Quilling

Just a quick blog to get through some of the pictures stored up on my phone.
I mentioned to you lovely folks before my discovery of quilling. Well, I've uped my game after getting a quilling board with my favourite magazine - Crafts Beautiful. I love this craft. It's quick, simple and very effective. I'm still trying to work out the right ratio of glue to paper so that you can't see the shiny effect pva leaves on card so tips are welcome but I'm enjoying it just the same. So much so I've invited a few lovelies to my home this weekend to give a quilling party to make valentine's day cards. They don't know what they are doing yet so don't tell them. I'm luring them in with the promise of cake. Let me know what you think, of the quilling not the deception.

Valentine's craft

If you are in a couple or not you can't deny the fact that Valentine's day is very much upon its way. I used to hate the smooshy saga and would happily retreat to my living room with a lot of takeaway food and watch action films, this was until of course I discovered the joys of being in a relationship. For me Valentine's day is now all about the presents. I still stick with the mantra that you don't need one day to tell your person that you love them but I am a present addict, both the giving and receiving. Let's be honest, you can only give your friends so many valentine's gifts before they start to give you a wide berth!
So for this year, while I very much look forward to the surprise of my gift - nudge nudge other half- I've kind of ruined the present I made. I've gone back to string art which this time was much more successful as the shape was smaller and easier to work with. There's just one problem. It's very very girly, very suitable for the lovely lady in your life should you wish to purchase it from me (shameless plug I know). Oh and I've already rubbed my other half's face in it (metaphorically) like a small excited child which would very much ruin the surprise. Oh well, I guess it means I can go back to the drawing board and make something else!

Snowman soup

Ok. Hands up how many times you go to a craft fair and love what you see but think 'I can make that'? If it's not 50% of you at least I'm surprised that you are still reading this blog but I'm thankful that you are.
What follows is a story about how silly my husband and I can be, if you want to get to the craft part again I suggest you scroll down to 'we wandered the streets' be reassured it has a happy ending.
So just before Christmas my other half and me went to Lincoln to the infamous Christmas markets. We've been trying to go for years but it would seem it wasn't meant to be; the first year was food poisoning, the second was work, the third we were already on holiday, the fourth was bad weather but this year we managed to go.
Like children on an adventure we set out. We arrived in good time, drove down a one way street the wrong way, arrived at the same roundabout from three different directions until we finally found the park and ride. Upon entering the first marquee I was sure we woukd find all our Christmas presents except there was then an announcement. See the beauty of Lincoln's Christmas market is that 80% of the stalls are inside the castle grounds but the anonymous voice from the speakers told us that it was unsafe at this juncture to enter the castle grounds. We did what any couple would do - find shelter in a cafe and eat cake. The announcements kept coming. 'Unsafe'. To be honest the thing that was unsafe was leaving two men at the castle gates to ensure no one entered and as there was a gathering crowd of angry Brits the tutting these guys received was verging on aggressive!
We wandered the streets and came across a church that had a handmade wreath competition going on which was brilliant and then we found a village hall with a craft fair. Hallelujah! This village hall saved the day for me. It was packed with great ideas and several purchases were made for Christmas gifts. Yay!
But one thing I came away with was the snowman soup idea. It's essentially hot chocolate packaged up in a decorative way. Such a simple but perfect stocking filler idea. Finding the triangle bags was the hardest part but since getting those it was easy.
What is lovely about that idea is that it's childish enough that children will invest in the fairytale elements and childish enough that adults want them too.
Snowman soup went in nearly all my gift bags and I will be making them again this year. Just wish I could use them all year round. Any ideas how they could be modified?

Quick gift ideas part two

This is the follow up from my previous post but I've since realised to make this aspect you need a lot of time and ergo not exactly a 'quick gift idea'. Apologies if you have been offended by the misleading title. You can forward all complaints to:
12 never never street
Impossiville
Movingon
So for this side of the gift you are going to need to spend the day at home slowly cooking orange slices on a very low heat in your oven to help them dry out. I did a massive batch all at once and then stored them in a tupperware container so that should I want a quick gift I have them to hand. As my husband wasn't a fan of leaving the oven on all the time I was guilty of putting my oranges back into the oven after every cooked meal. Thankfully the orange smell beats other cooked food smells.
Once you have these you buy a soap base, there are loads of choices out there but I use Bee Beautiful from Amazon and it's always been delivered quickly and is easy to use.
You need to heat up the soap base - I use the microwave - and then add colours and flavours to your heart's desires layering them up as again you please depending on the look you want. These soaps are chocolate orange with a dried orange in the bottom so as you use the soap you will be exfoliating too. I also did a batch that had the orange on the top - much more striking aesthetically but not as practical so you can go for again whichever your giftee will appreciate the most.
For my Christmas gifts some people got a box of one massive soap, some a box of smaller varying soaps and the others a box with the candle and wash cloth. I will go back to being very British soon I promise.
These were all sent out in the boxes I made (there is another blog on here about that if you'd like a visual) and largely the gifts were well received. I'm curious to know what people think of the gifts after they have used them for a while, so feel free to comment below.
The varieties you could do with these are endless and you could brighten up the boxes to make them mother's day gifts or birthday gifts.

Quick gift ideas part one

I've finally caught up with one of my best friends and been able to hand over some very delayed presents, but actually this is a good thing because now I can share them with you lovely bunch of coconuts and maybe you can use the idea for an up and coming gift swapping festival. Not dropping any hints but you could share this blog with some of your fellas, they need a nudge around February time.
This part of the gift looks pretty shoddy without its other half but I hope you'll appreciate it. The candle was bought but then embellished using jute string, dried orange pieces and cinnamon. It smells amazing already but when it's lit it's so much better. The candle cost very little to make and chances are you have everything you need to make it already in your craft stash or fruit bowl. I'm thinking dried apple would make a nice spring occasion alternative. Then the wash cloth (I've become American here because my blog is actually read more by Americans - yes I check the audience and thanks American followers - and also because the English equivalent of 'Flannel' just sounds awful, I mean how many of you are thinking of grandma's spit being rubbed off your face right now?) Anyway, then the wash cloth was just rolled and unrolled using a YouTube clip I found. It's supposed to be a rose for those of you that lack imagination.

Decopatch-ish?

It happened again. I read Crafts Beautiful and had to succumb to its crafting compulsives. This time it's a crafty hoop art thing. 

This is something I find really frustrating about my hobbies within craft I find they don't really have a real name. 

Anyway, before I get too involved with my rant, these 3D pictures caught my eye and with one of my besties having already had a baby and another one 18 weeks along, these were what I thought great ideas as a replacement present. Although I made a baby blanket for the first bestie, the second has a mamma that is essentially a knitting machine and I know when I'm beaten so thought I'd give this a go instead. 

To start I got a large embroidery hoop, weirdly enough I had one lying around the house. I then used this to draw the required circle shape onto a piece of wall paper sample - also just lying around and the perfect colour to boot. I cut the circle and attached some green material for the grass to give a 3D effect from the outset. I also had the fabric lying around, it was last used 12 years ago for a school project. I then cut out geometric shapes from patterned paper that, you guessed it, was just in my craft stash for the trees. The rainbow was the hardest and part of me wishes I had printed this off to save time but I quite like the uneven element, I mean how many times do you see a perfect rainbow? It then was about assembly and deciding which parts belonged where. 

I decided that it looked far too bland and as the magazine had a bear I thought I would copy their idea, except the baby is due in June when it's sunny (hence the rainbow) and I didn't have a bear. I did have a printer and laptop so I printed a cartoon Dino for the baby boy who already has a Dino themed room and a puppy for the baby that is unborn, I know the parents are dog people so thought this was a safe choice. 

I printed them out three times and gradually just built up the characters to create the 3Dness using foam sticky pads that were in my craft corner. After that it was about assembly again before sticking the lot down.

The flowers were a strike of genius that I can take no credit for, I found them when looking for a craft knife and thought they would look awesome. I think that they do anyway. The spaces at the bottom are for names or messages for the parents to decide on. Next to what Crafts Beautiful made I'm pretty pleased with it.

It's not as good but I do love it. My other half is already listing the variations we could do although I'm going to have to find a better way to attach the picture to the hoop as my elbow is still sore from the carpet burns I got from crawling on the floor with my glue gun!

Spoilt for choice

I've been making loads just recently which is really handy because I'm going to have loads of blogging material for you lovely lot when my life gets too busy to make stuff. I hope this never happens but I have to be realistic exam season is upon us. As such I was spoilt for choice when choosing a make for this blog but I've gone for a commission I made recently.
The pooch attached to this blog is a bespoke draught excluder. It's not the first one I've ever made but I think it might be my favourite.
What I love about this project is that as long as you can straight stitch you can make this cutie. You need to cut in straight lines too - sometimes the harder aspect of making. As my very wise mamma once said - if you cut out the fabric incorrectly no amount of sewing is going to put it right. But those are the only skills you need.
I love getting commissions because it means people think my makes are worth paying for, so if you fancy boosting my ego ever so slightly have a look through my blogs and let me know which one you might like and I will let you know how many silver coins I'm going to ask you to cross my palm with.

Craft central

I'm not a naturally organised person. My favourite expression is 'we'll get organised tomorrow' but with the new year comes the obligation to tidy. Another reason to love Christmas more than new year's eve. Now let me make something clear, I'm under no circumstances resolving to become a tidy person. As much as my husband may want me to the chances are it would last 30 minutes and while sitting still so as not to disturb the organisation I would browse a craft magazine, find something I want to make and create a new mess more spectacular than the last. I have however tidied some bits up and dedicated one room of my house to mess rather than have it spread out all over the place. I love my new craft corner and think for an inherently messy person it's pretty awesome. Not quite awesome enough to make me want to do it on a regular basis. I wonder how long it will last, anyone want to place bets?

Don't be cheap

I indulged today in trying two new crafts and I can honestly say I wish I hadn't bothered. They both seemed like good ideas at the time and the tutorials very straightforward however I've been fooled by simple tutorials before.
I'm only going to share one of my disasters as I am hoping to start again with the second one and do it right. So disaster 1, as it shall now be named, was inspired by the latest pinterest craze that is making a clutch bag from a book. Easy right? Wrong. Can I just encourage you lovely folk if you want the perfect clutch book bag just head over to notonthehighstreet.com and treat yourself - much more rewarding than a pile of fabric glued to a book.
Anyway back to disaster 1. I had measured everything perfectly and even happened to have the right sized zip. All the sewing parts went seamlessly - excuse the pun - but my biggest mistake was using cheap fabric glue. You can see the offender sat in the corner of one of my pictures, mocking me. I've used it before for small projects but trusting it on this bad boy was probably a bit naive.
It holds the fabric but only after you have cuddled it for three hours, sung it a nursery song and allowed it to suck your nipples. Ok perhaps a little melodramatic but it is annoying. Equally if you don't have the steadiest hand there is the high possibility of it shooting out of the nozzle all over either yourself or your unsuspecting dog. Not good. So although I like to think of myself as an optimist I'm not sure I'm going to be able to salvage the clutch book bag. And I don't even like breaking books for craft. What a waste!
I have learned to invest more wisely in proper materials if I want the job doing properly though.
Every cloud and all that.