Button Earrings

 Been busy... away to Barcelona, work, uni, etc... so not been around as much as I would normally... sad but I haven't really missed my blog much either, perhaps it's a sign to think about packing it all in?

Anyway here's some button earrings that I've been making recently and selling to friends and at local craft markets... there's plenty more button earrings up for sale on the facebook page for Southern Fairy Designs too.

Think my favourite pair has to be the white and purple stars below, tmepted to just keep that pair for myself instead of trying to sell them on...

Then I thought about playing with some other shaped buttons too... Love the little pink heart buttons... in fact I already have a pair for myself that are identical to the lower pair and I wear them to brighten up an outfit :)

Can Can Scarves

 So new thing for me to try AGAIN... my nan made a scarf a few weeks back and sent it to me with a note telling me how easy it was to make and how she was surpirsed I hadn't tried one yet... that was it the gauntlet had been thrown down..I had to have a bash at knitting and make one of these so called easy scarves!

After raiding my local Hobbycraft on their 25% night I came home with 3 balls of wool and no idea what I was doing.... or needles in which to knit with lol... so I went to a local charity shop and picked up a couple of sets of needles for 50p and then went the the wool shop for some advice... wish I hadn't as they were rude and unhelpful. Youtube proved to be much more successful.. search for can can scarves and find the video by BlackSheep and that's how I got started...

So here's my first Can Can Scarf... took forever, well 6 hours of an afternoon after the amount of times I dropped stitches and couldn't figure how to pull it back together so had lose a whole row lol...

And here's me wearing my first attempt a Can Can Scarf... I lived in it for a couple of days till I started the next one...

Then I started working on the green ball of wool that I bought.... this scarf went much easier and quicker... even managed to fix the few mistakes I had dropping stitches or accquiring extras as I seemed to for a few rows lol.

I can see these making some pretty neat christmas presents for friends and family :)

Guest Post Nifty Thrifty Things

And here's the post I shared on friday over at Nifty Thrifty Things

Hi my names Steph and I post over at Southern Fairy Designs. I'm an aircraft mechanic, glider pilot and crafter... polar opposites I know but it keeps me ahppy and that's what really counts. I make jewellery, bags, home decor, celebration items (flags and bunting), brooches and recently I've started making some clothes for myself.
One of my favourite pieces of clothing I've made is the top in the photo below. I made it to take away on holiday, if you want to see what happened the day I wore it to Gibraltar then click the photo below.

To see the details of the projects below then just click on the photos.
Another of my favourite makes recently is this lace flower necklace... yes I've lived in it, hence it being in 2 photos in this post and many more across my blog

This cupcake pouch is my new jewellery bag for when we go travelling... been making these as presents for friends and family... in the last few weeks I've been making these for customer orders, plenty of lovely fabrics sat in my drawer waiting to be turned into many more pouches.

Then there's what seems to be the most popular post I have ever put on my blog... My Anthro Power Of 3 necklace knockoff  tutorial... which well over 6 months after I posted it is still receiving 100's of hits every week.

Thanks for taking the time to have a read and I do hope you stop by and visiti my blog some time soon :) And thanks to Vanessa for letting me post on her blog!

 

Guest Post over at... Nifty Thrifty Things

Oooops I forgot to put this post up on friday, got too busy in my week at university talking business, planes and all sorts of other rubbish... that's what happens when you mix civilian aircraft engineers and military engineers... then it's company based riuvalry and banter.. all good fun but very distracting...
On friday Vanessa from Nifty Thrifty Things let me do a guest post on her blog to cover one day of her trip away... go check out her blog and meet some of the other people covering her holdiay days....  

Playing with Precious Metal Clay

Last Saturday I got the chance to spend the day on a course learning to make things with Precious Metal Clay, in this case silver...this was the final part of my birthday present from my other half (yes he took the hint of all the links I sent him regarding courses like this one lol).

Never played with PMC before... in fact I've never even made my own earring wires before so this was a totally new experience for me altogether. Thankfully I came up with m ideas quickly and made them out of plasticine to practice the techniques for rolling out and texturing before I started work on my expensive little blob of PMC.

Several small blobs rolled out later... roll on some lace for texture... use small cookie cutters to get the shapes... punch holes for the ear wires... slip the flower onto the heart... set a cubic zirconia into the flower... then comes the waiting... let it dry out, or use a food dehydrator like we did...

Then we fired them... sorry, sintered them... with a hand torch... by then we had these horrid white powdery shapes... with a bit of force and a wire brush the powder came off revealing the silver underneath... solder a half ring onto the back of the large heart to make it into a pendant... chuck the pieces into a tumbler to remove any leftover powder and VOILA!

 

So what do you all think? I think I need to have another go at making some of these coz I have so many ideas left that I want to make! 

Dahlia Flower Brooches

Here's the felt dahlia flower brooches that I had left over from the craft market the other weekend... I absolutely love them, so I was quite hurt by some miserable womens' comments as they passed. One said 'Oh what are they?' The other replied 'felt dahlia brooches, darling', 'Oh well they just look a bit weird what would you do with it?!' How rude I was standing 2ft away from them and yes they are entitled to their opinions but perhaps they could have taken them away from my stall where there were appreciative customers looking to buy these lovely brooches that mum and I were sporting on our jackets that day too!

Some people do just annoy me, if it's not your cup of tea why make a fuss, just walk on by and go buy some generic shop brooch that everyone else has! I've made many of these as gifts for friends and family, donated a few as prizes for charity raffles and never had bad feedback on them. These lovelies are still up for sale on my facebook page and I'm always making more in different colours too.

Rant over, I just wish people were a little more openminded or stayed away from things they don't understand.

Butterfly Canvasses

 Been a little bit busy this last week getting myself all prepared for the craft market (see previous post) so I haven't had much time to be blogging, sorry!

Thought I'd share with you my new, improved version of my Butterfly Canvas...

Learnt a few things from the first attempt... don't use the same flower template with 2 different colour inks if you can't wipe it clean... coat in enamel not modpodge to seal the ink work in...

Clairabella (the craft shop running the market) have asked if I'd like to try selling these in their shop, so seeing as these 3 didn't sell today I've dropped them in to see how it goes instore...

I just love these canvasses, they got a lot of compliments today and I've had some lovely feedback from people I've given them to as gifts... hopefully people will snap them up in the shop or order different colours from me...

Once again far too many butterflies were punched out so there's plenty spare for more canvasses to be made in the future or added to other items... I foresee butterfly cards in the very near future!

Today I Went To Market...

 So today I went to market with my things for the very first time! Never really sold my items by anything more than word of mouth and via facebook... so this was a very big step for me!

The market was run by Clairabella a shop in High Wycombe that sells goods made by local crafters, that once a month has a market for sellers to get together and sell their new things.

First score of the day... I only booked a half table, to be on the safe side as it's first attempt... but when we arrived the lady I was sharing a table with had cancelled... so I got the other half of the table as well for free :)

So here's my set up at a glance...

Check out the snazzy sign I had made in the graphics shop at work... and the catalogue on the bottom right that my friend made for me the other night to display my custom order larger items..

Loving the 2 jewellery trees I had to display everything on...

Definitely needed the full table to spread out over though... don't think it would have all crammed on together very well at all!

And here's me looking cheerful at my stall (even though at that point I hadn't sold anything lol)...

So how many things that I'm wearing does everybody recognise then? I decked mum out in all the best pieces I've made her over the years too :) 
Had a lovely day out, meet some wonderful people and hopefully found myself some new customers that will come back and place orders in the future.

Autumn Wreath

It appears the UK is having somewhat of a late Indian Summer this year, it's hotter now than most of August was for us so making our house an Autumn Wreath may seem out of place, though the forecasts say by the weekend the weather could be cool and rubbish again so I'm prepared!

I've grown bored of my burlap wreath and whilst walking round Hobbycraft last weekend I saw all these lovely bits and pieces that would knock together and make a wonderful wreath... so I bought them and whipped up this wreath... (yes I should have been making things for my craft stall but the temptation to make something for us was too much)..

My favourite bit is the cute little wooden hedgehog, all the other animals they had were just too large or looked tacky. The leaves are from a long wire garland of leaves, still got half of it left so may have to think of another autumn based project to use them on at a later date. Quick, simple, yet very effective on our inner porch doorway... I'm even more impressed with the quality of the photos of the wreath from my new SLR camera :)

Lace Tee Revamp

So now the weather is meant to be changing here in the UK (perhaps someone forgot to tell the weather today as it was 27C!) I thought I'd best start on my autumn/winter clothes making list. I started with a quick, simple one using Katy from Sweet Verbena's tutorial... the only thing I really changed was the neckline of the t-shirt I used, I'm not a huge fan of round necks I prefer my necklaces hanging above the neckline so it was a V neck for me.

 And here's a pic of me modelling my new refashioned t-shirt... that lace flower necklace of mine seems to be a constant feature in all my clothes posts recently, anyone starting to get the idea how much I love and wear that necklace? It's about the only one I wear apart from my silver heart necklace!

Over the weekend I'll share the cards and presents made for the September birthdays in my life... my man and his mum.

Last Of The Summer Wardrobe

So here's the last piece of clothing I had to make for the summer... didn't get finished till a few days before holiday so had to wait till I wore it on holiday to get a decent photo.

This top started off life as a length of jersey material and a strapless bra that was getting a little loose.. so with the help of Kirsten's tutorial it became the super top shown in the photos.

It even got worn out on our trip to Gibraltar... where I got climbed all over by the Barbary Apes!

I'm Not MIA...honest

Hi all, I'm not MIA... just away on holiday, shall resume normal posting and comenting on the 22nd! Will have plenty of things to share by then as getting plenty of goodies here and more should be delivered by the time we get home :)

Cupcake Makeup Bag

 This week I've been starting to play with some of the fab crafty bits that 2 of my friends donated to me, yup they gave me a shed load of stuff for free! Got a heat gun and heat embossing goodies which have been used for the birthday cards for the upcoming birthdays... and then my other friend gave me a box of fabric pieces and more card making supplies...

So project 1 with the new fabric pieces is a makeup bag for me with my favourite bit of fabric from the parcel.... Cupcakes! And a super cute dusky pink dotty fabric for the lining that also came in the parcel.

 These little bags have been pretty popular, made several now as presents for friends and family, had a few order enquiries about them for christmas... and after all that I didn't actually have one to call my own.. so I had to make one and had to do it before too many people ordered cupcake ones and there would no fabric left for me.. a little selfish I know but I really wanted one to show off myself as something that I had made!

 Isn't the cupcake print just totally awesome though, nearly good enough to eat!

Had to take a photo so you could see how cute the lining is too and how well it goes with the cupcake outer fabric! This beauty now lives proudly ion my bag for me to show everyone whenever they ask for a lipbalm or nail file :)

Wedding Order - Just Married Flags

You know when you're out in shops and see things you think are cute, then check the price tag and think 'how much?! I could make them so much cheaper!' Well that's what these flags are... A friend and I were out shopping the other week talking about her cousins wedding, she's planning it, when we saw some simple just married flags in a shop.... they were £4.50 each! So I got her to hold up one of the flags so I could take a photo on my Blackberry for reference and make some up myself for her.

After messing around with fonts on the computer and printing out plenty of test sheets to position the words right for when the card gets folded round the dowel... test punching the hearts till I figured where the perfect position was to line up with the words... I finally finished up with these lovelies...I had to 'force' myself to buy the heart punch, as somehow it's the one shape punch I didn't already have in my collection... and then I found some super (now I won't call them kiddies, though they were near the kiddies craft section in the shop) shaped edge scissors - a zigzag pair and a scalloped pair. The scalloped pair were perfect for cutting the flag's edge, then I used a silver pen and made a dot in each scallop to just add an extra little 'zing' to it.
Only charged £2 a piece for them, so that's a super saving for her... and a lot of spare dowel for me so I think Imay be doing some more flags for other occasions too, I'm thinking babies, anniversaries and birthdays so far...

Wearing The Sailor Collar Top

Couldn't be waiting for my bloke to be home to take the photos, it's days before he's off work and the weather isn't keeping the evenings light here so taking photos isn't exactly easy...

So bear with me and my attempts to take 'good' photos of me wearing latest creation in our gorgeous vintage bedroom mirror.

Wow how many attempts do you think it took to get a decent pic of the back? Well about 7... my hair got in the way or I just totally misaimed the camera and took lovely photos of the wall lol.

Blog Makeover

The blog has finally been treated to a super makeover... thanks to Lindsay at Southern Lovely for picking me as the winner of the competition... and an even bigger thanks to Cindy of Blessed Graphic Design for creating the awesome design and putting up with my picky little demands on what I really wanted...

Don't you just love the new signature too:)

Sailor Collar Top

Seeing as the bad weather seems to already be settling in I'm making a start on a couple of autumn tops to make along side the last of my summer wardrobe for my holiday, my orders and now the stock I need to get made up for my first ever craft market stall (EXCITE! but more news to come on that at a later date)..

Here's what used to be a plain white t-shirt till I read the latest issue of Cloth magazine.. they had this beautiful tutorial on how to make a sailor collar to just wear over dresses or whatever you fancied... I didn't quite like that idea so I thought I'd make it a permanent fixture on an otherwise boring top..

I kept the long ribbon bow from the original design as otherwise the collar would have fallen short of the centre of the neckline and left a void... and i love ribbons and bows so why not add the extra omph to the top!

If anyone wants the template and tutorial for this project then it's here but do check out the other projects while you are there coz there's some stunners in amongst them!

I haven't got a picture of me wearing it yet as there's no one else home to a photo of the back, so give me a day or so and I'll make sure I put another post up with the photos