Summer swap part 2

Hello again,

 So I showed you all the marvelous goodies that Steph sent me in our summer swap. As I mentioned we each chose colours and Steph chose yellow and purple. I had great fun crafting for this and here are my makes...

So I made a biscornu from a recent pattern in a WOXS chartbook. It's the same design stitched with the colours reversed for the base with different thicknesses of threads.

And then the biscornu's got a little smaller...the one on the necklace is about an inch or so big and the small one is about 3/4". It had been ages since i made really small ones so these worked well with the fabric scraps from the biscornu.

I made a 'Steph' charm bracelet and matching earrings.

I hadn't made any felties for a while so when I brought the made in felt mag I fell in love with the mermaid and little bear so made both of them for Steph, changing the colours to fit our swap. I added some angelina fibres to the mermaid body for some shimmer.

I also made a little pansy bookmark, nailfile cover and a friendly plastic brooch.

I also popped in some fabric, beads, buttons, ribbon and charms along with some wool.

and a jelly belly candle, tissues and 2 handmade soap I picked up at a craft fayre a while back. My son also made Steph a bracelet. He chose all the beads himself ans put it together, just needing a little help with the findings.

The second part of the swap were summer themed ATC's. It's been about 12 months since I made any but I had a couple I'd stitched already and I made the friendly plastic beach hut and needle felted the ice cream.

This swap wa so much fun to do and I think Steph liked her presents.

Summer swap pt 1

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe it's August already. Steph and I decided ages and ages ago to have a summer swap. We decided to each choose two colours. I chose yellow and turquoise/teal/blue/green - so basically anything in that colour spectrum. Steph chose yellow and purple but more on that in my next post.

So this was the fabulous bundle of goodies that arrived on my doorstep today. When I opened it up it was wrapped up in a beautful crochetted granny.

Here are all the goodies together.

There were 3 beautiful brooches. 2 were crochetted and then embelished in a very Steph way! I now own 7 brooches made by Steph. I just love how they are so unique and original. The middle one is a fabric/felt one. Here is a close up.

Steph said a while back she hadn't swapped any ATC's so we decided to swap some with a summer theme. Steph made these 5 amazing ones. If you look carefully the bunting spells...BEACH. so clever.

There was also some incense cones for the smoking dragon Steph made Hubby and I for our anniversary in June, a box of jelly beans, some fabric charm squares and Cornwall postcards for my collection. I'll show you those in my next 101 round up.

There was an amazing cushion stitched on some of the most beautiful hand dyed fabric, I just love the waves of colour. It is so tactile as it has all the waves of beads and buttons and little gold dragonflies. It is beaded around the edge too.

The back was as beautiful as the front. It had so many french knots and lazy daisy stitches and then all the seed beads on another glorious piece of fabric.

There was also a very bright and bold biscornu with a pretty leaf pattern.

And here is the back, you can see how bright the fabric is. You can't miss it in my biscornu bowl!

I'll be back in a couple of days to show you my makes for Steph. It was a brilliant exchange. I had so much fun crafting for it. 

June ATC's and Wedding Anniversary presents

Hi Everyone,
Weeks have passed again since my last post and no doubt with the amount of crafting I'm doing at the moment there will be a few more to come over the next week or so.

The travelling craft box arrived with me last week (SQUEEEEEEL!) So I'm having a mad making session. I've made about 6 things so far with another half a dozen in the pipeline. Here's a quick peep at some of the amazing items. I've got my eye on 11 items and it works out that I can have at least one item from everyone taking part which is brilliant.

So more about the travelling box in a couple of weeks when it has landed on Lori's doorstep. I actually managed to take part in one of the ATC swaps this month, I will post a pic of my ATC's when I can work out how to get them off my phone, But here are the ones I've received. The themes were transport and Great Britain.

Hubby and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last week and here is my present to him. It was meant for a card but as it was 2am when I finished it the night before I gave him the option of what I should do with it. I had the idea of doing it bell pull style. I just need to run it up on the machine when I have 10 mins. The design was from travel the world in cross stitch.

Here is my present from Hubby...I lost my favourite scissors so hubby kindly brought me a replacement. I also had a needle felting pen to speed up my work and a pulled thread book as I'm doing my first piece at the moment and really enjoying it. This Anchor series of books is so good, I'd love the freestyle embroidery one too.

Well back to watching the tennis and half hour of stitching whilst DD finishes her nap. Postie has just been with something rather special for her, which I will share tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

JUBILEE and ATC swap

Hello friends,
I write this as I watch the Jubilee River Pageant. We spent the early afternoon at church celebrating the Jubilee with a barbeque, cream tea, bouncy castles, crafts, games and facepainting. I helped with the plate painting (with 7 being produced my family alone.)

I went on the bouncy castle with Lottie and had my face painted when Lottie gave me a cuddle and it transfered off her face to mine! The scones were lovely and well done to friends who braved the rain to do a fabulous barbeque for 200 people! I forgot my camera so no photos I'm afraid. We all dressed for the occasion in red white and blue and of course this meant making some accessories! I made this button necklace and brought this fab bracelet from British Heart Foundation. I also made a corsage too.

I also made Laura a necklace to co-ordinate with the earrings and bracelet I made her a few weeks ago. It was a bit of a thank you for such a superb swap parcel I received a this week. Laura sent me 5 ATC's, a super cute Jubilee Monstie, notebook, tissues, a Giraffe themed bag of buttons and also a bag of buttons and charms.

Laura's button necklace

Here are the Jubilee themed ATC's and Blackwork sampler ones below those.

Next up is the rather cute Jubilee Monstie, complete with her own sparkly crown - we've called her Queenie (of course)

Here is a close up of the charms. I love the stamp one and the mushroom button.

As you may have read on Laura's Blog, She has recently come back from Fowey in Cornwall amd brought me back these lovely bits too. Laura has also posted a crochet pattern for a super cute Jubilee mascot.

So I'll leave it here for today. Pop by tomorrow for Olympic torch tales, baking and jewellery making!

Jubilee ATC's and parcel

So 3 posts in 3 days I don't know what has gotten into me! Here is the little ATC parcel I sent Laura. We were swapping 2 ATC's, one Jubilee themed one and one any theme. I did go a little over board and did a full Jubilee themed parcel...

So as you can see there are some ATC's, union jack tissues, a 'best of British rosette, a bag of buttons and charms, a paper bag with ribbons in, bracelet and earrings and little telephone box photo (or maybe ATC) clip.

 Here are the Jubilee ATC's. The Crown one I designed myself so I could make a good likeness of the St Edward Coronation crown. The other two are photo's of a scene we made with my Daughter's Happyland playset. She has the Queen in the set so we decorated the 'village' with union jacks and had a tea party in the square!

 The ones above are from a recent cross stitcher mag, The design on the left was the original design and I thought It would look good in red on black aida. I then had the idea of doing it in reverse putting blackwork in the head and spots and leaving the body blank. I'm really pleased with them and I always find blackwork a joy to do.

Above is the Jubilee bracelet and earrings. I found the buttons in my local shop and made them into this linked bracelet and earrings, I've since done a blue and green one for me and a citrus one in yellow, orange and lime.

 No swap parcel is complete without a little parcel of goodies in the form of buttons, charms and ribbon. I love the ribbons above, You wouldn't believe how excited I in the shop when I found it.

Lastly is the feltie rosette. I also sent Laura a knitted bird brooch simular to the blue one I shared a couple of days ago but purple. I've just started a pink bird now.

I hope you are all having a good week. Thanks for stopping by. xxx

ATC's and a bit of stash shopping

Helloooo Friends,
Well my first blog for 3 weeks and the first with the new blogger layout which to put it mildly was a tad confusing.

Things have been a little crazy over the last couple of weeks. I started to do my April biscornu and then what with one thing and another including a new job for hubby, both children having birthdays and then illness, crafting has rather taken a back seat.
The main problem I have is a lack of things to show you at the moment as I made my ATC's for Laura, but I'm yet to post them so they will be staying firmly under wraps for a few more days. I did make up some other ones too which are below...

I brought a copy of the mag 'Simply Homemade' as I liked the look of the cross stitch on the cover, anyhoo, I came across an article on french knitting, my grandad made me a dolly 20 odd years ago and it has moved craft boxes and houses, lived in the loft and the garage. So I dug it out and here is the make from the mag and I must say I'm rather pleased with how it has turned out. I have started a cross stitch pattern from it too so I'll show that as soon as I have finished it.

I've discovered a great little aladdin's cave of a craft shop on the other side of town, a friend told me about it so I decided to check out Crafty Mo's and  she stocks merino tops for needle felting which I was over the moon about, I also picked up a couple of odds and ends too. I also had a great little find in The Works today - a stitchable Journal, it has a little perforated paper section on the cover  and cost £1.99, it came with all the threads and a little sheet of perforated paper with a geometric design on to copy and in a nice box box that I might decopatch at a later point.



Lovely new Merino wool tops.



Well thats about it for now, hopefully I'll be able fill you in on the ATC swap at the end of the week. Thanks for stopping by. x

A little catch up

Hi everyone,
I hope that you have all had a lovely Easter. My lot are on the last day of the hols. I'm pleased to say all the homework is done and bedrooms are almost tidied. I just need to iron the uniform and pop to tesco for the packed lunch stuff. I'm sure that is enough about my domestic arrangements so on to the crafting.

I had a commision for Black Pear - a kitty keyring, now I'm not a cat person so this was quite hard for me to do. anyway here he or is it a she is. I wanted to use safety eyes but couldn't get any locally so I cheated and used black brads, It'll be fine as a its for a (late) teenager. The ribbon was lilac and the ears and nose a pale pink, as they seem to have come out white in the picture.

The back was personalised for the birthday girl. 

I was a bit late getting my ATC's done for this month but it's great to know that I have a couple of spare ones now. As you can see I've not made them up yet but I will do when I do May's themed ones (Birds and Jubilee/Royalty). I've picked the designs for them so I WILL meet the May deadline!!! I must remember to stock pile some stamps too! The mermaid was from an issue of Crazy and the Loch Ness Monster from WOXS. The theme was fantasy (or fanta-sea) as I've renamed it)

The two flowers were from the recent WOXS chart booklet

I started work on the April Biscornu over the weekend and I decided to try stitching the square outlines first, I must say it was a good way to do it and something I'll probably do again. The design is a Kincavel Krosses one, but I'll say more when it's done.

Mum liked the yellow rose biscornu I made for her, I remembered to give it to her on Saturday. She was impressed by the neatness!

Well, time to get on, a woman's work is never done and I want to spend some time stitching this afternoon as I have a job application to finish as soon as the little darlings go to bed tonight.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Sunday stroll, fabulous ATC's and Easter present

Hubby, the kids and I had another trip over to the local country park yesterday to make the most of a sunny Sunday afternoon. We took another route through the woods and walked back up by the two ponds. We took the kids on the park and I sat making daisy chains. The Bluebells are just coming out so I'm looking forward to another walk up there in a couple of weeks to see the carpet of blue.

I was very excited to have a lovely parcel today from Laura today. We swapped 2 ATC's and some little goodies too. My parcel hasn't made it to Laura yet as the postie took it back with him. so here are the lovely goodies I got...

Two gorgeous ATC's...I love the Giraffe one, Laura knows my Giraffe obsession and this will make a welcome addition to it.

Laura also sent these very cute little bunnies and I now have a Tiny Owl too!!! Yay! The little choc chick is safely in the fridge until Sunday, however, if it makes it past midday it'll be a miracle. Laura's Mum remembered one of her friends loved Giraffes and sent me the little Giraffe motif which she'd picked up at a show. Such a lovely thought, I guess all the Giraffe goodies Laura made me for my birthday last November must have stuck in her mind.

 

So above is the ever growing Ami family, not a bad collection considering I can't crochet and the collection is less than a year old. A big thank you to Laura, Steph and Dotty for these.

I haven't forgotten about the March biscornu, hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow as it just needs beading and a bit of backstitch, a bit late I know, but better late than never, My only stitching plans for April are 2 biscornu and half a dozen ATC's. I've decided just a little target this month in the hope I can actually get it done and not feel defeated and therefore lose my stitchy bug.

Thank you for stopping by as always. I love reading your comments so please leave me one even if it's just to say hello. xxx