Journal

Posts Tagged ‘Crafts’

We have my cousin’s daughter’s Christening coming up soon so I made this from the Silhouette Store. They have such lovely stuff there!

I also had fun chatting with Lauren today. She came and sat on Nan’s lap and I snapped this picture:

It was overcast today and I had my kit lens on my camera like a numpty. I really should check it before I leave the house. I was hoping to catch Erin today, but she didn’t go to nan’s today. Still, I get lots of photos very soon   And of course, the best Nephew in the world, Oliver! With cute haircut from mummy and daddy.

She’s so cute!

It’s almost bedtime so I’m going to be quick. Life is just so crazy you wouldn’t believe. Lots of family stuff is just taking over things, the other weekend we spent visiting my Father-in-law in hospital and the weekend before we were visiting him for Fathers day.

I really do mean to blog more, and I hope that I can do it more often than every month and a half!

For one, I never posted a picture of the finished quilt I made, and I was so incredibly chuffed at my hard work!

My current project (apart from trying to squeeze in sewing my very first item of clothing when I can!) is my “travel” binder which I made back last year:

Now you will have to excuse the poor quality Blackberry photos on these ones:

I bought some Moleskines. I just ADORE these books. Including these 3, I have a total of 5 now LOL!
I made a little pocket so I can slot the back of the book into it and have it in my binder.


and for the Moleskine which will be my travel journal, I made a cute title with my Craft Robo/Silhouette and some stickles.

I will be making some custom page protectors to fit in the binder to collect ephemera on our travels I’ll do that when I have the sewing machine out… when I get around to it LOL!

My cousin had a little girl last week, and as a little present I decided on a quilt… I saw this rainbow fat quarter in Hobby Craft and I fell in love! So much so, I’m not sure I’ll want to part with the quilt when it’s done LOL!  Who wouldn’t want a pretty rainbow to cheer them up every day?

I’ve cut 96 squares, and I’ve now got to sew them all together. The backing fabric will be pink (for a girl of course!) and white bias binding. My first quilt, I’m so excited!  And not forgetting all the other cool stuff:

(1) I’ve had an e-mail about my extra bobbin case. As I have a Brother sewing machine it will not do shirring so I have to get an extra bobbin case to adjust the tension and be able to do it! I will get to have my cute top after all!
(2) Free coffee cup album at twopeas
(3) Free eBook at Ella Publishing
(4) Gossiping with Kelly Ann about hairstyles for the wedding (She’s doing my hair and nails for me), scrapbooking, sewing and the colour GREEN   I have got to make her a little something from my left over green fabric
(5) Loooong weekend! I’m going to do some MAJOR spring cleaning, and I’m completely into Martha Stewart right now, she is just my idol at the moment I have a lever arch folder where I’m gathering things from Martha Stewart’s website and putting in the folder for safe keeping and easy referal later!

I spent this morning working on my wedding invites, I was literally sat in the bedroom with the sewing machine and silver thread sewing on my invites. It seems I don’t like to do things easily!  My geocaching book arrived today so once I had done that I sat and read it for a bit.

This then got me thinking about some stuff to put in caches when I next go. I don’t have anything really on hand and I have some silver fimo I’ve not used in a long time and I got to making some pendants/charms/zipper pulls (whatever they’ll be used for lol!) In my log reading experience it’s mainly guys and their kids who geocache that I’ve seen (not saying that’s all who does it, I mean look at me exhibit A!)  so why not take something back home for mummy/wife/girlfriend LOL!

And then while uploading the image, I realise I hadn’t uploaded the photo of my 2009 xmas ornament. What a donut! It’s a bottle cap with diamond glaze

Nope, still can’t move my car, so it was up to Morrisons (where people were battling for parking spaces and the “parent and toddler” spaces were up for grabs by anyone who could get it one. Inside was not much fun either – I wished I had got some video footage but it was pure madness and I just wanted to get out of there! Once we were done, we loaded up the sledge so I could bring it home.

Now on to Journal/Pogo stuff   {click on Read rest of entry}

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I can’t believe it’s mid November already lol. It’s also going to be Oliver’s first Christmas so Stewart got his decorations out last week! HAHA! Love it   I’ve been feeling very Christmassy. I got all my Christmas craft magazines out and have been sat reading through them – such fun! We’re trying to tidy up a little in the front room ourselves, to remove clutter to make room for our tree (which is HUGE!) I also decided to go out in the garden and rake up all the leaves, which took me ages, but the garden looks better. And the lovely task of picking up the poop of all the cats in the neighbourhood who have chosen my flower bedding area which I got ready for Spring, as a big kitty litter box. Mum suggested tea bags and Olbas oil, so I’ve done that and hope it does the trick!

I will be going to Hobby Craft on Friday I should imagine   I’m off to New Moon and the cinema is nearby so I can pop in then, so I shall be starting my quilt next weekend I hope LOL!

LOL, I think I may need help. While I’m also having fun bookbinding currently, and coming up with some ideas for handmade presents for certain people, I really REALLY want to have a go at a Christmas quilt. I don’t know, something about the idea of snuggling down on the sofa watching TV, and reaching to the back of the sofa where a handmade patchwork quilt is laying and wrapping it around me is… well… lush lol.

So I do think I’m going to take my Aunt’s £5 off when you spend over £25 voucher will be put to good use by buying Christmas fat quarters, batting and some backing fabric   It all started on Sunday after I decided my current journal needed a nice bag to go in. With a pocket for emphemera and pens and coloured pencils lol. So I eyeballed the whole project and my sewing machine was playing up but even after I finished that attrocity (but it does the job and I made it myself) I held it in my hand and with the stuff I put in between the lining and outer to reinforce it, it feels like a thin quilt and I was like: “HEY! That’s a good idea…”

Also, I purchased my New Moon ticket for Friday 20th as I have booked the day off work, and as much as I would have loved to have caught the midnight viewing, it is just physically impossible for me to stay up late and as much as I love New Moon I just don’t think I could do it, so I’m going to the second viewing instead which is around midday. Awesomeness   I have my veil, borrowed from my cousin Sarah and disco is all booked for the wedding. I’m on a roll!

I love books, and as you know I love journals as well, so when I stumbled upon Karla Dudley’s workshop “Journal 3 Ways” I was intregued… and then I saw the journals we would be making and the fact that there were cool downloads as well… That was it. I was sold.  So all images you see contain brushes and papers designed by Karla

The first journal (I still have to cut the edges so they’re level)

Then after I finished that one, I just had to make another using some lush paper I had left over from “Express Yourself  DIY”

Week two was the Perfect Bind method. I honestly didn’t think about binding books this way. But having said that, one of my favourite books (Cathy Zielske’s Clean and Simple Scrapbooking part 2) is bound using the perfect bind method… and several pages have come away from the book through excessive use lol. Although I’d say it’s not my number one, I had a ton of fun doing it, it looks just lush and I only lost 3 pages after binding

And like a completely numpty, I put the covers on the wrong way so the book is back to front… DOH!

I seriously want to do another one of these   I’ve got the book binding bug now, and I’m seriously going to be making a few more things!

There was no contest when I decided on which template I wanted to use to carve my pumpkin this year I wanted something pretty simple as this is only my third ever pumpkin, and my second using a template, but as I was soooo proud of my witch last year, I had to at least give it a go!

Template from here: http://www.pinkraygun.com/2009/10/10/free-pumpkin-carving-templates-twilights-jacob/. Although Gareth says he prefers my witch from last year, and he just doesn’t “see” Jacob in this one. I don’t care. It took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

And I also decided on doing a paper haunted house, after seeing a few on a website and thinking how cool they were. Apart from the pumpkin, I have no halloween stuff here, so the paper house would be fun, so again I chose a nice easy one

Download and instructions here: http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index301.html

Sadly the lighting is terrible in here. This is why we can’t play with Neville this evening. Nev is our virtual pet, as seen here:

We saw an advert for EyePet and curiosity got the better of us. So we got a copy and played with it for aaaaaaaaaaaaages lol!

Hmm, I’ve not been a big fan of Autumn. Ever. Well sometimes with the back to school stuff and getting new stationary and clothes etc, but otherwise not really. I’ve always been a summer girl myself.  But Gareth gets the Next catalogue, and I can’t help but flick through it and sigh, thinking of getting some cute new outfits now the weather is chilly and the leaves are changing colour.  I even baked:

White choc chip cookies, which got the Gareth seal of approval. When I asked him if he liked them after he ate one, his reply was: “I’d like them even more if there was another one in my mouth…”

Even reading through my September issue of Creating Keepsakes, I stopped at the lovely red and brown coloured shoes at the “Hot fall trends (Let fashion trends inspire your creativity)” and have since left it on that page.  Now I’ve downloaded a freebie autumn kit and I plan on making a cute little “ode to autumn” mini book to place on my mini easel, once I’ve finished my Cathy class