Decorated flip flops

Here's a pictorial of how to decorate your own flip flops ready for the warmer weather:

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10

 Today's project: a Soft toy owl! I found this tutorial online which is only for personal use but I thought I would share the link with you. This would make a lovely a gift for adults and children. You could fill it with rice to make a heated owl or lavender for a yummy scent.

 I printed out the template provided on the link and then cut out my Spice Cake fabric.

 The first sewing job was to join the tummy to the rest of the body. Each side of the belly was sewn on and then the gap at the top was sewn up.

 Turned out the right way it looked like a rather unpromising pyramid!

 The beak was folded down and I embroidered with orange floss to secure the bright beak.

 I filled the inside using an old (clean) fleece dressing gown. It's great to reuse things and stuffing is pretty pricey in my opinion.

 It was then possible to sew up the bottom. I ran a running stitch all the way around and then gathered the cotton to pull everything central.

 Lastly was the base. This had been cut from fabric but needed a card insert. I punched a piece of Soft Suede cardstock (to match the fabric) with the 1 3/4" circle punch.

 This was glued together using the self-adhesive sheets. I stuck the glue to the fabric so that it was really easy to fold up the excess onto the top.

 This was hand sewn on to give a solid base for the little owl to sit on and hide the gathered bottom.

 Finally some button eyes were added (from the Neutrals button collection). Voila! A simple and quick soft toy. You could always make the eyes from felt if you wanted to make the toy for a young child under three.

It took less than an hour to make this little owl, including gathering and setting up materials and my sewing machine. Lovely!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

Having made some cards and gifts, we mustn't forget to decorate! Here is a beautiful snowflake ornament that was made for me by my good friend, Jackie.

It looks a bit like the one on the front of the Autumn/Winter catalogue, but I like it even more becaue it has SNOWFLAKES on it.

 

It's been stamped in Night of Navy ink using the Ornament Keepsake stamps (pg3) and cut out on the Big Shot using the co-ordinating Holiday Ornaments framelits.

The snowflakes were cut out using the Bigz die called Snow Flurry (pg14)in Night of Navy and Whisper White cardstock. Beautiful!!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Welcome to my 12 Days of Christmas series - Day 3! Easy and quick festive projects to give your home that handmade cosy feeling, plus gifts for neighbours, friends and family.

 

For today's project you'll need clean jam jars (no lids required) and some newsprint DSP.

 This first jar had a Christmas tree cut out on the Big Shot using a die from the Holiday Collection framelits and was stuck to the jar using red tape. A little linen thread finish it off nicely.

The next had a number of stars cut out using the same framelit set and has a strip of Cherry Cobbler spotty ribbon around the top of the jar.

 The last card has a bit of wavy Cherry Cobbler tuile ribbon. It's so easy to make a number of these in no time and would look great on the coffee table, by the front door or on a festive dinner table.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Today's idea would make a lovley addition to a Christmas tree or to be added to anywhere that needs a festive touch!

 

It's a dove decoration, inspired by my Dad. When we were young we always had decorative birds hanging around the living room at Christmas. I'm not sure of their festive significance but whenever I see paper birds I think of my lovely Dad.

 

This birds was super quick to make: Simply cut out two birds and two wings with the Bird Big Shot die.

Each piece was then embossed. The bird body was embossed with Lace Brocade die (from the Autumn/Winter catalogue) and the wings were embossed with the dotty embossing folder.

 

To stick the pieces together I used the self-adhesive sticky sheets to put the body pieces together. This meant that they stuck all over and also the bakers twine and wings could fit in too.

A little glitter for the wings...

...and a rhinestone for the eye! What a sweet flock they will make.

Whip up a favour

Here are some little gift packaging I made up the other day. They would be perfect to contain a cello bag with sweets, biscuits or even buttons as a small gift when going out for drinks or to go with a birthday card.

This is the first one made with Pennant Parade and the co-ordinating punch.

 

The next is using Owl Occasions and cute little Vintage Trinkets.

 

 The last one uses Papaya Collage and a paper daisy.

I could not wait to use the little bird image. It's so sweet!

Sorry about the absence this week. Munchkin has been unwell while DH is away on business so it's been exhausting nights followed by dragging days... Still, I'm back on form now!!! Keep your eyes peeled as my 12 Days of Christmas series starts on Saturday 1st December with quick cards, gifts and decorations!!!

Knitting update

Yes I have been knitting like a lady-possessed. DH has started calling me the knitting goddess!! I am definately not a good knitter but I have been having fun trying.

 

Here is the first hat I knitted. No pattern was used, just judging it by eye. It looks cute on Munchkin but she is not at all impressed with wearing any hat, let alone one Momo has made!

 Here was my second hat. It was meant to be for me but the thinner wool than the previous hat it didn't "grow" as fast. I might have got completely a little impatient and so it ended up being another hat for a Munchkin sized person.

 Next is a pair of slippers I knitted. The best bit was making the pompoms. Munchkin was in awe as she has only seen those little craft ones before and was amazed that they could be made by hand.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my knitting progress. Check back tomorrow for a technique-based video!

Christmas boxes

A colleague at work runs a dance school and asked me to make little gifts for her students. As most of them are girls, I thought I would make quite feminine boxes using the Cracker die on the Big Shot. The colours of the boxes were inspired by the colours in the paper from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue called Snow Festival (pg10): Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals and Soft Suede.

 Tags Til Christmas (pg11, main) is the stamp set used and was easily punched out with the scalloped square punch.

 The scalloped square was layered on a Large Oval punched out piece in a contrasting colour.

 The combinations are endless and by using a DSP pack you get lots of patterns that all co-ordinate together.

 It would be really sweet to have a basket of these filled with chocolates of Haribos by the front door to give guests as they leave.

Sorry about this last picture being blurry. It serves me right for taking the pictures with my daylight lamp instead of the natural daylight!!

Knitting!

When I was about 6 years old my Nanny taught me how to knit. It's been a loooong time since then but I decided I wanted to give knitting another try. The question was, what to knit? Being a Generation Y girl, I need instant gratification, so despite the requests for a cardigan from Munchkin, I gave a cup cosy a go:

Nice chunky wool and to finish? Stampin' Up! buttons of course! Sewn on with linen thread, naturally.

 Here's a close-up, although I know it's pretty blurry!! The top buttons are in the Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue, called Brushed Bronze.

This was my first attempt and has light wood buttons, which are from the main catalogue.

Cheat's fabric pennants

It's always good to be versatile, and I realise that not everyone can/wants to sew. Here is an easy way to make fabric pennants!

This pennant pack is just £1 at the Range. A bargain and a really great starting point.

The next cheat is this pack of self-adhesive 12x12" sticky sheets. Imagine a full sheet of Snail glue and you're quite close to imaging what these are like. Plus they stick permanently so can be used for all sorts of craft projects.

 So firstly, stick the pennants to the sticky sheets. Then peel off and stick to the fabric. For this project I chose the Orchard Harvest fabrics in the Autumn/Winter 2012 catalogue.

 The brilliant thing is that the fabric can be smoothed out with your hands or a bone folder so it doesn't matter how creased it is!

Next, the scraps of leftover fabric were stick directly to the self adhesive sheets. This made a sticker type of thing which was fed through the Big Shot with the Pennant die. This made the perfect sized triangle to decorate the centres.

To finish, the triangles were fed onto a narrow (retired) ribbon in Early Espresso. In between each piece of the bunting a small piece of Cherry Cobbler wavy tuile was tied to add further texture.

I hope this gives you some inspiration if you like bunting/pennants but are scared of fabric/sewing.