Saturday 25 February 2012

Butterfly paper mobile


Butterfly paper mobile

I knocked this together as a house warming present for my niece. She had been travelling last year and came back wanting a butterfly tattoo, so with that in mind i went with the butterfly theme.
She says that butterflies represent the ability to spread your wings and fly where you want...well something like that anyway, I digress .



 A simple paper mobile.
The template for the butterfly I got from google.
 Cut out one then draw around this on to whatever colour or style of paper you want.
Cut out and stick on to ribbon.
 I used a wooden coffee stirrer covered in paper as the base to hang my ribbons, always thinking of craft even while having a coffee!


Right click on the template, save as a picture, then print from your pictures.
 

 
The finished mobile.

 
Have a go yourself and let me know how you get on!

Kusasama birthday gifts

Kusasama birthday gifts


Yes I've been at it again with the paper flowers. I simple love these and they are so easy to make. I usually get the urge to make some flowers and happily sit in front of the TV just putting them together.
 
 
This particular one was meant to be for a friends shop but it took me so long to sit down and thread them on to a mobile( purely through be lazy! ) that it's ended up being a birthday present.
I used shiny gold paper which can I just point out was a nightmare to get glue to stick to and black and mustard yellow card.
I think it looks really effective.

Friday 24 February 2012

Paper mobiles

Paper Mobile

I do love my paper mobiles. I have to curb myself and not make to many or the house would be full of them!
This one I got from a book that was bought for my birthdays.
 
 
Again it is relatively easy but fiddly, so patience is needed and as most people who know will tell you I have very little and I got in to quite a muddle at one point and the air turned blue, then purple and back again. The end result is well worth the effort and it looks great.





Right to make this lovely mobile you will need 70 small circles, 70 tiny beads which  will go through a needle, 7 threads on which to thread them and a bangle on which to hang them. I used a normal cotton thread. 
I used a circle punch to punch out the circle as it was so much easier but I suppose if you have the patience of a saint then you could cut them all out yourself. Once you have got all your circles you need to fold then in half then in half again creating a circle in 1/4's like the pictures.
Thread your needle with a colour that complements your colour of circles. With a knot on the end of your thread sew through the middle of the first circle.  Before each circle you now need to knot a bead on  this is what will keep your circles in place. Leave a space between each circle that you thread of equal distance. Keep going this way until you have 10 circles on a thread then 7 threads full of 10 circles each. Now tie you thread to the bangle again leaving equal space between each thread and there you have it your very own, very cool paper circle mobile.

The finished product!

Stuffed owls

Soft stuffed owl toys

 
These little fellows were a lot of fun to make and as with most of the stuff I make not too time consuming and pretty easy to boot!
 

I printed off one of many owl templates that are on the Internet.
All you need is a front and a back both the shame shape then it's a case of getting creative and putting your own mark on them.

 
Go on get creative people and make something cute!!
 

Tin can vases



Tin can vases

 
Whenever I see these I think I must make them.
Well I have got round to doing it and I can honestly say they look fabulous and are really easy to do.
You can paint them, spray paint them or as I have done you can cover them with paper.
 I printed off some pictures of things I like, printed them to size(well near enough but you can't tell ) and stuck them on.
 



 Yes it is as easy as that. You can do it with all different sizes of cans and decorate how ever you please.
Have a go, you won't be sorry and unlike some crafts you won't be thinking at the finished product
god I'll never get that 20 minutes of my life back!
 

3D paper ball



3 D Paper Ball

 
I made these after seeing them on Pinterest and they are surprisingly easy to make.
The only thing that is a bit of a bind is cutting out the 12 shapes needed to make these lovely little balls.
I used two different paper types to do mine but they look equally as cool with one colour.
 I did make the first two with one colour but my 3 year son got hold and these and destroyed them along with my sole when I found them scattered across the living room floor the next morning!
 
Have a go the are really quite easy if not a bit fiddly but if you can get past that then you will end up with a very cheap and very pretty ornament.
 
 
This is the link to How about orange blog spot which is where I got the idea from.



This is the link to the pdf for the shapes 


Thank you Jessica Jones from How about orange blog spot.

http://jessicajonesdesign.com/downloads/paper_balls_sm.pdf




going crazy with the sewing machine


Handmade bag.


Well this is my first try at the sewing machine in rather along time, I think the girl done good. I really should have done a blow by blow picture account of making this but to be honest I just got on and did it and well here is the finished article.



I have a very old messenger bag that I drew around straight on to the fabric. Two layers of the outer fabric and two of the lining fabric.
I pin the material to keep it all together while I cut it all out.
Then basically I started sewing. This wasn't a hard bag to make as it was as simple as a back and front, with the back having a longer length that makes the flap that goes over to the front.
 


 
The button detail I added just because I have a jar full of them and needed to do something with them!
 
 
The detail on the front is from a stash of fabric scraps I have. I sewed them all together and finished off with ribbon.
I cut out a long length of fabric for the strap sewed down the length and turned inside out. I finished by sewing both side of the strap on the bag and voila there you have a messenger bag!!