heeellloooooo i'mmmm ssslllooowwww

I made a present for my niece ::

A great BIG tortoise cushion

He's a very happy chappy, but he doesn't move very fast !!

Here he is with some cotton reels so you can see how big he is.

He is made from denim and polka dot corduroy with fleece head and feet. He takes A LOT of stuffing but he is so much fun I think I'll be making more :-)

yippee!!

look look look........

this is the shop in Plymouth that placed an order with me recently. My Mum and Dad went to take a look and Dad took a couple of photos. (because my parents are just the best!)

It's SO great to see my little felt creations in a window display alongside some other lovely creations.

Don't they look happy to be there?

I have a BIG grin plastered over my face right now!!

incoming and outgoing

I really am doing my bit to keep the postmen busy!!

These little tortoises have been sent to a tortoise mad little girl ::

These are all the freebies wrapped and ready to go (in fact 3 have already gone)It was fun wrapping them and making them look Christmas-yand today the postman delivered a little monkey card and a gorgeous brooch from my friend

winners ::

I cut and pasted and printed all of your (really very kind, thank you) comments and popped them in a pot ::

I pulled out 4 bits of paper and they were ::Kitty, LucyKateCrafts, Ann and Sam AND Working Mom Knits

Well done girls!!

please email your address to paperandstring@btopenworld.com and I'll pop your prizes in the post

MERRY CHRISTMAS

my first ever.....

.....Etsy Treasury!!

Just look how cute they all are!!

Don't forget to leave a comment here if you want to have a chance of winning a freebie!

freebie day is back...hooray!!

why?

because I like freebies!

because I passed the milestone of 200 blog posts published (this is post 208)!

AND because it's nearly Christmas!

when?

now!

leave a comment on this post to be entered in to the draw. The draw will take place on Sunday 9th December, around 5pm

what?

4 lucky people will each win ::

:: one snowman embellishment ::

:: one mini tote for your Christmas Tree ::

:: and one Happy Tree ::

HOORAY !

small print :: Items won will NOT glow with an eery yellow light, this is purely the fault of the weather not producing enough sunlight and resulting in BAD photos taken at lunchtime under a lamp !!

wednesday's happenings

A parcel received ::

A Treasury shared (with my sister!) ::AND a Happy Cake Stand re-designed and transformed into a Happy Cake Plate ::Back tomorrow with the last freebie of 2007...it'll be a good one :-)

felt food and happy faces

hello. I am a happy cooking pot!Choose some ingredients :: peas, carrot, potato, onion, chicken leg, mushroom or fish Pop it inside the happy cooking potand you have Happy cooking Pot Stew !!

But what's for dessert?Yum....doughnuts, cookies or pink biscuits
Pink wafer biscuits are my favourite
All served fresh for you on the Happy Cake Stand.

:-)

I think I am addicted

I think I am addicted to blogging. I didn't post all weekend and it felt weird!
After taking part in the blog every day through November thing, I really missed it these past two days. I'm not suggesting that I will post every day from now on but I think I will be round here more than I was before :-)

The pic today is my little pile of packets to take to the post office.

Thursday will be a celebration round these parts because ::

1.) it'll be freebie day

2.) I've past the 200th post milestone

and

3.) tis nearly Christmas ;-)

zipped purse tutorial

ok here we go :: my first ever tutorial....

Measure your zip :: mine is 5 1/2".
Cut out the fabric for your purse. (you'll see what size you need later)
Overlock the edges, or zigzag stitch if you prefer.

Fold over 1cm and iron flat (this is a before picture!!)
Get your sewing machine ready. For practise I used the normal foot but once you are an expert zip putter-inner you can be a whizz with the special zip foot. Line the folded edge up with the raised zip and sew from end to end, stop when you get to the slider ::
Leave the needle in the fabric, raise the foot and slide the slider away from you. Lower the foot and sew until the end.

Repeat that step so both sides are attached to the zip like this ::

This is the crucial bit :: see in the photo below how far away from the edge the silver stop of the zip is? This is what you want :: 1/2" allowance. So when you measure your zip you MUST add 1/2" TWICE to work out how large your fabric needs to be. (you can of course do this step backwards and design the size of your purse first and then buy a zip to fit) This is what it looks like when your zip is going to go wrong (zip stop is too close to the edge) ::So when you have the zip sewn in it's time to sew the purse together. Start from the edge where the zip is and carefully line up the fabric edges (remember they are nice and crisp because you ironed it) Pin this so it can't slip. Sew the edge starting from the non-zip corner, down towards the pinned zip section. Sew right over the zip and back stitch so it is very strong. Don't be scared here...your sewing machine is made to do this :-)Once you have sewn both sides you can sew the bottom too, remember to open the zip before you do this ;-) :: another crucial bit :: look on the left hand side in the photo below...can you see the silver zip stop? see how the stitch line is half way between the edge of the fabric and the silver zip stop? Do it like that!!Trim the corners if you wish but they should turn through fine, with such small seam allowances. Tra-la! your zip ends will look like this ::

Once you are happy with this technique you can change to your zipper foot and sew nice and close to the zip.Yay! now you can sew zips of any size into anything you choose....

chocolate and zips

Today I sent out my last big order before Christmas. The box contains 20 happy trees, 20 reindeer and 10 frogs.

It's on it's way to an independent shop in Plymouth, which is my home town, how weird would it be if people I used to go to school with went in and bought some?? small world huh??

I had to go to the bank too (it's all fun here!) so I went via a newly opened sweet shop and got these ::

Just as sickly as I remember, but the colours are so pretty.

The rest of the day was spent battling zips. I don't know what the equivalent of writer's block is for a sewer but I ran smack into it today! BUT I persevered and eight, yes EIGHT zips later I mastered it!!
hoo-bloody-ray !!!
So tomorrow, to mark the end of blogging-every-day-for-a-month in style, I shall be preparing my first ever tutorial.

If you want your zip purses to end up like this ::


then I'll see you tomorrow ;-)

mr. Zaubermaus

look who arrived here today, all the way from America

mr. zaubermaus :: isn't he cool? He came from a lovely shop on Etsy and I think he is amazing.

could etsy be my new favourite?

I have had my etsy shop since June last year and haven't managed to sell very much
and because it wasn't an instant success for me I gave up and didn't pay it much attention.
But on Sunday I thought I would give it another go and guess what? I sold some things!!
yay!!
Robot Cupcake maker even got featured on a treasury ::

I think that etsy has given me a second chance!!

business and busy-ness

So I received a phone call from my bank.

The fraud department.


Someone has cloned my cash card and got hold of my pin number.


And spent £120. In Ukraine.


I have to wait a good few* working days to have it all paid back.


Bummer.

The good news? it happened BEFORE payday and I didn't have much money in there!! HaHa!!

*no one knows exactly how long right now, could be 48 hours, could be 5 working days!!

It's left me wondering where it was that this happened (the bank thinks it was most probably a petrol station) and it's made me wonder if someone was actually watching me put my pin in *shudder* or if it was a camera? AND I want to know what they bought! Here's hoping they are living it up, just before they get caught ;-)

Onto nice crafty related things ::
This photo is for Katy, it is absolute proof that I am a box geek!

I had quite a few orders to make things for this weekend and decided to use a separate compartment for each one.

you have permission to laugh :-)

my shops are fuller!

The upside of having a RUBBISH craft fair last week means that YAY!! my shops are now fuller :-)
I've topped up my etsy shop but the majority of all the goodies are on my website.

I think this will be my last big update before Christmas so let me know if there is something missing that you wish was there!

Sunshine

This morning was such a lovely sunny morning I thought it would be a good idea to start photographing goodies for my shop update tomorrow. Except my batteries ran out and I didn't take any photos for the blog! So this is all I have :-)

a busy weekend

I've got a busy weekend planned. I'm off to work tomorrow then it's back to crafting for me :-) John has plans to spend his weekend at the garage so I shall be (willingly) lost in the world of craft!
I have orders to finish, new orders to start AND I want to list things in my shop.....
....anyone know how to make time stand still??

Have a good weekend xxx