Make it: Cute Bunny Toy

Gifts for the little ones this time of year can be so hard, just another plastic toy so soon to be discarded seems such a waste of money. I always like to make something for my niece because although her parents aren't really 'handmade people' I know that she will love it. This year I have made her an advent calendar but she will have that before Christmas so to open on the day I wanted to give her a little handmade friend that she could play with. This little bunny toy is so simple to put together but makes a gorgeous gift for the little ones. Also, being made from cotton fabric there are literally thousands of options for colours and prints to choose from.

Make it: Fox and Bunny Chopsticks with Tiger

As Sammy mentioned last week, we took a dive into what Tiger had to offer a couple of weeks ago and I found these training chopsticks which I thought would look great with a little additional fun to them.  As these training chopsticks would probably be used for children (although any age need a helping hand with chopsticks sometimes - am I right?!), I thought that making the ends a little more fun with some animal faces would be a good idea.

You will need: Training Chopsticks (mine were from Tiger), Acrylic Paint, paintbrush, black and coloured pens, paint palette (or plate like me) and water pot.  You may want to varnish these aswell, but acrylic should hold up well to washing - just maybe not the dishwasher.

So first you need to decide on your characters, I went with a bunny rabbit and fox as I felt that the pointed ends lent themselves to these animals.  I did a little sketch first so that I had an idea first, but you many want to just go for it.

I gave the ends of the chopsticks a base coat of the colour I wanted and then gave it another coat to make it a nice solid colour.  For the bunny it was white and for the Fox I went with a brown and orange mix.  I did both sides of the chopsticks but you could always just do one side if you preferred.

I added in a few of the features with the paint, pink ears for the bunny and a bit more orange for the fox ears, then left them to dry.  I used my water pot to stand them up to dry, so that one side didn't get smudged.

Then, to add detail, I used a black pen to do the eyes of the fox and outline detail on both the fox and bunny ears.

Then voila, all done.  A really simple customisation of some training chopsticks, just to make them a little more fun for your dinner.

Which animals would you make, or would you make them with patterns on or something completely different?  Let us know in the comments below.

H, xxx

This Post is in collaboration with Tiger

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Make it: Easter Bunny Ears DIY with Blooming Felt

Today we bring you a crafty classic DIY for your Easter weekend... Bunny Ears!

With the help of Blooming Felt we are going to show you how to whip up a pair for you to wear for lunch on Easter Sunday or Monday with your family. These would also be great if you are hosting an Easter egg hunt for your little family members like H and I are. Lets get to it!

You will need: Felt, Contrast fabric, a Sharpie or vanishing marker, glue, bondaweb, Wire, Scissors and a Hair band.

We started by bondawebing two sheets of felt together to make it stiffer, then we marked out our ear shapes on the felt.  Make sure you leave room for two tabs at the bottom of each ear shape to attach them to the band.  Cut out your ears. Next make two loops from your wire and glue them to the middle of your ears, this will mean you can bend them into cute expressions later.  Take your contrast fabric and draw around your felt ears.

Next, cut around the ear shapes you have drawn on the contrast fabric, cut a little inside the line so you will be able to see the felt around the edge, but make sure it will still cover the wire. Then glue the fabric down over the wire and leave it to dry.

Once your glue has dried, cut a slit into the tab you left at the bottom of each ear.  Pop a dab of glue onto one side and flap the other side over it at 90 degrees. Again wait for the glue to dry before the next step.

Take both ears and play around with the position. Once you like where they are going to sit on the band, glue them in place. 

There you have it, the perfect Easter accessory.

If you like my glitter ears they are in exactly the same way as H's blue ears using my fave glitter fabric as the contrast.

Hope you liked our version of this crafty classic? As always we would love to see if you have a go at these, if you do, take a quick pic and share it with us on Twitter @livelovemake or on Instagram @Sammytvr or @h_a_sketch don't forget the hashtag #livelovemake

Wishing you all a lovely Easter weekend, what are you up to, are you taking advantage of the long weekend by having a go at some crafts of your own??  Let us know in the comments what you are up to. We read every comment and reply to as many as we can. 

Sammy and H