"The Craft Group" plus...

 Hi crafty friends! How are you  coping with the latest 'delta-induced' lockdown? I do hope and pray you are doing OK. If you are getting bored, you can read here about some of the things I have been doing over the past month... I have managed to grow something that is actually edible! I planted some expensive heritage pumpkin seeds (the 2 little pumpkins in the front). They were not hugely successful but then, out of the compost heap came a vine which produced 8 beautiful kent pumpkins! I feel like such a successful gardener even though I did nothing to make them grow! We do go to the shops when we need food but I am trying to use random things up in the freezer. This smoothie was so YUM and a big hit! In my little food blender I first did frozen raspberries and milk, poured them into 4 glasses and then blended up frozen mango with fresh orange juice and carefully poured that on top. Nice with our Sunday morning breakfast before on-line church :) I'd love to show you some ...

We may have rocks for brains but we are painting rocks! I love any art or craft with a community aspect to it.  People all over the world are painting rocks then hiding them somewhere in a public place where someone else might find them.  Making a surprise discovery of a little painted gem is sometimes all it takes to brighten someone's day. The idea is that people can leave the pebble where they found it, keep it or re-hide it! Some rocks I painted A fun afternoon painting with my 10 year old niece!     Some people like to follow their rock's journey. There are many facebook pages to help them do this. I like the fb page NSW ROCKS . If you join the group and check out their "files", you will find many resources about how to paint rocks. I like their emphasis on not ruining the environment you place them in. For example, no goggly eyes or stickers that could come off. If you want to track your rock, you write fb NSW ROCKS on the back and the post...

People who know me know I am a lover of Blue and White. I try not to be! But I am always drawn to the calming effects of a good blue. Maybe it's my Dutch background.  Or maybe I stress too much and need calming colours! Maybe I associate blue with Summer which I also love. I have dabbled in the past with tie dying. But over these holidays I have been having a bit of fun with Shibori dying with Indigo dye and I am in LOVE.  Here are 4 cushion covers I dyed. For the people coming along this year to The Craft Group, we will have a little play with some of the techniques. For our cyber followers, I will add some of my favourite techniques here for you to be inspired by! More info to follow :)  Happy New Year everyone!

In the past... I have been to Europe. I have been to Canada. I have seen some of Australia. But... I have never really had the desire to go to any Asian destination for more than a stop over. Then, our daughter decided she wanted to live and teach in Southern Asia. So... after 9 months of her moving there, my husband and I went for 3 weeks to visit her in the Himalayas. What a fascinating experience! We are back. She is still there.   I am very thankful for modern forms of communication. There are so many stories to tell but seeing as you are all my craft friends, I will share some crafty photos... There was folk art on every single building. A newly built apartment block was being built near our daughters place. We loved watching the men perched on the bamboo scaffolding painting all the amazing designs for weeks on end.  We went to a paper making factory.  We watched women weaving scarves. We saw hand woven yak w...

I struggle with gift wrapping sometimes. I've learnt different ribbon making techniques but this simple one is my favourite. Too easy! And quite pretty, I think. The 2 main white ribbons are cut to size around the gift and simply joined with sticky tape on the top (which will be covered by the ribbon anyway). Then fold the top ribbon so it looks like the above. Put a staple in it to stop it moving. Now cut a small piece of ribbon and strap it over the middle of the bow. Sticky tape it closed. I used double sided tape to then attach it to the parcel/ribbon. (Or you could glue it or roll a piece of tape backwards around itself.) Ta da! (I know it's not rocket science but it's certainly quick and easy!)

I recently learnt this crochet stitch and I want to share it with you! It is not a real bubble or bobble stitch where you have to do clusters and other such bulky things. This is all just chains, double crochet and treble stitches. It has a nice dense finish, making it a super warm stitch to use for a rug. But it is also a soft textured stitch making it ideal for a baby to lay on. It's lack of lacy holes means no little fingers or toes will get stuck in the rug.   I use UK patterns. If you read USA patterns: my double crochet = your single crochet, my treble = your double crochet. The stitch is very simply a Double crochet then 2 trebles all in the same hole. Easy! dc tr tr That was the super simple explanation. Now I will give step by step instructions because where that little hole is and how to turn to the next row are not always obvious. Start with making a small sample square because that is a great way to understand it. I am using a size 4 hoo...

Mum & Dad had their 60th Wedding Anniversary this past week with lots of smaller celebrations rather than one big one. For one of the events I thought I would make a cake! Cake decorating is not really one of my things but it is amazing what you can learn from the internet and from talking to the lady in the cake decorating store I found not too far away. I learned a lot from the I am baker blog website which includes a video tutorial. A little tip I picked up… the blog says to use a sugar syrup on the cake first to make the icing stick and stop crumbs coming away from the cake, but the cake decorating shop said to heat up some apricot jam in the microwave and smear a thin layer of that on the cake first. Cool in the fridge and the icing will stick with no crumbs. Yay for easy tips that really work! Happy 60th Anniversary Mum & Dad!

We are almost at the end of a 2 week winter holiday. In the first week our church ran our annual Holiday Bible Club. A great week of working together as a church family to provide a fun place for kids to come and hear about the best news they could ever hear. So it was very fun and very worthwhile. Here is one little idea I'd like to share. As each child registered at our "Jungle Jamboree" HBC, they received a "Jungle Survival Pack". Inside was a chatterbox all made up, with all the questions written on it already. An instant game. Then there was a find-a-word puzzle made using words relating to our HBC. Then there was the little pack of real jungle survival nutrition... monkey poo, killer baby snakes and a giant spider egg*. That was a huge hit with the kids. Then there was some info about our church and an invitation to join us and check out our church website. Oh and a packet of Scoobie doo biscuits. Some lovely volunteers, Carla, R...

Seeing as it is The Craft Group's 20th Anniversary, here is another blast from the past! I decorated this jumper with pretty appliqued girls at The Craft Group about 15 years ago. My daughter wore it constantly and then, 8 years later my other daughter wore it just a bit (appliqued jumpers sadly went out of fashion). It has been washed and washed and I just couldn't throw it in the bin, so we gave it to a friend whose little girl can enjoy it. (That is what I like to think, I was having trouble parting with the 3 little girlies, so 'passing it on' makes it easier to say goodbye!)

This is one of the first things I made at The Craft Group. Seeing as this is our 20th Anniversary year, I thought I'd show you. I made lining for a basket for my little girls hair clips and ribbons.  She didn't have much hair in those days so I made little pockets which very soon were too small for their intended use (but still very cute!) The poor old basket is now 22 years old. I am hopeless at throwing things out, so I washed it and use it now for holding craft projects. By 'little girl' is 23 years old, and she is still around too! For a little family update, her knee operation went well. She was in so much pain after the op it was not nice. It doesn't matter how old your kids are, it is always awful to see them in pain. We are home now and the recovery process begins! 

This is a great little gift idea.  Choose a tiny little picture, glue it under a glass bead and see your picture grow! You then attach it to a magnet which makes it easy to be displayed on your fridge. Last year when I went overseas for my family reunion, I made up 20 little gift packs for the relos. In the pack I included this little magnet featuring our family crest. (We all felt pretty patriotic!) Here's how to make them. You will need: * Bag of flat bottomed glass beads (I found mine at the Reject Shop). * Packet of round self adhesive magnets smaller than the base of the bead (Spotlight). * Glue that dries clear. Mine said it was suitable for gem work. (Spotlight) * Tiny round pictures to fit exactly on the magnet. If you print them off from your printer at home, they may not be waterproof, so first make a colour photocopy of it. STEP 1 - Cut the picture exactly the size of the magnet. My magnets had one self adhesive side, so we stuck the paper ...