Am I alright posting just belts in the clothing area? I get so confused! 

Anyways, sadly I don't remember the last time I got my sewing machine out, which makes me really sad, but I think it is linked to the fact this is the first time I've ever made something I am excited about wearing out!

I recently bought a new dress online. I liked its mix of patterns as I love to mix patterns and was excited to get it, unfortunately I didn't notice that it had elastic under the bust and then wasn't waisted - I'm fairly curvy and can end up feeling uncomfortable if the clothes I'm in don't show a waist  But in contrast to that I don't own a huge number of belts, and nothing I owned seemed to work.

I was browsing the internets while trying to work out what to do, as I didn't want to send it back as I like the colours a lot, and saw someone wearing an obi style belt and figured it was something even I might be able to pull together. Add to that a trip out the shops, and an hour of so of crafting and I have 2 new belts!!!

Here is a picture that attempts to show the colours and textures:


Here's the brown one with a turquoise ribbon:

(sorry about the stern face - I'm a smiler normally, I'm trying to balance on my sofa, with the camera on a book shelf - too many things to think about!  )

And this one is brown with a pink and green pattern on it and a brown ribbon:


and just for reference here is the dress without the belt:


C&Cs?

so these are a couple of christmas presents I've made. I've done a little t-shirt design work, and some bleach work, but this was my first time using stencils of any kind. I'm not very confident freehand and as I knew I wanted to make something that needed to catch an iconic shape I wanted to make a stencil for the outside shape.

So as I don't really have photoshop skillz I printed off the pictures I wanted to use, picked up the outline in pen and then traced the outline shape onto tracing paper, and transferred it onto card and then cut out the shape. Used bleach on the t-shirts to get the background colour and then used fabric paints to bring out a little detail.

First I bring you bearsharktopus:




and in case you don't know bearsharktopus, this is where me and my friend first saw him boingboing bearsharktopus - the most badass animal on the net.

(unfortunately I dripped some lines of bleach because I wasn't being very clever - I'm gonna sell it to my friend that the bearsharktopus is fighting off lasers...)

and secondly I bring you a slow loris who likes being tickled:




and in case you haven't seen the slow loris being tickled it's here I really recommend it - it cant fail to make me smile

Hope this fits alright in this forum. Let me know what you think 

I have a terrible habit of not being able to chuck out my train tickets - I like the memories of the journeys (most of the time!) and now I have loads and loads.

This is about a 1/4 of my 'collection'


Previously I have covered a big storage box and book with them but I don't know what to do with next, any ideas would be very appreciated :-)

I saw this post on Craftzine the other day about making an anti-boredom tin for a child, well it is my lovely boyfriend's 31st birthday next week and he has a new harmonica coming but I wanted a surprise for him to open.

Neither of us drive and so spend a fair amount of time on public transport, and he's fairly arty so I thought an anti-boredom box would be nice for him to throw in his bag!

Here it is (it's made from a smoking tin, that used to say "rizla" on the front, not so great so it's covered up for now and I have a few days to find an exciting picture to put on it!)


first peek when you look in:


inside:



Inside we have a little notepad, a mini propeller pencil, mini felt tips, a teeny pack of cards, some stickers and a small packet of bouncing putty.

And if all that fails there is a picture of his wonderful girlfriend (me!  ) to gaze at lovingly inside the lid


haha

What do you think?

I've just made another post with lots (maybe too many?) pictures of button charm bracelets that I've been making for my folksy shop but I've just made a new necklace, and I've only made one of these (they were a set of buttons that I got in a lovely way so I wanted them to live together) and I really like it but I'm not sure whether or not to make more to try and sell. What do you think?




mmm buttons, felt and chain :-)

I've got a love for buttons that goes way beyond anything I can explain to people who don't get it, I love love love them. And then some. :-)

I've been attempting to make nice button jewellery for years, and recently I feel like my ideas have matured and I really like what I'm making. I like it enough to have opened a folksy shop.

I've recently finished lots of charm bracelets and a couple of pairs of earrings, on to the pics:

Purple and Yellow


Greens


Navy-ish


Pastel Bows


Red to Purple fade


Creams


Blue to green fade


Pinks


Rainbow


Comments more than welcome :-)

hmm, never know where to post, but I've seen other terrarium type things in this forum so here I am! :-)

Been falling in love with terrariums for a while now, made a little jam jar one but over watered it! Haven't been able to get hold of any glass jars with lids yet and was just too excited to wait so I have a fish bowl (to sit on top of my toilet) and a big vase for in my living room. Do they still count as terrariums?

They both have a layer of those small stones you put in the bottom of a fish tank and then soil and then a random assortment of plants. Mainly unnamed succulents and greenery that is sold small and cheap in shops like wilkinsons and homebase. As I have been making things up as I go along I don't know what will survive but I'll just keep trying! They also have little scary cat models in them, anyways on with the pictures:







comments always welcome :-)

My mum has a couple of sets of these birds that she brought from Camden Market in London and they inspired me and my boyfriend Simon to make some for my friend Ian - he was super chuffed with them!






Here is a little video of them in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHWKPvPVAk

For the bodies we brought polystyrene eggs, and balls stuck them together with wooden sticks and a hot glue gun and then used papier-mâché to cover them before painting them thickly, drilled through to make space for the leather twine and to make sure they hang straight (ish). All given a good thick coat of clear lacquer.

For the tails we drilled 4 holes in a wooden bead, hot glue gunned in some feather (set at a slight angle to catch the wind) and slid over a nail with a washer pushed up the bum of the bird.

Then strung up, using beads to space them. Some wooden eggs and a bit old washer on the bottom to keep them from flying off too much!

Look at them spin!!!! :-)

I get so confused as to what forum to post things in - I'm going to go with this one as it is a garden, just a tiny tiny one!! 

I've been feeling fairly productive today, lots of bits and bobs including some gardening and potting up some baby spider plants. I also made a jam jar garden:





So its a clean jam jar, with some perlite in the bottom to keep it form getting too damp in there, some soil from the garden - with lots of lovely bacteria and other lovelies hopefully! then some moss, and little unknown weeds that I picked from my plant pots. I've also put some 'cat grass' seed in there in the hope they grow.

I'm not really sure what I expect from it, but it's sweet all the same. I'm hoping the little plants will take root and grow out a bit! I have some little miniature plastic animals coming my way soon, so I might add one to the garden!

I first saw one of these somewhere on craftster and cant remember where! I loved the idea though and have been thinking about it lots so pleased to have finally made one!

Crafting this time to give to friends for christmas presents, oh and one for me!!! :-) I hope this is the in the right place! I'm not much of one for beading, I'm more a crocheter, but just before Christmas each year I get a real urge to bead! I think its because it is such a nice indoor activity while watching old cheesy TV for me!!

Onto the projects

Purple necklace, I think I made this last winter but didn't have anyone to give it too, I gave it to a pal called Rachel who I work with. Its glass beads on a 22 gauge wire bent to somewhat resemble a flower, with a little extra purple bead to cover some of the wire, all added to a chain.



The rest are all bracelets made from memory wire - so its already curly and fits pretty much all wrists! I just bend an end to stop all the beads sliding off - slide some beads on and bend the other end. done. :-)

I adore buttons and want to wear extra ones everyday (which I do through the power of home-made earrings!) and so there are buttons on the bracelets and a whole mixture of exciting beads.

Green for my friend Katie:


Blue for my friend Fiona:


Purple for Kat:


And multi-coloured for me :-) :


Yay buttons!! :-)