I've struck gold!

I think I’ve struck gold. I went to my local car book sale at Cheltenham racecourse with the hope of fining an interesting tin for my dress making pins (I currently have them in a very tatty cardboard box at the moment). I saw this blue tin and fell in love with it especially the colours, sky blue and red. The fact it was a tin for dressmaking pin just assured me it was meant to be. As I searched a little further I found a whole host of gems on this stall, it was like my birthday and Christmas had all come at once.

The next thing that caught my eye was this Darn it, Mend it kit. This was from the era for make do and mend where you had to fix your tights or stocking if they got a hole. You could just go and buy a new pair like we have the luxury of doing today.

---- The back.----

Now I never need to get my knickers in a twist ever again thanks to durAble knickers elastic, brilliant!

---- A full card of snap fastners (Front)----

----(Back)----

----Needles ----

Some lovely clear glass buttons which catch the light fantastically and some interesting pillar box red plastic buttons. I’m going to have to think of a great project for those as I’ve never come across buttons like this before.

Lots more mother of pearl buttons (I don’t think I will ever have enough)

And lastly some lovely vintage clear glass beads that are a kind of square tube shape. I can’t wait to do something with them. I think I have done amazing well with my purchases but I did have a little bit of shopper guilt which soon faded. Now I have start using all my goodies in my next project to justify my splurge.

Congratulations!

As I said in my previous post, a friend of mine is getting married and I decided to make his wedding present. A Banksy style stenciled graffiti portrait of the happy couple. This was quite a challenge as I could only get a picture of them together off Facebook without raising suspicion. I am very happy with the results and I hope they like it as well. I made a wooden frame and stretched canvas over the top so it looks like a bespoke piece of art work. 

Elvis Lives!.............. Kind of!

I had a few cards to make recently so I decided to make them all in one go. They were all for different occasions and when I make cards I try to personalize them for each person. This made it slightly more difficult to think of different designs. However I think is the beauty of handmade cards. The first card I already had something in mind, my friend is a huge elvis fan. I decided to make a applique style elvis in silhouette using some of the left over fabric I had from the purse I made. I used bondaweb and Ironed it to the card. 

I always find making cards for boys a little harder, I find they are never really bother about receiving cards but you can't leave them out. This is my fathers day card. My dad used to work in the printing industry when it was all printing presses so I'm sure thats where i got my love of fonts from. I used a combination of two printing sets I have to make this very simple design.
This one really stumped me. I off to a wedding next week which coincidentally is on my birthday (a welcome distraction to getting older). This is a civil ceremony between a male gay couple. I've been working on a fantastic wedding present which I will hopefully finish this weekend but I decided to keep there card very simple and just print the date of the ceremony in my antique print set. I might have to do a little more to it as it does look a little dull.  This is the first wedding card i've made so that might be why I found this a little more difficult.

Vintage and Handmade Fair goodies

I know this isn’t recent news but a couple of weekends ago I went along to the Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury Nr. Bristol. I found out the Viv from Hen’s Teeth was going to be there so had to pop by. I have been a regular follower of Viv’s blog http://www.hensteethart.blogspot.com/ and as I was going to Cardiff on the Saturday I thought it would be the perfect crafty detour. It really was worth the extra miles. The fair was a complete feast for the eyes with vintage sewing bits and pieces, fabric, buttons, lace and patters every thing you could think of as well as Vintage inspired handmade purses and pieces of art work from some very talented people.

I was quite well behaved as I allowed myself to spend a certain amount of money which I did very easily. I bought some French linen and lace, some retro looking fabric as well as a daisy maker. I have seen these on American website and have been dying to have a go but have not found any in the UK.
This was my main purchase of the day, one of Hen’s teeth’s stunning hand stitched postcards. I had a lovely chat to Viv about her work and the fair. As soon as I saw her stall I was drawn to this piece due to the colours. I love the hues in the piece and the use of the postcard. I also share Viv’s passion for old postcards and envelopes. I have now found a home for this piece on my desk to act as inspiration.

As I said I went to the fair on my way to Cardiff. On the Sunday the weather was stunning and I went for a picnic with a couple of friends to a lake near Penarth just outside of Cardiff. I had my camera on my and decided to take a few pictures of the wild flowers and strangely it looks quite like piece I bought from Hen’s Teeth.

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.

Stenciled Doilies Trays

After

Before

I recently moved to a new house where I don’t have a dining table. I unfortunately have to do the student thing of balancing my plate and eating off my lap. This is no good if you have a hot meal so it was time to invest in some trays. I went shopping and found trays are quite expensive, I bought a really pretty one and my housemate dropped it! Rubbish! However on one of my car boot trips I found a couple of trays for 20p each. Bargain, but they weren’t that nice so I thought great, a DIY project. I also recently inherited a whole box of vintage doilies which were so intricate and pretty so then I was thinking, great a pre cut stencil. I used enamel spray paint and attached the doilies using spray mount. A couple of coats of paint later, job done. The best thing was when my house mate saw them (she felt so guilty and had offered to buy me a new tray) she said ‘wow, those new trays are really nice where did you buy them from?’ Result.

Scrap Birthday Card

This is a card I've made for a friends birthday which corresponds nicely to the presents I have made her. I used the left over fabric from a purse (the pokadot fabric) and the blue fabric off-cuts from a flower brooch I have made her. I had to chuck in a few colorful buttons for good measure. I hope she likes it.