OWL Subject & Option (if available): History of magic Option 3 House: ravenclaw Project Name: Auntie Olive's Blanket
Ok, so, only part of the work I did on this blanket is my OWL, but I figure I'll tell the whole since the other stuff was initially an OWL too, before I withdrew it so I could take a break from the project. This is what the blanket looked like in September It's a knitted blanket, a simple pattern of squares. But it's missing lots of squares, many more have holes and unravelling going on - and a few of the missing one's have been kinda inexpertly repaired with denim (by my mum) - the weight of which is pulling everything out of shape. But the blanket was knitted for me while mum was preggers with me, by my Great Auntie Olive. And I have loved it, carried it around, worn it as a togo, worn it as a native american shawl, took it to uni... etc. So i didn't want to retire it But I can't knit, and anyway, I thought that putting my own stamp on the whole thing was a much better way to evolve it and pay homage to my Aunt, rather than just make a poor imitation of what she did.
I removed all the denim, and replaced the missing squares with felt (nice wool felt that works well with the wool in the original blanket, I like the different uses of the same base material) I did some research to learn to repair the unravels, and fixed them as best I could, or at least stopped them getting worse - and hid any mess with more felt patches. The felt patches are all hand sewn with blanket stitch, to maintain the kind of simple traditional look. the threads I used don't match the colour of felt, and I used all different colours to keep it warm and lively looking. I then backed the whole thing onto linen, tied it together with some random stitches... which I then hid on the linen side with more felt patches. I finished by folding the linen over and using blanket stitch in a cotton yarn to edge the whole thing and then my cat gatecrashed the photo shoot (she's been sat on it most of the time I've been working on it too)
A few little projects for you. I still haven't been able to get a decent pic of my OWL, but I'll do that tomorrow hopefully
Challenge: Beans - Dirt house: ravenclaw Project: Tea pot to Plant Pot up-cycle I'm rubbish with plants. But my friend Joe grew this for me from a seed, and I've now officially kept it alive for two whole weeks So I re-potted it out of the plastic plant pot it was in, into this teapot; I opted for this teapot since it is part of one of those 'tea for one' sets where the pot sits on top of it's own cup... which means that, having drilled some poles in the bottom of the pot for drainage, the cup can act as a drip tray. I'm really pleased with my plant pot, and I reckon I may even be able to keep the green stuff in it alive
Challenge: Housepride House: ravenclaw project: pincushion jar when I spotted this robot fabric I new I had to make a raven claw project from it - the color is perfect (especially with the bronze jar lid) - and the robot theme speaks of innovation and smart technology. I've dismantled a few bits of computer and appliances recntly, so this jar will be perfect to keep my hoard of craftable hardware finds in
Class: Arithmancy House: ravenclaw project: robot applique pincushion I used the same fabric to make a pincushion for a swap too - applique is the art of adding two pieces of fabric together, with one behind the other; here I have embroidered a little robot and appliqued that onto a simple pincushion.
Challenge: Accio Books House: Ravenclaw Project: 19 copies of the Eyre Affair all boxed up to be taken to teen community groups - I'm gonna drop them into headquarters on my way into work, where they will decide how many copies to give to each youth centre
Class: Potions House: ravenclaw project: Nommy caramel choc-chip cake pops there's this stuff. I call it biscuit spread. It's... well, imagine peanut butter. Now replace the peanut with biscuits - those little caramel flavoured biscuits you get when you got out for coffee. Biscuit spread is awesome. It also has a cool emotional connection for me - because for a long time it was only available in Belgium, and, upon my telling a friend how much i loved this stuff that I'd tried on holiday, my friend drove from the other side of Germany to buy me some for my birthday. He is the BEST. So now the smell of biscuit spread reminds me of equal parts nommy goodness and brilliant friend-ness. I would definitely smell that in a love potion That same friend is one of my colleagues who I'm meeting in sweden this weekend, and it's his birthday in a couple of weeks so I made him some cakepops with biscuit spread in them
They are vanilla sponge, biscuit spread (in place of frosting in a normal cake pop. It's not so goopy so getting a good consistency took experimenting) and little candy cover choc chips, covered with white choc and sprinkles
Class: Alchemy House: RA RA RAVENCLAW Project: additional noms This guys drives across whole countries to buy me snack-foods. You think I'd only make him one birthday cake? NO WAY! taking a cake to sweden (ie on a plane) would be logistically difficult so I opted for more cake pops, this time triple chocolate fudge chocolate sponge (that required chemically altering by baking), and chocolate fudge frosting, and chocolate coating (physically altered by melting) and sprinkles
class; divination house: ravenclaw project; There are all different sorts of cards inside the machines that muggles call computers; graphics cards, sound cards, memory cards.... each machine contains one of each 'suit' of these cards - and just like our cards, these machines can be used to read and get information - or just to play games with having studied these cards, I now submit my carteomancy homework; I used the cards to decorate notebooks, and added some stamped detail (the binary can be read as the initials of the people I will give these notepads to)
I've had one of those days where I've kinda finished up a couple of little bits to complete some projects... so;
Challenge: Hogsmede House: Ravenclaw Project: So, you guys know I'm putting together a HP raffle prize for the big convention of the website I work for. I wanted to include some Potter chocolate and sweets, since those always attract participants, but in light of the HPA 'Show us the report' campaign and the doubts about how Warner bros official merch may not be the most ethical, I didn't want to buy their stuff. So I have made some Honeydukes packaging to put nice fair trade nommies in
The bertie botts box is just a printable I found with some googling (if yoiu do that, watch out, many of the printable don't include the tabs to glue together so you have to add those yourself BEFORE cutting out ) and I put clear plastic in the windows (cut from an old plastic bag) and filled it with jelly beans. The Chocolate frogs box is a printable from Mr Printables (it's meant as a gift bag), I added googly eyes and a label - inside are some frog shaped chocolates from our local chocolatier, an Easter special they did. The 'In Case of Emergency' box is just a cardboard box I made, with Lettraset lettering and a wax stamp - inside are three bars of green & Blacks (Carmel, butterscotch and burnt toffee - they seemed like the sort of thing I could imagine the hogwarts house elves serving)
Challenge: Ring Horcrux House: GO EAGLES! Project: IT'S STOPPED SNOWING! And so, of course, today I finished another cowl (this one for the boyf)
a cowl is, of course, just a woolly ring
Challenge: April Detention House; Ra Ra ravenclaw Project: Like a lot of crafters, I always seem to push crafting fo myself to one side (I'll do it once I've finished this swap, and that birthday present....) but I do enjoy doing my nails, since my manual job means they are always breaking, at different lengths, and the skin is a mess - so trying to keep them even reasonably presentable is a struggle. So I took yesterdays evening show detention to try an idea I had seen on pinterest for putting newsprint onto nails
I have tried it before but this was much more successful, I'm pleased with them even if the hands and nails underneath the paint are a bit ropey! Maybe next time I'll go with some images or patterns
OWL Subject & Option: Potions House: ravenclaw Project Name: Playmat Project Page Link (if available): http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=422044.0#axzz2OwJU00yK Brief Description: So. My owl was to do the first four texture squares on my playmat, showing the use of 4 textures as stipulated in the exam. I went a bit Hermione and finished the whole mat instead
front:
back:
the whole thing is cotton and variegated thread, handsewn. There's more pics in the project link if your interested. It's basically 4 texture squares (crinkle, beanbag, pleats, squeakers), 4 play squares (pocket, flap, beads, bells) and a squishy middle square - backed onto linen
Just shows what you can achieve when you're employed to do nothing but sit around all day - I should do tech more often!!!
So... my cousin is expecting his second child yay! But.... since I already made a quilt for Big Brother I thought I ought to up my crafty game for the second one... I threw around a few ideas but a colleague suggested a play mat and I thought that was the best plan.... so here it is:
Sorry it's such a cruddy photo - I've been trying to gets shots for a week now without success, my camera doesn't seem to like too much red or pink, plus we have had awful weather s no good light. I think I need to start investing in some photography gear, but that's another subject...
Anyway, I kept it as simple as I could, since it's my first attempt at anything like this. The pink squares are all textures - one has crinkly underneath, one has bean bag beans, one has squeakers underneath and one is pleated into big folds. (The middle square is just padded, I'm thinking this will be where baby lays)
The corners are the play squares;
flap with reflective fabric (it's that colour change fabric, that's green if you look in one light but purple if you move your head - I thought that was fun) bells a pocket with big squares to post in and out (the squares are stuffed)
and big beads to slide around on ribbon. It occurred to me too late that grograin ribbon here would have introduced another texture, but oh well, next time maybe
The whole thing is completely handsewn with a needle and thread, and backed onto linen. Any place where the stitches would show on either back or front I used variegated thread, so the back looks kinda pretty too
that's the back of the squeaker square
It was important to me that the whole thing be washable in a machine, though I wouldn't recommend ironing it afterwards The squeakers may not work after being washed, but I suspect mummy and daddy won't mind that loss too much! also keeping it safe was a big concern - making sure nothing is swallow-able or strangle-able... I hope (!!!) that I did ok with that, since I have never made toys for a kid before
I'm actually really pleased with how it came out. Thanks for looking
Now, I wasn't really intending to study herbology when I made this tea wallet with built in mug rug... but then I noticed that the floral print was clearly trying to eat up that bunny!! look at it here, luring the rabbit in with promise of a cup of tea... and then... snap, the flowers close up and the bunny is gone!
Show Images
So I re-potted it out of the plastic plant pot it was in, into this teapot; I opted for this teapot since it is part of one of those 'tea for one' sets where the pot sits on top of it's own cup... which means that, having drilled some poles in the bottom of the pot for drainage, the cup can act as a drip tray. I'm really pleased with my plant pot, and I reckon I may even be able to keep the green stuff in it alive 
) and I put clear plastic in the windows (cut from an old plastic bag) and filled it with jelly beans. The Chocolate frogs box is a printable from Mr Printables (it's meant as a gift bag), I added googly eyes and a label - inside are some frog shaped chocolates from our local chocolatier, an Easter special they did.
