Royal play: Child flower crown activity.

We have discovered the world of play dates. We LOVE it. (Well except the constant having to clean part, boo). The little lady is in pre-school and making lots and lots of lovely friends and we try to have them over, (individually... I am so not that brave) at least once a week.  I am quite enjoying coming up with new ways to entertain them, and thought I would feature here some of the activities we have done together. So last week little N came to play and we indulged ourselves in a spot of flower crown DIY action. An activity which ticked the flower, fairy, princess, crown and sticking boxes nicely, go me.

Felty flowery goodness:

So this took about ten minutes to get together, whilst the girls played barbie houses. I roughly measured their heads and cut two felt crown shape lengths to the approximate size. Then I took to a bag of felt offcuts and cut flower shapes out of various colours, circle flower centres from yellow felt and leaves from various green felt pieces. Some of the flowers and the semi circle bush type things, I had from the Easter jars that never were, (RIP), but the remaining flowers I cut free-stylee, whilst the girls played. 

Serving suggestion:

Place all ingredients upon a serving platter, accompanied by a side dish of fine gloopy PVA glue, and two paint brushes. Then serve.

Sticky Fingers:

The little friend has been cropped out, a shame as she is the cutest little girl, but probably best not to show her here. This activity kept them occupied for at least a whole fifteen minutes and they were very happy indeed. A further ten minutes were enjoyed picking the glue off of their fingers. Take note of the costume choices, Cinderella and Princess Holly. Costumes appear to be the first rule of play dates.

Stitch it:

The crowns were left to dry over night and once so, I quickly stitched them into a circle and there we are, two little flower crowns for two little flower fairy princesses. Dreams.

Details:

Pretty aren't they? I believe the girls were very proud of their efforts. The bottom one was my little ladies, the top her friends.

Casually hanging around:

Model pose:

Action shot. Exactly 23 photos were taken to get this one shot. Extremely worthwhile as how cool is my girl?

Disco dancer:

And on a side note, the little lady attended her first school disco last week. This was her disco outfit of choice. My dad asked if it was fancy dress. Charming, it was not. The little chap went too, looking very dapper in braces but not allowing me to take a photo. She is definitely getting better at this posing for photos business, and this is her current pose of choice, the growl. Fierce.

So does anyone have any play date activity recommendations? Come on, hit me with them, I am looking for lots!!

DIY: Girls Alice in Wonderland costume.

The little lady was invited to an Alice in wonderland themed birthday party last weekend, now I presumed that everyone would be in Alice inspired costumes... Silly me, the majority were showcasing their finest of princess dresses. I am getting the gist of the 4 year old party circuit now, whatever the theme, girls arrive in a princess dress and boys in Spider man. Well a week ago I was oblivious to those rules and I set about making up the little lady her very own Alice costume. I showed her the cast on the iPad but as she has been insisting I call her Alice for months now, it was pretty much a no brainer as to whom she would chose.

On your marks:

First off I purchased a little blue school dress, I was going to fashion the dress out of a blue small ladies t-shirt, no doubt courtesy of Primarni, but I happened to be in a charity shop and spotted this, so that is how I rolled. £1.50, pretty much new. Bargain.

Apron:

Now I must admit I do not have any step by step photos. It was night time and I may have been partaking in a wine, but hopefully the following photos and my amazing commentary will show you the details you may wish you know. So first things first, I Whipped up an apron. I checked where the little ladies waist went then drew and cut the main central piece, sizing it according to the dress. The sleeve pieces were cut separately and sewn on, the scalloped edges were cut in three individual pieces and sewn on, as was the pocket. As always I used felt and embroidery thread. I still have my fabric stash so I used what I had and did not buy anything further than the dress. The ribbon was sewn using white embroidery thread, and the ribbon was free as it came tied around a pair of pyjamas I purchased. 

Pocket:

The apron was finished by embroidering the name Alice onto the pocket, this was partly done as I felt it needed something else but mostly as it is the little ladies favourite name. 

Details:

Here you can see how basic my sewing is, remarkably straight I feel as wine was involved. I used a running stitch throughout. After the apron I attached the lace frill to the edges. I actually already owned this as I had been planning to make these beauties (wow). I have been planning on doing this for over a year, it is never going to happen and definitely no time soon as I no longer have any lace. I sewed the lace using white cotton thread, and attached it to the bottom and around the sleeves.

Headband:

Any proper Alice needs accessories and these came in the form of one headband, previously owned with the leftover ribbon tied into a bow.

The white rabbit:

The most important accessory had to be the white rabbit, which I must admit was in fact King Kwak's idea. First off I found one white rabbit, a little sad and naked and in need of a makeover. This rabbit was a gift when she was born and I believe was from Gap. After a quick Google of the Alice rabbit, I made this little outfit for him from felt and fabric glue. I was quite proud of my attention to detail, check out the watch and glasses, love him.

Pocketed:

Once he was complete, he was popped into the apron pocket, and fastened with a couple squares of Velcro which were attached to him and the apron. 

Complete:

And that was that. Here is the whole costume together, I am very happy with the outcome, and most importantly my little girl was really very, very happy with her new costume, and attended her friends birthday party as one very proud Alice. Plus she has worn it most days since. The only thing I would do differently, if anyone was to make one, would be that I have since unattached the apron from the dress and it is now fastened with Velcro, sewn to both apron and dress, as this allows for it to be washed separately by hand.

Hello:

And here is one last shot of my lovely little lady, check out how happy she is, what a cutie.

Cost: Dress £1.50 Charity shop. Everything else previously owned.

Supplies: Dress, felt, lace trim, ribbon, white rabbit, plastic headband, embroidery thread, white cotton thread, fabric glue, needle and scissors.

Time taken: 3 hours max. 

So do you like this little Alice costume and have you ever whipped one up yourself? And did you notice she is getting a bit better at the photo posing? Good girl.

Life: London Transport Moquette Cushions.

Last Friday King Kwak and myself had a very rare/ possible first day alone together and decided to go for a wander around London town. Now I have no photos of this as I forgot the camera and my phone had no battery but in brief we had a little mooch around Spitalfields Market, was lovely, though not enough second hand/ vintage/ junk stalls for my liking. We did stumble upon the shop Elemental  which was amazing, and we both found ourselves muttering if only we could win the lottery (possibly need to be in it to win it but details, schmetails). We next wandered around Covent Garden and found ourselves in the Transport Museum. Now this is a bit odd as my little chap, the choo choo fanatic was not with us but lucky really as they had some surprising things and we spent rather a while admiring their home items and found ourselves smitten with these two beauties.

Cushioned:

Now I am not one to normally get excited by a cushion I admit plus they are a bit pricier than I would like, but my thinking is if the moquette fabric can withstand trillions of bums and who knows what else per year, then surely they are going to withstand my two little, rather prone to spillages babies for a good few years, or may I say possibly forever? Well lets hope. Plus they are prettily patterned and brightly coloured, win win.

Up close:

The blue moquette is from the Victoria Line, off the newer released trains and the orange check is from the district line 1978. The colours don't necessarily match our kitchen, where they now live, but the trains had meaning to us so that is what we went for, and I do rather like both. If you are looking for a hard wearing cushion, like myself and would like to purchase similar, then head over here. The rectangular one does not seem to be on the website, but there are a lot in the shop.

Yum:

To finish the day we stopped by Chinatown for a spot of lunch and picked up a takeaway to take home for dinner... Crispy Pork, King Kwaks absolute most favourite Chinese food. He was a happy, happy boy.

So do you think these cushions are going to withstand the two babies? And to any other crispy pork fans out there... why oh why do local Chinese takeaways not sell it?

Illustration: Fairytale Princess party Invitation.

Another invitation for you today. I was contacted to design a Fairytale Princess party invitation for a 6th birthday. This was the entire brief, so I was free to create whatever I so fairytale inspired wished. I decided to go along a magic wand route, as six year old girls are generally rather partial to fairy wands, and this is what I came up with. The main body of the card is A6, with a separate tag, tied on with gift ribbon. The little tag is fully personalised, holding the party details and has a photo of the birthday girl herself and a line to fill in the recipricants name.

Tag detail:

Close up displaying the separate tag, details and gift ribbon. 

All together now:

Matching envelopes were made, which were C6 Kraft envelopes, with a coordinating patterned craft paper inserted inside. Very simple but poshes it up a touch and adds to the overall prettiness. And to go alongside the invitation , I could not resist adding these little party wands and naturally it needed some sparkle, aka fairy dust in the form of silver confetti. Overall the client and her soon to be six year old daughter were very happy indeed.

Matchy matchy:

The Thank you cards were requested additionally, for the now six year old to send to thank all her party goers and gift givers. I made the same envelopes as the invitations and they became a nice addition to the whole set.

These invitations will also be available, fully personalised, in my forthcoming Etsy shop... Coming soon.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

DIY: Portable Rainbow Party.

For the little ladies last birthday, we threw her a little rainbow party. We held it down in Devon and not one to make life easy, there was no time to put the party together down there, so it had to be made in London and transported to Devon. Not. A. Problem. She requested the rainbow theme, I have no memory why but her wish was my command as they say and I set about putting together a portable rainbow party. Now fortunately this was a mini little party, for just 6 children in total, to be held in a country pub with a soft play barn, in the middle of absolute no where. As there was six children I chose to go with six colours of the rainbow, giving each child an allotted colour and threw in a bit of black and white for good measure. I purchased a roll of b&w wrapping paper, and as always the rest of it I made from bits and bobs I already had. The most used items consisting of: felt squares in each of the 6 colours, coloured craft paper, rainbow washi tape and a roll of b&w gift ribbon.

Components:

This photo shows the components I made, pre-purchasing the bought goods. The hats I made from card wrapped in the wrapping paper, a piece of rainbow washi tape placed on the side, a fringed felt trim glued to the base and a piece of elastic tied to hold them on. The little lady had the pink to save arguments, she is pink and only pink so I put a little pink K on her hat, to show she was the party girl. The bubbles I had in the cupboard for years, they came from Poundland in a pack of 9. The blowers had been lost so I made these rainbow heart pipe-cleaner blowers instead, wrapped the wrapping paper around the bubbles and tied on the blower with co ordinating gift ribbon. The party poppers, were wrapped with the wrapping paper and stuck with the rainbow washi tape. The party blowers were the best from a bad selection at Sainsbury's. I washi taped on a piece of fringed wrapping paper. The drinks stirrers are skewers with little felt flags glued on, I stamped a letter K onto each one and tied a long piece of the gift ribbon. And lastly the confetti stars, I made these by hand with craft paper and a star punch. They don't look like much I agree but they took blinking ages, and if I ever went to the gym and knew what it felt like to work out then I would say, making these felt just like that. I would like to say I had abs of steel after. I didn't, but I sure could feel it for days and days after. In the future I shall be buying confetti rather than making it.

Details:

Up close.

Stirrers:

These were put into the drinks and used as decoration.

Taste the rainbow:

As we all know, a party is not a party without a goody bag, so I set about making simple favours for each of the children. I could not find any nice party bags locally so instead purchased a pack of 8 black C5 envelopes from Tiger for a pound. Then amassed a selection of b&w/ rainbow themed goodies to pop inside. The black and white lollies were also from Tiger, the sweets and balloons from the supermarket, and the stars which I made myself. I popped it all inside and sealed. I continued the each child having their own colour theme, and evidently colour coordination overruled healthiness on this occasion, quite rightly too.

Goody bags:

Once put together they looked a little something like this, quite nice for how little they cost. I tied the gift ribbon around three times and knotted. I made little flag labels from white card, stuck on a piece of rainbow washi tape and stamped: love Koco.x upon each one, and then attached to the ribbon. They were finished off by pinning on a personalised felt initial broach, which I hand sewed them all in their corresponding colours.

All together now:

And this is it all together. The bunting stolen from little chaps nursery, seen here, the cake and candles from the supermarket, I had planned to make a cake, I am rather fond of baking cakes but again time ran out. The paper rainbow straws I purchased on eBay like here and the decorative 4's, I whipped up using glitter foam sheet, slotted onto a wrapping paper wrapped toilet roll (so glam) with the gift ribbon tied around and that is everything.

Basket case:

The plan had been to whip up a nice decorated box for it all, but time ran out and instead it was popped into this basket, which King Kwak bought me for Christmas last year. No decorated box, but once put into the car it did the job well and everything made it to sunny Devon in one piece, hoorah. 

Party, party:

The venue does not look amazingly glam, but there was more to this room than it looks, it had its very own disco, disco lights,disco ball and toy cupboard, all turned on after the photos, and for any child this is the stuff of dreams. Rainbow decorated party dreams.

Birthday girl:

My very happy, very pretty birthday girl.

Hip hip hooray:

Rainbow cake.

Birthday bike:

And the finale was the when the birthday fairy (King Kwak to you and me) dropped off her much wanted new bike outside the party doors. Lucky lady, she did circuits round and round that little room. Note: The bike did not fit in the basket.

Now I have to be honest, this little rainbow party did take a LOT more time than I expected, to put together. I carried a bag with all the materials around for ages doing bits when I could, so I will not be able to give you an honest time span, but lets just say it took ages and lots and lots of snippets of time here and there, but as the little lady had a fantastic time, it was worth every one of those snippets.

Cost: B&w wrapping paper £1, glitter foam sheet £2: Tiger.

Supplies: Endless, all explained above.

Time taken: Lots and lots of time.

So I hope you like it, if you would like details of any items I would be happy to share. Have you made any solutions for portable parties? Its a long time to go but I had best get cracking on her next birthday plan, that one will most likely be London and Devon based, any ideas?

Illustration: 80th Birthday Telegram Invitation.

Towards the end of last year I was commissioned to design an invitation for a very lovely great- granddad's 80th birthday celebrations. This was pretty much the extent of the brief, so after pondering several vintage-esque ideas I came up with this telegram idea, which I felt was fitting due to the era of his birth date. 

Telegram:

After researching vintage telegrams I made my design as true to the real thing as possible, tweaking the tiniest details to correspond with the clients information. The invitation was A6 size, full colour printed upon heavy paper stock and fully informative with a space to insert guest names. 

Envelopes:

For the corresponding envelopes I used C6 Kraft envelopes with a dark red linen paper insert popped inside, I think the result matched well. Obviously not sent in the true manner of an old telegram but the overall result worked well and went down very well with the clients.

For anyone interested, I am in the process of setting up an Etsy shop, where items such as this will be available to order, fully personalised.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

DIY Tutorial: Crate on castor's toy storage.

Crates on castor's, nothing new, I realise that but we needed something for the little chaps growing (scarily out of control) choo choo collection, as he calls it, and a cardboard box just wasn't cutting the mustard as they say but a nice little castored crate would do the job just nicely. I will keep the following simple, as well it is simple and very quick. I realise the internet is full of similar projects but on the off chance there is someone who may think this kind of thing is harder than it is, then hopefully this may be of some help. If not, ignore the writing, you can look at the pictures and check out my boys toy vehicle collection instead.

So first things first, you need to get a crate, you can buy crates on eBay, I believe on average for about £28. This is a rip off, I think they are utilising the crates being everywhere trend and personally I would never pay this, they are probably very nice crates and have been restored exceptionally but to me that is a lot of money for an old crate. My crate is an oldish pear crate courtesy of my dads loft, not an option for you lot, but you can ask in local fruit shops and wine merchants. King Kwak payed £10 for three huge crates, from a small, slightly manky looking hard wear store up by Kings Cross recently, so I suggest looking around before paying lots on eBay. Next you need castor's, mine cost £6.99 from eBay. Again I looked around, but this seems to be the best deal. If you were not fussy on colour, then you will be able to pick castor's up cheap as chips. For this project I have gone for the non braked variety.

Mark Holes, drill holes:

First give your crate a slight sand and remove any splinters. Next flip the box over, place the castor's where you wish them to be, quite near the edge and evenly spaced is advised. With a pen, mark each screw hole, once done pop castor's to one side and drill through each pen mark.

Two minute interval:

Enjoy a little break whilst the little chap comes to inspect your work and drives his little choo choo over the box.

Screw:

You will need appropriate sized nuts and bolts, ours are courtesy of Homebase. Switch the drill to a screw driver, and screw in each bolt.

Nuts and bolts:

Once each bolt is in place, flip the box back over and fasten each nut. We have gone for pretty short bolts so they don't stick up too much. As the base of our crate is slated I added a piece of leftover MDF to the bottom, to stop little toys falling out all over the place. I used MDF as I had that to hand, but I am sure a piece of thick cardboard box would equally do the trick.

Boys toys:

And that is it. Once finished the little chaps toy collection was added and he was good to go.

Playtime:

The box is pretty durable and should last some time, outgrowing his choo choo obsession and into any following collections, and he is very happy to push it around and play wherever he chooses to play. It is also often used as a little cart with his sister pushing him around inside it.

Handles?:

Now I did consider putting handles on the shorter sides. First I was going for a single piece of rope pull, but thought it might not be too safe for the babies, then next I wanted something like this. I soon realised it didn't really need it right now but maybe it will be more suitable later for its next contents.

Cost: Crate: free, castor's: £6.99, nuts and bolts: £1.99. Total: £8.98

Supplies: Crate, castor's, nuts and bolts, drill with drill bit and screw bit, pen and sand paper.

Time taken: 15 minutes, with no baby naps as baby clearly wide awake.

So I hope you like it, again excuse the simpleness of it. So do you have any alternative small toy storage ideas? Particularly those for little choo choo's, and if anyone has any further tips for picking up cheap crates/ wooden boxes they would like to share, I am sure it would be most appreciated.