amendment comments to this tutorial in October... **

I forgot to take a 'here is what you'll need' pic, but here is the list of the items I used:
- crinkle material
- mirror material
- green teether ear
- bias binding (I used white one, that was 0.5cm wide when folded)
- grosgrain ribbon strips (approx 7cm long x 5 colours, from own stash)
- coloured fabric (from own stash)
- yellow minky (from own stash)
- sewing machine, thread, needle

Cut your two fabric pieces and crinkly material to size. Mine was a square measuring about 27x27cm. Sew the crinkly to the left side of the fabric, about 0.5cm from the edge. The crinkly can be a little slippery, so I found it easier to sew the pieces together with the crinkly placed on top of the fabric. I also used a double layer of crinkly, so I ended up with an extra loud blankie.

** October Amendment: I found it can be easier to manage the pieces when you sew in the Crinkly once your project pieces are sewn together - see for the next comment down a few steps **

Here's what the fabric with crinkly sewn all around it looked like.

Now to make your mirror - Trace a circle on the mirror material with a permanent marker. Cut it out.

Peel off the adhesive backing and adhere the mirror to fabric (we adhered it to the minky). Cut off the excess fabric.

Sew the bias binding all around the mirror, removing the edge of the protective film as you go along. I recommend leaving most of the protective film on the mirror while you're doing the sewing. Keep going with the bias binding until it covers about 1cm of the binding you sewed on first.

Gently pull the bias to the side and keep sewing the two bias sides to create a cord about 7cm long.

Your finished mirror should look something like this. I also made another bias cord by sewing the bias pieces together which I used to attach the rattle ring to the blankie.

Arrange your ribbons, ring, teether ear, mirror and any other parts on the right side of the fabric.

Sew the pieces to the top of the fabric, about 5mm from the edge. This will make sure that the pieces don't move around when you sew on the other fabric (in my case the minky). I sewed the green teether ear on the corner of the blankie. I placed it about 7mm from the edges. I sewed across the wider part, a few stitches across the thin part in the middle of the ear. You can see I also did a zig zag stitch across the thin part just to make sure it was sewn in well.

Place the fabric pieces (right sides towards each other) and sew them together about 7mm from the edge. Make sure you leave a big enough gap along one edge to be able to turn the blankie inside out.

** October Amendment: You can sew the Crinkly on top of the fabric at this step... Just make sure you don't sew over the gap you left for turning the blankie inside out **

Turn your blankie inside out.

Sew the gap by hand. I then sewed across the edge of the right side of the blankie for extra durability.

And here's the finished product! :)

Let us know what you think - we'd also love to see your versions of this blankie..

Mirror Stickers Project

The new flexible mirror material is a very versatile product and the other day together with my son we decided to make some mirror wall stickers.. This is a super easy project and here are the steps:

Draw your design on the back of the flexible mirror material using a permanent marker.

Cut our your design.

Peel off the backing and adhere your shape to a flat surface e.g. wall.

Peel off the protective green film.

All done!

You can purchase the flexible mirror material from our online store: www.tomnidesign.com.au