Growing Spaces

DIY contemporary Christmas advent calendar

DIY contemporary Christmas advent calendar

Last Christmas I loved our DIY copper advent calendar that I’d made the previous year so much I decided I didn’t need a new one. But this week I got the craft itch, and I felt a little festive, so I’ve made this contemporary advent calendar out of a cheap hanging organiser I got a while back from Ikea. An Ikea hack and a homemade advent calendar in one hit.. not bad, eh? Making the calendar also prompted me to plan out our advent activities for December. It’s become a family tradition for our advent calendar to contain a little festive activity every day of advent rather than a sweet,…

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Create Make Share #4

Create Make Share #4

Crafting essentials from Lotts & Lots I was totally bowled over by the wonderful creativity shared on last month’s LOVE-themed Create Make Share linky, hosted by myself together with Anthea from Zing Zing Tree and Emma from Kids Craft Room. So many amazing ideas, from kids’ craft activities, to beautiful handmade cards and gifts, to mouth-watering sweet treats. Thanks to everyone who joined in – I had such a fab evening browsing through all the entries. Clockwise from top left: Lotts & Lots; Muminthemadhouse; The Gingerbread House; Apartment Apothecary; The Creative Pair; Crafternoon Cabaret Club My favourites from the month…

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Hirameki: Quick and easy DIY watercolour Valentines cards

Hirameki: Quick and easy DIY watercolour Valentines cards

We’re always lastminute . com in our house, so if you’ve also left it til the night before to make a homemade card for Valentines (or Galentines) Day, then I promise this is a super quick and easy make. Inspired by a book we’ve been sent to review from Thames & Hudson called Hirameki by Peng + Hu (this is just a teaser as a full post about this ace book will follow next week), these cards won’t take much longer than 15 mins, and all you need is some paper, a set of watercolours, a brush and a Sharpie.…

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Hello again crochet

Hello again crochet

There’s something wonderful about picking up a long-neglected project again. I slightly ashamed to admit that it’s been two years since I started hooking this granny square blanket for my husband. In fact, I bought the wool as an anniversary present to him for our 7th wedding anniversary. I’d crocheted myself a blanket and blankets for each of the twins, but he didn’t have one of his own so it seemed only fair. I mapped out a design, and started with great enthusiasm. The blanket has even travelled with me to New Zealand (where I picked up some yarn to…

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How to make air-drying clay trinket dishes

How to make air-drying clay trinket dishes

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally share some of the crafts I worked on in the weeks leading up to the big day. This year I made a pledge to make as many presents as I could myself – work was quiet and the upside of this was that I had some free time  it also meant that we needed to be as thrifty as possible with our gift choices). I browsed family members’ Christmas wish-lists and when I spotted some trinket dishes my mother-in-law wanted, I immediately thought I’d have a go at making using white air-drying…

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