merry christmas and a happily crafty new year!

sizzix dictionary snowflakes

we had a lovely Christmas break - i hope you all did too - just posting a few festive photo's today - my computer has come back from the brink of doom i thought i was going to lose it and everything on it - scary - there are still some things i can't get back to normal including FLICKR which is driving me crazy as i have christmas money to go "pro" and stacks of photo's to upload.

do you see these gorgeous vintage glass baubles?

i begged my mum to lend them to me

i lovingly hung them on my tree

they look beautiful .

do you see my mum's other lovely vintage glass baubles?

my loving partner decided i was taking too long putting up the christmas decorations

he decided to put them away

at the same time as he was carrying lots of other things

we have a tiled hallway

guess what?

they don't bounce

GRRRRRR

lucky for him i was looking after pre-schoolers that day

but i nearly cried

and i haven't told my mum yet

yep - i live with DR WHO

i spent the time left between cooking dinner, eating sweets and unwrapping presents

making this adipose felt brooch for my Mum

here's me and DR WHO out for a walk on christmas day walking off our HUGE dinner!

******third prize******

thank-you to everyone who voted for my christmas tree

i came third which i am really proud of :0)

the cute angels won - they were very sweet - i voted for them myself!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17778320

still available to buy on etsy!!!

vote vote vote!!!

ooohhh look my vintage button christmas tree got featured on Shirley at BeadBag's blog

http://beadbag.blogspot.com/

Shirley's blog is really interesting and full of colour and inspiration

it's well worth a look

i entered my christmas tree in the craftjuice christmas competition and it is doing really well

BUT i need more votes!

so if you love it please vote for it !

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=vintage_haberdashery_christmas_trees-2

the competition runs intil the 19th of December

but look here

there are loads of other really great entries in the competition

here are my favourites - in no particular order!

pennydog's glittery fawn

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Snowy_Reindeer_resin_pendant

claire p's fat robin!

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Rolley_Robin

majito's cute angels

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Etsy

_o1keeshagirls gorgeous porcelain angels

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Etsy__keeshagirl4__German_porcelian_doll_ornament

leah's winning stockings from the crafter...oo competition

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Christmas_Wall_Hanging__Stockings

and Jezzabell's soft and snuggly mittens

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=Etsy__jezzabell13__Frosted_Crochet_Mitten

so get voting people!


please!

crafter..oo

have you all checked out the crafter..oo forum yet?

it's a great place to

- make friends - get advice - get inspired - show off your crafting -

you can also add your shops and blogs to your signature so it's free advertising as well

i've made loads of great new friends over there

hope to see you over there soon!

http://www.crafteroo.co.uk/

buy handmade!

i was just mooching about on flickr minding my own business when i found this gorgeous and totally appropriate doll made by imagingermonkey http://www.imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/
i say totally appropriate because it was my bestest friends baby daughters first birthday a couple of days later and her extremely cute little girl is called "Holly" as was said dolly!
and it has no buttons or bits baby Holly will chew off - yeah!! Well i HAD to buy her, didn't i?


i think she got here just in time - you can see in these photo's she arrived to beautiful sunshine - yeah it's cold but if you look on her creators blog they had SNOW i'm pretty jealous actually we don't get snow maybe 'cause of the salt air?


it was lovely to see one of gingermonkeys creations in the flesh/fabric!
the whole family loved her
especially my son who said "oooohh she is really coot if you bought me one of dem it would sleep in my bed"
hmmmmm d'ya think that's a subtle hint?
anyhow i'd highly recommend one of these cute dollies
BUY HANDMADE
it feels good!

we make folksy angels christmas competition

*EDITED*

i entered the folksy angels christmas decoration competition - the brief was to make a decoration from recycled items or items from your craft stash - no buying new supplies!

here's my entry - as usual i worked right up to the deadline and submitted my entry only to find the deadline had been extended! So my photo ain't great as i had to photograph in artificial light - bah!

i choose this photo as my entry as a especially liked the view of the chaos which is my craft table behind her!!!

i made my angel with help from my sizzix machine - she is made of totally recycled papers - her body is from a dried dog food bag - her wings from a foil crisp packet,newspaper and vintage sheet music - her dress is from vintage sheet music and her hair is from a page from a vintage bible - her halo is made of copper wire rescued from my jewellery making stash, oh and some glitter an inevitable store cupboard need with toddler crafts!

please go and check out the other twenty-four entries and vote for you favourite here http://blog.folksy.com/2008/12/2/vote-for-t-angels now!

voting ends tomorrow - i think!

*****VOTING FINISHED - IF ANYONE DID READ THIS AND VOTED FOR ME THANK-YOU!

I DID QUITE WELL REALLY - I ONLY GOT 15 VOTES BUT BY MY WORKING OUT THAT MEANS I CAME 5th WITH ABOUT 6% OF THE VOTES!

THE WINNER - NIFTY KNITS WON BY A MILE - WELL DONE NIFTY KNITS!!! *****

i especially love these

nice cup of tea?

last night i made this felt brooch for my Auntie Jane's birthday - she is a tea addict!

i was completely inspired by cute designs

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5387167

http://cutedesigns.blogspot.com/

who makes super cute felt brooches and crochet creatures.

photo in natural light

photo in artificial light

look at these nice buttons - i found them in the ELC for 80p !!

some new girls

this set is little, she stands at just under 3"

unusual colouring and pattern too.

They will live in my new cabinet.

don't know what's up with blogger but it has refused to let me tidy up this post - grrrr

"bUtToN wEeK"

it been declared "button week" over on button floozies were i also blog - here's my latest post

http://buttonfloozies.blogspot.com/2008/11/brilliant-handmade-buttons-for-button.html

featuring some gorgeous handmade buttons like these!

go take a look!

- GIVEAWAY - GIVEAWAY - GIVEAWAY -

Suzanne over at CHICKADEE CARDS is having a giveaway on her blog - she makes really gorgeous intricately beaded jewellery , beautiful cards and jewellery rolls - please go and check out her lovely blog and enter the draw to win a gorgeous prize!

here is my favourite piece - hands off!

http://chickadeecards.blogspot.com/

etsy treasury

oooohhh look the lovely pennydog put me in her etsy treasury!!! thank you so much pennydog http://pennydog.wordpress.com/ xxxxxxx



://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=20893

and then incywincy featured my button tree on her blog here

http://incywincytogs.blogspot.com/2008/11/treasury-and-more-buttons.html

i feel famous today ! thanks girls.

christmas button tree

Last week i made this button tree - i'm sooooooooo pleased with it!
and just in case you didn't know - you can click on any of my photo's to see them BIGGER!!!

vintage button tree in mother-of-pearl button snow

vintage button tree - wooden spool tree - thimble tree & knitting nancy!

as it has many of my favourite buttons on i have only pinned them on with pearl-headed pins - so it can be dismantled after christmas.

{Incywincy says they look like fairy lights!}


It is made with a styrofoam cone shape re-cycled from a previous decoration i made years ago, i wrapped a piece of black felt{which was being thrown out by a friend of MIL's} around it and pinned this in place , then i covered the shape with a layer of green buttons with a few red ones and then started layering it up with lots of floral buttons and the three bakelite swallows and four gorgeous "bambi" buttons - i mainly stuck to green, red & black buttons but i can see me repeating this idea in candy colours for easter and i think it would look great as a hallow'een tree in purple, orange, green & black colourway too.

{This project is made with completely re-cycled supples the only thing i bought new were the pins and i'd bought them to go in the cupcake pincushion and had only used a few.}

unfortunately the photo's aren't as good as i'd of liked because the light quality has been awfull lately it's either been grey and overcast or the sunshine has been pouring through the window bleaching all the colours out!! I'm thinking about going on a basic photography course as i'd love to improve my photo's , i really need to force myself out of the house in the winter though as it's so nice and cosy indoors.

i went shopping today and went to the shop i used to work at {for sixteen years} http://www.bluegallery.co.uk/ and bought more styrofoam shapes - i might actually run out of suitable coloured buttons - i feel eBay calling!!! I was supposed to be making a start on christmas shopping today but was pretty much unsuccessful - if i only had to buy for little kids i'd do fine there are so many nice toys and books and clothes - grown ups are really hard to buy for especially MEN.

right i'm off to put more photo's on flickr, then an early-ish night as i'm working tomorrow - that's two days this week - i'm out of practice and will be exhausted by tea-time!!

time flies . . . . .

i find it very hard to resist these vintage floral buttons - the violet daisy has to be my new favourite!

i'm afraid i haven't got anything crafty to show you this week - i have made something very gorgeous BUT it is a secret for now! oh. . . . . i just can't resist showing a little glimpse of it . . . .

i have however been buying "STUFF" as my partner would call it {that's when he's being polite} so i will share my thrifty goodies with you instead!

what a sweet little face this "heidi" has, i found this lovely but battered book in the most bargain of bargain bins along with a copy of "lolita" and "good wives" and another book i'd never heard of and bought purely because it was in large print - these books are destined for re-cycling in my altered art but i'm going to have to keep the loose cover of "heidi" .

found this little stack of vintage dishes and couldn't resist them i thought they'd be great for displaying/photographing buttons in - isn't it strange how our{maybe it's just me!}tastes change with age - ten years ago i wouldn't have given these a second glance - now i may even use them to eat from!

below are two vintage aprons - one looks almost perfect and it's twin is rather worn and much more "vintage-y" lovely soft fabric.

and i also bought a couple of vintage embroidered cushion cases - i actually "know" what i'll do with these!

cupcake swap goodies!

ooh - look at all my goodies!

this is what i received from Alex - a lovely cupcake applique picture - a ceramic cupcake - a cute drawstring bag in cupcake fabric and an applique cupcake card - all very lovely - thanks Alex :0)

and pictured below is what i sent {late} to Alex - sorry about the photo's in this post - can you believe it was too sunny? The colours are so wrong in them but what can you do!

i love the little chimp in this picture so i had to use it - kinda an apology for my lateness in posting!

this little cabinet below has been beckoning to me every single time i walked past the shop window - i'd managed to resist it because it was just so damn expensive - the shop is closing down and everything was 30% off but everytime i walked past the shop was closed so i couldn't buy it - so when i walked past today the owner was packing up the shop into a van and the frame was sitting on the counter i walked past still resisting but on my way back past i could bear it no longer so i went to the door and asked if i could buy it - i got it for less than half the original price - i didn't even have to haggle!! yeah ! I'm going to keep all my creepy little dollies in it and they won't get dusty cause they'll be locked in behind glass -ha ha ha!

see how creepy they are - they are MOVING in this one - eeekkkKK.

{click on the photo}

maybe they didn't like my shining a torch in their faces!