Melanie Toye's Hobbies

Image by Jan Kosmowski from Pixabay Scrapbooking is super fun and creative and having your child learn how to scrapbook, is really fun.  Here are some sure fire ways to help your child scrapbook: Show your child your finished scrapbooks By showing your child your scrapbooks, they get to see the end results and get an idea of what scrapbooking is visually. This teaches them that being creative with paper and stickers and some glue and scissors, can be turned into some cool art.  Also, it shows your child, that you value memories if you use photos in your scrapbooking. And children or anyone, love looking back at older photos and memories. So it's quite a moment for them as well.  Show your child your scrapbooking supplies It's exciting for someone who does scrapbooking to show their scrapbooking supplies to someone who seems interested in it. You have spent time browsing and then choosing which supplies you would love to use and now you can show someone the cool supplies ...

What does it feel like to have a messy sticker storage box? So my stickers storage makes me nervous. Honestly, I have a box filled with stickers. Whenever I use my stickers I pull out the entire box and sort of feel overwhelmed about where to start. What stickers should I use? They are just all everywhere. I literally have so many packets (well a box full). I have this idea in my head. What if I create a box and have compartments and put themed stickers in each section together. To be honest, I didn't even know if this would work. But I had to try. I also didn't want to buy a plastic compartment box, because I just feel with the size of my sticker packets it might not work and I would need more than one plastic compartment box.  Here is a photo of my box of stickers, untouched:  Different types of cardboard boxes to use I did have a box already but the cardboard was thinner and I didn't think the sections of cardboard that I was going to create would work because of the thi...

When you feel uninspired change up your craft space  So I haven’t been scrapbooking as much because I have a set of drawers with stickers, washi tape and other cool stationery and then I have my tub of scrapbooking paper in my cupboard.  I was thinking about what I could do to bring my scrapbooking closer. Here’s a photo of my tub of scrapbooking paper. Look how undesirable it looks. Inside I have large paper about A4 size and A3. Then I have 12x12 inch paper. Plus an ice cream tub full of scrap paper.  It just made me feel unsatisfied and what makes me excited to work on a hobby is that I can see the resources and get excited to get started. But this set-up was not empowering me. I started brainstorming about maybe making a craft space. I found a table from IKEA with draws on both sides that I could put my scrapbooking paper and accessories in as well as my diamond painting. I also found a desk backing which is like a three level high shelving that attaches to the table....

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay I don’t know about you but I love gift making and as the New Year has begun, I am also already behind. Hah. What do I mean by that? I crocheted a year of gifts and gave them away at Christmas but now I have friends and family experiencing life events and I want to give them a gift from my heart. Through crocheting, I am gifting a piece of happiness from my heart to theirs. And this is why even in today’s age, where you can even buy crochet gifts online or at the markets, it feels so much more when you make it and then gift it. This is why gift giving, and any type of home made gift is just priceless. See when we make something for someone who we think might like and appreciate it, we think about them throughout the whole project. For example, first you think … I should make them a gift. And then you think what would they like? And then as you choose what to make … you think as you crochet the gift, they are going to love this. And you think about ...

Image by Yunus Emre Ilıca from Pixabay So when you are a parent of boys, when scrapbooking photos of boys, you need to find cool things that boys like. Because I have to do this, I thought I would give you some ideas for what I buy when scrapbooking photos of my kids, who are boys. Themes to consider for scrapbooking: Pokemon Cars Sports Stitch from Disney Lollies and cake Harry Potter Animals Also you may want to look at festive themes such as: Easter Christmas Halloween and whatever else! Then scrapbook for these holiday/festive themes. Find out what they are interested in and then buy double the stickers. Give your child/children a pack of stickers each and let them create their own scrapbook page.  When creating a theme, I always look for 3 types of scrapbooking supplies: Stickers Scrapbooking paper Washi Tape And I look for the theme of each item. I personally use the top 3 supplies for 90% of my scrapbooking.  So it is easier to shop for because I know I will use it in ...

Image by Daria Głodowska from Pixabay  Crocheting can be hard, long and tedious but also incredibly rewarding once you complete a project, especially for the first time. Better yet, when you make two and they look the same! Today, we are going to look at 3 easy bookmark projects to make for book lovers. 1. Crochet a bookmark for a gift I am a reader, but I do this thing, where I read part of a book, then I open a completely different book and read part of it and then I keep reading more books. It's not because I am bored of the book or topic, it is just I am digesting what it saying for that theme. I mainly read non-fiction books, because I am always wanting to grow.  So crocheting several book marks can really be ideal for the book lover. You can use different colours. So here is my crocheting pattern you can have to create your book reader friends a book mark, or several book marks! It is very easy to make and as said above, you can make them using different colours! They d...

I'm excited to showcase to you today the end result of scrapbooking with fabric! I have a bag full of fabrics, lace, bits and bobs that I feel would be great to scrapbook with. Why not right? Here's a picture of the inside of my fabric bag:  I decided to pull out some pieces that I thought would look great on my scrapbooking page. I always before I start scrapbooking, is pull out what I want to work with. I just feel it is easier, to choose what I want up front and then when placing it on the page, that is when I work out where it will fit. So as you can see in the image below, I decided to try these flowers. (The flowers I had up in my home but I am over the blue flowers, so decided to cut them up to just be a flower and no stalk and then re-use for my scrapbooking! I also found some coloured sequins. Pink flowers. Some blue fabric. Some pink fluffy fabric. White lace. A gorgeous gold lace and some cute miniature coloured buttons.  Below is the end result. I really wanted to ...

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay Check out my  Etsy store  for heaps of digital products Whether you have a craft room or a place to put your craft, you need to work out how to set it up so it's convenient and works for you. The first things to do when setting up a craft space: You need to create sections for all your different craft hobbies. My hobbies, are all very different and all require different storage. So decide where you will put which hobby in your home.  Work out what you will need to store everything. Break down your craft space based on your hobbies.  Ok, let's work out all of your hobbies. Write down, what are you hobbies. Then write down exactly what you have in resources for your hobbies. This includes any tools you use and exactly what you have to store. Break it down into categories. For example, if you have a truck load of stickers, write it down. Because they will need to find a home. If you have heaps of diamond paintings not yet used, write down...

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay So, a routine is when you want to do something on a regular basis to in the end achieve something.  So how do hobbyists and crafters need a routine?  Routines are good for those with limited time or those with ample time. Ok, a routine is for everyone. You can also set boundaries during your routine for your hobby. For example, I will not focus my attention during this time for hobbies on any cleaning or other things to do around the home. I will also not book appointments or events during this time because this is my hobby time. Obviously, you can be flexible. But if you book one hour every Saturday to do your hobby but then book other things in, you lose that precious one hour for your hobby and then might have to wait a whole week to try again.  So because I have so many hobbies, I try to focus on a routine that works for them all.  For example:  I write about on this hobbies blog and actually work on, crocheting, scr...