Upcycling An Old Dolls House

December 17, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

Just recently, I was having a conversation with my sister and we both agreed that some of the best presents we got when we were kids were things that had been bought secondhand and upcycled by our parents.

One of my favourites was a bike I got when I was around Burrito Baby’s age. My dad bought this bike month ahead of Christmas and spent weeks in the shed stripping off the old paint, re-spraying it with a cool flame design and sticking custom stickers all over it, so that by the time it was given to me for Christmas and it looked brand-new and actually way cooler than it had looked before he started upcycling it.

As you’ll know if you’ve read my blog, another toy from my past that is precious to me is the dolls house that was made by my Nan and Grandad, from scratch. I’ve talked about renovating this for many years and just recently I’ve had some new ideas of ways that I can update it and get it looking back to brand-new again. Here are a few of the ideas: despite having been up in the loft for many years now,

Update the Exterior

Despite having been up in the loft for many years now, The exterior of the dolls house is actually in pretty good condition. There are however a few areas where it could do with a little bit of renovation and while I don’t have the same level of skill as my Grandad, who made the brick effect on the outside of the house from actual brick dust, there are now brick patterned wallpaper for dolls houses on the market which will make a really good replacement for my grandads original method.

New Wallpaper

As you can tell from the brickdust anecdote, my Nan and grandad were all about authenticity when they made this dolls house, which means that the inside is decorated with real wallpaper. The house was made in the very late 80s which means the decor on the inside is very “of the time”. Something that I’ve been planning to do is grab some samples of some more modern wallpapers from a decorating store and use these to repaper the inside of the house to give it an updated look.

New Lights

My grandad was an incredibly skilled person in so many ways and one of the things that he did in the original dolls house would put individual lights in each room that could be controlled with separate switches and were connected to a battery pack in the loft. Over the years some of these lights have stopped working and I don’t have the same skill as Grandad so fixing individual lights is a little bit beyond my capabilities. There are however individual battery powered LEDs that can be stuck in each room without needing to rewire the whole house and this is something that I would definitely consider doing.

Quilling Homemade Christmas Cards

November 24, 2020November 21, 2022 JayneLeave a comment

Given the fact that it’s been a REALLY sucky year for most of us, Christmas will be a nice distraction from everything else. This year, us and our extended family have decided to keep the gift giving to just the kids of the family, so that we can make it all the more special for them. However, that doesn’t stop me from creating extra special Christmas cards for everyone, and this year I’ve even learned a new skill to help me – quilling!

Click on the image to see the quilling in action!

When I was researching the type of card I wanted to make, I stumbled across some festive greetings using quilling. For those who don’t know, quilling is a paper craft with uses coiled strips of paper to create shapes and patterns. I had a quilling kit when I was a tween and I loved it then, but I’d basically forgotten everything I’d learned by the time I tried it again. I also planned to use a graffiti font on the card, but my printer went kaput, right at the most inconvenient moment. *eyeroll*

As well as quilling strips and some papercraft tools, I used an 8x8in blank greetings card, some tacky glue (it’s stickier and dries fast for crafting), a gold marker, some gold edging stickers, mini Christmas bells and some Christmas pompoms. I also used a compass, ruler and pencil for sketching out the rough shapes before I stuck anything on.

Quilling the Tree

I started by making the quills for the tree by coiling a whole strip tightly, then allowing it to unfurl a little. I then glued the loose end in place with a tiny dot of glue, held it until dry and then pinched one end of the coil of paper to create the shape. To create the star and tree pot, I shaped them after coiling in a similar way, and then I used the gold marker to write the message on the front. Finally, I just stuck all of the other bits on in the right place!

Adding the Text

Quilling Homemade Christmas Cards - Gold Writing It took me a little under half an hour, from sketching out the final design to everything being done, and I think the overall effect is well worth the effort! What’s more, I really enjoyed making the card and I can’t wait to make a whole load more to send to the special people in our lives. I’m thinking of making a different design on every card, but that might just be a stunning case of me biting off more than I can chew, as usual!

I absolutely love making handmade gifts and cards for people. Now that I have a new skill, I’ll definitely be doing more of it. Have you ever tried quilling? Are you making handmade cards or gifts this year? Leave me a comment below telling me all about it, especially if you have inspiration for my next design!

Gift Ideas

Handmade Gifts for all the Family

June 15, 2020April 27, 2021 Jayne1 Comment

Whether you’re gifting for father’s day, a significant wedding anniversary, a birthday, or just because, everyone loves receiving handmade gifts, nothing shows love more than a thoughtful gift created by some of the smallest members of your family. Grandparents and great grandparents especially love receiving these gifts all year round! If they no longer live locally, sending these surprises in the post just shows them how much you’re all thinking of them, and if you have elderly family residing in care homes, these gifts can be perfect for decorating their space!

You might miss your older family members and worry about them if they haven’t been in a nursing home for long. In some circumstances, you may feel it necessary to contact a lawyer in regards to care given at nursing homes. If so, find out more information from a nursing home malpractice lawyer by clicking the link.

Paintings

One of the simplest but most fulfilling activities for your children is painting; they love the experience and family love seeing the results! For younger children, try thick-handled paintbrushes to help them learn to hold the brushes and create mini masterpieces. For older children, provide them with items to print with, so they can experiment with different textures and the print it creates. For families with gardens, get your children to paint large stones with acrylic paints to gift as decorations for yards or windowsills.

Mugs

Everyone has a cupboard filled to the brim with cups, but gift your family members with their new favorite mug! You can get your children to create a design onto the mug with ceramic paints to create a masterpiece that will last a lifetime or have photos printed onto the cup so they can see their grandchildren every time they have a drink. If you need some artwork to place on your design, there’s some great Mother’s Day clipart out there which is free to use.

Baking

Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, everyone loves home-baked cupcakes, muffins, or cookies. Let your child decorate their baking with chocolate buttons, sprinkles, and icing!

Salt dough handprints

These are brilliant gifts to capture your little one’s handprint to gift on an ornament to your loved one. Roll out your salt dough and cut out circles, then have your child print their hand in the mixture. It can take a couple of days to dry thoroughly but you can then finish the project by painting the handprint with acrylic paints. These handprints make perfect paperweights! You can also create a little card to go with your handprints to show the age your child was when they made it, and add some Father’s Day clipart to make it extra special.

Key chains

A brilliant and inexpensive gift is to make key chains – we all use our keys every day, and this is a sure-fire way of bringing a smile to your family’s faces every time they open the front door. You can purchase rings relatively cheaply online and then let your children decorate string with beads. For younger children, any variety of color and textured beads will let their imagination go wild, for older children, purchase letter beads to let them spell out messages for their loved ones.

Lastly, enjoy the design process with your child. Any handmade gifts will let your loved one know you’re thinking of them, no matter how simple the design, or small the project, this is a definite way of bringing a smile to someone’s face.

Christmas · Review

Handmade Christmas – Stamped Gift Tags

December 12, 2012 JayneLeave a comment

Last year, just before Christmas, I spent an inordinate amount of time on Etsy, looking at all of the lovely rubber stamps and wishing I was crafty enough to make some handmade Christmas cards. Well, this year, I thought “That’s it, I’M DOING IT!”, so I’ve thrown caution to the wind and indulged my fantasies. Luckily for me, the lovely Blossom Stamps and The English Stamp Company were kind enough to send me some samples of their wares. Here’s what we did with them (click on one of the photos to open a gallery where you can see the photos up close. Loving the new features, by the way, WordPress!):

All we used were some blank cardboard tags, some metallic felt pens, our rubber stamps and ink pads and some glitter glue, all of which, other than the stamps, we had lying around the house (mainly raided from Sausage’s art supplies!). I had had lofty plans of using the stamps to make both my Christmas cards and wrapping paper, but I’m not sure if time will permit this year as I’ve had Sausage home from school for four days now, having been very poorly. However, I think the tags will make a really nice handmade adornment to our wrapped gifts and I’m sure I’ll find ways to use them on other things in the next couple of weeks.

If I were more organised, I’d have like to have made handmade gifts too, but it’s just not worked out that way. Here’s to next year…!

(If I do make anything else with my lovely stamps, I’ll be sure to post about it and let you know)