Playing , Poppies and a Big Hello from Lynda

Hello there! I am so thrilled to have been invited to be a part of the Craft Show Crafty Bloggers team and am delighted to be sharing my first post with you all.

If you’ve read my little biography on here you will know that I craft as a hobby rather than professionally as a business. I love my quiet moments spent at my craft table, which resides in the corner of my work playroom.  It is by far my favourite room in our usually hectic  home- a place of fun for the children that  I childmind by day, and for me a little haven of crafty heaven where I too can lose myself and ‘play’ during the evenings and weekends, splashing paint about on mixed media work, making cards, scrapbooking or doing whatever else takes my fancy.  I’m very much looking forward to sharing the products of my play sessions and some general crafty chat with you in the coming weeks and hope you enjoy it too.  I have no doubt I will also be sharing some of my young buddies creative exploits as well as they also love my little corner and raiding all my stash and it makes me so happy to see the next generation of crafters in the making .

My little crafty corner

With that in mind,  I thought I would kick start my time as a Crafty Blogger  by telling you about a great crafting session I had with some local kids last week. I was invited to share my creative know how with my daughters scout troop and teach them how to make poppies from recycled bottles to contribute towards the upcoming WW1 Centenary commemorations.  Kids and craft- my two favourite things so I couldn’t refuse now could I?

I was working with around 16 energetic youngsters and they worked so hard and made some amazing poppies. I never expected so many to emerge in the hour or so we had but they were on a serious mission! It was so lovely to see them working together ,enjoying being creative and contributing to such an important occasion.

 The technique was simple if you fancy having a go too.  Simply cut the base off of clear bottles and form a rough  flower shape.  Colour with permanent markers ( sharpies are best. I didn’t have many to hand though and so we used my promarkers, which did the job a treat but took longer to dry- and I cannot lie, yes, I was very nervous handing over my precious, expensive,  colouring pens to a group of exuberant kids. They were however  very respectful of them and every pen survived to colour another day thankfully. Phew!  ) . Then comes the fun part and the bit the scouts loved the best- melting the petals! Hold the flower over a tea light and gently melt around the edges to soften the plastic and shape the petals.  I advise opening a window, especially if doing them in the quantity that we did as it can get a little potent smelling. 

It was a brilliant evening and we had so much fun.  I think they would look just as good in an array of colours for a Spring/Summer display too. I think that may well be a future project for the children I care for . It would really brighten up our playroom if we hang them in the windows as sun catchers don’t you think?

And just before I go, I will share a little inky poppy project of my own that I made recently using Distress Oxides and stamps.  I hope you like it.

Have a great week. 

Bye for now.

Lynda 

x