Lovely little hand warmers

These little hand warmers take seconds to make and can use up any old scraps of material and old rice! useful for keeping your hands warm on a cold morning or cool you down in the summer!

All you need is,

- material
- rice
- needle and thread
- pins

So first of all you will need a template, you can chose whichever shape you want, I decided to go for a heart but squares work well too. To make my template i simply opened up word, created a shape and printed it off! 

You then need to cut two shapes out of any material you wish. You may want to use wadding alongside the outer material to hold in more heat.

Next pin around the outer edge and sew the right sides together, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance and a gap so that you can turn the hand warmer inside out and fill.

After you turn your hand warmer inside out you will need to fill it with rice.

You can use whatever rice you want, lentils also work as a substitute! Use a teaspoon to half fill your hand warmer, this gives it a bit more flexibility in your hands.

You will need to sew up the hole by hand to ensure that you don't get any rice spillages.

Then you are ready to heat up your hand warmer, simply place it on a plate and put it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, no longer.

Your hand warmer should stay hot for about 5 minutes, you can also use it as an ice pack just place it in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.

Any questions and queries email me at  butterflyfairycrafts@gmail.com

Last minute DIY back to school ideas

So school is starting again soon if your lucky then you have another week! But there is no excuse for a little last minute crafting!

So first lesson of today is how to jazz up your diary!

If you want to jazz up the year a bit of bling here and there can do the job very nicely!

So you will need

-some bling , I got a giant box of gems from hobby craft for £6.00
- some glue , any old pva or even a glue stick
- a diary , I got mine from Whsmith but any will do!

So this is so simple and quick you'll be wanting to jazz up all of your old notepads!

Just add a dab of glue then place a gem, go for a pattern or just go completely wild it's sure to look great!


Lesson 2 - Make a super stylish book holder, to keep all of your books, paperwork and homework handy!

what you will need

- A4 file , make sure its sturdy, mine's from Hobbycraft for £3.00
- some Decoupage paper, you can get any pattern you want, mine's also from Hobbycraft for £3.79 each
- some Pva or Deco patch glue( which is just pva )
- a brush, you want quite a large one to spread the glue more easily

So this is another very simple but useful craft idea, spread some glue thinly onto your box, place a piece of cut up or ripped up Decoupage paper then cover it over with another thin layer of glue, this gives it a glossy finish! Continue like this overlapping the pieces of paper to ensure that the box is fully covered!

A finishing touch - add a piece of ribbon around the base of the box to class it up or leave it as it is!

Now you have mastered the art of crafting back to school items, have a happy school year!