Lotsa Craftin!

Argh!  Do you ever get those times when you simply can't decide what to make?  I need to craft.  Scratch that.  I NEEEEED to craft!  It's an outlet for my soul and a great way to unwind - not to mention a fabulous way to ensure original gifts and homewards.

Do you ever get those times, though, when there's not a birthday coming up so no immediate cards or gifts to make?  Or not a massive need for any new home decorations?  I'm kind of at that stuck point just now!

Don't get me wrong - inspiration is everywhere.  I mean, look at my three latest magazines to get an idea of the cuteness I could be making...

I need to just stop looking at so many ideas and decide what to do next! Oh, and I'm also collating all my old jewellery-making stock so that's having a retro effect! Too many craft supplies!! :)

Hats Off!

Happy early summer! :) It's finally here and we're having a few days off to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and my husband's birthday. The weather has been so kind to us and we've been able to spend time outdoors in the garden and have even had a barbecue. Bliss! 

I needed a new hat for summer so got one at the Garden Show on Friday. It's just a cheap one but is exactly the style I have been looking for and replaces the one I got in Italy a couple of years ago. Here's the new hat:

But that's not very crafty, I hear you say! Well, I mixed it up a bit! I had bought the most recent 'Cloth' Magazine swayed mostly by the free swallow trim. (My sewing skills are still in quite early days but the projects inside inspired me too!)

Here's the trim:

I set to work ironing the trim and cutting a length to fit on top of the brown ribbon. After a few shots getting it lined up nicely, I got the glue out. It was just tacky glue so dried quickly and worked well. And ta-dah... Here's my quickly-updated summer hat!

I love it!

Soap-tacular!

Happy bank holiday weekend run-up, folks! It's confusing here in Scotland as we have different public holidays from the rest of the UK sometimes but chances are this post finds you in the midst of some kind of public holiday! :)

It was Saturday Ladies' Day on, erm, Saturday. That's the fortnightly Saturdays I spend with my big sister, who lives about 45 mins away. She's a crafty peep too and is currently setting up not one but TWO online businesses! I can't say too much more until the official launch(es) but she's been teaching herself to make soap so that might or might not feature in one.* 

I've been helping when I can and we've made a few batches together. It's so fun and she gets to boss me about! Ha ha! Anyway, I was going to my lovely pal's on  

Saturday evening for a Eurovision extravaganza and wanted to take a unique handmade gift for her - as well as plenty of fizz and bunting for the Euro spectacular. I had had the silicone mould below - omg isn't it amazing? - in my eBay watch list for weeks and finally put it into my basket. It's not that it was expensive, it's just I have craft overload already at home! We all do, I think! ;) anyhoo, I still didn't know whether to use it for resin, chocolate or soap but decided in the end to give it to my sis for soap. Which also cheekily meant we tried it out on Saturday! :)

It's hard to photograph the soap to show it off at its best as it was clear soap but I hope you can see. How cuuuuute?! 

There are other, more beautiful photos of her gorgeous homemade soap but I don't want to jump the gun on her and spoil the surprise! Guess what? You'll just have to stay tuned to find out more! 

*clue: it definitely does! 

Ps yes, I know I cheated a bit this week and blogged about something not solely made by me but collaborative crafting (collafting?!) is THE way to go! 

:) 

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?

Spring Break!

Well, not in an American college way but I had a wee spring break last week. I had a week off work to relax, which was lovely. Needless to say, I got crafty!

A few cakes were made including this lovely one from Rachel Allen's 'Bake' book. It's an iced orange cake and I made it one day with lemon and another with orange for some visitors coming down to the cottage. It was yum although it cooked a bit more on the outside, aka borderline deeeeep golden. The icing to cake ratio on this cake is perfectly balanced so I'll definitely keep trying to perfect that edge! :)

I also looked out a mini felt collar I had embellished earlier in the year. I'm still not sure whether to turn it into a necklace or something else! Any ideas welcome...

Card-spiration!

With the beautiful spring weather finally making its long-awaited arrival, it's time to get cracking and crafting! I've been reorganising my craft to-do list to make it easy and accessible and make it work for me. I'll blog about that later but meantime, I had two cards to make and I planned my time thanks to my new system!

The first is a card for a colleague who just had a baby boy. It's a different friend from my previous posts about handmade baby gifts but it sure was a cute coincidence they both had baby boys within a week or so of each other!

The second is an RSVP (as you can see!) to an evening wedding reception. I just wanted to keep it simple.

Both cards feature some lovely craft tape I got in the Pound Shop of all places. I got three rolls for guess how much?! Clue's in the title! ;)

And to the pictures...

Beautiful Things!

We all love to surround ourselves with things that make us happy. For me, it's hubby, dog, family, friends and a great craft stash! My craft stash normally has some sort of Matryoshka element to it and now those cute little Russian dolls are creeping into more rooms in the house! I thought I'd share a photo of our kitchen windowsill which is really wide and perfect for displaying cute stuff. Enjoy!