Thursday 8 October 2009

Twirly scarf, kids scarfs and a cushion



Been a very busy girl this past 2weeks. After seeing this on IACW I went straight out and bought some perfect pink wool to give it a go. I am a complete beginner at knitting but this pattern was so straightforward. It took a week to knit but I did have a few distractions (6 hours on phone over weekend to sobbing friend in meltdown :( ) but I am so pleased with the results.


Of course the girls decided they HAD to have scarfs too but didn't want twirlys so another trip to the wool shop saw me coming home with velvet touch wool in pink, yellow and a rainbow mix. After knitting just 3 inches I had fallen madly in love with this wool it is the softest wool I've ever felt. I am completely addicted and just have to go back and buy more just incase I find something to use it for lol




The cushion was fun to make I'd seen a few on other blogs and just had to have a go especially as I'd kept the straps of a wee dress of Daisy's that was cut up for other projects, I knew they'd be useful one day. I think it's my favourite cushion so far




Tuesday 22 September 2009

SLYMI weeks 33-38

Oops I have been forgetting to post here so now have a few weeks to catch up with
Week 38 - Scrap a lesson learned, I scrapped the many photos of my girls after discovering how hard it is to get the 2 of them to sit still long enough to get just one nice photo. The title is one long sentence but with 3 words picked out based on the fabulous line uttered by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight - "why so serious"
Week 37 - Scrap with metal
I used the metal word Love and some brads for this
Week 36 - Scrap something magical
well this was just my 2 looking like princesses at my friends wedding
Week 35 - Scrap a bank holiday weekend
We very rarely have bank hols in Scotland so had to pick the easter holiday
Week 34 - Scrap from the sketch
Week 33 - Scrap a square within a square

Wednesday 12 August 2009

SLYMI - week 32

Week 32 - Write in white

I cut out a white title and wrote the date in white

Used pencil lines sketch 147 this week as I had no inspiration myself and I love sketches for the fact that they can get your head working again

SLYMI weeks 30 and 31

week 31 - scrap something old, new borrowed or blue.
I managed all 4 - new cardstock, old papers, borrowed sledge (in photo) and blue title



Week 30 Scrap your Independence
I did Daisy's independence and wanting to do everything herself

Tuesday 21 July 2009

SLYMI week 29

Week 29 -Scrap with 3. used 3 pics of Robyn as a toddler, 3 flower brads and 3 heart brads

Thursday 16 July 2009

SLYMI weeks 27 & 28

Week 28 - Scrap with needle and/or thread



Week 27 - Scrap a happy moment

Tuesday 14 July 2009

the quilt


Well it's coming along nicely, it's all put together and I have tried it out for size on the bed and took some photos of it for this week's SLYMI challenge. I'm halfway through the rows of quilting so it wont be long now. I probably would have finished it by now but I took a couple of weeks off during the heatwave to make some cushion covers as it was just way too hot to have a cosy quilt sitting on my lap
The cushions (one below is a large floor cushion)

Thursday 2 July 2009

my first Patchwork cushion



I took a little break from the quilt to make a cushion cover for the newly decorated living room. I love the colour combination and it works perfectly with the blue and cream walls so I plan to make a few more as well as a quilt for the living room - once I've finished the bedroom one first lol

I'm hand quilting so I'm managing a row a night and I'm only on my 3rd row so when you think my quilt is 14 rows wide by 16 rows long I'm in for at least a month of stitching, so you can't blame me for having the odd break to stitch something else now and then

Tuesday 30 June 2009

Teacher's present and SLYMI week 26

SLYMI Week 26 - Play

this week was scrap with stickers, I'm not a big fan of stickers but had bought a pad from Tesco as the front page looked ok, unfortunately the rest of it was utter rubbish so it was nice to get some use out of them



It's also that time of year again when our peace and quiet is shattered for the next 6 weeks. I made Robyn's teacher a covered notebook and a little kitkat holder in matching paper. I hope she appreciates a little handmade gift as I know not everyone does
the notebook uncovered
the finished book
the book with the matching kitkat holder

Thursday 25 June 2009

SLYMI - Week 25

Scrap in blue and green this week which I think is very appropriate for Earth Month. I used a photo of Robyn at about 6 or 7 months old out for a walk (well more like me walk with her in the buggy) in the sun
On the quilt front I have now finished the patchwork top which did take the estimated 3 weeks and the last 2 nights have been spent pinning and tacking it all together with the wadding and backing material. now it's just sew it all together and hand quilt it, I'm not going to go for any fancy stitches as it's my first attempt and I love how it's looking so far so I'm just going to sew along the seams of all the patchwork or to use a quilting term I'm going to ditch stitch it!
I'm already completely addicted and have bought a gorgeous book by Emma Hardy called Quilting In No Time. it is FULL of fantastic little projects. As well as a pile of beautiful quilts there are also cushions, coasters, a fab little notebook and pen roll and brilliant little flower shaped placemats. Seriously I want to make everything in this book and I have never been able to say that about any of the other sewing books I have

Thursday 18 June 2009

Pretty in Pink

My entry for Scrappers Block's Challenge number 5 http://scrappersblockchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/challenge-5.html - to scrap in one colour - of course mine just had to be pink!! lots of flowers in all shades of pink with brads and crystals for centres, pink strip is satin ribbon with flower embelishments stuck on. PP is Papermania and title is hand cut from pink cardstock and glittered.



Daisy is just 6 months old in this pic and those were the "I'm not smiling so get that camera out of my face" days

Wednesday 17 June 2009

SLYMI weeks 23 and 24

Week 23 - scrap a self portrait



Week 24 - Scrap with Felt
(flowers and the green lacey stuff is felt)

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Patchwork

well after the heart garland I'm hooked and have decided to be adventurous so this is my first attempt at quilting, I think it'll take about 3 weeks to hand sew all these squares together then the fun bit will begin as I've never quilted before.


There's over 200 squares cut out here, all from old clothes (thrifty me)


here's a sneaky peak at how it's going so far (yes it's wonky but hey I'm a complete beginner and it adds to the charm!!! that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it)


I also got a £5 amazon voucher a few days ago which was fantastic timing so I have ordered Sew Pretty Homestyle and can't wait for it to arrive

SLYMI weeks 21 and 22

Week 21 - scrap a song title

I went for Lily Allen's "Not Fair" for these photos of Robyn being caught on the kitchen counter



Week 22 - Scrap from the sketch

a very minimalist sketch that was hard for me even though I like simple layouts I found this one just a bit too empty




Monday 25 May 2009

Heart Garland

Every Monday over on UK Scrappers, the home page has a list of "blog bits" with loads of inspiring ideas for scrapping and other crafts from various blogs.
Last Monday there was a link to a stunning padded heart garland here - http://itsacreativeworld.typepad.com/its_a_creative_world/2009/05/padded-heart-garland.html so I decided to have a go as it's so pretty. It took a week to make mainly because I had to find bits of material (old baby clothes are so handy sometimes) then wait till the weekend to get some ribbon and pretty silver glittery buttons from Be Crafty in Elgin. Everything was cut out and sewn up in 2 evenings and here's the result
I love it and want to make more pretty things like this. I seriously think I'm going to buy one or more of the Sew Pretty range of books from Amazon

Thursday 14 May 2009

SLYMI week 20

Use a pen



woohoo got this done on the day of the prompt, (just 4 hours after getting it) very pleased with myself now that's a speed record for me. This week was to use a pen so I hand wrote the journalling on the tag and doodled on the title.
I also combined it with the challenge #2 over on Scrappers Block and used metal brads on the tag (2 round and one heart)



I've also had a busy week, I finished the second half of my Spotty Dotty Layout. It was originally a stand alone LO but when Daisy came down with chicken pox too I knew I had to make it a double page.








I also made these cute little name signs for the girls room
They're not finished yet, I've still to add some flowers and gems etc to bling it up a bit

Friday 8 May 2009

A sewn layout



I actually managed to do a layout that wasn't a challenge or a sketch...just a few pitcures that I'd been meaning to scrap for a while. It took about 7 hours to do all the sewing as it's handsewn chainstitch


SLYMI - 19 Scraplift


I managed to finish a layout less than 12 hours after the prompt went up on UK Scrappers which I am very impressed with, I think I've only done that one other time over the past 19 weeks.

this week we had to scraplift another layout from the Scrap Like You Mean It gallery and make sure we credited the original artist so mine was lifted from a scrapper called Coxabey. her layout can be seen here http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=181066


Monday 4 May 2009

SLYMI week 18

Wow it's week 18 already and I'm still getting the challenges done on time, I am very impressed with myself.

This week the challenge is to scrap the outdoors





I also got my little RAK through the post last week for the sketch challenge on sisterlycreations blog. I am in love with the butterfly and the mother print papers as well as the skeleton leaves



I'm getting a pink BIA for my birthday in 3 weeks time so this is just crying out to be made into some kind of a book

Thursday 30 April 2009

another challenge




This is a LO I did for a new challenge blog I spotted the other day http://scrappersblockchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/challenge-1.html The challenge was to create a page without using PP which to me was the best kind of challenge as I rarely use patterned papers anyway, I still find it hard to pick that perfect paper to go with the photo but one day I'll get there.
I used a blue and a pinky purple inkpad to dab on ink with cotton wool to create a mottled effect, it looks nice but doesn't really show up that well in the photo. The LO is based on a pagemaps sketch - Feb 08 Roundmap, I adapted it to go on a 12x12 square LO rather than the original round page. the photos are of Robyn as baby sucking away on her thumb (something she still does nearly 7 years on). The tag has the Thumbsuckers poem on

Oh the thumb-suckers thumb
May look wrinkled and wet
And withered and white as the snow
But the taste of the thumb
Is the sweetest taste yet
(As only we thumb-suckers know)

Monday 27 April 2009

Delivery Stories

I wanted to add my babies delivery stories to their First Year scrapbooks but as I managed to write 2 fairly long tales I was faced with 2 problems - how to fit it on a layout and how to hide it for anyone who may be squeamish or simply not want to read a grisly no holds barred account of giving birth (twice).

I came up with a really cute folded envelope so the long tale would be neatly tucked away in some gorgeous double sided paper that I found in Papercrafts. I originally stuck them down on some baby themed paper but after about five minutes I decided I hated it so had to carefully unstick them both. After a days thinking I went for plain white cardstock with plain yellow 12x12 paper that I trimmed down then sewed a heart border up one side using Papermania borders sewing templates. On the other side I stuck on 3 baby themed tags and below the envelope I stuck on a little notice to say whose delivery tale it was and 3 pink flowers under that. I made both layouts the same and I'm much happier with these results


Robyn's Delivery



Daisy's Delivery