Bits and bobs and things I've not shown you.

Hi Folks,
It's one of those catch up kind of blogs today. It's been a buy old week and I've been asked to do 2 craft fayres at the end of November, looks like I'll be very busy making over the coming weeks. I have a few bits left over from last year so at least I have about a weeks head start, or not as I'm making for 2 this year. I brought some gorgeous Christmassy fabric yesterday so I'll be making them up hopefully over the weekend. That should give me about 30 decorations. As for the felt ones, looks like I need to make Snowmen, Christmas puds and Gingerbread Men. Watch this space for pictures.

I did make some little Sweet bags for my friend Rachel (check out her blog here). They were just little felt bags with a cross stitched patch on the front of each. The alphabet was taken from Cross stitcher 244. Rach said her boys loved them and I hope to make them for my family too as they only took a couple of evenings to do all 3.

The lovely Laura (check out her blog here) sent me this very cute ami when I was feeling under the weather a few weeks ago. My darling daughter can't seem to understand why she can't play with it.

I made a few cards at the beginning of the week with some of the stash from Hobbycrafts. They're quite simple 3D ones using peel offs. I'm quite pleased with them as it's been a while since I made any cards.

Well I think thats me all caught up, I hope you are all well and have enjoyed today's blog. xx

Coloured buttons

Yesterday's post showed the lovely wooden buttons from button it. One of the ideas featured on their stall was how to colour the buttons using felt tips, gel pens or paint. Well here are my first attempts using some Gelly Roll pens brought at the NEC.

I'm loving the glaze white pen, it takes a little time to dry but has a great effect, so the snowmen and lighthouse are definite favourites so far.

I also had a little go with the mesh ribbon to make a little flower... It's fixed in the middle using a crystal brad. When I get a little child free time I'm looking forward to trying a few more designs.

I guess my blogs are now like buses...you wait for ages then several come at once! Happy crafting folks. x

NEC Hobbycrafts stash fest!

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last blog, but I promise they'll be more frequent again now that I have all this new stash to play with and plenty of Christmas makes to get on with. Welcome to my new follower Danielle, I hope you'll pop back from time to time.

So yesterday saw me on the 8.24 train to Birmingham International armed with a coffee for the Hobbycrafts and crafts for Christmas show with my lovely friend Rachel (who's blog you can read here) We saw so many gorgeous creations, idea's for cards and stitched designs. So here goes for my picture heavy post showing all my new goodies.

So there it is all laid out. The peel offs are all Christmassy ones as we saw some fab cards made with them. I didn't think I'd be buying peel offs in a month of Sundays  but I ended up with 9 sheets of them. The A4 sheet is for paper embroidery so I thought I'd give it a go. there are various brads and buttons. I paid 50p for 2 packs of 5 snowflake embossed card blanks. Also in there are a corner rounding punch, and some wire mesh ribbon from Ribbonbox. The bottom 10 images in their gallery are all made with this amazing stuff. Look out for my creations over the coming weeks.

Rach and I found this gorgeous satin tag printed ribbon on the first stall we went to. I'm looking forward to making some fab cards with it.

The spotty ribbons look great fun and the one on the right co-ordinates with the ribbon tags too.

A few little handmade by tags to use with my work and the little heart sums up how I feel about chocolate too.

These gorgeous glass beads were hard to resist and I'm looking forward to making a necklace with these.

My very lovely wooden buttons from Button-it. As you can see i've started colouring in the snow man using Gel Pens. These will go on the filigree hearts and become some gorgeous handmade decorations for my tree. I may order some more to make some for my mum too. Thomas is keen to help me do it too.

My obession with beach huts continues, and well spotted Laura there was a giraffe too!

More pots to make some stitched cards.

And lastly some mini buttons and a lovely little label too. I've realised there isn't a pic of the filigree heart but they are on the button it website and very pretty indeed. I brought 5 so I can make some lovely decorations.

We did stop for a coffee mid afternoon at the Weatherspoons on site as we were fit to drop. It was a great chance to have a quick look at the stash and plan our next move. It was only when we went back did we discover the wire mesh ribbon and saw the demonstration. Rach and I were gobsmacked by what you could do with it.

My last picture is of one of Rachels birthday presents. You'll have to wait until December for the rest of the pics as Rach wanted to keep the rest for her birthday. The design is from Cross Stitch Collection 200, although I did alter it somewhat to make the scissor pouch.

Thanks for reading and allowing me to share my stash fest with you all. I hope everyone is well and getting stuck into their crafting.

Halloween ATC's

Hi Folks,

Just a quick post to show my latest ATC's that I've made. The pumpkins were from an old WOXS design library on Autumn and the spiders web from a WOXS design library feature on blackwork. I'd been wanting to stitch the spiders web for ages and instead of black and silver on white as shown in the magazine, I used the black aida and DMC light effects thread E940 which is the glow in the dark one. My son thinks it's quite cool how it glows!

The wording and and bats are clip art images scaled to fit, which I think work quite well and the orange brads, peel off borders and card from my stash. I'm still undecided whether the pumpkin one needs a third pumpkin on it, so opinions greatly valued.

Thanks for stopping by. x

Surprise Parcel

Hi everyone,

Well it's a quiet Sunday in my corner of the world. I've spent the morning watching the Japanese Grand Prix. I love F1 so it was the perfect start to a Sunday for me. For once I didn't mind that DD got up at 6am. It was a great race for Jenson Button, and Vettel is an amazing World Champion.

I had a lovely surprise yesterday when a parcel dropped through the letter box from Canada. It was the biscornu from my bubbling friend Steff that I thought had gotten lost in the post as Steff posted it back in mid August. It's a welcome addition to my biscornu bowl. Steff also sent me a skein of thread and some pretty notepaper.

Goodies from Steff

Biscornu from Steff

My Biscornu bowl

I'm not sure if I shared with you the biscornu I sent to steff, so here it is (maybe again!)

Biscornu I sent to Steff

I'm still wrestling with my stitchy bug, it's disapeared just when I really need it. my to-do list is mounting up and my stitchy days until Christmas are ebbing away :-( If you happen to see a wandering stitchy bug please send him my way. I did stitch a couple of tiny motifs for my october ATC's they just need making up and posting in the week. I haven't quite decided how to make them up yet.

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend and welcome to my new follower Chris. Lovely to have you aboard and I hope you enjoy reading my blog. x

ATC's

Hi everyone,

Just a quick blog to share the wonderful ATC's I recieved this morning from Debs charity swap to raise money for Fybromyalgia Association UK (see Debs blog here). It was great to be part of this and I'm over the moon with the Peeping Tom one. (Lori you're a genius!) My fireplace is full of lovely stitched cards from exchanges I've been part of as well as my ever growing collection of ATC's (aren't they addictive). Getting these new ones in the post today inspired me to find some designs for October's swap on Bubble. I've found 2 great designs and I can't wait to stitch them. After a week where my stitchy bug was feeling rather 'meh', it's great to feel excited about stitching again. 

ATC's from Cherry and Debs



Gorgeous ATC from Lori

Thanks for reading everyone, Oh and if anyone would like the 30 days questions to use on their blog, please send me a message and I'll happily forward you a copy. They are easily adapted for most crafts.

Kerry. x

Sooooo warm

I'm loving this glorious weather, It's been very hot doing the school runs this week. I shall enjoy it before I have to trudge up the hill in the wind and the rain. I can't believe DD is in the garden in a sun dress in October - it's mad really.

I was very excited to receive my ticket to the HobbyCrafts show Thursday morning. I'm rather excited about catching up with Rachy and shopping until we drop!

Pluto finished

I've been stitching the little Disney kits that I shared with you all last week. I've not really had any motivation, coupled in with a migraine that has knocked me sideways for 3 days which means for such tiny kits they are taking an age.  My thread order came Wednesday so I've bobbinated them and I'm all set for my projects until Christmas now. I stitched a quick card for my friend Keira this week too. I met her and 2 other friends in the pub opposite school for a Birthday breakfast Thursday morning which was lovely.

Keira's Birthday card

Would you believe it's the last question so thank you for reading them all and telling me your answers to them too. Day 30: What kind of designs do you like to stitch?

I love stitching flowers, bright bold blooms are my favourites from designers such as Sheila Hudson and Maria Diaz. I have a soft spot for giraffes too and I've 2 kits of them waiting to be stitched. I'll stitch anything really that suits the recipient.

Fellow blogger Cucki is having a giveaway on her blog with some very cute bits up for grabs. Visit it here. It's a lovely blog to read and one of my favourites to visit.

Happy crafting friends. x