DIY Silicone Bead Necklaces and teethers

One of our latest store additions are the Silicone Beads!

These are made from food grade silicone and are designed to be used for making teething necklaces or bracelets that are worn by the mum / grandma / aunt, and played by the baby.

We stock a wide range of shapes and colours of these beads.

You can let your imagination run wild and combine the different styles and colours to make your own creations or you can use some of our suggestions ;)

Here's some of them:

If you are looking for a unique, personalised gift for a baby shower or a mother of a baby, our wooden teether shapes and alligator pram clips make great companion gifts to the necklaces.We also sell the cardboard boxes, so you can buy all of your supplies from one shop!

For those who prefer bigger sized teethers, we stock a range of silicone teethers, such as these elephants, which can also be made into necklaces worn by mum.

To view our selection of silicone beads and teethers, wooden teethers, pram clips and much more, visit our online store at www.tomnidesign.com.au

100% Wooden Mobile Frame / Stand Tutorial

Direct from Europe comes this 100% wooden mobile stand/frame - the PERFECT companion product to our wooden mobile hangers!

This wooden mobile stand/frame is made entirely from pure, untreated hard wood - the same wood that is used for making our wooden teether rings and mobile hangers. It has been cleverly designed to allow the frame to be attached to the side of virtually any bed, crib, cot etc., without losing its safety features.

These wooden mobile stands / frames are available from our online store.

The mobile stand will arrive to you un-assembled and each kit includes the following pieces:

All of the pieces are made to fit easily and it will take a few minutes to put them together.

Take pieces A (the one with the pre-drilled hole at the end) and piece C. Twist one of the screw sides of piece C into the ball part of piece A.

 This is what it should look like when you finish.

Take the other side of part C and twist it into the ball part of part B. You should now have an 'L' shape.

Twist part D (long screw) all the way through part B, until it hits the end. Twist part F over the screw until it reaches the side of B (the flat side of part F should face away from part B). Place the flat side of part F against your cot slats and twist part E from the other side of the slats over the screw,  ensuring that the two parts (E and F) press firmly against both sides of the cot slats.

Cot slats will be between these two parts - parts E and F.

You can hang your mobile hanger (sold separately) from the mobile frame.


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For safety's sake keep all decorations away from reach of young children and do not hang any mobiles directly above a child. Please do not attach the mobile frame in a location where it could be moved out of place by children. Please ensure all screws are firmly twisted into place and check attachment of mobile frame to cot on a regular basis. Should you notice any damage to the product, please discontinue its use.

100% Wool Felt Bird Mobile

We extended our store range lately to include a wide range of 100% pure new merino wool felt (Oeko-Tex 100 certified). I just love the brilliant colour range that this felt is available in!

To make this mobile we used the following items which are available from our online store: 100% wool felt, corn fiber and a metal split ring. The rest of the supplies came from my personal craft stash.

For this mobile I decided to make 7 birds in bright rainbow colours. I got the inspiration for the bird body pattern from http://ericacatarina.blogspot.com.au

Some of the birds have embroidered closed eyes or open ones (which were made using black beads) or one closed and one open!

The legs are made using thread and beads. For consistency I used the same thread that is used to attach the birds to the ring frame.

All of the hanging threads are looped around a metal ring and then tied back around the hoop.
A little black bow with heat sealed edges finished off the top.

I am really pleased with the end result and can't wait to get started on the next mobile!

DIY Wooden Mobile Hangers - Assembly Tutorial

I thought I'd put up a little tutorial on how to put together the DIY wooden mobile hangers that we sell at our craft store.

Here's an example of one being used to make a jungle animals themed mobile.

Our DIY wooden mobile hanger kits are made from pure, untreated hard wood of an Ash tree that has been grown in an ecological region in Europe, away from heavy industries. No additives, chemicals, dyes or other nasties are added during the making of this product. These hangers are made to European safety standards. The completed hanger measures approx 33.5cm x 33.5cm.

Your mobile hanger kit contains the following parts:

- 4 wooden dowels (0.9cm x 16cm, with a small hole drilled through at the end of each dowel for attaching an ornament).
- 1 wooden cube (3cm x 3cm, which has rounded edges)
- 2 eye shaped screws

You will need some wood adhesive to glue to pieces together. We recommend using a non-toxic adhesive, like the one below.

Assembling your mobile kit is very easy and takes just a few minutes.
Place a small amount of glue in the cube hole..

and push in one of the dowels.

Make sure you line up the hole in the dowel with the hole in the cube, so that your ornaments will hang correctly.

Repeat the process with the remaining three dowels.

Screw the eye shaped screws in pre-drilled holes - one on top and one on the bottom on the cube.

Voila! Your wooden mobile hanger is ready!
We recommend letting the glue dry before adding ornaments.

All these new products

We've been expanding our range of products, so if you haven't been to our store in a while, it's worth popping by - www.tomnidesign.com.au

Here's just some of the recently added new products:

Organic wooden teether rings

Alligator pram clips

 Star linkie shapes

Coloured rings

 

Sew on corners - now in blue!

 

Teether rings now in some new colours!

 

Plastic flowers in green and cream also

 

Foam squeakers - super cool product!

Bumpy rings

 

Stay up to date with our news by following us on Facebook: www.fb.com/tomnidesign

Washable Pull String Music Boxes

We now stock washable pull string music boxes! Yes - these are washable music boxes!

Pull string music boxes make a great addition to softies - especially toys for small children who are comforted, or put to sleep by a nice lullaby... These music boxes are top quality and we sourced them from one of the largest music box manufacturers. To find out more about the music boxes or to purchase, visit our online store - here is the direct link the the listings.

These music boxes are available in three tunes:

- Brahm's lullaby
- Twinkle twinkle little star
- La Le Lu

Here's some quick videos that I took for those who are not familiar with the tunes.. You can also have a listen to them via our facebook page..  

I'm sure you will be happy with the quality of these music boxes... especially when you will find your child playing the tune over and over and over again...   :)

 

 Brahm's Lullaby pull string music box

Twinkle twinkle little star pull string music box

La Le Lu pull string music box

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.. :)

Flexible mirror material and Crinkle material

We now stock two new EXCITING products!

We now stock the long awaited CRINKLE MATERIAL and MIRROR FABRIC!

The crinkle material makes a lovely, crispy, loud sound when scrunched and is great for using in sensory blankets, or as a stuffing for toys.. A great idea is to stuff a part of a toy e.g. a leg, with the crinkly material, so that the child can discover the hidden sound...

The mirror material is 0.25mm thick. It has an adhesive back and a protective green layer on top to protect the surface while you work with it.

This flexible mirror has so much potential! It is easily cut with scissors and sewn through with a sewing machine.

It is made from a PETG material, which is commonly used in commercially made and sold mirror toys for children. Once again, we have sourced this material from a manufacturer who sells this product to well known toy manufacturing companies..

You can purchase it from www.tomnidesign.com.au

Pull string music boxes

We have received a shipment of pull string music boxes, which are currently being added to our online store..

We have these available in two tunes: 'A dream is a wish your heart makes' and 'Brahm's lullaby'.


Here's a recording of what the pull string music boxes sound like. This is the "A dream is a wish your heart makes" tune..

 listen to the tune on our youtube channel here..

These pull string music inserts play a tune which goes for about 1.5 minutes and is activated when the cord is pulled. As music plays, cord is slowly drawn back into unit. This inserts are ideal for placing inside softies, bears, dolls and all sort of toys, as well as for creating wall and door decorations.

When you put these inside a softie, the toy filling mellows out some of the 'sharper sounding' tones...

For further information, check out the items in our online store - www.tomnidesign.com.au/store, under the 'music boxes' category..

Or to see how these can be used in a softie, check out our previous post here

Help us choose new products..

We are looking at extending our product range - but would like some feedback as to which products you think we should bring in...

Here's the suggestions:

 

Let us know which products you would like to see in our shop.. :)