The making of Happy Trees

Step One :: Spend every free minute cutting out polka dot felt and sewing cute little faces. Curse your day job getting in the way of smiley face making (except the week which contains a pay day like this week!) At the end of the week you will have something like this ::

Step Two :: Dust down your sewing machine, haul it from it's stored-away place onto the temporary table and sew your happy trees up, remember to give your trusty sewing machine a pat for not chewing up the bobbin, even though he's been neglected for a while ::

Step Three :: Turn your Happy Trees round the right way, using a high-tech poking tool (pencil) and pile them all up because they look cute like that ::

Step Four :: Add another photo because it's accidentally got the sewing machine in the background and it looks quite good, almost like I meant to do it!

Step five :: Remember to take pictures of finished trees before the sun goes in, other wise you'll have to do it in the morning before work!

hmmmmm......

beans are escaping

today I nearly get to spill the beans on a project I have been working on for a few months ::

In the Summer I was contacted by the folks at The Red Porch and invited to join their design team for the re-launch of their website...it goes live on Monday 1st December (which is when I can truly spill the beans) but if you sign up before then you'll receive a FREE sample kit, with something from all their designers.

Sorry to be a bit cryptic, but it's all a great BIG secret till Monday!

a slightly slower pace of craft

John's brother has come to stay for a while...our flat only has one bedroom which means our living room gets turned into a spare room...and our living room already doubles up as paper-and-string headquarters, so as you can imagine crafty things have slowed down a little around here!

I spent quite a good portion of the day with my pile of happy trees but nothing to show just yet, instead the pictures are of a new bear I made last week, and a new felt box that I put the finishing touches to the other day

:-)

apples and pears

One of these is already spoken for but the other is in the shop right now!

Tomorrow I am having a day making polka dot happy trees, a whole day! can you imagine the fun!

S U N D A Y

I LOVE Sunday's.

When I was a teenager at school, and then a student at Uni, I used to think Sunday's were boring. A lot of my Sunday's were used to recover from Saturday-night-out-hangover and many a Sunday was spent watching The Waltons and eating Kinder Eggs (our student house used to collect kinder egg toys, we had about 300 when we finally moved out!)

Now I LOVE Sunday's. TV still features sometimes (like today, Columbo is on) and food is still high on the list...normally sausage casserole or a Roast Chicken...with lots of coffee, and lounging in Pyjamas for a little too long, reading the papers and doing the puzzles.

I always plan lots of sewing for Sundays, in fact there is normally more on the to do list than is physically possible, so I'd better get on with it...felt Christmas Puddings, here I come!

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day Six

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

Welcome to the last day of my Handmade Gift Inspiration Week...today will be a little heavy on the links because I want to share all the wonderful new blogs I've come across throughout this process, and because it's the weekend you have plenty of time to explore!

The list is made up from all the peeps with crafty blogs who commented, and is in no particular order ::
Madison Avenue Baby

CraftyB (who has just re-visited a covered button tutorial)

picture from :: Suzy Homemaker

Button Tree Crafts

The world of twiggy pea sticks

Oh2122

The Stash Basket

picture from :: underthebigbluesky

Sockmania

Under the big blue sky

Kitty Wrinkle

Apple Valley

Scraps and Whatnot

picture from :: Scraps and Whatnot

Indigo Blue

Bagladee

Knitty Knit

picture from :: bagladee
Suzy Homemaker

Claire's Crafty Blog

DollyDollop

picture from :: Knitty Knit

Rachel

Erin K Creations

picture from :: Claire's Crafty Blog
Dreaming of Daisies

A HUGE thank you to everyone who made this week of posts possible, I've had great fun writing them and I hope you have enjoyed reading them!

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day Five

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

First up today is a tutorial left in the comments section yesterday, it was suggested by SwirlyArts and is a very detailed how-to created by TipTopToppers, showing every step to create your very own gift box ::

Jojoebi is another generous crafter who left A LOT of links *thank you*...she is certainly going to be busy making gifts for Christmas!

Her son will be getting a play mat, via PlumPudding's blog ::

Two lucky toddlers will be getting some of Jojoebi's fabulous felt food ::

and two lucky little girls will each be getting a mermaid doll, which JoJoebi has turned into a PDF pattern, I LOVE her hair!

she's also making a super-hero cape for her nephew...I'd certainly like to see that when it's done :-)

Ann and Sam are also very busy preparing for Christmas, in the kitchen making Christmas cake and Piccalilli ::

and on the sewing machine making Japanese Room Slippers from a gorgeous etsy shop which is chock-full of inspiring patterns ::

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day Four

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

Greetings Art *hi!* very kindly left a link to a whole selection of tutorials on her blog, and there truly is something for every kind of crafter!

Papercrafters will love making post-it note books ::

Felt lovers will enjoy making bookmarks ::

People talented with The Hook will love this flower ::

and Fabric Addicts can get scrap happy with a new quilt block ::

Kelly kindly shared a couple of tutorials, both for sewers, the first is a pair of super-cute baby shoes from a blog called On Pins and Needles ::

and the second is for a yummy pin cushion from a blog called Bari J

which prompted the cogs in my memory (hey, I'm getting up early to do these posts!) to remember that Anna Marie Horner also has a Pincushion Tutorial...except I remembered wrong and it's actually Heather Bailey! oops!

Heather Bailey has a library of patterns to make on the right hand side of her blog, including a pincushion and some baby shoes, she also has some tutorials, I love this yo-yo making tutorial ::

And whilst I was on Anna Marie Horner's Blog, (looking for a pincushion, duh!) I re-discovered her owl ornament tutorial ::

AND a felt garland tutorial...

both just perfect for Gift Inspiration Week :-)

I'll stop here today, before my wonky memory leads me further into Blogworld...

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day Three

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

Today's first tutorial is one that I have found whilst wandering round Blogland.

It's on a blog called WhiMSy Love and it's a FANTASTIC tutorial for making felt toppers (for pencils, or for decorating cakes or cupcakes) There are loads of design ideas and would be a great introduction for crafters who are not yet accustomed to the wonderful world of felt craft :-)

Today's second, and final set of links, is from a very prolific crafter, one of the freebie winners: CiYou. Her blog is chock-a-block with crafting, there are no direct tutorials but there are loads of hints and tips throughout the blog. The following are the projects which caught my eye ::

hand carved rubber stamps which can be used to print onto fabric

mini fimo doughnuts on decorated pegs ::

and beautiful fabric flower brooches ::

ENJOY !

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day Two

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.
This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.
I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

No tutorial, but still inspirational, Gillian *Iheart crafts* has been sewing Christmas Decorations ::

3 Frogs shared another link, this time to a covered notebook on the Brassy Apple Blog

There isn't a tutorial yet BUT if you ask nicely Sarah may sort one out for us all, and then we too could make our own Christmas wreath ::


Embroidery next ::

Average Jane Crafter pointed me in the direction for this great free PDF to embroider for Christmas, from Nini Makes.


I'll be back with more tomorrow :-)

Handmade Gift Inspiration Week :: Day One

Regular readers will know that for my last freebie draw I asked all entries to include ideas or links to tutorials showing gifts that will be Handmade this Christmas.

This week my blog will be devoted to sharing the amazing ideas and craft work people linked to.

I hope you all enjoy it and I hope it inspires you too :-)

Shelley has been busy making Christmas Ornaments, look at her fab Snowman and Santa Claus ::

Ruthie linked to her blog and I LOVE this card she made

Ruthie uses a die-cutting machine to cut out felt letters...wouldn't that look fab on wrapped-up Christmas parcels?

3 Frogs linked to a tutorial to make a felt board ..... just like giant Fuzzy Felt! and whilst on the JCHandmade site I found a whole load of tutorials! These caught my eye ::

Wall Pocket Tidy Totes! such a GREAT tutorial :-) The JCHandmade blog is chock full of tutorials and eye candy so I'll leave you to go and browse :-)
See you tomorrow!

reindeers and robins

I've been busy sewing, snatching a few minutes here and there to stitch together some Christmas Ornaments.

Tomorrow is the start of Handmade Gift Inspiration Week, which is a rather grand title for my round up from all the comments left on my freebie post :-)
There are some great tutorials and inspiring pictures PLUS loads of new blogs to read.