What I made

In an effort to breathe new life into my Twitter account I created this Twitter Factory background image. It took me about 10 days to complete and is designed to seamlessly repeat. To see the full effect please check out this Twitter Factory background page.

Oh… and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @whatimade.

Creating your own individual Twitter background image can be a lot of fun, why not give it a go? And, if you are out of ideas check out Themeleon – a cool little tool that makes creating interesting backgrounds a piece of cake.

1) “I’m no monkey’s bottom – give me another mouthful”

2) “No one’s stealing my food – pass me the ketchup”

3) “No one’s going to beat me – where’s my pudding”

4) “Hmm… I think Mummy’s tricked me!”

My two boys are constantly on the move, even at meal times, which makes getting them to finish their food almost impossible. So with this in mind I decided to turn eating into a challenge, something that would appeal to their sense of competition. The result was the rather unusual plate accessories you see above. They clip onto the edge of the plate and carry different messages, all aimed at getting kids to ‘finish their food’. And they do work – I’ve tested them!

The trickiest part will be making the clip attachment. I used a bulldog clip, thick wire and some pliers. Just follow the diagram above – the goal is to firmly attach one end of the wire to the bulldog clip, and then bend the other end in such a way that it can grip the base of the cards.

As for the the card designs, they don’t need to be highly finished, the idea and message is more important – just have fun. But just in case you are out of inspiration, I have made colour and black and white versions of my designs available for download (see link below).

Download project files›

Includes:
1) Colour versions of artwork – just start assembling
2) Black and white versions artwork – have fun colouring them in first
3) Collectable instructions – they look nice in a folder
126 downloads so far, thanks everyone! (updated weekly)

I’d like to thank Diane, owner of the excellent Craftypod website. I recently purchased her Creating a blog audience e-book, and it has been a great help to me. Diane was also kind enough to offer me some advice – so this post is dedicated to her!