Going to the chapel... Finally!

So, as I wrote in a previous post, my sister is finally getting married in August after being with her fella for going on eight years... And I have just finished their wedding present...

My sister doesn't know that I write a blog so I thought it would be ok to show off her wedding gift...

My sister likes everything very modern and chic so she can be a bit of a nightmare to buy for because if it isn't 'just so' then you know about it! However, her fiancé has no problem with most things so they balance each other out!

I wanted to make them something that was unique but also timeless that, hopefully, they would keep for years and years. So, I came up with the idea of using a box frame and tiles to create their initials and the date of the wedding...

For the backing I went through my huge collection of papers I have got from magazines... My collection is HUGE because I don't really make cards but you never know when they could come in handy...

I chose a very simple and classy paper, cut it to the right size and stuck it to the back of the frame. The tiles were bought from Etsy from a shop called Button Lane (who were super quick and easy to buy through). The letters were from my stash!

And here we are... A present fit for a wedding? I hope so!

Not just chocolate...

Easter is quite a big deal in my family. Other than Christmas it is the only time of the year that all the family get together for a big meal and catch up. Most of my family are based five hours away from me with one of my cousins having to travel just as far to get to see her family too...

At Easter when I was a kid chocolate was always exchanged and everybody, young to old, got an Easter egg. However, as the years have passed, and our waistlines have expanded we have become more aware that chocolate from all members of the family seems far too much so we usually find a little gift instead.

This year I wanted to make a little something for everyone...

My husband bought me a cross stitch kit from Hobbycraft as I had expressed an interest in trying out the art of cross stitch that he had excelled in. However, the kit lay dormant for sometime as it seemed very daunting.

After completing the duck and chick cross stitches (as covered in previous posts) I had a bit more confidence to work at the design for each person.

I decided to give personalised keyrings - all with a letter corresponding to their name.

I had ten to do.

I bought the acrylic keyrings from amazon (link below)...

When you unfold a huge piece of aida it feels so daunting... So I folded it into quarters making it smaller and easier to work with.

Following the pattern in the kit I started doing the letters... Some were harder than others... 's' was particularly difficult for me...

My other problem was that I needed to do something to hide the back of the keyring which was thin to fit with the aida... So I had at look in my box of crafts (an aladdins cave of craft odds and ends) and found some scraps of decoupage paper and thought this would work wonderfully.

These were trimmed down and fitted nicely into the keyrings... The aida had to be trimmed carefully as it was quite difficult to get it flat in the keyrings...

And here they are....



I am pleased with the results... And a few less calories than chocolate!

Paid to craft and create!

The usual mixture of family get togethers and then returning to school (as a teacher) always seems to impact the amount of crafting that I try to do.

However, being a school technician (with particular attention to costume and props) it does mean that occasionally I get to do some crafting as part of my job (certainly a perk).

With every new school year comes new school productions and my boss has been thinking about doing Hamlet as part of the School Shakespeare's festival. The festival is in theatres up and down the country and schools rehearse a thirty minute version of a Shakespeare script which is then performed in a local theatre. On the night of performance three other schools perform their plays on the same night as yours. This is my fourth year of doing it and I quite enjoy it. (See link for more info!)

My boss has decided that she wants Hamlet to have a modern vibe to it and wanted the musicians to have birdcage veils... And here lies the project!

After finding out the proper name for them I researched where one could lay their hands upon the french netting that is used in such headpieces and found that I would have to be parting with quite a bit of cash as it is quite a specialised material in millenary circles.

My disappointment quickly disappeared  when attending a fete at the weekend and my daughter won a massive tennis ball and it was contained in some netting that would make a perfect substitute for the french netting I so badly needed.

Back at school I sprayed it black and was impressed how good it looked.

This was then attached to a cheap poundland head piece and then spruced up with some black net that was in stock.

I am pleased with the result and have made two for the show... If only I could be paid to craft everyday!

A Guard Dinosaur of my very own!

My husband has been sewing again... Something he always does by hand as he doesn't trust my sewing machine... Not that he can get to it at the moment due to the large quilt that is currently being pushed through it!

I bought some fat quarters of fabric for the bow tie project a couple of months back and in amongst that material was some fabric with dinosaurs on it. To him, this was fabric Mecca and thought that he was his duty to use it.

So he designed a dinosaur that, once finished, would sit on my side of the bed during the day and 'guard me' during the night...

The whole idea of 'guard dinosaurs' is one that has been around many years - in fact, since me and my husband moved to Yorkshire. I bought him a dinosaur when he was unemployed to cheer him up (he never grew out of loving dinosaurs!) and as a bit of a joke he said it would guard the bed and him at night as it would make sure I wouldn't steal the duvet... And so the Guard dinosaur was born...

Even my 10 month old daughter has a Guard Dinosaur (who is apparently called Terry) whom she plays with in her cot when she awakens at some unearthly hour... Something which is all too frequent at the moment!

So, 'Eric' my Guard Dinosaur was made. He is made of two contrasting fabrics (easily purchased from Hobbycraft) and drew the outline of the dinosaur on the wrong side of the fabric.

He then sewed the two main body pieces together with the wrong sides facing leaving a quarter inch seam allowance. He then added the contrasting fabric pieces and then turned it inside out.

He stuffed the dinosaur with off cuts of wadding and toy stuffing which I had in my scrap boxes (something I am grateful for as I MANY off cuts from quilting projects!)

The rest of the dinosaur was then sewn together.

My husband then chose some buttons for the eyes and added some google eyes onto the buttons.

And there you have it... I introduce to you: Eric!

Quilting against the clock.... Part III

After spending a lot of the previous evening appliqué - ing I had a finished panel... Only another 12 to go plus the extra filler, backing, wadding, edging etc!!

The next on the list was the peacock to symbolise my parents trip to India as my mum couldn't get over the fact that she had wild peacocks to look at every day!

The picture I found had a lovely big tail and didn't seem too difficult to cut into colour blocks.

I have been able to use scraps and off cuts of cotton for this one ... The blue is from the off cuts of the massive quilt that I made for my husband... The green is from the bow tie project at school and the silver is from the previous lemur leftovers!

The cutting out of the fabric was slightly more fiddly than the last one... There seemed to be more small part in this one than in the last one.

The crest of the peacock will be finished once I have appliquéd it... Something I plan to do tomorrow night... I can't wait as I am really enjoying this project so far!

Butterflies and bling...

So, I may be getting a bit of an obsession with fascinators ... I seem to want to make a lot of them but  I then have to sell them because otherwise the house will really be over run by feathers and bling!

My latest creation is another one with butterflies but this time to go on a hair clip which I picked up and thought might make a nice headpiece.

I did a lot of different drafts of this one as I could not decide which side the feathers should go on.

All the feathers are stuck on with silicone glue which, I have to admit, is one of my new favourite things... It seems to work with everything and doesn't have the white residue that seems to be left when using superglue.

I am really pleased with the results - so pleased that it is now for sale on my etsy page (see side bar for link!)

Definitely more of a back-of-the-head accessory rather than a side one!

A second one will follow... I just can't find the picture...

Again, this is available in my etsy shop!

Taggie anyone?

My daughter is now nine months old and is now heavily into exploring the world around her. As a mother I hope to give her things that she can enjoy in her play time.

I came across this tutorial on how to make a Taggie which has different ribbons for a baby to explore. It also crackles - and my daughter LOVES things that crackle!

The project is easy to follow, simple to do and cheap to make...

It is the perfect project for using up small squares of fabric too (something I have in large quantities!)

The project did not take long at all to complete either which made it a good project to do of an evening when I just wanted to sew but not spend too long on it.

The website is: How to make a crinkle Taggie from cucicucicoo

My daughter simply loves it! She finds it fun to bury her face in it and laugh very loudly - oh how I wish how her brain works!

Home sweet home cross stitch...

I love getting free gifts... I just don't like them if it means I can't complete the project myself!

This happened about six months ago when I came across an envelope which was quite obviously a free gift from one of my many crafty magazines. It was a cross stitch of some bird houses... And the pattern was nowhere to be found!

So, it was quickly shelved in a cupboard - out of sight, out of mind!

A couple of days ago it saw that my husband was stitching ... And it was something small that I didn't recognise and asked him what he was doing... It was the free cross stitch and he was using the picture on the front of packaging to do the pattern...

Thankfully, him being a seasoned cross stitch whizz meant that he could at least guess where the middle of the aida was and could just about match up the colour blocks.

The finished item is a little bigger than the coasters that he did yet too small to put in a frame... Any ideas?

My first completed cross stitch!

As I have mentioned before I usually leave the cross stitching to my husband as he is quite content with tackling big projects. But I thought maybe it was time to see what all the fuss was about and try a small cross stitch of my own.

I picked up a cheap one from Hobbycraft with the thinking that if I didn't finish it/ couldn't work it out then it didn't matter!

I have a MASSIVE thing about chickens (though I have none of my own... Yet!) so it seemed appropriate to pick a chicken cross stitch...

The thing that always confused me about counted cross stitch was the fact that I never knew where to start...

Thankfully the kit I got showed me where the middle of the aida was and then I got stitching....

The pattern I did is not the same as the one on the design as I added an extra line by accident (obviously trying to do some too late at night!) so it is a slightly fatter chicken than planned.

The sense of achievement was amazing when I finished as I chipped away at it a bit every evening...

I don't know what will happen to him... Perhaps another coaster? Any ideas?

Black hats and feathers...

It is now high wedding season so it is fascinator time... But I always find that it is better to make your own!

I love hats and head pieces - regular readers of my blog will already know this! And I also thought that my etsy shop needed a few new things on it...

So I created this... The base piece is a small black hat with a ribbon rose on it attached to a hair clip... I loved this but thought it needed some feathers to make it look a little more snazzy!

I did experiment with adding some diamonte to it to see if that made it even better but decided that it perhaps didn't need it!

So... Here it is... It is now available in my etsy shop (see side menu for the link) - I am a little gutted that I am selling it but my house already has many, many head pieces and hats so this one has to go!

Soaring high with paper wings...

A couple of weeks ago I bought my husband a paper craft challenge. It was to build a Merlin.

The paper craft kit starts off as three flat sheets of card... And you cut out the pieces and make them 3D...

My husband sat down every evening to chip away at the project... And look at the result...

Amazing!

Picking up a 3d penguin!

My husband gave me a little craft kit for Christmas a number of years ago and it has sat in the cupboard since then (and even survived a house move!)

This weekend I thought I would finally assemble the kit - a penguin made out of corrugated cardboard strips.

The instructions were clearly translated into English as some of steps were a bit unclear. Thankfully there was a lot good pictures to give you the gist of things.

Surprisingly, the glue that came with the kit was very good and stuck the cardboard coils together well.

I suppose this project was a bit like quilling - the rolling up of strips of paper and making things from them... This was a bit more 3d!

The project in all was finished in a day - I think it is rather cute... I am desperately trying to find others in the set to no avail... Any ideas?

Rats!

The summer term is always packed with exams and stressing students but the one breath of fresh air is the middle school play which is an adaption of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere called 'London Below' and the set is currently being constructed, script being written and the props are being made...

I sometimes dread when my head of department writes the scripts as you never know what props she is going to come up with. The latest one that she wanted some rats made which can sit on your hand but also not look realistic and look handmade... This is right up my street!

I first made a paper version at my desk to work out how big it needed to be and then took it apart to make a template.

I then found some scraps of felt that I had in my stash of stuff which sits in a basket and cut out a body in the felt and stuck it together.

I cut out two ears and sewed them on and added scraps of red for the inside of the ears.

With a length of red material I rolled it up into a tail - and the fact that it is very creased seemed to help!

I sewed the eyes and added the whiskers...

And voila! A quick rat puppet!

When I make the next ones I hope to do the following:
1) sew down the body to make the seam join stronger
2) use embroidery thread for the eyes to make them stand out a little more
3) stiffen the felt with starch spray to make it more rigid!

Loving mices to pieces...

As it has been a busy time at school I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on bigger projects to do in my evenings so instead turn to little but satisfying ones while watching tv of an evening...

As ever, I still quest for the perfect craft magazine so was surprised that many weekly women's magazines are jumping on the bandwagon.

The latest in these is prima who have released a 'special' which is dedicated to all kinds of crafts.

On the front of the magazine is a kit to make a pin cushion mouse - perfect for an evenings worth of sewing!

The pattern was clear and easy to find... However, the instructions left quite a lot open to interpretation and could have benefitted from photos for each of the stages as both me and my husband had to re read a couple of the stages for sense!

Otherwise it made quite a pleasing pin cushion - though at the moment it is sat on the bookcase waiting to find a home!

Footsteps and memories...

One of the many joys of having a young baby is the fact that there are many little things you can do to give yourself a memento of when they were very tiny!

This imprint was taken when my gorgeous daughter was only 3 months old at our local children's centre.

Play dough was placed in a clean metal takeaway container and her foot was carefully placed and pushed... Careful that the dough doesn't go between the toes otherwise it can take an age to clean afterwards!

Liquid plaster of paris is then added until the foot is filled and there is about a 1cm deep above it.

Let it dry for 24 hours.

Then remove the plaster carefully and use a dry toothbrush to get rid of any excess dough.

And there you have it. I have mounted my daughters on a cheap memory box frame with a sheet of patterned paper...

This particular one is so easy to do that I am thinking of doing one when it is her naming ceremony too as she has grown a lot since this one!

The perfect present for a 6 month old...

When my husband was looking for his next cross stitching project he saw this kit and just knew that he wanted to sew it for our daughter who has just turned six months old.

My husband dedicates a lot of time to reading our daughter books of every kind but she especially loves the Mr Men books. So when he spied a height chart with mr men he simply had to give it a go.

The hardest part was trying to find the right place to start as finding middle of such a long project was not easy... But once he started on one the rest fell into place.

He has probably taken about a month to complete the project by completing a bit every night...

When he finished the pattern he also wanted to dedicate it to our daughter... Her nickname is 'little face' hence why it says 'for face'. My husband was particularly pleased with this as he didn't follow a pattern and did it freehand.

The piece is now waiting to be stretched and framed and hopefully will be enjoyed for years to come...

Covering the drawers...

There is always a project or two that you simply MUST do. And this was one of them...

I had recently discovered the delight of filling up my evenings with art and crafty kind of stuff and when I wasn't doing that I was reading about art and crafty type stuff (when I do something it always has to be at 100%!)

Simply homemade had this quirky little project to help use the bundle of free papers that came with the magazine that month. All I needed was the drawers in question, a length of red ribbon and some red paint.

I have tried to find the drawers since but have failed. I have put a link to some similar ones on the bottom of the post...

The knobs of the drawers were carefully removed (by saw) and the drawers were measured out on the paper. The paper was then stuck using a high quality glue.

The sides were also then measured in the same way and paper stuck down.

The ribbon was then measured across the drawers, cut to length and then stuck down.

The knobs were painted with red acrylic paint and stuck on the ribbon. It was left to dry for 24 hours.

It now sits in my daughters nursery which holds little bits and pieces... Very effective indeed!

Getting shirty with the Stuarts...

The play I am currently doing the costumes for is certainly creating many challenges for me and I am certainly relishing them.

The problem of budget is still looming especially when I realised that we needed some very specific shirts for some of the male actors.

In 1665 in England, male shirts were very tailored and had big lacy collars. But because I was making these for non fault characters I needed to come up with a 'junior' version of this.

I bought a couple of cheap white shirts and cut off the collars and unpicked the pocket from the front.

I then set about pinning the shirt into the shape that I required. The trickiest bit was the sleeves but it got easier with each one that I did.

I found some off cuts from some previous costumes and made a simple collar that was similar to some of those I had seen in John Peacocks book 'Costume from 1066 to the present' and then pinned it in place.

It was then to the sewing machine and sewing everywhere that I had pinned - quite a feat with the mere quantity of them!

I dressed the mannequin again and added the black sash which helped with the sculpting.

I was so so pleased with the result and now can't wait to see it on the actor who will certainly bring the costume to life!

Maid in the nick of time...

The last couple of weeks have been focused on my schools production and after finishing a couple of maid's caps I then needed to finish the dress.

The dress started off with loads of black lace around it and buttons down the front. They were the first thing to go so I had a basic black dress.

I then cut the pieces of the apron from an old white flat bed sheet (boiled at 90o first in the washing machine!) and then sewed them together.

I then pinned on the white lace and then sewed it  on.

I then pinned the apron to the dress.

I used invisible thread to then stitch the apron to the dress.

Voila!

P.s. The picture of the dress is on an awful metal mannequin... I am begging the school to buy a proper one for the department as it would make life so much easier!

Maid from pillowcases...

After starting back at the school I work at after 6 months maternity leave I was thrown back into the craziness that is a school production.

With my sewing skills I usually end up on costume which gives me the excuse to sew during the work day which is never a bad thing in my book.

One of the many challenges of this production was the fact that we had zero budget to work with. And no materials to speak of...

I discovered in the drama props cupboard (known fondly as 'The Cupboard of Doom') a couple of white pillow cases and a couple of aprons I had thrown together for a previous production so thought that those would make a good base for whatever I needed to come up with.

The play itself moves through many time periods so the costume needed to reflect that. In a couple of scenes there was the requirement for some servant costumes so that is where I started.

In 1880 the maids cap was quite small and perched on the persons head... Using part of the pillow case I had found earlier I started fashioning together some sort of head piece - sewing the fabric carefully on an ancient and clunky sewing machine!

And this was the finished result... I am currently finishing another maids headdress but for a different era ... I will post that one too when I get it done... Who would have thought that a pillowcase would make excellent headwear?
P.s I had to buy a polystrene head for this project but found it quite difficult. I recommend Amazon for this as they are certainly the cheapest by a long way...