Hi everyone,

I found a tutorial for making a giant squid plushie over at PW Style, and thought, "you know, 8-feet just isn't a big enough squid".

So my friend and I made squids that are 3.5 metres from tip of the head to end of the longest tentacles.  That's 11' 7", for the Americans

We are planning on doing a proper photo-shoot later, but when I finished my squid today I couldn't wait to post it!

My squid is red, black, and white felt, red and white quilting fabric, and a *whole* mess of poly-fill.  It took me about four entire days to make (spread out over two weeks) and it was *hard*!  My friend is a professional dress-maker, so her squid is a lot more polished than mine; but, considering I can struggle with sewing buttons back onto clothes, I am just really happy that my squid is finished.

And, now that you've read all that ... meet Penelope!



Yay!
Hope you love her as much as I do

EDIT: More photos! We finally did our squid photoshoot! My friend Rebecca brought her squid, Benjamin, around and he and Penelope hung out for a bit



Penelope has learnt to crochet! Hopefully this will keep her out of trouble while I'm at work ...



Penelope also likes to play Nintendo 64.  Here she is beating Rebecca at Super Mario Kart.



Benjamin prefers to play World of Warcraft on the PC. He plays a Tauren Druid



Here I am hanging out on the couch with Penelope and Benjamin.  I have my arms around them, but the squids are so big that you can't see that!



And here are Penelope and Benjamin sharing a squid cuddle at the end of a long day. Squid love.

This year I decided to craft all the gifts I usually buy for people.  This is part of my mother-in-law's gift; her kitchen is decorated with chickens and she enjoys gardening so I thought I would make her a little wall hanging that incorporated both.

I designed the pattern in Illustrator and the stitching took me maybe an hour.  As you can probably see, it's just basic running stitch and some lazy daisy.  I haven't done any stitching since high school, when I went through a red-work phase, but this was a fun way to get back into it.  The whole piece is about 10.5 cm diameter.



For the back I used a tutorial I found on Cut Out and Keep, but I used blanket stitch to hold the back piece in more securely.  I made the back piece a little too small, but it seems to work pretty well anyway.



Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you (and my mother-in-law!) like it.  Also, if you have any suggestions for improvement, I'm all ears!  My friend has requested a needle-worked Castiel (from Supernatural) for her birthday so I'm going to need all the help I can get! 

Mother-in-laws are hard to craft for!  Mine likes scrap-booking, blue, and butterflies and so I thought ... message board?  Why not?



As you can see, I suck pretty hard at applying contact paper!  I actually made two of these boards, but the first has so many air bubbles that I'm too ashamed to post it!  This isn't the only thing I'm making for her though, and she's pretty awesome and understanding, so I feel ok giving this to her.

To make this, I used: wooden placemat, scrap-booking paper, silver ink, circle stamps, butterfly punch, paint pen and magnets. 

Hope you like it

This is the present I made for my brother's birthday this year.  When I asked him what he wanted, and warned him that it was going to be crafted, he requested a clock and 'something with a mustache'.  Ask and you shall receive!



I hand-carved all the stamps, and although there are only ten mustache types here, I actually made twelve.  The nose stamp is separate.  It's a little grungy, but I actually kinda like it like that.  I hope he does too!

So, continuing on with my resolution to craft all gifts I give this year, here is the blanket I made for my brother.  He recently brought his first house (at 19! Darn him and his money saving powers!) and is kinda obsessed with the West Coast Eagles (that's a football team for all you non-Australians ) so I thought Eagles + housewares = awesome gift.

I'd never made a blanket before, but I learnt blanket stitch (yay for online tutorials!), made a logo from my scrap felt stash, brought some fleece and ...



The blanket is double-sided, and in this photo you can see my awesome (?!) blanket stitch and also the logo.  Technically it's not the full logo as it's meant to have like feathers behind it, but I'm lazy and they looked hard.



This is so you can see the size.  I haven't actually measured it, but I brought a metre of each colour fleece and when I was sewing it, it completely covered me (very warm sewing!).  You can also see my green couch, my stack of vintage suitcases and also my sewing machine tucked away there in the corner.

Anyway, hope you like it, and thanks for looking

So, I had this Ikea frame which I wanted to put above my dressing table.  But, I didn't have anything to go in the frame. 
Then I remembered that I had a little mirror that I had painted a mustache on years ago but never used because it had a really ugly frame (that's the kind of thing I seem to do). 
So I cut off the frame (it was a molded plastic one and it was *gross*) and stuck it to the bit of cardboard that came with the frame with double-sided tape. 
Then I cut out a donut-y oval from another piece of cardboard and painted that black, to be a frame and cover where the mirror ended (it was a lot smaller than the frame).  I stuck black ribbon around the inside oval of the frame so you couldn't see my poor cutting skills (again with double-sided tape). 
Then, I put everything in the frame!
Ta da!  A pretty new mirror to go on my wall!



I really like how the mustache looks - it reminds me of the talking mirrors from fairy-tales. 
The reflection you can see in the mirror is the pattern on my curtains, btw.

Hope you like it!

P.S. The ribbon looks a lot better IRL; it is layered and a little ruffly, but in the photo it just looks messy.  It looks good, I swear!

Alright so, my new year resolution this year was to a) craft more and b) specifically craft more presents.  Yes, my resolutions have subcategories.  I have four gifts to craft for birthdays in March, and I've finished one!  Huzzah!

This is for my brother's girlfriend.  They live about eight hours away from us, so we don't see them very often.  I think I've met her maybe three times.  So I interrogated my brother and found out that she likes elephants, and doesn't have a favourite colour.  Very helpful.

This is the result - I woodburned elephants and her name into a plain pine box, and then covered with a wash of green paint.  I wiped most of it off so the texture of the wood and also the wood-burning could still be seen.  I then covered with a wash of iridescent medium to give it some shine.

I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out; my wood-burning needs improvement, and I wanted the colour less minty. 
Anyway, hope you like it, and thanks for reading my essay!

I saw a really cool bathmat online, but the price tag was a little out of my budget.  So, one white mat and a pot of red paint later ...



My bathroom is one step closer to being a crime scene.  It was really easy to make, and I think it turned out pretty well. Hope you like it!

If you've seen any of my other posts, you'll know by now that my husband loves Star Wars.  It's actually really great for me, because there are so many things you can stick Darth Vader on to.  Such as ... shoes!  I made the Darth Vader stencil with contact paper, which turned out ok, but the detail achieved isn't great.  The banner I free-handed with a paint pen.  I think I blatantly copied it, I found a little drawing in my notebook of it and I'm sure I didn't think of it myself.  I think it was from "Feeling Stitchy".  If anyone knows for sure, please let me know and I will credit.  Anyway!  On to the photos!







Hope you like them

This is the first shadowbox I have ever made, and the first in a planned series that will depict my favourite tv shows/movies in tiny crafty form.

This one is for 'Dexter' - a show which I absolutely love.  I used paint, paper, craft foam, double sided tape, plastic syringe, glass slides, string, plastic doll arm and a whole lot of plastic which I recycled from shopping bags and other such things.












EDIT: I added new photos - it's incredible the difference taking photos in the light makes.  Dark rooms = not great for photography - who knew?