Holiday crafting with friendship bracelets

It been a busy summer with lots of days spent like this (see above), but I am a maker and I get itchy fingers if I don't have something to make with me. Last year I ended up buying a magazine and kit at a supermarket and learning to crochet. This year I decided to be a bit more organised and I was inspired by the front cover of Issue 16 of Mollie Makes, so I packed up a bag of embroidery threads and off we went.

I have only been able to make bracelets with diagonal stripes before and I was determined to learn how to make a chevron pattern. There is a great tutorial in the magazine. I got the hang of that one fairly quickly with great results. Then I found a website full of friendship bracelet patterns here. I spent a few days of frustrated knotting until I went back and read the tutorial about how to follow the patterns and then I really got the hang of it. As my husband says, "When all else fails, read the instructions!". I would recommend starting with the easier patterns and working up as they are usefully rated by difficulty.

The bracelets here are (L-R) one I made up (not sure about this one), pattern #32492, a chevron, and pattern #26109 .

I then had a go at a tricky one (pattern #59957)  and it worked out well, although it ended up being a bit short as the threads you start with need to be much longer than I anticipated. I really enjoyed making these and they were a welcome break of crafting just for fun, with no deadlines or expectations, just creative expression.

A spinning sketch

Over on the Sketch365 challenge blog there is a new sketch to play with, by Emma Straface, and a great prize up for grabs - some beautiful vintage spools with lace and ribbon. I've already had a play as I'm part of the design team (oh, how I wish I could enter to win those lovely spools!!)

This is a page all about spinning, with some crazy photos of the ginger one at our local playground. Can you see the tiny arrows I added to make my circles spin too? I made the circles by dipping the end of a cardboard tube into paint. For lots more fabulous ideas for things to do with cardboard tubes, check out Alisa Burke's fabulous blog post HERE. I love Alisa's style.

The chevron ribbon I used here did funny things to my eyes. I promise you that it is a straight ribbon, but one end definitely looks wider than the other. Following on from the thrifty theme of using an old cardboard tube, can you see the length of what looks like bakers twine I stapled under the title. I don't have a big roll of it. I literally only have that piece - it came on a clothing tag!

Have fun with the sketch, the closing date for the challenge is 20th September. I look forward to seeing what everyone makes of it.

Beads and Beyond

I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but the time has slipped past and this is already last month's issue of Beads & Beyond. I was over the moon to see my Fimo beads on the front cover. Beads & Beyond have a feature showing 8 "recipes" for making beads and I was asked to make 8 different polymer clay beads using a Skinner blend technique. There's a little peak into my craft room at the back too and I'll let you into a secret - it doesn't normally look that tidy!

Splashing at the beach

I had an e-mail this week to say that my new Quirky Kit is on it's way. From the sneak peek on the blog, it looks like it's going to be another great one. It did remind me of all the lovely stash I haven't used yet from previous kits though, so I spread it all out on the lounge floor and put together some kits to make some quick pages. This was my first page completed.

The two woodgrain papers, suited the beachy look, particularly the more washed out looking one. I added a torn piece of tissue which had arrive in the kit wrapped around the papers. I love the texture of the lace next to the gathered calico strip.

The words and alphabet stickers are from one sheet by 7 Dots Studio.

I like these neutral coloured windmill embellishments too. They sit so well on this page.

A new bag for the summer

A couple of weeks ago the handle on my bag I use every day broke and I have been squeezing everything into a bag I usually use for evenings out. I need a larger bag to carry all the rubbish, or should that be essentials, for summer days out with three young children. When else in your life is it essential to carry around three colouring books and assorted crayons?!

I had a vague design in my head and this bag is based on the Teardrop bag from Amy Butler's Style Stitches book. I love this book. It has so many great bag patterns in it. I've made the strap a little longer than the original pattern and didn't include the pleat on the front so I could create the floral pattern.

The front of the bag has some flowers cut from the fabric I used for the back of the bag. I used Bondaweb to attach them to the fabric and then did free motion stitching around the edges of each piece. The neutral fabric on the front was some linen I bought from Ikea.

Here's the back...

The book suggests a magnetic snap closure, but I've found an elastic loop and button much simpler to make, plus I get to add a pretty button. This button is from the Basic Grey collection PB& J.

I'm really happy with my bag and I shall enjoy using it and filling it with crayons, tissues, suncream, nappies, puzzle books, sun hats etc etc etc......

Maisy Mouse Quilt # 3

I made a third version of a Maisy Mouse quilt recently for some friends' baby girl. This is my last Maisy quilt as I have finally used up my original fat quarters pack I bought last year. Maisy quilt design #1 is here and Maisy quilt design #2 is here.

I've been trying to keep cot quilts very simple recently so that I can actually get them finished before the baby's first birthday! This design is pieced together with squares and strips with Maisy circles appliquéd over the top. I had some strip pieced border strips leftover from quilt #2 to go around the edges. I quilted around some paper star templates in the centre of each square of four.

Some spotty blue stars for the back and some pink polka dot fabric for the binding.

An apple for the teacher

The end of term has come and gone and this year seems to have whizzed by. My girls have had some fantastic teachers this year and we are so happy that they love school - making friends and learning lots of new things.

We repeated the project we did last year for my older girl's two teachers and made some Thank You mini books. We sent out letters to all the children in the class along with two apple shaped pieces of card and asked them to write about what was their favourite thing about this year, or a thank you, or draw a picture. We had some great responses and lots of the children sent back pages (14 out of 21). I always feel a bit embarrassed to ask families to do this at the end of term as it's such a busy time for everyone, but I had lots of comments from parents who thought it was a wonderful idea.

The chipboard covers are from an Apple coaster minibook by Maya Road and we decorated the covers using paper and stickers from the Summertime collection by Echo Park. One of the teachers came out to see me on the last day to say thank you for the lovely books. She had no idea how we had got all the children involved!

I put this page together recently too. It's not my usual choice of materials, but I really like it. The background paper came from an old DCWV stack of school papers and it matched the photo so perfectly that I had to use it. The square, multicoloured tags behind the title are by Making Memories and they have been in my embellishment box for ages (probably at least 8 years!). I managed to use them all up in one go.