Variations on a theme

As much as I do love crocheting, it can take some time to finish a project especially if I’m working on a blanket.  I’ve got 2 blankets on the go and another longish project in the pipeline but I just had the urge for a quick crafting fix. A bit of crafting where I could achieve a finished product in one evening. My go to craft for a quick fix is often cards. I find it really difficult to make cards for a particular person or occasion but sometimes I’ll just get an idea of a theme and make a few variations. This time it was flowers:

I’m really taken with these flowers, they’re just so fresh looking and perfect for Spring. These cards were the inspiration behind the flower bag in my last post Easy no-sew embellished bags. They were so simple but enjoyable to make and I’m so pleased with the outcome.  Making these cards has reminded me how much I enjoy card making, it really gives me a sense of achievement, I really must start setting aside time every now and then for an evening of card making.

What’s your go to for a quick crafty fix?

Karen x

 

Easy no-sew embellished bags

I am so so chuffed with these little beauties! I’ve had these canvas bags for a while with the intention of decorating them in some way but the right idea just hadn’t come along. I had thought of maybe drawing on them using fabric pens but I couldn’t think of a design. Anyhow, I was having a poke around in my craft room this weekend and rediscovered some bondaweb and some hearts I had cut out for a project a few years ago. The idea of using fabric to embellish the bags was born. I utilised some of the hearts I found and after making some flower cards (blog post to follow) I decided on upsizing the idea to use on  one of the bags.

These bags were so easy to make:

  1. Cut out the desired shapes from fabric.
  2. Cut out the shapes again, this time from Bondaweb.
  3. Iron the Bondaweb onto each of the fabric pieces.
  4. Assemble the pieces onto the bag and then iron into place (I steam iron through a tea towel).

Hey presto.

 

Lovely as both bags looked, I just couldn’t leave it there, my button box was calling me and the centre of the flower was just the place. What do you think?

Obviously the button was sewn on but could  just as easily have been glue gunned in place.

(Apologies for the lighting in the photos in this post but I just couldn’t wait for tomorrow and better lighting, my impatient brain decided that they needed photographing NOW!)

Little Miss has decided she wants a bag too and the ideas are already whirring. I’d better get cracking on it soon, she’s even more impatient than me!

Karen x x

Painting in a bag!

Last week Little Miss was off kindergarten poorly for a day. She was too poorly to go to kindergarten but still needed occupying (as did I after 2 mind numbing hours of CBeebies!) and was desperate to paint.  I had seen this activity posted on Facebook last week and had to try it out. It was fairly quick,  so much fun (for both of us), so little mess and produced some lovely art work away from the usual muddy coloured painting when all the colours get mixed together! here’s how we did it…

Step 1: squirt blobs of paint onto a canvas

step 2: pop the canvas into a clear sandwich bag or cover with clingfilm

step 3: ‘paint’ with your fingers  until the colours spread around the canvas

step 4: when you’re done ‘painting,’ peel off the plastic

 

step 5: take a blank piece of paper and press the plastic onto the paper to make a print with the excess paint

And hey presto, two colourful pieces of art work…

Karen x

Decorating Eggs

I love the Easter tradition here in Germany of hanging little plastic eggs in the home and on trees outside, it  provides a much needed injection of colour after a dreary winter. For several years I have taken part in the tradition at home and have also decorated these little eggs at school with the children. It pleases me no end that Little Miss is now of the age where, not only does she want to help me hang the eggs up but she takes great pleasure in painting them too.

We had so much fun painting eggs on Saturday that she requested we do it all over again on Sunday.

To start with we were drying the eggs on cut up toilet roll tubes but then I discovered that they stick as they dry and leave a little line around the eggs as you peel them off, so my lovely hubby came up with this fab idea…

What crafty things have you been up to recently?

Karen x

The Power of Pottering

Sometimes you just can’t beat a good potter and that’s pretty much what this last weekend was all about here. Usually on a Saturday morning I get up and go for an early run (because, lets face it, with a 3 year old in the house, lie ins are few and far between anyway). However, that morning quite frankly, I just couldn’t find the motivation. By the time I had been downstairs and made a cup of tea, Little Miss was sat in our bed playing games (educational, honest!) on my ipad and hubby was dozing. So, I thought sod it, I’m going to potter. I tidied up my wardrobe, bagged up some clothes for the clothes bank and thrift shop, did a few housey bits I’ve been meaning to do for ages, like topping up the soil in the house plants, and tidying round and I have to say, it felt great. Sometimes there’s  nothing better than doing little jobs around the house (when you’re in the mood for it!). I love having a clear out! Every time I take a bag of ‘stuff’  out of the house, I feel a bit like  a weight has been lifted, like the house can breathe a bit more. I really do think clearing out your stuff helps to clear out your mind too!

After a bit of further pottering around the house we went for a walk into town and a potter around the shops. It was a lovely spring morning, coolish but dry and a little bit sunny and on the way we noticed  spring flowers  peeking their heads out, bringing some much needed colour amongst the still bare trees. The sight of those spring flowers, crocuses, snowdrops, really does make my heart happy. We may have had rain since and be forecast even more as the week goes on but those little blooms are definite proof that spring is on its way, yippee!

At the shops we got a few bits for little Miss (I’ve never seen someone so excited at the prospect of new socks, pants and pyjamas – but they did have Elsa from Frozen on!) Then we took a wander around one of my favourite shops that sells lots of tat (you cant go wrong with a bit of tat sometimes) but also some lovely crafty things. I actually only went in for some crafty bits for little miss, eggs to decorate and canvases to paint but I also found these lovely little packs of spring coloured and glittery cotton, perfect for crocheting small spring flowers and this polystyrene ring and so my next project was decided… a flowery spring wreath, which I’ll hopefully have finished before Easter.

 

The rest of the weekend went on in the same relaxed way, decorating and hanging the eggs (I know we’re a little early but I needed some injection of spring colour right now!). I just love that little miss seems to developing my fondness for all things crafy too, although I do have to step back a bit and remind myself not to take over sometimes! We had so much fun painting and hanging the eggs that I think they deserve their own post (to follow soon)

 

On Sunday we went for a lovely long walk and I managed to fit in a few rows of crocheting on my granny stripe blanket. All in all a much needed, lovely relaxed family weekend.

Karen x