Wash Tape Fun!

I had a craft extravaganza this weekend. A craft-travaganza, if you will. :) I had been pinning and liking lots of things on Pinterest and decided to stop pinning and get crafting! I tried my hand at stripe colour-blocking and thought I'd decorate a thick cardboard cd box I got from Hobbycraft a while back. It was on sale and has a cute chalkboard paint bit at the front. CDs?! Pah... Sewing stash, more like! 

I used some washi tape to create areas I didn't want the paint on and quickly covered the lid in coral-coloured acrylic paint like so:

Then came the fun peeling bit... 

It's a bit like a Pinterest post I saw about making wall canvases from old shoebox lids but I resisted the temptation to stick it on the wall!

I added some measuring tape patterned washi tape round the edge of the box like so:

And here's the finished box, complete with handmade-by-me resin chrysanthemum glued on the front. What do you think?!

Pinned Down!

Happy Friiiiday, everyone! Yes, it deserves all those extra letters in there. It's Friday share time so I thought I'd show a pincushion I have been working on myself from scratch.

I made a template for my wee doll and cut out two pieces of fabric. Before I sewed them wrong sides together, I added in features like a bonnet and waistband as the photos show.

It was a fun project as it really got my brain going and it was genuinely something I needed!

She just needs her wee head hand-stitches once I decide if I want to add a loop for hanging. What do you think?

Oh Baby!

Squee! Yesterday, my lovely husband and I went to see two friends who have just had a beautiful bouncing baby boy. He's three weeks old now and is just perfect in every way! After all the cuddles and fuss, we gave them their gifts including the little mittens I wrote about in the first blogpost of CCC.

What I hadn't shared yet was the bib I handmade for them too, inspired by an idea in Polly Treffry's Freehand Embroidery book. I decided to go nautical so used a red and white background before I appliqued a blue and white boat complete with little flag. They absolutely loved it and it actually matched the wee outfit he had on that day! Yay!

Another thing we did was take lunch. My friend had told me months ago that in her ante-natal class they said if you have visitors then use them! Ask folk to bring in messages if they are coming in the first few weeks/months. It was no surprise, then, when she asked us to take some lunch round for the visit. Happy to help! We made tomato, carrot and basil soup and big, thick door-step sandwiches with homemade egg mayo. We also made a big batch of tuna pasta mayo and left it with then for evening snacking. I was just so happy to be able to help them and they were glad to have minimal fuss guests so it was a big win for both!

Happy crafting, peeps!

Tea for Two!

You might remember my recent post about my lovely mum and dad's 40th anniversary and my idea for a personalised tea cosy for them. Well... It's done! I took some photos before I packaged it up.

I had some issues with the binding on the bottom and had to do it twice. I'm not 100% happy with the final version but hopefully they will love it. I can be very hard on myself sometimes! :)

Sittin' Knittin'

Welcome to Country Cottage Crafternoons! I'm a crafty wee soul who enjoys making, well, almost everything! It started with teaching myself to make costume jewellery and from there sprung a love for hand-making anything I could!

I thought I'd start a new blog dedicated to my favourite thing... crafting! A crafternoon does exactly what it says on the tin... It's all about crafting of an afternoon and taking the time to make the things you love!

I still make one-off pieces of costume jewellery from time to time but have also been teaching myself to use my sewing machine properly (Singer heaven!) and learning how to knit. I do card crafts, too, and am into baking!

So that's it. That's my crafty wee soul! I find inspiration in almost everything and craft stash might be two of the most pleasing word, ever!

Here are some wee baby mittens, or scratch pockys as a friend calls them, that I just finished for a friend's almost-here baby!  We don't know the sex of the baby yet but I'm not into the whole pink for a girl and blue for a boy anyway so this yarn was perfect!

The book is the wonderful Knitty Gritty by Aneeta Patel and it is a brilliant place to start because it is aimed at beginners like me!  All patterns are tested on beginners and Aneeta tweaks them accroding to their feedback.  Simples!  It's where I got the pattern for the mittens.  Available at all good booksellers.