Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in blog land.  I have been very remiss lately and have not blogged... Alas time has got away from me and especially this month I just have not had time to gather my thoughts, let alone blog.

I just want to say thank you to a couple of bloggers out there....

Firstly Design Jessica, I won her lovely giveaway and my daughter promptly claimed the socks and the notebook.  I got the christmas cards which have all been written and posted to friends and family.

Secondly I won another giveaway from the lovely Sarah at Paper and String... Again my daughter claimed the book and felt and has spent time creating lovely felt finger puppets!

I hope to resume blogging sometime in the new year.  I plan to take steps to reduce my working hours and take control again.... LOL!

Merry Christmas

Sarah xx

Newspaper Article That Made Me Laugh

I've just got back from my mums, where I had a quick look at her newspaper.... I came across this article about receiving Crafted Gifts...  I had to laugh especially at the bit about the woman knitting Mug Cosies on the train!

As a crafter I appreciate the amount of work that goes into a hand crafted gift, and I love to receive something someone has put time and effort into... However, I think it is wise to realise not everyone does!

Sarah xx

Space Invader T-Shirt - Silhoutte SD

My daughter wanted me to make her a t-shirt with my Silhouette machine, so I bought a couple of plain t-shirts and waited for further instructions...

Whilst I was browsing on a font website.  I was randomly typing in words and looking to see what fonts came up, a Space Invader Font appeared (This is a great website for fonts).  My daughter who was watching over my shoulder, saw it a said a Space Invader T Shirt would be great!   So I downloaded the font and installed it.  We opened up the Silhouette software and typed out the Space Invader font in Alphabetical order so my daughter could select which figures she wanted on the shirt,  she opted for a traditional space invader layout.

We cut each section of the design out in a different colour of the heat transfer vinyl and arranged and ironed them onto the t shirt.

The results are rather pleasing...

Sarah xx

Felt Novelties Part 2

It was a colleagues 50th birthday recently at work, and her immediate work mates had clubbed together to buy her a Radley Handbag.  Of course I was inspired by the Scottie Dog logo, and set about making a bag charm.  Using a pattern from a previous project, I cut out 2 halves in contrasting colours and blanket stitched them together and was going to leave it flat, but in the end decided to lightly stuff it.

I didn't like it left plain, so I cut out the felt hearts and embroidered them on to the sides, and chose the beads for the eyes.

Finally I made the collar and lead out of a piece of fine ribbon and attached to a lobster claw.

Wendy seemed really pleased with her Scottie Dog and hung it straight onto her handbag!

The photos were taken with my mobile phone at work as I forgot to take a picture at home.

Sarah xx

Handmade Felt Novelties Part 1

I sat on the sofa one evening and was inspired by my daughters notebook which had owls on it.  I started by sketching a rough idea, and then got out my wool mix felt to select the colours.

The main colours are blue and pink with big yellow felt and black embroidered eyes. I sewed all the parts together with a blanket stitch and stuffed it lightly with hollowfibre! The little beck stands slight proud, which was achieved by sewing the sides closer together so the beak was pushed out.

I think I need to do a little more to the wings and tail feathers, and will probably add some coloured felt feathers and embroider them on some how... another job for when I'm sat on the sofa watching tv.

I'm quite pleased with myself for making my own design instead of copying someone elses!

Sarah xx

A Chance to Play with my Silhouette SD - Halloween Bunting

As it is half term and the kids are at home, I have taken the week off work and had a chance today to get out my Silhouette SD machine. Amongst other projects I decided a little Halloween decorating wouldn't go amiss and thought I would have a go at making some card bunting.

Please ignore my fingers shadows

The Silhouette website have very conveniently had some free Halloween shapes to download recently, so I used these for the detail.

In Silhouette

Using the Sihouette SD, I cut the Flag (triangle) shapes from an A4 sheet of grey card with the Pumpkin Face and the Spiders Web. I was quite chuffed with how they turned out, but my daughter said the pumpkin needed some orange. So I cut out the pumpkin itself with face.  and stuck them on the flags too!  I decided we ought to have a spider on the webs, so found a spider and traced, printed and cut out 3 and stuck them on too!

I couldn't find my string, so used a length of black knitting wool to hang the flags on, I tried to staple the flags on which wasn't very successful, so ended up with a bit of sticky tape on the back too!

MK Vintage and Handmade Fair

Next Saturday with be the MK Hand-made and Vintage Fair at the Centre-MK (thats the shopping centre in posh speak!)

I really wanted to have a stall at this event, but now I work full time, I know I just wouldn't have the time to make enough items to cover even half a stall... however I will be making a special trip to The Centre MK to have a good old look see at everyone elses lovelyness!

Cheers

Sarah xx

Fabric Strawberries (Pin Cushions!)

Another thing I have been meaning to make for ages is Fabric Strawberries.  I'm sure I have seen lots on t'internet... but I decided to follow this pattern from Embroideroo.

Again I have used red fleece and also made one out of normal fabric.... just to see how it turned out.  I found the fleece lent itself very well as it has a little more give in it to shape itself to a strawberry.  The fabric one turned out well too, but the fleece is very tactile.

Attaching the felt leaves gave me an opportunity to use my hot glue gun, and I was rather pleased with the result, although I could do with a bit more practice with the gluing and rolling up the stem without getting the glue all over my fingers and everywhere else. I am still toying with making some more and adding some embroidered pips to the fleece version.

Sarah xx

Toadstool House

Something I have come across whilst blog hopping, is lots of delightful Toadstool Houses. I finally got around to making one a week or so ago. I used a pattern by The Little House by the Sea but substituted the red felt for fleece.  I also made up my own Door, Window and Greenery!

It took me a couple of hours, but I really enjoyed this project.

Sarah xx

Silhouette Snoopy Nightdress

I have been a huge fan of Snoopy and the Peanuts cartoons for as long as I can remember.  I have also worn Nightdresses with Snoopy on them too for as long as I can remember.  My last one needed replacing and a quick look in the usual shops was fruitless...  Alas!

Of course, it didn't take me long to realise I could make my own Snoopy Nightdress using my Silhouette machine.  So on a shopping trip to the local market I found a suitable oversized T-shirt for just £2.00.  I scanned the good old internet for pictures of Snoopy in all his glory and found one including woodstock...  having copied and traced the picture in the Silhouette software, I added the word Snoopy and chose a suitable font. The extra flowers came about because I hate wasting the iron on vinyl (just one of those things really...) but I think they enhanced the overall result.  When I cut it on the silhouette I used the setting for Iron on Vinyl, but it cut a bit too deep and through the backing too! I was worried it was all going to fall apart.  Luckily it held together enough to let me weed it (peel off the excess vinyl) and then position and iron it on to the t-shirt.  I cut the yellow vinyl for Woodstock by hand and ironed it on to the t-shirt first. and then ironed the main image over the top, which is a deep purple as I didn't have any black.

I set the iron slightly hotter than before and I think it worked much better (I did a test, by ironing a small flower on the reverse if the t-shirt first).

Here is the result of my mornings work.  I am extremely pleased with how it has turned out....

Sarah xx

Lavender Hanging Hearts

Quite often, people pick up the hanging hearts on my craft stall and smell them!  Alas they don't smell as they're only stuffed with Hollow Fibre stuffing.  I have been meaning to make some Lavender Hearts and finally got around to buying some lavender.

So here is my Lavender Hanging Heart, it is inspired by this post on Marmalade Rose's blog!

I have a policy of trying to use what I already have from my sewing cabinet, and luckily had some bleached calico and some white lace which was sent to me in a fabric swap!

They were very quick and easy to make and were very well received on my craft stall.

Sarah xx

Cute Embellished Tissue Holders

I had a week off work a couple of weeks ago, during that week I found out about a village event which was asking for stall holders for an upcoming event on the Saturday.  My craft stall stock was fairy depleted, so I needed something quick and easy to make a few of....  I have made tissue holders before, but was unimpressed with them - what they need is a bit of cute embellishment and co-ordination.

There are many tutorials out there so I adapted one and added a cute fabic yo yo and button to give that little something extra... This tutorial from Skip to my Lou is closest to what I did!

The lining is gingham to co-ordinate with the outer cover, and the yo yo made in the gingham too!

I then made 2 other colour ways - the pink ones was proved most popular!

I think adding the yo yo vastly improved this simple item.

Sarah xx

Silhouette SD Envelope

Of course I needed an envelope to go with my birthday cards and found a free template to use.  The size of the card dictates the size of the envelope. My card was too big for an envelope cut from an A4 piece of paper, so after a bit of trial and error, I successfully cut one the right size from 2 A4 pieces.  I managed to join the pieces more or less at the fold of the base of the envelope, and I added perforated lines at the folds to make folding easier.

The end product looked pretty good!

Sarah xx

Silhouette SD Birthday Card

I had 2 friends with birthdays recently so, I'm of course I thought this was a great opportunity to try out making birthday cards with my Silhouette. I'm not a card maker but, I thought somehow this was going to be easy, I downloaded a template design from the Silhouette Shop.  Unfortunately the template didn't come with any instructions (there may be a general tutorial, but I'm too impatient to look).

Anyway, I cut the design the way I thought it should be and this was the result...

Somehow, its not quite right, I kept looking at the template and the picture of the design and wasn't quite sure how it was supposed to go together, it was quite fiddly and all the pieces had to be stuck individually, there is another piece which I haven't used here. I didn't like the paper I used either!

Then I thought I can design my own happy birthday message,  and use the template shape to border it....  This was the result, made with  metallic card.

This was closer to what I was expecting... So having done this I thought maybe, if I layer the border over the words, it would cut them out together...

I think I may have cracked it... although I re-sized the design to make it smaller that the actual card and have got the resizing wrong, I am much happier with the result although I'm not sure if this is totally the way the designer intended it to be.  And as this is for a female friend I added a Butterfly, also cut with the silhouette to feminize the card a bit.

I was very impressed with the Butterfly, it was a large template and I reduced it quite small, the silhouette coped really will with cutting the delicate bits.

I don't intend to make lots of cards, but with a bit of practice I think I could make a few fairly passable cards for the odd occasion!

Sarah xx

My First Silhouette Project

I couldn't wait to try our my new Craft Robo Silhouette SD. I really want to cut fabric with it. So with a bit of research and an idea forming in my mind, I gave it a go!

I go line dancing once a week, and we wear dance trainers, so I had in mind to make a bag to carry the shoes and decorate it with a design cut on the Silhouette. So I set to choosing a font and welding the letters together (so it cuts the whole word together and not each letter individually) using the software that comes with the Silhouette. Its quite easy to use and it didn't take me long to work out how to use the tools etc.,  and there are plenty of tutorials and help out there in the world wide web.

I ironed some HeatNBond lite to the back of a piece of scrap material. And set the Silhouette to cut!  This is where I came unstuck!  After the 1st attempt to cut out the design, it wasn't quite right, the backing paper stuck (and I mean stuck, there are still bits of paper stuck on it now!) to the carrier sheet and the fabric wasn't cut right through. I realised I hadn't set the cutting settings right and found there is a setting for fabric, so I tried again, the 2nd attempt wasn't much better in fact worse! The material was coming away from the backing paper and getting all tangled up in the machine.  Disappointment was setting in fast!  However not to be beaten, I studied an on line tutorial and couldn't quite figure out where I was going wrong until I looked at a picture of the fabric being peeled off the carrier sheet, it had the HeatNBond ironed on to it, however the backing paper had been removed before cutting! Hallelujah!  Third time lucky - a perfect cut!

I also cut out a flower design from the library of designs that came with the software, just to try it!

I have made a tote bag, although its not really what I had in mind, it just wanted to make something with my first cutting attempt.   As I had used the HeatNBond lite, I had to sew the design on to the fabric and I think the font was a bit too fiddly, but I sewed all the way around it with my sewing machine, when I came to the flower I cheated and went around the middle and the outer edge so you can see the stitching in between the petals.

Lessons learnt:

1. Remove the backing paper from the HeatNBond before cutting the fabric.
2. The lightweight carrier sheet is also adhesive, (I didn't realise it had a removable film covering the sticky bit. (I had used the heavier weight carrier sheet, hence the backing paper sticking to it too much!)
3. Don't use an over ambitious design if you intend to sew it on with a sewing machine or use the no-sew version of HeatNBond.

I have ordered some Heat Transfer Material in normal and flock to try as I have seen some nice ideas for t-shirt designs whilst blog hopping!

All in all I am quite pleased with my first project.

Sarah xx

My New Toy

It was my birthday the other week, and I ummed and arred over buying (getting my hubby to buy me) a Silhouette SD machine.   I looked at the lite version, but liked the idea of the registration mark feature which allows you to cut out things you have printed.  I mainly wanted the Silhouette to cut fabric and wanted to make sure it would do that.  Having mulled it over for some time and talked about it with hubby... he said I might as well get the full version....  I shopped around a bit and end up ordering one from CreateandCraft.tv and it arrived a few days later....   I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but have loads of ideas...  watch this space...!

Sarah xx

Bon Jovi at Hard Rock Calling 2011

I went to see Bon Jovi at Hard Rock Calling yesterday. It was amazing, one of the best concerts i've seen (and I've been to a few Bon Jovi Concerts).  They played for a full 3 hours and of course played all the old favourites, but also played some of the songs that we die hard fans really appreciate!  Highlights for me were 'Hey God', and These Days amongst others.

Being a fan club member I had Gold Circle tickets so had a great view and room to dance and sing. The arrow marks my spot LOL!

Photo Hard Rock Calling

They played a total of 27 songs set list as follows:
1 - Raise ur hands
2 - Bad name
3 - Born to be my baby
4 - we werent born to follow
5 - Lost Highway
6 - Its my life
7 - In These Arms
8 - Blaze of Glory
9 - Lay ur hands on me
10 - Cptn Crash
11 - Bad Medicine/pretty woman/shout
12 - Hallelujah 
13 - When we were Beautiful
14 - I'll be there for u
15 - Who says u cant go home
16 - Sleep when I'l dead
17 - Hey God
18 - HAND
19 - KTF
Encore1
20 - Dry county
21 - Wanted
22 - Some day I'll be Saturday Night
23 - Prayer


Encore 2
24 - Always
25 - These Days
26 - Blood on Blood

Encore 3
27- I love this Town


Still buzzing with excitement this morning!


Sarah xx

Fabric Swap

The lovely Kandi Pandi is organising a Fabric Swap.  Pop over there now to get your name down...  you never know, you might get me in the draw!

Sarah xx

Meeting Robert Patrick

Ever since I met my husband, randomly people have told him he looks like the T1000 character from the Terminator 2 film, you know the Liquid Robot!

It died down after a bit, just the odd comment occassionally.  However it started up again lately when some lads in our local pub had watched the film and then came in to the pub and told him they had just seen him in it.

This is my hubby in 1995

When we found out Robert Patrick was in town at the Collectormania Event, we decided to take the opportunity to see the man for ourselves, I paid £20 to get my husbands photo with him.  I managed to get a photo of Robert as he came into the room. Note the wagging finger from the women behind telling me no photos. LOL. Robert was charming, as he came in he was thanking everyone for coming!

Bearing in mind the film is now 20 years old, Robert has aged somewhat.... so has my husband,  However here is the picture of my husband with his lookie likie!

I think the resemblance has all but disappeared now! LOL

 Sarah xx

Kandi Pandi's Threeway Giveaway

The lovely Kandi Pandi is having a giveaway on her blog!  Pop over and have a little look see!

Sarah xx

Lanyards

I wear a Lanyard at work which carries my Swipe Card, which lets me in and out of the car park and the department in which I work.

The supplied lanyard was just a metal ball chain! It was very cold in the mornings when I put it around my neck. I got to thinking I could make Lanyard out of the prettily patterned ribbons that you can buy in the craft shops and I had a little search on the internet for the metal split rings and Lobster Clips.

Having searched and come accross some hand crafted lanyards made of material, I realised I didn't have to use ribbon, which was perhaps a bit thin, and so I made one out of material, folded serveral times and top stitched. I've added 2 buttons at the bottom for decoration and to hold the clip and ring in place.

Of course, having made one, I had to make a whole bunch, and add them to my craft stall, I've sold 2 already!

Sarah xx

May Fayre at the Local Village Hall

I took part in another Spring Fayre at our local village hall last week.  Alas I didn't sell very much, people love to look and Oooo and Ahhhh over things, but they don't buy!

Heres a couple of pics of my stall!

You can probably just make out my new display stands with all my dangly items on them.  I bought them in a shop which was having a 75% off sale and they were reduced from £24.99 to £6.25 each... bargain!

I'm doing another stall in June at a Strawberry Fayre, I need to make some pocket money things for the kiddies to buy, just to cover the stall fee, then anything else is a bonus! I also want to re-vamp the stall to make it look more vintage looking - IYKWIM! lol.


Sarah xx

Two More Scottie Dogs

I know I have revisited a couple of old projects again recently, but I like to make things again to try different methods or materials.

I made the white Scottie Dog exactly the same as the black one I first made (here) just because I enjoyed making it and wanted to make another one.

However, I made the Purple Scottie differently in 2 ways.  1 I made it smaller to see if it was fiddlier and 2 because I have bought some wool mix felt and I wanted to see how it made up into something. (The black and white Scotties are 100% Acrylic Felt).  The purple Scottie, was a little more fiddlier to make, but the purple wool felt made up lovely, and feels nice and soft.

And now I have a family of Scottie Dogs!

Sarah xx

Even More Crayon Rolls

I made some Crayon Rolls sometime ago here and here, and had sold most of them, in fact I only had 1 left.

I still had some of  the crayon material left, so made another 4 of the delightful pink and blue lined rolls.

This picture is a little tease, from my latest craft Stall!

Sarah xx

Mini Bunting

I made some bunting a couple of years for Christmas.  I made it quite big and it didn't sell at all, lots of oo's and ah's but no sale, so this time I thought some mini bunting might go down a bit better.

I wanted to see if I could cut it out using my rotary cutter, so I picked a couple of fabrics out of my stash.  It was very quick to cut and also to sew...  I used some 1 inch wide tape, doubled over for the ribbon, and wonder now if its a little thick! I will need to investigate thinner options.

I also thought some baby bunting might go down well,

so I purchased so Baby style fabrics from the local market.

I'm toying with the idea of appliqueing some letters to the flags?

Sarah xx

Its Been Sooooooo Long..... But I Have Been Busy and Fabric Caddies

I have neglected my blog for a while, but I have been very busy.  I have been reading everyone else's blog's and have been inspired by all the makes.

One of the things I was dying to make was the fabric caddies which have been featured by lots of people on their blogs and in a magazine or two!

After a quick nose in a magazine at the craft shop, I went home and drew up my own pattern and  measurements etc, and I was quite surprised how quick and easy they were to make.

The outer fabric is from Dunelm Mill and the inner is cream felt. 

I've made a couple of each for now!

More soon!

Sarah xx

Happy Easter

I'd just like to wish you all a very happy Easter, with a couple of pictures of my Easter Bunny Tree.  I've always wanted an Easter Egg Tree, however when I found these Bunnies in Aldi's last week I'd had a plan!

I found the twigs and spray painted them silver. Attached coloured wool to the chocolate bunny's. Put the twigs into a glass jar with some glass nuggets to support them and then hung the bunnies. Finished off with a simple message.  I did start to add ribbon etc., but decided less is more...

Sarah xx