My apologies. I have two terrible photos for you today. I am only including them for posterity!
One of my colleagues asked to borrow my red brick stitch necklace for the work Christmas party and asked if I had earrings to go with it. Now, I think I've mentioned my aversion to earrings before. Despite once sporting quite a few holes in my ears, I also had one in my belly button and 2 in my nose. No more! They make me feel sick. But... she offered to pay so I decided to make some.
I only remember to take a photo in my car on the way to work the day I had to give them to her. So I took a photo on the passenger seat of Norbert, in the rain on a cold, dark, dull morning.
Pretty bad picture, but the earrings are actually pretty cool. I made two rings and hung them individually with chain from the ear wires so they dangle below each other. She's now asked me to make her a matching necklace.
The other terrible photo is more chicken scratch lavender hearts. The day after the craft fair my best friend asked if she could have them for her Nana's Christmas present, I said yes, then someone ordered them from my Folksy shop. I said I'd whip some more up, and whip them up I did. Once you've done the pattern a couple of times, these are so easy to make. I finished them on Wednesday night and needed to give them to her the next day. I put them in a box and had to take the photo inside, on a rainy, dull, dark evening. Oh the joys of living in England.
If you'd like to see better photos of hearts just like these, try over here. The photos are better, but not great as it was still me who took them!
I'll be back soon to show you the Christmas cards for my close family (if I get them finished!). I forgot to take photos of the Christmas cards I sent to family and friends!
Don't you just hate it at this time a year when all the TV channels are just showing repeats? Well that's what you're getting from me today!
Last week I showed you the chicken scratch lavender hearts I'd made? The ones I showed you before were all embroidered with white thread. This one was embroidered with a size 5 perle cotton in a variegated array of pinks. I'm not sure it works as well as the white.
I also showed you some crochet snowflakes I'd made. Well I made some more. These have all been stiffed with modge podge after an initial blocking with half a can of starch!
The top snowflake is a free pattern from the wonderful Snowcatcher who has tons of free snowflake patterns on her blog.
I've just tried and completely failed to identify the other three patterns, clearly they don't look as they should, but if it's free snowflake patterns you're looking for, try my Pinterest board. Good luck!
Good morning! I spent some time at the weekend uploading photos and sorting them into posts, ready to write as I go along. By a strange coincidence, I had these photos uploaded to publish today. Why a strange coincidence? You'll see...
This project is a LANT (learn a new technique) * as I haven't tried this particular form of embroidery before. This, for the uninitiated, is chicken scratch. It's basically the art of embroidering on gingham to produce a lovely effect. Well I think it's lovely!
The pattern was in a recent issue of Craftseller and looked so lovely, I wanted to try it. I found some gingham in my stash but it was very thick so I decided to back it with Stitch 'n' Tear. Well, would you believe it, someone has broken into my house and stolen my Stitch 'n' Tear! I assume someone has broken in as I can't see Mr CA using it... I used interfacing instead. It worked fine. Except for the fact that when I was backing the first one, I had the interfacing upside down. My ironing board is pretty damn sticky anyway so I thought nothing of it. Mr CA, fed up with the huge ironing pile that I haven't touched in months, and probably due to the fact that when he mentioned it I went ballistic about the fact that just because I'm a woman I don't have to do the ironing, has been ironing a work shirt each day. Oooops.
I used Perle Cotton size 5. This technique is quick and easy and I loved it. I see more of this in my future.
Stuffed with lavender, a button and hanging ribbon added and they're ready to go. I used white thread for three of them, then tried the purple one again with purple size 8 perle cotton as I didn't have the 5 in that colour. I also did one in a variegated pink size 5 which seemed so much thicker than the white, despite them being the same manufacturer. I don't seem to have taken a photo of that...
I took them to the craft fair where they didn't sell at all. Clearly I was outrageous with my £4 price tag (£30 for a fake fur, made-in-China scarf on the stall next to me - selling like hotcakes. £4 lavender sachet, no chance!) as no-one bought one.
Arriving at work the next day, my best mate messaged me and asked if I still had any of these hearts left and ordered one of each colour as a present for her Gran. A few hours later someone bought the same 3 hearts on Folksy! I haven't sold anything online in months so I was delighted! I will, of course, stitch up some more for my friend.... I'm looking forward to it already!
* if you want to know more about my challenge to try all crafts, see my crafts list page. Anyone can link up a new craft/technique they've tried at any time. To join in go here.
