A Slow Year for Craft

Hello everyone! You must be wondering if I've dropped off the face of the earth. Well, I haven't ... but it's been a slow year for craft so far. Even the end of last year was pretty slow, although I have been trying something new - Zentangle. I haven't shared any of my tangles outside the family yet, but then I'm just learning.

In January I got crafty for Kids Camp. I made about 20 little treasure chests. Some were table decorations for our banquet night, while others were for the girls in my cabin.

I also drew a big treasure map as a wall hanging (sorry, no photo of that one). I'm really proud of this one.

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Cards have been few and far between.

I'm sure there were a couple of others, but I haven't got photos of them. I'll be doing another one within the next week.

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The best news is that I have actually finished my crochet rug/blanket. It was May when I finished so it took me 6 winters to finish it. I haven't got photos of it either. I'm loving snuggling up under it on these cold winter nights. The navy, maroon and purple colours are great. And I love the shell edging - it was the perfect finish.

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I'm having a break from large cross stitch projects at the moment. I do have a couple of very small cross stitch projects that are on the go - mostly so that I'll have something to do while waiting for family members while they are in appointments.

Galej Napkin Rings

In my last post I mentioned the napkin rings I made for Christmas.
Well here they are:

These are made from part of the packaging from the Galej Tealight Holders. These cardboard rings separate the 4 holders to keep them from rubbing against each other.

To make them:
1. Paint the edges of the rings with white acrylic paint (the inside and outside were already covered by a white layer).
2. Cut Christmas scrapbooking paper to the correct width.
3. Stick the paper to the ring with double stick tape.
4. Using Stampin' Up! punches, Punch the cream oval to write the name on. Glue that to the backing card (red or green), then punch with the scalloped oval, centering the cream oval in the punch.
5. Write the name on the label, then stick on the napkin ring, covering the paper join.
6. Insert napkin!

For the green card, I used a paint colour sample card!
Each set of the tealight holders comes with 3 rings.

Bright and Cheery Craft for a Gloomy Day

Today is a very gloomy, grey day! It's cloudy, raining and freezing cold.

I needed to do some craft, but didn't feel like doing any of the projects that I have on the go. So this is what I ended up doing.

It's a felty! A dahlia. I just needed something bright and cheerful, and something that I knew I could finish. I guess I needed a sense of accomplishment.

A friend gave me the kit, so I didn't choose the colours, but I love it anyway. You don't quite get just how bright it is from this photo.

I've got 2 others that I will do at some stage. One is a sparrow, the other and owl.


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So, I should probably also update you on what else I'm doing. My crochet rug is coming along well. I've now finished the first 2 rounds of maroon and started on the first ball of purple. I love the way the maroon just breaks things up and adds a bit of brightness between the blue and purple. And 1 round just wasn't enough. It needed 2.

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I've also been making some cards.

Here are a couple of them.

"Old" Crafts

There are some crafts that are popular today and some that seem to be very unpopular.

So, I was just wondering if anyone still does some of them.


I saw Macrame mentioned in the comments on a blog. I thought that went out in the 70s (or at least the early 80s).


Everyone knows that scrapbooking is in - BIG TIME! There are stores everywhere, thousands of websites, blogs and magazines dedicated to this craft.


Knitting has made a comeback with those bars offering knitting clubs (I heard of one in Sydney a while back) and guys are taking it up too.


I see cross stitch mentioned a few times (ok, so that's my thing and what this blog is mostly about), but you can't get that as much as when I started stitching 16 years ago.


Quilting is another popular one - magazines, quilting groups etc.


So, are there some crafts that you do that may not be so popular right now, or are you doing the popular ones?

I'd put a pol in this post, but I don't know how.