Memorygirls - Make Do and Mend

cha97michelle

Could you make a little kitchen set for kids? I was just thinking to myself i made my 2 boys a little set last christmas. An apron each, a pair of oven gloves and some tea towels to go with the toy kitchen i bought them. I got a piece of red gingham fabric from ebay for about £2 to make all that.

This year i am debating whether i could make them a puppet theatre. Ie i make the puppets and the curtains/backdrop for the theatre and get DH to make the theatre.

food things are good but i guess there may be implications like having a food hygiene certificate. Edible tree decorations like gingerbread. Natural decorations made out of pine cones and bits of twig, wreaths. They could maybe be cheap if you have somewhere nearby to scavenge. What about salt dough decorations? If you could make professional looking ones that might work.

Re-usable wrapping - make some drawstring bags, decorate in a christmas fashion. Eco stuff is hugely popular.

Any of that useful? I can be a good ideas person but my skill level doesn't always match. You however appear to have skills. :rotfl:

Make some fancy dress outfits?

Firewalker

Hi MG - good news about the school and hope it will get even better. I am reading your tread, full of admiration and thinking how much I am an outlier...You can all make things with your hands - I struggle even to put a letter in an envelope. Cha97Michelle, making a theatre is a great idea - and I can only wish that I can think off and make something like that. The one thing I have started doing is cokking and dabbling in baking. Oh, well...

BTW I just received The Secret.

Firewalker

maryb

Have a look at post 29 on this thread of the mighty Weezl for an example of fabulous Christmas salt dough decorations (sorry don't know how to do a link to a single post)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2098353

cha97michelle

It was Weezl i was thinking of when i said it. I made some my self with the kids, and they were too little last year. I spent so long trying to stop the baby eating it that DS1 rolled it and cut the shapes, and they were so wonky. Then DS2 kept getting them and biting them when they were done too so i ended up binning it. I might have another go this year now they are bigger, although the danger DS2 will eat it might still be there. Can't trust him with playdough or wax crayons either strange boy.

whatatwit

MG, have you seen the threads on the crafty board, I was wondering if nappy cakes would be of any appeal. They are sold in a florists near me for quite a hefty price, they have one of each colour on display with a price list for different sizes.

SmlSave

Hi MG

Something that went down well with my cousins were cookie mix. All the dry ingrediants were in a plastic bag with a little list of instructions and a cookie cutter. It was then placed in a pretty paper bag with a wooden spoon. You can do this in jars too.

Memory_Girl

cha97michelle wrote: »

Could you make a little kitchen set for kids? I was just thinking to myself i made my 2 boys a little set last christmas. An apron each, a pair of oven gloves and some tea towels to go with the toy kitchen i bought them. I got a piece of red gingham fabric from ebay for about £2 to make all that.

This year i am debating whether i could make them a puppet theatre. Ie i make the puppets and the curtains/backdrop for the theatre and get DH to make the theatre.

food things are good but i guess there may be implications like having a food hygiene certificate. Edible tree decorations like gingerbread. Natural decorations made out of pine cones and bits of twig, wreaths. They could maybe be cheap if you have somewhere nearby to scavenge. What about salt dough decorations? If you could make professional looking ones that might work.

Re-usable wrapping - make some drawstring bags, decorate in a christmas fashion. Eco stuff is hugely popular.

Any of that useful? I can be a good ideas person but my skill level doesn't always match. You however appear to have skills. :rotfl:

Make some fancy dress outfits?

The kitchen sets and the puppets sound like great ideas - although I think I will steer clear of the foodstuffs for selling (they can get given as Chrimbo presents instead)

Love the idea of reusable wrapping though -got my brain bubbling a little one.

A quick response to all of the other ideas - then stand by for a post with some very exciting news:j

Memorygirl

Memory_Girl

Firewalker wrote: »

Hi MG - good news about the school and hope it will get even better. I am reading your tread, full of admiration and thinking how much I am an outlier...You can all make things with your hands - I struggle even to put a letter in an envelope. Cha97Michelle, making a theatre is a great idea - and I can only wish that I can think off and make something like that. The one thing I have started doing is cokking and dabbling in baking. Oh, well...

BTW I just received The Secret.

Firewalker

I started off with a little cooking and baking (and a realisation that if I wanted to pay my way through college I needed to learn how to stretch 4oz of mince ot last a week - LOL) Inherited a slow cooker and it gradually grew from there.

Realised that handicrafts sold very well at the local market so started shopping in charity shops to buy pillowcases and turned them into patchwork quilts. From memory they used to sell for abut £30 each I would sell about 6 a month (made a huge difference to my food budget - OK Beer budget:beer:)

Old dear who lived in the bedsit next door then told me "if you can sew a straight line you can sew anything" so I started making and repairing some basic clothes - got myself on a Betty Foster pattern cutting course and progressed to .............
..............making clothes for drag queens in Soho...............:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not as cute as patchwork quilts but much more lucrative.

So the though of doing some little bits for the boys, for me and some Christmas crafting is looking pretty appealing right now.

Just please - don't let the boys ask for anything with sequins on:cool:

Memorygirl

Memory_Girl

whatatwit wrote: »

MG, have you seen the threads on the crafty board, I was wondering if nappy cakes would be of any appeal. They are sold in a florists near me for quite a hefty price, they have one of each colour on display with a price list for different sizes.

Now there's a thought - got a couple of florists in town. Maybe I could make one up as a display and take it round to them. Thinking a one-sheet with a pink, blue,lemon and white option.

And it would give me an excuse to knit cute little babythings - :beer:. OK, step away from the knitting pins Memorygirl. You've just got one walking and talking you don't need another baby :rotfl::rotfl:

Incidentially - purely in the interests of Market Reseach - what kind of hefty price do they command round your area??

Memorygirl

Memory_Girl

SmlSave wrote: »

Hi MG

Something that went down well with my cousins were cookie mix. All the dry ingrediants were in a plastic bag with a little list of instructions and a cookie cutter. It was then placed in a pretty paper bag with a wooden spoon. You can do this in jars too.

Thanks for this Smlsave - thinking this would be a really good idea for pressies for me, not sure about selling them though. I will look into it further.

I'm picking up the courage to join you guys on MFW - I hope I get a warm welcome taking my crazy 1000 ideas over to them.

Memorygirl