Hello, I'm Tonya Toddman. Over the last few years I've been bringing you my special ideas
on craft and decorating. And so we've put your favorite segments together in a collection,
simply called By Request. On this occasion I want to show you how easy it is to mark
those festive and cultural celebrations in our lives with the personal touch. To make
handmade presents and decorations to mark these occasions is a very special thing to
do because it immediately stamps you as a creative, thoughtful and well-organized person.
Well, you are, aren't you? Those festive days of Christmas are easily marked by those
colorful trimmings we've all come to expect. Lots of red and green and gold and silver
and all sorts of other wonderful decorations that are sure to put you and your guests in
a very good festive mood.
Well Christmas is nearly with us and it's a good time to start making things to decorate
your home. It's probably the one time of the year when you can totally go overboard making
your home look beautiful. There's some very simple ideas here you might like to try. Big
basic candles can be painted gold and then the stickers you buy from newsagents can just
be put at random around the candles. Decorate big tall candlesticks with some pretty tartan
ribbon or even some gold ribbon and then garlands are a great substitute if necessary for a
Christmas tree. They buy them from craft shops, they come in their raw form just with the
pine needles. I've twisted two together for about six to nine feet long. I'm not sure
what that is in metric but then really decorate them beautifully with lots of ribbon decorations
that you'd normally put on your tree, some moss and of course pretty silk flowers and
whatever else you can find.
These lovely angels are actually made in Australia. They come in bisque form which is a form of
terracotta and they're painted with gold paint and then I've rubbed some antiquing gel across
them to emphasise the moulds and the shape of them. They're quite beautiful and actually
you probably want to have them around all year. Make yourself a Christmas quilt perhaps.
This one's just made from lovely Christmas fabrics that have been put together in a simple
idea so it's the sort of thing I'm sure you'll have as a family heirloom forever.
Now why not some pretty music at Christmas time because these lovely music boxes are
really very easy to make. The boxes and the musical devices all come from craft shops
and they've been decorated with some Christmas ornaments and some dimensional paint, some
glitter and the crackle finish has given it a lovely old world look. The device actually
comes in two parts and through the top of the balsa wood box I've drilled a hole in
the centre like so and then this plate goes through and screws together. It takes a while
to screw together so I won't do it all for you but the device when you purchase it from
your craft shop looks like that and I'm told there are a tremendous variety of tunes you
can buy so choose your favourite. That one is easy to make, it's been painted gold, there
are a variety of sizes of boxes too.
Now back in Elizabethan times they weren't a very hygienic lot and the more things around
that smelled good the better. Often they used to stud citrus fruit, usually oranges and
lemons with clothes because clothes have an antiseptic property about them and they also
smell beautiful. Once that's completely covered with clothes roll it in oris root, that's
a powdered fixative that they use in potpourri and all sorts of things and it's also a preservative.
They tell me Egyptian mummies were often preserved in this stuff. Interesting. This is going
to stick to the pomander because of the citrus oil that was released when the clothes were
pushed in and when it's finished you can tie it with some tartan ribbon or whatever you'd
like. Leave them in a bowl near your front door and you'll find that the scent will waft
right through the house and make a very, very pleasant atmosphere. Now everyone needs a
Christmas wreath. Christmas isn't Christmas without a garland of some sort and this one's
ideal for a beginner. I've spaced this evenly so that you're not going to get confused about
where to put things. All the silver dollar gum leaf, as this lovely blue green one is,
has gone in one direction and I'm using an odd number of bows. Don't use an even number,
symmetry doesn't seem to work well with floral arrangements. So five or seven bows and little
bunches of these lovely bib and bub gum nuts that I've painted gold. Now how's that made?
You need a base that you can buy from your craft shop and cut the gum leaf all into lengths
about 10, 15 centimetres or so and push them into the base so that you get a pleasing arrangement.
Once you're happy with where that is, get a glue gun, these marvellous electric guns
that release hot melt glue and just fix it into place where you actually pushed it in
the first place. Once you've covered it completely with the gum leaves, you can then go back
and put in your bows and your bunches of painted or varnished gum nuts. Easy to do, that one's
only going to cost you about $10 because the bases are inexpensive. You might have to buy
your gum leaves if you don't have it growing near you, but your gum nuts, I'm sure you'll
be able to gather those because they grow right throughout Australia. If you've made
wreaths before, you might like to try something a bit different. This large wreath is completely
decorated with Australian wild flowers and gum nuts and at the top I've used a wired
edged metallic ribbon that holds its folds beautifully.
Paper making has to be one of the most relaxing and undemanding crafts I know. That makes
it terrific for kids and for those of you who would swear not to have a creative bone
in your body. I assure you it's very inexpensive too because the basic equipment you need is
probably already in your house. You'll have to make a mold and a decal. Now those intriguing
pieces look something like this. You can put them together yourself from square dressed
timber. They can be stapled or nailed at the corners. They're two identical pieces. They
can be any size as long as they're the same size, but remember the smaller they are, the
easier they are for a beginner to manage. Over the top of one of them is stretched some mesh.
Now that can be anything from beautiful copper wire to fly wire mesh or even a very strong
open weave fabric. And just to finish it off around the corner I've put some tape. That's
really not necessary but it makes it easier to handle.
You'll need to build a couch. Now that's not what you sit on, though it is what you rest
your lovely finished paper on. In old times they would use a proper paper press, but this
can be easily put together with two bread boards. Nice solid ones. In the middle you're
going to fold some damp towels. Now that's just an ordinary bath towel folded so that
there aren't any ridges in the middle. And you'll also need some couching cloths. Now
they can be anything from lovely squares of old sheeting that have been sewn around the
edges because you don't want loose threads coming in to mar the surface of your paper
or normal kitchen wipes that really work very well indeed.
Now paper. You can recycle paper very easily from the shredder that your office might have
or you can get the kids to rip up all the mail and what have you that arrives that you
don't want. Don't use glossy paper, don't use sticky paper that has adhesive parts to
it. But remember the better quality the paper that you recycle, the better quality the end
result is going to be. You'll need to work with a blender. You know the capacity of your
own blender so add water to that degree and then put in paper that's already shredded
or torn up into pieces a bit bigger than postage stamp size. Put the lid on nice and tight
and then blend it so that you create a very, very fine pulp.
Once that's done take the blender to your kitchen sink because the kitchen sink is ideal
for using as a vat which is the container into which you pour the pulp. You can use
a baby's bath or a square basin. Round ones don't work so well. It doesn't matter how
much water you have in there providing it's deep enough for you to actually scoop your
mold and decal through and don't have any fears about that going down the drain because
it's so fine it won't clog anything up. Now put the mold and decal together. The
decal on the top making the edges very even. Hold them tight and squeezing them together
between thumbs and fingers after you've agitated all the pulp in the sink, scoop that down
and let it drain. Now that's drained quite well. What you'll have to do is remove the
decal without creating any little drops on the surface of the paper and bring that across
there to drain just a little more. Now get the couch into position here, bring it across,
remove that top red board and put down your first couching cloth. Make that nice and flat.
That's drained well enough. Put the edge of your mold there and push down firmly and lift
and leave that. Now that's got some wrinkles in it. Don't worry about that. That's a good
example of probably what your first attempt's going to be. Press on. Put another layer like
so. Go back and start again because you can scoop many, many more pieces of paper from
one sink full and then continue building up your paper until you've got as much as you
need and put on the last breadboard. Now this is where the fun begins. Now this is where
you make yourself a cup of tea and start stamping on your paper press because you've got to
press all the water out. And of course it's a good idea to do this where the water won't
hurt anything. The back verandah's probably good or even the driveway. Lift off the top
breadboard and peel off that top couching cloth and as you can see your paper has adhered
to that couching cloth it was pushed onto and take it to either your clothesline or
your airing rack to drain. That'll dry in about 20 minutes. Now I've got a bit ahead
of you because I made some paper earlier and when it's dry you're able to actually pull
that away from the couching cloth. Now that'll need to dry or cure for another two weeks
or so and then it's just about ready for calligraphy or writing notes or all sorts of things that
you can do with handmade paper. These are some small pieces I've made that that one
was colored with a colored table napkin. Others involve other fibers and as you can see I've
stenciled that one. And also I'll be showing you how you can make your own envelopes in
fact sheet.
You know it's really easy to spend a lot of money on Mother's Day and you needn't you
know because there are so many things you can make from objects that just exist around
us in our everyday life and it's always good if children can make things. Now you've probably
got access to fur cones. What you need to do is find a fur cone and chop the bottom
off just so that it's nice and flat so that it's going to sit. You see we don't want it
to fall over. Then you're going to need either some cotton wool balls like that that you
get probably from the chemist or supermarket or if there's some polyester fiber around
a little bit of that would be very handy. That's the stuff that goes inside cushions.
You're going to need some fabric and the lighter it is the better because you're going to need
to mold it in to the little crevices in the fur cone and if it's very harsh it won't work
too well for you. Put either a cotton wool ball or some fiber into the fabric, scrunch
it around it just like you would say a Christmas pudding and thread a needle with double thread,
put a knot in the end, stitch through and then wind the thread around. Take a stitch
just to finish it off and then watch your fingers. We don't want to chop your fingers
off. Just cut that through. Now you make maybe a couple of dozen of those at least and then
there you start to glue into the crevices of the pine cone making sure that there's
some glue on every side of where you're going to push that little bundle that you've just
made. See? Just wedge that down into there and then continue until you've got the complete
pine cone filled. Very easy. When it's finished it looks just like that and do you know what
that is? That's a pin cushion. Mum won't ever leave pins in the carpet again. I assure you,
truly if she's got a pin cushion like this. Now, mum might like to wear a pretty brooch
and all you need for that is a ball of string. The string is wound around, you can see very
closely into that, it's like a huge snail. See it winds round and round and round and
you take tiny stitches through only on one side. You don't want it to go through onto
the other until you've got something about the size of a 50 cent piece. Fold it in half
like that and then this end of the string doubles over like that. You stitch that together
like so and then that folds back down and that becomes your handle. Now my beautiful
brooch in contact with nature here has gone through but there we are. That's what we're
going to finish with. You see how the handle has come back down, been stitched into place
and then inside the basket I have just glued some small silk roses. On the back a simple
safety pin stitched into place. Make sure that you stitch into that little circle to
stop the safety pin sliding along and that's going to be more than adequate to pin that
onto mum's best shirt. Now if your mother's anything like most mothers, they lose lots
and lots of pencils because members of the family tend to borrow them a lot. Well, it's
a very simple matter to personalise her own pencils. This is just simply a food tin that
I've covered with paper, very easily coating the tin first with a layer of PVA glue. The
pencils done in exactly the same way are really easy. You need to cut some paper the same
size as the pencil, just about the right length. Give it a good layer of PVA glue like so and
then simply place the pencil lining up the straight end of the paper with the pencil
and roll it. And hey presto, wonderful, very individual pencils. And you know that you
can sharpen those as the pencil wears down. Just use your pencil sharpener and that will
sharpen a pencil without any trouble at all. Add them to a collection, give mum's a dozen
pencils and you're guaranteed to have those last at least a year, I'm sure. Now, river
rocks everywhere in Australia, what better paperweight could you have? This is just a
very heavy rock. I'll give it maybe a thin layer here of PVA glue. This glue dries shiny,
so even though it's milky now, it's going to dry crystal clear. Put on a well cut out
motif and find something from a pretty greeting card or some lovely wrapping paper that you
might have received as a present and then proceed to give it another coat of glue to
give it a seal. If some of those edges stick up, don't worry, you can take little snips
into the motif to make them sit down. See if I just cut into those like that, you'll
find that it will always sit down. So you can see it's really easy to make inexpensive,
quick presents for Mother's Day and it's very easy for children to make them. Men today
need lots of ties and they can be very expensive to buy. You know, it's really simple to make
a tie because it only takes about 80 centimetres of fabric. It's all cut on the bias and I've
found a really simple way of doing it. When you're choosing your fabric, it's important
to choose certain types of fabric. They've got to be soft and able to drape well and
you could walk through any beautiful fabric shop and find lots of fabrics now that are
terrific for ties because they seem to be weaving and printing beautiful designs that
you can imagine in small quantities would be very effective. Tartans too, so don't overlook
those. The interfacing that you use inside a tie is the thing that gives it the strength
and makes, when you tie a tie, makes it hold its place very well. It's important that you
choose one that's got a little bit of strength to it. This one has a slight furry feel to
it. You'll notice that when it's cut on the bias, it has some strength and yet it's
soft enough. You'll find that you'll get several of those at your fabric shop but there are
a couple that I'll tell you about in my information sheet that are particularly good. You'll need
some brown paper because in that information sheet I show you how to make a pattern. Some
ties can be fairly complicated because they have completely separate linings, not this
one. I've made a pattern so that the lining is in fact cut all in one with the big piece.
You'll see when that flips back, that becomes the tie lining at the end and the same on
the other end because ties are cut into two pieces. You actually have the short end and
the wider end. When they're joined together in that bias seam across the middle, you get
the complete length that you need. Now marked on the pattern is going to be what I call
the interfacing line or the perfect width for the tie and that is cut separately as
you do your fabric. You need two pieces, the short end and the wider end again. When you
cut them out of fabric, they're going to look like this and you'll notice that I've folded
the end across. That was that extension that you saw. Fold across like that and when it's
pinned into place like this and stitched, you can see that when that's turned to the
other side, like so, that's where the lining starts to be obvious. The same at the other
end just in a smaller way. You join them just using a normal seam as you would on the bias
across the middle but when it comes to joining your interfacing, you need to overlap that
and I've just stitched that by hand because a bulky interfacing seam would not be very
good right in the middle of a tie. Now you've cut your bits out on the bias and the bias
for those of you who don't know what that means, it means on the cross of the fabric
so that it's nice and stretchy. What you've also done is cut out two pieces of cardboard.
Now this is the clever trick to help making ties easy for you. These pieces are cut out
in the identical size to the interfacing and as you can see here, I've tucked the interfacing
down into the wider point of the tie and laid across the top the identical piece of cardboard.
That's going to make it very simple for you to actually use as a frame, if you like, around
which you're going to wrap your tie fabric. Bring that across like so and then bring this
other piece across and you'll turn in that edge and pin it into place. It can be tricky,
it's something I suggest you don't rush because you are working with fabric that is on the
bias and you're probably working with very pretty fabrics, they don't have to be expensive
but they're usually a good quality. This is where the hand sewing comes in because you
can't machine stitch this. Just a single thread and what I call slip stitch which is just
a fine little stitch that will hold that folded edge to the other side and then you'll stitch
from here right through to the narrow end of the tie until it's complete. Then pull
out the cardboard lining because it just will come completely free and what you're left
with is a tie. Very simple to make, you see there's the lining that fits in very well,
that was completely hand sewn and it probably took me the best part of an hour to make and
didn't cost much money. Now, if you're interested in something other than sewing for Father's
Day, why not a picture frame that the whole family can participate in? I found a wooden
frame just at my local folk art shop and around the edge I've placed cutouts from photographs
that we've all had sitting around in drawers for years. You'll find a picture of the children
and maybe his favourite dog or what have you, all sorts of, maybe even his wife in there
somewhere too, you never know. And the cutout and the edges are just kept level with the
frame by cutting them away using one of those nice sharp craft knives. I've glued it on
using PVA glue just with a paintbrush, nothing complicated and then of course in goes yet
another photo just to keep the family before him all year round. That's something that
everyone can do, you don't have to actually completely cover it in photographs, you might
just put one or two there and get the kids to sign it or even draw a pretty picture.
Well there's two good ideas for Father's Day, they're not expensive, they're easy to do
and I think someone would welcome them very much for Father's Day.
Fairyland is a very special place when you're a small person but there's no point in visiting
Fairyland unless you're dressed as a fairy and all good fairies need a tulle skirt. Tulles
available at haberdashery and craft shops, it's very inexpensive and very wide and what
I've done is actually put three layers together of different coloured tulles. You'll notice
the petal edge and that's very simple to do. Cut the tulle right the way across the width
so that you've got a very wide piece just to the lengths that you want. Fold it, fold
it again and again until you get down to a very small width and then with nice sharp
scissors actually cut the bottom like that and that gives you the petal bottoms that
you need. Then put the three layers together as one and then start to stitch them together.
Bit by bit, pleat the fabric through the sewing machine and once that's done you then enclose
those edges with a piece of blanket binding. That blanket binding is zigzagged on and that
takes the place of the waistband. This is what you end up with. Use all sorts of different
multi-coloured tulle if you like and remember most fairies like to have their skirts coming
below the knee or just perhaps just above the ankle. Wouldn't she look pretty? Now,
most fairies have got to have a wand too because they like to cast magic spells and the simple
way about that is to start off with a cardboard shape. I'll be putting this shape in the information
piece about how to make things for fairies. You'll see that I've cut that from a very
thick piece of cardboard using a craft knife. Once that's cut out, you can see from the
other side I've painted it with acrylic paint and this is where the fun starts. You'll need
some PVA glue then spread out with a paintbrush. Make sure it spreads out. The good part about
this PVA glue is that it dries very clear and it actually shrinks away so it's not
going to stay bulky or sticky for a long, long while and this is where you can sprinkle
glitter too. This is sometimes called fairy dust I might add. Fairy dust that goes on
and sticks into the glue and then you can add jewels perhaps, a large central jewel,
little roses perhaps around the edge, more roses like so into that very thick glue and
then perhaps a sprinkling of little pearls and what have you that are going to stick
into the wand and then all set to cast magic spells and make happy wishes.
It's not much use being a fairy if you can't fly and what you can do is start off with
two wire coat hangers. Just clip the hooks off and you can see that that's gone from
there and I've actually put some sticky tape over that to protect it. I've bent it into
the shape of a wing and it's very, very easy to do. Let's pop it down for a moment and
you'll see how easy that wire is to bend. It's just a matter of kinking it into shape
like so all the way around and then perhaps bring it out a little more like that and more
or less try and get the two the same because I'm sure fairies like matching wings.
Then you need to get some pantyhose. Take the pantyhose off at just the top of the legs,
cut away the panty part, so you're left with the two leg sections. Now you might be fortunate
enough to find pastel colored pantyhose too but whatever as long as it's nice and clear.
Once that's completely over and pulled fairly taut, bring the remainder of the pantyhose
around and just wrap that around that wire extension and pin it into place and you'll
see later how you finish that off. Just pin it so that it doesn't unwind actually while
you start the painting process. Now I'm using dimensional paint here and they come in some
beautiful, beautiful colors and I then go all the way around the edge of the wing with
this paint like so and then put in some nice ovals that are a normal part of all fairies
wings and then some big scallops like so and then you can put the veins in the wings like
this and then some extra paint here and then what you do is get a paint brush and start
to actually smudge that paint. You can see how that will smudge bit by bit. You've got
to work fairly quickly so that the paint doesn't dry. Bring that in from the center like so.
See actually soften that and smear the paint all the way around the edges. Now you'll take
about half an hour to paint your fairy wings because you'll then get carried away and start
having more and more color. Remember pinks and purples and soft blues and lilacs are
fairy colors and lots and lots of glitter but that basic idea of the little ovals and
the veins in the wing is important because that's the basic shape and what you end up
with are a pair of wings that look just like that. You'll see that from the center piece
those two extensions have been overlapped and then the excess pantyhose has actually
been wrapped around to protect those sharp edges. Then you take some elastic and actually
fit this on the child because it's the loops of elastic that you stitch to these pieces
of pantyhose that hold the wings on. You have two loops and the children put their arms
through these loops and that's what holds the wings on at the back. The pretty patches
on the bottom of the girls dresses are made by spreading some PVA glue across the fabric
and then while it's still wet sprinkling some more fairy dust. Don't our fairies look beautiful?
I think it's probably time to go to Fairyland. I think my Mother's Day ideas are perfect
for the children to make and be warned once the little girls in your life find out that
you can make fairy wands, skirts and wings you'll be off to Fairyland parties faster
than you know it. Now be prepared because there's some more happy noise on its way in
the form of Christmas crackers and some all-encompassing ideas on making your own greeting cards and
wrapping paper. They're both economical ideas and perfect for your personal touch. Christmas
crackers have been a wonderful part of Australian Christmases for as long as I can remember
and you know they're really easy to make because you can find all the materials you need either
at your local craft shop or at the newsagent. You'll need some crepe paper and you can get
some wonderful Christmassy colours and some firmer paper which is probably going to be
Christmas wrapping paper. Some glue which is good for paper and three loo rolls believe
it or not. Then you're going to trim your cracker with all sorts of things such as fruit,
ribbons, maybe even some lace and some wonderful gold doilies and the most important part of
all will be the banger that goes inside the cracker. Mums and dads I do warn you these
are flammable and when you're working with them treat them with due caution. They're
available in bundles at your local craft shop for a couple of dollars so very easy to find.
Cut your bigger piece or your firmer paper into a piece about 25 by 30 centimetres and
trim the ends with some sparkly ribbon if you like and then cut your crepe paper into
a slightly larger piece and zigzag the ends by actually folding them and that makes it
easy for you to line up and snip it off with scissors. Lay the crepe paper down first and
then place the firmer paper pretty side down on just on top lining up the ends. A dab of
glue at each end for the Christmas banger put that into place and then line up your
three loo rolls evenly across the end closest to you. Start to roll away from you and as
you get near the other end apply just a couple of dabs of glue and finish sealing the cracker.
Pull one loo roll out ever so slightly at one end and then whatever you're going to
tie the cracker with goes underneath and then you can tie that into a bow. You can see that
the loo roll left in allows that cracker to stay beautifully formed at that end. Into
a bow and there we are. Pull that out and then at the other end you then start to place
all those beautiful things that are traditional presents inside crackers such as diamond rings
and car keys and other more mundane things if you like. What you end up with is that.
I finished it by adding some more tartan ribbon and a little snowman on the top. Other trimming
ideas are some more gold ribbon and just the firmer Christmas paper, no crepe paper, some
decoupage motifs and lace. The gold doilies look wonderful wrapped around the middle.
I've cut out some motifs from the center of the doily and then tucked those into the end.
More ribbon that's sparkly and some lovely gold cord and Christmas decorations that are
beautiful. Well that's how you do it. Some good ideas for Christmas, they're easy to
make and Merry Christmas everyone.
It's that time of the year. Spring's in the air, it's racing carnival time and what better
excuse do we need for a new hat? They needn't be expensive because you can make them yourself.
You can whip up something like this in about 10 minutes. But the best news of all is that
they can be as simple or as glamorous as you like. So let's see how we make them.
What better place to find all those lovely trimmings for your hat than your local craft
shop such as a shop like this where you'll find roses and fabric and often the hats that
you're going to decorate. They come in a variety of colors, they're all classic shapes, they're
not expensive. They're the sort of hat that can easily double as a sun hat later perhaps.
When it comes to decorating hats, fabric's going to play a big part in what you use.
And one of the easiest things to do is to make a long scarf of fabric via a cut which
means that you actually cut it across the fabric where it's at its most stretchy. You'll
find just the width of the fabric across say fabric that's about 115 centimeters wide.
Brought around the crown of the hat and then tied into a bow is just about the prettiest
trimming you can have also the easiest. Don't despair if you're not a very good tire of
bows because in my sheet for this segment I'm going to show you how to tie a bow. Take
it around the crown nicely, you'll see that it drapes very well and then at the edge just
as a nice little touch I've painted the outside rim of straw with the same color as the background
in the fabric. It beats sewing binding on by hand and it's much, much quicker.
When you know how to tie a bow perhaps you might like to use this wonderful old fashioned
veiling that's so beautiful and feminine. It comes in a lovely range of colors. Now
that you all know how to plait a raffia hat you won't have forgotten how to plait with
four and I've linked the four lengths of tulle, it's about two meters of each color of tulle,
plaited it so that it goes around the crown and then into a wonderful big bow at the back.
Again I've painted the outside rim with a color that emphasizes one of the shades in
my veiling. Easy to do, inexpensive and a very quick trim. Remember that wonderful hat
Julia Roberts wore in Pretty Woman? Well, very easy to do. Julia, reach your heart out
because we can now duplicate it. This is a very well made basic broad brimmed hat that
you're going to find that's easy to get. It's not expensive either. Around it I've
taken a band of bias cut fabric around the crown. You can see that I've stitched it at
the back and then made a fabric rose and again with more bias fabric a lovely big bow. There's
about a meter of fabric all up in this trim. These ribbon roses are very easy to make.
You need to cut your fabric on the bias again so that it's nice and stretchy. Remember the
wider it is the bigger the flower's going to be. That's double, the edges are joined
together and then a gathering stitch is taken along that joined edge and it's rolled like
this. You roll and stitch and as you stitch and bring this gathered fabric in you'll see
that a rose is starting to take shape. It's very easy to do and it's a lovely trim that
you can take all the way around the brim of your hat or even pin one on the lapel of your
jacket. That hat's probably going to cost you about $20. Flowers, aren't they wonderful?
I really like flowers and they're probably one of my favorite trims. These garlands or
this garland that's around this hat is actually very simply made using ready made bunches
of pretty little flowers. They're wired into a length using craft wire just like this.
Then continue to add more flowers as you wire and then you can easily see how a long length
of those flowers is going to go around the crown of your hat. It's lightweight, it's
not as heavy as it might look and when you're finished with Melbourne Cup you can take it
off and use it as a very pretty garland on your bedroom wall perhaps. Very feminine,
very pretty. Now bowler hats, what a good idea. Perhaps you could hire a bowler or a
top hat and decorate it with some tulle. Take a great big length of tulle right the way
around the crown. Perhaps you could tie some knots in it for extra effect and then into
a magnificent big bow at the back. Let the tails hang down, trim them into an angle at
the ends and then just for a very feminine touch add another great big lace bow at the
back again letting the trails fall down the back of the hat. Very quick and a wonderful
hat that you're not going to have to store because the day after the Melbourne Cup you
can take it back minus the lace and tulle of course to where you hired it from and you
don't have to store it for the rest of the year. I like to use scarves when I'm trimming
hats too and they're often very, very economical too. As you can see I've tucked one into my
jacket and bound another one around the crown of my hat. Often when you're using scarves
you'll find that they're not full enough and the solution to that is to actually wrap
some tulle around the crown of your hat first and that will provide a base for the scarf
and give it fullness. Once it's draped around just tuck the ends in underneath and you'll
find that you've got to take a couple of stitches perhaps just to hold it in place. You'll also
find that if you hold it over the kitchen kettle those creases will fall in quite well
and hold their shape very well indeed. Very pretty, right. Now I've got my hat, I'm off
to the Melbourne Cup and I'm going to back a winner and I hope you do too but make sure
you have fun. How often have you been wrapping a parcel and realised that the greeting cards
and wrapping paper you're using have cost as much as the present? Well there's no need
for that because it's easy to make your own greeting cards and wrapping paper if you gather
around you a few simple ingredients such as pinking shears, a paper press, a gum leaf,
cardboard, balloons, crayons, a stencil or two, some paints, dried flowers, sponges,
a stamp, cards and maybe some old fashioned luggage tags. Well they're all the ingredients.
Now one of the things you can make from them, actually you can make your own envelopes.
I found one that I liked the shape of so I undid it, that gave me my pattern and then
from a sheet of cardboard that I'd stenciled I cut out the same shape and re-glued the
envelope just as the original was done. Inside I've made a matching gift tag and attached
some pretty pink ribbon. That's a very pretty thing that you can easily do. If you make
your own paper remember that it stencils very well and again it folds into envelopes particularly
well. Cards can be decorated with dried and pressed flowers, ribbon roses can decorate
little cards, wooden plaques are terrific for kids and the luggage tags look terrific
with little flowers on them. Now balloons, well when they're small like that they fit
into an envelope very well but once the child has opened the envelope, blown it up and read
the invitation, well of course that's when the fun starts because that becomes a fun
thing immediately. Why not? Now to make your own cards it's simple because I've used pressed
flowers for some years. You simply add a dab of glue to a card, I like to use PVA glue
like that. The flower is then simply pressed into place like that onto a card. This is
a purchased card but you could easily cut out your own shape from any piece of cardboard
and slides into an envelope really well. Now also why not a row of big hearts for Valentine's
Day and for that special person, his very own gum leaf perhaps, just tied a little tag
of raffia in the corner and you know they're really easy to write on surprisingly enough
so look for great big gum leaves, you'll use them a lot. Now when it comes to wrapping
paper, brown paper's ideal, you can buy it at newsagents, it's inexpensive, it's usually
good quality, it has a shiny side and a matte side, it doesn't matter what side you use.
Now you can stencil it again, maybe ready for Christmas, the holly berries and berries
again leaves, I've stamped that, that's just done with a kitchen sponge that I've cut into
wedges, stenciling again with gold and red, a Christmas wreath and then this one has just
been stenciled with a large wedge of kitchen sponge, couldn't be simpler, I've put some
acrylic paint onto a saucer, cut a wedge from the sponge and then proceed to decorate the
paper, couldn't be easier could it, none of this has cost me a lot of money and it's so
quick and easy to do and you'll have a lot of fun.
The art of making a taupe retreat has a lovely history because many years ago gardens had
some pretty unusual shapes in them, it wasn't unusual to see a hedge of chickens or ducks
or something like that, it doesn't happen anymore but the art of making a taupe retreat
for your house is a lovely way to bring that idea into your home.
This one has been made from waxed fruit and silk roses and some moss and it's tucked into
a pot and it's really simple to make.
The ingredients aren't difficult because Australian wildflowers are perfect, they have very strong
stems, they're usually of very pretty colours and they're always available and don't overlook
using the grains too because our grown grains here in Australia are terrific in many varieties
and shapes and they're lovely in colour too.
You'll need a polystyrene ball or a ball of oasis, that's wonderful if you're making a
fresh flower tauperi tree and they are perfect for weddings too, remember they can be disposed
of the day after, polystyrene is a little firmer and that's good if you've got very, very heavy
flowers or nuts or pods or what have you.
What you support it on is a very lethal looking thing like this, it's a garden pruning that's
actually nailed at one end because that's what's going to hold it in its cement base
and sharpened at the other end.
That works by placing it down into a terracotta or plastic pot, can even be an empty tin of
some sort and then cementing around it.
I've used quick dry cement, it's a mixture of sand and cement you buy in a packet from
most hardware shops and you'll find that a packet of cement will last several tauperi
trees so if you're decorating for a wedding or a party of some description, one packet
will go a long way.
What you'll do is pull down the ball onto the sharpened end of the stick, make that
fairly firm so that it's not going to get the wobbles as you start to put in your flowers
and then the fun starts because you can then start inserting all those pretty trimmings.
Before you start, have an idea though of how you're going to combine the colors and where
the tree is going to be, of course we'll set the scene.
If it's a wedding, of course it's a lovely idea to be able to bring out the color of
the wedding or a theme of some sort if it's a ball.
Now you'll see that I'm setting in the first trimmings with an idea to setting the shape
of the finished tree.
That will give you the outer line of the trimmings and that helps you to judge just the fullness
of the overall finished tree.
Then you can start to insert all those pretty trimmings.
That's just about the last of the trimmings and because you can see the base just a little
bit in places, I'm going to use reindeer moss teased out and get it from craft and florist
shops too, just to tuck in amongst the fillings to conceal that base.
You'll find that that fills it in beautifully and gives it a lovely dimension as well.
Also takes away from any of the severe lines that you might have created.
It's important that you tease it out first though because it does tend to be lumpy.
Well there's not much left from that huge pile of flowers that we started with, is there?
Then you can see that one of the tricks is to have all the pieces cut first to the length
that you need.
It'll make it a lot faster for you.
Now having finished the tree, pop that into a larger pot.
This is something I prefer to do because I think it just looks better.
You could also use a cane basket or you could simply wrap the pot, a larger pot that you
might have started with, with fabric perhaps.
Tuck in something to conceal that, being quite sure that it is secure and that it's not going
to topple.
That's something that is important because these can become heavy.
Well that was easy.
It won't cost a lot because things that you can use in topiary trees probably are growing
in your garden.
You might like to think of other things other than flowers but this is a good place to start.
Aren't topiary trees lovely?
I've been making them for years and it seems the possibilities of variety are endless.
You could try covering them with half inflated balloons for a special effect at a children's
birthday party or even on the sweet stall at the local school fete.
And for a true country look, try covering them with small vegetables such as garlics
and chili.
Now, for a special effect at a wedding, use beautiful fresh flowers mingled with large
tulbos.
My occasional ideas are really only the beginning.
I'm hoping that you'll take them and make them your own.
I hope you've enjoyed my selection of the most popular segments from Healthy,
Wealthy and Wise.
If you'd like to purchase further titles in the Buy Request series, simply call 1800 679
814 or you'll find them in all major retail outlets.
The titles in the collection are Simple Home Budget Decor, Crafty Tonya, Occasional Ideas
and The Art of Giving.
So it's bye for now and I do hope we have many happy creative hours together.
Thank you.