Little Red Hen!

I'm in a treasury entitled Little Red Hen! It's fab!

Can you see Gertrude in the middle there - she looks like she is enjoying herself! This treasury was made by Bags By April so thanks!! I haven't put the link up to the treasury itself as it expires fairly soon but I like to capture the ones I am in so I can look back :)

Tutorial to make your own padded envelopes using reclaimed materials

Materials you will need:

Paper – something strong like book pages/wallpaper. I wouldn’t recommend magazines.

Bubblewrap – I get mine free from the fruit and veg aisle at the supermarket. Just make sure you ask first!

Scissors

Double sided sticky tape along with normal sticky tape

Paper cutter (optional)


How to do it:

Gather two pieces of paper and ensure that they are roughly the same size (you can trim stray edges later). Choose which is going to be the front of the envelope and which is going to be the back. The back piece needs to have about half an inch cut off it at the top.


Turn your back piece over so that the inside of the envelope is facing up. Don’t start with the front piece as the bubble wrap will end up in the way later! The add a small strip of double sided tape around the outside of the paper.

Cut yourself 2 piece of bubble wrap that fit inside the tape and then peel the backing off the top strip of tape and stick one piece of bubble wrap to it. You may need additional tape behind the bubblewrap near the bottom to secure it firmly.

Take your second piece of bubblewrap and place it on top of the other piece. Add tape to the back of the bubblewrap as seen

Peel off all the backing and place the front of the envelope onto the top of the bubblewrap.

You’ll need to postion it carefully but don’t worry if the edges don’t match up perfectly – you can trim them later. Your envelope will now look like a sandwich

You will now need to press around the outside of the envelope to stick the 2 pieces of paper together.



And voila – you have a padded envelope made from reclaimed paper!

You can have fun and use lots of different papers. The extra inch on the front piece can be folded down to make the lip of your envelope which can be secured by tape. I also keep scraps of plain paper to use as address labels.

Yeah - artwork finally up!

Matt put my 'what nots' up on the wall on Saturday and yesterday I managed to put the artwork up on the wall that has been waiting for a long time to go up!

I filled up the far side of the wall first - the other side of the wall has plenty of room left for new artwork!

This is the small what not - it has a collection of my small trinkets on.
Clockwise from top:
ATC from Jennyflower
ACEO from Tizzalicious
Small parrot figurine - Matt bought for me from a jumble sale
Little house - Matt bought for me from a jumble sale
Izzy the teal Jacabunny from Kit Lane on Etsy
Chicken (right in the middle) - Matt bought for me from a jumble sale
Gnome with wheelbarrow - from the charity shop

The bigger what not! Clockwise from top:
Blue sausage dog - from the jumble sale
Funky chicken/bird ornament - charity shop
Rosie Lee teabag softie - Ethel and Edna
Cupcake pot - Anya painted for my birthday
Sharks Jaw - Matt has had since he was he was about 6. He bought it when he lived in America.
A Swirly silly doll - specially made for me by Lindsay @ Ethel and Edna.

I have already blogged about most of the artwork I have up on the wall - you can find out all about it here. Below is the new artwork I have acquired since January!

Matt bought this one for me for Christmas from a local craft fair - I love it!! I can't remember who the artist is but Matt will know. I'll amend this post when I find out!

I bought these 2 pictures from the jumble sale in the fill a bin bag for £2!! Well my sister grabbed me the big eyed girl as she was at that end whilst I was rummaging for dresses :) The birds are just really pretty too and I liked them!


And these last 2 give you a better idea of what all the bits and bobs look like together!

A wip

Remember how I was in a funk the other day and had lost my mojo? Well I went up to the craft room, had a little tidy around and found this beautiful panel I had forgotten about. I sent a parcel off to Lindsay at Ethel and Edna and she sent one back that contained this panel.

It was just the embroidered letter on the thin material (not sure what it is!) and when it arrived I knew I wanted to put it on some floral fabric. The both fabrics were another gift but I can't remember if they came from Alice from Raspberry or Sharon from Iris and Lily!

And this is what I have done with it so far - mounted onto one floral fabric with another as an background. The lace is only pinned at the moment and needs to be hand stitched on. This will become a cushion and I already have the creamy coloured fabric it will be going onto. It's very different to what I normally do but I quite like that!

Matt put the what nots I got from the jumble sale up in the craft room yesterday but before I can fill them with my fabulous trinkets etc I need to hang the pictures I framed the other day. So that is what I am doing today - expect pictures tomorrow!

Treasury

I managed to grab a treasury last night for the Crafting in Colour team of which I am a proud member :)

You can find it here if you would like to comment and click!

Not your ordinary buttons!

I was inspired by a thread I saw on the crafts forum this morning asking about buttons and it reminded me that I hadn't shown you the buttons that the lovely Ruth from Tip Top Toppers made for me. I'd happened to text her (about something random probably!) and she text back asking if I would like some buttons she was making. Gimme, gimme, gimme was my response although a little politer than that!

Aren't they fab? And the colours fit in perfectly with a wip that is, erm, in progress at the minute!

I also got some paper buttons from a lovely seller Ormolu on Etsy. I'd featured her in a button treasury and fell in love with the buttons so I had to have them!


And they are so nice! I got them for a birthday card but I didn't order them in enough time - oh well, they will come in handy for something else I'm sure!

And if you were at Ikea at Ashton on Monday morning and saw a super sonic blur rush past you to get to the cushion covers then that was me. And this is what I had spotted.

Button goodness in the form of cushion covers!!!!!!!!! Do you think if we write a petition to Ikea and get them to produce this as one of their fabrics off the roll that they would listen to us? I would probably buy a whole roll! And if we can't persuade them, how many cushion covers do you think it would reasonably take to make me a skirt? And a coat? And a whole set of bedding? I think you get the point!

My local scrap store - Sams

Be warned - this is a picture heavy post :)

I asked at Sams this morning if they would let me take some photographs as I always get asked what you can get at the scrapstore - they were very happy to let me. So here are the pictures with a few words - if you want more detailed descriptions then check my Flickr. There are 3 rooms to Sams and we will start with my favourite - the fabric room.

Lots of yummy colourful felt offcuts.

Another view

The back wall with some great fabric ribbon that would make a good binding for a quilt.

Yet more fabric!

The view down to the fabric rolls

The fabric rolls themselves - yummy!! The next room up is the paper room.

This is as you walk in - it's only a small room but has an amazing amount of stuff in it.

Piles of paper! And then to the main room.

Ribbons and paint and plastic bits to rummage through.

More paint!

The main table.

This is a good overview of the room!

This is a good example of the varied things they get at Sams - big plastic Marmite jar anyone?

So that is what my local scrapstore looks like - if you live in the UK and want to find out where your local scrapstore is then check here.

EDITED TO ADD - you don't pay individual prices on anything - you get a basket full or a supermarket sized trolley full!

In a funk

You know when you get to that stage and just don't want to do anything? Well that is me this week. I managed to go to Ikea and get some frames for all the artwork that will be going up in my craft room and I managed to frame them but the rest of the week has been out to be a bit plurgh - if you know what I mean! I have no motivation to do much other than tend to the family's daily needs. I will however post here a list of blogs I like to read - prompted by the lovely Vintage Niki. I mentioned on Twitter that I have lots of blogs in my google reader to read and Niki asked if I would share some so here they are!

They are in no particular order as I have them in various sections within the reader so they aren't even alphabetical!

A Cat Of Impossible Colour
A Thrifty Mrs
Elspeth Thompson
Skylark and Son
The Hermitage
The Little House By The Sea
The Toy Society
Thrift Candy
Applehead
Art Mind
Blu Shed
Claire's Crafty Blog
Crafting in Colour
Curly Pops
Daisie Davies
Dropstitch
Hens Teeth
Her Library Adventures
Iris and Lily
Jennyflowerblue
Kala
Kootoyoo
La Pomme
Leililaloo
Lino Forest
Meet Me At Mikes
Mama and Jack
Miss Frugality
My Paper Crane
Natural Attrill
Raspberry
SouleMama
Moosh
The World Of Twiggypeasticks
Tip Top Toppers
Tweed Thoughts
Tummy Mountain
Contemporary Embroidery
Dear Fii
Dog-Daisy Chains

This is only 41 of the blogs I read - there are another 245 in my blog reader. Eeeek!

And because a blog post isn't a blog post without a picture here is a summery top I got at the RSPCA charity shop the other day - it has beautiful swallows flying about on it! I got it with a gorgeous yellow linen skirt which will go perfectly with it when the weather warms up a bit!

I'm still here.....

.....I promise although I will be back properly tomorrow with a post. I've just been very very busy!

Mummy, I love you!

This was the greeting I got at 7.15 this morning - much better than the 5.40 earlier in the week! I think Matt had a word :) I was a very lucky mummy and had my breakfast made for me all by Anya. She carefully got my favourite bowl out and poured my cereal into and she did the same for Matt too. Tara also decided to get breakfast herself and opened her packet of porridge oats - unfortunately they went all over the floor but Anya started sweeping them up. Do you think this phase of helping will last until she is 18?

Here are the cards I got, Tara first.

And now Anya's

And at school Anya made this fabulous picture of me which her teachers framed. I am in bright clothes because I always wear bright clothes apparently ;)

I love my glasses too although they aren't quite as large as this in real life!

And it was the writing at the bottom that made me go ahhhhhh.

So I was a very lucky mummy indeed!

In other news I spotted a giveaway on Her Library Adventures this morning and, because I'm a super nice person, thought I would share it with you all. You can't enter though because the goodies are all mine!

St Michael book of Handicrafts

I love the 70's - the best people were born then - so when I spotted this book in the charity shop I knew it had to come home with me. And it was on buy one get one free so I was thrilled!

The cover alone drew me to it! I haven't photographed the inside of the book yet so these pictures of the covers will have to do!

I love the donkey/horse thing - great colours and the way the work is shown off appeals to me too.

The lion at the back is cute and I think the bride and groom are made from toilet roll tubes!

I love this stool top - the design and the colours.

I love the pattern of this cushion too. I'd spotted a quilt top that Badskirt has made and I've been seeing them all over since!