Blackboard Cup

Since seeing a few tutorials of Cheese boards and mugs painted with Pebeo's Porcelaine Blackboard paint, i have been dying to find some and try it. The internet wasn't being very helpful in locating some so i ordered this mug kit from my art shop.

This is the result, i have only applied two coats not sure if i should do three and it hasn't been baked yet so in theory i could wash it off and start again. I am pleased with it and it now serves as a little calender on my desk :)

Piping

Due to working on Christmas presents i have been unable to blog about what i have been making, however i have managed today to work on something for myself:

Another cushion!, but this time i have put piping around the edges. I have never done anything with piping before so this was an experiment and i am really pleased with the result and i did go wonky a few times but i am really happy with it.










And i had another go with putting a zip in, i think i am getting better and i really like how it blends in with the stripes.

 Piping!








and a corner, i am pleased with these as i was worried i wasn't sewing them right.

Right back to my looooooong to do list.

Christmas Cake Earrings

I made two slices of Christmas cake last year to go on my charm bracelet but I never had time to make earrings from them, but this year I have! So now I have 5 different pairs of Christmas earrings to wear in the run up to Christmas!

Yay Cake!

These are listed on both my Folksy and Etsy

Just for fun I wanted to see if this idea of making a Christmas card with buttons would work and I am quite pleased nice and simple but effective I think :)

Button Wreath Tutorial

This is my first ever tutorial! I had far too much fun making this and i hope you will have fun too.

The Supplies:
1 Polystyrene wreath, mine measures 18cm
Green felt, any colour of your choice
Pva glue and something to spread it
Glue gun or any type of strong glue like UHU
Various size buttons in Christmas colours (or not, up to you)
Ribbon
and some tools to cut the felt

Time: About 3 hours

Cut your felt into strips about 2cm wide roughly, my felt here is 45cm long and i cut 7 strips and that was enough to cover my wreath.

Next pour some pva into a suitable container and then start spreading the glue down a strip of felt.

Then start wrapping your wreath, here i have already put two strips on. It doesn't matter too much about neat ends as we are going to cover it all with buttons!

Once the wreath is covered with felt its time to heat up the glue gun! Start gluing the buttons on, i put at least two blobs of glue either side of the holes. Bigger buttons i covered the whole of the back as i want them to be secure.

I organised my buttons so i could easily see all the designs and sizes and that way my wreath has a good variety of buttons.

All the buttons are now glued on, make sure to keep wiping away any glue spider web things. I have only put buttons on the front as the back won't be seen and will be a waste of buttons.

Next attach your ribbon or string and make sure to test how it hangs before you commit to gluing it on. My ribbon is quite thick so i wrapped it around the wreath once and then made a loop and glued it into place so that it will always face forward.

Yum buttons!











I hope I explained everything ok, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Adventures with lino

Whoops kinda let myself get behind on updating this. Anyway here is what i was doing last week:

So i first started out with some practice sheets of polystyrene and indenting it with a pencil. This first image shows the 3 stages as i was trying out my image. I decided i didn't like the way I've done this as its more of a negative.

The polystyrene sheet.

With a good idea of what i now want the finished print to look like i transfer my image to Soft cut lino using Tracedown. Soft cut lino is so fun and easy to use, it really is soft!

Here is the first trial print to see if any edges need refining.

Then i scoop out all of the background and print it with gold printing ink on black paper (the final print will be my Christmas card for this year) i don't like the black so next i will get some red paper and then the red breast of the robin will be red and with the gold ink hopefully it will look Christmasey.

All the kit i used.

Buttons

As I have been making many things involving buttons I had to replenish my stock:

 I love buttons!!!!!

Gingerbread men

Something else that has been in the to do pile are these charming Gingerbread men felt decorations. I have just finished them and they are listed on Folksy.

Originally they were going to have just white ribbon on the arms and legs but I think white ric a rac looks a lot better and I love the red with white spots ribbon! going to find other projects I can use it on he he.

Christmas stock

I have been busy working on Christmas stock the last few months and some of it has already been listed in my shops but I thought I'd wait a bit before making a blog entry about them and as the supermarkets are putting their Christmas stock out I thought now is a good time to make a Christmas blog entry.

These have been completed recently and I love them! Felt Christmas trees with button decorations.

One of my favourite earrings that I made to wear at work last year are these Christmas puddings. So this year I've made some to sell.

and my second favourite earrings we're my gingerbread men and these are for sale too.

I loved making these for my own tree last year and they looked really good too. I made one into a brooch to wear at work as well :)

Not necessarily Christmas but these looked really pretty on the tree with the other Christmasy decorations and were good decorations for Valentines day too.

and a white version.

Pumpkins

Been working on some Halloween fimo the last week:

I know that anyone following my blog/facebook for a year will know that these are nothing new, but last year i didn't have enough time to make any to sell only enough for my own use. So i now have these Jack o lanterns and Eyeball cakes for sale in my Folksy and Etsy shops!

Here are some real life pumpkins grown at my mothers allotment!

Looking forward to carving and decorating these!

Recent creations

Last week i was down in Cornwall and whilst i was in Bude i found a fantastic fabric shop, i have never seen so many fabric in one place! so i bought a few fat quarters that i liked the look of:

 I have no idea what i will do with them but i just liked them :)

This one is may favourite :)










Before the holiday i made a little bag to hold my travel watercolours (to fit in my handbag)

 The contents









Empty









Closed, i love this fabric!

Here is something else I have made. Made this yesterday as I had this idea floating around about making a little purse and with Christmas coming up and all I have been making recently are Christmas decorations and jewellery (see the last photo). I got a bundle of Christmas fabrics and a red zip and made this little purse. I love how it turned out and now I want to make more!

 Inside lining fabric

Perfect for holding jewellery :)

Wordless Wednesday

Union Jack cushion

A project that has been sitting on my to do list for the last couple of months is this cushion cover

after sketching up a template for the flag all the pieces were cut and had bondaweb applied, then ironed on to the white cotton.

then used a zig zag stitch to neaten the edges, my red cotton nearly ran out as i was on the last red stripe but thankfully i had enough.

the finished cushion cover

 side view, nice and poofed up.

even has the cat's approval, lol.