Crafts for Boys

No more teacher's dirty looks

posted by Cara

Yesterday was our last day of school (ACK!!)  The kids worked hard over the last weeks to make them a nice thank you gift.  They painted 20x20cm canvases a bright happy colour and then chose another fun, coordinating colour for buttons. Then, a short sentiment ('bonheur') in their own hand writing, a bit of strong glue and we have some happy teachers.  They all told the children that they loved their gifts.

Helen's picks of the year

posted by Helen

Of all the challenges I've set myself this year, I think this has been the most difficult - to choose three or four of my personal favourites from all of Cara's projects over the last twelve months...  In the end I narrowed them down to four - one costume, one item of clothing, one bag and one other, but it was tough and I may yet change my mind before I publish this!

I've had lots of fun looking back so here are my top hi-lights of our first year on-line:

In at number one - my all time favourite with top marks for originality. Tom still loves it too and takes it to school every day : Tom's shark bag

I just had to include Dean's fab transformer costume - it's ingenious: Dean's costume

Picking one item of clothing was really hard, but in the end for the shear amount of detail and just cool boyishness it had to be Anthony's robot shirt.

And last, but by no means least, although maybe slightly off topic the brilliant gift that Cara made me for Christmas - it's really cute, fits perfectly in my bag and has already proved incredibly useful - after all boy mums deserve good stuff too :o) My out and about pack.

Here's to the next twelve months :o))

 

Back to School

posted by Cara

'La rentrée' (or back to school) is on Wednesday for us. With four kids going off to class this year, I've got my dymo label maker ready to put their names on EVERYthing!  At the same time, I kind of wanted to spice things up.  Having a new baby around doesn't give me much time for crafting however, so I needed something fun, but simple. So with fabric scraps, bits and bobs, some alpha stamps and stazon ink I made these name tags for their school bags.  There's one for Juliet, too, who is starting petit section, but hers has flowers and butterflies, ICK!!  LOL!  These were quick and fun and very boy!!  The only problem was actually getting them onto the school bags.  I still have to put Jacques' on because the boys are still in Spain with their grandmother and he took his with him to carry some books to read in the car, hopefully his will be easier :P  Anthony's is made with a left over button and fabric from his robot shirt and Jacques got one of Helen's buttons too and Philippe got Superman since he thinks that he is actually Superman.  I thought it was a nice change from the horses. ;)

Anthony's patches and Robot Tote Winner!!

posted by Cara

scroll down to see who won our fun robot tote!!

The pants that my boys choose first when they get dressed in the morning are the ones that I've patched.  I usually have fun with the patches and use ribbon and a variety of fabric and patches.  Not only is it more fun for me at the sewing machine, but the boys think these are much 'cooler' than regular plain patches ;)

Once, not too long ago, I patched one knee in a pair of Anthony's pants and the second time he wore them with the new patch he ripped a hole in the second knee!!  Again, the second time he wore them after the second patch was added, he fell leaving the house for school at 7:30 that morning.  He started crying and I thought that he had hurt himself pretty badly.  I hugged him tight and checked him out but he seemed intact.  When he finally stopped crying enough for me to make him out, I realised that he was upset because his patches were dirty!!  LOL!  I ran in the house and got him a clean pair of pants.  The fabric at the knee was a bit weak so I jokingly said that he could try and rip these ones so that I could give him a new patch.  I had pretty much forgotten all about the fall until that night when he was in the bath.  His knees and most of the length of his legs were scratched and scraped.  

me: 'Anthony, what happened to you?'

Anthony: 'You said to try and rip my jeans so that you could make me a new patch.  I tried really hard, but they just wouldn't rip!'

 

 

THE WINNER OF THE ROBOT TOTE IS.....

Daniela, comment number 207

 

she wrote:

Oh, my little boys will love it!

 

Congrats Daniela, check your inbox :)  

Thanks so much everyone for all the sweet comments that you left us!!  Helen and I got together on Wednesday and the buttons and tote are now united ;)  Here's what the final project looks like.

 

 

robot tote giveaway

Sew Mama Sew is having another giveaway day and we decided to join right along!!! We decided on a collaboration project so it's actually in 2 parts at the moment, but it will be assembled before being sent on to the winner.  Here are some pix of the 2 parts.  Cara provided the linen tote, inspired by her robot shirt, and Helen again provided the cool fimo cog buttons, this time on a bigger scale.
You have until Thursday, May 20th to enter and we will pick a random winner Friday morning and send it off by Monday.  Anyone anywhere can enter, you just need to like robots or know someone who does ;)  All you need to do is leave us a comment on this post.

Check out Sew Mama Sew's blog for lots more giveaways!!

Ok, here are the buttons - to be added to the pocket before dispatch!