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

Fire Truck Cake

It was our son's birthday recently and for his party he requested a Fire Truck cake..
Oh boy, did I not know what I was getting myself into!

After a few dramas with the actual baking of the cake, it was time to decorate it.. I didn't have too much time, so the white fondant is not as smooth as I would have liked it to be, but some rolling trimming, cutting, painting and licorice rolling later, this is what emerged:

Luckily my son was happy with it :) But no more cake making for me for the next little while!

Our Downloadable Sewing Patterns Launch!!

We are proud to announce that we have released patterns for TWO projects!

The first one is for the Embroidered Owl. I have been making and selling these for a few years under my "Two Green Pears" label, but after all the requests and I decided to make the pattern available so you can make your own owl creation.. It is available from our online store - TOMNI design

The pattern comes complete with step by step instructions for making the owl into a softie or a musical toy (by incorporating our Pull string music boxes). This is a PDF pattern, which can is downloadable.

The second pattern is for a quick project that you can make easily - A Crinkly Leaf Taggie Teether.. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but the project is for a sensory teething ring that incorporates crinkle material, a wooden ring (both available from our online store), ribbons and a knot, which are great for stimulating a baby.

This PDF downloadable pattern comes with step by step instructions and photos. It's a great project for a beginner!

The pattern is available from our online store and at only 99 cents it is a bargain!

You have permission to sell your finished products that you personally create from our patterns.

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

Kids food craft ideas

 My son came home today with two food themed crafts.. the first one was edible, which he gobbled up as soon as he showed me! The face is made from a round biscuit, with cream on top, and lollies arranged to complete the face.. The bear in a car - a milky way with round lollies attached with cream, and a teddy bear biscuit pushed into the milky way.. So cute!

This next craft is a paper based food plate, made using simple supplies... The drink is a clear plastic cup filled with blue cellophane.. all of the items are attached to the plate with clear sticky tape...

My favourite - the carrot - is a cone made from orange paper, with green cellophane for leaves..
The egg is cut out from white and yellow paper.. the peas? - so simple! Round balls made from playdoh!

The fish is a printed picture that has been cut out..

The only edible item on this plate - popcorn :)

I hope these inspire you to make your own version of this craft :)

Mother's Day gift Ideas

This year is the first year that my son has been attending this particular weekly morning craft program with his Grandmother, while I'm at work.. To my surprise he greeted me today with these gifts that he (with lots of help from my mum!) made for me...

I thought these were SUPER cool ideas, so I just had to share them! Here's a few pics:

First there was a card and cardstock bag with an insert..

which had attached to both sides lots of things 'mum might need'.. like chocolate, pen, tissues, seeds to grow some flowers (you can never have too many flowers!), a button in case she loses one, a gold medal (of course we deserve one!)..

Then there was a cute marshmallow cup...

And a heart painted on canvas..

I just love these pressies!

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!