Crafft class and 2 surprises!

This morning we've been making gift boxes and paper flowers. Super easy to make and really pretty!

I then came home to discover this little guy waiting for me! One of my favourite people in the whole world Miss Appletinitiny has made me a little gift before I go away on my travels! Shame I can't eat this fortune cookie, but he can come with me for good luck instead =)













I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!
I also received some fab news last night. A forum that I love called craftster has put one of my posts as a 'Best of 2011!' Have a look here at the jacket that I made last September.

Awesome Weekend

I've had a great weekend tbh, full of printing, sewing, a craft fair and some amazing food! I've taken loads of photos of my printing to share with you. Enjoy!

I started on Thursday by making up about 6 screens, 4 for my ballon design and 2 for my carosel design. I hadn't done a 4 colour print since I was in uni so fancied the challenge. I love watching the build up of the different colours seeing your images come to life (so to say) on the fabric =)

Laying down some ink!

Went back to the PrintHaus Friday and Saturday and had lots of fun printing and talking cameras and India with Jude.

I try and be productive by working on a few pieces at the same time; you have to wait for each colour to dry before you can print the next one.

This is what I ended up making from the pink fabric you can see on the table above!

This is the carosel design I've been working on too. I was really happy with how thin the lines were I managed to print. When I started back printing last year I was finding super thin detail hard to acheive, so it good to see progress. 

The designs lend themselves well to the purses I've been making. Definitely need to work on some more designs that work either way up.

                                                      

Here are some of my favourite other bits of printing from the weekend too - I love printing on random pieces of found fabrics.

We finished up the weekend by having some amazing food in the Pot Cafe on Crwys Rd. I've had a few tasty brekkies and coffees in there before but when we found out the Ethical Chef was putting on a supper club we had to book a table! Joined by some great friends in the shape of Chris, Becca and Dan, all 5 of us were blown away by the food and the service. I'm sure I'll be at the next one too.

Chairs @ the Printhaus

Today I have been at the PrintHaus, a great screen printing workshop/studio space based in Canton, Cardiff. I've been a member there for nearly a year now and am so grateful for the place. Having a place where I can go screen print anytime of the day or night is amazing! I love being able to give back to an organisation like this that is non-profit but brings such a wealth of experience and equiptment to the community. I've been putting some new designs on screens today, I'm going back to print tomorrow so will do another post for you showing all the goodies over the weekend! For now I just wanted to share a joint project that myself and my friend Kirsty Patrick worked on late last year for the PrintHaus.  Jude (who mostly runs the place) had told us of a few chairs that needed restoring, so we stepped up and went ahead. Kirsty is an amazing furniture upcycler/ restorer, check out her work here.

Anyways this is what we came up with, obvs Kirsty did all the hard work and I just printed the fabric ;) but I love collaborating with other talent artist and this was a fun project.

Craft Class

Tuesday morning I run a small coffee morning where we make little handmade trinkets and things. Our latest creations have been sweet hanging lavender bags. I've just put mine on the living room door handle so I get a scent whenever I walk past! They use such a small amount of fabric I might make a load for my stall @ the weekend!

First Post

So I thought I'd start my blog off with some sneaky peak pictures of what I've been making over the past week or so ready for the new folksy shop I'm setting up. After a few years of making and trading under the name Recycled with Love, I've decided to rebrand and start afresh. As I now have the ability to screen print again after far too long a break, I wanted to have a brand that covered all of what I do from crocheting to sewing to print and illustration. Nelly is an old nickname for Helen and I intend to make the store a treasure trove of all my little pretties!

Anyways this is what I've been making.....

A little collection of coin purses. They measure about 4" x 3" so just enough space for your lippie, keys and pocket money! They're fun to make and don't use up a huge amount of fabric either. So all the fabrics have been screen printed with my doodles and then I've used a mixture of vintage fabrics from my collection to line them.

These larger purses I've made using 8" x  2" silver coloured metal frames with clasps. If you've ever had experience using them before I'd love to hear how you got on with them. It's been an interesting learning curve for me!! So far I've only made one using a smaller frame (I think it's 3" wide) but it is slightly easier than the larger ones.

                    

I've also started making a few new clutch bags with my hand printed fabric. Fully lined and finished off with bias binding and a magnetic clasp. I've added vintage lace that I have been collecting for a while as a secret detail on the inside too.