Really Random Thursday – the Blue Peter Edition

29May
by Janine @ Rainbow Hare
Wine boxes seem to be the only properly strong packaging these days so I had to ransack my fabric storage…

We didn’t have a television until after I started school, when I was five years old. And I can clearly remember, when we eventually got one, my first best friend, Deborah, asked me whether it was black and white or colour. It didn’t occur to me that she was referring to the pictures when it was turned on so I brought to mind an image of it turned off, with a screen and surround in a somewhat murky colour and said “Green”.

So why am I telling you this? Because it’s Thursday and this is a Really Random Thursday post and, also, because it leads on to the point that I never really took to the television – I actually find it disturbing how little children stare at it entranced and adults send flowers when someone dies in a sitcom. But that is an aside – The point I am leading to is that I spent my childhood climbing trees and one of the only programs I watched with any regularity was Blue Peter. Blue Peter, in case you’ve not seen it, was – perhaps still is? – a children’s program where, among less interesting things!, they made beautiful and useful objects out of old food packaging and everyday household items.

Scoring with scissors was the best way to cut through the boxes.

I took the photos that are scattered about in this post because, for a while, I considered doing a tute on how to adapt my Sewing Machine Cover pattern to make a dolls house from a selection of random things around the house (rubbish/old junk to the uninitiated!) The quilted Vintage Caravan, btw, was, after all, going to be someone’s house even before it evolved into a sewing machine cover…

The curve, of course, was a nightmare!
But it ended up roughly in shape…

Luckily we had some PVA and I also used a stapler but the cardboard was really too thick…

Hard to see but a sort of papier mache holding it all together.

So I added a paper shell. At this point I was still having fun and feeling optimistic about how it would turn out.

Using some very old magazines because we no longer buy newspapers…
But then I decided that anyone with a Blue Peter child within wouldn’t care about the tutorial and would just forge ahead with whatever they could find. And anyone really wanting a step by step tute would find it impossible to match the miscellany of items that come together in this model…lots of parcel tape, 4 video tapes (to raise the floor), the back of an art pad and a piece of floorboard (to raise the floor more), wallpaper from the same art pad, wall paint, decorating filler, an adapted sewing machine cover pattern…
Finally a sneak peek, though plenty left to do!
And this is where I’m at, now. I am hoping that the further this proceeds the less random it will become…
And in the meantime linking up with Cindy for Really Random Thursday :)

P.S. If, btw, you do do decide to try this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and I’ll be happy to do anything I can to help :)

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

15 thoughts on “Really Random Thursday – the Blue Peter Edition”

  2. DeborahGun

    I love that your best friend was called Deborah, and I love that you loved Blue Peter – we didn't have a television either, but this is the one show I remember from my childhood! Your caravan is so cute :-)

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  4. Joanne

    Blue Peter is the best and my middle son is determine to get a badge, I think he would even consider swapping his little sister for one!!!
    The dolls caravan was brilliant and then you covered it in red polka dots and made it ADORABLE!!!

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  11. Willit Neverend

    I love making stuff like this, too. I don't know Blue Peter, but when I was a kid I loved watching a show called 'Art Attack', and now my kids love watching 'Mister Maker'. I think these kind of shows are timeless. Great work. Thanks for sharing.

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  14. junacreationsuk.blogspot.co.uk

    I had a similar childhood to yours, we had a field at the back of the house that we called the conker field and in it was an old disused shoe factory and wood factory – you should have seen my collection of soles. The wood was used to help build my camp, which was actually the neighbour's old greenhouse at the top of the garden – now that was a childhood.
    Your caravan is brilliant, may the Blue Peter child live long within you.

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  15. Pingback: Taking Time – RAINBOW HARE

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