Must be getting closer to Christmas

It must be getting to that festive time of year again as I've just completed this new set of partridges.

In rich and sumptuous colours of felt these elegant birds are ready to adorn anyone's tree or festive display. As usual some have been done with hanging loops and other with loose ribbon ends which can be tied to your desired location.
I'm really pleased with this batch I think the mixture of tradition deep red, green and yellow matched with the pink, plum and coral gives a quaint and appealing quirkiness.

 As always they are completely hand stitched and are embellished with delicate free hand embroidery. They are lightly stuffed to give shape.

Each one has a character of is own and I look forward to them finding good homes this season, although many proud owners of my felt partridges tell me how they adorn their homes thought out the year not just at Christmas time.
So why not treat yourself or someone else, available for £9.50 each.

What have I been working on recently

In between some of my other craft projects I have been completing a crochet commission which is why it may appear that I haven't been crafting much recently.
A friend of my Grandma's wanted to make some blankets to send to local care home so she got busy knitting and ask me if I could crochet three blankets to add to the pile.

 The blankets I created were worked in granny squares each five rows deep and the blankets were made up to the size of 8 by 8. For this first blanket I worked in solid colour and simply mixed squares each with a grey border. they were arranged in diagonal lines.

For the next blanket worked in solid colour and varying mixed squares with no boarder. and arranged the squares in lines coming from each corner.

 The last of the three was made up in diagonal lines alternating solid colour and very mixed colour and pattern squares I really liked the effect this created and used up alot of scraps of wool.

After completing the three crochet blankets the friend asked if I could sew together and edge the knitted squares they had been creating. The bag contained 220 squares so I am turning them in to three blankets two 7 squares by 10 squares and one 8 squares by 10 squares. this first one had been created in diagonal lines and the next is being done in an oblong stripe pattern the last one will be more random as it uses up all that is left.











This has been a really fun and colourful commission and its nice to know that all the effort is helping people.

Be back soon with some more blogging about another new crochet project and all the Christmas crafting happening for the shop.  

New felt decoration "flown" in.

As my hand stitched felt partridges and matryoshka dolls have been well received I have decided to expand the range. I really enjoy making felt decorations and coming up with designs and colour combos.

 So here it is my latest design is a cute little bird house with bird. I'm rather pleased with this design. and feel it is quite on trend and quaint.  The front is done in a cream so the bird, bird hole and hand stitched climbing flowers can be seen. I've made the roof and base section the same colour as I think this works well and frames the other elements of the design.  The back section on each decoration is done in the same colour as the bird with roof and base pieces to match those on the front.
It has a hanging loop on top of thin white satin ribbon.

 A close up detail showing how the bird had an embroidered flower motif and is blanket stitched before being attached to the front of the bird house.

And a close up of some climbing flower embroidery on the front of the house. I do this free hand which helps make every decoration unique and adds a skilled touch you just don't get with mass produced decorations.

Like with the matryoshka dolls I have added a little ricrac and a button to give it abit of an on trend folk look and add interest to the front roof section.

 Here is a picture of the set of six I've made so far, I like working in sets like this as it is more time productive to cut all the pieces in one go and makes it easier to get a good spread of colour combinations.
These are now available in the shop and some will be appearing soon on Folsky for £5.99 each.

So what else in new in my crafty makings, The crochet quirky birds continue to fly off and find home with people who adore them so a few new ones have appeared to take their place and hang out on the tree with the others until someone comes to give them a home.

  Friendship teas also continue to be very popular and I suspect they will continue to do so with Christmas coming they make a lovely little gesture to pop in with a card and post to a friend you'd love a cup of tea with but they are too far away to do so easily. So iv'e made up this new set I'm really loving the colours and sentiments I've used on this batch.

I've also recently made a new batch of cards, as they are selling well in the shop and at events I attend, This is the third batch I've produced in this style but they always prove very popular here I have done six with mixed sentiments, such as Thank you, congratulations and for you.

And I've also got six that say Happy Birthday as this is always the most popular sort of card and with the mix of colours and patterns on the embossed cards there's something to suit everyone.
I'm hoping to be able to add more cards to the selection available in the shop soon, its just finding the time to sit down and make batches.
I'm also soon getting stuck in to me Christmas Crafting so check back soon to see how that is coming along.

Crafting for a party

Both myself and my Mum are celebrating big birthdays this year so we thought we would have a joint party with lots of family and friends. I'd thought it would be nice to do a blog post sharing all the little crafty bits I added to to the day to make it ours.

First off I had a collection of small jars (mostly herb and spice jars) which my sister had collected up to possibly use for her wedding last year. However she changed her mind and had these rather stunning tall vase arrangements which I made for her. These went much better with the overall theme and look of the day

So. I took the jars and dressed them with a mixture of things including ribbon like these two which had lace ribbon and a rather lovely green velvet one

These ones has a real rustic look with jute ribbon layered with lace or gingham and tied with paper covered wire.

 I was rather pleased with this set I have stamped them with stazeon ink which works on glass (it wont rub off but it will wash of thou so had to mind when I filled them) These also had bits of ribbon added.

and the last set I wrapped some washi tape around, its such versatile brilliant stuff.

 I then filled the jars with a mixture of flowers including September flower, achemilla, chrysanthemums , roses, poppy seed heads and pittosporum foliage to create an easy pretty county look

I popped a couple of jars on each of the tables

 Mixing up the different styles of jars.

I think they worked rather well since the tables were only small.

 To carry on the easy county theme I also dressed the hall using various bunting. I have two very pretty cardboard ones which went across two corners

 And some larger fabric ones across the end. The boys managed to sneak in to this photo they had just finished assembling the bbq and were popping it outside.

 I did also have lots of rain proof union jack bunting in the garden but I seem not to have taken a picture of it.

The other decoration in the hall consisted of this collection of pictures of myself and mum which I attached to the sliding doors. Our family and friends really enjoyed looking at these sharing memories and storied behind the pictures.

 The other bit of craftyness I worked in to the party which I was really pleased with was the cakes. We had purchased plainly decorated large cakes from costco and I add our own flourish to them. Here is mine decorated with icing buttons make with my lakeland button mold. Some of the buttons didn't come out as defined as they do when its used with chocolate but the colors are nice.

 I added my name using some printable bunting which I found on line this is super fun. I picked a chalkboard banner style and strung it between two skewers across the top corner.

 Each end had a wooden button on to carry on the theme here's a close up on the little wooden sewing machine.

 Mums had butterflies on which were made using these punch stamp things mum had picked up. They flutter across the corner of the cake.

 Mum also had some bunting made with a set of traditional shaped pendents which had pastel colors on and the end of her's had butterflies on to complete the theme.


I hope people liked seeing how I added some crafty touch to our party we all had a really good time.

Partney Fair

Like last year I decided to have a stand at Partney fair and I'm really glad I did. This year was an improvement on last year in many respects and I'm pleased to be supporting this local community as it resurrects this village tradition. Here's some pictures of my stand. 

 A change from last year we have purchased a new shelter as our traditional style gazebo didn't fair to well in the wind last year and it is prone to be a windy field. this Coleman event shelter is easy to put together and packs up in to a smaller bag than the traditional one, its is also incredibly sturdy and has numerous pegging points on the feet and useful guylines. (please excuse the scouter in me enthusing about a tent, I'll talk about the stall now)

  I've also picked up a new table which allows me more display space and opportunity to create this pleasing corner arrangement  meaning people can walk and flow around the stand rather than just being a flat table. I've created height and intrest with my white wooden crates.

Discovered this shelter really lends its self to displaying my crochet bunting we managed to string some across the back and one of the side (as seen in the first picture) and it managed to catch peoples eye.

 A new Item for the fair was these cute note cards which I'm making and selling in sets of six, Simply stamped in complimenting colours these sets are done as thank yous and a religious theme. Perfect for when you just need a little card to something or even to use as a gift tag. Sets of six three of each design for just £4.50 a set.

We had a good day even thou it was much hotter than we were expecting (or had dressed for) and look forward to attending again next year. 

My next stall will be at Orby Summer Fete being held on Saturday the 22nd of August at Orby Opportunities center and after that we have a small stall at a Skegness WI event in early September then it will be time to think about Christmas events and crafts.

 

Stampin up goodies.

So back in June while my other half was exploring the wilds of north west Scotland (Check out his blog here ) We decided to have a stampin up party, it had been a while since our last one at our house (although we have attended two brill ones at friends so far this year).
Our super fab demonstrator Zoe Tant did a lovely evening where we made these cards.

 These were made on crumb cake bases using the awesomely artistic stamp set, I like the gentle tones and mix of style of stamps in this set, from the detailed delicate floral motif to the grungy fern and very useful border section.
We also decorated the envelopes.

And here is our stash of stamp we got, including the awesomely artistic picked up with our hostess rewards.  We got a couple of good bundles including the wondrous wreath with die set and the other matching stamp set circle of spring. Also homemade for you set which came with the bakers box die which I had had my eye on. Also as something a bit fun I got no bones about it a polymer set which layers up dinosaur shapes and skeletons.

And here is the bakers box in action made up just perfect for a little thank you for some friends. The die is clear and easy to use and fits wonderfully with the set it came with as well as having many more ideas. You will be seeing lots more of this on my blog as I think it is awesome.

Burgh Festival Day

The sun was shining bright and the blue sky provided a beautiful background for our village festival day this year.
We had a craft stall at the event held on the field behind the village's unique five sailed left handed windmill.
At the event was a range of craft and charity stalls, as well as displays by the local council, fire and police service. Bouncy castle, zorbing and costumed characters with balloon modeling for the children.  The Baptist church provided a brilliant bbq and there was also an ice cream van and tea and cake served in the refurbished granary tearoom.  

My stall had an L shaped set up which I'm finding works quite well and the white wood crates and bunting helped with the staging. I took with me a range of crafts including the felt and crochet decorations, cards, tatted bookmarks and key-rings. From the shop we also took the hessian gift bags which proved popular and a new addition of maypole wands which I think are brilliant.

We utilized the side of the marquee to hang and display the crochet bunting and although this looked quite good I'm still trying to think of other ways to display this product to its best. I'm thinking of trying a clothes rail for my next event and in the shop. I also think its time to invest in another table to allow myself more display space.

Also at the event was a display of birds of prey and owls including this feller who was enormous and had fluffy feet and a huge wing span.

Quick little commission

Been doing quite alot of crochet recently I found some squares I had started for a blanket then changed my mind about I added an extra row to them and made a few more and they have turned in to a rather nice cover for a beanbag cube footstool I've got, will post some pictures some. I'm also busy making squares for some knee blankets for a commission decided to make them 8x8 squares so for three blankets that's going to be 192 squares to do and join together.

But I've taken a break from all the squares to make this little cutie. A quick commission from a neighboring business friend, who like myself is enjoying the new series of the clangers on bbc.
I didn't know if it would be possible as the original are knitted and there is actually a knitting pattern on the bbc website but I am a crocheter.
I did some searching and found a pattern here which I did some tweaking too to compleatly this. I had to first translate the pattern from american to english terms and it doesn't state a hook size so I went with a favorite 3.5mm.

   On the pattern they make their ears out of felt but I choose to do the back of mine in crochet and sew some felt to the front, My pattern for the ears is 5dc in magic circle pull up then 2dc in each stitch (10dc) tie off sew small piece of felt on to front and sew on to head. The pattern also has not clothes on the clanger but I had a look at some pictures and managed to cut suitable felt pieces and stitch them on. I think he's super cute and may have to make myself one as well now.

Christmas in June, latest craft style samples.

It really does get earlier each year.
I have recently completed my first Christmas crafting in the form of some samples for Craft style products. So here they are.

The items i was sent were more from the cut and create range this is a decoupage range where you cut the pieces out and layer them up with foam pads.
There was four new Christmas characters starting with this super cute polar bear.  Here I have built the topper up and put it on to a large embossed card blank which has been decorated with strips of pattered backing paper whic has been shaped at the bottom in to an on trend banner shape. A sentiment has also been added.

 The foam pads I used were not overly thick but the definition between the layers can be seen in this shot.

The next card is done in the always popular easel shape done using two smaller card blanks which have been folded and cut to create the desired shape.
This cute little gingerbread man character is so jolly with his hat and scarf. Hes backed with some plain and pattered paper and two coordinating strips are placed on the base section one raised on foam pads to act as a stopper.

Next was something abit different for me a tunnel card. this was created with a piece of embossed card as the back to which the largest piece of the reindeer topper was attached. A frame was created out of backing paper this has come out of a mixed pattern paper pad which craft style are doing this year, this is ones are mat and of a better quality to last years shiny thinner ones. in to the frame some patterned acetate as been placed  (sorry about the reflective glare on it) the backing piece and frame have been joined together with scored card

  as can been seem in this picture I found the good tip online of having two pieces folded like W for each side and sticking them together to create a flatter middle section to which things can be attached in this case the sentiment and rest to the reindeer topper. The topper is stuck to a thin strip of card to hold it in the correct place lines up with the back section.
I'm really pleased with how this card turned out since I have not done one before.

The last card I made in this set of samples is this rocking penguin. Using a round card base I attached a larger semi circle of snowflake backing paper which then gave me a larger area to attached the built up topper and sentiment. The sentiment on the sheet with the penguin is actually blue and I took this red one off one the other characters sheet as I thought it tied in better with the red snowflake background of the topper. I also added a few red diamante stickers to the backing sheet to give it abit of sparkle.

So there you have it jolly Christmas characters in June. See them being demonstrated on Create and Craft free view channel at 1pm today, hoping to see my samples on there.

Check back soon to see what I've been doing with some crochet squares.