I am BACK and ALIVE!!!

It's been a good 3 years since I have updated my blog. I know!!! I have not been doing my work. 😓😓😓 Really appreciate your kind patience and for sticking with me. 😁😁😁
So what had I been up to? Well, what was Little Mini Makers originally started was as a memorabilia for me to remember all the activities my kids and I had enjoyed doing while they were young. It's not like we stopped making stuff, NOO NOOooooo, coz my kids love making stuff. It's just that mummy dearest stopped working two years ago, to spend more quality time with her kids. I know... you must be thinking I should have more free time to update the blog now that I am a stay-at-home mum (SAHM), oh well, life's not always what you set them out to be, coz I became busier trying to adjust becoming a SAHM. Over the past two years, staying at home with them, I just realised how big they both have become. They are no more LITTLE MINI MAKERS, but LITTLE BIG MAKERS now. 😅😅😅  Initially, I did think of shutting down this blog since the blog name doesn't seem so apt now. However, one day one of their ex-kindergarten teachers messaged me and told me that she chanced upon our blog and complimented me for doing a great job! I was flabbergasted and a bit shy, to be real honest, 🙈🙈🙈 coz I never set out this blog to be viewed by people that I know, of course I don't block them, but neither do I promote my blog to them.
So I decided to keep it there for memory's sake. Don't have any plan what to do with it then.
Today, I had been doing some thinking, and I decided to keep this little blog going. Recently, I have been very much into the green movement, and trying to do my part for the environment by trying to make my own green enzymes for housecleaning as well as for plants. I thought to myself, why not just keep this blog and continue to share what I have learnt from my "experiments"?
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR THE AMAZING PATIENCE AFTER MY DISAPPEARING ACT FOR 3 YEARS. I hope the blog can now be back, bigger and better. Till my next post! Have a Great Day! 🌞🌞🌞

Customised Name Hairclip For Girls

I am super excited to start posting again after a long absence. This time I wanted to make something quick and easy for my daughter, Gwen to clip on her hair. Then I thought why not customise a name hairclip for her?

Materials Needed:
- 0.5 gauge wires
- Hairpins
- White swaroski beads
- Alphabet beads

1.  It's actually super easy to make these name hairclips with no special skills required.First step is you need to loop the wire gauze around the end of the clip then secure it.

2. Then add the pearl beads to the wire and wrap it around the clip. Continue to add the alphabet beads and end off with pearl beads. Neatly tuck the ends of the wires back into the clip to end it off.

3. This is the end product. It took me less than 5 mins to finish up this project. I really love how the hairclips turned out. So easy for beginners.

Hope you have enjoyed this project!

Refreshing Virgin Mojito DIY Recipe

 

 My husband and I love having mojitos whenever we are out for drinks. But these days we hardly even have the time to go out on our own. So, I decided to concoct my own home version of the virgin mojito. My version is also suitable for the kids to drink as I excluded the rum. If you like, you can also add Barcardi for the added alcohol flavour.



Ingredients Needed (Makes 3 cups):
- 10 mint leaves
- 8 limes
- 1 bottle of 7-Up (600 ml)
- Sugar (4 tablespoons)
- Ice cubes



1. Cut the limes into halves then squeeze out the juice and sieve for the unwanted seeds.



2. Add the mint leaves, 7-Up, sugar and lime juice into the food processor to blend. This will break up the mint leaves and release the refreshing minty smell.



3. Pour the concoction into a cup and add ice. Now you are all ready to enjoy the cup of refreshing virgin mojito in the comfort of your own home.
As mentioned earlier, please feel free to add Barcardi if you want the alcoholic version of the mojito.
Now sit back and enjoy your cup of homemade drink!




Firecracker Craft for CNY

Chinese New Year is just round the corner, so the Little Mini Makers finally got round to making CNY decorations for our house.
We decided to make firecrackers decorations since we have many spare red packets or "ang paos" to brighten up our home.

Materials Needed:
- Red packets (20 pieces)
- String
- Tape
- Stapler
- Tail



1. First roll up the red packet and staple the ends together.

 Make 20 of these rolls. 10 for each side of the firecracker.

2. Next tie up the top of the string in a loop to hang the firecrackers. Then cut out a small piece of string and tie it on the original string like so. This part is to stick the firecrackers to it, one on each side.

 3. Use sticky tape to stick the inside of the firecracker to the small string.

 4. Continue adding the small string below, and then stick the firecrackers to it.

 5. Repeat this process until you have finished sticking all 20 firecrackers. 10 on each side.

6. Lastly, stick the tail onto the end of the firecrackers. And this is the completed firecracker all ready to be hung.

 Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone! May the Year of the Goat bring everyone Happiness & Wealth!

This is the firecracker decoration hanging inside our house.

 

Flexa-inspired Bed Pocket

 

I am a novice sewer who recently just bought my first ever sewing machine, so I wanted to try my hands at making something simple. Recently, I thought of creating my own piece for my son Oliver to encourage him to read his favourite books before bedtime.
When we bought the Flexa double-decker bed for him, I came across some very pretty bed pockets which can be hung by the bed to let the children store their stuff.

 
Don't these Flexa bed pockets look so adorable? I am sure they do, but they came with a more "adorable" price tag of $100+ for a set of 3!
So this set me thinking that maybe I can try my hand at making my very own bed pocket for my son at a much lower cost.
I used denim material for the back, which I got from Daiso for $2, and for the front pocket, I used a cute owl canvas-like material, which I bought from People's Park Complex near Chinatown area for around $10/yard. I only used a small fraction of it for this project.
Though I really liked the curved ends of the Flexa bed pockets (top picture), I decided to stick to a rectangular shape, as I intend to let Oliver keep his bedtime storybook in it, so a rectangular shape would make more sense than the curved edged.
Besides, it will be less challenging for a novice sewer like me!

Materials Needed:


Velcro (to sew on the straps)
Denim cloth (for the back)
Owl canvas cloth (for the outside bed pocket)
Pink cloth (optional, for the inside of the bed pocket)
Scissors
Batting (for the denim)
Piece of hard cardboard (not shown in the picture. this is for the denim cloth)
Interfacing (for the owl pocket)


First, I put the storybook on the denim cloth to use as a guide on how wide I want the back to be.
Cut out two pieces of cloth (same size), one for the front and one for the back.
Also cut out two strips from the denim cloth to be used to hang the bed pocket on the bed.
Side stitch to neaten the edges of the strips.
For the backing, line the pretty sides of the denim on the outside, and place the batting inside each side, lastly lay the hard cardboard in the middle.
Place the front of the two strips inside the front of the denim then sew the denim up around all 4 sides.
On the other end of the two strips, sew in the velcro. Sew in the other side of the velco on the back of the denim cloth.


  

For the front of the bed pocket, cut out the owl cloth and make sure it is bigger than the storybook, but smaller than the denim back.
I also cut out two strips of rectangles from the owl cloth, to be used for the sides, rather than making it flat, so that the pocket can expand a bit more.
I decided to line the inside of the pocket with this pink fat quarter cloth I found lying around, just to make it look nicer.
But this is optional since the inside can't really be seen.
Place the pretty sides of the owl cloth and pink cloth on the outside, then sew the sides with the interfacing in the middle (just to make the pocket a bit studier).
Next, fold the two strips of owl cloth in half lengthwise, then sew each to the sides of the front pocket.
Lastly, sew in the side of the two strips onto the front of the denim cloth.
 
  

There you have it! My very own Flexa-inspired bed pocket sewn by a newbie like myself.
I am not joking when I said that I am new to sewing. This is REALLY one of my first few attempts at sewing.
How I started making this is simply by looking at the picture of the original Flexa bed pocket, and then cutting out my own patterns to make a simpler and much cheaper version.
I probably only spent $5 in total on all the materials. 
I am pretty sure anyone out there can make nicer ones than me.
As you can see, my son not only put his favourite storybook in there, he also put his favourite Ninja Turtle craft box in the bed pocket, and it still fits!

 

 

I am pretty pleased with the results for my first attempt. I will definitely continue making a few more bed pockets to add on to this.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope this gives you some inspiration to make your own bed pocket. :)

 

Music Videos

Gwen and Oliver took on singing lessons for the very first time at United Music school and had a blast.
Here is their school's website, in case you are interested.
http://www.unitedmusic.sg/aboutus.php
Gwen learnt how to sing We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrrus and Oliver learnt Katie Perry's Roar.
Teacher Careen is the principal of the school and also their teacher.
Here are their music recordings done at the studio at the end of their 10-lessons.

http://youtu.be/KpzWf6KpLnU
Oliver

http://youtu.be/Wf-gu2P5FRE
Gwendolynn

Simple Ribbon Clips Craft

Mummy has been very interested in making kiddie clips for children as I wanted to make use of the big bag of plain clips I recently bought (50 pieces for $11.50 bought at Jalan Sultan).
Today, I went shopping for craft materials at Chinatown and came across some very pretty ribbons at this big craft store called Golden Dragon.
Here is a link of the store in case you wish to visit them.
http://www.goldendragon.com.sg/Contact.html
Some of the pretty ribbons costs between $0.70-$1.50 per meter.
I find this place quite well-stocked and reasonably priced for craft materials.
There are some other beads stores within People's Park Centre that you can also browse around to look for materials. Highly recommended to check this place out.

Materials Needed:
1. Metals Clips
2. Grosgrain ribbons
3. Scissors
4. Hot glue gun

1. First, measure then cut out 14cm of the ribbon to make a bow for one clip. You will also need to to cut out another 4cm of the ribbon to wrap around the centre of the bow.

2. To make 4 clips, cut out 4 pieces of 14cm ribbons and 4 pieces of 4cm ribbons.

3. Pinch the ribbon to the back, then hot glue (a little glue will do) to stick it to place.
Do the same for the other side and glue it down.

4. Next wrap around the centre of the bow using the 4cm ribbon. Use a little hot glue to glue it down.

 5. Lastly, hot glue the bottom of the bow. Then paste it onto the metal clip like so.

Here you have it - a simple ribbon craft project that will cost you less than a dollar and less than 5 minutes to make!
You can let your little girl wear the pretty cute clips to school or even make these as party favours for your daughter's birthday party.
They are simple, easy & also cheap to make, yet they look so cute!
Hope you will give this a try.