Recent crafting

I have been doing a bit of crafting recently.  Before Christmas, I made a variety of cards using stamps, embossing powders, die cuts and ink.  The ones I used most were the simple trees - two die cut trees on the front and a glittery one inside.

 I made these decorations inspired by a post on the Folksy blog, using letter tiles glued together.  Chris helped me by drilling the holes in them.  They looked great on the seasonal tree.

 This macrame bracelet was for a colleague at work and was a little more delicate than some I have made, as I used 6mm gemstones in blue and silver.

 I made some snowdrop thank you cards too, using a stamp.

I have also made a bracelet for myself, using black spinel and silver spacers.  I think I need some more of these in different colours!
I have lots of ideas for different crafting projects I would like to complete this year, but will save them for another post...

Birthday makes

It was my colleague, Leanne's, birthday last week so I had a lovely time making her cards and gifts.  I used stencils, stamps and dies to make her card (of course, I had to make an envelope as well).

 The inside was decorated with star stencils and little star die cuts.

She has asked for some jewellery - a brown macrame bracelet - this has mookite, tiger's eye, botswana agate and coffee striped agate in it.  (Apologies for the photography as my camera does not like low light levels and in future, I must remember to  use a lamp as well as the main light). The tiger's eye has some lovely colours in it, caramels and toffee, but the photograph is not doing it justice.

 The other thing she wanted was an anklet with black stones.  I made this one using black agate beads and silver plated findings. 

All hell would have broken loose if I hadn't made the traditional 'Russian Roulette Revels Cake' (my go to chocolate cake recipe) with chocolate fudge icing and those innocent looking Revels chocolates.  Yes, I did get a coffee one again - ugh!  Leanne was really pleased with the gifts and the cake.

Making cards and gifts

I have had a few anniversaries and birthdays to make cards for recently, so here's what I came up with. Above was an anniversary card for my sister and brother in law.  I do like the Chinese Lantern die (although it took a few goes to get a nice clean cut.) I backed it with a blue/green patterned paper and like the calming effect.

 I sent this one to my friend in Canada - it was their rather special anniversary.  We went over for their wedding as I was Matron of Honour.  The time seems to have gone very quickly since.

 This one was a bit of a practise, but it turned out quite well.

This card was for a colleague at work who enjoys working with a nature conservancy volunteer group.  I though she would like the leaf print paper.

The inside needed a little something, so I added a green glittery fern leaf - well, why not?

I haven't made any jewellery for a while so made the same colleague a wooden bead macrame bracelet.  I have seen her wearing it at work so I think she likes it!

Tea cup and Mug Exchange - results

 I have recently completed another swap, although this one was an exchange.  It was the 8th Annual Tea cup and Mug exchange, organised by Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose.  The idea is a lovely one - send a tea cup or mug along with tea or coffee and other gifts (if you wanted to add any extras) to your recipient.  Someone else would send you a gift too.  I signed up and was sent my recipient's details - Sandra at Ravenhill Cottage.  You could also add in some details about yourself, such as favourite colours, blog information, hobbies.  So, I sent my parcel off to Sandra in Canada and duly received a parcel back from Mary in the USA.  She had obviously done her homework and had chosen the most lovely gifts.  There was a beautiful mug with blue flowers on it, two very generously sized pieces of material (which I was very excited about), black tea and white tea, handmade earrings in the shape of seeds and some petunia seeds.

 I think she had chosen beautifully for me!

How pretty are the earrings?  A HUGE thank you to Mary for the generous and thoughtful gifts. I am really looking forward to making something with the material.

 I found out that my recipient liked pink and purple, so off I went.  I made a bookmark, pearl earrings, a bracelet, and added a tea bag stand and English breakfast tea.

 Sandra had asked for a mug (as I had too) and I found this one with pinks and purples and cups on it.

Here were the gifts ready to be securely packaged up.  It was an incredibly straightforward exchange thanks to Stephanie's wonderful organisation (it must have been a mammoth task requiring military precision) and I really enjoyed taking part.

Seasons swap - Wow!

 I do enjoy a good blog swap, as my lovely followers will know, so when I saw the Seasons Swap, organised by Kimberley of Creative Chaos, I signed up.  It was a great idea - find out your swap partner's favourite season and then buy and make things to send them.  I was partnered up with Maria, from Dotty's Daughter .  We emailed and found out that we are scarily similar, even down to our ages!  Maria told me that she didn't have a favourite season and I responded that early Summer was my favourite.  So, armed with some information, we started shopping and making.  Our parcels were swapped and I received the parcels above.

 I opened them to find a plethora of gorgeous gifts.  Maria had been so generous!  Flowery bunting, tulips, felt squares, felt flower pegs, a heart decoration, buttons, a gardening themed scissor fob and a personalised patchwork pincushion with sewing charms,

 The patchwork pincushion deserved its own photo.

 Bunting, buttons, hearts and flowers...

...and the gardening scissor fob, complete with welly!  I emailed to thank her and received a lovely reply, but she also said that she had forgotten to add in another part of the parcel so that would be sent too. Lucky me - two parcels!

 Here's what was in parcel two.  Lots of sewing goodies including needles, pins, ribbon and some patchwork for me to start.  There were also seeds and a dragonfly bracelet, some cat clips and some angel decorations made by her daughter.

 Here are the angels - aren't they lovely?

 Here's my patchwork project for the autumn evenings...  A HUGE thank you to Maria for her amazing generosity, thoughtfulness and kindness and for being such a lovely swap partner.  As I was opening my parcels, it did strike me how we had sent similar types of things.

Here's what I sent: Spring (magnets, seeds, a scissor fob/keyring/bag charm and bird material), Summer (a mug, magnet pegs, some sewing machine material and a piece of the London material, (which I used to make a doorstop for my friend in Canada) as she used to live in London), Autumn (hot chocolate, a spiced candle, a notebook and some pens) and Winter (a felt heart, monochrome bracelet and earrings).
It was a marvellous swap to be involved with and I really enjoyed it.  Thanks to Kimberley for organising it and of course, to Maria.

Swirl beads, jewel enamel powder and bracelets

 I really enjoy working with polymer clay and am constantly finding new techniques which I just have to try.  The swirl bead was new to me, as was using jewel enamel as a glaze, which gave a look of enamel.  The swirl techniques worked better on some than others but it was a good way to use up some scrap clay and the end of a striped cane I made some time last year.

 Here are my beads, ready to go into the oven, with a top layer of the jewel enamel.

 This is what they looked like once cooled.  The jewel enamel has given a glaze to the top surface.

This is my favourite as the swirl worked well and the blue translucent polymer clay I used for the base has silver foil running through it (a bit of gold also got in there!)  This is a technique I shall use again...

 The macrame bracelets were commissions from a work colleague who loves pink, but wanted a delicate pink. I used crackled quartz, rose quartz and star rose quartz to create these and made two different sizes so that she could choose which one fitted her best.

The flash has washed out the delicate pink, but this combination works well, I think.

Projects galore!

 My blog seems to have been rather embroidery-biased over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share a few bits and pieces I made for Christmas.  Above is a collage (created courtesy of Picmonkey) showing some of the jewellery and decorations I made for various friends and colleagues.  I made some polymer clay decorations and adapted the gemstones, colours and sentiments to suit the recipient.  I think they were liked!  The macrame bracelets were for presents too, as was the memory wire one. I have now purchased lots of little gemstone chips and nuggets to make lots more memory wire bracelets.

My other main project was another rabbit, as my friend who saw my originals asked how much one would be, so I suggested making her one for Christmas.  (They take me a long time to make, with many trials, tribulations and frustrations along the way, so if I charged for them, the cost would be prohibitive).  She asked for a Spring colouring for her rabbit, so off I went.  She ended up being a bit like a daffodil and the ear material was from the puffed sleeve dress which started this whole rabbit thing.

 Before I gave her to her new owner, I did a little photo shoot with my original rabbits...they looked rather aloof and uninterested, I thought.

All three together for the last time.  The yellow rabbit's new owner seemed very pleased and had decided to call her 'Martha' which does suit her (I haven't even got round to naming mine yet - 'the pink one' and 'the blue one' is as far as I have got.)

Latest bracelets

Here's the latest bracelets I have made - for a colleague's birthday.  She likes black and white, hence the choice of monochrome!  Above is a macrame bracelet using striped agate, rutile quartz and crackled quartz.

This is my second memory wire bracelet and I used black rutile quartz chips, black agate bicones, white pearls and silver pearls.  I am enjoying using memory wire as you don't need any findings and it is quite a meditative experience to thread the chips on.  My colleague was really pleased with the jewellery and said the the memory wire bracelet would be a 'going out' one!

Four Happy Things Swap

 I recently took part in Bobo Bun's Four Happy Things swap which was great fun.  The idea was to include one thing from childhood, one thing in your favourite colour, one thing vintage/retro and one thing handmade.  I was partnered up with the lovely simply vintage and we emailed a couple of times and then it was all systems go.

The parcels were duly exchanged and the unwrapping began! I was extremely lucky and received some beautiful gifts.  Above is the childhood collection - sweets, ribbons and little gardening buttons all in a Flower Fairy tin.  I loved the Flower Fairy books when I was little.

The vintage thing was four beautiful embroidered napkins, in lovely seasonal Spring colours.

The favourite colour thing was an egg shaped tin containing an egg shaped soap.

The handmade thing was a ribbon bookmark, made by simply vintage, with a ladybird on one end and a leaf on the other.  As a wonderful added extra, she had added a book, all about gardening tips.  

 Here it all is - wasn't I lucky again?  Thank you so much to simply vintage, who was a perfect and very generous swap partner. 
What did I send?

 Here are my four happy things waiting to be wrapped for posting.

 The childhood thing - Lindt chocolate (I remember little Lindt moulded animals with flat backs, which tasted creamy and gorgeous, from when I was little) and Iced Gems (which were PARTY FOOD to me, as we only had them when there was a party).

 My vintage thing was this cake plate from the 1930s/1940s or thereabouts.

 The favourite colour thing was a blue macrame bracelet with agate, sodalite, fire agate, lapis lazuli, aventurine, quartzite and a polymer clay bead.

The handmade thing was a felt heart made from the wool of my sister's sheep (well, you knew that jewellery and felt would be featuring, didn't you?)
I really enjoyed this swap, so many thanks to Mrs Bun for organising it and to my swap partner, who was fantastic.