More projects from months ago!

These cupcake beads were made for part of a swap. It's ages since I've played with fimo but I think after making these I need to go out and buy more! After baking the fimo I coated the icing part with clear varnish and sprinkled with a sparkly glitter.


This is the needle case I made for my swap partner on the 'Quilting Gallery'. I received a lovely one back from my swap partner.

This picture was my first try at needle felting

It's been a while!

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last blogged!
I have been busy crafting and have a few things to show here and a few I can't show yet as they are for swaps!

Firstly some felt brooches made for friends- there will be some of these in my Folksy shop soon!

A birthday card for my sister-I've never used lace on a card before but I was really pleased with how this turned out.

A seahorse made following a Tilda pattern. This was made for my partner in the seaside swap- something else to add to my list of things to make for myself!


More to follow tomorrow!

seaside swap goodies

I recenttly took part in the seaside swap over here . It's just taken me ages to get around to updating my blog with the lovely goodies I got from my partner Nic .
The box of goodies ready to be opened!

All the lovely goodies! There were also some other things that I forgot to include in the photo- a lovely decorated jar of jelly beans, a box of polka dot buttons and some seaside scrapbook embellishments which have been added to my scrapbook of my Jersey holiday.
I really love everything especially the personalised notebook and the felt fish. Thankyou so much Nic!

Photo frames

The challenge on Bubblyfunks Vanilla Sugar site this month is 'frames'.
I have made 2 for this challenge. The first has been made with one of my favourite fabrics which I sewed around the edges using my sewing machine (not as even as I wanted but most of the edges turned out ok). I then used some of my vast collection of laces to make some lace flowers, found some vintage buttons for the middles of the flowers and attatched these along with some swirls cut from vintage silk.



The second frame has been made using a technique I've just discovered and absolutely love doing! I needle felted the frame using some wool felt from Hobbycraft. I think I'll add a magnet to this mini frame so it can be displayed on the fridge.

My new folksy shop

I have set up a shop on Folksy with keyrings(it may have other things in but for now that's what's there!)
Have a look and let me know what you think-just click on the Folksy sign on the top right

Here's what's in the shop now:

and these are the ones I've just added today:

Card for a man!

I really dislike making cards for men!
Fortunately this man likes golf so it made it slightly easier!
The gold ball was embossed with a cuttlebug embossing die and the golf bag and umbrella were from an old decoupage set but I decided to just use them as one layer instead of decoupaging them.

storage box

I made this fabric storage box for a friends birthday. It was from a pattern in a Tilda sewing book.
Yet again it is a project I want to make for myself but yet again just need to find the time to make it!

mmmmm what's cooking

I have loads and loads of recipes collected from relatives, magazines etc and wanted to store them somewhere other than thrown into a drawer so I decorated this box to make it into a recipe box.
The cards were printed on the computer and stamped with an old woodware clear stamp set.

'H' is for Heather

This is a birthday card for my niece who is fascinated by letters at the moment and loves finding a 'H' for Heather on signs and food boxes etc.
It has been decorated using die cut shapes from cuttlebug dies and sizzlit dies.

A couple of bags!

The challange on the Vanilla sugar site for May is to make a bag. I found some nice patterns that I was going to use but couldn't get the fabric I wanted locally so I will make them when I have found the fabric I want on-line and also when I have more free time!
The first bag I made was for a present for a friend- I still need to get around to making one of these 'buttercup' bags for myself!

The second bag I made is to store some of my puppets in which I used to use for teaching- I love the alphabet fabric and it's really thick cotton.

Christmas robin

This is my card for the Bubblyfunk 25th challenge for May.
The challenge was to make a card with red and green as the main colours and then as a bonus you could include your own background- mine has been stamped using a roller with a holly pattern, a tag- the circle may not be tag shaped but they are tags! and inchies- my inchies have been cut in half diagonally to make the corner triangles- triple bonus points!
The robin and holly leaves have been curved and slightly decoupaged- I love the effect and will be trying it with a lot more stamps.

beaded dragonfly

This beatiful dragonfly was made as part of the bubblyfunk cyber crop. I found the tutorial on you tube and was surprised at how easy it was to make!
I will be making a lot more of these and may try using double the amount of beads to try making a larger dragonfly.

Oliver Owl

I have wanted to make this owl for ages after buying the pattern from a seller on etsy. It took me ages to decide what fabrics to use but I'm very happy with how he has turned out.
Although I think his eyes look a bit too big- the pattern said you could cut round them with pinking shears before attaching so on the next one I make I'll buy some scissors and try that.

Twit Twoooooo

I made these little notelets as part of a swap.
The owl is a Dawn bibby design stamp which I paper pieced to make each one different.
The scalloped edge was then embellished using card candy.

Bubbly cyber crop

I made this desk-top caddy over the weekend during a cyber crop on Bubblyfunk. It was my second attempt as the first one went completely wrong and is now in the recycling bin!
I used double sided card and glass beads to embellish the caddy.

felt birdhouse

The challenge for April over at bubblyfunks Vanilla Sugars site so as I've made a card birdhouse before I thought I'd do something different.
I designed some little birds and a birdhouse and made them from some lovely new colours of felt that I have recently bought.
I added some small flower sequins to the threads and on the front of the birdhouse and I may add a small bell to the top of each bird so it makes a bit of noise as it moves.
For now it will hang in my craft room but it may be given away at some point as it would look lovely hung in a little girls bedroom.
It wasn't the easiest thing to photograph as the pieces just would not stay still!

flowery birthdays

It's been so long since I blogged! Sometimes life just takes over and other things have to take a back seat!
This card is one I made for a family birthday. I used a cuttlebug die to cut the petal shapes and decided not to emboss them with the other part of the die. I like the effect more like this than when I've embossed the petals on previous cards.

Cute snowman

This is my card for the Bubblyfunk '25th Club' challenge for March. The theme for this month is snowmen and sparkle.

I made a snowman template and drew round it onto white pearlescent card. I then made his hat and scarf using light blue glitter card scraps. I made the darker blue stripe by sprinkling glitter onto double sided tape which had been stuck to a strip of card, and the nose was made the same way as I didn't have any orange glitter card.
His eyes and mouth were printed using black acrylic paint on the end of a thin stick.

Hanging heart

The February theme on the Vanilla sugar blog over at Bubbly Funk is 'hanging hearts'. And yet again it's a challenge that has been done at the last minute!
I decided to make my heart using wire and beads something which i love working with.
I used silver wire to form a heart outline. I then threaded 5 long lengths of thin wire with pearl beads, knotted about an inch apart.
These wires were then wrapped around the heart shape over and over again.
The heart is hanging from another length of wire threaded with more pearl beads.
I love the finished effect and think some beaded hearts will look good at Christmas time made using gold wire and using red 'berry' beads.

A closer view of the heart

Christmas animals

Well I have finally got round to blogging my cards for the BubblyFunk 25th club for February. The theme this month was 'animals' and as a lot of my Christmas cards have animals on then I decided to make 2 cards this month.
The first was cut using my new big shot die which cuts a scalloped card blank. I also managed to cut the scalloped mat by rotating the paper in the die to make the scalloped edge all the way round.
The holly leaves and bird (which was supposed to be a Robin but looks a bit like a dove- I think it's the curved wing that needs changing) were drawn free-hand and edged with pen lines as were the edges of the scallop.

The second card was made using a chipboard reindeer bought from hobbycraft. I inked the reindeer using metallic pens and then covered it all with glossy accents. the white highlights were added to the reindeer using gel pens.


I am determined to do the March challenge in pelnty of time!!!

Coaster wall hanging

Vanilla sugar is the new challenge blog over at Bubbly Funk. Each month they are setting a challenge dedicated to home decor and gifts with January's theme being 'Coasters'.
I made my coasters into a wall hanging with a beach theme. The coasters were cut using my new nestabilities dies and a 'sand' printed paper was cut with a smaller die.
I then decorated 2 of the coasters using a seaside themed collage kit which I originally bought for my scrapbooking but it had so many pieces in it that I thought I could spare a few for this project! For the other 2 coasters I used my nestabilites again to cut 2 photos from my last holiday.
I will change the top photo which is of a seagull by the sea because the sand on the photo gets a bit lost with the papers.

A messy experiment!

I bought some lovely mica spray after christmas thinking I would be able to do some lovely things with it.
I do love it but it was so so messy and I didn't realise it would stain quite as much as it did! I love the mottled background it has created on this black paper.
I will have to have a try with it on white card next but I'll make sure all surfaces are covered very well!
The stamp is a Dawn Bibby design stamp which I love!

25th Club

I have made my first Christmas card of the year for the BF 25th club. Each month you make a Christmas card using a theme each month.
the theme for January is turquoise and swirls and something sparkly or shiny.
I made my card using a piece of everyday turquoise backing paper (as all the Christmas ones are packed away!), silver swirls cut from a quickutz die and a snowman cut from a sizzix die which has been chalked to give him some shading.
I don't think I've ever really used this snowman for a card even though I've had the die for a few years but now I've used him I'm sure I'll be using him lots as I love how he has turned out!
The only thing I'd change about this card is that I'd make the silver swirls overlap the circle instead of going behind it.

A few cards

These cards have been made using my new stamps and some papers from my scrap box.


I have also decided to make more mens cards to keep in my card box as I never seem to have any suitable and hate having to think of ideas at the last minute.
As I have so many dog stamps I thought I'd make a couple of cards which I hope will be suitable for men-I'm not too sure about whether the second card is 'manly' enough!
Both images are by Whipper Snapper (I think!)

A wintery walk