Category: Other crafts

A quick fix!

On Thursday night I felt the need for a quick crafting fix, something I could start and finish in one evening…and here it is.

I drew around a heart on the bag in pencil, then took the pencil ‘for a walk’ before colouring in each section with fabric pens. I finished by outlining the heart and each section in black to make the colours stand out. Once it has been ironed it should be colour fast and withstand being machine washed.

I really love how it turned out but I have no idea what I’m going to use it for yet. I have a feeling it’s going to find a use in the craft room (if little miss doesn’t commandeer it for carrying around highly important things such as her stone and acorn collection!) There are lots more ideas for bag designs swimming around in my head so hopefully there may be more to see soon! 🙂

Karen x

Ceramic Pot number 3

After writing yesterday about taking the family to my favourite ceramic studio, it dawned on me that I hadn’t posted about the last pot that I made back at the beginning of July.

Each time I go, I try to use a different technique so that I am learning something new. so, this time I started off by putting tape on the pot to split it into lots of small sections. I had to make sure the tape was stuck down tight so no colour could leak out.

Then I chose 6 bright colours and painted each section fairly randomly, just trying to make sure that no 2 adjacent sections had the same colour.

After letting the paint dry it was time to pull the tape off. I LOVED this bit, seeing the sections emerge and the crisp white lines between each section.

Then I had to leave my pot with the lovely Sabine and wait for it to be glazed. It usually takes a few days for the glazing and I always wait with eager anticipation to see the finished result. Once again I was not disappointed!

 

I think it looks great with the other ones on my craft room desk.

Just 2 days ago I went back to the ceramic studio and decorated  1 last pot for my craft room …watch this space for the piccies!

Karen x

A family visit

At the start of the summer holidays we had a visit from my Mum, Dad, niece and nephew. It actually seems like a really long time ago now but I didn’t want to let it pass undocumented. They arrived on a Saturday lunch time to glorious weather so we made the most of it by spending the afternoon in the garden. The following day we got up early and went out to our local bakery/cafe for a German breakfast consisting of bread rolls, croissants, cheese, salami and ham. Yum yum. Rich, Little Miss and I go fairly often and it is always a highlight of my Mum and Dads visits here. Sunday was all about the food as later that day we went to the Libori. The Libori is a yearly festival with fairground rides, stalls to buy all sorts of bits and bobs that you never knew you needed until you saw them and lots of food and drink stalls. As with most German festivals it’s really just another reason for lots of people to get together and have a good old drink if I’m honest, not that that is a bad thing! Little Miss went on the carousel and then I took my parents and niece and nephew on to the big wheel while  Rich looked after her as she point blank refused to join us despite lots of persuasive tactics. The big wheel isn’t really a ride as such, it’s a little bit like a teeny tiny version of the London eye, it moves around very slowly and gives you a great view over Paderborn. When we got to the top my Mum, who usually doesn’t scare easily, got rather clammy hands and clung on for dear life. She was rather glad to get off it and let her shaking legs recover! After that we had the obligatory German bratwurst and pommes followed by yummy garlic mushrooms. I was a bit rubbish and took very few pictures but if you want to read more about the Libori festival and see some pictures click here.

Unfortunately Monday and Tuesday were very wet miserable days and so we did a bit of shopping and pottering around.

As Wednesday turned out to be another grey day threatening rain, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to pay a visit to my favourite ceramic studio. Unfortunately lots of other people had the same idea and because it was so busy (alongside the fact that I took a restless 3 1/2 year old who can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes, along with me) it wasn’t quite the usual relaxing experience. Nevertheless, everybody enjoyed themselves and came away happy with what they had decorated and with eager anticipation of the finished glazed product. My nephew painted a ‘crazy eyed hungover squirrel!’, my niece sponged a lovely pot with stars for her Mum, my Mum used the bubble blowing technique and some peel off hearts and stars to decorate a pot for her craft room and my Dad was rather pleased with his mug which he painted over peel off stars.

 

 

Now, I had envisaged helping little miss to decorate a plate or a bowl which she could use for her breakfast on a daily basis but as soon as she saw the aeroplane money box she was adamant that she was making a pink aeroplane and there was absolutely no dissuading her!

 

Little Miss’ reaction to her aeroplanewas absolutely lovely. She was so excited when we went to pick it up and she saw that it was so shiny.

When we got it home and she was given  some ‘pennies’ to put in it, her excitement was just priceless. It now has pride of place in our kitchen for all to see! I didn’t make anything this time as I needed to be free to help everyone else at it was their first time, plus I had to keep little Miss on task and stop her from bouncing around the walls and causing havoc! I have since been back and will post pictures just as soon as I pick up the finished article after glazing, eek I’m sooo excited!

Thankfully by the Thursday of my parents visit the weather had improved enough for a walk into Bad Lippspringe and a visit to our local ice cream parlour for waffles and ice cream, yum yum!

On Friday Mum persuaded us to go back into town to revisit the parts of the Libori that we didn’t get to see on our first visit. I was a little bit grumpy about going back as I didn’t relish the idea of walking around the stalls again (over the years I have been to the Libori numerous times so it’s not really that exciting for me any more) but I’m glad we did as I found  a lovely present for a good friend of mine with a special birthday coming up later this year.

All in all it was a lovely visit and as usual went by far too quickly. It was my niece and nephews first visit to Germany and they went home full of news about what a great time they’d had and are eager to come back again. We’d love to have them to visit again but next time I may have to hide the monopoly or set a time limit on the game as I will never get back the 3 evenings I spent being slowly and painfully bankrupted by my nephew!!

Karen x

 

Ceramic pot number 2!

It’s been a while coming as I’ve spent the last week in England visiting family for the half term holidays but here it is, my latest hand decorated ceramic pot, glazed and  home to yet more pens. It now lives on the desk in my craft room. Having handmade/ hand decorated things around me in my craft room really does make me happy. I’ve got so many ideas of more things I’d like to make to have in there such as bunting and crocheted garlands but as always its just finding the time to do it with so many other projects on the go. I will definitely be going back to the ceramic studio very soon though to add to my pots  as I’ve more pens and scissors that could do with bright new homes too. The possibilities are endless…

Karen x

Dotty about crafting!

Last week a friend introduced me to a  local newish ceramic studio:
and oh my I’m hooked. The shop is a beautiful little place, very clean, fairly minimalist and not really how I would have expected a studio to look. It was very tranquil with relaxation music on in the background and tastefully decorated with just some examples of decorated items and of course the bottles of paint, adding a splash of colour.
After a lot of umming and aahing (I was like a kid in a sweet shop!) I decided on decorating a pot to hold some of my pens in the craft room. Then I had the difficult decision of how to decorate it it and what colours to use. There are ideas for techniques both on instruction cards and also on predecorated pots around the shop. It was such a tricky decision but I finally decided on a simple technique for my first time. I painted the inside in a coral colour, the outside in a light turquoise and then added raised spots.
 
I could have decorated so many things as I had tons of ideas whirring around in my head but I limited myself to the one pot for the first time.
I had to leave the pot there to be glazed and fired in the kiln. It was so hard to leave it as I wanted to take it straight home and admire my handiwork but leave it I must. I was able to pick it up a few days later and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. 
I am so much looking forward to going back again very soon as there are so many things I want to make…the possibilities are endless!
Karen x

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