Make your own Fabric Covered Buttons!!

Here's some exciting news!! We not only sell our finished fabric covered button products, but we now sell the actual parts so you can make your own fabric covered buttons in the popular size 45 / 28mm diameter..

So if you'd like to make your own fabric covered buttons, hairbands or magnets, head over to our craft store here  then select your category - 'assembly tool' or size '45 buttons'...

If you need any help with making them, feel free to email us via our craft store...

Pocket Owls

Finally got round to taking some pictures of our new Pocket Owls!

I'm really excited about these as I've been working on these for a while and it's always great to get a new design out there! I wanted to design a more interactive toy which the kids could 'explore' - so here they are! With fabrics sourced from near and far, each of these Pocket Owl creations is an original!

We took them to the market last week and had lots of good feedback from those who they're made for - the little kids!

More pics will come with time... :)

Nappy Cake

With more of my friends having just had babies I was looking for some ideas of things to make for them, so while searching through the pics of things I've made over the years I came across the pics of this nappy cake I made a while ago...

It was my first cake I make for a custom order and used a number of scrapbooking products to decorate it - I like mixing things up a bit and thought the paper flowers worked well with the ribbons and general feel of the cake... But see what you think...

I decorated the top with a rattle cube I made... 

Vintage Girls and Dr Seuss

Some new products - just in time for this Sunday's market at Mulgrave!
All of these will be available as bookmarks, magnet clips (great for holding up all those notices and bills on your fridge), badges and as our Super Strong Magnets. If you'd like any before they are released in our handmade store, just email me to reserve them!

I have received SO many fabric shipments this week it's not funny! But it's exciting having some great prints to work with!

Here's one of my favs - These girls have a lovely vintage look and come in quite a few colours... very cute!

 Bookmarks and badges 

magnet clips - these look the same as the bookmarks but have a super strong magnet attached to the back, so they stay well on your fridge even when holding up 10 or so paper sheets!

And here's Dr Seuss - please don't ask me to name all the characters! :)

 badges

bookmarks

What's Two Green Pears?

Ever since I started making and selling my handmade creations I thought it was difficult for our customers to differentiate between the two sides of our business - our craft and scrapbooking products shop and our handmade creations, as they both went under the one name of "TOMNI design".

So after some thinking I came up with a new name to try to distinguish our Handmade creations side of the business from the supplies shop - Two Green Pears.

We'll be making some changes to our handmade side of business as well as the TOMNI Design Handmade online shop, however you'll still be able to access both shops and the blog from the same homepage - www.tomnidesign.com.au

I'm happy to announce that our super strong magnets are available in even more fabric designs (please be patient with us as we load up the images to the online shop) - and they now come in METAL TINS!
These are great quality silver coloured metal tins with a clear window.

Our magnet sets make great gifts and unique bombonieres!

Introducing "Eliani Chickpeas" dolls

I'd like to introduce our newest product additions to our Handmade range - the Eliani Chickpeas dolls.

 

Knight

I am very excited to be making these dolls and being able to offer them for sale (check out our handmade store to view/purchase the dolls). My sister who is a freelance toy designer designed the original pattern for these and it has evolved from there. You can check out more of her toy designs over at her blog here

The Eliani Chickpeas are made using Waldorf toy making principles, with a bit of a twist.  They are  handmade made from socks (new ones of course, that have been pre washed to make them nice and clean) and have long dangly arms and legs (which young kids love to chew!) and hand embroidered details..

Their smiling faces and big eyes are sure to delight kids of all ages. They are original and each one is 'one of a kind'!

Ladybug

   

    

Bumblez

Here's a few pics of our Eliani coming to life:

There's the sock..

Looks much better dressed up!

 

And the winner is...

Thank you for participating in our bag making competition!

It was a difficult decision, but we finally chose the winner..
This bag was created by hand sewing white mulberry paper pieces together and decorating it with a number of scrapbooking products. What a lovely bag to pack that special present!

Well done A. I. from Victoria! Your $15 voucher is on its way!

Giraffe Taggies

Thought I'd share a pic of one of our latest additions - Giraffe Taggies... :)

These are great for little kids to play with as they also rattle and some squeak!
The tags can be used for attaching the toys to the pram but also serve as something for the little ones to pull and chew..

We are also working on a new bird toy design and these will be available soon..

10 Good Reason to buy Fabric

If found this while cleaning out my 'inbox' and I thought it was too good to just delete... So here's 10 Good reasons to buy fabric (if anyone knows who wrote this, please let me know so I can add the correct credit)... 


Cheerz




10 Good Reason to buy Fabric

1. It insulates the cupboard where it is  kept.
2. It keeps the economy moving. It is my duty to  support cotton farmers, textile mills and fabric shops.
3. It is less expensive and more fun than  psychiatric care.
4. I'm participating in a contest- the one who dies  with the most fabric wins.
5. It keeps without refrigeration, you don't have  to cook to enjoy it, you'll never have to feed it, change it, wipe its nose or  walk it.
6. Because I'm worth it.
7. Like dust, it's good for protecting previously  empty spaces in the house, like the ironing board, the laundry basket, the  dining room table.
8. It's not immoral, illegal or fattening. It calms  the nerves, gratifies the soul and makes me feel good.
9. Because it's on sale.
10. Buy it now, before your husband retires and goes  with you on all your shopping expeditions.

Rattle Rattle Squeak Squeak - rattle and squeaker inserts

The anticipated delivery of the new rattle and squeaker inserts has arrived!
We have now added the following great toy making items to our shop:

RATTLE INSERTS - but in a SMALLER size!!

These rattle inserts are only 20mm wide and 12mm tall, so they are great for those small toys! Because of their size they also make a gentler sound - perfect for baby rattles!!

You can purchase these rattle inserts through here

The next product is the RATTLE BALLS

These balls are available in two sizes - 25mm diameter and 28mm diameter. They make a nice sound and can be used for a range of projects. You can see them in our shop by clicking here


ACCORDION SQUEAKERS

This is a new product range which we are adding to the shop and these squeaker inserts are available in different sizes

 ROUND SQUEAKER INSERTS

These are available in two sizes - 35mm and 45mm diameter. These squeakers are made from clear plastic and make a nice loud sound. The 45mm squeakers are also available in black - now that's different!

BIG SQUEAKER INSERTS

I've found that when making a big toy like our owls, the little squeaker just didn't do it justice as it was too difficult to find it inside the owl's belly. So now we also stock these large squaker inserts, which are just the perfect size for putting inside the bellies of bigger toys..

You can view and purchase all of our TOY MAKING SUPPLIES in our  store. CLICK HERE to go there now... 


NOTE FOR CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIA:

YES! We can post our rattle and squeaker products to countries outside Australia. Please contact us via the "contact us" link in our craft shop for a freight quote. Please advise the destination country and the items you'd like to purchase when emailing us..

New Button Badges in stock - Fairytales

Some great supplies finally arrived to us this week, so we've been busy making new products. The latest? Button Badges featuring fairytales.. Just the cutest!

Check them all out in our  Handmade store

Stock is limited, so get yours quick!

Bag Making Competition

We are running a competition – and up for grabs is a $15 voucher to our TOMNI Design scrapbooking online store (where you can find lots of scrapbooking and craft making supplies).

All you need to do is:

- make a paper shopping bag using the tutorial listed on our blog (see here for the tutorial) You may like to make one for a particular person / occasion / colour theme etc...

- email us a photo of your finished bag (sales ' at ' tomnidesign 'dot' com 'dot' au ) (or add a link to your blog/website through our blog’s comments section) and 

- become a subscriber to our blog or facebook page

TIME TO START CREATING and GOOD LUCK!

The winner will be chosen based on creativity, originality and general 'wow' factor of the entry. You can enter as many times as you wish. Entries can be submitted until midnight, 10^th of February, 2011. Winner will be announced via blog and email soon after closing date. We will put up on our blog any pictures of bag entries we receive via email. 

Large Paper Shopping Bags - TUTORIAL

Today I'd like to share with you a tutorial for making these great paper shopping bags.

These are very easy to make and here is what you will need to make a 12" x 10 1/2" bag:

- Two sheets of 12x12 scrapbooking paper per bag (I used the same design for both sides)

- paper trimmer

- sewing machine

After choosing your paper trim your sheets to each will be 12" high x 10 1/2" wide. These will make the front and back of your bag. The strips you just cut away will be used to make the handles.

Fold each of the strips in half. This will make the handles stronger and easier to hold.

Place the two folded pieces on top of each other with the cut edges on top.

While holding the two pieces together, bend them to make a "C" shape. The cut sides will be on top and inside of the "C". By folding the two pieces together you should end up with two handles that look the same.

Press down the folds and separate the handles.

This part is a bit tricky to explain, but here it goes:
Place one of the handles down on a table, making sure that the 'top part' of the handle is below the right and left sides of the handles. The top part of the handle will unfold towards the inside of the bag when you hold it.. If you place the handle the wrong way, you will notice that they will not open up properly when you hold the bag.

Sew (or staple) the handles (see below) to the bag side (I used a zig-zag stitch). Repeat it the other handle and other side of the bag, so you end up with two rectangles with handles.

Place the two sides together (with the white sides facing each other, handles lining up). Leaving the top open, stitch the three remaining sides using a straight stitch. I sewed about 0.5 cm from the edge using the biggest straight stitch to keep the number of holes to a minimum.

Here are some of my finished bags!

You can follow the same steps to make these bags in different sizes - depending on what size of paper you start off with, you may need to trim your strips to size (or fold them a few times more) so that your handles don't end up too wide.

I'd love to see your finished bags, so feel free to leave links to your pictures in the comments section.. :)