What's In This Box?

I've been slowly sorting through my craft stash over the past few months, tidying and re-organising and sorting through a bunch of supplies to destash... and at the bottom of a drawer I found this little box.

I remember keeping oddments like snap fasteners and bobbins in this box when I was a sewing-obsessed kid, but what's in there now?

There's a hook and eye cut off a costume for a dance recital I was in at primary school....

The costume was in our family dressing up box for several years, and then eventually got cut up for some sewing project or other (I can't remember what) in my early teens and I guess I thought the fastening might be useful for something! Waste not want not, right? 

And then there's some stuffing and some felt pieces I must have cut out at least 15 years ago... ready for making teeny little felt mice.

I remember making a whole batch of these, with little pink ribbon tails and tiny pink seed bead noses. I guess I must have put these pieces in this box to finish later and then forgotten all about them! It feels a bit wrong to just throw them away after all this time - maybe I should try and finish them?

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Winding Threads

As well as knitting simple blanket squares when I was a little under the weather, I wound lots of skeins of embroidery floss onto bobbins and filed them neatly in my thread boxes. I've bought quite a few new colours lately, so my thread collection has expanded from one box to two:

There's a big rainbow of "random" floss from all sorts of different shops and brands, and then the colours to the right of the second box are all DMC threads with the bobbins neatly labelled with the shade numbers.

I love how pretty and cheerful the boxes of thread look, and having the thread wound on the bobbins makes it much easier to find the colours I want in my stash and to use (and store) the thread without it tangling.

I'm also slowly winding bobbins with the shades from the embroidery thread pack I sell in my shops, so I can use them in some new product images in the spring...

This is one of those jobs that's been on my to do list for ages - it feels great to be finally getting on with it!

Untangling Threads

I have a horrid cold. Ugh.

So yesterday I took the day off and watched lots of murder mysteries (and a vampire movie) and made a start on sorting through my stash of embroidery thread, untangling it all and winding it neatly onto little cardboard bobbins.

So neat! It's taking a while to work my way through all my threads, but it will be totally worth it :)

Sorting Colours

My "in use" felt stash has been getting a bit chaotic lately so this week I tipped them all onto the kitchen table and sorted them out neatly by colour...


... I'm sure it won't be long before they're all muddled up again though!

Excellent Shopping

Last week I treated myself to some lovely button giftwrap from Asking For Trouble. Yes, you read that right: giftwrap with buttons on it.


I know it sounds a bit mad "treating" yourself to some wrapping paper, but I'm thinking of it less like giftwrap and more like super awesome patterned paper that I can use for lots of craft projects. I'm sure if you've ever saved a scrap of pretty paper to add to your crafty stash you'll know what I mean!

Knit Knit Purl Purl

I'll be doing lots of knitting this week as several of my Christmas-gift-scarves are still very much works in progress:
Lots of chunky man-friendly knitting on the go at the moment!

Not sure I'm going to get round to knitting anything with these in time for Christmas... ... but I'm really looking forward to trying out the soft grey yarn as I've not knitted with anything that chunky before & I'm loving the muted colours in the other (though it's not quite the colour I thought it was when I was in the shop!). Mmm... yarn...

Crafting 365 - day eighteen - stationery and rearranging my stash of supplies

Last night I got all those sheet music notecards wrapped up into nice bundles of 3 and 6 cards, and then got a bit carried away with the old cutting and sticking...

I now have a pile of finished map cards ready to photograph (top left in the photo) and some brown & blue recycled envelopes ready to use for my own post (recycled from envelopes in our recycling pile). I also found two gorgeous 1940s maps in a box, put away because although they are delicious to look at they were too delicate to use for envelopes. One small brainwave later, and the maps have been cut into pieces ready to adorn some notecards which I shall pair with handmade envelopes of brown paper (I do love brown paper, and it goes really well with the colours in both maps as well as adding an extra vintage feel to them).

Off to the Post Office soon, and to buy some more Prittstick so I can glue those 1940s map pieces together.... I'll also be doing a bit of tidying as I have been re-arranging some of my supplies, my packing materials and stationery and things like that. We have been moving lots of furniture around the house and re-organising an awful lot of our stuff, and this has freed up a small bookcase for me to use near my workspace (ie just off the kitchen). It will be great having even more things to hand instead of 90% of my stuff being tucked away in the spare room. I shall take a picture when it's all sorted out - only halfway there yet!

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 :)

To tide you over...

I have been so lazy with the blogging lately! I have at least been off sewing lots of things and I DID manage to get my swap item finished, hurrah (wip shots and other lovely things coming very soon), but I have been getting sooo behind. The uk etsy sellers blog is looking a bit neglected, too - I haven't even written up the flowers challenge yet! Just shameful. I will write some proper blog posts sometime soon (hopefully) but until then, some pictures, hurrah!

... two finished beaded brooches (I blogged a wip shot of the larger one last week), so pleased with how these turned out! Made from a random bag of beads I discovered in my supplies box, no idea where they came from...
... my entry to the flowers challenge (and the very first photo print available in my shop - venturing into new territory, rather exciting) ...
... and an excellent selection of buttons I bought at my local Sally Army shop last week - so far only charity shop in town that seems to keep a button jar (still a couple to ask, but I don't hold out much hope, it's not a very "modern" thing to do)

Swapping Swapping Swapping

So over at the swap group we have been swapping quite a lot of supplies.

So far we have swapped: 1 mystery beaded thing, some vintage bits, 1 pile of felt, 1 pendant, 1 set of brushes, 21 sets of beads (crystal, plastic, wood, glass, all sorts of things!), 1 devil duck, 1 piece of driftwood, 2 packs of sculpey, 2 reels of wire, 3 tubes of glitter glue, 30 chandelier crystals, three balls of wool, 1 length of bead elastic, 1 necklace, some fibres, 4 card blanks, 3 packs of card and paper bits, 2 packs of children's playing cards, 4 sets of buttons, 3 zips, 24 pieces of fabric, 3 bundles of stickers, 1 heart toggle, 1 pack of seashells, 1 set of wavy straws, some velcro, some eyelets, a pack of click fasteners, some cord, 2 agate slices, some fake flowers, 3 wooden cotton reels, 2 bundles of chains, some pegs, a bundle of mohair plaits, some sea glass, a crochet magazine, an old brooch, some luggage tags, a pack of magnetic paper, some keyring bits, 1 design CD, an assortment of embroidery threads, a badge, two pieces of ribbon, three packs of sequins, some silk tops, a pack of snap fasteners, 3 bundles of assorted jewellery findings, two pieces of pompom trim, some bias binding, 1 piece of beaded fringe, gold leaf, a book about bead weaving, several papier mache boxes, 2 glass rings, 1 embroidery transfer, some rolags, a pack of funky foam, a belt buckle, some handmade ceramic cabs, some metal powders, two sets of rubber stamps, 1 set of paints, a guillotine, 1 pair of shoes, a pack of oil pastels, some raffia, some silk paint, some feathers... and a piece of driftwood!

Just a few things, then! :)

Post, Glorious Post

I have been getting an awful lot of nice post lately. This is mostly due to 1) the fun and frolicks that is the supplies swap group and 2) my continued birthday shopping on Etsy.

Over the past couple of weeks I got all of these delicious goodies through my letter box:
... a floral fat quarter & vintage embroidery transfer from rosehip71 (and two of her lovely collage postcards), mini zips from snowberrylime, and lovely bundle of luggage tags from thedevilswallpaper. Oh, the things I will be able to make using these! I can't wait.

Today this huge bundle of parcels arrived at my door:
... how exciting is that?? Inside parcel no.1 was 15 more swapped chandelier crystals from greygoat, so I will be able to make just loads of mobiles (hurrah!). The crystals came parcelled in an old brown paper shopping bag (with handles still in tact) which she apologised for but I love quirky recycled packaging ideas and may well steal that one. This tumbled out, too...
Such a sweet touch! Parcel no.2 was also from the lovely Kate, aka greygoat: oil pastels (probably going to be used by my very talented sister, soon to be selling her art via my Etsy shop) and a guillotine (which was totally on my wishlist, so I am rather pleased to be able to pay for one with swap points alone!).
Parcel no.3? Swapped stickers from thedominoeffect - and yesterday some stickers arrived from craftyannieUK, too. I've not managed to take pics of these yet (my camera battery died before I got a chance) but I will do soon. They are all very fun outline stickers that I'll be using to make more little thankyou cards and to jazz up my recycled packaging. I love to send colourful parcels.

Finally, parcel no.4 contained a genuine bonafide purchase. As part of my Etsy birthday notecard shopping spree, I succumbed to the irresistable charms of bunny's "Octogirl" notecards. Printed with her new gocco printer, these are just gorgeous (if she gets very busy with that gocco then I fear for my bank balance in future, I really do).
Bunny's attention to detail is wonderful. All the cards are beautifully wrapped, first in ribbon and then in cellophane secured with a little octogirl sticker:
... and she included a proper (and very lovely) thankyou card, too (pictured here with a bundle of her business cards, so I can pimp her wares in my own Etsy parcels).
Marvellous stuff.

We (the long-suffering boyf and I) are off to Hobbycraft this afternoon as rumour has it that there's a 2-for-1 deal on felt, and how could I resist something like that? So hopefully I will return later with another exciting crafty haul. Once my camera batteries have recharged, I will take pics of all the great stickers I've received & also some more work-in-progress shots of what I am currently sewing (little felt ornaments and some embellished brooches).

Lots to look forward to, ha ha.

Swapping swapping swapping

My newly-formed supplies swap group on Flickr is only a week old but is already 25 UK Etsians strong and there has been a flurry of swappage.

So far we have swapped 1 pile of felt, 1 mystery beaded thingummy, 3 sets of beads, 1 piece of velvet, 1 devil duckie, 2 packs of sculpey, 2 reels of wire, 3 tubes of glitter glue, 15 chandelier crystals, 16 snap cards, 2 bundles of wool, 1 button ... and a couple of other things, too!

Exciting parcels being recieved all over the country, and potential for so many awesome new items to be produced... I may actually clap my hands with glee if someone posts a picture of something actually made with swapped-for supplies, it would just make my month.

I seem to be accumulating quite a lot of swap points - or UKE's as someone suggested we call our currency - as I've sent out yet more supplies... this time some glitter glue to LittleMissRiver that had been lying neglected in my stash for three years or so and that was clearly never going to get used...
... and a whole bunch of these crazy snap playing cards to Rosehip71. I think I just thought these were irresistably mental, I don't think I ever knew what I was going to use them for!
I got my first swap parcel this morning from greygoat - 15 gorgeous chandelier crystals (I will have to take a picture on a day when there is some light - so overcast today!) which I immediately found myself oooohing over when she posted them to the group, wondering what I could make with them... As I am hoping to make some mobiles soon (you know, should I ever finish spring cleaning and mucking about on Flickr and get back to actually making stuff) I think the crystals will make great weights / decorations at the bottom of my sewn pieces.

Thinking of mobiles, I may put off cleaning the fridge for a little longer (defrosted the icebox yesterday, yawn) by finally blogging about the custom piece I made last month...

A Flickr group to call my own...

There has been much chitchat lately amongst the UK Etsy sellers about how great it would be to have some way of us all trading supplies, clearing out all our long-neglected unwanted stuff and receiving instead exciting new shiny things that're just perfect for our current projects.

So... I have started up a Flickr group for us, to serve just this purpose. It's very early days yet (you know, cos I just started it yesterday) but I am already getting over-excited at the thought of facilitating all this swapping, and at the idea of seeing pictures of items that were created using the swapped-for supplies, i.e. items that would not exist without the UK Etsy community all banding together in this fashion.

Setting up Flickr groups and uploading pics to my Flickr account and generally fiddling about with the internet and stuff on my computer has helped me avoid doing any actual work for the past couple of days, so other than the exciting news that my grand spring-cleaning efforts continue to, er, continue, I have very little to mention.

I voted today by postal vote - hurrah for democracy! boo for confusing forms! I am keeping my fingers very tightly crossed all this week as the boyfriend is standing for city council (I swear I will be more nervous than him on election day).

I was also delighted to discover that one of my ten facts inspired Maile to create this lovely exercise in attention.

Oh, and I finally took some photos of my 2nd and 3rd attempts at I heart TEA badges, pictured here with the original green version:
I will hopefully get a chance to sit down with a needle & thread at the weekend & have shiny new things to blog about. At the very least I plan to witter about the big abstract mobile I made this month - for a sneak peek you can check out my flickr page as I'm getting the pics of it uploaded there gradually during my tea-breaks.

My whole house is covered in felt!

The little offcuts fall on the floor, stick to your socks and then turn up everywhere! The same goes for small bits of sewing thread... and then of course there's all my tins of finished goodies, my work-in-progress boxes, and my ever-expanding stash.

No matter how much stuff I make, I am always thinking of new things I want to get started on & am forever finding secondhand stuff that inspires me and gets added to my collection to do "something" with "sometime". I have:
- a box of beads and ribbons and things like that,
- a whole load of wool that's gradually being knitted into blankets (in a suitcase under the bed!)
- a fabric box that's bursting at the seams with vintage finds & other useful scraps,
- a big pile of vintage maps and books that I have projects in mind for,
- a bag of fabric squares that are in-progress quilt cushions
- a stack of old sweaters waiting to be turned into felt
- a box under the bed that is full of old embroidered linens and tablecloths that I'm planning on revamping into bags and cushions and pincushions and all sorts of pretty things
- and, of course, large quantities of felt!

Ah, how my boyfriend suffers.

In other news: I am rather pleased this week to be up to 49 Etsy sales, and 105 "hearts"... It's nice to be making some progress with it, and to have done rather well this week just when I'd been feeling a bit downcast. I have finished my items for the Ninja challenge & am already getting excited at the thought of what we might do next fortnight... Can't wait until Sunday when all the Ninjas will be revealed! I have been sewing lots of leafy brooches - autumn and spring leaf trios cos they are so pretty - and working on the mobile I am making for a friend. I am also thinking long and hard and developing my designs for tea-party-themed items and am determined to get some French Fancy pincushions finished this weekend instead of just sitting around eating lots of them instead :)