Sock Monkeys – fun to make and fantastic gifts

It has been a few months since I made a sock monkey so I was very happy when I had a reason to make one and even happier I had a fantastic theme for it – Batman.

A friend of ours is a massive Batman fan and therefore we decided an Hours of Fun homemade batman sock monkey would make the perfect gift.  We already had some batman themed socks in so these were used for the Monkey, combining two different styled socks, one for the body and one for the arms, tail and mouth.

The monkey was sewn together and stuffed using toy stuffing.  The cape was made out of black cotton material and the Batman mask was made from a spare sock toe piece.  The Batman sign on his front and the belt were made from felt.

For instructions on how to make your own sock monkey click here, or if you would rather let Hours of Fun do the crafting visit our shop to place an order for your own personalised sock monkey.  You can help design the monkey, providing information on colours, style, theme etc and we will craft your sock monkey – made to order.

 

Lamps and shades – made by Hours of Fun

Homemade, personalised, unique lamp bases and lampshades
Last year I tried my hand at upcycling lights and quickly fell in love with how you can transform a lamp by recovering the shade or by covering the base using the technique decoupage – covering an object with layers of paper and varnish.
For Christmas I got busy making a superhero bedside lamp for one of our friends. It had marvel characters around the base and the shade was covered in a bright superhero red. I also did a minecraft bedside lamp for my nephew – covering the base in squares of different shades of green with a creeper face and the shade covered in green material. I then did a matching down light for his ceiling light.
You can also take an existing lampshade and add ribbon or buttons to it to give it a new lease of life and jazz it up.
This is a perfect way to accessorise your room without going out and spending ages trying to track down the perfect matching shade colour, then finding it only to see the price tag is way above what you wanted to spend.
If you have left over curtain material you can use it to make new lampshades. You can use leftover wallpaper which we did in our bedroom and now our light matches the décor perfectly.
If you don’t fancy trying this yourself then why not contact Hours of Fun and ask us to make it for you. We will work with you to match the right colour and design you want, then hand craft a unique, personalised lamp or shade just for you. They make lovely gifts especially for children with themed bedrooms. I have also made matching bunting for my nephew so he has a fully themed bedroom as his favourite computer game mine craft.

 

Superhero AFTER

Minecraft & Superhero BEFORE

Minecraft AFTER

Manchester United BEFORE

Before & After

Teal ceiling light BEFORE

Teal ceiling light AFTER

Hannah BEFORE

Hannah AFTER

Festival of Firsts fair at the Community Centre

I am a little behind on my blogging, so time to catch up this week, starting with the second day of the Festival of Firsts last month.  After our fun on the milk float the Hours of Fun stall headed to Hoylake community centre to set up the badge making stall in the garden, next to the bouncy castle provided by Wirral Bouncy Castles Hire

It started out quiet which gave us the opportunity to have a go on the bouncy castle which is always a lot of fun!  There was lots going on around Hoylake throughout the day which I believe may have spread out the visitors and locals who were out and about, however we had a steady flow of people and some fantastic badges were made by all ages, from 2 years of age up to adults.  I also got to use my new banners again which looked fab on the railing and hung up behind the stall.

 

Hours of Fun craft table at Brockholes Nature Reserve – Sea Creature fun

Reposting this blog as for some reason it had dropped into the drafts folder – this craft fair took place last year!

Brockholes Nature Reserve is fast becoming my favourite place to craft fair.  It is a stunning location, unique in its design and set up, with lots to offer for a fun day out.

I did my second craft fair at Brockholes last weekend and it was a lot of fun.  The fair was run by crafty vintage who are fantastic at organising, promoting and delivering these events.  We were lucky enough to have the sun trying to shine through the clouds and plenty of people headed down to wander round the fair, watch and listen to the entertainment, have something to eat and drink and then head out for a walk round the nature reserve before heading home after a fun for all the family day.

The Hours of Fun craft stall was set up with the theme of the weekend being – Sea Creatures.  Those crafting could choose from a Seahorse, Crab, Fish, Dolphin, Whale, Crocodile or a paper plate which they could then make into any sea creature they wished.

Lots of fun was had and so many amazing creations were made.  We had some fantastic team work going on where the adults couldn’t help but get involved, rolling their sleeves up and being on glue duty!  They used sequins, pipe cleaners, pompoms, stickers, googly eyes, felt tips and crayons, scissors, paper, ribbon, feathers and anything else available  to make some spectacular Sea Creatures which they got to take home, with many planning on hanging them up in their bedroom.

The gallery below shows some of the finished pieces made at the craft table.  We had a couple of children who were on their way to creating master pieces but ran out of time, so we went through their ideas, bagged up any crafty bits and bobs and packed them off with what they needed to finish their master piece at home.

The Hours of Fun stall was busy too with lots of people taking advantage of the 4 items for £5 sale we had on.  Lots of face painting kits, fabric markers and paint by numbers were purchased, along with lots of learn to do tapestry kits, ribbons and material squares.

 

Our next fair is at Brockholes in October – Saturday 19^th and Sunday 20^th October where we will have a Halloween themed craft table.

A look back at 2013 for Hours of Fun

2013 has been an exciting year for Hours of Fun and the start of the New Year is the perfect time to reflect on the good times, achievements, favourite moments and a look to what 2014 is hoping to bring.

In June this year Hours of Fun went live with Hours of Fun cakes. We have since made over 40 cakes including cupcakes, a cake shaped as a sofa, tiered themed cakes and a giant brownie. Feedback received has been fantastic with people loving the look and taste of their cakes and already orders are coming in for the New Year.

Hours of Fun also started working with Fuel Shakes in June making homemade protein bars and selling them in their shop based on Renshaw Street in Liverpool City Centre.  Since starting out in June we have sold nearly 1000 bars and we have great plans for 2014 to get the bars properly branded and packaged, with new flavours and seasonal versions of the bars available throughout the year.

Some of my favourite cakes below

baby shower cupcakes

Jupiter cake with Fireman Sam

Giant cupcake Strawberries and cream

Owl stitched birthday cake

4 tier wonky wedding cake

Policeman’s helmet

Noddy themed number 1

Protein bars with a new logo for the bars and cakes

  

Hours of Fun craft stall has been travelling around the North West appearing at – Brockholes Nature Reserve, Blackpool Winter Gardens and some local venues.  We have had a lot of fun taking the Hours of Fun make and take stall with us, getting young people creative with pompom and pipe cleaner fun, halloween spooky masks, Christmas Cork Reindeer and much more.  We can’t wait to head over to Brockholes again this year with some exciting new crafting fun.  We will post dates as confirmed.

   

2014 looks to be extremely exciting for Hours of Fun.  We started working with the Joseph Lappin centre in Old Swan in December and will be working with them this year providing a 12 week course teaching young people new crafting skills including mosaic, upcycling, Easter themed crafts and much more.

Hours of Fun will be offering Children’s themed parties and craft activities where we can come to your own home or help you locate a venue to hire, all at fantastic, competitive prices.

We will be working hard with KLWeb Ltd to redesign this blog to bring it up to date, easy to navigate and full of crafting information and opportunities.

I am super excited about 2014 and hope you will stay with us for the adventure.

Thank you for your support through 2013 and Hours of Fun wish you a very Happy New Year full of love, laughter and new adventures!

 

Fun at the Hours of Fun craft table at Brockholes Nature Reserve

After a fantastic week off from work, business and baking it is back to the grindstone this week and time to catch up on my blog.  It has been some time since my last blog so we have a few cakes, a craft fair and some crafting updates to share with you.

Firstly I wanted to tell you about the craft fair Hours of Fun attended over the weekend.  The Hours of Fun stall and craft table headed to Brockholes Nature Reserve again for a craft fair weekend run by Bolton Crafts Association.  It was a very different event to the Vintage fairs I have attended at Brockholes previously.  All the stalls were within the conference centre and the fair was run alongside other events taking place at Brockholes such as the reserve walking group and the Activity Room nature sessions, whereas the Vintage fairs take over the site with stalls, entertainment and food and drink.

The weather prediction was changeable with lots of rain and sunshine forecast along with some thunderstorms.  We were very lucky though as the sunshine did keep popping its head out and it remained quite warm so we still had plenty of visitors to the Reserve who popped in to the craft fair for a wander round.

The make and take stall had some fantastic crafters sit down and get busy making amazing Halloween masks.  The stall had Halloween garlands and bunting to get people in the mood for spooky crafts and some fantastic spooky house trays and a scary table cloth to set the scene.

Below is a gallery of some of the masks and Halloween shapes made by the Hours of Fun crafters.  We had cats, bats, witches, devils and pumpkins made and some just got busy sticking everything on their mask to create a monster or simply a masterpiece!

This was the 5^th time the Hours of Fun make and take stall has ventured out to an event and they are getting better and better and I am enjoying them more and more each time.   We are expanding on our equipment and ideas to make the experience of crafting at the table more fun for everyone.  We received some excellent feedback from the children and adults who visited the stall and we even have out first regular customer – Sophie.  She visited Brockholes for the Sea Creatures and made an amazing rainbow fish and visited again this weekend and made a devil’s mask.  We look forward to seeing Sophie again at future events and welcoming back lots of regulars as we attend more events and spread the Hours of Fun word!

Bolton Crafts Association (BCA) are planning to continue the events at Brockholes as this was their first event at this location.  Neil at BCA was explaining he would like to expand the fair to have people set up in the courtyard area, I look forward to signing up to future dates here as this weekend has again confirmed that Brockholes is taking the lead as my favourite craft fair venue. 

Crafting fun the night before the fair.

RNLI Hoylake and West Kirby Open Day craft and face painting fun

If you are reading this through the Hours of Fun craft shop, click here to visit the full post to get all the pictures.

Hours of fun headed down to Hoylake promenade on Bank Holiday Monday with our craft tent and set up for, what was hoped to be a fantastic fun day in the sun and it did not disappoint.

The sun was shinning, the sky was blue, the stalls were setting up, along with the fun fair and armed forces setting up camp, the Zumba girls had arrived and the kite flyers were due to make an appearance later on.  We also had the Spitfire showing off its flying tricks and the lifeboats were on display.

The face painting started around 10.30am and the queue did not stop until late afternoon, when it slowed down as people headed home for tea after a fun packed day.  My friends Jo and Charlie had volunteered to help out for the day and they were super stars.  They worked so hard, face painting all day long, entertaining the children (and some adults) and created amazing designs from Spiderman to butterflies, dragons to LFC badges.

The craft tent welcomed children to sit down and get crafting, making some spectacular sea creatures, using glitter bits, pipe cleaners, pom poms, colouring in, glue, stickers and what ever else they could find in the craft tent.  The feedback on the craft tent was fantastic, it makes me so happy to see children so content playing with crafts and some of the parents got involved too helping with the glue or providing suggestions on the design.

It was an amazing day and we all had a lot of fun.  There was a fantastic turn out and the RNLI have raised lots of money from the event.  We made a donation to the RNLI as a thank you for having us for the day and we hope the money raised makes a fantastic difference for the brilliant service they provide.

Kite display

Kite Display

kites on display can you spot Arial and Flounder?

Spitfire

Oliver as Superman

Face painting team

face painting the face painters!

Homemade badges for the Hours of Fun team

Charlie Bee face painting model

hours of fun craft tent

Manning the craft shop

Spitfire air display

Setting up their display

Sea Creature craft tent

Craft tent all set up ready

Hoylake Lifeboat open day – Bank Holiday Monday crafting in a tent yeay!

If you are reading this through the Hours of Fun shop, Click here to visit the full post including pictures.

Hours of Fun are heading down to Hoylake promenade this Bank Holiday Monday for the Royal Lifeboat Open Day taking place 10am – 6pm.

We will be setting up our craft tent next to the lifeboat station and having a craft activity where you can make and take something home, along with facepainting and will have on sale some fantastic children’s craft supplies.

The theme for the craft tent is sea creatures, and we will have plenty of glitter, pens, stickers and paper for the budding artists to get creative decorating pre-cut creatures or design their own using paper plates.

We did this craft for the event at the Winter Gardens and it was a great success and some amazing creations were produced, click here to check out the pictures from this fair

Hoylake Lifeboat Station
North Parade, Hoylake
Wirral CH47 3AL

http://www.hoylakelifeboat.org.uk

Info from their website about the event –

Raising funds for the RNLI, Open Day is a free event for all the family with fairground rides, sideshows, stalls and a chance to tour the RNLI’s state of the art station and Hoylake and West Kirby lifeboats.

This year will also see RAF displays from a Spitfire and Douglas Dakota.

Head down for some Bank Holiday Fun.

Paper plate fun

 

Card topper kits creating a beautiful homemade card

I am slowly working my way through all the stock I have in the Hours of Fun shop and testing it out.  The latest item to be used and reviewed are the card accessory packs.

Click here to visit the shop

The pack contains the card toppers, craft wire and beads.  You are given a card topper already made so you can see how it can be done.  You can then play with the rest of the kit to create the same designs or come up with your own creation.

I had some cards to make and as often it was rather last minute!  I often use long car journeys for a crafting session and for this journey I had the card accessory packs, some card blanks, sticky pads, scissors and some printed paper.

I had a lot of fun making these and they produce some beautiful cards that are simple to make.  I am officially a fan of these card accessory kits and will be using them again yeay!

Card topper kit

Having a lot of fun with crafts and creating some master pieces

The craft fair at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool was the venue for our latest ‘make and take’ craft table.  This is the event run by Dotty Delightful, who puts on a fab event, with lots of advertising and the Winter Gardens is a fantastic venue due to its location and style.

We were there for 2 days – Saturday and Sunday and we set up the craft table, laying out all the sequins, glitter glues, paper, ribbon, feathers, stickers and much more.  The craft table enticed lots of budding crafters who took a seat and got to work on their design.  They had the option of decorating a jungle animal, a foam door hanger or a paper plate.

Below are photographs taken throughout the weekend showing the amazing creations and the craft table.

Craft table

Paper plate fun

Craft fun