How To: Halloween Spooky Spider Tutorial

In my previous post I shared some of the details of the Halloween crafts we got up to at Seren's 7th Birthday Party.

The Spooky Spiders, which were really straightforward to make, so I've done a mini-tutorial for them:

You Will Need:

Yarn (any colour)
4 Pipe Cleaners (any colours)
2 Googly Eyes
1 Large Needle
Pair of Scissors
PVA Glue (or similar)

Instructions:

1. Gather your materials.

2. Cut your pipe cleaners in half and wrap one around the middle of the other three. This will leave two legs shorter than the others, they'll be your front legs.

3. Add a blob (technical term) of glue to the centre of the pipe cleaners and stick on the end of your yarn.

4. Wrap, wrap and wrap some more! When you are happy with the plumpness of your spider, glue the end of the yarn to the bottom of your spider (Note: At this point you can chose which is the top & bottom of your spider - once you've chosen, bend the legs accordingly)

5. Add the googly eyes. If they are self adhesive, great.... if not, just add a blob (still a technical term!) to the back of each eyeball.

Your spider is finished!

If you would like to hang him up, cut off another length of yarn, thread the large needle and push the needle through one of the strands of yarn at the top of your spider. Tie off the yarn at the top and hang:

Enjoy your spider making!

We also made Felt Eyeball Coasters:

Which I've not done a full tutorial for, but have explained what we did here

Post-Halloween Post

I know it's a bit late and sadly things have been so crazy round here that I've been neglecting you guys.... but better late than never, right?!

Now, I love Halloween - I did a couple of fun tutorials last year and I was all set to do another one this year, but I kinda ran out of time... you'll see why below!

So for Halloween I had a request (the DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN - DURING HALF TERM!!) for my gorgeous boy to be an Owl. Eeek! Cue a panicked Mummy frantically sewing into the night and.... Ta Da!

Excuse the photos taken on my phone, early in the morning in my messy workshop!

Patrick had a friend over for Halloween Tea and we made them Bloody Fingers and Nasty Gnashers:

Apples, Peanut Butter and mini Marshmallows

Frankfurters, lots of ketchup & hot dog buns

 Whilst I decided to have a go at carving a VW Campervan into my pumpkin this year:

And Seren went to a party dressed as a Witch (thankfully no Mummy-help required with her costume!):

All in all a very happy and silly Halloween! Hope you had fun too - what did your little ones dress up as? I'd love to see some pics... especially if they had handmade elements to their costumes!

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween

Source - Grace's Favours Tutorial

Source - The Old Photos

Source - E Canada Now

Source - Home Start Barnet

Source - Good To Know

Guest Blog Tutorials for Halloween

I've been lucky enough to be asked if I'd like to create not one, but two new tutorials for different websites recently, both with a Halloween theme.

Both are really fun and easy makes, so there's still plenty of time to get them made in time for the spooky fun on Thursday.

The first is this super cute and rather apologetic looking ghosty finger puppet, that I have mentioned before, but I love him so much, I wanted to share him again!

This little fellow, who I think looks rather like a Graham, has been created especially for a new venture that I'm involved with, Uniquely UK which is a fantastic new website created by a group of artisans and designers who are all based in the UK and who make all their products by hand. The idea is to try and raise the profile and feeling of quality in Handmade goods within the UK.

Graham can be found here

Secondly, through a conversation on Twitter (where you can find me here) I was asked to create a special Halloweeny themed tutorial for NEDay Crafts Site, run by the lovely Vicky and here is the fun and slightly cheeky looking Paulie Pumpkin Brooch:

Paulie is one of a couple of lovely fun Halloween crafts that can be found here

Hope you manage to keep safe with the predicted bad weather heading for the UK in the next day or so and have a thoroughly spoooooooooooky Halloween!

Spooktacular! Halloween Crafts a plenty!

It's that time of year again folks! The ghosts and ghouls are coming out to play (well my two little ones are!) and I thought I'd share a round up of spooky things for you, that can be found in my Etsy Shop or in the Uniquely UK Shop

Felt Bat Mask

Felt Ghost Finger Puppet (DIY Tutorial at www.uniquelyuk.co.uk)

Felt Pumpkin Mask

Felt Witch Mask - both finished item & PDF Pattern available at www.gracesfavours.etsy.com

There is also a very special Halloween Tutorial coming up on the lovely NEDay Blog in the next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

The ghosty finger puppet above is a free tutorial, just like the Pirate Sword and Pirate Eye Patch ones I've recently published but will be published on our fabulous new website Uniquely UK and is a really fun little Halloween craft that your kids will adore.

The Witch Mask Pattern is also available at my NEW Craftsy Shop :-D

The three masks are also going to be on sale next week at the absolutely GORGEOUS boutique in Glasgow, Rowdy Roddy Vintage

 So if you are nearby, why not pop in and say hello to the lovely lovely lovely Jolyne (who I met at the Mumpreneur UK Awards the other week) and check out all the wonderous goodies inside!

Think that's Halloween just about taken care of now... Off to bake a cake or 3 for my daughter's 5th Birthday on Monday!

Have a great weekend and make sure you pop over to Handmade Monday to check out some other fabulous blogs!

Mumpreneur UK Awards Ceremony

Afternoon all :-)

Thank you SO much for all your support last week when I blogged to say that I'd been selected as a finalist for the Best International Trader at the Mumpreneur UK Awards this year!

I was really really really pleased to have got as far as the finals and to add to that excitement I got some lovely press coverage about it too which I blogged about midweek (although of course, being a woman, I hate the picture they used - but Patrick was happy!!)

So the awards ceremony was held yesterday in Birmingham, in the Holiday Inn, which was a lovely hotel inside, despite looking a bit less than salubrious from the outside!

Me by the entrance stand

Brian came with me as moral support (and to stop me from getting lost as I notoriously have no sense of direction!) and although he was a little dubious about the usefulness of the day (not being a small business owner and not someone who's into networking at all) but he quickly decided it had definitely been worth us coming, even if I didn't win.

We sat at a table with some lovely people... Jolyne from Rowdy Roddy Vintage & her husband Richard who'd come down from Glasgow yesterday morning (and I thought we had an early start!) and who's shop was up for the "Best Green Company" award. Fiona Hatton from The PR Garden and Sara Kennaugh from Counting Sheep

We had some amazingly inspirational speakers during the morning - Hazel Cushion from Accent Press, Ben Blackman from Very Nice Things and Anna Kennedy from Anna Kennedy Online

One thing that stood out from all of them, was not only did they not feel that they were anything special, but that they all genuinely felt that all the delegates there were seriously impressive people, managing to run businesses and families at the same time. It's one thing to hear that from your own friends and family, but to hear someone you don't know saying it and meaning it, really made me feel empowered, strong and determined.... I really feel like I've achieved something impressive and I might actually start taking some notice when people tell me now!!

There was a lovely lunch and the bar was open - hurrah! And then we had two more very interesting speakers after lunch.... and then the moment we'd all been waiting for.... the awards.......

Sadly I didn't win my category, but after all the talking up the speakers had done during the day, all the wonderful and inspiring people I'd met (and having an order placed for 30 of my Halloween masks!) I really truly didn't feel downheartened by not winning. I can honestly say I went home with a smile on my face!

I'm sorry this hasn't been a very visual post - I got too carried away tweeting people yesterday and listening that I forgot to take many photos!

So instead I'll leave you with a picture and link to my very first PDF Pattern for sale in my Etsy Shop - I was terrified of releasing this into the shop, being my first, so I'll be over the moon if I get some sales in the next couple of weeks - given the timing couldn't be better!

I'm off to link up with Handmade Monday and hopefully I'll get to comment on a few more this week! Enjoy!