I recently took Part in the Beltane swap, and was delighted to get spazgirl1981 as my partner.

I wanted to create something that really represented Beltane as my family celebrates it.
Firstly - for those who dont know, Beltane is the spring festival and is almost opposite in its traditions and values to Samhain (halloween). Whereas Halloween tends to be very loud and "out there", Beltane is much more introspective, calm and about peace and beauty.
Beltane, being at spring is also much about fertility - in essence, as the trees and vegetables begin their growth we too explore what it is within us that is beginning to grow.
And so in our family, we think abotu just that - what have we allowed to pass during the winter in order that we can begin to grow something new.

As these thoughts took shape, so too did this goddess.
.....

"As she sat naked upon the earth - she birthed a landscape"

Enjoy x



The body has a pipe cleaner structure and I blended three shades of merino to create the flesh tones. Her hair is my own dyed and carded fleece which is wonderfully coarse and so needle felts beautifully.
The grass and turrets are knitted, and the flowers are cut felt and sewn.

So - I couldn't organise this (way too new) but what with the looming 8 week kids holiday vastly approaching, and my children's constant scrabble to the door when "one of them swapster boxes" turns up .......  I was thinking how about we pop a smile on the wee ones faces and have a swap devoted to them.
It could be to make something specifically to target boredom !
What dya reckon      

For the "what are you best at " swap, -
 http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=421759.0;topicseen#axzz2S4moWTV5
 I was partnered up with the lovely mama24boys. As soon as I snooped into her life, I knew she was a great lover of many things..........
Firstly her children..
Secondly "hearts" in all shapes and textures
and thirdly - from her pinterest wall, a piece of wall art with names on using scrabble letters.

I have had a lovely old display frame sitting in my shed for a while (another great bargain from my beloved charity shop) and knew I could repurpose it for this project so I set about finding a second hand scrabble board............

But what I came up with was even better - a miniature magnetic travel scrabble board (ooooooooooooooooooo o I hear you cry) As soon as I saw the magnets I just knew it would be perfect, as I could pass on all the letters to mama24boys and her kids could have fun writing interesting (you so know it will be rude) slogans all over the piece.

I didnt want to maintain the scrabble background, so I tested a theory first (whether or not painting on it would take away the magnetism) and then set about using acrylics to paint a simple colour mood background.

Then I set to work on the frame. I took out the glass, and then decorated the background. Using 2 matching buttons (to represent the twin boys) then two different blue buttons (for the other two boys) then a big ole' pink one for her newest addition (a girl !!!!!!woooohooooo )  I finished it off with hearts in the corner to appeal to her heart fetish !

Finally I could assemble the whole piece, and with the addition of a lovely bit of ribbon which says "crafted with love (hearts) " I superglued my repainted scrabble board into its new rightful home !

The final job was to work out how to get all Mama24boys's kids names into a complete pattern - and I think I did ok - added the word "family" cos it just felt right

Hope you enjoy.


 
Oh - and for those of you with observant eyes !!!!!! - I found a little tin in the charity shop which was too perfect for words - its lid had the cutest painting of a girly rag doll surrounded by 4 boy teddies !!!! Ideal to hold all the spare letters

My dearest friend Louise turned 40 yesterday and as such we had a huge party
She is the most gorgeous beautiful woman and has a great love for all things winged. And so I created this butterfly cake.
It is a two layered cake, stacked on top of each other and then encrusted with white chocolate.
The white chocolate trees are individually sculpted and set, and then painted with green dye.
The butterflys are icing as are all the roses. Hope you like xx

Mmmorning everyone - or should I say "howdy pardners".
My partner has recieved my gift in the "one little pincusion swap", so Id like to share.
She said that she would like a cactus themed pincusion so I made her this.......


I got thinking what would happen if a cowboy walked past and lost his hat !"!!!
(lego cowboy hats stuck to pins )


So then I thought -- - - -well, Im going to need a cowboy now !


And then of course, you cant have a cowboy without an Indian !!


Here they all are a'chillin

I was recently paired up with a Zelda fan for the "what are you best at" swap. And discovered that she is a fan of Zelda.
Now - - - - I have to point out at this stage that not only do we not have a tv - I had no idea who Zelda was !!! So I had to do quite a bit of research...
After looking into my partner a little bit more, I discovered a familiar love of hearts on her pinterest, and so combining the theme of love and Zelda - I found an image on the net hooorah. !
A little scrap of blanket became the base and I needle felted some artwork on the top with merino and some of my my own carded fleece.
Hope you like (comments from Zelda fans would be great.
Oh...... and by the way  - -- - - I know the bust and the bottom are a bit more rounded, this always seems to happen with my charecters, cant think why ho hum perhaps has something to do with what I see when I look in the mirror daily lol lol

So - my felted reproduction....... ..




And the original.

February saw my family have a wonderful little trip to the tip of Cornwall and spent many afternoons gathering sea glass and sea pottery....


Since then I have been experimenting with resin as a way of capturing the colours. I wanted to have something to hang in my garden and these just look stunning.

All begins in our house with a note from the fairies, on the eve of Spring - the gnomes and fairies have a large party to celebrate the coming of the sun. If the children have been good all year looking after the earth - not treading on bulb heads and helpind to sweep the autumnal leaves, then perhaps the gnomes will leave out some gifts. But you have to know where to look
Come with us on our adventure.......... .................

Anyhow - here is the letter from the gnomes !.


And so on we plod to our local woods. They kindly made some bags for us to carry all the treats in (upcycled pillow cases cut in half, girls and boys with some simple triangles cut from scrap fabric and sewn on to ribbon, the handles are made by folding  over the top and sewing down to make a chanel, then thread through cord and secure with a button at the bottom.)


We soon gathered that the gnomes had left out flowers to show us where to look


Can you believe these lovely egg nests.......... modge podge - PVA glue and wool wrapped around those small water balloons


Those gnomes were mighty cheeky !!! throwing buckets up high into trees and securing the ropes down meant for a great deal of climbing - good job we have such good climbers !


Slight accidental journey onto an island (one dad fell in HAHAHAH)


To find a chicken that had laid eggs !


These are earlier photos of the eggs. Wet felted around plastic eggs and then easy sew bunnies made from an old jumper felted in the machine.


Such an amazing walk - and back home to this years Easter cake mmmmmmmm


And just to make you hungry............. ................... ..........

All begins in our house with a note from the fairies, on the eve of Spring - the gnomes and fairies have a large party to celebrate the coming of the sun. If the children have been good all year looking after the earth - not treading on bulb heads and helpind to sweep the autumnal leaves, then perhaps the gnomes will leave out some gifts. But you have to know where to look
Come with us on our adventure.......... .................

Anyhow - here is the letter from the gnomes !.


And so on we plod to our local woods. They kindly made some bags for us to carry all the treats in (upcycled pillow cases cut in half, girls and boys with some simple triangles cut from scrap fabric and sewn on to ribbon, the handles are made by folding  over the top and sewing down to make a chanel, then thread through cord and secure with a button at the bottom.)


We soon gathered that the gnomes had left out flowers to show us where to look


Can you believe these lovely egg nests.......... modge podge - PVA glue and wool wrapped around those small water balloons


Those gnomes were mighty cheeky !!! throwing buckets up high into trees and securing the ropes down meant for a great deal of climbing - good job we have such good climbers !


Slight accidental journey onto an island (one dad fell in HAHAHAH)


To find a chicken that had laid eggs !


These are earlier photos of the eggs. Wet felted around plastic eggs and then easy sew bunnies made from an old jumper felted in the machine.


Such an amazing walk - and back home to this years Easter cake mmmmmmmm


And just to make you hungry............. ................... ..........

I recently participated in my first official swap - hoooorah !

My partner needed a standalone container for her knitting needles and crochet hooks, and as she had a young child I wanted to combine that need with the obvious need to quickly tidy away all scraps of craft projects when there are little fingers about.

I chose the fabric as she is rather into puzzles. !!!!  It is a cube shame and can flat pack down (as shown in the photo) I also managed to pick up some wooden puzzle pieces from the charity shop (my favourite place), and getting hisself to drill me some holes meant I could adorn the box with real puzzles.

Of course, had to use that little bit of left over fabric to make a sewing needle pouch too !

So - the box in its full glory


Showing the puzzle piece adornments.


And................ ................... ... (drum roll) fully flat packed


All feedback greatfully recieved !