Christmas hanging polerbears

hello, so this is the last part of the wall hanging series with the last 3 sections, 

Again the beads in the last picture were my idea! so i was thinking about making them into Christmas decoration for the tree. however couldn't find a nice pattern to make them look nice, [tried with a plain bit of aida and scrap fabric] so thought i would turn them into a wall hanging instead.  

Christmas wall handing. reindeer

here is part two of this wall hanging featuring these cute reindeer. 

the idea of using sequins instead of cross stitch in the second pic was mind and i think it adds a little bit of sparkle to the overall design.  same with the beads in the last picture. 

the pattern all suggested that the pictures were stitched on white Aida and then filled in with colored stitches, however i decided to try the 3 different color Aida's to give the same effect. 

Christmas wall hanging - snowman.

Below are a couple close up pictures of a cross stitch project i

 completed in 2010 and show it proudly on the wall every Christmas, it was my first attempt at turning cross stitch into something else rather than just placed in frames.  it was also one of the first projects that i complete to keep for myself.

Each square measures around 5 inch's square and took me around 4 days each to do [whilst studying] 

check back in a few days for the next part of this wall hanging! 

Commisions

I recently had my first ever commission to make crochet items well, i was asked if i could make guinea-pigs somehow, to which i said i do crocheted guinea-pig brooches.  this is something i had always wanted to get around to doing for myself

as i have two guinea-pigs called fudge and biscuit!  pictures of this little project will be coming after Christmas as i know they were bought as Christmas presents. but in the mean time does anyone know of any crafts that i could do for the pigs, eg a pattern from a guinea-pig bed ect? 

Pony beads.

Christmas is coming and by now everybody has got there trees up so its time to think about tree decorations.  

this year i was attempting to have a completely home made tree so began to make a variety of tree decorations, below is the process made to make pony bead melts. 

 so i forgot to take a pic before they made it into my oven, but basically  you need a single layer of pony beads in your choice of color in pre oiled metal cookie cutters.  as i was making tree dec's i chose Christmas ones  [bought in america so i really planned it out. ]

also make sure you place backing paper under neath them to ensure they are easily removed off the tray. 

these are about 10 mins in the oven, i had it set on 200 c and kept a very close eye on them with extractor fan on and all windows open!

and this is them fully melted, sorry for the blurred picture.  

at this point the desicion is to leave it a bit longer and melt them more of take them out... i took them out.

and above it what it looks like once pooped out of the cookie cutters, you can leave them in as well and secure with a bit of glue [or dont oil them] for a slightly different effect. as you can see from the Bell decoration i had a hard time getting them out and ended up breaking a few of them so will have to glue some of the bits back on! but otherwise quite impressed with them. 

recommended for anyone as a quick and easy craft idea!

first cross-stitch

this is the first ever cross stitch that i can remember actually doing as a gift for someone.  and that someone was my mother :-)

all i can remeber on what got me started was seeing a magazine with this design on and wanting to try and do it, went into a local craft shop and asked for everything i needed. if memory serves me right then i was given some needles for free to start me off.   

it took me ages to finish and kept stopping and coming back to it but eventually it was done and i had caught the cross stitch bug. 

good luck to everyone who is still working away at completing projects for your love ones this Christmas!

Foam kit #2

so this was another little foam kit but a little more expensive at 1.50 in Tesco's.. is to make Christmas tree decorations.

 all the pieces are pre-cut so its basically putting the items togeter and using lots of glue.

the picture on the package looks a lot better than my finished piece and i doubt mine is going to end up on my tree. might put it on my mums to see if she notices. but anyway i'm sure children will have great fun making these and having theme presented on the tree, but unfortunately not for me this time! 

happy bags

this post is to celebrate raising over £100 [+gift aid] pounds on Happy bags. 

YAY

these are part of my fundraising ideas and are sold to raise money for child-flight, which if you regularly read the blog will have heard me talk about it before.  

they cost £2.50 each and £2 goes straight to the charity, so that means over 50 have so far been bought through Ebay and to friends and family. 

the most popular version is the nurse shift survival bag, with the genetic happy bag a close second.  they have a little poem in each one and contain every item on that poem, making a great little keep sake and gift for all occasions, also have Christmas bags and birthday bags for sale. 

more details can be found over on Ebay 

and the just giving page to go with the fundraising can be found here

thank-you to all who have supported this so far! 

snowman crochet

Christmas is coming and beginning on this theme as the majority of the post on the run up is going to be here is a little crochet snowman. one of my first attempts of a pattern. quite impressed with end results. 

body = 6sc into a magic circle and then increased by 6 on each row at even intervals,  when got to 30 stitches, sc around then decreased by 6 and sc around evenly till down to 6 stitches. stuffed it and added nose eyes ect.

hat = magic circle with 6sc and then dc x 2 in each sc to create 12 st then fastened off. 

scarf =  chain to 15, chain 1, turn, sc 15 fasten off and tie around snowman neck.   

add accessories to make it into a decoration, keying, brooch etc... end result about 7cm by 4cm at largest points. 

Orange Santa,

hello everyone, 

so i know this post isn't really craft based but please continue to read.

those who know me will also know i'm involved with a North west charity called Child flight having been a nurse on the orange team on the last trip. therefore i have decided to fund raise in a variety of ways, this includes sponsored run's including this years Santa dash. I wont be hard to miss!

after talking to lots of people not many know about this wonderful charity and therefore i have come up with a little creative idea to raise awareness. as Christmas is coming and we all send Christmas cards so i'm sending 50 cards to a variety of celebrity, from the north west or with relevance to the charity to raise awareness about this cause and hopefully also raise some support! 

this is something I've always wished to do anyway as part of an experiment on how many replies you would get etc, so will be very interested in the outcome of this.  

will update on the progress of this as i post out the letters ETC! 

supermarket kit!

so i was recently shopping in Asda and came across a kit for 50'p to make a bunch of foam flowers..  so thought i would give it a go, this is the process it took.

so it come with all the bits already cut out, and you basically roll the long bit of foam around the pipe clearer and then that bit fits though the base section. a basic craft but i'm sure children will have a lot of fun completing it.

same process for the pink roses and then add the leaves

my kit has now found a home in the kitchen for the time being, mainly so i can have a bunch of flowers that dont need watering and therefore cant kill! 

Crochet hearts

So a friend of mine asked if I could make crochet hearts as center pieces for a wedding and thought I would make a few up to test out the patterns, these were my first ever 3d crochet projects which explains why they are a little bit rough but I would say with more practice I would have got there!  They decided against it in the end so I won’t be getting that much needed practice. 

as you can proberly tell i think i confused crochet stitches half way though these projects. 

and i do admit myself that the professional ones look a lot better, but practice makes perfect as they say. 

1st attempt

Crochet,

I’m a bit of a begininger at crochet but thought I would begin to give it a go as  knitting was hurting my hands [having watched you tubes videos I was taught how to knit funny and this is properly why] anyway I began to google what I could make with the wool I had ling around the house and came across granny squares.  So first things first, I made a very small baby blanket.. however it has now been turned into a dolls blanket!  Nine squares sewn together with blanket stitch in bright colors. 

still wondering what to so with this one, possibly change it into a cushion cover or maybe do some more around the edge to make it a better size for a baby blanket.. would only cover a new born baby atm. 

any tips on sewing the squares together would be welcome, not sure i like the results of the mattress stitch method! 

happy crafting!

Remembrance day

Poppy day,

Here are a couple of my knitted poppy’s and crochets poppy’s. 

Over the years I’ve made poppy’s from different resources and here are this year’s attempts, all profits have and will continue to be raised for the poppy appeal!

least we forget

EDIT:- sorry its a bit late, was meant to be posted on 11/11 however forgot to press publish before i went away! 

Disney #1

Here is one of my cross stitch completions, I started it on the first day of moving into halls on going to university and finished it on the last day of university, by pure fluke than anything else but it marks an important period of my life.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t spend 3 years just doing the one project, I complete several other items during this same period and this was an on going WIP, I think I got the majority of the stitching done within a few months and it was just the back stitching I had to do, which up till that point I hated doing, I have since found black work and love the effects so find back stitching a lot more enjoyable to do now! Really makes the pictures.  

some of the eagle eyed readers may be able to tell where i have gone 'off pattern'

Anyway, I;ve chosen this one as my first to share with you as this week I’m going on a charity trip to florida, so it seems fitting! ]have set the blog to post some things whilest away so please book mark my page or follow to stay up to date! 

Hama Beads - Autism pins

Hama Beads.

I have always loved Hama beads, over the years making all sort of designs however mainly following board shapes and filling them randomly.  This week I was looking at crocheting some puzzle pieces to raise money for autism awareness [if anyone has a pattern it would be very welcome] and started to mess with my hama beads again. End results = these.

 

I also ended up melting one of the boards I was using with a hot iron.. Although rather melt a board than myself.   Im currently selling this brooch’s on eBay with profits going to the national autism society. Please check it out and support if able.  

welcome

Hello.

So I have started a blog! Mainly to keep a track of the crafty stuff I make and my progress as I develop new skills. I’ll update as I complete new projects from a variety of crafts, the main one I enjoy doing is cross stitch, but I have recently branched out into crochet and knitting.  

  

The first ever cross stitch I can remember complete was at school and was a rectangle with lines of stitch’s across, I’m sure my parents have kept it so will have to hunt it out at some point.  

At the minute I have several Works’ In Progress [wip] on the go! So may post blogs about those that are in progress.

Currently trying to get Christmas presents sorted as well as complete a couple of my craft orders, things I make can regularly also be found for sale on eBay, mainly for charity! Which at some point ill post a link to!

Every now and again I’ll tie in crafts to my achievements in life and reflect on how the two areas reflect on each other.

Hope you enjoy this blog and sharing in my creative journey as much as I dox

A new begining

Hello

so those of you who know me I've always been very keen on all sorts of crafts, and I've decided to keep a record of what I make. Currently just bargain selling my crochet creations and so far so good!  Currently getting things sorted for Christmas making tree decorations and presents.  Will be update this blog with thing I have made in the past as well as new and upcoming projects.  

Please check back later for further updates,

Keep crafting

helen