button bracelets

ingredients:

1x bored child

vintage buttons (modern will do)

cord (any colour, I got mine from a bead shop, make sure the cord fits through the button holes)

instructions:

1. push the cord through the button holes and knot it at the back leaving two equal lengths of cord.

2. knot the cord (or braid/plait it) along the desired length.

3. knot the cord at the end of the braid/plait twice with enough space between the two knots to slip the button through.

4. Wear button bracelet proudly and make another one for daddy.

crafter's notes: it's a simple little craft project and I can't think of a way this can go wrong. Harrison hadn't wanted to craft with me for ages but does love to play with my modest vintage button collection. I remembered I had some cord left over from a jewellery project so I dug that out and we made simple knotted and braided/plaited bracelets. Harrison was bouncy and happy with his red button bracelet and insisted we make another one for Matt. I've run out of cord now so I best add that to my shopping list for next time I'm at a craft shop.

I best get back to the housework and finishing the two dolls I'm working on. They should be listed in my shop soon... so keep checking back.

Coffee, chocolate and keys

Sat in 'I should cocoa' chocolate shop drinking an americano with cream while Harrison has a chocolate shake. He is ignoring me and playing on his DSi. That's ok though as I brought a doll to sew. *happy*

tshirt necklace with vintage keys

This morning I thought i would make a tshirt necklace. It's been on my craft list for ages and I thought I would have a go at making one while I had some spare time. I diligently googled 't-shirt necklace tutorials' 't-shirt scarves diy' etc and failed at every turn to find a tutorial I liked, or a picture that actually led to a tutorial, several had been yanked from their blogs with no explanations. No help at all. I grumbled on twitter and my friend Juanita said :

tortillaloaves Juanita C.

@

@meridianariel Surely you can come up with something better :)

So I went digging though my t-shirts and remembered the knit tshirt scarflette I made the other year. I dug out the t-shirt scarflette which was hiding behind some books in my bedside cabinet and unravelled it. The tutorial I wrote for making t-shirt yarn is here if you want to give it a go its pretty simple and you can use seemed t-shirts which I have more of than unseemed.

Instead of using loops of t-shirt I wound the t-shirt yarn around my hand and a know on my chest of drawers (but you can get someone to help you) I place the yarn around my neck pulling at the strands till they went the way I wanted them too then I tied the ends of the yarn together around all of the strands. If at any time I can undo the knots and remake the yarn into something else. I think took three small vintage keys and looped yarn through them to hold them in place. The whole craft took less than 15 minutes. The yarn is still wiggly from being knit but I like the effect and am sure it will fall out eventually.

jelly bean paper parcels

Its half term so that means making a few things with Harrison. If I can tear him away from the DSi or his lego to craft with me. I have tried to get him to bake some cakes, colour, and go for walks. He said no to everything until I said we should make something with jelly beans. That got his attention... bribery always works.

So we used a few pages of my much abused French copy of Lord of the Rings that I found on our last trip to Paris a year and a half ago..or is that two years? We made a simple square pouch first. I folded a sheet of paper in half then Harrison carefully placed the jelly beans inside before I finished sewing the last edge together. Feeling more confident we decided to make something with a slightly more difficult shape. But what could we make? A marshmallow bunny shaped peep! It was a quick fun craft that I had been wanting to try for ages and Harrison loved helping and eating the jelly beans of course.

a pincushion tutorial...ish

Today instead of doing the crafting I'm mean to be doing I made a little pincushion. Don't worry i will be doing some of the crafting I NEED to get done a little later after I have consumed vast quantities of coffee and had a little stroll around town. Tomorrow is an inset day at school before half term so I'm determined to get the most out of today and have some me time. Which includes sewing for no reason and going for a stomp around town with my ipod blaring in my ears. Anyway here is a little tutorial that you can use to justify the buying of chocolate. Seriously.

ingredients:
1 package of Sainsbury's pots au chocolat (or any alternative pudding in a little pot)

a spoon

dish soap

fabric

pins

toy filler

all purpose craft glue

these are the puddings you are looking for.

instructions:

1. Open the package of pots au chocolat. Using the spoon scarf down one pot. the wash the ceramic pot with the dish soap and set aside to dry.

2. cut a circle from your fabric that is roughly twice as big as the pot au chocolat ramekin.

3. carefully sew around the fabric circle about a quarter of an inch from the edge. Gently pull the threads together creating a little pouch to stuff to the gills with toy filler. Carefully tie the threads together. It doesn't matter if it looks messy no one will see it.

4. making sure the ramekin is perfectly dry squeeze out a large dollop of glue in the bottom of the pot.

5. carefully place the fabric puff into the pot. You may need to hold it for a minute or two so that the glue adheres to the fabric. And there you go a new pincushion.

crafter's notes: The fabric is a pink and white harlequin that I received in the Alice in Wonderland craft swap. I will probably give the pincushion away as I'm not big on pink but I am pleased with how the pincushion turned out and as there is a second empty ramekin floating about the kitchen I might use that one too.

I heart pinterest

I am totally addicted to pinterest

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day

I finally managed to finish crafting for one of my partners for the Tim Burton Nightmare Before Valentine's Day craft swap. Though I had millions of ideas buzzing around my brain for the swap I ended up running late with the actual crafting of it. This morning I invited my friends Emma and Alison over for coffee and cake and while they were here I finished making a Burton-esque pincushion for Alison who ended up being one of my two craft partners in the swap. So instead of me posting her things I made coffee and gave her a red glitter covered triple chocolate and espresso brownie.... I'm nice like that.

We geekily talked about books, iphone apps and crafts, while I finished sewing and gluing the pincushion in place. I made the pincushion from a little silver plated bowl (possibly a sugar bowl?) that I found at a little junk/antique shop in Cromford (Arkwright's Attic in the mill). When I saw the bowl with it's lovely tarnished silver I knew it would be right for Alison and would fit perfectly into any Burton world.... OK maybe not Mars Attacks or Batman Returns but certainly it wouldn't go amiss in Beetlejuice, Nightmare before Christmas, or Alice in Wonderland. I used a scrap of vintage doily and some black and white ticking that I thought would fit in with the worlds of Burton.

I also gave her a copy of the Meloncholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton and a small zombie doll with a loose eye as Alison loves books and zombies too. The Corpse Bride is a zombie right? I really had a ball crafting for the swap, when we weren't all under the weather with awful colds and luckily for me I still have one more thing to finish crafting for my second craft partner the lovely Jessica of Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping before I can blog that too.

triple chocolate and espresso brownies

(I should probably write up the recipe)

I best go do some crafting... or put the kettle on for another cup of coffee. It's Valentine's Day and we never do very much but we will watch some crappy horror flicks later.. I quite fancy a zombie film as nothing quite says love like zombies eating brains...right?

suitcases, zombies and tweets

I haven't done nearly as much crafting as I need to get done. I had planned to use the last of my badge machine components to make some badges up, some to sell and some to give out to a few great crafty friends that I am meeting up with tomorrow morning at Starbucks by Ikea Nottingham. We are having a tweet -up of crafters, some I know who are fantastic and inspire me in my blogging and crafting and a few new people that I haven't met before but crafting and blogging are a great way to meet new friends. Also there is coffee and that is always a fantastic thing.

I haven't done nearly as much crafting as I need to get done. I had planned to use the last of my badge machine components to make some badges up, some to sell and some to give out to a few great crafty friends that I am meeting up with tomorrow morning at Starbucks by Ikea Nottingham. We are having a tweet -up of crafters, some I know who are fantastic and inspire me in my blogging and crafting and a few new people that I haven't met before but crafting and blogging are a great way to meet new friends. Also there is coffee and that is always a fantastic thing.

The only crafting I have done is finish a tiny little zombie doll who I may bring along tomorrow to the tweet up for er moral support? Or I may get myself together and sew together the fabric I have for a new doll. The fabric is hidden in a neat pile inside one of the vintage suitcases I use as craft storage. I Shall then have something to sit and nervously work on while I wait for everyone to show up. (then I will probably hide it because there will be some fantastic crafters at the tweet-up and I will go all self conscious at having such a stellar array of crafty peeps before me.

I planned to have a number of witty blog posts written this week but this cold H gave us has wiped me out. I thought I was getting better on Sunday when I got some crafting and tidying done but today I have felt pants and my brain has run away. So I'm going to make the box of Annie's Mac and Cheese for tea that my friend Jaci sent to me in October. I have hidden it in the cupboard till a time when comfort food is needed. I cannot for the life of me remember telling her that it was a favourite American food stuff. So thank you Jaci for dinner tonight.

blue sun tea towel

Blue Sun logo tea towel

Blue Sun is the logo for a fictional conglomeration in the Firefly verse. I like to think of it as the Starbucks or McDonald's of the Firefly verse. The logo can be found everywhere on the show, tin cans, ads, and clothing. I love Firefly, in my mind it is the best of Joss Whedon's many brilliant shows. Though very short lived, it was cancelled after 13 episodes, it has a huge browncoat following that made it possible to make the movie Serenity (which I love to bits and makes me tear up every gorram time I watch it).

Serenity's Crew

I bought the dvd box set for myself in January and Matt and I sat through every episode grinning away madly (or that might have just been me). I have the the soundtrack on my ipod and have been listening to it quite a bit. And I got chatting on twitter and facebook with other geeks quoting the show. I even wear a Jayne quote pin badge on my coat. Which isn't geeky enough as I felt the need to do a bit more Firefly crafting.

Blue Sun logo tea towel

Last year I bought a roll of freezer paper and its been sitting in my desk being ignored and gathering dust ever since. I have visited Whedoncraft time and again and was inspired by a few stencilled Blue Sun logo shirts. I thought it was time I got round to doing something too. I had Matt print me the logo and spent ages cutting it out with a craft knife, I am quite useless with craft knives in general but I managed not to cut myself and bleed all over my geekery. The tea towel need to be washed a few times so the fabric paint mellows down and fits in more with something found in the verse. I may even boil it in a pan of tea so it has a more aged look.

Jayne in his Blue Sun shirt

I want a Jayne hat and a Saffron scarf...unfortunately my knitting skills are lacking and my crochet is akin to making a tumor out of yarn.