How to make cute upcycled bunting from left over wrapping paper

How to make cute upcycled bunting from left over wrapping paper

Hello Everyone,
Being super organised this week I had a whole bunch of presents to wrap and found myself with small scraps of wrapping paper left over which were not large enough for any of the presents. So I came up with this idea to re use the wrapping paper into cute decorations.

This project only requires a little cutting and sticking so could be a great rainy day make with kids who are old enough to use a glue stick and scissors.


What you will need:
Scraps of left over wrapping paper
Card (I used the card from old cereal boxes)
A glue stick or PVA glue
A long piece of string or ribbon
A hole punch, a normal circular one can be used or a shaped one as long as it does not cut too close to the edge of the card.

Step 1

Cut out the shapes for each piece of the bunting out of the card/ cereal box. To make them all the same you can use a template out of paper or card to draw around.

The shape does not have to be triangular, it could also be squares, rectangles, Christmas tree shapes or anything you can imagine. They could also be different shapes all along the bunting if you wished as long as they are roughly the same size just let your imagination run wild!

Step 2
Next glue your shapes on to the spare wrapping paper. You may want to plan this so the prettiest bits are in the middle of your shapes.
Then let the glue dry a little. Once its dry cut out the shapes.

 

At this point you could just leave one side with paper on or put another piece of paper on the back of each shape if the bunting is to be hung somewhere where the back could be seen. Or simply as a way to reverse the bunting for a different look.

 

Step 3
Using your hole punch make a hole in both sides of the cardboard shapes and thread your ribbon or string through each hole as shown below.

I used ordinary parcel string since its strong but won't distract from the colours on the wrapping paper. However a complimentary ribbon is sure to look great here, just use whatever you have spare.

How hang up your bunting by the string. I hung mine over the mantelpiece but it can also hang across walls, shelves or other surfaces. :)

Have fun crafting everyone!

For some more Christmas ideas here are some links
Christmas designs
Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze

Christmas Bauble Upcycling
Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

Adventures at the Frequency Festival in Lincoln - Part 1

Adventures at the Frequency Festival in Lincoln - Part 1

Hello Everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I took a lovely trip to Lincoln to see the goings on at the Frequency Festival.

For those who haven't heard of the Frequency Festival it is a digital arts festival which takes place at venues all over Lincoln. Most events are free with only a few requiring advance tickets but there is still so much to see without spending a penny. Get your walking shoes on for this one since there are events at venues between the town centre and the castle at the top of Steep Hill.

Phew Steep hill is a bit of a climb! Luckily there is a bus up there for those who don't fancy the walk. Though it is worth it if you can. The view from the hill is spectacular as you can see far out into the green hills beyond the town centre and there's an array of shops all the way up selling some fabulous goodies. Don't forget the Cafes also... I've never had such a hard time choosing a cake to eat, there's so many lovely places to go.

Anyway without any further ado here's a few pictures of some of the exhibits I saw. Since there are over 30 in total I cannot possibly write about every single one so I just picked a few which I personally found interesting.

Through the Fourth Wall:
The instillation is located in an area not normally accessible to the public. It is inside an old underground system, accessible by a steep dark stairway. To get to the exhibit we were guided by people holding torches to navigate the very dark areas underground. 
There are many places like this under many areas of the centre of Lincoln. The area this particular exhibit is down a steep stairway in is full of old walls and dusty remnants of life before the modern city was built. 

A shot of the area the Exhibit takes place in. 

This display involved projections of little windows all over one of these old walls with another projection of a sky revolving on a day/ night cycle behind it.
One thing I noticed was that each of the little windows seemed perfectly aligned with bricks on the old stone wall. I must assume that the artist had this very space in mind when creating this presentation. 
It's a strange feeling to be presented with all these windows looking into the day to day lives of the inhabitants. Some windows show people having dinner, walking in and out of the rooms, some working at a pc or chatting with others nearby. It's as if the viewer is also a voyer into this micro landscape. Like walking down the street and seeing people through their windows into their abodes but this time we are encouraged to view instead of knowing that staring into windows is an invasion of the privacy of those you are viewing. 

The lights of the windows projected onto the wall. 

The whole presentation is 15 minutes long and is synced with a projection of a day, night cycle. The day goes past and no windows can be viewed but it is at the night when the windows start to appear. As the night goes on and we see the people in their homes at some point the people in each house notice the viewer, some take lengths to hide themselves, shutting their curtains and turning off the lights. While some people will stop to look back at you, wave and try to get your attention, you are no longer only the viewer but the one being viewed. 

Louise Orwin 

Pretty Ugly Shown at Lincoln museum. 

As a whole this installation is about young girls/teenagers and their interactions with social media and YouTube in particular. 
This installation consists of 6 screens showing different videos. 

 

The presentation I found the most moving was a presentation containing what seemed like hundreds of YouTube videos of young girls asking the audience if they are pretty or ugly. Shockingly some of these girls look as young as 7 or 8 and they are already worried about their appearance. 

Most of the videos are taken in a home setting, with the sounds of family around and messy bedrooms behind them. Also it's clear that many of the videos were taken on mobile phones, it's very different to how I grew up these girls have a means to broadcast themselves at will sitting in their pocket. The effort they need to take is very little just  to get it all out there, to put themselves up for scrutiny of the public. 
Does it really matter to them? Are they attention seeking or do they really need to confirmation of thousands of people to even know they are pretty. None of the girls were ugly at all but you know that people in the comments would break them down. It makes you wonder how it will affect their self esteem. Or what happened to make them ask the question in the first place. 

One screen consists entirely of comments to a YouTube video asking the viewers of they are pretty or ugly. It actually took me a while to find a point to take a picture since many of the comments were actually quite vile. 

I would not suspect these are made up simply because the evidence is there on YouTube, any video contains terrible comments. It almost makes you wonder what these people are like without the anonymity of a computer screen. 


On a lighter note, one of the screens showed girls being questioned about themselves. They were asked to write down something about themselves which was not to do with their appearance. The answers were as varied as the girls themselves. On the whole it was positive but afterwards each one was asked if they feel pressure about their appearance and many noted social media as a source of this. While social media is a wonderful tool for communication, it has a darker side, which I can't imagine growing up with. However this is the point of this exhibition and it does communicate it well.

The last full video contained a woman who I believe is the artist pretending to be different YouTube girls.
One segment has her miming along to Oh Baby Baby (as sung by Brittney Spears), dressed sexually and gyrating on the floor. The song soon transitions to Que Sera Sera but the visuals do not change. Lending itself to a surreal yet slightly uncomfortable video. Followed by a voyer esquire look at her typing on a computer as if we are viewing her Skype call as we can see her screen reflected in the sunglasses she wears.

I enjoyed this presentation as it provoked many emotions and trains of thought. I really had to go and sit down in a quiet place after watching it all though. However this is the point of art after all to evoke thoughts, conversations and emotions out of the viewer and this one conveyed them well.
It did require at least half an hour to watch some of the videos so ended up being once which was a bit longer than the other presentations but as the viewer could dip in and out of the videos as they liked it was easy to fit them in.

That's all for now. I did see many other exhibits but will write about them in another post to save this one getting too long.

bye for now :D

Useful links:
The Frequency festival official web page: http://frequency.org.uk/
The Frequency Festival Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/frequencyfestival?fref=ts

Adventures at the Frequency Festival part 2: http://buzybobbins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/adventures-at-frequency-festival-part-2.html

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

A magical little house from Cutsie Cottages - Unboxing and review

A magical little house from Cutsie Cottages - Unboxing and review

Hello everyone
Today I am very excited to tell you all about my little house scene which has just arrived from Cutsie Cottages.
Here's a link to their Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Cutsie-cottages-1498720673786822/?fref=ts

Isn't this so adorable?

I definitely recommend checking out the Facebook page since there are so many pictures of such cute little houses and scenes.
One of my favorite things about these cottages is that they are very customisable. All you need to do is take a look at the pictures with examples of all the different elements which can be included and pick your favourites.
Don't forget to pick some colours for the houses on your decoration too! I chose cream and red to match the colours of the room I planned to place it in. It's seriously not often you can have such a cute item made to match the room perfectly.

On my decoration I choose these cute little mushrooms and the little green tree but there are so many more options that I had a hard job choosing from them. There are flowers, fences, snowmen and various types of tree among the choices. Though the washing line complete with miniature items of clothing hanging out to dry is a particularly adorable detail.

When my package arrived it came all wrapped in a sturdy postage box and the cottage itself was wrapped up in a generous layer of bubble wrap. So you can be sure that your cottage will get to you safely with all that padding.

Safely wrapped up in the box

I must admit, my first impression upon unwrapping the bubble wrap was that the cottage smelled very nice. Although the piece is beautifully painted and varnished it does not smell of paint (which can sometimes be an unpleasant smell) and instead had the faint aroma of freshly cut wood. This may be a funny thing to take note of but my housemate agreed.

I'm also very impressed at how study the cottage is. It's  not noticeable from the pictures but everything is solidly in place. Of course this is a decorative item so I won't be letting my nieces play with it but I feel quite secure if they do try to whip it off the mantelpiece its not going to fall apart right away or have small bits fall off!

The cottages are painted up so prettily and each one is unique. There are lovely details on each one for example on my one a little wooden path is included for each house which is such a sweet touch.
I think these will make a great mantelpiece decoration. if you order one with a snowman it could even make a Christmas decoration with a difference especially if you want a change from the usual glitter covered reindeers.

So take a visit to Cutsie Cottages and don't forget to pop a like on the page. This page is updated with cute, colourful pictures which certainly brightens up my news feed!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, much love and big hugs to you all.

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

Not a creature was Stirring, not even a mouse - Christmas card/bookmark cross stitch design

Not a creature was Stirring, not even a mouse - Christmas card/bookmark cross stitch design

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

Colour	Used in these areas:	DMC Number	Anchor Number
Black	Backstitch	310	403
Pink	Mouse tail and backstitch on mouse ears	3713	1020
Yellow	Around the fire	307	289
Dark yellow	Star on tree, in the fire, base of candlestick	444	290
Orange	In the fire	741	304
Brown	Main colour of fireplace	920	1004
Light brown	Shading near fire, Top of mantelpiece	721	324
Red	In fire, on stocking	606	334
White	Candle, top of tree	5200	1

This design was originally designed in Anchor colours, for a closest match to the Picture use Anchor, a conversion chart was used for DMC. 

Hi everyone, are you all getting ready for Christmas?

This design was made while remembering the poem 'Twas the night before Christmas'. Of course everyone knows this first part of the poem. It was in the week running up until Christmas and I was helping to look after my friends little girl while my friend was getting the last bits for Christmas dinner. We watched a lovely animated version of the poem showing Father Christmas delivering presents.

However this led to the lovely little Chloe to ask a whole bunch of questions about Father Christmas.
Well, I has to think fast and I ended up asking her a few times how she thinks he does it. This is what we came up with.

Father Christmas' list of good and naughty children would be far too big if it was all written down. So he has an Ipad (like Chloe does) with all of the good and naughty children which he can tick off as he delivers his presents. I imagine he even has his own app for this purpose.

There is more than one Santa, there must be at least four Santas! When I asked Chloe how she knew this she told me that this was very easy. When her and Mum went to town there was a Santa near the big tree, one in John Lewis, one in Toys R Us and another in a different shop. So they must all work together to deliver the presents. This makes lots of sense, why didn't I think of this when I was small?

For more Christmas designs here are some links:
Christmas designs
Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters!
Wavy Christmas tree - Simple Christmas card cross stitch design
Simple cross stitched Christmas gift tag designs

Christmas Bauble Upcycling
Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

Cute advent calendar Motifs Cross stitch design

Cute advent calendar Motifs Cross stitch design

1. Cracker
2. Bauble
3. Present
4. Candle
5. Kitten in a Christmas hat

6. Bell

7. Happy Penguin

8. Teddy Bear

9. Santa's Sleigh

10. Blue Story Book

11. Warm Mitten



12. HO HO HO

13. Rudolf the red nosed reindeer

14. Colourful wrapped present

15. Angel 

16. Christmas tree

17. Blue Glove/ Mitten

18. Jar of cranberry sauce

19. Christmas wreath

20. Blue and white Bauble

21. Pink Sweet (raspberry flavour do you think?)



22. Star

23. Stocking

24. Snowman with scarf

25. Merry Christmas

Colour	DMC Number	Anchor Number
Black	310	403
Blue	798	131
Grey	762	234
Green	772	226
Red	606	334
White	5200	1
Brown	3341	326
Pink	963	23
Light yellow	3078	292

Hello everyone
This design is a request from my cute niece who wanted an advent calendar design which will be cute but easy to sew. I made sure there are only a few half stitches and no back stitches so perhaps she can tackle this one on her own. (though I will help if she asks)

Each design will be sewn onto its own piece of Aida then we will use them to patch onto small gift bags. Then we shall fill the bags with a piece of candy for my niece and her sister each day. We were going to put them all on the Christmas tree but of course we were not allowed to put the tree up before the 1st of December since it was too early. So instead we have decided to line them up on the bookshelf until we get to Christmas tree decorating time then the rest can go on the tree.

I may be using a few of these designs for my Christmas cards this year. However I will be leaving off the Advent numbers and for the animals holding signs I will turn the signs into a present since that will be easy to do. :)

Have a Great run up towards Christmas. I hope everyone gets all their Cross stitching done in time. Its awful to stay up until a silly time in the morning on Christmas eve because then you can't get up at 6am with all the children who are ever so excited about Santas visit.

One year I stayed at my Nans house with a whole load of our family and friends. At 6 in the morning the children could not contain their excitement any longer and all came rushing down the stairs. I was on the sofa (since all the beds were full) so of course they all come barrelling into the sitting room bouncing on the sofa and very thoroughly woke me up. It was so lovely to see their excitement since its been a long time since I was small enough to get so excited about Santas visit.
So I had to convince them all that we cannot open presents until after breakfast and perhaps we cannot start singing carols until the parents have woken up. They gobbled down their cereal as fast as possible and I wasn't sure how to delay them just a little bit longer.
But you wouldn't believe it we looked out into the garden and saw a small line of hoofprints in the flowerbed. The children were so delighted to see them and rushed outside (still in their Pajamas I might add) to take a look at the hoofprints left by Rudolf. There was even a half eaten carrot under Nans rosebush. I could not believe it.
So after convincing the kids to at least put their shoes on we looked around the garden for any more clues that Santa and his reindeer had visited. There was a ribbon caught on the shed door and some glitter near the flowerpots. So we played detective until the adults got up later.

I did not dare ask about where it all came from else I would spoil the fun for the children so I spent the whole day not knowing at all where the hoofprints came from. Until the kids had all gone to bed. That was when Uncle Charlie explained that he had 'Borrowed' Granddads lucky horseshoe to press into the dirt in the flowerbed and of course he had left all of the other clues for us to find.
It was such a lovely idea. It kept us all busy as was the intention. Though he wasn't too happy about having to half eat the Carrot since he doesn't actually like them.

For more Christmas designs here are some links:

Christmas designs

Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.