Crimson Petals

I've been busy doing lots of admin this weekend, and working on a custom order for a wedding that includes lots of crimson corsage brooches...... made from an old wool sweater and lots and lots and lots of black beads!

365 / 215 - Scrap Pincushions

Staying true to my tendancy to be easily distracted by shiny new projects, last night I temporarily abandoned the textile art to begin some pincushions...
... I'm appliqueing large circles with little circles cut from the "waste" felt from my other projects. Small scraps become circles and the teeny tiny scraps will become pincushion stuffing! I made a start on this at Christmas, but have totally neglected it and with all the felt I've cut out this week I was starting to get overrun with scraps "to be used at some point"... so it seemed a good time to get started on them.
I'm very happy with how they're turning out so far - they're just how I pictured them in my mind, and the different sizes of the scraps mean the circles are turning out pleasingly random sizes which makes for a very natural looking scatter across the pincushion top. It's lovely to be able to put all that delicious colour to some use at last.

365 / 185 - Odds and Ends and more Flickr Love

Day 185 was a day for odd chores and finishing little bits and pieces of crafty projects. I re-worked the packaging for my remaining music notecards & envelopes (minus my branding) ready to be stocked in a local shop. I rescued some pincushion pieces from the depths of my "in progress" box and started turning them into actual pincushions (almost a year after the pieces were cut out, tsk tsk). And then whilst tidying a few things I found a stack of old, outdated calling cards that I'd been keeping to re-use them as little cards to send out with orders and instead of putting them away to be used another day I dug out some paper scraps and some glue and got stuck in:
The blue and white polka dot ones turned out particularly well, I think. I love those little dots - they're the insides of envelopes, my very favourite envelope pattern (my second favourite is when they make a pattern out of little envelope shapes).

Then late in the night I wrote rather a rambling blog post! As promised though, some reasons why Flickr is "awesome"...

It connects lonely felt-obsessed little me with so many other like-minded crafters, like the fantastically talented lilfishstudios whose attention to detail is seriously impressive - check out her great packaging idea for her recycled felt bird pins:It helps me stumble upon the work of awesome (there I go again) artists like well.ill.be.darned who has managed to bring a delicious sweet charm to a church refreshments list:
It is an almost endless collection of pretty, pretty things, like the ultimate glossy magazine full of pictures of whatever I'm obsessing about at the moment (currently retro-inspired modern interiors and retro crockery collections). One of my latest Flickr faves comes from H is for Home, a colourful 1950s biscuit tin design: That image is retro (always good), it's colourful (always great), it used to hold biscuits (always yummy) and it's covered in birds (always my favourite). What more could you want? Actually, for the retro-loving bird-obsessive H is for Home has plenty more - check out this blog post!

Above all though Flickr has made me see the sheer fun you can have with photos, and no-one in my contacts seems to have more fun with theirs than Kezzaroo whose "fancy dress Friday" pictures always make me smile. Her Wizard of Oz picture is one of my favourites: You should check out all her pictures though, so much fun! Make sure you don't miss the great manipulation Miss Bunny did of the Kez-as-Dorothy and the Seven Deadly Sins series Kez and Bunny did late last year. Awesome.

365 / 99 - fresh from the felt laboratory

Last night I had the house to myself for the entire evening so I covered the coffee table in supplies, got some dvds out of the cupboard and bought a nice bar of chocolate and spent several hours working on new felt projects. I know that I need to work on batches and building up my stocks and things like that, but the temptation to try new things is just too great to resist and whenever I'm working on something new it doesn't feel like work at all but purely pleasurable "me" time (I rather dislike that expression but it is so very apt).
I worked on cherry blossom pins, made a little lion brooch, started work on a slightly nutty felt beard (the natural complement to my moustaches but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out!), and appliqued some holly (perhaps to be brooches and perhaps ornaments) and a ridiculously intricate but quite pleasing (to me, at least) branch of felt mistletoe that will have a ribbon loop for hanging in doorways etc.

The lion design is adapted from a cushion I made about a decade ago (nice to know my style has evolved so much, haha) for a school project - his nose is not quite right but he's still quite cute:
Oh, and these are the beads I've settled on for the new cherry blossom pins:
You may notice that yesterday was day 99 of my Crafting 365 project, making today day 100. I am so pleased to have reached 100 (with only 3 or 4 missed days inbetween), it feels like such a huge number and the thought that all those days involved some crafty goodness is a very satisfying one. Miles and miles better than the feeling that originally inspired the 365 challenge, when I looked back over my summer and realised how little I'd made and how much time I had spent being busy and stressed and devoting my days to housework or filing or other dull things. Even on the days when I squeeze in a teeny tiny bit of craftiness I feel better for it - actually, those busy days are probably the ones on which I most need to accomplish something simple-but-satisfying, to relax and take time out from everything!

Sewing etc is relaxing, an escape from chores etc, but it's also increasingly becoming "work", too and it has been so exciting turning something I love into a business. My productivity has been HUGE, I've made just so many things this year and my ideas have just been tumbling out. The more I make the more I want to make and that's a lovely feeling. The crafting 365 group and other connections I've made through this daily blogging has proved a huge source of inspiration. It has been wonderful seeing so many people's works progress, their working methods and how they fit their creativity into their everyday lives. It is often a battle, but it's one worth fighting for sure!

Thinking about all this, I was utterly delighted to find a my blog being discussed in just these sorts of terms... lovely to read about someone discovering felt as a grown-up and genuinely creative medium, and I am in love with the little felt garlands that first inspired the re-discovery. A great little tutorial and the finished project is just gorgeous and the garlands fit so well with my current obsession with strings of felt circles. I have been turning over in my mind ways to adapt my abstract mobiles to be garlands for trees, or necklaces or other accessories (schemes you will hopefully see the fruits of in the spring!) and it's causing me to see felty circles wherever I look. Fitting in perfectly with this, my current "I want this so bad but I can't buy it" item is a circley scarf made from wool felt (wool makes me itch like the devil but also I have resolved to buy no more scarves as I have about a million already). Here are two awesome ones on Etsy (the blue one is sold but the seller has more in other colours) from two different seller but both recycled wool sweaters. Awesome huh?
PS my moustache cards showed up in a great selection of moustache-themed items here this week.

365 / 89 - Maps Maps Maps

Yesterday evening I faffed about on the computer a fair bit and spent a goodly amount of time enjoying the pleasures of home cooking, etc. Crafting-wise I turned my attention to a bundle of map pieces I cut out just aaages ago (way back on day 18!), finally sticking them to card blanks to become real live cards. Lovely old maps, one of the Thames Valley (my home turf) and one really beautiful map of London from the 1940s. I'd originally planned to display the latter but it was badly marked, so I cut all the damaged bits off and the remainder has made for some lush cards. They still need handmade envelopes to go with them (I'm making recycled brown paper envelopes which I think sets off the maps really nicely) and then I shall attend to sorting them into sets etc and taking photographs but it's still nice to have them "finished".

Crafting 365 - day seventeen - cards as far as the eye can see...

... well, almost:

I thought it was high time I actually finished making all the sheet music notecards (to match the envelopes I finished the other day) and got them out of my "in progress" pile and into my finished stash. I have basically run out of glue now, haha. Sooo many cards!

Oh, and I got the giftwrap envelopes finished too (destined for my own personal stationery box) and glued together a few map notecards & envelopes. All these cards need to dry and then have my shop details written on the back and then finally they will be parcelled up into neat little sets. And then they will be finished, hurrah! I do love finishing things, it makes me feel all efficient - no matter how long the thing in question has been "in progress" for.

I am going to try not to think about how many other half-finished projects I have lying about the place... Not having a dedicated studio space means I spend my life getting a project out, working on it for a bit and putting it away again. I have developed many elaborate storage systems for all these in-progress bits and pieces but really the whole thing is just a big mess of clutter and the moment things go in a box they get forgotten about and remain half-finished seemingly forever. Ah well. One project down, many many many to go...

Crafting 365 - day one (yesterday!)

(Long post, sorry!)

I have decided that I am absoltutely fed up with letting dull everyday things like chores and paperwork and paid employment get in the way of making lovely stuff. It cheers me up so much when I make even a tiny small thing, and it's so satisfying to have a big heap of stuff that I've made ready to list on Etsy or to give to friends.

So: I am going to do my utmost to do some crafting everyday, and record it here on this blog. I am unlikely to finish something everyday, but even if I just do a few rows of knitting or glue some envelopes together that will do.

All full of this enthusiasm, I had a great crafty day yesterday. It did rather help that it absolutely threw it down with rain the whole day so I was stuck in doors and in need of things to do!

First up yesterday I finished some recycled envelope sets - I've had these lying around for ages unfinished and it was very satisfying to get them finished. Unfortunately I ran out of double-sided tape (which I use to make a peel&seal type strip on the envelope flaps) so only managed to make up three full sets, but there are lots more glued and ready for when I've been to the stationers. I am really pleased with how these sets turned out - one set was made from the giftwrap my birthday presents were wrapped in this year, and the others from the insides of A4 envelopes.
We get a LOT of those envelopes through the door as the boyf is on a lot of committees and things, so it was great to find a use for them other than just chucking them in the recycling. Also brown paper is just gorgeous and I cannot get enough of those soft blue patterns. The backs of the envelopes are turned into envelopes for sale and the fronts (with our address) are turned into envelopes for our own post. I've even started wrapping my envelope sets with strips of leftover paper - they look much neater than the ribbon I was using before, I think.

This is half-way through taking my photos yesterday - note my very hi-tech photo studio, complete with tomatoes (homegrown!)

Then in the afternoon - rather inspired by the new Studio Shot Tuesday group over on Flickr causing me to think about my crafty storage - I cleared out a clothes cupboard to make way for my fabric and assorted other supplies:
Most of the clothes in this cupboard are out of season things or clothes which I had shut away to see if I ever wore them (if that makes sense) as part of my attempt to massively slim down my wardrobe... so they will be perfectly happy in the suitcases under the bed that formerly housed all this yummy fabric etc.
Top shelf: folded fabrics and old clothes /vintage embroidery pieces I plan to use in crafty projects.
Bottom shelf: box of fabric scraps, piles of vintage books and old maps and two half-finished blankets in bags.
Top drawer: polyester stuffing, a half-finished quilt, some wool, a cushion insert and the pedal of my sewing machine. Soon to be joined by some felted wool sweaters.
Bottom drawer: the clothes that wouldn't fit in the suitcases :)

As I don't have a dedicated work room, my craft stuff is rather beginning to take over the house... I have my printer in the boyf's office (which is also our lounge), my sewing machine, some supplies, my works-in-progress and my finished items all tucked under the breakfast bar in our kitchen, and so many things in the spare room! All kinds of boxes of things and also:

Packing materials (normally tucked under a coat-rack)

Two lovely boxes of supplies...
One has fabric paints, beads and buttons (2 drawers), poster paint and velcro, chandelier crystals, vintage trim and knitting needles...
The other has assorted useful sewing bits (bobbins, needles, measuring tape etc), green & yellow thread, blue & white & black thread, embroidery floss and odd bits of wool, orange & brown thread, and a big drawer of ribbon, trim, cord, embellishments, glitter and all sorts of oddments that don't have a home of their own. The colourful drawers of thread are particularly pleasing - the rest of them only look neat when the drawers are firmly closed!
... and then finally yesterday evening I sat and listened to the radio while doing a bit of sewing. I finished two little Ninja baby brooches (left unfinished after I realised I had no safety pins left) and cut out lots of beaks and eyes for some half-finished owls and penguins.
I love when you add their faces, they suddenly have these great little personalities. I can't wait to get them finished :)

Trying to get organised

Oh to be organised! At the moment, I'm really not. I flit from one project to another leaving a big fat mess in my wake and the house is starting to look pretty shoddy because of it...

So at the moment I am trying to tidy up, to finish things, to store things better and to have a clear-out. All at the same time, whilst trying to crack on with some sewing too. Lots to do...

I'm currently finishing a load of map tags that have lain unfinished for a couple of months...

... a big stack of wildflower envelopes that I cut out ages ago but never stuck together...

... and lots of things involving felt!
Trying to get my shop nicely stocked, too, which is being slightly hindered by Etsy being a bit lame at the moment (running very slowly, items apparently taking days to show up in searches etc) and also by the overcast & rainy few days we've just had (that sort of weather makes all my pictures turn out blue).

Oh, and I had an idea for this month's design challenge (Fairy Tales) but I doubt very much that I have the talent to actually make it turn out how it is in my mind's eye! Ah well, I shall give it a go anyway.

A Frenzy of Recycling

As I'm not in the mood for sewing at the moment (as discussed in my previous post) I am instead rediscovering the pleasures of cutting and pasting. I am forever picking up odd vintage books and other ephemera in charity shops, with vague plans to turn them into "something" "sometime". This week I've been delving into my charity shop finds, attacking them with scissors and turning them into recycled stationery.

An old guide to British Wild Flowers is in the process of transforming into 100 pretty envelopes:
And "Dean's New Leisure Book for Girls" (published in about 1968) has become a big pile of lovely ivory notecards:I've really been enjoying making these, reading the stories and picking the best bits to feature on the cards. Great girls adventure stories, ranging from boarding school dramas to escapades in revolutionary "Parazuela", haha.
There were so many great lines that I've not only added text on the front to match the awesome illustrations, but also stuck a line or two on the back of each card:
Reminds me of all the stuff I grew up reading - Famous Five novels and Twinkle annuals. Marvellous stuff.