Alphabet Blocks - another Ava present

Inspired by these Alexander Girard alphabet blocks

I bought a Dremmel and started engraving 30 (!) 5cm wooden blocks with the alphabet.  After almost 1 alphabet was complete, I realised how thick I was and that this was a stupidly mammoth project that was never going to get finished.

So this is what they ended up looking like:

PJ's are another Christmas pressie.

I just love those little starfish fingers...

...and the concentration needed to build a tower.

 

I ended up using the Actopus to Zelephant scrap book papers.  2 sides have the alphabet letters - the size of the alphabet paper is absolutely perfect for 5cm blocks.  2 sides are puzzles - rather advanced puzzles I must admit (frogs on 1 and butterflies/leaves on the other).  2 sides are just patterns.  But all sides are great for grouping and sorting activities.  Daddy tlf kindly filled my previous dremmel botch and sanded the blocks nice and smooth and I modge podged all the paper on.  It didn't take too long, but was still quite a time consuming project for evenings only.

Now I just have to figure out what to store them in.  I had planned on sewing a draw string bag for Christmas...but that was one of the time-casualities.

Enjoy!

Pretty New Things in the Shop

Colourful new bits and bobs have been added to my shops....valentine kits, mug cosies, soft and cuddly nappy covers...

As always, custom requests are warmly welcomed!

Enjoy!

AWoL - Too Many Gifts to Make

Oh boy am I glad that Christmas has now been and gone.  I ended up making wayyy too many presents...especially for Ava.  Why is it that a simple little idea can more often take the longest time to finish?

All tlf work has been shelved for too long...what with all the crafting that has been going on in this house.  Let's not mention all the usual house and home related stuff that has to be taken care of too - who knew that 2 little girls could generate so much washing!?  Especially now that Chloe eats just like her big sister (which also means massive exploding nappy loads than lead to yet more clothing changes - tmi? sorry), but really messy like.

Anyhow, I thought that I would share some of the gifts that I made.  First up are these little wooden people - or us as a wooden family - a gift for Ava.

Mommy, Daddy, Ava, Chloe, Daisy and Poppy

hmmm...why is this dress style so familiar to me?

Now this dress is really familiar....

So, our dogs, Daisy and Poppy, are miniature sausage dogs.  These balls are teeny tiny!  Like less than 2cm diameter teeny tiny.  The big question was always going to be "how the heck do you turn a sausage into a ball????!".  Let alone the issue of painting the details of a black dog.  They turned out ok, we can even tell the difference between the 2.  Poppy is chunkier (am being polite here) than Daisy.  Which one do you reckon is Poppy?

Am rather pleased with how they turned out.  But, I had to cut this project short, I still have more to paint and just ran out of time.  2 grannies and 2 grampa's are still to join our family.

I searched high and low here in the UK for similar wooden dolls.  I ended up buying these dolls (and a whole bunch of wooden coins) from Goose Grease Undone on Etsy, in the US.  One of the dolls arrived with a serious head wound.  I contacted them and they posted me a replacement straight away.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone else.  Their shops are worth a visit, if not anything else than to see the custom dolls they sell....immaculately and beautifully painted!

Enjoy!