Bean Sidhe

Lindsey arranged for a lady to do our demonstration this month - she was very organised and had cut out the mats and layers using her own dies.  Thank you Lindsey for arranging this.

Easel Card - mini

Decorated box - we made the box

A card

Knitting

Random dye yarn cardi - I love the rainbow effect you get with these yarns

Bonnet and mittens - I love these wee mittens with the thumb but am never sure how you get a baby to fit it's thumb into the right place!

Girls' bonnets

Crochet

An angel top - I haven't seen one of these for years, do babies still wear them?  They fasten down the back.

Some baby clothes I've crocheted for my baby basket collection.

Firstly, my flower shawl.  It is actually snow white but the camera's put a colour cast on it.

Close up detail of pattern on shawl.

Because we've been busy with our fruit harvest and making all the preserves, I've not done much papercrafting.

This batch of plain cards is the most I've managed recently.

This is the new crochet shawl pattern I've made.  The photo's not too good tho'.

Zoë, our local Stampin' Up Demonstrator teamed up today with her colleage Emma to do another of their brilliant craft days.  We had a lovely lunch and made 6 items to take home.  I need to add a few gems and a bit of glitter here and there on mine still but even as they are, I'm very pleased with our days work and it was great fun too!

This is a domino pendant but the photo's got too much reflection to show it properly.

Just seem to have been busy

with harvesting and preserving our lovely crops.

The garden has been a great success and we have harvested pounds and pounds of tomatoes with which we made chutney, ketchup, relish and have some cooked down plain for the freezer to use with breakfasts or add to soups and stews later in the year.  I've been SO pleased with these.

We had a good harvest of runner beands, albeit they started to crop late and the cucumers thrived as well.

Our raspberries have also cropped late but we've a plentiful supply which have been frozen down for dealing with later.  I plan to make some wine, some cordial and some raspberry vinegar with them.

The elderberries, which grow wild, were harvested too and we've got 15 gallson of wine fermenting - such a shame it takes 18 months before it's drinkable but I think it will be worth the wait!

The apples have been blown about a lot by the strong winds but we've managed to salvage enough to start off some cider and make some apple juice in the next few weeks.  Our trees are still only babies really but they seem to be cropping well - I just hope they don't get blown over in the gales!

I Won!

Cardmaking Paradise (formerly Time for Crafting) holds prize draws via their VIP membership area.  It really is well worth joining and getting all the on line magazines, templates, product reviews and prize draws as well as swaps to join.

I won one of these and I'm totally thrilled.  The prizes are always really worth having.

As well as that, we entered a slide mailer swap.  Each entrant got a Crafty Individuals stamp.  We then made 'smiles' (like an ATC but round and sent as a RAK) using our new, free stamp. 

 Here's my entry.

London!

My daughter took me to London to see the show War Horse which was totally amazing.  We stayed overnight and the following day we went to the Tate Britain art gallery and had lunch there where I met Marion who is also a member ot the Cardmaking Paradise forum.  She'd made this lovely slide mailer for me as a gift - very topical and beautiful - as always, the picture doesn't do it justice.  Thank you Marion, it was lovely to meet you.

Knitting and Crochet

I've also been busy with my yarns, making bits for two baby baskets which I will give to my friends who are to be grandmas for the first time in the next few months.  They are both SO excited and I know from experience they will love being a grandma.

Here are a couple of the bits I've done so far.

This one needs pressing and buttons before it goes in the basket.  It's actually blue so I've no idea why the colour has morphed!!!!

I got this pattern from here.  I'm not toally happy with it but I think it was more my crochet than a fault with the pattern.  She has some nice, original, designs on her site.  The shawl is white but again the colour on the image has morphed - don't know what's going on here!

Jenny did the project at craft club last night - thanks Jenny!

It's a nice wee card that's quick and easy to make.  I chose colours too dark for the first one and I think my tags should have been larger but you get the idea.  This would be an ideal card for putting a packet of seeds or a gift voucher into the pouch.

Helena kindly bought some of my knitted and crochet hats for props for her photo shoots - she's just opened up her new website - wow, look at those little ones, aren't they gorgeous?  She's got a real eye for a photo.

Don't forget to contact her if you want good photos of your babies!

I've made a few more hats - I'm hoping she'll be able to add them to the ones she has already.  I'm not too good at judging sizes of wee ones yet so it's all experimental.  The plain white hat at the bottom is embellished with various different coloured crocheted flowers to suit the theme of the shoot.

I was given some shaped cards and toppers which were, I think, part of a kit.  I've made some up but I'm not at all sure I've grasped the concept fully.  I think they were supposed to be fancier than the ones I've done.

This card was made using a Woodware flower embossing punch and a Martha Stewart border punch.

50th Anniversary Card for a friend.

Crochet flowers

Just because.

More hats.  I thought the ears would be longer and floppier.  I've had two goes at this but still not happy with the ears so will hae to try again.  I tried embroidering a face on one of them but it's turned out a bit spooky - looks like a KKK hood!

Cardi

I've done this for the local show entry - category 'a garment for a child' but it may be a bit plain as an entry, altho' I'm quite pleased with it.  The crochet edging should actually be a rib but I hate knitting a long ribbed band so I improvised.

We have taken a tree from our daughter's garden, it had outgrown her small garden.  It had a severe hair cut to get it here but seems to have survived.  I've no idea what it is tho' - have you?

Craft Show

One of my friends from craft club took me to North Hykeham on Sunday to the 'Sincerely Yours' craft show - it was nice to have a show within a reasonable distance.

We were promised free tea/coffee and biscuits on arrival if we had pre bought our tickes.  Unfortunately, the chap doing the teas hadn't bought any biscuits!  He said he'd not been able to get any on the way in (do you not buy these things in advance)?

There was a very long and slow queue to get to the actual hall as the entrance was narrow.

That said, the actual show itself was very good. I didn't buy much (good or what?) but it was really useful to see the lovely demos and samples done by the exhibitors - lots of lovely ideas.

We had lunch upstairs in the cafe.

I did buy a few decoupage sheets, here are the cards I've made with the images.

Crochet and knitting

I've made some more wee crochet hats.  I'm a bit unsure as to sizes - it's a long time since there's been a wee baby in the family - I'm out of touch.

This is my favourite one so far - it's done in cotton yarn to give it body for the rim.

These flowers are loose so's they can be exchanged on the basic hats.

This is a knitted one.

Craft Club

Last night Zoë did our project (thank you Zoë;).  She's a Stampin' Up demonstrator and brought us some lovely materials to work with.  Check out her blog to see some of her gorgeous stuff.

Of course mine looks nothing like the lovely sample she had brought.  Firstly, it's a bit wonky (well that's usual for me) and secondly, we were supposed to stamp the card BEFORE we stuck the elements together - I forgot that bit so my stamping's a bit haphazard.  I added flowers and leaves instead of cutting out stamped ones as per her example (I think the leaves I've used are a bit too big but never mind eh?)

The stamp set used is SU Greenhouse Garden Set.

Here's the sample.

Here's my effort.

Crochet

I've been looking at the baby hats that seem to be very 'in' just now and made a couple while I lounged about.  Pattern from here.

Here's another Afghan baby blanket.  I think I like this one better.  I've made the seam a feature by putting it on the front and crocheting it so's it stands out (I sewed the other one).  The two colours look a bit brigher (maybe?)  I've made a random pattern with the squares.

Seam detail, not sure if you can pick it up - I'm not the best with the camera as you know.

Christmas cards and gifts - hand crafted

Here are the cards and gifts I received which were hand crafted.  How fortunate I am to have the inspiration in my hands to study carefully.  Thank you to those who sent them.

These were from (left to right, staring at top row).  Those in colour are links to blogs.  Well worth a visit.

Nancy, Nancy, Dorothy

Christa, Fudgebabe, Dorothy,

Monica, Sara, Sam

Christa, Sam

I've decided it's time to use up my odds and ends of yarn.  Mainly because I'm far too mean to throw them away.  There's nothing wrong with the yarn but not enough of any one dye batch or make to complete a whole garment.  Crocheting an Afghan (or Granny) square is an ideal way to do this.  They can then be combined to make a throw or blanket of any size of your choice.

The square I've done is a very basic one but as you can see here, there are different patterns even within this traditional design.

Here's the first blanket, it will fit a baby's pram.

This vintage card has been made using my distress inks and background papers which have been torn.  The lady is stamped.