Introducing: Mom Crafts

I've got a fun new book to show you guys today: Mom Crafts: DIY Crafts for the Expectant Mom.

It features 20 projects to make for new babies and their expectant parents... including three projects designed and stitched by me!

 

The book includes projects to knit, embroider and sew (hand sewing and machine sewing). The "Mom" section includes a maternity pillow, a nursing bag and a lavender eye pillow. The "Baby" section includes burp cloths, bins and that adorable strawberry hat and booties. Then the "Nursery" section includes lots of decorative items to brighten up the nursery and celebrate the new arrival.

My three projects all involve felt, of course! (You'd probably guessed that, hadn't you?)

There's a night sky mobile to hang over the crib.

Then there's colourful and customisable hoop art (look, it's baby me! wasn't I cute?), which you can make with felt or some simple embroidery.

My favourite project of the three though has to be the whale pillow/cushion which doubles as a photo prop for marking those important milestones!

I showed my dad this book and pointed out my projects and he said "You made a baby? Just for a book? How much were they paying you???", haha.

Seriously though, how cute are these little people? Such sweet pictures!

Mom Crafts is published by Lark Crafts. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and lots of other bookshops. Please note: The Amazon and Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links.

It's always a joy working on projects for Lark Crafts titles - I've contributed to quite a few over the years! Do you have any of these? :)

Doodle Stitching: The Holiday Motif Collection

Last year I was delighted to be asked to contribute a couple of projects to an embroidery book by Aimee Ray. Aimee is the author of the charming Doodle Stitching series which includes Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection and Doodle Stitching: Embroidery & Beyond.

The latest book in the series? Doodle Stitching: The Holiday Motif Collection!

The Holiday Motif Collection includes over 300 embroidery motifs for Christmas and other holidays, with the patterns all included on a CD so you can easily print them at the size you need instead of faffing about resizing them from the book.

 

As well as Aimee's adorable patterns, the book also includes 21 different projects to stitch using some of the motifs. How cute is that house teapot?? Just adorable.

Those of you with long memories might remember me working with lots of blue supplies last year. Well, I was stitching these Penguin Stocking Ornaments:

 

 

I also stitched a pair of Gingerbread Bookmarks:

 

Stitching Aimee's cute designs was so much fun! It's lovely to have been part of such a sweet book.

Doodle Stitching: The Holiday Motif Collection is published by Lark Books. It's available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK and many other bookshops.

[Please note: The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links]

P. S. Before my contributor copy had arrived I was thrilled to get my first look at this book at The Knitting & Stitching Show a couple of weeks ago. It's always exciting to finally see a finished book that you've contributed to - to see how your projects look, and to discover who else made things for the book and what they stitched - but this time round it was extra fun. I was at the show with Carina who also stitched a project for the book, and we got to share our excitement when we stumbled upon some copies while browsing a selection of embroidery books. So nice :)

Introducing... Felt-o-ween!

I've got some fun news to share today - Lark Books have a new crafty book out, featuring eight designs by me! It's called Felt-o-ween and it contains "40 scary-cute projects to celebrate Halloween"... all made from felt, of course.

Felt-o-ween is a follow-up to Lark's earlier seasonal titles Fa La La La Felt and Heart-Felt Holidays. 

Fa La La La Felt was the first craft book I contributed projects to, way back in 2009 -  doesn't time fly?? It's so nice to still be working with the same team of lovely people, and it was soooo much fun designing Halloween-themed projects this time round.

It's especially thrilling to see that two of my projects (the candy corn bunting and the creepy crawly wreath) made it onto the cover! I'll be blogging more about the book and my other projects for it sometime next month. In the meantime you can peek inside over at Amazon.

Felt-o-ween is out now in the US and available to pre-order in the UK (it's due out in early September).

Heart-Felt Holidays

I've got some fun news to share with you today...

The lovely people at Lark Books are publishing a follow-up to their Christmas craft book Fa la la la Felt.

It's called Heart-Felt Holidays and it contains "40 charming projects for Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more."

And it includes SIX whole projects by me. Yay!

Wanna see my projects?

There's cake toppers for birthday cakes and cupcakes:

A version of my popular butterfly mobile for a baby shower:

Heart baubles for Valentine's Day:

Lavender "teabags" for Mother's Day:

Manly moustaches for Father's Day:

Plus a pirate eyepatch and parrot for Talk Like a Pirate Day:

... which also includes instructions for making a half-size parrot to wear as a brooch:

I can't wait to see a copy of the finished book, and to see everyone else's projects.

Heart-Felt Holidays is currently available to pre-order on Amazon USA and Amazon UK. Although it's officially due to be published in April in the USA the books will apparently be shipping to US stores very soon. Hurrah!

Stash Happy: Felt

Just over a year ago I blogged about some "secret scraps" that were offcuts from a couple of projects I couldn't show you... well, now I can! Hurrah!

The projects I was working on were for a new craft book soon to be published by Lark Crafts - Stash Happy: Felt: 30 Fun Projects for Felt (and Fabric) Lovers.


See that coffee cosy on the cover? I made that! I'm so thrilled it was chosen as the cover project.


I also designed a headband, which will be available as one of two downloadable "bonus" projects from the book.


The book includes 30 different projects to make with felt (and fabric), including cute animals like plush owls and a sweet whale pincushion, things for the home like coasters and a wreath, plus fun accessories like a hat, a scarf and a clutch purse.


Stash Happy: Felt is due to be published in two weeks time in the USA (October 4th 2011) and about a month later in the UK.