Racecourse Road Community Christmas

Racecourse Road Community Christmas

BonTons will be at St Augustines along with other BrisStylettes if you plan to do a little Christmas shopping along with a special night of Christmas Carols. If you make it stop by and say hi!

Friday the 26th November

Racecourse Road Hamilton Brisbane

From 5pm

Market time again BrisStyle Eco

Only a few more days left before the next BrisStyle Market!

The Brisstyle Indie Eco market is on Saturday November 6th. It will be a fabulous chance to give the environment a big hug buy purchasing products made from up-cycled, pre-loved and salvaged materials.

I'll be bringing along my Insulated Lunch Bags and a whole new batch of Reusable Snack Bags. If you don't get a chance to go you can always stop by my internet Market BonTons on Etsy

Fabric Doll making

The girls wanted to make some dolls over the weekend. They are super cute and I am surprised how much I enjoyed making them. Each one looks different when you add new hairstyles, ribbons, different coloured dresses. The pink one is my favourite so far. I have many more to make now with Christmas coming!

BrisStyle Market Sept 2010

What an Exciting first BrisStyle Market. Here is BonTons Gifts Market set up. Handmade Lunch Bags and Snack Bags Galore. If you missed this market all my Lunch Bags are available online here or I'll be at the next BrisStyle Mother and Child Market on Saturday October 9, 2010 Racecourse Rd, Brisbane! A Big Thank You to the BrisStyle Organisers and Market Team :D

BrisStyle Market Preparations

In less than 2 weeks I will be taking my Lunch Bags out again to Market. I am excited!

I have a whole table to display my wares, so I've been playing around with the layout.

I've also added a new range of Lunch Bags. Introducing the new Snack Sack. They look like a paper bag but you don't throw these away! Some are already available in my Etsy Shop

So if you're in Brisbane September 4 Check out some handmade goodness at this great event - BrisStyle Indie Designers Market - St Augustine's Church hall and grounds, Racecourse Rd Hamilton, Brisbane

Lunch Bags To Market

I've taken my Lunch Bags out to Market well rather a Fair for the first time!

I was nervous. Would my Lunch bags look ok? I spent a lot of time setting up at home, I only had half a table, which I soon realised wasn't very big. My stylist Daughters played an important role here, they love to rearrange.

It was all very exciting, I am now gearing up for my next market -

BrisStyle Indie Designers Market
Saturday 4 September
9am - 2pm
St Augustine's Church Hall and Grounds
Racecourse Road, Hamilton

New Lunch Bags

It's been a while, I've had a birthday and the kids have run the Cross Country. Some days I don't know whether I'm coming or going with all the activity going on.

I thought I'd show you some new Insulated Lunch Bags that I have added to my etsy shop - BonTons

My Lunch Bags have been very popular since I started making them. It's amazing where I began on Etsy making the Personalised Bags and Pillowcases to where I am today making these stylish Lunch Bags!

Handmade Market in Brisbane

This market looks exciting, if you live in Brisbane you should pop in!

Pretty Jewellery

How pretty are these beauties. I'll be giving these to my little sister that loves blue for her birthday coming soon! Shhh it's a secret

These amazonite and sterling silver earrings came from a beautiful handmade etsy shop Realisation Creations Inspired Wearable Art. Go check it out!

A little Easter Gocco

Someone has been having fun with the Gocco. A little picture with the Easter Mummy Bunny hopping into town! It's so cute

I made them into little notebooks by sewing some sheets of white paper inside and they will be delivered to the class friends today, last day of school term before Easter.

Hope you all have a lovely break and the Easter Mummy Bunny visits you too!

Remember your first sale...

Beccy Bear from BonTonsKids Etsy shop sold last week. It was their first sale and there was happy dancing, and cheering for those involved.

The parcel was sent yesterday to the other side of Australia, to a very much admired artist.

Remember your first sale and how excited you were?

Gocco Love

I decided to buy a Gocco machine after watching a youtube from the Etsy Labs. It looked fun and great for the kids to use.

After some research I discovered that the Riso Company has since ceased making Gocco machines and supplies and it has become more expensive to buy Gocco machines and source the supplies to use them.

Some hesitation set in and decided against the idea. Then I was searching radomly and found one (it was meant to be!) with inks, screens and bulbs to allow us to start straight away.

Now the kids love to Gocco, the process is so easy. Check out BonTonKids.etsy.com as they have so much fun using the Gocco and they insist on sharing their craft with the world, why not they're pretty good little artists.

When supplies are depleated or so expensive that I can't afford it anymore, then they will just have to remember the good old days when they had this really cool screenprinting machine from Japan to use.

Make your own Tutu DIY

I always wondered how to make my own Tutu. So a quick google search reveals many tutorials available. Loads of hints and ideas and a wonderful range of colour combinations to make that perfect tutu.

We had a birthday recently so I decided to put these new tutu skills to use. This is a very simplified version of what I did, do a search you will find a lot of tutorials available.

There are so many different colours of tulle, choose some soft tulle so it's not too scratchy. I chose 5 colours for a rainbow looking tutu. Cut into 3 inch strips, fold in half this will be the length of your tutu. Snip the ends (not the folded end) off to create a fish tail effect.

Measure the waistline of the tutu wearer and add extra to either side. You can use ribbon or elastic. Tie the ribbon or elastic together into a circle. Stretch onto the back of a chair, this handy hint made it easy to tie the strips on.

Gather 3 strips of tulle together, I used different colours each time, and work your way around the elastic or ribbon. Measure as you go to fit the tutu wearer.

I'm very happy with the results and this year will be the year all little girls we know will be receiving a tutu for their birthday!

Sewing for the Man

I've had a short break for Christmas after the rush for Personalised Santa Sacks in my Etsy shop - www.BonTons.etsy.com ended just before Santa arrived.

In that time I got an order from the Man for me to sew him a pouch for his GPS that he received for Christmas.

Custom request - it needed a clip added so it could be attached to the outside of a back pack when walking and have a plastic insert so the screen wouldn't get pushed in.

Turned out nicely. He was a bit worried when I showed him similar zip pouches I had in girly fabrics. Manly and I think he even likes the little compass embroidery!

School's Out

Another school year done and dusted. Time for holidays, going to the pool and trying to stay cool in this 38 degree C heat.

The girls received so many Candy canes this year, too bad one does not like them.

Our Owl gifts were the best! Kids all over said they loved them, which made me happy!

My plans to make Teacher gifts this year was over run by many Personalised Santa Sack orders, 5 Personalised towels for the weekend marathon of birthday parties, and of course the million owls we made as Christmas gifts to all our school friends!

So what did we give the lovely teachers, I love handmade internet shopping, so many lovely goodies available -

Beautiful Tea towel from FlowerPress.etsy.com

Cool Pac Man Magnets for our first male teacher from Iszle.etsy.com

Bargain

December 2009 SALE at BonTons Etsy

Buy 2 Soothing Eye Packs From BonTons.Etsy.com and get a third one free!!

Great to get thru the holiday season, stocking stuffers, or Teacher Gifts, or something to pamper yourself!

We're not Giving Candy Canes

Every year at the end of the school year the kids receive a lot of Candy Canes from their class mates. Last year we gave little felt Christmas trees ornaments complete with google eyes and smiley faces.

This year they will be giving these guys, felt like I made a million of them, but they are pretty cute! Hoot!

Teacher Gift Ideas

School is nearly over and it's that time to start thinking about what to give the teachers. Last year I made up some Tea Wallets with tea bags and baked some cookies. It was fun because the kids got to choose the fabrics they thought their teacher would like. Very soon you'll see the gifts we'll be giving our teachers this year.

Fabric Gift Tag Tutorial

Fabric Gift Tag Tutorial

With the Christmas Holidays so close I decided to do a tutorial for some fantastic Fabric Gift Tags that will adorn your holiday parcels. It is a no sew tutorial, for all my friends that don't sew!

Here's what you'll need -

• Gorgeous Fabric - mine was supplied by FabricFusion.etsy.com
• Fusible Webbing (vliseofix)
• Cardstock
• Ribbon
• Rotary cutter or scissors
• Hole Punch
• Ruler
• Iron

Cut Fusible webbing to size desired, each finished tag measures 2” x 3”, so if you want to make 12 tags cut 6” x 12”

Iron Fusible webbing (vliseofix) onto wrong side of fabric. Make sure the glue side of Fusible Webbing is on the fabric or you will have a sticky mess on your iron. Cut fabric to measured fusible webbing. Peel off the paper.

Place fabric on cardstock, printed side of fabric up and iron in place.

Cut into strips 2” strips then cut into 3” rectangles

Use a hole punch to carefully make a hole for ribbon or string. You may find that the fabric gets caught a little in the hole punch, gently snip with sharp scissors. Cut the corners of one end for a real tag look.

Attach ribbon, write a lovely message on the back and attach to your parcel!

Visit Fabric Fusion blog for more details of the Free Fabric Tutorial Exchange

Green bags!

Ever seen those green grocery shopping bags, carrying one around when she shops or runs errands. I've made one, Lime Green, and hopefully a bit cuter than Green Bags!