My make is a piece of a wonderful collective craft project held by the Museum of Zoology Cambridge, the Patchwork Map Project. My share is a crochet spider on its web on a mini-quilt.
Author: Marzia Falcioni
Hi! I am Marzia. Creative maker and visual artist. Love for paper collages, painting, cooking and crafts for/with kids.
Bring me a bright large T-shirt, I will make a bag out of it! How-to in the post.
An idea for a child-friendly short holiday? Absolutely Barcelona! In the post I share our 5-day experience in the amazing Catalan capital with two young explorers, from travel planning to resources for engaging children during travel, plus a Gaudì-inspired craft activity with free printables. Enjoy!
Pancakes or a traditional Italian dessert for Carnival? My Italian origins won today. Here is a recipe from my granny’s cook book.
An easy-to-make, cheap Neverland masquerade for your children in occasion of the forthcoming Carnival and the World Book Day.
Lovely personalised hand-made items for decorating a nursery room or a cute gift for a newborn.
Loved by kids and grown-ups, brownie is an irresistible temptation, a truly choc-shock! Easy hands-on recipe to do with your kids, have fun with them in decorating its surface with icing sugar or sugar paste.
Food play sets for imaginative play. Pizza, typical Italian first courses, eggs, meatballs, sausages and delicious cakes. Handmade by crocheting, with felt or by modelling salt dough.
Rag dolls, their outfits and accessories are a priceless open-ended toy and a cute handmade gift idea. I repurposed upholstery fabric samples in a cosy patchwork couch, perfect for rag dolls.
Get all your family ready for trick-or-treating or a Halloween parties with DIY, quick and upcycling ideas for Halloween costumes and accessories.
Add a spooky touch to the food for a Halloween party or impress your family with a themed dinner.
Waiting for Halloween, have fun with your children during half-term in themed craft activities, from the creation of spooky ornaments - giant pop-up castle, toilet-rolls mummies, 3D pen cobwebs - to the carving of spectral pumpkins in different sizes.
Waiting for my second child, I involved my elder son in making frames decorated with Minnie bow, Goofy hat and Donald Duck headgear, simply recycling cardboard and old newspapers using the paper-mache technique. They can be used as a photo frame or a nameplate...
Let yourself be tempted by a traditional Italian cake, the Crostata, an "open" jam filled pie. Have fun to make and decorate it with your kids!
Recycle an old single bed sheet into a monk tunic, with hood and cowl. If you don't have a brown flat sheet, don't worry, the fabric dye can do a miracle!
Repurpose plastic drinking straws into a super-easy no-cut no-tape no-twine straw-bunting and hang it as a coloured home decoration!
Learn how to make a traditional Italian cake base, the Pasta Frolla dough, and use it with your kids to make tarts, pies, biscuits or cookies.
I saw plain paper mache letters at a craft shop and they immediately inspired me... They can be a lovely gift for a newborn as well as a cute child room decoration.
It is incredible as fairy and ballerina outfits fascinate girls since they are very young, actually some moms too, who didn't resist to make one for her little one...
An authentic Italian homemade first course from potatoes and flour dough, a perfect hands-on activity for kids... and with Bolognese sauce!
The Ancient Roman costume, a truly classic, is one of the quickest-to-make costume among the do-it-yourself ones...
My first great passion was painting, oil painting. I started painting at Middle school, after I found my mum’s old painting supplies...
“Really? Is there no Carnival before Easter in the United Kingdom?” was my naive and surprised reaction to the discovery that no one here knew of this celebration...
I love cooking, every day I cook fresh food for lunch and dinner for my family. The first year we were in the United Kingdom we missed so much Italian cuisine...
I wrote CW - not CV - on purpose. Let me explain why...
Crafty Messy Mom 