It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ...

Christmas craft has been the order of the day, plus a few secret Christmas Present projects which will remain a mystery!

I actually finished this mini cross stitch in January, but I forgot to photograph it before I put it in my Christmas decoration box.














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I've also been making several Christmas cards. Here are just a couple.

African Sunset and a bunch of other things

I've been doing a lot of work on African Sunset lately - when I wasn't doing the Christmas Tree decorations for this year (more on that below).

I'm now half way done (if you don't count the backstitch).

I thought I'd give you an idea of where I'm at so the photo is of where I'm at on the pattern as well as part of my actual stitching.

It was an exciting moment when I reached the edge and made it down to half way. I'm working my way down to the bottom then back to the left. I'm almost ready to do the backstitch for the back of the elephant and down the back legs and tail. Right now I can see the skin wrinkles coming as I keep stitching that part.

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For those of you how have followed my blog for a while, you will know that one of my family's Christmas traditions is to have a new Christmas Tree decoration for each family member every year. I have been making them most years, although I had a break last year when one of my sister's made them.
No photo's yet because I want them to be a surprise for my family when we decorate the tree. But once I have given them to at least the family still living at home, I'll put photos up.

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Now that summer is almost here, my crochet rug has been put away for cooler days. I had hoped to have it finished for next winter, but maybe it will be finished during next winter.

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Soon I'll be putting up some posts about my sewing projects, including doing a series of posts about my quilt - the one I've been planning for exactly half my life! So stay tuned for that.
In the mean time, have a look at this photo of a gift that a friend gave me this week.

Card Creations

I've been working on a project that required me to go through some of my craft supplies and that got me thinking about experimenting with a few of the things I found.

This is what I came up with:

The silver mesh was what got me thinking. I bought it last year as one of the materials to include with one of my assignments for studying Children's Services when I did a series of items to be used in a collage. Then I found the chicken picture that I had cut from a magazine, and the ideas just kept flowing.

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I also had a card to make as a thank you for a friend. This is what I came up with:

I used one of my Flower Soft Toppers and purple Flower Soft.
The border on the white paper was one of my Fiskars border punches.

African Sunset Update

I thought it was about time I updated you on what I've been working on over the last couple of weeks.

I've been stitching more of African Sunset nearly every night. And as a result I've been making very good progress.

I'm over half way across and each section is at least halfway down, depending on how much I had to do to finish the thread colour or so that I didn't have to do just 3 stitches of one colour in the bottom half.

I have done a little of the back stitch around on of the giraffes because I wanted to see what it would look like. There is actually not much back stitch compared to the overall size of the project. It's just the animals and some rocks at the bottom. The rest is all just a matter of how the colours are put together to create the picture and give shading.

It really makes a difference having the giriffe outlined with back stitch.

Ucreate: Ric Rac Flower Tutorial by Oh for Sweetness Sake

I totally want to try this!

Ucreate: Ric Rac Flower Tutorial by Oh for Sweetness Sake:     There's something about rick rack that just shouts playful and cute to me! Does it have the same effect on you, or am I just talking ...

Card Ideas and Projects

I found inspiration from these cards over at Arty Crafty. There are some ideas from the pink one that I particularly want to try because I like the look and I'm pretty sure I have the right materials to give it a go. Keep looking, and you may just see me post about it.

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Some cards that I've been making:

This card was for my Mum's birthday. The photo is of a farm where she lived growing up. I added the windmill using a Kaiser Craft wooden flourish that I inked with silver and gold (the gold for a rust effect). The flowers are a Stampin' Up! standard wheel - Fast Flowers.

This one uses those beads that you melt with an iron for the heart in the centre. The small flowers around it are Kaiser Craft rub-ons. And the border is a Sandy Lion Frame.

Finally for this one I used Kodomo Inc Snowflake stamps with Versa Color white ink. In the centre of some of the snowflakes are Dragonfly Crafts rhinesones in pale blue and silver.

Hang in There Panda

Yes!! Hang in There Panda is finally finished. Only a year and a month after it was ment to be!

I had run out of one of the greens, but there was so little I needed and it wasn't next to the green with leaf of that colour that I decided to use a green from my stash that was the closest match I could find.

Mum likes it, so I'm happy!

Another Fine Feathered Friend

 

This little owl is about to head off to Thailand with a friend of mine.

Sew Much Done

Today I had another successful sewing afternoon. 4 things crossed off my 'To Do' List.
Two of them were mending jobs, but the other two I cut out the other day and sewed them up today.
I needed a couple of headbands, and having had some success with making them myself in the past, I wanted to try to improve my "pattern".
I tried 2 different techniques and am happy with how they turned out. The one with butterflies is actually purple, although it does look more blue from this photo.

And here I am wearing the green one.

A Lot of Felt!

So I've been doing a lot of work with felt lately - 25 felt brooches to be exact (although it ended up being 26 because I made a mistake on one).

These were for the wonderful women I know who are on LF8R Camp this week - the youth camp that my church runs every winter in conjunction with CYC Ministries at Forest Edge.

It wasn't the right thing for me to go this year, but I still wanted to be involved somehow, so I was very glad when I was asked to make these for the leaders.

I have no idea who got which one, but I had fun making them. Each one is unique, and I tried some new things, particularly on the hearts.

Since making these I have found a new pattern to try, so there are sure to be more pictures of felt brooches popping up in the future. And I'm on the hunt for unusual buttons to include in future projects, so if you're trying to get rid of a stash of buttons, please think of me, I'd love to take them off your hands.

Getting on with my Sewing List

So one of the best things I have done lately is to quit playing Facebook games. It means I have time to get on with some of the projects I haven't got around to for ages.
Just tonight I cut out 3 of my sewing projects and completed one of those 3.

My best friend bought a top at the OP Shop the last time we went OP Shopping together, but wanted the sleeves to be longer. I said, "Oh, I can do that!" On our way home we bought some matching fabric (at least as close as we could get it), and I measured her arms to work out what she wanted.

Finally tonight I got on with it and finished!!

I had to fit the sleeve extensions to the existing sleeve because of the elastic there, but it wasn't too hard once I worked out where they were to go. To "hide" the stitching, I stitched over the existing stitching for the elastic.

I'm really happy with the way it has turned out. I hope my best friend is too.

Making Your Own Rub-Ons

A while ago I purchased a product to make my own rub-ons, but the instructions were a bit confusing. Today I was thinking about using the product, and I noticed at the bottom of the instructions was a website you could go to to see how to use the stuff.
It wasn't quite as simple as type in the address and there it was. I had to hunt around for it a bit and finally found the following video on YouTube!

The presenter makes it look really easy.

Crochet Rug Progress

With cooler weather arriving, it was time to pull out my crochet rug and do some more work on it. I keep thinking I should finish it now, but then as I'm working on it I realise that it isn't big enough. I still can't comfortably tuck my toes in and have it fully over my lap.

So I have decided to keep going around and around and around and around a few more times. I still plan to learn shell edging for the edge. I still have plenty of wool, so that's not a problem.

I'm not sure what colour I was using when I last posted, but I am currently using purple. I've got another 2 and a bit rounds before I change again.

I've now used 7.6 balls of wool out of a total of 18.

Craft Table with Storage

I posted this on my other blog, but since it's craft related, I thought I would post it here too.

Guess where I've been looking again! Yes, Ikea Hacker!
This time the whole article was found on the original blog.

So, now I just need a craft room and this would be great. There is one thing though, this craft table is designed for someone to be standing up, while I prefer to sit while crafting. At least you can get to all your supplies easily.

On the original blog, they said that the shelves didn't fit their scrapbooking storage containers, so it may need some tweaking for your specific needs.

Finger Knitting

Finger Knitting was one of my favourite things to do as a child because it was quick, easy and I could do all sorts of things with it once I was finished.

I'm now working with children every day in an After School Care Program, and they have been finger knitting, since our supply of wool was replenished over the summer holidays (thanks to a friend who generously donated her spare wool).

Some of the girls had never done it before and wanted to learn, while others, who had been at the centre last year grabbed some wool and sat down to do it. However, there were a couple of methods being used.

As a child, I used the very simple method of  a single loop being made into a chain. Some of these girls were using a method involving all fingers, which looked more like knitting. I had never heard of this, so I got the girls to teach each other.

Then I remembered that once I had used 2 strands of wool at the same time and it looked beautiful and made a stronger cord. I looked for some instructions, but our internet search at work is restricted, so it has taken me until now, to find some simple intructions. Once again YouTube has come to the rescue. Have a look at this video.

A Little Bit of Stitching

Ok, so it's been a long time since I updated you on how I'm going with any of my cross stitch projects. So now that it's a new year, I thought I should at least say something about where I'm at.

My sister loved it that I am doing African Sunset for her. You might remember from my last post that I wasn't sure if she still liked it. It was nowhere near finished for her birthday, but I wrapped up what I'd done and gave it to her, saying that I would keep working on it. She told me that everytime she sees this design in a catalogue she cuts it out to keep, so I know I made the right choice.

You can see from the picture below how much I've done. It looks great, even without the back stitch done. However, I still have a long way to go.

I'm also still going with Hang in There Panda. I don't have enough of some of the thread colours, but the company it is from will send more (free of charge) if you request them. I have already had to request one colour and it took about 6 weeks to arrive, but now that I found another colour that I need I decided to do as much of the rest of the stitching as I could without it to see if there were any other colours I needed before I ordered it. That way they could send them all at once. But I haven't done anymore on it since I gave it to Mum because I was trying to get more of African Sunset done.

Then Christmas was approaching and I had some cute little mini cross stitches, complete with frames in Christmas designs. I like to have a new ornament or something every Christmas, so I decided to do one of these. I ended up almost getting 2 done by Christmas, but I still have a bit more stitching to do, so it will be my new one for next Christmas.

Below you will see the cute wreath that I did for Christmas 2011. I changed the pattern slightly, but I like it better the way I did it.



Finally, I have been making birthday party invitations. They were interesting because I decided I wouldn't buy anything new for them, but use what I had in my cardmaking/scrapbooking stash.

They have worked out beautifully, and I learned a bit about working with vellum - including printing on it and different ways to attatch it. Now I just need to find the dress to wear to the party, make the autograph book and do some baking.