Happy Easter!

So last night I finished my Easter Wreath just in time for the bank holiday weekend! I have been working on/ procrastinating on it it for a few weeks. I have been wanting to make one ever since seeing the wonderful Lucy’s many wreaths on Attic 24. Hers is of course a work of pure brilliance, and mine fails miserably in comparison, but still I am rather pleased with the outcome and it cheers up the dreary corridor no end! It isn’t as busy with flowers and pompoms as I would like, but surprise surprise! I ran out of time! But it is something I can continue to add to every year until it is perfect, and seeing as it took me so bloomin’ long to complete it is staying up throughout the entire summer period!

Please try to ignore the beautiful Artex walls!

So here’s to a happy Easter to you all. I hope you all have a lovely long (hopefully warm!) bank holiday weekend and enjoy lots of chocolate and hot cross buns 🙂 x

Happy Easter!

My kind of flower arranging

I’m not very good at keeping flowers or plants alive. I do try, don’t get me wrong but what with a rabbit who just wants to eat them all and a puppy that thinks they are a toilet/chew toy doesn’t really help! So I tend to stick to Cacti, spider plants (which are immortal!) and the occasional bunch of daffodils. So what can a plant murderer do do help brighten up her windowsill? Why, buttons on wire of course!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Mum

It was my mum’s birthday yesterday and after buying  Christmas presents  I always find it hard to think of something nice to get her in January. Luckily I remembered her mentioning something that she wanted a while ago and it also happened to be something that I have wanted to have a go at making for ages. A fabric memo board!

They are so easy to make, but seeing as I hadn’t made one before I thought it best to have a practice run, that way I get to make one for myself as well! So I gathered my supplies; a cheap pin board, some wadding, ribbon and buttons, a staple gun and some funky fabric, and off I went.

For my memo board I used some vintage curtain fabric that my sister in law gave me along with some yellow ribbon and buttons. I think it’s beautifully simple.

Happy with the outcome of my first attempt I cracked on my mums birthday present. She’s a big fan of blues, so I chose a lovely blue floral fabric that I’ve had hiding in my stash for a while. I picked out some lovely chunky blue buttons to sew through the joining ribbons and also used some of the ribbon to create a hanging handle. I covered the back of the board with some plain blue cotton to hide away the staples and back of the board.

I really enjoyed making these and will definitely be doing them again to sell at craft fairs and on my Etsy page. I particularly loved using the staple gun!

Happy Christmas to you…

As well as making stuff for my own home this year, I have also been busy with an order for my friend of a table runner, 4 place mats and 4 matching napkins. She chose the material and I got cracking!

The table runner is a simple length of Christmas material trimmed and hemmed. The two ends are sewn into a  point and finished off with a lovely button at each end.

This picture gives you an idea of what it will all look like set up on Christmas day 🙂

The place mats are made of matching material with a red satin bias edge and sewn with a layer of wadding inside which gives them a lovely plush feel.

My favourites though are the napkins. I think they look super cute with their button holders 🙂

Happy Christmas to me…

Christmas is a time for giving, but it’s also a time to get creative and make your home a festive hideaway. So as well as completing Christmas orders I set about making a ‘home made Christmas’ and cozying up for the festive season.

Firsts things first…the tree! I am really pleased with our Christmas tree this year, it has the usual twinkly fairy lights, tinsel and ball balls  but it is finished off with all my handmade goodies; mini knitted stockings, button Christmas trees and my latest creations, candy cane mice!  The candy cane mice I am absolutely in love with, such a simple idea that I got from Prima’s Christmas Makes magazine. Made from felt, glue and a candy cane. I loved them so much I made one for everyone!

Our beautiful Christmas tree 🙂

Candy Cane Mice 🙂

Button Christmas Trees!

Now a Christmas tree would not be complete without some lovely presents underneath it, and this year I wanted to do something different.

A few of my pressies wrapped and ready to go!

 

I couldn’t find any cheap wrapping paper that I liked so instead I used brown parcel paper ( £1 for 8 meters !) and set about cutting out many a snow flake! ( Patterns also from Prima Makes) Glued neatly on the front and finished off with labels made from last years Christmas cards it has proved to be a beautiful and cheap way of wrapping up my presents. What do y’all think?!

Sneak Preview

This Sunday I will be back at The Guildhall Boutique Market! woohoo!  It has taken a break over the summer but is coming back with a vengeance this weekend, with over 50 stalls selling some awesome handmade and vintage goodies it’s set to be a great day.

I have been busy crafting some new bits and pieces including button rings and also felt and button flowers which I hope will prove to be a hit.

Felt Button Flowers with wire stem

Charity shop shelves painted a lovely shade of pink 🙂

Mini – bunting!

 

 

Patchwork baby blanket, backed with yellow fleece

Button rings and button hearts!

I have also been working on the look and image of my stall. It’s so much harder than it looks! Some crafter’s make it look so easy with their stalls looking effortlessly pretty and inviting, and it is something I always admire ( and envy!!) I have never been completely happy with the ‘look’ of my stall and so I have been playing around with new colours and display stands.  I am always over critical of my work so will never be completely happy, but I think I am almost there…almost.

So if you are free Sunday I hope to see you there at The Guildhall in Portsmouth from 11am – 3pm. (it’s FREE ENTRY!)

~ Button Rings ~

It’s no secret that I have a little bit of a love of buttons. I’m always looking for ways to use them. I also love cheap jewellery and accessories, and button rings are something that I have been wanting to make for ages.

They are so easy to make. All you need is a glue gun, some adjustable flat pad ring findings ( mine have a 7mm flat pad) and an array of beautiful buttons! I had such fun rooting around all my buttons and coming up with different combinations. I chose to make a selection of brightly coloured rings, but you could just as easily use plainer less ‘in your face’ colours for every day wear.

As always I am happy to custom make so if you are in need of an interesting piece of jewellery to finish off your outfit, why not get in touch?

Pin cushion swap!

I recently took part in my first ever ‘swap’. Run by House of Pinheiro and Sew Far Sew Good, the idea was for people to be paired up with fellow a fellow crafter and make them a pin cushion, and obviously in return they would make you one too! What a lovely idea!I was paired up with a lady called Julie. Julie is a very thrifty lady who loves rummaging around car boot sales and re-using old items.

Here is what I made her.

A sweet little flower pot pincushion with matching needle case. I hope she liked.

The best thing of all about a swap is that after the fun of creating something for somebody else, you also get a suprise in the post, and what a lovely suprise it was! Julie made me a gorgeous mason jar pin cushion (filled with buttons i must add!) and a matching ‘bits & bobs’ jar. I love them.

She really spoilt me by also sending some lovely old lace ribbons and a wonderful handmade card. Thank you so much Julie! I feel my pin cushion parcel was rather lack lustre in comparison, I will definitely go all out on the next swap I do! x

~Playing with buttons~

 

Today I felt a bit ‘meh’ and didn’t feel like doing much, so I did what I always do when I’m feeling like this…I got my buttons out! There is nothing better than pouring out a jar of beautiful buttons into a bowl and rummaging through, I love the feeling of them. It reminds me of when I was little and used to run my hands through the barrels of bird seed in pet shops!

I didn’t have a plan, I just wanted to do something creative that didn’t involve leaving the sofa! Here is what I came up with.

The button wire-heart I really like. I know you see them everywhere and they aren’t very original, but I love them all the same and wanted to create a nice bright one (we know how much I love my bright colours!) I only had some thin purple wire lying around, so I need to invest in some slightly sturdier stuff so that it keeps it’s lovely heart shape better.

I have also been wanting to do a bit more embroidery for a while. I did make my mum a ‘Home Sweet Home’ sign for Mothers Day(Picture on my Twitter account!)but have done nothing since then. So I thought since I was having a button loving day I would create something in honour of my love for buttons! Here it is!

What do you think?

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

So these past two days I have been working on a couple of new products. I really love bags of any kind and wanted to try my hand at making cute clutch bags. I found this fantastic tutorial online: http://www.noodle-head.com/2010/04/gathered-clutch-tutorial.html and set to work. It gives step by step instructions that are generally quite easy to follow, although it took me quite a few reads to fully understand!

I have only sewn in a zip to a product twice before so I found it a bit tricky so this was definitely good practice for me! As these were kind of practice runs I used fabrics that I didn’t mind ruining but I can definitely imagine these in funkier brighter colours with a few more button details! I really enjoyed making these as the pattern gives you a really professional finish, with all edges neatly covered and seams all tucked away nicely.

The pattern refers to the bags as small clutch bags but I’m thinking that they may be more suitable for purses or make-up bags as they are maybe a bit too small for a clutch.

I would love to know what you think of them!