Paper lantern make!

I like it when I suddenly find the motivation to make something. This wasn't planned so just made it up as I went along. I might develop this idea on to a lampshade for my house as I quite like it!

I used some lining paper that I had lying around and just my favourite black pens. I cut out some of the windows completely but also left some of them with little windows that can open and close. I think it add a little more detail to it! I then used a needle to make the stars.

It has a tea light in a glass ramekin to light it up. I would probably change this to a tall glass just to make it a little safer but I don't have any glasses as...well let's just say I feel better using plastic tumblers haha.

Quick frame craftyness

Not been on here in a while so thought I would post a quick update of something I did today.

I bought a cheap 12 x 12 box frame from Wilkinsons and decided to fill it with a few family pictures as I don't have any up...anywhere - which is bad!

I have such a big bag of the little pegs that I thought I'd use a few more up with this make.

I think it looks good. It's a nice addition to the living room and I hope to get some more pictures up soon!

I also got a very striking vase today from Wilkinsons, so thought I'd share:

Thanks for reading! :)

Stickers!!!!

After a hard day today I was pleased to find my personalised stickers in the post box! I will be using these to put on anything I make from now on! I have 90 in total so I should get busy!

Have a good weekend!

Greg the Steg!

Tonight I finished off making a stegosaurus from left over fabric! 

He took me about 6 and half hours in total and a lot of stress! Going from a 2 legged to a 4 legged dinosaur poses a lot more problems! I am pleased with the result considering I've never done anything like this before!! 

Tomorrow is the start of christmas card making! 

Meet..Brian

Today I decided to take it upon myself to make a..dinosaur. I don't know what possessed me to make one but I felt like it and so I did.

I started out by drawing out a template on some tracing paper. 

I still had loads of spare fabric to use and so decided to have different pattern on each side. This dinosaur only has two legs, I will make another one with 4 next time but it was a bit more complicated and I felt like doing something easy!

I cut out the shapes with my nice new scissors! Which could probably cut my finger off if I wasn't careful!

 I was pretty impressed with the straightness of my sewing! I must be improving! I almost forgot to leave a gap to turn it back the right way! That could have made things a little more interesting....

With the help of a pencil, I managed to turn Brian back the right way round and added a button for an eye.

I bought some stuffing from my favourite crafty shop and which probably helped him feel a bit better! Now I have a big bag of stuffing to use up..just have to make some more things!! He has a bit of a wonky leg, I know this is because I didn't cut a slit between the corners of his legs to stop it bunching up. I read about it before hand just forgot to do it! Doh! 

I am really pleased with his shape, I took some time to get him as stuffed as I could so he is quite firm. 

With his double necked guitar and munching on a cactus...

And just hanging about...

I am going to make him a santa hat soon, to get him in the festive spirit!

Quick card make!

Just a quick card I made for another birthday coming up!

I just combined a few different types of paper to make things a bit more interesting. As always it finished a lot simpler than I intended but I just don't have the expertise or tools yet to make them as complicated as I would like.

I started off with reds and greens but quickly thought this looked too christmassy and so changed it to purples and yellows. Although none of the colours were coordinated I still think it works ok! I used thread to create the bunting and stuck it behind the first layer of background paper so it didn't look messy with holes for the thread to go through. 

I pondered over the layout, I was originally going to go for straight across but eventually ending going a more relaxed with the bunting!

Quick mince pie break...

This is the finished product, I was going to include some text however I don't think there is a good spot for it to go without over crowding everything. I had some gold heart stickers lying around and so stuck to jazz it up a bit. I have stuck down some of the 'triangles' but left some of them able to move about on the thread.

Birthday Card Experimentation

Here is a birthday card I made the other day for a friend's Mum. I have never used the sewing machine like this before and I wasn't planning on even using one when I started. I was just going to use fine liner pens. I wanted to do something different as I use fine liners a lot. I have a lot of left over fabric from other projects I have done and so I thought I would have a go. 

It does look a bit scruffy in some ways but I will just say it's meant to look that way! I used a combination of zig zag stitches and straight stitches to make the cupcake. Starting off with the green polka dot fabric and layering each level on top. I did sew everything on to some greaseproof paper so that I could tear it off at the end but this plan failed when my bad sewing lines weren't quite right and left some holes which threatened it all falling to pieces! I did a bit of a repair job and I think I saved it? Eek. It is a pretty simple design really - I originally wanted it to be more complicated than this but sometimes simple is best I think.

I hand wrote the 'Happy Birthday' making use of a sticker I had which luckily tied in with the colours. Mounted on to card and gave it a bit more life with some sticky foam pads. A good first attempt I think. I plan on doing some more like this. I just need to invest in some proper fabric scissors!