Crafter...oo - the thursday night project

here is my contribution to this weeks thursday night project on Crafter...oo
i've been feeling very "creative" lately and got some dressmaking patterns very cheap at the charity shop - i've been using them to make packaging{images on flickr} and brooches, i love the aged look to the tissue . . . . so many uses!

finished brooch - very inspired by hen'steeths http://www.hensteethart.blogspot.com/ recent brooches,
sorry for the very dull picture - i think i need to build a lightbox for my photo's .

***
more felt brooches in my folksy shop now!

"forget-me-not"

"heart in hand"

***
i recently did a trade with BigBlueBed, she has a shop on folksy http://www.folksy.com/users/BigBlueBed and sells beautiful handmade dorset buttons in really funky colours, knitwear, belts with vintage braid and buckles and lovely purses and bags,

funky buttons

cute purse

meridian ariel

look what came in the post for me!

my lovely friend meridian ariel sent me this beautiful microwavable lavender scented rice bag & a super cute bookmark both made with gorgeous japanese fabrics

and a sweet handmade matryoshka card


even the jiffy bag it came in was lovely
and decorated with "the button thief" - my favourite of Meri's illustrations

meri has a blog here
http://meridianariel.blogspot.com/
and an etsy shop of the same name
{for some strange reason today i keep losing this post and can't add links?}

**** tHaNk-YoU mEriDiAn you are a star! ****

yeah yeah another felt brooch
i'm sure you're all bored of them now but i sold this one and just wanted to show of the packaging!
Thank-you to Katy who bought it!

"Dawlish"

we went to Dawlish in South Devon to test out my {not quite} father-in-laws holiday let

we had a great time despite the weather - which was no where near as bad as the forcast

these first two photo's were of the model village at Babbington, my son really enjoyed it the was loads to look at including a big train layout and a room of models of film characters, there was also a 4-D theatre which was fun! There were quite a lot of the model houses still under snow from the christmas display and as soon as you walked into that part you felt freezing!

after that we went to the Riviera Center in Torquay, my sons favourite thing to do is go swimming and there is a lovely pool there with a wave machine and a huge water slide, unfortunately(perhaps!) he is just a little too young to be allowed on it but he had a great time anyway.

***

Sunday was a lovely sunny day so we went down to the beach to build some sandcastles and collect shells,

i even found some sea glass.

my daft dog loves to jump in the sea - even in January!


it's a really pretty beach - in fact Dawlish is lovely.


we all had fun on the beach then went back to pack and then my son came down with a temperature , he slept on the way home and was off school monday/tuesday with i guess a virus - i controlled it with nurofen and kept my fingers crossed it wasn't an ear infection.
He was NOT happy to miss school and was quite cross with me!
on wednesday he was fine again and back to school with just a bit of a snuffle.
There seems to be more nasty than usual viruses about this year.

***
"watch the birdy"



i made this new brooch about a week ago but forgot to show it off!
i really like it so i'm keeping this one but may well make one for the shop too!


***
well i'm SO addicted to making felt brooches at the moment i even took some to sew in the evenings in Dawlish too - here's a couple i finished and i also finished off another but it's TOP SECRET for a swap - i love it and can't wait to post a picture!

felt toadstool brooch tutorial

i have posted a tutorial for my felt toadstool brooch over on cutoutandkeep.net

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/felt_toadstool_brooch

i love the site as it has so many great projects on it - my robot brooch tutorial was on the front page as the featured project the other day, i was really proud!

i also made this vintage haberdashery hair-clip a few days ago

i think i have a felt addiction ,

yesterday i made a flower brooch and a super cute owl brooch and today i've so far made two felt oranges and have started on a plum! i'm running out of felt so may have to go shopping for some new supplies!

i've had allsorts of ideas for felt brooches and bought some fab new sizzix dies for super fast cutting! I wish i could design my own dies though . . . .

ONE WHOLE YEAR OF BLOGGING!!!!

***** hApPy NeW yEaR *****

so i've gone felt brooch cRaZy!

they take me ages to make so i don't know if i'll be trying to sell them or not

these first two were quite quick but the later styles take quite a lot of sewing

i'm finding them quite therapeutic to make though!

christmas present for my aunty

christmas present for my artist uncle

i'm still loving the toadstools!

close up!

i found a great website called cut out and keep

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/

where people post tutorials and show off their new projects - it's well worth a look - so far i have made this cute tape measure brooch and helped my daughter make the no sew tu-tu for her new years costume.

i also added a tutorial for these new robot brooches

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/robot_felt_brooch

my daughter was feeling left out so requested a robot - which was great as i wanted to make one anyhow!

"push my buttons!"

"hello!"


so i realised i've been blogging for over a year already!


i've really enjoyed it and have made so many new friends since i started reading blogs and joining forums and doing crafty swaps. Thank-you to everyone who follows my blog and makes time to comment on my posts and my photo's on Flickr - i love to read what you think about my stuff!

i had some bad computer problems at the end of last year and now it's all sorted out and working so much better - luckily nothing was lost BUT i can't get into my flickr account which is driving me nuts especially as i have christmas money to go "pro" - hoping to get this resolved very soon as i really want to make a compilation picture of all the things i made this year.

ps. i told my Mum about the bauble tragedy and i'm still alive to tell the tale