I love gift wrapping.

Well the title says it all I love wrapping up gifts be it a present for family or friends. And I really love wrapping up the items people have purchased from my etsy shop or website. I don't use lots of wrapping some items like jewellery and the odd elf will be sent in a gift box but them I will add a ribbon and tag to them.  

I do try to keep the wrapping simple but pretty, I use this lovely glitter lime green tissue paper. So I wrap first in the tissue then I use one of my personalised Moo stickers to stick it down.

Then I use the curling ribbon, I got them from a florists section at a garden centre at a very reasonable price and they will last for a long time. I could leave it at that but I do like to add a pretty tag. I bought some Gorjuss tags a few years ago while I was still  papercrafting and I use those and some Handmade with love tags I found at a craft fayre. Its not a lot and doesn't take long but I think it does look pretty.

At craft fairs I just normally wrap in tissue and add the sticker but as now my daughter comes to help me I may train her up and have her wrapping the customers purchases with me. Now I'm going to find some new pretty tissue as I'm down to the last few sheets of the glitter tissue paper. I'm hoping to find something really pretty. 

Rivers and Oceans

One constant thing in my life has been I have lived by a river and the sea, most of my childhood was spent in Bournemouth on the beach and down by the River Stour near my childhood home.

We used to spend the summer holidays down by the river with a net trying to catch minnows and putting them in a bucket. There used to be a lovely spot near to the bridge in Iford and my sister always caught more minnows than me.

Old Iford Bridge

We also used to row and sail down the river down to Christchurch Harbour or go to Tuckton and launch the boats. We would eat a picnic lunch either anchored near the reed beds or pull the boats up at Hengistbury Head. Of course we would then go and explore the Head and look at the  archaeological excavation sites there.

Hengistbury Head

I have been remembering all this as my son has been reading a Famous Five book by Enid Blyton for his schools 50's topic. I read lots of the famous five books when little and it has brought back those memories.

Now I'm still living by water but this time its the Atlantic Ocean. We don't have miles of golden sand and piers at our local beach but it still beautiful in fact I think more so. If its a stormy sea you can sometimes hear the waves pounding into the rocks at night. 

Duck Pool Beach

Sometimes we go down there in the early evening with friends, our children & dogs, no picnic tea but a beach bbq. The children and dogs explore the rockpools and often swim with their body boards. Hopefully they will have some great childhood memories like I do.

Cloth Dolls and Trolls

I have been very busy with all sorts things and little craft projects that I realised I hadn't made a cloth doll for a little while. Also I had to make a goth girl doll for my daugher, she had all the fabric and trims ready for me. 

Originally the doll was to have bubble gum pink hair but it just didn't look right so she ended up with blue hair which suited the doll better. The blue hair was originally intended for another doll I had planned but I decided it wasn't going to look right either.

I have a few different dolls planned and I purchased some patterns to make them. First I really wanted to make a mermaid and I decided that a stump doll would be the best way to represent her. I embellished her with lots of seaweed and she just needed to be holding something and luckily I had made some lampwork beads which were just right.

Last weekend I really needed to make something so I decided to start on the Troll pattern. It took a couple of days and with a bit of head scratching I finally finished him. I just love his hair which is made from merino wool and needle felted into his head, and I just couldn't resist giving him some bushy eyebrows. 

Using the patterns is good as I'm learning more each time I make a doll and I have lots of ideas all waiting to be made, including another couple of Stump Dolls a Fairy and some seasonal ones. And in between those I have found something else I enjoy making which is fabric insects, I made some for the a may challenge. They used up scraps of fabric and also gave me the chance to use the decorative stitches on my sewing machine.

A passion for reading and seed beads.

When I'm not crafting I read a lot, its my passion and pleasure. Being part of a book club and having a kindle has changed what I read over the years but I can't go a month without reading a book. My favourite all time author is Terry Pratchett, I started reading his discworld books many years ago, the first book I read was Wyrd Sisters and I recently enjoyed the Long Earth, a collaboration with Stephen Baxter.

I also do like vampire / paranormal type of books and my most recent favourite series is from a british author, Stephanie Hudson. I have read the first two books in her Afterlife saga and I'm hooked I couldn't put them down and I'm waiting a bit before I get the third so I can savour it over the school holidays. 

In fact the Afterlife saga influenced a piece of beaded jewellery I made. With the cold weather we have had I've worked indoors and I have rediscovered my love of seed beads. So I purchased a few tutorials from Lynn Davy , a fellow Craft Pimp member. I fell in love with this tutorial and found some stunning gilt lined seed beads that were perfect. I also purchased a few bits to embellish the necklace including a winged heart which was inspired by the hero in the Afterlife saga, Dominic Draven. It took at least 2 whole days work but I was really pleased how it turned out. 

Reading as you can see can influence and inspire my work so I'm now considering my reading as research, well thats what I'm telling my family anyway. Now where is my kindle.........

Bunting Queens

I spent a lovely day yesterday with two good friends making bunting. Why bunting? well I belong to the PTA at my son's school and we are having an Easter / Spring fair. We normally have one at Christmas but last year we just did a craft fair and decided to do an Easter / Spring fair instead. As we are hoping to hold the fair outside, the PTA thought it would be nice to have some bunting up and it had to be pastels. The three of us volunteered to make some bunting as it would be cheaper to make than buy.

I arrived at my friends house with my sewing machine, a few pieces of scrap fabric and three large rolls of bias binding I had found. She provided lunch, and my other friend brought her sewing machine and more fabric. well we had to start with a quick cuppa and then made a template out of paper and transferred it to the fabrics and cut them out with pinking shears. I know we could have sewn the edges together and turned them through but we needed the bunting to be quick to make and also get as much bunting out of the fabric as we could. 

We pinned the triangles to the binding and two of us sewed them up, while another carried on pinning. Well we got about five long lengths made, despite interruptions for lunch, tea and cake, re threading machines and swearing at the machines and lots of laughter. I must say the bunting looked brilliant, I will hopefully get a picture of the bunting on the day, but in the meantime here is a picture of a practise run I made Wednesday evening. 

A bit of luck and Cloth Dolls

I have been very lucky in the past few weeks. First I won a pair of beautiful earrings made by Kayleigh of Cyndra Arts, and then I also was lucky to be picked out by a kitten to win a gorgeous bracelet by Faith of Abyjem. So if you see a giveaway on a blog or via facebook twitter etc go have a look you never know you might get something gorgeous like these.

     

You will find Kayleigh's Etsy shop here        and Faith's Etsy shop here.

I have been busy with making stuffed toys and Cloth Art Dolls. These two beautiful Elves went to new loving homes. 

 

I have also made a pirate girl doll which is for sale in my ETSY shop along with a Teddy Bear and Cat.

There will also be a Chicken in the ETSY shop at some point. In the meantime I'm going to make a goth girl doll for my daughter and then I want to make a Stump doll maybe two possible as a mermaid and the moon. So its been a busy start to the year so far, and lots more to create as well.

Holidays are over.

The school holidays went really quick and I'm now back to being at home on my own with my very daft Labrador. Which to be honest as much as I love the kids company over the holidays, I can get on with a lot more work when they are not here. 

Last year the jewellery sales have slowed mainly because of the financial climate and I think 2012 was the year of the Elf, lol. With that in mind I have decided to just make jewellery with my own beads, I also want to improve my lampwork and the elves will be ever present. Plus there will be more cloth dolls as I want to eventually have a soft version of an Elf. In fact I finally got a new sewing machine and I made my first cloth doll, I started it on New Years day and finished it the following day. I must say I really enjoyed making it and I now have so many ideas for more. 

In my last post I mentioned that I was firing coasters in my kiln one at a time and I couldn't show you what I had been up to. Well I gave them to my parents and they loved them so I can now show you, one is missing from the photo as it was still in the kiln at the time. I did really enjoy painting them and was very happy with the outcome and I will certainly make more. I would like to paint bigger items but I think that will have to wait for a long time as I will need a larger kiln.