fabric flower boquet

 

there are only so many times that one can bug one's boyfriend to by one roses. not that i've ever done this of course! so...in a completely unrelated craft thing...here are some fabric flowers i made myself:

 

they're of the japanese hair flower variety (as seen in a previous post) but with seven petals each and with a pipe cleaner glue gunned to the back by way of a stem, and now i shall always have a blue posy on my bedside table : )

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!

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...