It´s raining buttons! tutorial

As you already know, I am a button collector and these days I ´ve been thinking how to keep my favorite ones in a special place ... So I created this It´s Raining Buttons Cloud so I can hang it on my studio´s window and the sunlight shines on the colorful buttons that makes me smile and brings good feelings.
So, how about trying to make one of this?
Material:

Felt - 30 cm x 30 cm - white
Embroidery floss - blue
Buttons - from your collection, vintage, new, use what you have
Stuffing
Needles for embroidery floss
Scissors
Cloud template ( draw and cut the paper) - draw yourself or ask a child, they make the best clouds ever!


Are you ready?
Cut out the cloud design on your felt , two pieces, pick up your best buttons, I took my favorite vintage buttons so I can have them all together hanging on my window and I can look at them all the time I ´m working in the studio.

Sew them on one piece of felt displaying two together or only one, it´s up to you to create here, this part, like others made me so happy!


In my project I put 3 strings of button drops falling from the cloud and I wanted two to be longer than the middle one that is shorter.
Here, I am showing you the first place to sew the button drops string.
Cut an embroidery floss, sew it to fix it and after that, start putting the buttons leaving some space from each other.


Using the needle pass the floss once through the button hole but if you desire, you may turn back and do it twice . Do it for all the buttons.

It will look like this.


This is how it will look with the 3 strings hanging on together.


It´s time to sew the hanging floss on the top of the two parts sewn together as shown above.

Is it well fixed? good!
Start sewing both parts together, and before you reach the end , about 5cm , leave a space so you can fill it with the stuffing.




I confess, I need some " Embroidery for Dummies" book for I can´t stitch anything but the running stitch , I gotta improve my skills...
So, when you finish it, it´s time for stuffing!



Fill the cloud the way you like, I prefer very soft so I didn´t fill too much.

Finish sewing and...
Here it is! This is my version for Candy Colors Drop, very colorful and fun!

This one is the Ocean Cloud, it´s very simple, monotone, only blue buttons that bring refreshing breeze...

I hope you enjoyed making it.

You may use is as a sachet or as a pincushion, give them to friends, family and I am sure they will love it!

Have fun!

With much love from Mina

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An afternoon with Ana Moraes

Look at this gorgeous birdies looking each other!!!! Isn´t it so cute?


So, this weekend I took these two little girls to a workshop at Panacéia store ( that looks more like a gallery for me ) , then they met this wonderful artist Ana Moraes who was giving a workshop for kids...

... and when we arrived the table was set with lots and lots of recycled material, caps, buttons, plastic bottles, wire, pins, some tools and a beautiful garden outside to welcome all the curious kids !

They made a flower sculpture and the result? Amazing! Colorful buttons, plastic pieces and letters transformed into art, I loved it and the kids were so happy!

You can take a look at Ana´s wonderful work clicking here : Ana Moraes Gallery

She is such a clever, inspiring artist and also a very gentle person, thank you Ana!


Wishing you a week full of flowers , inspiration and happy days!

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Weekending

My dear friends from the Choir group and my sister in law´s mother who invited us to a delightful lunchtime at the Golf Club where we spent some great time talking , laughing and eating ...
These "bento bags" I made ( except the blue string one) to Camila to take her snack to school every day. I wanted to make something related to each day of the week and Wednesday´s is missing, it´s Fruit Day and I haven´t made it but this week I ´ll try to. A fabric with some fruit on it...

But since I haven´t made it, I pack the fruit ( here the grape box) and I put it inside the bento bag with a small fabric napkin or towel. My girl enjoys it when I add some note , it´s always a surprise for her.

Sunday afternoon, a little craft moment making mosaic box. It´s easy, it´s cute and it´s so fast to make it ! A friend of mine sells these Mosaic Kits and Camila is a huge fan , this is the second piece she´s working on and when she was a toddler she used to make a paper mosaic on pen cases and photo frames that were also really fun!

Actually, there´s no age limit to have fun, isn´t it?

Step by step, she completes the scenery, the top of a wooden box.


Where she says she will keep her little things ...
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Meanwhile...
I was having lunch with those dearest friends, Camila and daddy went to an amazing place and he took some pictures showed down here:

Espaço Catavento is a unique place , a science museum that also kids will be excited,there are many hands-on activities that give visitors the chance to experiment themselves scientific principles in a fun, educational way.

It´s located inside an old beautiful architectural construction that once was the City Hall and there are many sections, a brilliant museum of science, art and human perception .


This is a piece of meteor that she touched and as she said, she touched something from the space!
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Well, these are some things that we made this weekend and I hope yours was great , too!!! Tell me what you´ve done!

Wishing you a brilliant and wonderful week!!!

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What I love!

The Knick Knack Exchange package has just arrived and I am so glad with all these sweet lovely things Danielle sent to me!
She loves birds and the little cute pendant is adorable! The photographs are so artistic that I have already put on my inspiration board in my studio with the key card that she wrote to me.

And the earrings are adorable!!!

She also sent me some fantastic vintage buttons that now are part of my button collection and talking about buttons I wanted to show you some of them . I can´t explain why I like them so much but just looking at them or choosing them for some work is something that makes me feel so happy...


When I need some inspiration I open my box of buttons, spread them all on an old tray and I start picking them , one by one, take a look at the details, the color and its design


Red, yellow, blue, gray, green... Aren´t they just lovely?

What makes you smile ?

Have a wonderful lovely weekend!

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Celebrating...

Crafting for the birthday decoration...

Cutting papers, stamping on them...

Baking some bread... These aren´t for the birthday party but for our coffee break in the "crafternoon"!


Tada!!! Almost ready...
Six years old toppers
The Strawberry Cake that grandma brought to us!!! Yummy!!

And the whole family together celebrating ( except my brother who was taking this picture)!


It´s always a good day to celebrate, isn´t it? And when it´s about a 6 years old girl,we dedicate our time to make some cuties and try to focus on this very special moment of this life .
On Saturday we´ve made the party decoration, we baked tiny breads and cupcakes . cut some cupcake toppers, bought some food for the Sunday family meeting .

Then on Sunday , signs of summer, hot weather, sunny and blue sky in the morning , they all came to the outside lunch and there we served barbecue , they all brought some tasty food and we had delicious salads, pork, Portuguese bread, Strogonoff by Mom, oniguiri as well and a beautiful and yummy Strawberry Cake!!!

Happy Birthday again my little girl!!

And a happy week for all of you!!!

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Mornings of joy

These days of almost Autumn sounds so weird: hot summer days, cold evenings, rainy nights like I´ve never seen before... Actually everything is new in this town since we moved in the last September so everyday is a new beginning with lots of surprises.

The most ordinary details becomes something interesting like the sunlight or the starry night or the strange feeling of loneliness down here. Friends are far now, the internet world seems more friendly and warmer and I really miss my days in the city so spending my time reading e-mails , crafting , sewing and making plans have fulfilled this lack of contacting real people.

Kids are different... mine is always busy with her toys and legos like this one , a beautiful farm that she got from her uncle and aunt on her birthday and since the beginning , the "making of " with her Dad was so much fun!


And now that´s all set she plays in the morning , before going to school... And many other gifts that she got from her friends on her birthday like alphabet games, math games, painting kits , mosaic kits, stuffed animals , books and so on and so forth, it´s a never ending party!!! Would you join us?

Wishing you an incredible week and lots of good news and crafting and fun!

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And now she is 6

This morning she woke up and I just hugged her to tell her Happy Birthday. So, how or when did it happen that you turned out six ???
It´s a magical age isn´t it, now they can read, they can play lots of fun imaginative games, they are more creative and they know how to comunicate each other but they have the innocence and the fantasy in their minds, I think I´m loving this six year old girl!

Happy Birthday my sweet little girl, wishing you all your hopes and dreams will come true and an AMAZING year ahead!!! Love you!!!



To all of you, wishing you a lovely, inspiring and peaceful weekend!!

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Good old memories

As I walked into the living room I could smell the sweet cookies mom was baking .
She used to make them not for special moments but when she had time to stay home , she was a piano teacher and she worked a lot that time, when I was 5 or 6.
Last week I went to my parents house and my dad gave me this old kitchen scale that reminds me those good old times... Nowadays mom has a new and good one, smaller and lighter. Vintage stuff is what I love and this one means so much to me that now I have it on my kitchen window sill.
And when I look at it, I still can smell the cookies...



Collections...
It may look an ordinary eraser, anyway they are special to me because I like the touch and this salmon colored one looks so... vintage!
The Unbrella ( yes, with N!!!) came from Japan a looong time ago and I don´t know why I have been keeping it, I just like it!
The white one is new and I have to confess, it´s something obsessive , I bought a box with 20 of them!!! don´t ask me why...

Inside the kitchen drawer I have these very useful kitchen towels and I love them for their details, RED details , the embroidered ones that my mother in law made to me, I use them every day so I must treat them well. The more you use them they get better!

Oh, I even don´t know how to draw a decent circle but it doesn´t matter, I love collecting pastel crayons, pencils, watercolour pencils, I adore the metal pencil cases as I open it I can smell those special crayon perfume.

Am I the only one with these obsessions or are you the kind that collect something weird or ordinary or different?
These were just a few to name because I ´ve got lots of collections and maybe I´ll post here any other day...

until then, I hope you enjoy your weekend and try to look around, maybe you haven´t noticed you have collected rocks, bookmarks, old recipes, perfume boxes, whatever... it´s an interesting thing to do, to share with us, with your son or just to yourself.

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Out of doors

This cute bag with the puppy design was inspired here and here. She can carry her precious books , pencase and her favorite stuffed elephant seal in it.
Playing outside, feeling the fresh breeze on our face and walking barefoot feeling the grass, the cold stone floor under our feet , picking fruits from the trees, that´s what we´ve done yesterday and there´s nothing sweeter than these moments, oh, yes, there is. The fruits ( jaboticabas) are very sweet.

Wishing you had a sweet weekend!

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