Win a Pixie.... CLOSED

I have been working on the pixie pattern this week, it is almost ready to go to the testers but I have a problem... I can't decide on a name!

I am not looking for individual names but a general name for the pattern, Like I have Jake the Weiner Dog and Serenity the Mermaid.....

So, would you like to win yourself a pixie? 

Just fill in the form here and I will pick a winner on the 5th.
Update - looks like the rafflecopter gadget wasn't working properly

To Enter - Leave a comment with your suggested Pixie name AND an contact email address
You must be following my blog or subscribing to my blog to enter (links are on the right)
One entry per person

Winner will be chosen Oct 5th, 3pm JST
The winning name will be used as the pattern name unless I decide otherwise.
The winner can choose to have a Pixie made by me or a copy of the finished pattern.
The competition is open worldwide.

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New Skills Festival - with Teri

Teri of Giddy Giddy is one of my newer bloggy finds but as soon as I clicked through to her blog I was hooked and spent a good chunk of time going through her archives. Today is a paper craft and a cute one to boot, I am thinking these would be great for special Christmas cards....

What are DIY Snow Globe Postcards, you ask? Mailable art that will "SNOW" when shaken or flipped over.

This one is an invitation for Grandma to visit us! How can she resist this?

Kremlin in Winter.  The castle is a collage I created and the snow is iridescent plastic left over from a previous project  (the pink arrow thingie is the universal symbol for "TO ACTIVATE SNOW, SHAKE ME, FLIP ME, TURN ME OVER").

THE TUTORIAL:

1. Supplies to gather:

- colorful card stock paper, transparent plastic film, scissors, glue or glue stick, tape or double stick tape, and your preference of fake snow (confetti, glitter, plastic snow, etc.) and xacto knife for adults only.

- Cut out an 8" x 6" piece of card stock that will be folded in half. Once folded, this size is a standard 4" x 6" postcard.

- On one side, cut out the dome shaped window with xacto knife. 

- Cut plastic film to be approximately 1/2 centimeter larger than the window itself. Tape down edges securely.

- Create or glue down snow globe backdrop as well as foreground image directly unto the opposite side of window.  Any medium would work as you can clearly see above. It can be a photograph, magazine picture, a child's drawing, collage, painting, etc!

- Place your choice of fake snow on top of artwork on in between the folds. (We used confetti, glitter, cut paper and plastic iridescent snow).  You will always need to put down more "Snow" than you think because some of the snow will tend to get stuck in the corners of the postcard so be generous here.

- Using glue or double sticky tape, fold and press down the two parts together. 

- You are done! They are ready to be mailed, but because they are heavier than the average postcard, they will require standard letter stamps as opposed to postcard stamps.

- I hope you love this project!

For more of my work please visit my blog and for cute children's clips and bags take a look in the shop.

New Skills Festival - Japanese Binding with Jo

Today's new skills festival is bought to you be me! A while ago I shared with you some little books I had been making for Ebi-kun's writing box, he loves filling these books, we have several manuals and stories written already. Of course, it is easier just to go out and buy a pile of notebooks but I think the big difference is that with homemade books you can just add a few pages and because the child can complete the whole book there is a real sense of achievement. 

What you will need...

Some card and old cereal box is perfect

Paper, printer paper is fine 

Ruler

Scrap piece of paper

Awl or something sharp to make holes

Needle

Strong thread

Scissors

Cut the card and paper so they are all the same size, the size doesn't matter which is why these are so much fun to make.

Take one of the pieces of card which will become the front cover and draw a line down the left hand side, 1cm from the edge.

jojoebi designs

Now mark 1cm from the top and 1cm from the bottom.

jojoebi designs

Take the scrap piece of paper and cut it so that it is the same length as the distance between the marks you  have just made.

jojoebi designs

Fold the scrap in half and then half again, open it out, where the creases are will be the points for the middle holes, so use the scrap as a ruler and transfer the points onto the marked line.

jojoebi designs

You now have 5 points marker, these will be the stitch holes.

jojoebi designs

I have numbered the holes to make it easier with the explanation, you don't need to do it, unless you want to of course!

jojoebi designs

Put all the paper in a neat pile and add the covers, make sure the edges are square then use an awl to push holes through the five marked points.

jojoebi designs

Thread your needle and pull it from back to front through hole 2. Leave a tail of about 10cm.

jojoebi designs

Hold onto the tail and make a stitch around the spine, bringing the needle through hole 2 from the back again.

jojoebi designs

Take the needle from front to back through hole 3.

jojoebi designs

Stitch around the spine going from front to back through hole 3 again.

jojoebi designs

Bring the needle through hole 4 from the back to the front.

jojoebi designs

Make a stitch to hole 5 from front to back.

jojoebi designs

Make a stitch around the spine back through hole 5.

jojoebi designs

Make a similar stitch to the spine stitch but this time around the bottom of the book, back through hole 5 from front to back.

jojoebi designs

Bring the needle through hole 4 front back to front, then stitch to hole 3 from front to back.

jojoebi designs

Bring the needle through hole 2 from the back and make a stitch to hole 1, from front to back.

jojoebi designs

Make a stitch around the spine going back through hole 1.

jojoebi designs

Make a similar stitch around the top going through hole 1 from front to back then push the needle through hole 2 from the back to the front.

jojoebi designs

Flip the book over, do one final stitch around the spine through hole two and then tie off the ends. I like to add a dot of glue to the cut ends just to stop the knot from coming undone.

jojoebi designs

That is is, decorate you book as you like or give it to the kids to work on.

jojoebi designs

We have a mix of books, some with the plain side on the outside some with the printed side out. Old postcards are great for covers, inspiring for little ones to write about a trip they have been on. You can also play around with the types of paper you use and you can use wool or narrow ribbon to sew the binding with too.

the boy and his strop.....

Ebi-kun is a pretty happy kind of kid, he has his moments, don't we all? but on the whole is he pleasant person to be around. Yesterday he wasn't, he has a half day at yochien on a Wednesday so he is back in time for lunch, he came back in a foul mood, rude to me, slamming doors, stomping around. I asked if something had happened at yochien, he shouted back at me so I sent him to the genkan (entrance way) and told him to stay there until he could be a bit more civil. He sulked back in 5 minutes later, we had lunch but he was still grumpy so I suggested a nap figuring he might just be over tired, he near bit my head off! So, I explained that because he has yochien Saturday and sports day on Sunday he won't be able to have a lie in this weekend, and he will need all his energy for sports day, would a nap be a good idea? ALRIGHT THEN, IF YOU SAY SO and he stormed off upstairs. 

He did have one, for about an hour then came back down still grumpy so I gave him his cook book and told him to pick something for dinner because he was cooking and he needed to write a shopping list for the ingredients we need. I can't remember what his first choice was but it involved out of season veg so he opted for mac and cheese but then he complained that there were no vegetables, I asked what he wanted to eat with it and he told me steamed broccoli.

Off to the supermarket we went, he rides his bike there now which is better for me since having an almost 20kg dead weight on the back of the bike is a bit of a killer! Stress levels are up though but we are getting better at it. We picked up what we needed and came home to cook! I helped a little bit but he did the bulk by himself, he still has a strop on, look at his face...

Once we made the mac and cheese we decided to make apple crumble too, so he chopped the apples as I made the crumble mix, he lost his grump and got chatting about yochien, I was expecting some tale about an incident that had upset him but nothing, I still have no idea why he was in such a strop but working together in the kitchen broke the spell...

Delicious! and what did he learn from all this? If you come home and shout at the woman of the house for no good reason, you will be cooking your own dinner. ha.  

We used the Honest Pretzels cookbook, by the same author who did Pretend Soup. We both like these books, Ebi-kun complained that their are no real photos of the finished dish, my main gripe is that the measurements are all in US standards so I have to go through and change everything before we start. Pretend Soup is good for beginner chefs, I think Ebi-kun could make more of the recipes in there by himself now, Honest Pretzels is the next step up oh yes and all the recipes are meat free - good for veggie families!

New Skills Festival - designing fabric with Monda

I first stumbled across Monda's blog a long time ago when following a link for monster softies and ended up staying, it has been great watching her grow as it were and delve more seriously into the world of surface design, today Monda is going to take us through the process from sketch through to fabric printed at Spoonflower.

Creating a design for fabric by Monda 

In this post I'm going to walk you through a very basic version of the design process used in creating a simple surface pattern design, which can then be printed onto fabric.

Every design I create starts out as a pencil sketch in my sketch book. I usually have a idea in my head of what I want to create, but having reference material is also crucial to the process.

The design above is based on a drawing of a dried poppy seed head which I collected from my garden. I also cross referenced this with images of poppy seed heads which I found on the internet.

Once I have enough sketches, I then pick the ones that I think might work well in a pattern and I draw them digitally in illustrator.

At this stage, I also chose the colours for my designs. Once I'm happy with my digital drawings I lay them out and duplicate them to form a pattern. There can be lots of moving around of different elements within the design at this stage, but that's the beauty of digital design - it really gives a lot of flexibility and scope for creating multiple design layouts, until you find one that works well for you. I've chosen to go for a simple linear design. It's important to think about spacing and how the design might look when it repeats. You'll see that this design is currently in a square format, so imagine what it would look like if you placed another identical design next to the original one.

Once the design is complete it is then ready to be printed onto a fabric. There are various printers out there who print onto fabrics but I can definitely recommend www.spoonflower.com Spoonflower is a US website which can be used by anyone who wants to create (and sell) their own designs on fabric - no minimum yardage is required, so you can order swatches, fat quarters or yards of your design onto various different fabrics. I've uploaded my fabric design to spoonflower so all I need to do now is buy a swatch and wait for delivery:

Spoonflower is not only great for printing your own designs. You can also purchase fabric by other designers too, and unlike many fabric shops and stores, you can choose the fabric you'd like to have the design printed onto. Quilting weight cotton, Jersey cotton, Canvas/Linen cotton, and Silk are just a few of the options available.

You can check out Monda's Spoonflower designs here (and mine are here) and she also has an Etsy shop selling all kinds of monstery goodness.

Of cute little pixies....

I spent most of yesterday working on these cute little pixies, I am going to start writing up the pattern today and I will need a couple of testers soon, if you are interested drop me a line. Please only apply if you can make the doll and send me feedback within a week, a tight turn around, I know.  I will send the pattern and instructions in PDF format so you will need a printer too.

I need a name for these cuties too, any suggestions?

It works!

Yesterday I reminded Ebi-kun that it was one of his friends birthday soon, instead of making a card he decided to write her a letter using things form the letter writing box. He worked away, writing the letter, occasionally asking me how to spell something, he decorated it all with stickers and wrote the address on the envelope and put on the stamps, other than the odd spelling help I didn't do anything! This morning Daddy offered to drop the letter in the postbox on the way to work, Ebi-kun looked mortified and declared that he would do it, it was his letter!

I hope there is more letter writing to follow :o)

Football and ninjas....

It was one of Ebi-kun's best friends birthday at the weekend (A-kun) so they had a sleep over, it ended up being almost all the boys from the football club. A-kun's dad is a fellow Brit and the coach and the classes are held in English, it is a great way for the kids to have fun, learn some football skills and use English at the same time. Unfortunately because of the distance we can't make it every week but Ebi-kun goes as often as possible. Anyway, the boys had a sleepover and that meant daddy-ebi and myself were free for the night, we went to watch the final Harry Potter film and then for dinner then the next morning we picked up Ebi-kun and went for football practice.

If you remember we had a ninja themed birthday this year but because of the weather we never got round to using this....

The ninja football pinata, filled with mini ninja!

 So, we took it along to football practice and the kids did penalty kicks with it...

I think this was the kick that broke the ball...

Then in good pinata fashion, a scrabble for the goodies!

Ebi-kun was shattered after it all, he did get hit in the face with the ball and have a big nose bleed too! We stopped for some lunch on the way back and about 2 minutes after we got in the car after lunch Ebi-kun was fast asleep, he denies having a nap, since in his mind, naps are for babies, old people and daddy's who have drunk too much beer!