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!

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!

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?

In a flutter....

Avid readers of my blog will know that my daughters naming ceremony is looming (I promise there is only one more post with me harping on about it!) and I realised that it was the perfect excuse to get a fascinator...

This time of year is prime fascinator time and I spend a lot of time trying them on as I am one of the very few people who love hats and fascinators but also look okay in them... My husband despairs when he knows I have found a hat stand as he knows I will generally try on every one including the most elaborate ones... I love it!

Anyway, I have already decided what I am going to wear (I am still trying to loose my pregnancy weight so I have very few dresses to choose from anyway!) and have settled on one I bought in a sale which is dusky pink, knee length with hints of deep green and emerald green... So those are the colours I wanted to aim for.

Fascinators are expensive... So I thought - why not make one?!

I saw one of the local high street stores had a sale on and generally they have a lot of jewellery which is easy to take apart and upcycle into a head piece.

My hardest choice is usually what I want to use as the base to fix it to my head as my hair is very thick so hairpins are not a good choice. This time I went for a comb (different to the bases of my previous two fascinators!) with a butterfly on it. It was then just down to choosing some jewellery in my colour scheme and I settled with some feather earrings and a pair of correlated heart earrings as an embellishment.

When I got home I disassembled  my jewellery and started piecing together the head piece...

In previous projects of this kind I have used superglue to fuse the headpiece together but this time I thought I would use silicone glue to see if it didn't dry white which is the problem with superglue!

The silicone glue dried clear... And seemed the keep the rather heavy embellishment of the heart which needed to be glued twice as the feathers needed to be more sturdy!

The project (once I had tried out different ways to arrange the feathers) didn't take long to do although silicone glue takes 12 hours to dry fully...

So, I now have my fascinator and the elements of the afternoon tea are now coming together nicely... I now can't wait!

Mammoth robotics!

I have said before that my husband loves anything that is really old (fossils, dinosaurs etc) so when this little project came up he simply had to make it!

It comes as a kit with easy to follow instructions but with many, many pieces...

For my husband it also had the added bonus of electronics to play with too which he said had clear instructions and took him a lot less time that he had anticipated.

The project took him an evening to complete but it was a wonderful way to while-away some time...

It also acts as a great thing for my daughter who thinks there is nothing better than watching the mammoth move across the coffee table... A definite success!

Take note...

I think it is important to remember which projects you have done, achieved and enjoyed.

So, I created a couple of notebooks with photos of the projects that me and my husband had done over the years.

It is really nice to have a permanent record of the little things we have made - especially gifts that have been given to others.

It is also a useful reference particularly if I am wanting to go back and try a craft again as I have also made sure that some of my not so successful projects are also in there.

My husband was dubious of me doing a little book for him but I catch him from time to time looking at it and pleased that he has a record of it.

Does anyone else do this?