Last Minute Christmas Gift

I had a last minute (about 10pm Christmas Eve) gift to make. And as usual, CK came to the rescue. Anyone else noticing a theme ?

A small needle case was the perfect item. (Sew Pg 77)

It took about 40 mins, and was so nice, I made another identical one for myself today.

I think this is a really nice, easy and pretty grif for the crafter in your life - or even just to treat yourself.

Quicky Hearts and Birds

I'm trying to get some quick, pretty and simple Christmas gifts sorted. Apart from the blasted (millions) of strawberries I am doing, I needed something simple and quick to add to my present stash.

Thank you Cath Kidston! (Sew Pg 65)

I have added stuffing as well as the dried lavender, otherwise I think they hearts and birds may have been a little overpowering on the lavender front!

2 down, approx 30 to go!!!!

Bag of Redemption

Since returning to a pretty demanding job in April, and developing coping strategies to manage two children, crafting has been on the back burner.

However, today the man who is not my husband, kindly took both girls to a party which meant I have an unprecedented four hours all to myself.

What better activity to do in ths time, than to make a bag!

Quick and easy to do, it was the perfect project for me to renew my friendship with my sewing machine.

Bags and berries and the projects on the cards for the next few month (with the C word in mind!)

Beginnings of DSLR Photography

Having always taken lots of photos, albeit with a very basic point and press digital camera, I have recently purchased a lovely DSLR (Nikon D5000).

Since getting the new toy, I have taken about 4500 photos, of which approximatley 50 were half decent.

Apart from (obviously) taking hundreds of the children and the dog, I seem to be oddly turned on with taking pictures of flowers. I think it is because, even though I am a total beginner, I am enthralled with how well the camera captures colours and definition.

So, the craft work is still ongoing, having a run on baby activity cubes and fragrant strawberries for gifts at the moment, my embrionic creative juices are currently flowing towards photograpahy.

So, for anyone interested, below is a link for some of the better flower shots taken recently.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/slideshow?album_id=772728965

Creativity: A Question.

Are you born with creativity? Is there a gene that allows your mind to come up with all sorts of wonderful ideas to craft?

I'm thinking a big fat YES!

I (generally) love tinkering about with the small projects I have on the go. What has struck me today though, is that all my ideas are from books and magazines. Ok, I may change them a bit, but nothing I have done so far has been original as such.

This has depressed me.

I look at many sites and blogs and I am in awe of many of the ideas people come up with. I just don't "get" how they come up with these things.

I have not been born with the creativity gene. So the questions is, can I develop one ?

How do you become creative? Formal learning? Wishful thinking?

How are you creative? Where do you draw your inspiration from?

No, seriously, I'm asking you! You there! Reading my blog.

What's your secret?

Quicky Christmas

As I was sorting through my sewing books and magazines today, I came across "Cross Stitcher" Issue 234. That months free gift was some small cross stitch Christmas gift tags.

For want of anything better to do tonight, other than mindlessly surfing the internet for hours, I decided to have a go at one of the tags.

It was a very easy project, other than the fact that the stitching is very small, which doesn't go well with my ham-fisted sewing techniques I am currently mastering.

This is the first time I have stitched with "shiny" thread. I am sure there is a proper "technical" name for it, but you know what I mean. Wow! How slippery is it ?!?! Not very keen on that. Drop stitch, drop stitch, swear, drop stitch!

I thought it would take me about 15 minutes, in reality, it took me about an hour. I hope I speed up a bit after I have done a few more, otherwise (come October) I'm off down Tesco's for their 3 for 2 tag packs!

So, here is the (almost) finished article. Just have to cut it out and attach it to the tag. I think I will stitch as many designs onto the Aida before cutting them out, otherwise I will have a fraying issue.

" Oooooohhh Sparkly "

Hyper-Organised Christmas

Yes indeed! It's my first Christmas blog of the year!

I'm starting with the Christmas crafting early, as I plan to make many of my gifts. As my maternity leave finishes this month *sob*, I don't think I will have as much time as I have enjoyed recently.

So, my first Christmas project is Fragrant Strawberries, inspired by "Sew Pretty Homestyle" by Tone Finnanger.

I have purchased a few kilner jars from a local garden centre - although I have recently discovered Sainbury's do them cheaper. I am using scraps of red gingham that I have in different size checks for the main strawberry and some green fabric scraps for the leaves.

I bought the strawberry scent from an ebay shop. It is the same scent as used in soaps.

Each jar will eventually contain two strawberries and a vial of scent. I plan to put a pretty ribbon around the top of the jar.

The strawberries can be taken out of the jar and used to fragrance a room. When the scent becomes less, a couple of drops of the scent and they will be as good as new.

My first strawberry has been a bit of a trial and error project. I really need to make my hard stitching neater (although I may machine sew future strawberries) and I had a couple of failed attemps at the leaf. I left too small a hole to reverse the fabric, and frayed the edges.

Below is a picture of my 1st attempt in its jar.