Penny Blogs

An insight into the things in life that make me smile

Crafts

Halloween Crafts – Halloween Hama Beads

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If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen that my Halloween crafts are back decorating the house again this year and one of my favourite bits has to be the Halloween Hama beads that were partially inspired by the selection that CraftMerrily included in a Bostik Bloggers box a few years back. It’s time to share what I did back then with the Penny Blogs audience.

Pumpkins (or Jack O Lanterns as they’re called in the US) are one of the most obvious Halloween symbols to me, so they were the most obvious place to start with my Halloween Hama Beads. The urge to make them was so great that no only did I use up all the orange beads I could find in the house, but I also placed a separate order for more of them!

Halloween Hama Beads Pumpkin

After making one large pumpkin (pattern found on Pinterest – and pinned on my Halloween board there) I then moved on to a smaller design with the aim of making some Hama bead bunting. Ideally I would have made more pumpkins, but to be honest I just ran out of orange beads! As I made them I lined them up on the bottom of the big mirror we have in our lounge and liked them all there so much that I just didn’t have the heart to move them when I finished.

Halloween Hama Beads Pumpkins

Whilst waiting for an order of orange beads to arrive I tried modifying some cross stitch patterns that I’d found to create some other Halloween characters.

Halloween Hama Beads Skeleton

I started with a simple skeleton – not too bad for a first attempt.

Then I totally depleted my white bead supply with this cute ghost. There’s no way you could describe him as scary but I am completely in love with him!

Halloween Hama Beads Ghost

The thing I’m fast discovering with Hama beads is that no matter how many of them you seem to have in the house, you never have enough in the right colours to make exactly what you want to make when you want to do it. I’m coming to the conclusion (whilst I wait for my next order to arrive!) that buying in bulk and having lots of storage boxes (and you can even buy ones designed for Hama beads these days) sorted into colours is the way forward.

Disclaimer: This post was originally published on Being Mrs C as part of my work as a Boston Blogger. It contains affiliate links.

Plastic Poppies: A Remembrance Day Craft

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It used to be that all Remembrance Sunday or Remembrance Day poppies all looked the same. Occasionally you would get a handmade one, but they generally just followed the same uniform design. Then it seems the internet came along. The combination of sites and apps like Pinterest and Instagram seems to have coincided with more people making (and showing off) their own creations.

I’ve crocheted my own poppies before, but this time round I’m making plastic poppies as part of a piece of work that my WI is undertaking for a local event. I’ve set up a bit of a kitchen table production line to make plastic poppies which can be done very simply from plastic bottles. Here’s how.

What you need

How to make the poppies

Firstly, use the knife to carefully cut the bottom off a plastic drinks bottle. I suggest cutting just above any dimples on the base of the bottle. These give the finally poppy a bit more shape. The remaining part of the bottle can be recycled.

Plastic Poppies Remembrance Day Remembrance Sunday

Once you’re bottle bottoms are detached, use either the knife or sandpaper to remove any sharp edges. If you’re planning on doing this craft with children you might want to do everything with the knife before getting them involved.

Plastic Poppies Remembrance Day Remembrance Sunday

Paint the inside of the bottle bottoms with two (or more) coats of red acrylic paint. Experimentation told me that two was sufficient to give complete coverage, but you may need to do more depending on the plastic bottles you are using.

Once the red paint is dry, use either black paint or black sharpie to colour in the centre of the poppy. The texture of the original bottle may mean that one method works better than the other.

And there you have it – plastic poppies, made from recycled drinks bottles. An easy, yet effective, Remembrance Day craft, that also makes use of plastic that might otherwise end up in landfill.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.