Things I Love: Craft Kits for Kids

So yes, it's school holidays here at Two Cheeky Monkeys land.  And while it's only the first week and the little cheeky monkeys are attending a holiday program at our church all week, it always pays to be prepared for the school holiday "I'm bored" and "What can I do?" comments.  With that in mind, here are some fun and clever craft ideas for big and little kids - enjoy.

1. DIY terarrium - Fleurieu Gifts

2. Make your own sock monkey - squiggly monkeys

3. Flower magnet kit - Vintage Rose Mama

4. Spy decoder set - Games to Go

5. DIY felt garland - Miss Makes & Co.

6. Polymer clay necklace kit - Paper Cut INK

Rescuing Battered Old Classics for Book Buntings

 

As I promised earlier in the week, this has been a book-heavy week of blog posts!  The theme continues today with an exciting new lot of Little Golden Book and classic children's storybook buntings.  I was fortunate enough to resuce these children's literature classics last week and quickly turned them into my much loved book buntings.

Old May Gibbs' books are hard to find, so my May Gibbs buntings are always snapped up very quickly when they make an appearance in my stores.  Bible story buntings are also popular and, I think, a great way to celebrate your little one's favourite story from the Bible.

But this final bunting is one about which I am VERY excited.  Although the Lassie books and original television series were before my time, one can't help but immediately recognise such an animal icon.  And I hope that my customers will be as excited about Lassie buntings as I am.  So let me ask you, which classic literary icon would you like to see commemorated in a bunting?

Happy dancing for the vintage ladies locket range!

I am having so much fun this week with my literature-themed posts!  Today I am proudly sharing a sneaky peek of new additions to my literature locket necklace range.  I was recently thrilled to find a set of vintage lockets with vintage cameos of ladies attached to the front of them and knew that I had to include them in my designs.

The elegant look of the raw brass lockets and their Victorian era ladies inspired me to add wire-wrapped freshwater pearls to the necklace chain.  I love working with both faux and real pearls, and it's always satisfying to be able to add them to my designs, be it in a traditional or more contemporary fashion.  At the moment I have only made up a Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet necklace design, but will soon be creating Jane Eyre/Mr Rochester necklaces as well as Wuthering Heights necklaces.

Once all of the new designs have been made up, I will be adding these new additions to both my Etsy and Madeit stores.  I can't wait to show off the other two necklaces - which would you choose?  And as usual, if you are just dying to own one of these limited edition necklaces before I release them to the general public, please message me to pre-order your necklace and guarantee that you will become the proud owner of one of them.

Literature Buttons for the Creative Bookworm

There's a bit of a book theme happening on the blog this week which I am kicking off with a post about To Kill a Mockinbird.  Actually, TKAM button sets, to be exact.  Those of you who have been blog readers for a while will know that I have been making and selling a variety of Pride and Prejudice button sets for several years.

The P&P shank buttons are among some of my favourite literature items to create, so I'm now branching out with TKAM sets.  So for all the arty and crafty Atticus fans who would love to add a bit of their favourite book to their next creation, you now can!  The shank button sets are available in my Etsy store only and currently come with the names Atticus, Jem, Scout, Calpurnia and Boo Radley.  If you're wanting some different character names, send me an email and I'll happily organise a custom listing for you.

Typography Stacking Bangles

I am a big fan of arm parties and stacking bangles, and I know that many of you are too.  So this week I have been working at adding to my range of stacking bangles in Two Cheeky Monkeys.  While I have previously made Jane Austen-inspired bangles, this time I followed my love of the typography trend and made several thesaurus-inspired pieces.

For the moment I have made bangles featuring the words "love", "faith" and "believe", three words which mean a lot to me as a Christian.  I hope to expand the range in the near future, but would love your feedback on words you would like to see in a bangle.  Do you love words which reflect your personality or faith?  Or do you like to make a statement with the latest on trend words or sayings?

Down the rabbit hole...

It has been a while since I had the chance to work on Little Golden Book buntings for Domum Vindemia, so I jumped at the chance to do so this week.  Alice in Wonderland, or more correctly Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, has been one of my favourite stories since I was about nine or ten years old.  I loved the craziness of Alice's attempts to recite poems and the surreal nature of her vist to Wonderland!  Are you an Alice fan?  Which stories captured your imagination when you were young?

Things I Love: Entomology

While not trained as an entomologist, I do have a fascination for various species of insects and beetles which goes back to my toddler days.  Although I have long given up keeping insect "pets", unlike the Two Cheeky Monkeys, I still do love to have insect-themed creations around our home.  So today's post is a roundup of some of my current favourite handmade insect creations.  Enjoy!

Image Source:

1. Old Vintage Bike

2. redsherbert

3. Jol Arts

4. Squeeky Cheeks

5. Boonlell Bags

6. Sunshiners

Pocket Watch Necklaces

Those of you who saw Monday's post may be a little surprised that I'm posting about my pocket watch necklaces for the second time this week.  But that is how excited I am about unveiling the new additions to this range!

I made the time to not only finish off the three new watch necklaces, but also had time to finish a Jane Eyre locket necklace (seen above).  I had so much fun deciding on which brass charms should go with which literary character, and have also decided to give customers their choice of bead to go with each necklace.

I have also decided to wire wrap each bead dangle to ensure that they stay securely on the necklace as well as adding a more sophisticated touch to each jewellery piece.  As with all of my new charm and beaded necklaces, customers can also choose to add on one or more alphabet charms in their initial of choice to personalise their special purchase.  What do you think?  Do you love them?  Or do you want to see some other literary characters being celebrated?

Around the world in a magnet set

It's been a few weeks since I've shared any new additions to my Domum Vindemia stores, so today's post is all about some fun magnet sets I'm currently working on!  The literature magnet sets proved to be so popular with my wonderful customers that I temporarily branched out into map and atlas magnet sets.

These sets were popular too, but I never got round to making more for a variety of reasons.  So now that life has sort of returned to normal after our big Japan trip, I have been busily re-visiting my love of making world map magnets.

For the moment I am adding three new sets to the range: a Nordic/Scandinavian set which features the capital cities of the countries in that region, a southeast Asia set and a New Zealand set featuring four of that country's largest cities.

I love these magnet sets because the traveller in me can dream of beautiful cities I have yet to visit while the romantic in me imagines the nostalgia each set brings out in the people who purchase them.  So what do you think?  Which cities or countries should I feature next?

(Image source: Maps of World)

In My Creative Space

Hello all on this Queen's Birthday long weekend in Australia.  I hope those of my readers who live in Aussie states celebrating this holiday have had a great weekend of relaxation or adventure!

I've spent some of my free time working on new pocket watches for my Two Cheeky Monkeys stores.  I've had such a positive response to the Literature Pocket Watches that I'm bringing back the popular Atticus watch as well as adding Jane Eyre and Mr Darcy versions too.  Which one would you choose to help you stay on time?

Did you know?

Today I've put together a little post for my new readers (and my old faithful readers too) to get to know me a little better.  I know I don't post a lot about myself, so here are five facts which you may not already know.

1. I would LOVE to have red hair a la Jean Grey in X-Men: Days of Future Past (see above), or maybe like Yukio's in The Wolverine (see below).

2. The little Cheeky Monkeys think I'm crazy for wanting red hair and Mr Cheeky Monkeys is not sure what to think.

3. I can play the piano and the flute and have always dreamed of learning to play the cello.

4. I have a bit of a thing for sports cars, but not ones with wing doors.

5. I will happily listen to classical, jazz, rock, pop, dance and alternative music; sometimes all in the same day!

So that's a little about me.  Feel free to share any funny facts about yourself in the comments!

Image sources:

1. Marvel wikia

2. Comic Crossroads wikia

A little sneaky peek

When I first opened Two Cheeky Monkeys back in mid-2009, I created a small range of beaded hair sticks which were popular with long-tressed ladies.  I have always loved those designs, but set them aside to focus on other creations.  However, I was recently inspired to re-visit my old designs and set about to create a new twist on them.

And so came about my newest range of hair accessories, literature hair sticks!  As with the old range of hair sticks, these feature glass pearls (in a choice of six colours).  But, these pretties also come with your choice of character names so that Pride and Prejudice fans can choose either Mr Darcy or Miss Bennet, To Kill a Mockingbird fans can celebrate Atticus or Boo Radley, and of course, Jane Eyre fans are not forgotten.

For those of you who still love my original beaded designs, there will be a few of these available too, featuring Swarovski crystals and pearls.  What do you think?  Which literary character would you choose?

Things I Love: Superheroes

I have been a big fan of superheroes for most of my life, probably due to my dad's influence.  So can it be wondered at that I love, love, love handmade creations which celebrate superheroes?  Here is a roundup of some of my current favourite superhero creations, enjoy.

1. Wristlet by Sew Wat

2. Baby shoes by Teddy & I

3. Bib by Kahlia's Treasures

4. Hair ties by Oliver & May