Bugs and Fishes by Lupin

DIY Mini Envelope Valentine

2012-01-29T09:59:00.000Z

This is a very simple project but I rather like it! It's a similar idea to the Valentine's garland I posted yesterday...

... a Valentine's Day card with a little semi-transparent envelope on the front, into which you can tuck a folded love letter, or the tickets you've bought to a concert/play/exhibition/etc for a romantic Valentine's surprise.

You could also make one for your anniversary, or use it as a more personal way to present a gift card you've bought a couple as a wedding gift.

1. Cut out a red heart from felt, paper or card using the heart template from this tutorial.

2. Stick the heart onto the front of a mini glassine envelope using double-sided tape. Make sure you leave enough room at the top of the envelope to fold it over.

If you can't get hold of any glassine envelopes, you could make your own see-through envelope using tracing paper. Search online for an envelope template you like, cut and fold the tracing paper to form the envelope and stick it together with double-sided tape.

3. Insert the love letter / tickets / gift card / etc into the envelope.

If you don't want to fold important tickets to fit the envelope (or, like me, you're a bit fussy and don't like how the colour of them clashes with the rest of the card) use a photocopier or a scanner to make a black and white copy of the ticket and add that to the envelope instead.

4. Fold over the top of the envelope, and position it roughly in the centre of your blank card - I used bright red card, but white would also look great and make the red heart stand out even more. Then stick the envelope in position with a piece of patterned washi tape (Japanese masking tape), torn at each end.

DIY Valentine Love Notes Garland

2012-01-28T11:02:00.000Z

Today's tutorial is a Valentine's garland, made with mini envelopes.

It's a variation on the advent garland I made a couple of years ago...

... but instead of having an envelope for each day leading up until Christmas, there's an envelope for the first 14 days of February, each one with a little love note or other special something tucked inside.

To make the garland, you will need:

- 14 mini envelopes
- washi tape (Japanese masking tape) & pretty doilies, or patterned paper, cute stickers, etc, basically anything you fancy using to decorate the envelopes
- red felt and the heart template from this tutorial
- glue and double-sided tape for securing all your decorative details in place
- scissors and a pen (I used one with red ink)
- mini pegs and a length of twine, ribbon or cord for displaying the envelopes as a garland

1) Cut out 14 hearts from red felt

2) Decorate the front of each envelope with washi tape, doilies or other pretty things.

I cut strips of tape that were slightly longer than the envelope, then turned the envelope over and trimmed the excess tape with scissors.

To stick the doilies, I placed the doily face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully dabbed it with a glue stick, covering only the area I'd need with glue. I then carefully peeled the doily from the paper, lightly positioned it on the envelope and pressed down to secure it in place.

3) Then use double-sided tape to stick a felt heart in the centre of each envelope, and write the dates Feb 1st to Feb 14th (or just the numbers 1 - 14) on the envelopes.

4) Write a little love note or choose other special bits and pieces to tuck in each envelope - a copy of a special photo, maybe, or little gifts... or you could write a longer love letter and cut it into 14 pieces, so it can be assembled piece by piece over the 14 days ... or, if you're planning a special evening or trip for Valentine's Day you could put in 13 clues to what you're doing / where you're going, and then on Valentine's Day itself write a note revealing your plans

5) Finally, use the mini pegs and twine / cord to display the garland.

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!

Like doilies? Why not decorate your gifts with doilies, or use a whole pack to make a pretty doily curtain to add to your spring decor?.

DIY "Owl Always Love You" Valentine's Day Card

2012-01-27T10:26:00.000Z

I've been working on a few Valentine-themed projects this week, and will be posting them gradually over the next week or so. I hope you'll enjoy them! :)

First up, a cute card for Valentine's day (or your anniversary), featuring two owls, a heart, and a very silly pun...

You can make this with felt, like I did, or use coloured paper if you prefer. The owls are made using the templates from my owl brooch tutorial, then I just drew a heart the size I needed to fit in the gap, cut it out, and used that as the heart template when cutting out my felt.

If you're using paper, turn your templates over and draw around them onto the back of your chosen paper with a sharp pencil, then when you turn the cut out shapes over all your pencil lines will be hidden.

Position the pieces on the card one by one and carefully glue them in place with a glue stick. You can use goggly eyes (glue these in place with a small dab of craft glue) or cut out white paper circles and draw the pupils on with black marker / felt tip pen (perhaps drawing them slightly off-centre to make it look like the owls are looking at each other).

If you're using felt, pin or hold the templates in place to cut out all the pieces. You could sew the wings, beaks and eyes in position (as seen in steps 3 + 4 of the brooch tutorial, sewing a small piece of felt or a black bead for each pupil), or just use craft glue to attach the wings and beak and pairs of goggly eyes.

Position the owls and the heart onto the card how you want them, and then stick them in place with small pieces of double sided tape - craft glue would also work, but it can distort the card slightly.

Finally, write "owl always love you" or your own choice of message underneath the owls in your best handwriting. You may find it helpful to write it in pencil first to help you get the words centred nicely, then just erase the pencil marks once the ink has completely dried. If you've used paper for your owls you could also draw a few extra details on them if you wanted, like feathers on their bellies or wings.

Rainbow Ribbon

2012-01-26T11:33:00.000Z

Check out the yummy, colourful ribbons that arrived yesterday!

I'll mostly be using them to tie the colour-themed felt bundles I sell in my shops, but they'll be a useful addition to my supplies stash too.

It was quite hard to resist the urge to buy a reel of every colour available, but I was strong :)

Red and Blue

2012-01-25T17:50:00.001Z

A quick snap of some work in progress this week...

... lots of red poppies which will become brooches and headbands.

I love those blue Dorcas pin tins. I've got two of them, this one was a hand-me-down from my mother and the other (which is the same design, just larger) was my grandmother's. Very special things.

Another Old Project

2012-01-23T14:15:00.000Z

You've probably noticed a bit of an "old works-in-progress" theme developing on my blog this month...

I've been sorting through lots of boxes over the past few weeks - decluttering a bit, re-organising all my crafty stuff so I can store it neatly in my new studio, and taking a long hard look at neglected old projects to work out how best to breathe new crafty life into them.

These stripey fabric panels were in the same under-the-spare-bed suitcase as the half-finished quilt.

I made them when I was about 18 I think, and they may have been planned as cushions or perhaps just textile-y bits of art to decorate my room, who knows? I remember making them, but not what I was actually making them for!

There's three of them - a large blue one (about 56cm / 22inches wide) and two smaller white and pink ones (33cm / 13 inches wide). Each piece is a plain bit of fabric, decorated with strips of fabric, ribbons, trimmings, beads, buttons, pieces of felt and other crafty stuff, all hand stitched in place to form a stripe-y pattern.

The blue and white one also includes stripes made from bubble-wrap and a piece of j-cloth, which I think my 18 year old self probably thought was really really cool.

I probably pulled the same face looking at those particular sections as my mother no doubt did all those years ago when I waved it at her enthusiastically. Ah, I'm getting so old!

As with the old quilt, I have a whole bundle of mixed emotions about these and am very unsure about what (if anything) I should do with them. I'm going to put them aside and think about it for a while, but any suggestions would be very welcome :)

Simple Squares

2012-01-22T16:32:00.000Z

I'm still spending a lot of my evenings watching rubbish telly & doing some knitting.

I've mainly been knitting blanket squares in basic garter stitch which is really not the world's most fascinating craft project but totally perfect for those times when you just need to switch your brain off for a few hours after work and totally relax.

I've been knitting my daily sky blanket square...

... and also working on a knitting project that has been "in progress" for at least 10 years.

I knitted a couple of blankets many years ago and I'm not sure if I knitted too many squares, or had decided to start a third blanket, or what other mysterious plan was going through my head, but basically I ended up with a few dozen squares which became another one of those "random craft projects that Laura has had stashed under her bed since she was a teenager".

Last year I started knitting up all the random balls of double-knit yarn in my stash into squares to match the old ones. The general plan is to use up the random yarn, and then buy a few extra balls in coordinating colours, and (eventually) end up with a finished blanket or two.

Most of the squares are the same size, and will become one blanket...

... but there are also a few smaller ones knitted from slightly lighter weight yarn, which will be another blanket (which seems destined to be quite bright and cheerful based on the colours knitted up thus far!)...

... and a few much larger ones which my teenage self seems to have knitted on larger needles to the rest of the squares (I'd like to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say this was deliberate but it probably wasn't). I did briefly contemplate knitting three blankets but then I thought that might drive me a bit insane, so instead I'll be unravelling these few larger squares and re-knitting them on smaller needles:

Here's a snap of the crate in which I'm keeping the in-progress squares and soon-to-be-knitted balls of yarn:

The small squares in the bag are tiny moss stitch squares I'm knitting with all the leftover bits of yarn that are too small to be knitted into the larger squares. I don't know what I'm going to use them all for, but waste not want not, right?

Tax Time

2012-01-20T15:44:00.002Z

This week has mostly been filled with spreadsheets as I've been finishing my accounts. So boring!

My brain feels a little broken now, but normal crafty service should be resumed shortly :)

In the meantime, here's a quick snap of my assistant "helping" me print out some paperwork...

I Need More Walls

2012-01-16T16:33:00.002Z

I've begun the long process of umming and aahing and arranging and rearranging that will end (eventually) with me having lots of lovely pictures on the walls in my bedroom and new studio space...

I got out all my artwork at the weekend, spread most of the smaller pieces out across my studio floor and spent a lazy few hours sorting them by colour, thinking about possible arrangements and measuring the unframed prints and posters ready for some frame-shopping.

These slightly blurry photos were taken for reference so I won't have to spread them all out on the floor like this again!

They are basically photographic evidence that Etsy is a very dangerous place - most of my "proper" art (not just postcards and pages from old books or magazines that I couldn't resist framing) has been bought via Etsy. I am forever finding awesome new artists on there to add to my "favourites", and as you can see I've already got more prints than I know what to do with. Oh well :)

(If you click on the photos you can see them on Flickr, where I've added some notes with the artists names in case people see something they like... if there's something I've not labelled, just give me a shout!)

Crafty Projects for Valentine's Day

2012-01-13T13:58:00.000Z

Whether you're planning a really romantic day on Feburary 14th, or just fancy some cute heart-themed crafting, hopefully you'll find a bit of creative inspiration in this project round-up from my tutorial archive...

Sew some felt heart brooches (these would also make sweet hair clips!)

Embroider a romantic wall hanging with a faux woodgrain design:

Sew little felt heart ornaments - these would look very cute in candy colours, maybe hanging from some spring twigs in a vase.

Make a cute pillow (cushion) decorated with a heart and lots of colourful buttons:

(This project was originally designed for weddings, as a ring-bearer pillow, but if you just leave off the ribbon it makes a cute mini pillow to add to your decor. Instead of sewing a strip of felt at the back for carrying the pillow, sew a square or rectangle sewn along three sides to make a little pocket and tuck in a love note or other special message before giving it as a gift)

Sew felt lavender sachets decorated with a heart on one side (using the template from this tutorial) and pretty ribbons and buttons on the other:

Make sweet and simple Valentine's cards or invites to a Valentine's Day party decorated with felt hearts (great for using up scraps leftover from other projects!) ...

... or hearts cut from pictures in magazines, sheet music or other patterned papers:

You can also add hearts to your gift wrapping:

Hosting a Valentine's Day party? Here are a few more ideas that could be easily adapted to fit the theme...

Use large sugar paper (construction paper) hearts instead of butterflies to make a pretty paper doily curtain or mobile:

Add little felt hearts to this felt bunting project to make a Valentine's decoration you can use year after year:

Or use hearts cut from coloured card instead of the butterflies in this tutorial to make napkin rings and cake toppers (the napkin rings would look extra cute if you cut a scalloped edge around the heart, as seen in this tutorial).

P.S. if you're planning some Valentine-inspired crafting, my Valentine's Felt Packs are now back in my Etsy shop :)

An Almost-Quilt

2012-01-11T15:28:00.000Z

While sorting out a stash of random crafty bits and bobs that have lived in a suitcase under the spare bed for many years, I found a project so old that I'd almost entirely forgotten about it: a half-finished quilt!

I started making this quilt when I first started University about 10 years ago, using whatever cheap fabric I could get my hands on at the time and not really having a clue what I was doing - just cutting up bits of fabric and sewing them together rather haphazardly.

(During my student days I also knitted scarves, started a literary society, formed a baking club in my student hall, and hosted colouring-in sessions & Trivial Pursuit parties. Such wild times! Haha.)

The quilt top is about three-quarters finished (all hand stitched!), but there's still a huge amount of work still left to do.

Plus the fabrics are likely all different fibre blends and some pre-washed and some not (which is probably a disaster waiting to happen) and - perhaps most importantly - I think it's rather hideous so I've not got a huge amount of incentive to finish it.

But the thought of (gasp) just throwing it away makes me shudder, so finished it must be.

I'm thinking perhaps about making it slightly smaller than originally planned (abandoning those un-sewn squares) and maybe using a grass-stain friendly fabric for the backing so I could use it as a picnic blanket??

I've got so many other works-in-progress on the go at the moment that I won't be getting to this one any time soon, but it would be nice to come up with a plan so that I can get stitching when I do have time for it, and not end up with it still stashed in a box somewhere in another 10 years time!

Cosy Sisters

2012-01-10T20:15:00.001Z

I knitted scarves for my sisters this Christmas...

They got a long loop scarf each, knitted from fluffy faux-merino yarn. One in black, and one in cloudy-blue...

... (the blue scarf can be seen in-progress here). I also knitted a third one for myself in a bright peacock-ish green. It is very very cosy but a ridiculously difficult colour to photograph!

Then the moss green cowl I was knitting for myself turned out to have too high a wool content for me to wear it happily (when will I learn?) so instead it ended up being two cowls, one for each sister :)

Works in Progress

2012-01-09T15:45:00.000Z

I've started my sky blanket! So much fun.

The weather is so changeable at the moment that the sky can look totally different within five minutes, so I'm looking out of the window / up at the sky at midday each day and using the weather at that moment as my guide for the day's colours. It's fascinating how many creative choices are involved in translating the English weather into a mere two colours.

I've been noting down my colour choices on my calendar (a pretty one I got free with the craft magazine Mollie Makes at the end of last year) so I can knit the squares in the evening, and (most importantly) keep track of what square matches what day so I'll sew them together in the right order!

I'm definitely in the mood for knitting at the moment. I'm still quite tired after the busy Christmas season, and am spending my evenings curled up on the sofa watching lots of TV and doing some simple knitting.

My current project is a black scarf - basic garter stitch on big chunky needles, using one strand of soft faux-mohair yarn. Black is always a pain to work with in bad light, but this is so easy to knit that I barely need to look at it (bonus: I can read the subtitles while watching Borgen and still keep knitting, hurrah!) It's very light and fluffy, and quite wide but I'm not sure how long it will end up being yet.

Work-wise I'm mostly doing admin at the moment (yawn), but I have made a start on the slow process of getting restocked after Christmas - beginning with a pile of poppy brooches.

I've also been making some progress on those knitted cushion covers.

The new one is almost finished (all the squares sewn together, all the ends woven in). The two older ones (the pink and the blue) also needed a bit of work as when I first made them I rather short-sightedly stitched the cushion inserts inside them without any way of removing the covers for washing... They've now been unpicked & washed, and all three covers are getting a row of little snap fasteners along one edge so they can easily be removed in the future.

As if I hadn't already sewn in enough yarn ends this week (oh my gosh, so many bits of yarn), I've started sewing in the ends of this stripe-y something that was lurking in my WIP box...

... and I've come up with a project for using six of the remaining eight blanket squares leftover from making the knitted cushions. I'm sewing them together in matching pairs...

... then lining them in matching acrylic felt and adding a mini zip...

... to make little coin purses. I've just finished one so far, it was a bit of a "don't measure or plan, just sort of wing it" job, but it turned out quite nicely and the end result is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. I popped a few of my business cards in this one to add a sense of scale for the photo, but when they're finished the three purses are destined to be gifts for my two sisters and for my mum (who, of course, will get first dibs).

Now I just need to come up with a plan for the final two non-matching squares. Hmm...

Knitted Cushion Covers

2012-01-05T11:47:00.000Z

I watched lots of movies over Christmas and New Year, while working on some crafty projects... including one that's been a "work in progress" for over 25 years!

When I was a baby, my mum knitted me a blanket made from lots of little squares. She then started knitting squares for a second blanket but never finished it, and the bag of squares sat in the back of a cupboard for years.

Then when I started knitting as a hobby when I was at University, my mum gave me the squares and I picked out all the pink ones and the blue ones and stitched them together to make two cushion covers:

The rest of the squares had been sitting in a suitcase under my spare bed for several years after University. Then I found them while moving this autumn, and decided to sew a third cushion cover so I could have three lovely colourful cushions to put on the day bed in my studio.

Here's the front and back panels of the new cushion, almost ready to sew together:

I thought those colour combinations looked a bit crazy when I made the blue & pink cushions years ago, but now I think they're rather awesome and I love the idea of having a mis-matched front and back. It's funny how your tastes change over time, isn't it?

There are just a few squares leftover which will go back in the bag and in my "works in progress" box until I work out what to do with them...

... I don't know how long it's been since there was a wool section in WHSmith's but I imagine it's been quite a while!

Less 365

2012-01-01T13:31:00.002Z

Last Christmas I set myself a challenge to give away 100 things in the run up to Christmas, to counterbalance all the consumption and excess of the season.

I had to find one thing in my house each day which I no longer used / liked / needed and then give it away (to local charity shops or to friends and neighbours). The giving felt great, but the decluttering felt even better! I was totally amazed by how many random things I'd been keeping that I no longer had any use for or real interest in (including the cookie cutters pictured above, which I'd bought many years before and never used).

As I wrote last year, "I will never ever ever be a minimalist. I like having a house full of colour and pattern and vintage treasures and sentimental trinkets and family heirlooms and things which just make me happy because they're beautiful. But I do want my posessions to earn their place in my home, and to have a house filled with wonderful things rather than clutter."

So, without blogging about it (because, honestly, I didn't know if I'd be able to manage it, especially after having just cleared out 100 things) I set myself the challenge in 2011 to do a "Less 365" project, getting rid of one thing a day for a whole year... and I just completed it yesterday afternoon!

I put a box in the spare room and started adding things to it one by one. I didn't completely stick to the "one thing a day" rule, but I kept a list of everything as I went along so I could keep track of my progress and so it wouldn't matter so much if I missed a few days here and there, I just made them up later. Sometimes my "one thing" for the day included lots of individual things (like a big pile of old magazines, or a china coffee set), sometimes they were big things, sometimes small, but the list just kept on getting longer...

Some things went to the charity shop, some things to friends and neighbours, others got recycled or just thrown away if they were really old or damaged. I could probably have sold lots of stuff on Ebay but to be honest selling on Ebay makes me really stressed, and I wanted that warm fuzzy feeling you get from taking bags of nice things to the local charity shop more than I wanted a bit of extra cash.

It's remarkably easy to pick out just one book you're not going to read again, one CD you never listen to, one sweater you never wear, your least favourite bit of crockery, and so on... and I've found that by sticking everything in a box out of sight for a few weeks, decision-making is a lot less stressful. Putting stuff in the box doesn't feel scary and final, when you empty the box when it gets full you'll probably have emotionally let go of most of the contents... and if you haven't you get a second chance to rescue something at the last minute if you've changed your mind, or you can just leave things in the box for a few months while you make a final decision.

I'm not going to lie to you, it does get trickier to choose things as the year goes on, but it makes you really look hard at all your "stuff" and be really honest with yourself about what you want to keep and use/display in your home, and why... and, of course, your space will be much less cluttered. I hugely recommend it! And even if you don't fancy the full "Less 365", you could just try it for January and see how you get on :)

2011 Crafting Review

2011-12-31T12:30:00.000Z

2011 has been a busy year! Writing my book at the start of the year and moving house in the autumn took up a lot of my time and energy, but I did manage to squeeze a bit of crafting in here and there...

In January I was finishing writing my book so things were a bit quiet on the blogging front and several posts involved secret things I couldn't show you yet.

When I wasn't working towards my big deadline, I was knitting blanket squares, restocking packaging and sewing designs that sold out during the busy Christmas season

In February I stitched bows, butterflies and birds...

... and made a ring-bearing owl (which later became this plush felt owl tutorial).

In March, I let the cat out of the bag about my book, Super-Cute Felt!

I also worked on a few more secret things (for something I'll hopefully be able to share with you soon!), got quite excited at seeing my bird brooches featured in Country Living, and shared a few tutorials including one inspired by the Royal Wedding.

In April I tidied up my felt stash, stitched lots of poppies and some primroses, and organised my works in progress.

Here on the blog I had a book week, with lots of crafty book reviews and giveaways. I definitely need to remember to do another one of those in 2012!

In May I shared a tutorial for making a pretty felt flower hairband, and stitched flower garden crowns & lots of sunflowers.

I learned to crochet, and selected colours for my first crochet blanket, and took a bit of time off to enjoy the sunshine and drink tea with good friends.

In June I stitched pink flowers, recycled flowers and needlefelted flowers... and shared an old crafty project of mine to make fun bracelets from felt scraps.

My knitting club had a knitting picnic, and I made lots of progress on my giant granny square blanket.

I got sent an advanced copy of my book (very exciting!) and spent a few happy afternoons sorting through my stash of clippings and sticking the prettiest ones in my scrapbooks.

In July I shared a tutorial for making butterfly napkin rings, and photos of lots of lovely stuff made by my customers (there's a new Show and Tell post coming soon - if you'd like to share what you've been making from my supplies please do get in touch!). I also stitched lots of cherry blossoms...

... and some secret things which, alas, will have to remain secret for a while yet.

In August, I made a barn owl mask, did some knitting, stitched some lavender sachets and stored crafty supplies in some yummy tins. I also went to the Festival of Quilts for the first time, met up with some lovely crafty chums and oohed over many awesome quilts.

Plus my book was published a few weeks early, which was a very nice surprise!

In September I shared tutorials for making candy cane ornaments and vintage-inspired felt baubles, and was delighted to see my coffee cosy design on the cover of the newly published Stash Happy: Felt.

I also cut out lots of teeny tiny flowers, and knitted lots of mini squares.

The end of September and most of October was pretty dreadful. I was a big ball of stress and heartache, but I did manage to do some knitting and to make some thankyou cards ready for Christmas orders.

I was a bit worried about blogging about my personal life, to be honest, but the flood of kindness and support I got from everyone was amazing and it was really wonderful being able to host so many fab guest posts while I was busy moving house. You guys are awesome, and everything is going to be amazing.

In November I hosted lots of lovely giveaways, met lots of UK makers at UK Handmade's 3rd birthday party, and stitched lots of corsages:

I was also thrilled to have all my work stuff set up in my new studio space ready for lots of pre-Christmas parcel packing. It looks very neat and tidy in my studio tour photos but you should have seen it in the weeks running up to the last posting dates for Christmas - total chaos!

It's looking a bit tidier again now, and I'm in the process of choosing prints to hang on the walls & a few other bits and pieces to make the space feel more personal (hurrah!).

December was very busy work-wise but also quite crafty, with projects using chocolate coins, ideas for making scrap gift tags & fun handmade cards, plus tutorials for wallpaper snowflakes, and felt snowflake coasters & ornaments.

I also got a new furry studio assistant, bought yarn to knit a sky blanket in 2012, stitched some gifts, and relaxed with some knitting including this lovely fluffy scarf which was finished just in time to give to my sister for Christmas.

Thanks to everyone who's left a comment on my blog, or just silently followed my crafty adventures this year! Here's to lots more crafty fun in 2012 :)

Five Years on Etsy

2011-12-30T11:47:00.001Z

Five years ago yesterday, I set up my Etsy shop as part of my New Year's Resolution to try selling a few of the crafty things I make...

My life has changed hugely in those five years. Being self-employed is a lot of hard work but it's also wonderful and exciting, and I'm so lucky to be able to spend so much of my working life doing creative, crafty things.

To celebrate my five years on Etsy, you can get 10% off all orders from my Etsy shop until the end of 2011 with the code HURRAH - just enter the code when prompted during the Etsy checkout process and the discount will be automatically deducted from your order. The discount excludes shipping, but it includes items already on sale... and I've just added a whole bunch of new things to my sale section to make room for new projects in 2012.

P.S. if there's anything you've ever wanted to ask me about my business or about selling your work online, now's your chance! Add your question to this Etsy forum thread and I'll reply as soon as possible :)

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-26T14:39:00.000Z

Hope you're all having a lovely Christmas / whatever else you get up to at this time of year :)

I didn't decorate much this year, just displayed cards from friends, but there are lots of felt decorations made by me on my mother's Christmas tree...

... including a felt snowflake, and the gingerbread house ornament I designed for Fa La La La Felt.

I also made her a set of felt gingerbread ornaments using the Gingerbread Cookie Garland pattern in my book, Super-Cute Felt.

Last Minute Crafting

2011-12-23T13:57:00.000Z

I'll be keeping my shops open during the next few weeks, and posting parcels when I can (i.e. when my local P.O. is open).

I'm going to be doing my best to keep my working hours to a minimum though, and to generally try hard to wind down and chill out after the busy pre-Christmas selling season. After weeks of rushing to meet posting deadlines and working long hours packing parcels, sewing and replying to emails, it will be very nice to just relax in front of some festive telly... with my knitting, of course!

I've got a few last minute Christmas gifts to finish knitting and stitching, and I've also started knitting a cosy cowl for myself from some skeins of lovely soft yarn I bought earlier this year:

The yarn varies in thickness and is a blend of mossy greens, with a thread of gold running through it. I've never made a cowl before but am just winging it and hoping for the best :)

Guest Post: DIY Seasonal Switch Plates

2011-12-22T16:30:00.000Z

With Christmas just around the corner, here's one another festive guest post for you! Today's post comes from Alex Cobbe, aka Hydrangea Girl...

-------

My name is Alex and I'm addicted to all things design. I also have a fascination and passion for crafting, cooking, kitties, and anything quirky, unusual, or out of the ordinary.

I love Christmas and that warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with it. I love decorating for the holidays, and what made me come up with the idea for these decorated switch plates was that there aren't many Christmas decorations that you can apply directly to existing parts of your home. There are many hanging decorations, and decorations to drape across things, but nothing that would add a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to that big bare patch on your wall that just has a light switch. Does that make sense? In my head it does. So anyways, on to my tutorial!

What you'll need: a cereal box or supermarket pizza box (thin cardboard works best), paint in a range of colors, PVA glue, glittery things of your choice like snowflakes or stars, scissors, paint brush, a black pen, pencil, and a ruler.

Step 1: decide on a template for your seasonal switch plates. I designed a silhouette inspired a little by Russian architecture. I drew my template on a folded piece of paper - when I cut out the design and opened it, it was a perfectly symmetrical template. I also cut out a square the size of my light switches. To make sure the templates fit each switch snugly, I fitted and trimmed the inside square with a pair of scissors (scalpel or exacto knife) where necessary.

Step 2: with your pencil, draw a Christmassy scene. I went with a different design for each switch plate, but there's no harm in doing the same pattern en masse.

Step 3: once you're happy with your design, paint it in. I began with the gold background, which I needed to build up with two layers of paint. Once the gold was dry, I went ahead and painted the remainder of the scene.

Step 4: When your paint has dried, use a black pen (or fine marker) and draw an outline around your design to really make it pop!

Step 5: attack every boring light switch in your home.

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You can check out lots of other crafty tutorials over on Alex's blog, Hydrangea Girl, her dust cover project is especially fun and would be a lovely way to add a personal touch to a book you're giving as a Christmas gift.

A Project for 2012

2011-12-21T17:36:00.000Z

My 2011 crafty resolutions didn't really work out as I got distracted by too many other new exciting projects to find the time to finish the two blankets and a quilt that I'd rather foolishly set myself the challenge of finishing this year. I reviewed a book about quilting and knitted a few blanket squares but that was about it!

So for 2012 I've decided to pick one big project to work on alongside all the other crafty projects that come and go throughout the year: knitting a sky blanket.

I read about Lea Redmond's awesome Sky Scarf knitting project earlier this year and basically I fell head over heels in love with the idea and couldn't get it out of my head. I loved the idea of knitting a row every day based on the colour of the sky, and of ending up with a quirky knitted record of a year's worth of weather.

I thought about following her instructions to make my own scarf, but I didn't really want to knit a long scarf I knew I'd probably never use... so I decided to make a blanket instead.

I'll be knitting a square a day for almost a year (360 days in total, giving me a nice even number of squares to sew into a blanket), using two strands of double knit yarn for each square.

Lea's scarf pattern uses the genius idea of mixing five basic sky colours (light blue, bright blue, light grey, dark grey and white) to represent the sky for that day... so a bright sunny day with a few fluffy clouds would be bright blue and white, and a day of heavy snow would be all white. I've already been enjoying looking at the sky each day and working out what yarn colours I'd choose for it.

My blanket will end up being very thick and cosy, perfect for snuggling on the sofa on winter evenings. You can see my test squares here. The squares will look very different to the stripes of Lea's scarf, but hopefully it will still look nice and even if it ends up being the ugliest blanket in the world I will probably still love it madly and spend hours waffling on at people about the idea behind it (honestly I have bored so many people by telling them about this project, and I've not even started it yet!).

It took me a while to find a range that had a good selection of sky blues and cloudy greys, but I eventually settled on Stylecraft Special DK which comes in a massive range of colours and (added bonus) is pretty cheap, so I could afford to buy extra balls of it to cover all weather eventualities during the year. All the leftover yarn at the end of the year will go into my stash for other blankets, etc. and get used up eventually.

In case you're interested the colours I'm using are (clockwise from top left) "Silver", "Aster", "Cloud Blue", "White", and "Grey".

I will (of course) be posting pics of the blanket's progress during the year - I hope you'll enjoy following it as it grows :)

Photos from a Busy Week

2011-12-17T17:10:00.002Z

The Christmas posting deadline for UK orders is looming ... please place your order by the end of this weekend if you want your parcel posted before the last posting date!

The last few days of the pre-Christmas season are always pretty hectic. I've kept meaning to blog but kept forgetting - or forgetting to charge my camera batteries / take photos when it was sunny / etc.

So, here are a few catch-up snaps from this week :)

I've been using a yummy new tin to store my current works-in-progress:

It's shaped like a giant bourbon biscuit... I didn't get to eat the biscuits that were inside it originally, but my mum remembered that I had the matching giant custard cream tin and saved the bourbon biccie tin for me. What a star.

Also very yummy - some Charley Harper goodies I treated myself to this week. I saw the gorgeous gift wrap over on What Katie Does and just had to buy some for myself... and couldn't resist buying a few more Charley Harper bits & pieces from Fred Aldous while I was at it. A girl can never have too many things with Charley Harper birds on, right??

Talking of What Katie Does, I am rather in love with her new Tea & Books themed print:

The print is available from her Etsy shop, HERE. I may have just ordered one for my new studio...

A nice bit of surprise post arrived yesterday from the nice people at Folksy - a copy of their winter sampler, a mini newspaper with news from Folksy and a gift guide of some of the lovely handmade things for sale on the site.

They also included a rather lovely knitting-themed postcard... I don't know who designed it, but it's quite gorgeous and perfectly suits their new "Modern British Craft" tagline.

In crafty news, I've made a start on sorting out the pieces for the vintage felt bird ornaments ready for some Christmas crafting...

... and I've started knitting a very soft and fluffy scarf from some fun faux-mohair yarn:

I bought a whole bundle of this fluffy yarn at my old knitting club's fundraising yarn sale this summer. I didn't have a plan for what I might make with it, but it turns out that two strands knitted together makes a fab chunky knit that's perfect for scarves... plus knitting on those large needles is so quick and easy, it's such a satisfying project for the winter evenings.

Right, I'm off to eat some home-made mince pies now (my dad bakes a mean mince pie) and do some more knitting...

How To: Felt Snowflake Coasters & Ornaments

2011-12-13T10:04:00.003Z

This project was inspired by traditional paper snowflakes.

It started out as a tutorial for snowflake ornaments, and then when I was making them my mum said "oh, are those coasters?"... so of course I just had to make some snowflake coasters too!

To make your snowflakes you will need:

- thin white felt

- black felt

- matching sewing thread

- a sewing needle & sharp sewing scissors / embroidery scissors

- circle templates

- plus narrow black ribbon if you want to make your snowflakes into ornaments

1) Make templates for your snowflakes by drawing around glasses or other small circular things... or use the coaster template provided at the bottom of this post... which will be uploaded as soon as I can remember where I put it last week! (oops!) In the meantime you could draw around a circular coaster you already own.

2) For each snowflake you want to make, cut out one white felt circle. Pin your paper template to the felt and cut around it carefully. Then remove the pins and set the template aside.

3) Fold your circle and cut shapes into it, in the same way you would when making paper snowflakes.The thinner your white felt the better, as you can fold and cut it more easily. I used the white wool blend felt from my shops which folded into quarters with no problem.

I folded each circle into quarters (folding twice), cut the point and then cut simple shapes along each side. Triangles work really well, and your designs don't have to be complicated to look really effective! Then I unfolded it and refolded it along the not-yet-cut sections of felt and cut more shapes along the sides and around the outside edge too. Hopefully if you've ever made a paper snowflake before that will make sense :)

4) Pin your finished snowflake onto a piece of black felt. Use white thread to stitch the snowflake onto the black felt... use single stitches wherever you need to hold the snowflake in place.

5) Then carefully trim the black felt with a pair of scissors, so you're left with a narrow border of black felt around your white snowflake.

6) Use the black circle you've just cut out as a template to cut a second matching piece of felt.

7) If you're making baubles, this is when you need to cut a length of ribbon (about 5inches long), fold it into a loop and and sew the ends in place at the top of your black backing circle. If you're making coasters, you can skip this step.

8) Finally, sew the front and back pieces together with black thread. I used running stitch for this, but you could also use whip stitch or blanket stitch if you prefer.

If you're making ornaments, sandwich the ribbon ends between the layers when you sew them together so they're hidden inside your ornament.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many snowflake ornaments or coasters as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Want more snowflake projects? Make a snowflake curtain, or use small paper snowflakes to transform plain wrapping paper.

P.S. the lovely mug in the first photo is from Summersville.

Test Squares

2011-12-12T17:34:00.003Z

I knitted a few "test" squares yesterday...

... choosing knitting needle size / number of stitches / etc for a new blanket I'm planning to knit in 2012.

More details will be blogged when my yarn arrives! :)

Ideas for Making Handmade Cards

2011-12-10T09:54:00.001Z

Writing yesterday's gift tag "how to", I remembered how I used to make birthday cards in the same style when I was a teenager.

They were an awesome way to use up scrap crafty stuff / make use of all those bits of fancy paper and shiny foil that were too pretty to be thrown away... and because they involved using scraps, each card ended up being slightly different.

To make your cards...

1) Choose an embellishment like a fancy sequin or a button

2) Stitch it to some pieces of felt to frame it, completing your card "topper"

3) Then add more layers of coloured paper/foil/giftwrap from your stash

4) To assemble the card, first glue the layers of paper onto your card blank, then use craft glue or double sided tape to attach the topper to the card.

Here are a few old snaps I found of some cards I made in this style many years ago...

Combining plain coloured papers with a bit of fancy holographic / other interesting metallic gift wrap or card works really well - a small bit of sparkle goes a long way!

You can also make card toppers just using felt scraps and paper, no extra embellishments required.

Stitch together pieces of felt in a simple geometric design, and then "frame" the topper with a coordinating rectangle of paper or card.

I also loved to make handmade Christmas cards, picking a new theme every year and spending several happy hours making them all (oh to have the time to still do this!). I used these simple geometric designs for my cards one year, making all my cards in a colour scheme of gold, denim blue and brown.

I used gold sequins and beads from an old broken necklace, gold and blue felt scraps, gold card, bits of shiny gold fabric, scraps of denim from an old pair of jeans, blue sugar paper (construction paper) and bits of rough brown paper cut from used envelopes.

Brown paper is one of those love-it or hate-it things... I love a parcel wrapped in brown paper, and adore the contrast between its plainness and any sparkly ribbon added on top, but I know it's not for everyone! You can of course adapt any of these ideas to your own favourite colours :)

Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Want some more card-making ideas? Recycle old wrapping paper with these scrap paper cards, or use templates to make some simple notecards.