Crafting

As you may have noticed the Crafting 365 has fallen by the wayside over here - I am still crafting most days but I just haven't got time to document it every day and blog about it. So I am giving it up :) So onto some actual crafting that has been going on.

These little guys have been listed in all of my shops so if you want to purchase some then you have a choice as to where to buy them - Etsy, Folksy or Misi.

I decided (with lots of help from the lovely people that read this blog) that the brown and red robins were the better of the 2 types. So my shops have been updated with the photographs of these robins :)

And I listed these Teddy Bears Picnic gft tags last night and they sold after 10 minutes - I like quick sales :)

I have also been busy making some recycled stickers - this is the first set listed. If you look at the third picture in the listing you will see a very cute baby mouse in a pram!

That is all for now although I am hoping to list more things today :)

Sunshine craft

I managed to grab an hour or so yesterday afternoon to craft a little (once I had tidied the tip up!) I finished off some envelopes that had been sitting waiting to be packed for a few weeks!

I crafted on the girls table and it was very nice sitting in the afternoon sun! Day 32 of Crafting 365.

Phew!

Goodness me yesterday was very busy with lots of sewing and packing orders plus I had a mad rush on orders on Monday too so I had those to do as well! My sewing yesterday mainly involved finishing off the Love Chicks. I had half made them over the weekend knowing that the Guardian article was coming but hadn't anticipated that they would sell quite so quickly (there are just 2 left if you want one!)

So that was the extent of my crafting yesterday - lots of love chicks :) Day 31 of crating 365

Buttons

I spent a little time yesterday evening rummaging through my buttons - the picture only shows a small selection! I had to choose some to go with my custom notebooks which were finished this morning - my customer loved them which is good :) I can show them off to you tomorrow! Day 30 of crafting 365.

Notebooks galore!

I am making notebooks at the moment and made a couple of custom ones yesterday - well I made one and started the other as the glue I used didn't want to dry at all! Then from the offcuts of the paper I made some of the mini matchbook notebooks that I send out as freebies to my lovely customers.

Here they are all stacked up nicely.

And here you can see the papers I used. I bought a whole load of scrapbooking papers when they were on special offer. It's a great weight for making the outsides of the matchbook notebooks!

Day 28 of crafting 365

Britain's next top chicken model

Here are the finalists - we weeded out quite a few to get down to the last 6.

The catwalk got a little crowded at one point as you can see!

The twins think they are in with a chance.

Who would you vote for? Individual shots of the models coming soon when we know which agency they will be modelling for :)

Chicken time

I spent my time wisely yesterday as I listed the chickens I photographed on Sunday during the tennis - I'm not keen on tennis but the Mr is.

Here are 4 of them - there is another one listed and another 2 not yet listed but hopefully they soon will be. They are all one offs and are in the clearance section of my Etsy shop as I am clearing them to bring out some new chickens soon :) I also did a bit of sewing - bet you can't guess what? Yep more business cards :) Day 25 of Crafting 365

Bit of a crafting disaster!

On Thursday or Friday (I can't remember which) I continued with a mixed media piece that has been sitting on my desk for a while. I added lots of detail and it was looking good until I decided that one part of it need a bit more definition. That was my mistake - it totally ruined the piece! I had a go at fixing it and while that looked better it was still awful! So yesterday (knowing I was going to repaint or get rid of it completely) I had a go with some silver sparkly spray which is meant to give a light glow of sparkle over your work.

It's more of a grey gloop than silver sparkle but I now know that it won't work on painted wood! So at least something worthwhile came out of the crafting disaster! Day 24 of Crafting 365.

Doh! moment

People have been tweeting at me all week to let me know that Hamish McPlaid (below) has been spotted on the Folksy front page but whenever I got there he had disappeared again!

Now I know why! He is one of Folksy's top picks on the theme of Scotland (for Burns night). Doh!


And he is in very good company - he has been spotted chatting to one of Kirsten's wee cows - they are very cute!

And, as I rightly predicted yesterday, I didn't have much time for crafting on my birthday. However I managed to finish off a few business cards. I'm getting a nice large pile now (about 200 of them) but I could always use more especially as my scraps pile on my sewing table is threatening to fall over at any moment!

What to do with an old, unused diary!

We were doing our accounts yesterday and we should do them each month but we don't! This inevitably leads to a build up of receipts which I then can't remember easily if they were cash (claimed back) or company card/cheque (out of company bank acc) I need something that I can write down the transactions as the form we have at home isn't working for me as it is usually jammed in the envelope with the receipts! I mentioned to Matt that I should have bought a diary as lots have been reduced recently and he suggested an unused one from last year.

Now as much as I like cricket (and I do enjoy it) I didn't really want to be walking around with a cricket diary!

I grabbed some of my favourite paper (Laura Ashley), some old book paper and my typerwriter rubber stamps.

And voila! The word expenses wouldn't fit on the front so money seemed a good enough word for me! And how did I get round it being last years diary so the days are all wrong? Simple - I just used a sharpie to cover up the days. I may go through and write the correct days in but maybe not as the dates should be enough. So I have a new book for my bag and we have re-used something that was destined to become scrap paper.

Oh and it's my birthday today so I may not blog tomorrow as I probably won't get chance to make anything :)

Good day!

I had a very good day yesterday - the 5 mile walk in the morning actually gave me a bit more energy and I didn't feel as knackered as I did on Tuesday having done the same walk!

I made these pincushion/paperweight chickens after I had done the wrapping tissue. I would like to think they they will be finished soon but I know they will languish in my sewing box for a good few months yet :) I also cut out loads of card backs for my gift tags (I keep all my cereal boxes and other decent card for this) and continued a bit with a new piece of mixed media artwork. I may have ruined it but I will take another look in the morning and see if I can do anything! This is day 21 of crafting 365.

Oooops!

So I missed a day of Crafting 365 - eeeek! I was so busy on Tuesday and I think my 5 mile walk in the freezing cold early on Tuesday morning wiped me out for the rest of the day! I thought about doing some craft work but just didn't get round to it! I am going to only count the days I actually craft on and then add on the extra's at the end of the year - I'm hoping that there won't be too many!

Anyway, onto yesterday's crafty goodies. Along with the now obligatory business card sewing (they are easy and a necessity) I made up some more chickens that had been half made and a new skirt for me! I'm really getting into this skirt making lark!

I think I have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous though! The last skirt fit although it was a little too fitted for my liking - I wanted a swishy skirt. Well that's what I got with this one! Maybe a little bit too much fabric used today - it's an elasticated waist so no need for any closures but it does mean that it bunches quite a bit - not that I mind really!

While I was sewing up the skirt I happened to glance to my left and spotted some trim on the shelf I'd got at the scrapstore that I'd figured would come in useful one day! Well today was that day! I think it looks great on the hem - what do you think?

Oh and as an aside Nicola, my friend who came round to tea with her children yesterday, said that her parents used to have the flower fabric in my skirt as curtains and when it was no longer needed then Nicola had it as curtains in her wendy house! How cool is that?

Fabric

So yesterday I went shopping with my mum and didn't get any chance for crafting at all. In fact my crafting for yesterday was choosing some fabric from my stash to be my next skirt. And here it is :)

What do you think?

Finished buttontastic chicken

But very badly photographed! We have been away this weekend and the light here at 7pm is horrendous as you might imagine. Last night I was scorer for a quiz that Matt arranges in his parents village and while Matt was reading the questions out I was able to get some sewing done :) Hence the finished buttontastic chicken (along with a handful of chicks with zips sewn in)

Butontastic chicken couldn't decide which was his best side so had me take photo's of both sides! Day 17 of crafting 365 :)

Day 16 of crafting 365

These titles are just getting better aren't they! Yesterday I made these fabulous bird envelopes - I am really pleased with them. Unfortunately the book I got them from was really damaged otherwise I would have kept it as it had some great info in it.


Be back tomorrow!

Day 15 of crafting 365

I wasn't organised enough to get this written last night and scheduled for early this morning so it's late! Yesterday I was out in the afternoon and we had an early night so there wasn't much time for crafting. Anyone who knows me though knows that I very rarely go anywhere without my sewing box or at least something to do so I took my sewing box up to my friend Nicola's! Luckily she is very accommodating and doesn't mind chatting as I sew :)

I managed to get half a buttontastic chicken sewn. I'm hoping to finish him today but I have lots of other things on the to do list too! I also sewed the elastics into Tara's new ballet shoes and finished off some more business cards :) As it is 1 o'clock I'd better get off the computer and get some of that to do list done!

Brooch

I started this brooch way back in December at a craft fair that Ruth will tell you was as rubbish as I say it was!

All it needed was a brooch back sewing onto a circle of felt and then the two felt circles sewing together round the edge. So that is what I did! It's not listed anywhere yet as I have been busy pulling out a hedge and transporting the remains of said hedge to the tip! My back garden looks so much better now though :)

Day 14/365

I did manage some crafting after all!

Only in the late afternoon yesterday and only one set of tags but still it's a little bit of crafting. And my wrist is getting better - hence the tag glueing! It's still tricky to type and I haven't even attempted to sew or cut fabric yet or wield anything like a tag punch that needs some force!

These are the tags that have been cut from a ladybird book all about postage stamps. It was a great little book and a shame that some of the pages were ripped as I would have kept it for myself - I used to collect stamps :) So I'm pleased that I am still on track with Crafting 365 - this is day 13!

I'm just a Love Chick

I'm a Love Chick
Call me the Love Chick
Oooh, baby I'm the Love Chick
That's what they call me I'm a Love Chick.

Original lyrics courtesy of Otis Redding.

Love chick is now available in my Etsy store :)

Tags 11/365

I only had time to make a few tags yesterday - Charlie Brown ones as the last two sets I made sold out within 2 days :)

These aren't the exact tags I made as the light had gone here and I didn't make them until late so they are similar to these ones. I will update the photograph once the new tags are photographed :) Edited to add - these are the correct ones now and you can get them in my Folksy shop!