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.