Knitted Neck Warmer Refashion Into Cushion Cover

Living in the tropical has limited my exposure to any winter fashion thus far. I fear of cold weather, hence I don’t like the idea of traveling to any country during their winter times. As a result,   I didn't know a large knitted thing with opening at its’ two ends is actually a neck warmer. It is quite a cool way to keep the neck and even head warm.

So, here is the story. I was doing my Christmas shopping at the newly opened H&M store at Setia City Mall last December.  This is the 2nd H&M Store opened in Malaysia in three months. I was excited to discover this amazing store where I found many great fashion stuffs at surprisingly reasonable prices. Among the many goodies that I spotted, this beautiful knitted neck warmer was in a bargain bin for RM 15 (US$5). I was mainly attracted to its colors and design before I know what it’s for.  I thought it was a great deal and an idea to turn it into a cushion cover flashed into my mind and a perfect Christmas gift for a dear friend.



To start, I made a cushion with nice upholstery fabric and sewed a few fabric covered buttons to it; making few button holes on the neck warmers so that it will secure the cover to the cushion.  To add some fun, I decorated the cushion cover with some pompoms - a project is done in a few short hours.

If you have knitted neck warmers sitting in the closet you should consider up cycle them for cushion covers!

Mini Chalkboard Wooden Flower Pot Stand

My husband and I bought a new house about 20 months ago and it has since been going through some rigorous renovation works.  I took the opportunity to use some of the remnants from my new house renovation to create all kinds of craft projects. The workers are current laying down the parquet flooring and there are plenty of wood to play with!

A coat or two of chalkboard paint, the pot stands are ready for you to scribble on it!

While the workers were busy laying down the timber flooring, I took the some batons scraps to make these mini chalkboard flower pot stands. The best part is that I get help from these workers to saw the batons with their electric saw.  Ha, that saves my trouble to saw the wood by hand! With the available wood adhesive on the site, I glued the batons into flower pot stands and sprayed paint it with my new toy - chalkboard paint.

Chalkboard paint is not easily available in Malaysia though they are factories manufactured this paint for export. I am very lucky to have a bottle to play with. While I have not try it myself, I have learned that it is pretty simple to make chalkboard paint. Grout is a key ingredient and I saved some from the balance of the recent tiling work at the new house. I am looking forward to trying it out soon. Click here for a tutorial for making chalkboard paint.

My daughter Ning wanted one pot stand. She objected me doodled on hers.

I need to get few more cactus to fill the empty pot stand.

The newly bought cactus plants sit prettily in these mini wooden flower pot stands. Lovely! I will find a nice spot for them when I move into the new house.

Fun time making mixed media art

It was an artsy fartsy Sunday for us last week. I decided to spend time to guide my girls to do mixed media artworks. This is  something that I had been wanted to do with them since  Ning inspired me with one of her many creations,  see image on the right. I love how she upcycled the harden play dough which I told her to throw away.

The girls welcomed the idea of an art project with excitements.  They were especially excited when they see me bringing out my stamps and ink pads to share with them.  It is a big treat for them to get to play with the “forbidden” tools at home.

I thought collage would be a fun project.   I got this idea some time ago when I saw Ning doodling on my outdated business cards. I found these little artworks fun and interesting and had kept them up for an art project. We had been saving embellishments from broken hair clips, old shoes and Christmas ornaments; reserving used gift ribbons and wrappers, fabric scraps, pretty brochures and catalogues..... and even corrugated boxes for upcycling projects.  All these materials came in handy for  a project like this one.

Zen came up with the idea of wrapping news paper on the  corrugated board and then layered it with paints all over the newspaper. She created a beautiful half translucent effect on the prints and images of the newspaper by surprise. Then, she went searching on my treasure box for pom poms fringes..... I went on to guide her on layering by using stamps and marker. With very little guidance, Zen created a lovely piece of artwork.

As for Ning,  she decided to paste  the pieces that she created on my outdated business cards onto the corrugated board and she decided to add on other items she found in our collection of elements. I showed Ning how she can linked all the elements in her artwork with strokes and lines, and that she can create a stylish piece of work even when it looks kind of messy. She went on to create images with free hand drawings, stamps, and doodling words onto the cardboard.  She uses various materials like poster colors, ink and crayons for those images.   She went bold with her strokes and achieved a wonderful piece of artwork.

The above artwork created by Zen is lovely and sweet. It looked like a real nice handbag :)
Looking at her art piece, I realized how much she has grown. She is more of a teenager than a kid even when she is only 10.

Ning's work is charming. I like the phrase ' Ning's Happy'. Indeed, she is happy when she does art.