Prezzy time again

Well it seems like a heavy birthday season has started again and I feel I’m quite organised at the moment. It was my friend Claire 25th birthday and I saw this spotty fabric and knew I had to make something for her. She always wears bright colours and this dotty fabric seems to have captured all her favourite hues. This is the first time I’ve made a purse using a purse frame (I bought the frame way back in January I think) and I’ve been putting it off as I thought it was quite technical. However I found a fab tutorial online and away I went. I was quite proud of myself when I had finished and she was so impressed she thought I had bought it. (It’s a good thing I used some scraps of fabric on her card as proof!)

I also made her a bright flowery brooch as well. I’ve been wanting to have a go at making one of these for ages and I had a bit of blue organza in my stash (again, one of Claire’s colours) and thought this will be perfect as a little something extra prezzy. This was very simple to make, I cut out lots of circles starting with a diameter of about 10cm and slowly went down in size. I cut two of each size and slightly burnt the edge of the fabric to stop it fraying. I layered all the circles on lop of each other and stitched them together with some light blue floss. I then ruched every other layer to add some volume and then sewed on a brooch back. My sister has already placed an order for one and I think I’m going to make one for my self as well.

Hello stranger, it's tea time.

Well what can I say it’s been months since I’ve written. All I can say is I haven’t neglected you dear blog out of choice. I have recently moved house and have only just got my internet access sorted in my new house. I have also just about got all my crafting supplies in there rightful place and so can now carry on creating. It feels so long since I made anything.

Well, I have eased myself back into creating by making my new housemate a birthday card. We have got into a bit of a new routine of having our English tea from the pot instead of just making it mugs (very unsophisticated) so I thought I would make her a tea themed birthday card. I cut the base of the tea cup and tea pot out of vinyl and then used a glitter glue pen to add the detail. I hit a few technical difficulties when making this card which don’t really matter but something I will bare in mind in the future. The glitter glue pens were great fun to use but did take about 4 hours to dry, I might have just used them a little too thickly. Secondly once the glitter had dried it fell off! The good news is it was in one piece but still not what you want to happen to a birthday card. But lesson learnt, don’t mix glitter glue and vinyl.

Felted owls and a Westie brooch

Well I haven't written anything recently but that doesn't mean i haven't been busy making things. I have been having a go at needle felting with some cute results. I touched on felting when I was in Uni and my sister said she really wanted to have a go so I thought I would share my knowledge and have a felting day. I now remember why I didn't carry on with the felting. It is hard work and quite time consuming with the needle felting. I did enjoy it but do think you need a fair bit of practice before I would be happy with what I produce. Here's the fruits of my labour, my little owl which kind of looks like a penguin as well.

It was also my mum’s birthday recently and she recently got herself a Westie called Pepper. I saw these cute buttons while I was on holiday in West Wales so I thought I would use the to make her a brooch. I thought I would try and give the brooch a cameo style look so cut the base felt into rounded scalloped edges and then layered some red over the top with ruffled blue and green tartan ribbon underneath and stitched it all together. I’ve been doing a lot of embroidered writing recently and thought I would add the words walkies onto the brooch so it kind of looked like park of the dogs lead. It was quite small but you can still read t. My mum was very happy with it and it’s got me to make a few more brooches which I play around with some new embroidery techniques. 

At last I'm mastering the computer gremlins

I'm still having slight problems loading pictures onto any internet application but I'm slowly getting there. I even managed to list something on Etsy today, one of my birthday cards. I seem to have quite a stock of things for the shop now but just need to have a major listing session. I trying to find a balance between being creative and the amount of time I spend on the internet/ trying to use my computer.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Now I think this is the most eccentric present I have made so far. It was my friend Lisa’s birthday and she had mentioned a while a go that while travelling she and her boyfriend had bought a Didgeridoo in Australia. When I last went to visit her she had mentioned when she bought it they had all been displayed sat in cut off tree trunks. When she said this I thought perfect I fancy a new crafting challenge and that’s what I got. My first task was to plain the top of the wood down smooth then chisel out a hole in the centre for the didgeridoo to sit in. I spent an afternoon covered in sawdust but just wasn’t getting much headway on craving the centre. So I had to see some technical assistance. This involved using a large drill bit and just breaking up the wood so it would be easier to carve. It worked. I did really enjoy this project but it was quite a physical one. I made a small plaque/ label out of copper tape and the oxidised it for a nice antique look. It’s not very exciting put the good news is she loved it and said I was very thoughtful. Mission accomplished.

Lisa also got engaged while in Australia and so I decided to make her a wedding planner as well. Lisa had started to look into venues and is thinking 2010 is the year so I hope this will help her keep all her research in order. I used a dull lined note book and covered it fabric. I then made bookmark dividers out of ribbon to divide the sections of what she needs to plan. I will post some photos of the detail a little later but here is the front cover for now.