A different kind of button!

Rather than doing some work in preparation for real work on Wednesday I've been playing around with my blog!
Procrastination or what!!
But I'm so chuffed I managed to make my own button! Yay!



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I wanted to do this for my post tomorrow so hopefully it works! It's a bit smaller than I wanted but hey hopefully its OK. If anyone wants to know how to do this I will try and explain in as plain as English as possible. Let me know!

Dear Santa

It's a Bank holiday weekend! That's why its raining outside.
September arrives on Tuesday! Where did the Summer go?
School/work starts back next week!! Must stock up on my back to school stationary!

So what better a time than to think about Christmas!
In fact a Christmas wish list. Santa I am being good!

Usually there are a range of great crafty books that I would love for Christmas, you just need to see my bookcase for past evidence. This year however there is something that has already caught my eye. Reason being it includes lots of lovely projects by lots of lovely people that I have happened to have come across or have been in contact with through this blog! Such as Pink Penguin!


Looks like so much fun and is available in the UK!!

Take one glass bottle ...

A spare half an hour and hey presto you'll have this little lovely!
I've been hoarding glass bottles with this project in mind for a while and I managed to get some mosaic type stickers from a local craft store, I wasn't to keen on glass painting!

So here we go:
Wash and dry the bottle


Think about your design and get sticking!!


Remember to keep turning the bottle so it is not too heavy designed on one side.





Fill it with water and some lovely pink carnations


place on your kitchen windowsill ready to delight!

Seaside

It's hard to believe the weather was like this last weekend ...


when its rain and thunder outside today!!
Lots of sunshine, ice cream, shopping and great times with friends in Brighton.

Count down

After returning from a lovely weekend at the seaside the count down has begun until school starts back here in the UK which also means I'm back to work! Arrgghh!
It was so lovely to sit and relax in the sunshine - unfortunately my camera broke so I had to take photos with my phone! Now 2 mega pixels is not the best and I need to work out how to get the photos off the phone! If anyone has any suggestions of a good digital camera that they use that is also fairly easy on the purse I would love to know!

Just as I was leaving for my seaside break I could not believe my eyes when I was featured on "Just a girl"!!!


So welcome, put your feet up, have a cup of tea and come say hello if you have found me from over there. Thank you to Chris at Just a Girl - fantastic blog, amazing ideas, makeovers, gorgeous home, and a lovely family! Plus an amazing array of spray paint, my new addiction!
I promise to get round to everyone who has left a comment or sent an email! I am not ignoring you - I promise.

Still here!

Yes - I am still here although have been a little absent with blogging lately!
Trying to make the most of my Summer holiday before it is over too soon!
Managed to purchase some new fabric the other day - not sure what I will do with yet but hey its added to the pile!




Will be back soon! Hopefully with a giveaway!

Exhibition - my little corner!

 

So here they are finally! A few images of all my textile printing bits and pieces displayed in the exhibition! The evening class was such fun and it was great to display it all at the end for a few days!

More photos over on flickr!

Hand printed + Handmade

So here is the cushion, and as of yet, the only item that I have made from my hand printed fabric!


In preparation for my evening class exhibition I had visions of making lots of different items out of the fabric but ran out of time! So the evening before I dashed home and whipped this up quickly. Although there was no plan I am really pleased with how it turned out.
The front is slightly padded and the back is sections of the same print in a different colourway.



I'm thinking cushions might be my thing!

From Sewing reels to fabric!

This was my favourite technique learnt at my textiles evening class - using photo sensitive emulsion to screen print.
I had to find an image to use on my screen. Now I wanted the fabric to be me so there was no chance of just using an Internet or book image so I went around my house taking loads of photos to be used as an image. This was my favourite:


I then decided to try out some text so typed up a bit of textiles related wording.
Then it was onto the screen:


Prepping up my fabric ready to go!


Then screen printing madly with a range of colours and I absolutely love the result!!


A close up shot of a piece that I then made into something. Check in tomorrow to see the results!

Sharing ideas and inspiration over a lovely cup of tea!

That's what I did today - and it was lovely!
I met up with my friend Catherine from Red Daisy, catching up on our crafting ventures and sharing lots of ideas plus being amazed by her enviable craft room and the lovely hand made chickens!
Thanks for a lovely day!

And just because I can't post without a picture here are some of my lovely, and yes pink gerberas.




P.S Thanks for all the lovely kind words about the sewing box makeover!

Presenting the new restyled - refashioned sewing box!

Well it's finished - and I'm really pleased with it!
It may not be to every ones taste but it needed to have a little bit of pink in there somewhere!


After taking it apart completely, sanding it down, priming it, spray painting it, trying to put it back together in one go and then lining the compartment it was all worth it. It's been a learning curve!
This is also the first time that I've used spray paint - I'm normally a paint and paint brush kind of girl but now I'm a total convert and can see an addiction forming!
It's definitely worth paying the extra for the can of primer but the UK weather does not help when you're trying to spray paint and the wind is blowing and it's threatening rain!!
Now all I need to do is fill it with all my sewing bits and bobs!


Photos are not of great quality as it is so dull here at the moment! More photos over on flickr!

Finding a treasure!

I've wanted something for a long time.
I'd been busy looking but no luck.
Then I could not believe my eyes when I came across one a few weeks ago!
My lovely new sewing box!


I had been searching for one of these for a while. I have lots and lots of storage boxes for all my crafting items, but I just wanted one of these and when I went into a Charity shop and spied this I could not believe my eyes. I looked at it first glance and thought it was in fairly good condition but needed a little bit of work, so I carried on around the shop. BUT THEN someone else started looking at it, feeling slightly nauseous, heart pounding I rushed over and picked it up quickly! (Lesson learned in Charity shops if you see something you like don't be indecisive like me - pick it up straight away!)
Now it did not have a price on it so I went to ask and thought if they ask some stupid price then I'll keep on looking. But no can you guess how much?
£3!!!
Yes £3 - can you believe it!
So I'm busy fixing it up, its a little bit rickety and needs some TLC and I hope to have it finished by tonight - so photos tomorrow!

Over printing

I did not get as much time as I would have liked over printing onto fabric and seeing what great effects it can lead to - this was my problem as once I had completed a first print that I really liked I did not want to change it!!

I did however overprint onto the piece that had the join lines. I tore up strips of paper as a kind of stencil and placed these randomly on the fabric and then printed over the top. I am really pleased with the results and now just need to get some inspiration and ideas as to what to do with the fabric!
Any thoughts?

Screen printing update

Just after Christmas I started an evening class exploring a range of textile printing methods. Now I did say that I would post about this regularly but that never happened!
So a bit of a catch up....
This was my second attempt at printing on a large scale. I seem to enjoy printing on metres of fabric rather than just a small square!!
I learnt my lesson the first time around when I used a small screen and got join lines on the fabric.


So after rethinking my design, cutting loads more paper stencils, getting organised and hey presto - I was really happy with how this turned out in terms of the design and the colour!





Lots more tomorrow!