Tuesday 30 December 2014

Canvas Photo Noticeboard

First of a couple of Christmas present posts!  I normally try to make lots of things for my family at Christmas but with moving house and having a little one, this year just seems to have disappeared!  I did manage to make a couple of things though. The first is another one of my photo noticeboards using a canvas, fabric, wadding and ribbon.  They are so easy to make (this one took about 30 minutes) and look really effective.  Hopefully my sister liked it too!


Saturday 13 December 2014

Christmas Wreath

Something a bit different for me today as I went to a friend's house yesterday and we made Christmas Wreaths.  I'm not the most artistic person in the world and struggled to get it looking good, but I'm still quite pleased with the finished product!  It is now hanging proudly on our front door.  



Happy Christmas!

Sunday 7 December 2014

Tooth Fairy Pillow

My daughter's first tooth fell out today.  I had seen little pillows that other people had made for their children for their teeth to go in and thought I would like to make one too.  Unfortunately I hadn't gotten around to it and so when her tooth fell out today it was an emergency make!  She loves giraffes so I used her favourite giraffe fabric to make a little pillow and sewed 'TEETH' onto a small pink pocket to go on the front of it.  She seemed to like it and it is now safely under her pillow with her tooth inside it waiting for the tooth fairy...




Sunday 30 November 2014

Advent Calendar

My daughter has been looking in our craft books for Christmas crafts we can do. One of the things we found was an advent calendar.  As usual, she got fed up after a while so I finished it all off.  I think it looks quite pretty in the end!



Monday 24 November 2014

Name plaque for James

Continuing with my 'boyish' makes, here is a name plaque I also made for my son James.  I made one of these for my daughter several years ago and thought it would be nice for him to have one too.  



When I went to the HobbyCrafts show recently, I bought a lot from the MDF man and this plaque was one of them.  I painted it with a tester pot of paint and then used some letter stickers and dinosaur stickers that I bought from The Range.  Hopefully he'll enjoy it when he's a bit older!



Sunday 23 November 2014

Boy's room canvases

I have finally managed to start crafting again in the new house and thought I should make something for my son's room.  It's a bit different trying to make things for a boy but I'm enjoying the challenge.  I've made two new canvases for his room.  

First I made a zoo canvas using blue wallpaper as a background and stuck large stickers I got from 'The Range' for £1.  I still have several left so might have to make something else with them!  I then found some black alphabet stickers and added those to the corner. 


For the second canvas I kept it very simple just using a sample of wallpaper which we might use for the whole room eventually.  I like the idea of robots for his room so will see where it goes!


Friday 1 August 2014

All moved in....

...but nowhere to store the fabric yet!

Well, we've moved house now and so I've not been making things for a while.  Everything was packed away for the move and at present it is still in boxes.  It's amazing how hard it is to unpack with small children during the summer holidays :)  Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can get all the fabric out and get making things again.  I have loads of ideas for things but no time or space to start them!  Still trying to come up with some ideas for Christmas presents for this year as well so I'll be thinking about that soon and visiting some other blogs to get some ideas.  

Happy Crafting to those reading this and I'll be back soon with some new makes...I promise!

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Fabric Book Cover

Well this has taken a long time to produce!  My sister and I have wanted to make one of these for a long time and we have tried a couple of times before with limited success.  We finally came up with a pattern that worked for us and this is my first attempt.  Her one turned out a lot better but I'm hoping that the next one will work better.  As ever, my daughter got her hands on it and has now claimed it as hers!



Friday 20 June 2014

Bag for me!

I realised recently that although I had made lots of bags for other people, I didn't have one for myself yet so I thought I should remedy this.  I came up with a slightly different design for this one which meant that it had 3 small external pockets and then I added two small internal pockets suitable for a mobile phone and a purse or similar.  I will attempt to do a tutorial for this one shortly but for now, here is the final product in use!



Wednesday 11 June 2014

Flowery Bag

Time for another very belated present!  This time for my sister who chose the fabric ages ago and then I said I'd make her a bag.  The design has changed a bit over time so it now has an outside and an inside pocket. It was harder sorting that out as normally the straps hold the pocket down so I had to stitch the inside pocket down first.  It seems to have worked though so I'm pleased.


Friday 6 June 2014

Pink skirt

Well the gorgeous little monster went to sleep for a while today so I was able to finish off this skirt I had started for my daughter.  Sewing clothes is not something I am very good at as I don't know how to follow a pattern but this skirt is so easy it doesn't need one really!  The fabric is a little bit thin, but will last her for this summer and I may have to make some more when I get a chance.


Thursday 5 June 2014

Tutorial: Ribbon Blanket

Well I thought I'd try a tutorial as I've never done one before.  It's for the ribbon blanket I made originally for my son as I've just made another one for his new cousin who should be born soon!  

Ribbon Blanket Tutorial

You will need:
- two pieces of fabric of a similar size (I used a pink piece of cotton material and a soft one)
- 8 pieces of ribbon all the same length

1 - Take the front piece of fabric and lay it down right side up

2 - Fold each piece of ribbon in half and pin it in place with the ends sticking out over the fabric

3 - Stitch it all in place then cut off the excess ribbon around the edges

4 - Put the backing fabric on top of the front piece right side-to-right side and pin in place

5 - Stitch around the edges leaving a gap to turn inside out

6 - Cut any excess fabric away and trim the corners

7 - Turn the blanket the right way round and push the corners out

8 - Sew around the whole blanket edge to finish off and seal the gap

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Post-it Note Holder

Well as it is my birthday today, I decided I wanted to try to do something crafty but my gorgeous little monster didn't want to sleep so I only had time to do something quick!  When I was sorting through my craft stuff recently, I discovered some beer mats that I had covered previously for calendars.  I also found some post-it notes so decided to make some holders for post-it notes. I bought some mini Sharpies to go with them and added ribbon to the sides to make holders for them. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, they might end up as stocking fillers at Christmas!


I used decopatch papers to cover some beer mats in different colours.  Once dry, I used double-sided sticky tape to fix Post-it notes to the covered beer mat.  I then used double-sided tape again to fix a small piece of ribbon to the back of the mats and stick the ends together.  The pen can then be slotted into place.

Thursday 22 May 2014

Baby soft book

This is probably my favourite item that I have made since I started sewing!  I had seen some soft baby books and wanted to get one for my son, however I couldn't justify buying one as it looked like I could make one; so I finally got round to trying it.  

It was actually a lot easier than I expected.  The hardest part was deciding what to put on each page, but once I'd done that, the process was easy. 

Here's the finished book!







Sunday 18 May 2014

Butterfly bag

Finally I finished another bag!  This is a bag I've been meaning to make for nearly a year.  It's for my mum and I hope she likes it.  It's very hard to get any sewing done with my little bundle of mischief making lots of noise and demanding milk all the time, but I'm glad I managed to finish this.  It's a bag with an inside pocket and long shoulder straps.  I really love the butterfly fabric too.



Friday 28 March 2014

Ribbon blanket

When my daughter was young, my sister bought her a little cat with lots of ribbons coming out of it. I decided to make my son a small blanket with ribbons similar to this and here is my attempt.  I found lots of different designs of ribbons in my collection and used some nice dinosaur material for the front.  For the back I got a very soft material with raised dots on it.  My son seems to like it anyway.  I will probably make some more for him in different designs.



I cut a fabric square slightly larger than I wanted the final one to be and 12 pieces of ribbon slightly longer than I needed them.  I pinned the ribbons to the right side of the material with the two ends of the ribbon hanging over the edge.  I then stitched all round the edges.I took the backing piece of the material and sewed the two pieces front to front leaving a hole to turn inside out. I cut the ends off the ribbons and trimmed the edges of the material.  I then turned it all the right way round and sewed round all the edges sealing up the hole.

Thursday 27 March 2014

Painted pencil case

I'm trying to go through some of the craft things that I bought but never got round to doing anything with.  I've had this MDF pencil case for about 3 years so thought I would decorate it for my daughter.  I used a tester pot of emulsion paint to paint the box and then used a sparkle effect Mod Podge to decorate it. I then added black letter stickers to the top to finish it off.



Monday 24 March 2014

Flowers and butterflies

Still trying to use up more of my card making stuff and have made 3 more cards using flowers and butterflies.


It is nice to have some cards in stock now, so I won't be caught out on birthdays again!  Will need to do more Christmas cards again.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

A bit early for Christmas cards?

As part of my 'stash busting', I've been trying to make 50 cards before buying anything else, including card blanks.  I've therefore made some Christmas cards to use up some of the stacks of Christmas stuff I have.  Here is the first batch. 


Some of them are better than others.  I think my favourite is the one with the large star and the worst is the red and white one.


Monday 17 March 2014

Ribbon hairband holder

Whilst on maternity leave, I'm trying to get lots of craft projects done.  One project was this hairband holder made from ribbon.  I had only ever seen a photo of one so had to work out how to make it myself.  I was pleased with the final design and my daughter was excited by it as well.




Thursday 13 March 2014

Make-up bag

I needed a new bag to store my make-up in as I lost my old one so I decided to make one. I have made these bags a lot recently so decided to try a variation by doing a triangular flap this time instead.  I used one of my favourite butterfly fabrics and am happy with my new bag.


Wednesday 12 March 2014

Big flowers and butterflies

Whilst searching through my craft stuff I found some big paper flowers that I bought years ago which I thought I should try to use as part of the 'stash busting' challenge. I made a card using the flower and added some butterflies and a sentiment.  I was so pleased with it, I made some more!



Tuesday 11 March 2014

'Glass Painted' cards

Recently I joined the 'Stash Busting' forum on the Money Saving Expert website with the aim of creating 50 cards before buying any new items. I have found this to be a very useful exercise as it has forced me to actually make some cards! Here are a few I made using a pack of cards with acetate inners to do glass painting style cards.  I am quite pleased with the outcome.


Friday 7 March 2014

Cot tidy

Whilst browsing baby shops I had seen some fabric pouches that attached to the side of the cot.I thought how useful they would be so my husband suggested I make one. I was very pleased with the result especially after I discovered that to buy cot 'pockets' cost £20 for two!  I also got to choose my own fabric so was quite impressed with my attempt.




Thursday 6 March 2014

Christmas Cards 2013

Here are my Christmas cards from 2013 as I've not had a chance to show them yet.  Very simple design so I could make lots in a short period, but very effective I feel!




Wednesday 5 March 2014

Toiletries Pouches

Well new baby is born and I'm trying to get back into crafting things when I get the time.  To start with I thought I'd share some items I made for Christmas that I didn't get round to adding before.  First here are some sewn pouches I made for Christmas presents for the girls in the family.  They are similar to the smaller ones I made before but I made them big enough to put a few mini toiletries in.