Venturing into the unknown - #10, 11, 12

Ages ago, I would pick up crafting bits here and there, whenever I saw a bargain. This led to me building up a collection of jewellery making items, that, being quite honest I had NO idea how to put together and use. So I sold it all on as a job lot.

Then one day when flicking through Thriftstoreuk on Livejournal a girl was selling beading packs that had some beads, findings and charms in it. I couldnt resist partly because at one of the craft fairs I do regularly I always end up sitting next to a wonderful lady called Anne who makes jewellery and Id been watching her at her table if she was making things (mainly because I was genuinely interested in how jewellery is made).

So i took the plunge and bought it and I borrowed Vonnie's beading pliers and away I went. Well, I really didnt thinking jewellery making would be something I would enjoy but I was soooo wrong and these pieces came together really rather quickly.

First off a penguin charm bracelet (I have no idea who this is for so if you want it feel free to leave me a comment :-p):




Then I made this bracelet for my neice, Emily Janes christmas. Which of the charms is your favourite, mine is the masquerade mask :-D :



And finally I made this set for myself. I bought the sewing machine charms from the same girl, I really love them.

Garden Swap

After the success of the last swap I took part in I signed up to another swap, this time run by the lovely Kerry of Pennydog Accessories .

The rules were as follows:

You must make one handmade item in a garden theme, this can be something for the garden, or something with a gardeny theme- insects, flowers, etc.

An item of a crafty nature that your swap partner can use in their own crafting- fabric, buttons, stickers, etc

An edible treat- chocolate, cake, etc

I, as is becoming increasingly normal, forgot to take pictures of the package I sent to Amy in America. Hopefully she will post about it on her BLOG. If she does I will post to send you over there to check them out.

Amy sent me a wonderfully FULL parcel and everything was so beautifully packaged. First of all a lovely photobook that I can add my own pictures onto along with some coasters and a magnetic corkboard for putting messages or notes on.




Card, notebook, incense sticks and the little felt flower buttons that she used to wrap the items. Amy also sent me a lovely vase wrapped in some gingham cotton, some plant markers and some seeds which my mum "ooooeedd" over.


I hope she enjoys her part of the swap. Thanks Kerry for organising all this!

Ellie's Birthday top : #9

As soon as I saw this pattern for a cute spring top on Sew Mama Sew I knew I had to try it out. Mainly because instead of using a pattern to trace round that only goes up to a size 14 or 16 it simply gave you a formula of how to make the top exactly to your specification. Given that Im a larger sized lady this works out well for me.

However, I also knew pretty much straight away that I wanted to make one of these tops for my sister for her birthday. My sister has an awesome figure so I knew the shape and style of the top would flatter her to no end. Add to that, I had been given a length of silky material for a Secret Santa gift, that I thought would look gorgeous as a top and I had just been waiting for the right project to use it.

I have to say that this pattern is really straight forward and it comes together in a few hours (probably less but I am really easily distracted). There are also some options built into the pattern meaning that you can create a few of these for your wardrobe and they can look different (pockets, sleeve ruffles, shaping).

Here is the one I made for Ellie:





I also made myself a pink leopard print one and have just cut out all the bits for making a blue skull and crossbones one. I will post them as soon I have pictures of them, but I will warn u....they might not be pretty. :-p

Time for Tea Swap - What I sent Megan - #6,7,8

My brain has been the haziest thing lately. When I made all the stuff for the Time for Tea swap, I forgot to photgraph it before I packaged it all up prettily and sent it away to Megan (Vintage Violet).

Thankfully, Megan is NOT so brain dead and did take pictures of the items she received and it helps that she is a pretty good photographer. Im really hoping she wont mind that I have borrowed this picture to use to show items 6, 7 and 8 in my make 50 challange.

You can view the rest of her pictures and the post HERE

Heres what I made:

An apron, tea wallet and cute little purse.

Time for Tea Swap

So I took part in my first EVER swap (other than secret santas but they officially dont count :p). Kinda fitting that the first swap I take part in is run by my very, very good friend Vonnie (Adventures of a Lady in Training). True to her nature (since the only time I ever actually drink the stuff is in her house!) she ran a Time for Tea themed swap.

For this swap, we had to make a Time for Tea crafted item to a retail value of £10 and also include a crafty item for your partner to use and some tea, of course.

I was matched with the very beautiful and extremely talented VintageViolet (Maximum RABBIT designs). I was actually very pleased to receive Megan as my partner as I know her work is gorgeous and Ive bought things from her before so I knew this would turn out well. I have to say though, I was slightly intimidated with her as my partner as I thought I couldnt make anything as good as what she would send me.

Unfortunately, I was a bit silly and forgot to take pictures of the things I made to send to her but she has blogged about them here: Time for Tea Swap

I made her an apron from some gorgeous fabric Ive had my eye on in Dunelm Mill from when I worked there (9 months ago!). At the Craft Show at the SECC I picked up a fat quarter of fabric with cups on it to make the little tea wallet and I included some felt as Megan likes to make felt brooches. I had to stop myself at one point as I had picked out a baby pink, a fuschia pink and another pink as she said she doesnt like too much pink so limited myself to the fuschia pink (turns out she loved it so I could have got away from forcing more pink on her :-p).

Now onto the gifts I received. I was actually taken aback at how gorgeous the items were.



First thing I opened was this Alice in Wonderland, Mad hatters brooch. As a kid I was given a copy of Alice in Wonderland as a gift and I held that copy dear to my heart.



Next I read the card she included, she always gets really nice colours.



Finally I opened my last little package. Boy have I glad I left it to last. When I opeend this I exclaimed to my parents "MUUUUNNNKKKKEEEYYYY" but they were blissfully unaware as to what I was going on about. But the detail in this is absolutely lovely, I particulary like her tiara and her little pincushion teacup.

Everyone I would like you to meet Princess Tea-ara:



I just want to say thank you to Vonnie for running this swap and to Megan for being an awesome swap partner. Thanks ladies!!!!