Revamp!

I've been away for a month! I knew it had been a while since my last post but a whole month has shocked me! Unfortunately though I haven't really been crafting so haven't had much to share. That's the problem with being really ill is that even your favourite things become a chore :(

I have been dragging my butt into the shop and selling lots of things to some lovely people so I need to do lots of replenishing this month so hopefully there will be lots of posts over the next few weeks to catch up with!

The past 2 days have all been about revamping, upcycling, breathing fresh life into old clothes. There's never much need to throw things away, its a huge problem our society is conditioned with; if we don't throw things out then how will we have room for all the new things that we need to buy!! Oh how I hate the commercial, capitalist world we live in! Maybe this post can inspire some folks to take a step back and just update the wardrobe they already have rather than constantly buying new.

I went to town with some great charity shop finds and some screen printing. 

The first two pieces are a St Michaels shirt and a handmade vintage dress both on beautiful emerald green shades and I used a new screen print of mine 'happily ever after' to print onto the backs. I'd made the screen up to print some cushions with but decided it worked on these items too!

I picked up a few tshirts and vest tops on my collecting days and cheered them up with a few carousel horses, lions and zebras. The red and white tshirt below I also added a blue and white spotty pocket for a bit of extra colour. The stripey dress was also a handmade vintage piece that I added some balloons and also a big red polka dot pocket to.

I've also been working on a range of jumpers to sell in the shop. I wanted to combine my love of printing onto found fabrics with cosy jumpers and lots of lace and this was the result! Each is a one off piece.

Printing Day!!

So today was printing day!! I haven't had time to have a full day down at the PrintHaus in ages so made time to spend as much time as possible there today!

I started the morning cleaning up a few old messy screens and then exposed a zebra repeat onto a fresh one!

I've printed this design before but the cushions that I made form the fabric sold straight away so it only made sense to make some more! I used a waterbased ink first in a dark bluey green and then I messed about with mixing colours together - I went for a classic pink and purple combo. I think i need to make more of a gradient of the colour next time though.

I'd also put my favourite lion design on a screen before Christmas and still hadn't got around to using it so went to town printing loads of pieces in different colours.

  

I also took the opportunity to print on a pile of pashmina's that I'd picked up from eBay last week.

  

  

Ah I am now exhausted after a long day but feeling good. I can't wait for my next printing session, I'm definitely going to make sure its soon! 

No Rain in These Clouds just Fluff!

I've not been very well this week so thought I'd share something nice to cheer up everyone's day! I've made a couple of cloud plushy cushions. They are so super easy and fun to make too.

I started off by cutting out a simple cloud shape from some blue and white polka dot fabric and appliqueing on a smaller cloud shape in a blue and white stripe. I love the combination of spots and stripes. It was always considered a fashion faux when I was growing up and I do love going against the grain eh! haha.

I used a zig zag stitch to secure the mini clouds and then putting the right sides together used a straight stitch to sew around the edge, leaving a small gap at the bottom to turn it through of course.

To get the fabric to sit well on the curve when turned inside out you need to notch into the seam allowance. This will insure the fabric doesn't buckle and look all lumpy.

Once it was done I gave it a quick iron and went crazy with my big bag of toy stuffing!

Voila a pretty cloudy sky for your sofa!

 

Cacti in the Snow....

So on Friday we awoke to an almighty dump of snow. My friend Grace is currently staying with us from London and she'd asked the night before if she thought it would be a problem going to work the next day and I'd been so sure of myself when I told her we were too close to the coast for it to be a problem; more likely just get slush and freezing rain here! Oh how I gleefully ate my words! This was our view at 7am that morning!

Grace was a good girl and missioned it into work.I however had the day off to play with Thom and run around the fields at the end of the road :)

After we returned in from our play time I felt inspired to crochet; so I made a few cacti!

I'd spotted a pile of old pots in the garden so after I washed them all out I set to fill them with fun easy to maintain greenery.

 

This one i made by crocheting an oblong of ribbed by only going into the back loops and then used a running stitch to gather it in at the top. The others I created by crocheting in the round and then stitching the blobs together. I'm enjoying the fact that there are endless possibilities!

Unfortunately for now I'm not very well and am feeling very frustrated at my body for being weak and pitiful. I've had to turn the brightness on my laptop screen down to one to be even able to squint at it! Meh!! I do have Zorro keeping me company though.

Crafster Best of 2012!!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2012 Winner!

Ah I'm having a little gushing moment. I've just had my day made by my favourite craft forum. As most of my blog reader know I love Crafster and think it's an amazing way to bring crafty people from all over the world together to share ideas and how to's. 

Each January they do a sum up of the past year in their favourite posts and organise a top 5 from each of the catagories. Last year I was lucky enough to win a position in the list with  Core Blimey a jacket that I'd made for the first PrintHaus exhibition. 

 
This year however I won for 2 different posts! How awesome is that! 

The first is for a piece I made for my swap buddy sheepBlue using my space print and embroidering into it.  You can read the full post here

The other was for a post that I'd written at the begining of the year about my balloon screen prints showing the steps I'd taken to transform the fabric through from start to finished project as a purse!

Read the full post here

Ah what a rad way to start the day! If you have some time to kill I highly recommend looking through the full list of Best of's from across the whole forum; super inspiring!

Here's to 2013, more crafting to follow soon!!!

Happy New Year Work in Progress.

I've been struggling to get back into writing a blog post since the whole Christmas/ New Year tide but today in South Wales we have crazy snow and I am off work so thought I shouldn't waste any more time and get on with it!
I wanted to post about a beautiful embroidered cushion that I made before Christmas but eek my boyfriend managed to delete the photos accidentally from the memory card. Boooo! Hopefully the lovely Lucy (who received said pillow for Crimbo) will be kind enough to send me some photos and then I can share!

I do have a whole host of other bits and pieces I've been working on that I can just bamboozle you all with in the mean time. I'm in a phase of working on a few different things at the moment and not all are finished yet so bear with me and I'll explain all!

Record Bowls! 
Yes I have been making tonnes more bowls! They're the new sensation - I'm selling loads from the shop at the moment, even after the Christmas gift buying days are long gone. I was given a pile of warped 7"s so have been making miniature ones as well and playing round with different wave forms for the edges.

Shrinkies!
I've also been trying my hand at a new technique of making jewellery, well new to me - I am very aware that it's been around for ages and I'm slow to catch on here haha. Ah it is super cool being able to create pieces with my own drawings and for future ones I'm planing on screen printing onto the plastic instead of hand drawing everyone with permanent markers. I'm also in love with how small they go, great potential there! I will do a full length post on this once I've finished them all and created the final pieces.

Felty Badges and Necklaces too!
I've been stitching up some more little felt creations which has been fun. I've been making lots of little bits and pieces whilst idling the time away in the shop. Mr Foxy and Mr Panda were turned into necklaces which look really sweet. I attached jump rings to their ears and then onto the chain. They've already disappeared out of the shop with a lovely young gent buying gifts for his travelling friends; I hope they like them.

 
Hmm I'm thinking I may end it there for today and pick back up with another post over the weekend! Keep you waiting for the even better stuff haha. 
Here's to a crafty 2013 x