Biscornu exchange!

Now despite my blog title I don't get to make that many biscornus of late, so when Mini from Miniz Diary made her first one earlier this year and asked my advice I offered to  do an exchange with her when we could both fit it in. So earlier this month the opportunity arose and after exchanging a questionnaire we made each other a biscornu and included some goodies too.

Mini told me one of her favourite animals/birds was the peacock so as I couldn't find a small a small feather design that would fit I used the colours from a pretty freebie design from Sew & So that was designed by Lesley Teare (also one of Mini's favourite designers) and made my own simplified version that included almost a full spool of Kreinik!

I did a simple design for the back that incorporated our names and the date.

I loved making up the parcel and deciding what to put in so I made Mini some beaded items -  a bracelet and earrings in her favourite colours and a hook book mark (made at my jewellery party) and a penguin scissor fob as Mini loves penguins too. I included some DMC variegated threads, a local magnet (to add to Mini's collection) and some chocolate all wrapped up in pretty paper, along with some cover kits that Mini chose.

Mini sent me this wonderful parcel with so many lovely things...The biscornu was a design I was familiar with, I stitched it years ago for a gift so I'm really pleased to have my own one now.

And the back...

Mini also included a detailed letter describing what she had selected all these lovely things for me including a Greek magnet and soap, an increadible bird painting from India on a leaf, a LHN chart, Fig cookies, a tin with charms in and a gorgeous cameo needle minder.

It was so much fun to do an exchange again as it's been over a year since I last did one and I'm looking forward to doing more in the future.

My next post will be for the summer linky party that Jo is hosting so look out for that.

Happy stitching friends.

Jewellery, Florentines and the Olympic Torch

Me again!
I've had a bit of a jewellery making phase recently and here are the makes, I've shared the button bracelets and necklaces on other posts but here's the rest. My dearest friend Sarah asked me to make her a bracelet to match an outfit she'd brought for a wedding and gave me 2 weeks notice to design, order beads, make and get it to her (eek!)
So here is the Black and Magenta charm bracelet I made for her and I couldn't resist making a matching necklace and earrings for her, (even though she had brought something to match already).

I also brought these lovely wooden discs to make a bracelet. I love them and I've worn it a few times already.

I've had a bit of a baking fad recently and to be specific Florentines. My friend gave me a lovely recipe for Cherry and Coconut ones and I've had fun making a few batches. They are morelike a tray bake than a traditional round thin Florentine, but very yummy indeed. Percy pocket bug popped by to snaffle a crumb or two.

I took the kids down to see the Olympic Torch when it passed through our town last week. It was very exciting to see it even if I did make the children wait 2 hours on a park bench! We didn't see all the sponsor convoy but we saw the torch and also a hand over that happened a bit down from us. I'm full of pride to be British at the moment. I've never worn so much red, white and blue and I just love that I've been able to witness once in a lifetime events like the Torch and the Diamond Jubilee.

Well that's it for now and I'll fill you in on my biscornu swap later in the week. Hope you are all enjoying your bank holiday weekend. K. x

Travelling Box makes round 3

Hello bloggerland,

I told you all about my picks from the travelling box in my last blog so here are my makes, they are all sat on a shopping bag I embellished. Some bits aren't in the other pictures, they are the scrappy cushion made by Thom with a little help and the 2 bookmarks, one is the hexagon one and the other is the stitched keep calm one.

Here are the jewellery makes, a crocheted bracelet with seed beads and chainmaille earrings made by me and earrings, bracelet, ring and also the stitch markers made by Thom, my 8 yr old

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I love this little saying and so true too! I've stitched it once before. Steph gave me an idea for something a bit different with it, so I might stitch it for me at some point. I had to do a biscornu too. Biscornulicious as Steph said!!!

A little biscornu kilt pin brooch. A mad idea that grew from the biscornu  jewellery I've made in the past. I must order some more pins to make myself one.

And lastly the bits and bobs - macrame by my hubby, feltie bear, nail file case and  crocheted corsage.

I don't expect the travelling box will be back until late spring now, but already the ideas are flowing! 

Next up the wonderful gifts I received for my birthday :-)

Thanks for reading :-) 

2nd Blogversary giveaway #2

So time to draw the winner of the charm bracelet and to launch the second giveaway.

It was lovely to hear all your answers and I'm looking forward to making the bracelet and sending it to the lucky winner who is....

Christine

I've got your email addy so, I'll be in touch.

So on to the second prize...It wouldn't be right to have a giveaway on Ramblings of a Biscornu addict without giving away a biscornu.

I stitched this Kincavel Krosses design in my favourite thread Luna Park by Dinky Dyes, with a border of seed beads and a little silvered charm.

So to win the biscornu simply be a follower and comment on the post below.

Thank you so much for reading my blog over the last 2 years. All the lovely comments really mean a lot and keep me crafting. Thank you to for the friendships. I've made some very good friends through blogging who are so kind and generous in many ways.

Good luck everyone. xxx

2nd Blogversary Giveaway #1

Hi everyone,

Today is my 2nd blogversary and to celebrate this I'm having a series of giveaways each with a different prize.

I've made a few charm bracelets recently and I really love making them. Jewellery was one of the first real hobbies I had and I still like to dabble. Taking part in the travelling box has renewed my enthusiasm for it as it isn't so time consuming but you can create some beautiful things.

The first prize is a charm bracelet in my blogversary extraganza. Here are some ones I've made recently so you can get an idea of what you can win.

It will be a made especially for you and feature a couple of charms that make it personal to you. To win the bracelet please comment on this post with the following:

• Favourite colour
• Favourite animal(s)
• Main craft hobbies - (crochet, stitching etc)
• Any other hobbies - (reading, baking etc)

This giveaway will run for a week and close at midnight (GMT) on 16th August I will use the random number generating child to pick a winner.

Please feel free to share this on your blog if you wish.

Good luck everyone

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.

Birthday goodies for Laura

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are loving this  glorious weather if you are in the UK. We spent some of Saturday at one of the parks in town at the splash pad. It's a great free activity and is basically a set of water fountains and jets for kids to play in. We went with friends and had a picnic and it was so much fun. I've seen the splash pad so full you can't see a spare blade of grass but  it was busy but not overcrowed so we could easily spot the children coming at us with cups and bottles of water to throw at us!!! Sunday was spent watching the Mens Final of Wimbledon. Awesome match. Go Andy! It got a little noisy in our house with all the shouting!


On to Laura's present, Some of you will know Laura from her blog Strawberry Mouse Crafts and as she celebrated her birthday last week I made her one or two bits and sent them down in a pretty tin and popped in some fun cup cake cases as Laura loves her baking, some chocolate and button tissues.

I added a little bit of stash including some fab buttons (on cards) which I found at an independant card shop in town, a charm pack of fabric and a few other buttons and some felt flower embelishment. The purple theme was all rather by accident than design.

So on to the makes... I stitched this no place like home cushion as part of the Needlecraft Haven monthly challenge. As soon as I saw it I wanted to do it for Laura as she is a big fan of the Wizard of Oz. The design was from here.

I made a friendly plastic brooch set into a metal frame. I really like how the FP looks in these frames.

No parcel would have been complete without a biscornu, so I made this lovely colourful one. The button in the middle is one I brought when I met up with Laura in February.

And personalised the bottom of it...

Laura has been very generous to my children so Thomas made Laura a pincushion, He sewed together on the sewing machine and sewed the buttons on too which were his choice. I also stitched the little piggy keyring from a pattern on Les chroniques de Frimousse. It was easy to stitch but a challenge to sew up!

Finally there was a charm bracelet, with lots of charms that 'are Laura' I have already used the beads to make Laura earrings so now she has a bracelet to match! (Thank you to Steph for some great charm ideas too.) Laura sent me a text to say she loved the parcel so I'm very pleased.

My next big project is a summer swap with Steph. I've lots of ideas so should be fun!!

Thanks for reading

Charming!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you've all been having a lovely weekend. We had an in and out day yesterday. I had a hair cut (at least 8" cut off so it's quite a change!), popped over to mums and did a birthday party run with my eldest. Tesco was visited and a friend popped in too. I was rather glad when I could collapse on the sofa and watch the voice.

I've got a couple of new followers too, so welcome to you (*waves). Thanks for following and stopping by. I hope you'll visit regularly. Right on with the makes.

It was my oldest and dearest friends birthday a couple of days ago and along with a CD and some flying saucers I made some jewellery. I chose charms that represent her and put on some funky pink and white beads too.

The bracelet has a shopping bag, cup and saucer, sunglasses, football shirt, cocktail, mobile phone, dress, cross, pair of boots, handbag and a best friend heart.

I couldn't leave it at just that and made a simple necklace and earrings too. Here is the set together.

So I'm pleased to say Sarah really liked it and I know it will match rather a lot of her outfits as she's rather a pink person!

I found a sweet little blog today hosted by Kim and she is having a giveaway to win some beautiful things. Check it out here

Thanks for stopping by. Have a lovely Sunday all. x

A little stash to help me on my way

I've had a bit of a stash accumilation this week,

Firstly came the Made in felt bookazine, Its actually quite good. I don't usually buy the bookazines as they tend just to be a collection of charts from the magazines but this had some lovely projects both in felt sheets and to needle felt too. I loved the mermaid and am very tempted to do that one, also the needle felting projects were lovely too. I actually think it was a good investment for the needlefelting projects as you don't tend to see them covered in magazines much - when they are its one project and a fiver spent.

You can see with the felt mag 2 Lizzie*Kate charts I brought. The work Pray Trust one is for a housewarming for 2 friends and the home one is just for me! It may get to the point when I just frame the chart as my to-do list is so long at the moment it may never get done!

It is my wonderful best friends birthday on Friday and I always try and make her something. It's usually jewellery as she wears a lot so I brought some fab pink beads and some charms to describe her. The ones loose on the table are the ones I intend to use and the rest were from the packs the charms were in. the charms were from a fab etsy store here

We had a lovely day at the Evesham Country Park which is near where we live, seeing the trains as they have a narrow gauge railway there and it was they Gala today so they had them all out. There just so happens to be a needlecraft shop so it would have been rude not to go in. I popped in and got the new cross stitcher magazine and chanced upon 2 FQ's of fabric for my quilt. I couldn't quite see what was on the label style one so brought it hoping it would be nice. Here is the section of it before it repeats, it's a bit wedding-y but there are some lovely bits too, I love the doves and I'm going to use that this weekend to make an engagement card for my colleague. Well that's the theory anyway!

Lastly I started something new last night, It's a game of Thrones themed design I'm stitching for my hubby for our wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. He's a huge GoT fan so I'm hoping he likes this. I had a bit of help chosing it as I've never seen the programme/read the books so thank you Steph for explaining it to me. The chart was from Etsy and you can find it here Ok you can't see al lot but there is a little bit done...honestly!

With all that shopping done, best I do some crafting, enjoy your weekend everyone.

Kerry. x

Travelling Box Makes - round 3

So the box has made it's way to South Africa and is now with Cucki so I can reveal all my makes for the box. The travelling box really is a joy to make for so I had no problem coming up with several ideas for it. So below you can see, knitted bunny, satin corsage, bunny scissor fob, flower bookmark clip, heart feltie, friendly plastic brooch and the close ups I'm about to show you...

This was a piece of printed fabric where I crossed stitched over the top of some parts to give a raised effect. I brought the fabric when visiting Laura.

I love making charm bracelets and here is one with some pretty mottled beads. I couldn't decide on the earrings so ended up making 2 pairs!

More jewellery, this time the bracelet was made by my 8 yr old. He chose the beads and pattern and I just helped him put on the clasp and made some matching earrings for him.



So here is a little toadstool keyring bag fob thingie with some glass bead charms. It's from a biscornu chart designed by Steph.



I had to add a biscornu and here is one on some hand dyed linen.

And the bottom, I really love working on Steph's hand dyed fabric and the little mill hill beads worked perfectly as they were a kind of grey with different coloured centres.

I once again stitched on hand dyed linen with another of Stephs fab charts is the wee faerie. This is Wee Plum Faerie and I do love her. She is a joy to stitch and I made her up into a little cushion hanging thingie. Not the best picture I must admit, propped up on some duplp, perhaps haniging from something may have made a better pic...oops!

The other thing I wanted to show you a close up off was the dragonfly brooch I made in friendly plastic using a shaped frame I found in a craft shop, but there doesn't appear to be a pic of it on my camera. you can just see the tail in the picture with the toadstool keyring. I've got a couple of others to try out so hopefully I can show you then.

So just a few more months until the box returns and I can't wait...on with the travelling box round 4 making ideas list!!

Don't forget my Hexagon qiult kit giveaway too, It's open until Sunday. You can find it here.

I shall apologise now if  I have another little break from blogging as most of my projects coming up are secret ones so posts may be few and far between.

Happy crafting friends.