Hobbysew Echuca Blog » CLEVER IDEAS

TIP ~ QUILTING

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 26th, 2010
, add a comment

When washing small pieces of fabric place in a mesh lingerie bag to launder. Wash your fabric with other clothing items without losing the fabric and with minimal fraying.

TIP ~ SCRAPBOOKING

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 24th, 2010
, add a comment

Clean sticky tools with baby wipes.

TIP ~ SCRAPBOOKING

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 17th, 2010
, add a comment

Instead of using stickers like you normally would, brush a small amount of talc to the back to take off the “stick” then use foam tape to build them up and add dimension.

Write your child a letter ………..

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 14th, 2010
, add a comment

Writing your child a letter each year on their birthday, end of the year, start of the school year etc is a fun way to let them know how you feel.

The letter needs to be handwritten and tell them what your hopes and dreams for them are, how proud you are and just how much you love them.

Some ideas to include are;

We sometimes turn into couch potatoes and watch ……….. on TV or a favourite movie such as ……………………..

One thing I’d like to do with you one day is ………………………….

When you get really silly you …………………

When you’re in the bath you ……………..

At bedtime we ……………. you usually fall asleep at ……………………..

Your best characteristic is ………………………

An example of a letter would be;

Dear Ty

Thursday is my favourite day of the week because you always come for tea. I especially love the Thursdays when I have Friday off work because you sleepover. We have a very special routine where we feed your baby brother Alex and put him to bed, give Pa his tea and then we have our tea ….. always a tin of SPC spaghetti with cheese sauce , followed by ice cream and milo - Pa’s fave or ice cream and jelly or strawberries and yogurt. During the evening you eat cold meat - straight out of the bag, you will always eat cold meat any time of the day. After tea you have a bath, you are big enough to dry and dress yourself now and I am a little bit sad that you don’t need my help so much, but also very proud you are such a big boy now. After you have your pj’s on we play with your cars or pop up pirates - or your fave lately is you play pirates. You have this really funny little voice that tells me to “walk the plank you scurvy dog” then you giggle and we start all over. Around 7.30 or 8 o’clock you go to bed. I have always read you a story even when you were a baby. Your fave book is Fox in Sox - it is my least favorite as my tongue gets very tired, next is seven little postman then green eggs and ham, the house that jack built, the night before Christmas and the cat in the hat. I bought you a night light with Nemo on it and off you go to sleep. On Friday morning I usually wake to you grinning at me saying wake up “bammy” it’s time for breakfast. We either have eggs, french toast or eggy toast as you call it, porridge or Vegemite toast. Next comes our very special time together when we go to Gloria Jeans for coffee. You sit up at the table with me and drink your coffee and read the paper and chat to the regulars. Then I take you home to mum and Alex and look forward to next week so we can do it all again.

I love you Jack

Grammy

The year in review - journaling the school year

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 8th, 2010
, add a comment

At the end of the year ask your kids questions about the year, you could use the pages in their school albums to truly capture the way they felt about the school year. Older kids might find this a bit daggy but persist, they will be used to your weird scrapping ways and will cooperate with you in their own time, bribery has also been known to work.

How did you feel on the first day of school …..

If you could play hooky - what would you do ……………

The biggest trouble with school is …….

The best party was ………

The worst party was …………………..

The most exciting thing at school was ………………..

The funniest thing at school was …………………

The class I’d most like to forget was ……………….. because ……………….

The biggest disappointment was …………………..

My best friend is ………………….

Keep a note of their age, height, weight, shoe size, shirt size etc, ask the child to sign the page each year and watch their signature develop.

This type of questioning is great for getting info out of them about camps etc ……..

I sat on the bus with …………….

I shared the tent / room with ……………….

The most fun thing was …………………

The most boring thing was …………………….

The best practical joke was ………………………..

You get the idea, include a couple of their camp photos and you have an instant and fun page.

Journaling tips - Childrens pages ……..

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at February 3rd, 2010
, add a comment

Most scrappers stumble when it comes to journaling meaningfully. There are hundreds of articles and even entire books devoted to the subject. Over the next few weeks we will give you some handy hints to kick start your creativity.

Keep a journal - carry a little note book with you - we all know that kids say the darnedest things at the most awkward times, and although we swear we will remember what they said, by the time we finish the shopping and unload the car, stop the squabble between the kids it is a faded and very distant memory just outside your grasp. Jot down a note at the time - you will be able to use it later on a page.

Ask your kids questions - make a game of it for the young ones, ask them what they want to be when they grow up, ask them at different stages through the year - consult your journal at the end of the year and you have a “When I grow up” page already journaled, dress your young one up as his or her chosen careers and have a “photo shoot”, a fantastic fun afternoon.

Ask older ones to fill in the blanks on a standard form. You’ve all seen the post cards that have the basics and leave blanks for you to fill in. They make for very funny journal entries.

Ask them at any age how they feel about, you, their dad, siblings, grandma etc- ask them why they love people, why they like certain things - the answers may just surprise you.

Capture the everyday stuff - what’s their favourite food this week, we all know young ones go through the “I’ll only eat noodles, cheese etc for a week, capture them all and scrap them using photos of your child with his “this week” food.

Scrap and journal calendar type pages such as a “day in the life of”, a “week in the life of” the year in review

Happy scrapping

Cheers Helen

Photo shoots

Posted by echuca in : CLEVER IDEAS at November 18th, 2009
, add a comment

The weather is fantastic, the light is clear in the mornings before it gets to hot. Have some fun with the kids and dress them up for a photo shoot. Ty was a bit reluctant to begin but soon got the hang of it and started hiding behind the trees and pampas grass pretending to be Diego. And of course head into the store for some fabulous stash to scrap the occasion, framed layouts make fantastic Christmas presents.

Race into Hobbysew Echuca for all your fascinator needs

Posted by admin in : CLEVER IDEAS, Inside the store at October 31st, 2009
, add a comment

With the spring racing carnival in full swing don’t forget we stock a full range of product to help you make the perfect fascinator.

Beautiful Sunday

Posted by admin in : CLEVER IDEAS at May 3rd, 2009
, add a comment

How nice is it to get out in the garden at this time of the year? Even though the mornings and the evenings are a little chilly there is nothing better than a beautiful sunday. I feel totally recharged after spending the day out in the fresh air, it certainly gives me some inspiration to get out the project box.

Crossing the line - Scrapbook to habby and more embossing ideas

Posted by admin in : CLEVER IDEAS at April 17th, 2009
, add a comment

We have an in store joke that I never cross the “line” into the sewing / habby area …… well until I need something to make a layout “pop”.

I have been playing with my embossing powders showing you all some new ideas and refreshing some old ones along the way. In my “Pieces of me” layout I have used two colours of powder a sandstone and a banksia gold colour to try and imitate sand. On the jigsaw piece I used Pritt power gel and micro beads.

The layout didn’t quite look complete so I borrowed Adriennes button flower idea and crossed the line to the back of the store and used a few blue and apricot buttons. I just grabbed some coloured wire and threaded a couple of different size buttons to create some tiny flowers. The button flowers are perfect for boy pages as they look great without being too “girly”.

Enjoy Helen