this blog is essentially an online diary of my little creative projects - if you can't fix it, throw some glitter over it and add a lacy edge and everything will be alright.

Monday 31 December 2012

very little presents: star wars key rings

i'm keenly aware that i am far too old not to get everyone in my family gifts for christmas, that said, i haven't seen much of my extended family at all since i left for uni - unfortunately i missed my uncles and aunts and all my cousins this christmas...but i hope my uncles like these little key rings i made them anyway:


it's the death star and darth vader's tie fighter!! grey felt for the ships, black felt for backing, lots of pva glue to make them a bit more solid, then fabric pen for the details and glitter glue for highlights. they are a bit naff but they should make them smile : )

making fancy dress ears-on-head-bands

i've always loved fancy dress! i had the best fancy dress box growing up and thanks to the many fancy dress opportunities that university provides i still have a pretty impressive fancy dress box now. the first thing i ever made on my sewing machine was a dragon costume for a supernatural party, since then i've been a shower (from psycho's shower scene), a shark for a hawaiian party and alice for an alice in wonderland diner party Of course there have also been daleks and cats and spiders and ghosts and all the usual things.

now that i've got kid siblings i want to pass on the joy of fancy dress (not that they've not discovered it themselves) so my little sister got these jewel encrusted animal ear head bands for christmas:


apologies for the less than brilliant photo - i was in a bit of a rush to travel home for christmas and these were the last thing i made before i left for home. they were super simple to make - you just need cheap head bands (thank you primark), felt, a glue gun, and any pretty gems or glitter that you might embellish things with. draw the shape you want the ears to be on a bit of paper, fold your felt in two, draw, cut out (so you have a shape that's like two ears attached at the base) do this again (so you have a pair), glue gun along the halfway bit of each ear, attach to head band, fold, glue gun reverse sides together, do same for the other ear, make pretty.

in case you were wondering it's meant to be a cat, tiger and mouse!

rose and bee 'stained glass' panel for mummy

one of the goodies my mother asked for for christmas was a stained glass panel for her window...now as i don't actually know how to do proper stained glass (with the cutting the glass and the lead and whatnot) i thought that a little window charm of my own design, done in relief paste and glass paints, would do the trick : ) i think she liked it! here it is in our front room window in hove:


it is very simple i know but i hope it's thought effective...and just pretend that the bee's other two legs are hidden on the other side of it or something. i hadn't used glass paints or relief paste for absolute yonks but it's not that different from drawing a picture and trying to paint within the lines - i drew around my piece of glass onto paper first so i could get the design right, once i was happy with it i just popped the glass back on top of my doodle and used it as a guide for my relief paste : ) easy peasy!

Sunday 30 December 2012

treasure chests of chocolate coins...and goodies!

a lady i was serving at work told me about her plans to decorate some of our ready-paper-mached treasure chests by painting them gold and filling them with chocolate coins to give to young family members. what a wonderful idea!! i totally copied her - chocolate coins are the best, i have two kid siblings, and already had gold paint, stick on gems and glitter glue. all i needed was the chests and the coins:


i may also have added a tacky and over the top necklace for my sister and a pirate's eye patch for my brother : )


holly golightly eye mask

i do rather love breakfast at tiffany's, and for that matter, anything involving audrey hepburn! i saw this in the sewing project book all sewn up and simply had to get the book! even though it was a bit pricey for me, and even though i knew i wasn't going to follow the instructions to the letter (i rarely do) it was a buy i don't regret. here's the audrey hepburn-esque mask i made my mother:


i used...that's right....FELT! and, even better - actual false eyelashes! also gold star sequins, metallic thread, pretty floral fabric to line the mask and elastic and satin ribbon for the strap on the back. sewn all together by hand : ) i decorated some plain slippers with felt roses to go with it but i think the mask was definitely the feature piece. ooooh i hope she liked it!

getting better at making wallets: faux leather and felt

i have made many wallets by now - they've come in many shapes and sizes, been made out of drinks cartons, duct tape or maps, they never last that long and they never hold quite as much as you need them to...but i quite like them : ) lets hope my boyfriend isn't just being polite when he says he likes them too, here's one i made him for christmas:

 
basically it's a bit of fake leather cut in the necessary shape of a wallet, a bit of felt cut at the same size, and smaller bits of felt to make up the pockets, with a small bit of self adhesive velcro to keep the coins in the coin bit. all sewn together (felt bits all done with the machine, then hand sew the leather part to that as it's a bit thick for my small sewing machine). it looks more like a wallet than any i've made so far so i'm definitely getting better at this! yay! i hope he likes it...
 
 
 
 

felt superhero masks

now these AREN'T MY OWN DESIGN though it wasn't obvious who came up with these first as i copied the idea from someone who copied the idea from someone who etc. etc. so apologies for the lack of link. though hopefully you won't need one once you've seen this picture:

 
they were so easy to make! and so effective : ) my little brother looked very cute in them. incase it's not obvious that one in the top left is meant to be superman.
 
to make these you will need:
 
- sheets of felt
- elastic
- something eye-mask shaped to draw around (i used an eye mask)
- a pen
- pva glue
- scrap paper
- scissors
- large eyed needle
 
to make these:
 
- draw around your eye mask shaped thing on your scrap paper to make a stencil
- make appropriate alterations to your stencil, depends on which superhero you're doing
- cut out stencil
- draw around said stencil onto felt with pen
- cut out
- add: felt with glue if needed (superman, hulk, iron man) or pen for spiderman
- thread needle with elastic
- put mask and needle-threaded-with-elastic together to make a mask you can wear
 
enjoy!
 
 
 
 


Tuesday 18 December 2012

chipped ice mirror cake

my awesome friend is having a strictly come dancing themed christmas dinner. she said not to go too overboard as it's only me and the boyfriend coming (because everyone else is lame!), so i did this to a christmas pudding:


now, i must say, it looks ace! i mean...it was meant to be a mirror ball but it turns out that breaking up a melted sheet of boiled mints into perfect squares (or any kinds of squares) is impossible. i may have made my sheet of mint too thick so i've no clue how we're going to go about eating this, but i feel that the effort will be appreciated : )

to make edible mirror tiles:

you will need - cheep bag of boiled mints, edible silver food spray, and holographic edible glitter (optional)

1. preheat oven to 160 degrees
2. line oven proof dish with tin foil
3. crush mints in a bag with a rolling pin (this is very good for relieving stress)
4. put mint crumbs in foiled thing and put in oven
5. check on it every now and again and take out when it's liquidy
6. sprinkle on the glitter if you managed to find some
7. once it's cooled, removed from foil and spray with silver spray on one side (glittered side)
8. break up carefully with knife (i didn't have safety goggles so wore sunglasses for this bit- you should do something similar)
9. press into or stick onto food you want mirrored
10. figure out how to eat it
11. enjoy!  

 

Thursday 13 December 2012

measuring cup candles : )

i'm hoping that my aunts don't read this blog - if you're my aunt, LOOK AWAY NOW!!

anyway, you might have noticed that christmas is coming up, and as such the challenge of getting non offensive gifts for family members you only see at christmas is upon us. surprise surprise i'm making a lot of the things i'm giving this year, and one luck lady (or a lady who will politely pretend that she's lucky in getting these) will get these:


they're quite cute and a little bit kitch and smell of eucalyptus and rosemary. i probably won't be telling my aunt that i picked up the ceramic measuring cups at pound land (what can i say? i was not expecting the first attempt to go so well!), i might have to go back and get myself a set for the kitchen...

making candles

  1. attach wick to bottom of mould/vintage tea cup/jam jar with a bit of clay (or some other non flammable, non toxic small sticky thing)
  2. tie other end of wick to a lolly pop stick and rest on top of the mould with help from blue tack
  3.  melt wax pellets/broken up old candles the way you melt chocolate
  4. pour into mould when liquidy, add smellies at this point
  5. leave to dry
  6. admire

doily snowflakes

....ok, not only did i copy my friends idea about having paper snowflakes on the windows, i also cheated by following instructions as to where to snip my doilies from pinterest! so i feel a bit like a christmas fraud, but at least they look the part:

i went for doilies as i happened to pick some up from work a while back (£1 for 40 mini ones), to my shame i have never really been sure what to do with them, but they're extra thin so great for folding and the lacy edge bit makes them look more snowflakey. the thing to remember when making snowflakes is that they're meant to have 6 sides - something about water  molecules forming hexagons when they freeze (also why water expands when it freezes), this makes all real snowflakes some variation on a hexagon theme...plus 4 is too few and 8 too many in paper snowflakes anyway.

i am quite tempted to make some out of felt and cover them with sequins for my tiny tree - it's so small you can't really see it for the decorations! : ) 

Monday 10 December 2012

lonely christmas decoration making

: ( so it turns out that most of my friends aren't all that creative or can't/don't turn up if you create a spiced cider and christmas decoration making sesh.....here's what i made anyway:


the elephant, space ship, 'ho' and bird are all salt dough decorations painted, glitter glued and bejewelled. the stocking is felt with ribbon, glitter glue stripes and a button toe, the candy canes are twisted pipe cleaners, the star bauble is a styrofoam ball painted blue with gold star sequins pinned into it and the two above that are made from sticking bits of christmas paper together : )

so what if my friends don't make things? i do, and that's ace enough for me.

salt dough: 2 parts flour to 1 part salt and 1 part water

Thursday 6 December 2012

presents for strangers - the giving tree : )

i'm starting to realise that my boyfriend is a far better human being than me - last week he presented me with a gift tag for the giving tree (a christmas charity thing where people give presents to orphans), it was for a 7 year old girl. I put together a goody bag of craft things; felt, glitter, pompoms, buttons, pipe cleaners, ribbon etc. (in case she's like me), he chose a girly robot making kit for kids (in case she has a more techie leaning) and i made these:


it's a japanese hair flower head band and a little handbag to match : ) i have a really crafty work mate who makes the flowers and she showed me how to make them...this was my first attempt and i must say i am rather pleased with it! to make them you need to cut out many circles of your chosen fabric (i drew around an obliging wine glass to make them all the same size), then you fold each one in half twice to get a quarter, sort of pleat the ruff edge together to make the petal shape, sew them all together (i did twelve), glue gun a button or something pretty in the middle and vuala! a flower! then just stick it to a hair thing and make a matching bag. i went with a very pink sugar skull fabric - it's possibly a pit punk for a 7 year old, but it's a very cute and girly punk so i'm sure it'll be fine.

(for the bag i machine sewed two sheets of felt sandwiched between two pieces of the fabric together, cut around the edge with pinking shears, hand sewed the strap and zip on to that, and then cut out a zip-pull, thread it through the zip bit, folded it in half and glued it to its self.)

Wednesday 5 December 2012

button jewellery for little girls....and grown ups

as one might expect i have what might be referred to as a gargantuan number of buttons, they serve no actual purpose other than to be there, just in case. you never know when you're going to look at a much loved cardie and say, "oh god! that needs bright yellow bee buttons today or it just won't go with my outfit!"

...anyways, i have a little sister who isn't too girly. I think that every little girl needs jewellery, and as christmas is coming up she'll get some from me, but as she's a little girl it'll probably get broken or lost within moments of her opening her presents....so...BUTTON JEWELLERY:


there's a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring. all the buttons, findings and string were already waiting in my craft pile (yes it's a pile....i desperately need to tidy my room), so these were essentially free! so she can break or lose them as she sees fit.

i wasn't sure it they were a bit lame, i mean she's not that little, she probably knows more about computers than i do (i really hope she doesn't check my blog or there'll be no surprises, also sorry for the lack of posts - parents check this so i can't post all the awesome stuff i've made them until after christmas). anyway, so i test drove the necklace and became instantly jealous because it's quite ace. so i made a grown up button bracelet and some miss-match earrings to go with it:


i've since given the bracelet away, but at least i get to keep the button earrings : )

Thursday 15 November 2012

movember rosettes, first attempt at etsy

i've been trying to raise money for movember, it's a bit slow going but have a few things in the pipeline do hopefully it'll pick up a bit. here's mo mospace

anyways, thought i'd finally have a go at listing something on etsy...been a bit apprehensive about doing this as i've always been worried that no one would by the stuff i've made! but selling things on the pudsey stall helped with my confidence there, plus there's loads of really terrible stuff on etsy so maybe i'll be ok : ) here's my shop so far (there'll be more stuff going on there in the next few days...only opened it today!).


they were really quite fun to make, i had simply cut out circles of fabric, did a loose running stitch along the edge and pulled it like a draw-string bag, cut a circle out of felt with pinking sheers, cut out a felt moustache shape, cut two bits of ribbon, stuck it all together with a glue gun and sewed a brooch pin to the back. easy peasey! now i just hope i didn't price them too high at £3 a pop...

Monday 12 November 2012

raising money for children in need..with hair things!

work have a stall on with things the staff ave made to sell for children in need, and i was manning it, making things for two days! it was great! here are some of the things i made:


basically i went to primark and bought a pack of hair bands, clips and streachy bands - £1 a pack, and stuck felt and buttons to them with a glue gun : D things sold rather well all together - hair bands at £2 each, sets of clips for 50p, the felted bee from a while back fetched £4 along with a snail I crocheted while watching the elections. happy-warm-fuzzy-feeling from doing charity stuff : )

Tuesday 6 November 2012

post halloween post

oh halloween! oh how great an excuse you make for people to dress up and make the costumes they dress up in! i had cause to make three costumes this year : D

the first was a very thrown together yet pretty effective transylvanian (i was at a rocky horror drinking game party thing, it was ace):


not the best photo in the world ever but you get the idea - i had about 20 minutes before my shift to throw together a mini felt top hat (very quick sewing job with some glue gun action) and a bow tie (ribbon, glue gun and self adhesive velcro). i already had the wig, sunglasses, white waistcoat, white gloves, black trousers and mock dance shoes....all i needed was a trip to the primark sale rail for a black blazer covered in ducks and some white socks. the overall effect was quite good, even if i do say so myself.

next came the day to do fancy dress at work, we were originally going to do a doctor who themed thing, and i was to be a tardis...but as you may have guessed with the rush preceding the last outfit, i've been rather pressed for time of late, and so had no tardis to speak of! luckily the theme was abandoned so i was able to pop into work 40 minutes before my shift started and made this:


yes that's right, i went a bit more traditional than i usually would with this stuffed-socks-hanging-from-elastic-look-at-me-i'm-a-bouncy-spider outfit. i must say that sticking googly 6 googly eyes to my face with eyelash adhesive (it really is the best stuff for sticking things to your skin!) was what made the outfit.

the last outfit was a bit more meta - i went to see a play on halloween (dracula, i had some friends in it, it was really good) dressed as a media whore. which involved wearing this wig:


which i made out of the adverts in the latest issue of vogue (here modelled by my teddy bear terry, for paper wig-making instructions see martha stuarts website...i went a bit mad with it), teamed with shoes i couldn't walk in, wet look leggings, a strapless top and a fur coat - i know that this is nowhere near as scantily clad as many girls go on halloween, and as a "whore" i should maybe have had more flesh on display, but aberdeen is cold ok. really, really cold. we'd had proper snow a few days before.

so yeh, that was my halloween. hope you all had a good one too!

Wednesday 24 October 2012

sprite cake pile with lychee icing


you can use sprite as a binding agent in cake!!!! nope, i didn't believe it either - but all you have to do is mix your dry cake ingredients together with some butter, then add about half a little bottle of sprite, bake on 180 for half an hour. and if you're me...cut up with a cookie cutter, make into a pile and 'decorate':
 
though i must say the best bit is the lychee icing - simply wizz up half a can of lychees (strained), mix in icing sugar until it's as thick as icing, drizzle generously, add sprinkles and eat! 

knitting my first scarf : )


a couple of weeks ago i took a little ball of wool and a pair of blue knitting needles from the free box of stuff in the staff room at work, these along with a free hobbycraft how to knit leaflet lead to a very productive lunch break indeed! It's not even in the slightest, but i am determined to finish it! i don't think the folk at the university knitting society were very impressed - i went for the first time yesterday, it was a bit surreal and i'm not sure i enjoyed it, but i shall definitely go again....home knitted socks here i come!

Thursday 11 October 2012

velvet ribbon belts

i've discovered something both brilliant and terrible - martha stuart is a real life human being! she's not just a crazy american social ideal!! AND she has a craft section on her website...some of the stuff on there is very stepford housewife, but some of the stuff is rather good. take these velvet ribbon belts for example, they're simple, easy, and look great in a elegantly minimalist sort of way. here are the two i made:

the midnight blue one is for the waist and the black one is for the hips. they don't take too long to make and the materials are cheap (£2 per belt), the only set back for me was finding the right colour of velvet- i want all the colours! the link above has good instructions but i would add that you can use any iron-on hemming web type thing and it'll still work, and that i have no clue as to how long a yard is - so for ribbon length just wrap it around your waist, add a bit for the excess and double as the belt is double sided.  have fun : )

Tuesday 9 October 2012

cute felt fox collar


so cute! so simple! i hate that this is not of my own design!- i was browsing image search for cute felt brooches yesterday when i stumbled upon these felt fox collars and i simply had to make my own (cheaper) version. it was really easy and quick, and it cost less than 50p in materials - one felt sheet, a little bit of white felt for the tail and face, two spare buttons that came with a cardie, and a popper to fasten. i may line it with a pretty ditsy fabric if it gets worn a lot. anyways - to get the pattern started i looked for a top that had the right neck line and drew around it, then freestyled a fox. it's really quite effective on...starting to wonder what other woodland beasties i can drape about my shoulders for autumn...tehehe : )

Sunday 7 October 2012

painting halloween trick-or-treat bags


today's demo was a halloween make - i sat for an hour and painted these:


they're double-sided sweets containers made from thin wood with twine handles. you just paint them, just grab some standard acrylic and a brush and away you go, really easy. i was joined by two sisters and their mummy, they painted the other sides of the containers (they both seemed to like pink a lot, the younger of the two explained why pink is a scary colour (awwww!!)) anyway, i had fun trying to make them as creepy as possible - it's halloween, it's meant to be scary!

scandinavian style christmas cards

i was a bit poorly recently and work were really nice about it and let me do demos this weekend (the demos were going to happen anyway but it was very well timed and appreciated!) so yeh- i got to have a bit of a sit down and play with some of our new christmas card making stuff on saturday (woo!) i've never been too big a fan of the whole red-and-white christmas thing but it all came out rather sweet:


pretty cross stitch style papers and twine, parcel labels and cute ribbons : ) anyone wanting to make cards this year remember: double sided sticky tape is your friend!

moustache glasses, take two

in preparation for movember i've been dreaming up weird and wonderful ways i might don a mo. now i know that moustache glasses aren't the most innovative way i could have done this, but trial and error have taught me that they are the most flattering and least ridiculous way to spend a month wearing fake tashes:

basically i got reading glasses that were in the sale at primark (50p/£1 each), knocked out the lenses with a hammer, made moustache shapes out of felt and card and hung them from the glasses with chains. so far i have one evening pair- black glittery mo with glitzy glasses, and one for day time with flowery frames and a standard mo. you might have noticed the thin plastic moustache to the left of the blurry photo (trying out my phone camera...need to work on that), that one was courtesy of primark too, it was a pair of shades with a moustache already attached! it was £4 but they gave it to me for 50p as one of the lenses was missing which was rather ace as i was just going to knock out the other one anyway : )
 
two more frames to add moustaches to. yay!

Tuesday 2 October 2012

map duffle bag

this one has been in the pipe line for a while now. i find it really hard to find a bag that i like (don't have this problem with shoes, there are always pretty shoes everywhere), so i decided to make one:


i got map fabric from etsy, the grey fabric from my grandad, and my wobbly sewing machine skills from a hatred of projects that take too long to finish. it's a really simple design that i made up as i went along - round bottom, straight sides, sew together, make lining that does the same thing, add handle, sew everything together, realise that "tap firmly with hammer" written on the back of the eyelet packet means "bash frantically with hammer for blooming ages and annoy one's flatmates", roll and sew remaining map fabric for the drawstring, and sew two small bits of the tougher fabric together to make that bit that keeps the bag shut. (yes that's right, i do instructions now!) all in all i'm really quite happy with it : )

Monday 1 October 2012

origami map wallet

way way back i did a post about drinks carton wallets- there have been many reincarnations since then and they have all served me well. but now for something completely different - my origami wallet : ) it's a design by sok song from the book crease + fold (unfortunately i can't find a link online for the instructions - sorry!):


i made a couple of changes to the original design - it's a map of venice rather than a subway map, i inked up the edges with gold and stamped it to make it look slightly less like a bit of old map, i covered the outside with sticky-back-plastic to make it last longer, and i made section for coins by attaching velcro to one of the pockets. i'm rather happy with it, even if it is only going to last a month or so.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

feather shoe clips

the one thing about making stuff that i really do hate is that sometimes it turns out exactly as you had planned...and sometimes it really, really doesn't. take these shoe clips for example:

now one set (the pale grey ones) turned out all pretty and understated, the other set (peacock) are kinda gross. what's worse is that the grey ones i made for me and the gross ones i made as a present - i can't give those away! they're awful and i'll totally be judged forever as being the person who made the tacky peacock shoe clips : ( so i'm giving the ones that were meant for me instead...now i'm stuck with the monstrosities.
 
(to make shoe clips you'll need: shoe clips, felt, feathers, gem, glue gun and better taste and foresight than me)

Monday 24 September 2012

baker st pillow case - i am so not a natural at machine embroidery!

i wanted a baker street sign pillow case and figured it would be pretty cheap and easy to do, and there are so many ways on could do this; fabric paint, applique, permanent marker...but i thought i'd try my hand at something new- writing out the sign on using my sewing machine. it was so much harder to do than i had anticipated! especially the curved bit of the letters : ( here's how it went:

admittedly it didn't go badly enough that it hasn't ended up on a pillow, i probably should have ironed it first so i could take a better picture of it, but ironing pillow cases is wrong, just plain wrong. but yeh, basically i drew it in pencil straight onto the pillow, then i tried my damnedest to sew on top of the pencil.

Friday 21 September 2012

first go at fabric covered buttons : )

these are super easy. a while back i was wondering what to do with scraps of fabric (and then the patchwork was born (update to follow)), but then i was faced with the problem of scraps of scraps! really not big enough to be anything, but a lot of the fabric in my patchwork was given to me by friends and family so it feels wrong to chuck the remnants. however; winter is coming, cheap plain cardies need to be made less boring, and i now own a button maker (£2ish from work). here's the bee buttons i made: 

'tidying my room'...making storage etc.

so yeh- my room is usually something of a bomb sight (i tell myself that this comes with the territory of being a crafter/student), however it has managed to reach pretty epic proportions of messiness of late...something must be done! here's some storage i made:

the tubs once contained m&s treats and the paper i used to cover them is the sort that comes free in crafty magazines - much double sided sticky tape was used. i also covered some cheap note books while i was at it as uni starts next week.

it did occur to me that making more stuff was also making more mess, so they sort of cancel themselves out...oh well.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

fake movember

i am seriously considering doing movember this year. just one teeny, tiny problem - i'm a girl. solution: wear fake moustaches for a month and get people to sponser me!

i know there's over a month until movember, but i've got to be creative about the stuff that's going to go on my top lip! (it kinda has to get bigger as the month goes on) plus i need to double check with work that it's ok... made a mo space this morning, obviously a bit empty at the mo, but will no doubt get fuller towards the end of next month : {D

painting a plate for mummy

it was my mothers birthday a few days ago and she asked for a nice little plate for having cake on. so i got a plain white plate, a blue pen that draws on top of glazed plates and set about drawing as much of the 'owl and the pussy cat' poem as i could on a small round surface (it's a cute poem, plus it gave me an excuse to draw a very stylised owl-and-cat-on-a-boat in the middle) here's how it went:

mummy took the photo - she included the neckerchief and cross stick key ring that i gave her (neckerchiefs are so cool!!!). i must say, quinces really are the most dull looking fruit to draw ever, other than that i think it looks rather nice....however, to my dismay, mummy thought it was so pretty that it would be a shame to eat off it, so it's going on display!!! how awful : ( whoever invented the plate stand should hang their head in shame. grrrr.

first attempt at needle felting

i finally went home to see my folks! (hence the totally lack of posts) but while i was there i did do some crafting - dad took me to the brighton maker's fayre, where i sat with some hippies who taugh me how to needle felt : ) it turns out that learning something new costs £2.50, this pleases me. here's what i made:


it's a bee!!! turns out that needle felting as actually quite easy; you sort of stab at the wool with the felting needle until it looks right. you'll notice the bag of dyed sheep's hair in the background? they gave me that, along with a needle and another blank wool-ball for an extra £2.50.

....i like hippies...and felt. so yeh, pretty ace day out!

Friday 31 August 2012

home appropriate earrings

i'm going home in a couple of days and cannot wait! however, there is a small problem in that my mother doesn't like that i wear miss-matching earrings...i thought that maybe if i made some small and marginally ladylike odd earrings she might not mind quite so much:

they're quite small and understated - the flowers are tiny charms from a new range of jewellery making stuff at work (a la mode), which i added some silvery/pearly beads to and attached to ear wires. i'm thinking that if i team one with a little pearl stud or a tiny enamel butterfly i might get away with it : ) 

Thursday 30 August 2012

clothkits skirt : )

i had my eye on these kits at work for a while, they're a tad pricey but it was pay day and i had staff discount and all so i got one. it took a grand total of an hour to make which was ace, the only problem was the sizing- i cut out the 10 to pin and try on, thinking that i could maybe take it in a bit at the waist, only to have to take it in by about 3 inches all the way around! i thought maybe it was an american thing but no, they're just very generous with there sizing. anyways it has a cool print and was easy to do so yay:

Sunday 26 August 2012

crochet octopus fascinator headband

no doubt my workmates will think me rather silly tomorrow - but i've got a 7am start, and i'll be damned if i'm doing it not wearing something silly on my head to cheer myself up! i finally found a good, free crochet pattern for an octopus and i had a spare blank headband...so naturally i put the two together with some dark blue netting, grey recycled wool, two black beads and some toy stuffing : ) oh i hope i get to go to ascot one day!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

third time lucky - patchwork quilt

i've had a few goes at getting a patchwork quilt done over the years, so far all have failed. but this one, this one is going to get finished...honest:


the squares are only 11cm by 11cm and i want all of them to be different, and i want the blanket to be large : s this could be a challenge! i also don't want to buy fabric especially for it as that's totally not the point of a patchwork quilt. wish me luck/give me cool fabric squares!

Monday 20 August 2012

awesome customised-with-hermes-wings shoes!!!

a very wonderful friend of mine cooked for me last night, let me stay on her sofa, and gave me a pair of shoes. the shoes now have tacky padded lycra gold wings on them:

i happened to have a gold bandeau bra that cost me a pound from primark (it was worn once as part of a fancy dress thing) i did not foresee it ever coming in useful but am very glad i forgot to throw it away as the fabric and the padding are what the wings are made from : ) i simply sewed them to look like wings and glue gunned them to the shoes- taking care to make them even.



finally doing something with some old embroideries of philosophers

way, way, way back i got it into my head that i'd make a huge patchwork blanket with alternating squares of pretty fabrics and embroideries of philosophers....i did 4 embroideries, 1 of which was descartes (naturally he got binned). but now they've got pride of place on a blank patch of wall : ) i glued them to card and stuck a felt frame on top:

Saturday 18 August 2012

mint chocolate monocles!

i have the best new cook book ever!!!! ok, the actual 'cook' bit of it is a bit underwhelming, but everything is so pretty! and awesome!

.....my first rather sleepy post-work attempt at biscuits without any of the right tools didn't all go quite totally to plan - but i now know that you can melt sweets (in this case mints) in the oven to make 'glass'! oh the possibilities!

anyways, here are my rather rugged chocolate biscuit monocles with peppermint glass and strawberry laces rope:


next time i shall make sure to put enough smashed mints in each one - the 'glass' in some of them was a bit holey.

Friday 17 August 2012

getting ideas from mollie makes freebies

i got the make-your-own luggage tag freebie in the last mollie makes magazine, and it got me thinking; there is stuff you can do with tiny amounts of scrap fabric! you see the kit contained two small squares of fabric along with a thin long bit and a small piece of acetate. that's all! and it made this:

now i have an overflowing bag of fabric remnants left over from old projects that just keeps increasing in overflow, and i keep seeing cool remnants going really cheap on ebay....so i think i may do some little sewing posts some time sooooon : )

Thursday 16 August 2012

felt sugar skull garland

so there i was, browsing the felt sugar skull garlands on etsy and when i thought that i could do better/not spend £15+ on something someone else made which i could easily make myself.... here's the ressult:


they took a whole lot longer than i anticipated, but they're so cute! i simply cut out skull and flower shapes in felt, embroidered the skulls and attached the felt eye-flowers with beads and stuff, made them pretty, backed them on yet more felt and attached them to a ribbon. they're presently making a corner of my room a lot less dull : )

Saturday 11 August 2012

pretty mini notecards for a friend

it's finally happened - i now have more cards than people to write to. arg! but it's ok, i have a cunning plan (i was watching black adder while making these), anyway, the idea is that i palm them off on people who might have a use for them. here's some i'm sending to a very tasteful friend from back home:

holmes cameos

so anyone who's been in my room will know that one half of it is ace and looks very much lived in, and the other half is imposingly blank. it's the blank half that i see when i sit on my bed, so i eat, sleep, work, make things and watch iplayer with hideously uniform blankness starring me in the face. here's my first attempt to rid myself of this plague:

they're paper covered canvases with cameos of my 4 favourite sherlock holmes actors on : D

i actually was trying something i was taught at work; i got some £1-something-before-staff-discount-canvases, and covered then with really pretty paper, and then stuck my cameos on top. to do the cameos i turned the brightness on my laptop right up and traced photos straight from the screen (i had a friend over who showed me how to do this - it seems totally obvious now that i know you can do it!)

after all that i just stapled them to a thick piece of ribbon and hung it from my wardrobe door.



tardis ukulele!

it was my friends birthday a couple of days ago, at first she said "get me a ukulele!", but then she text to say "forget the ukulele, make me something." but i'd already decided to give her my old ukulele.....so i painted it a bit like a tardis:

i gave my self like 20 minutes to get this done - there was a lot of panicking and hair-drying paint to speed up the whole process, but it's actually ok. more 'arty' than 'accurate' but i can live with that, and hopefully the birthday girl will learn to play the ukulele now - because that would be ace!

Tuesday 7 August 2012

harry potter and star wars felt finger puppets

oooooh i'm such a big kid! i made these by gluing bits of felt together, and then sewing the fronts to the backs : ) i hope my kid-siblings appreciate the effort! here are the harry potter ones for my sister:


and these are the star wars ones for my brother:


r2d2 is by far my favourite!