Recycled Fabric Scrap Earrings

I've been meaning for ages to make some more cover button earrings but just keep forgettting to go actually pick up some cover buttons whenever I'm at the habberdashery shop. So instead I decided to get my recycling hat on and made a few using some cardboard and small scrappy bits of felt and fabric I had lying round.

I started off by cutting out a pile of cardboard disks and then sticking a disk of felt to one side of it to give them a plusher feel.

I dug out my enourmous bag of scraps and found a few different fabrics that had sweet small patterns on them, there's no point using anything with too large a print as it will just get lost. I drew around the disks and added an extra cm to the radius so the fabric disks were about twice the size of the cardboard.

Then using a running stitch I gathered up the fabric and popped the cardboard disk inside.

Hmm not so impressed with the neatness of my felt cutting here, think its time for some new sharp little scissors! As you can probably tell, I've glued down a disk of felt to hold the gathered fabric in place and then another to hold the earring post in place too.
 

I do think they work quite well as a cover button substitute, and will definitely be trying some more - maybe even some different shapes.What do you all think then??

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

Parcel Tape Bracelets.

Screen printers go through huge volumes of parcel tape. I collected a bundle of the cardboard inners from Visible Arts and decided to make some bangles.

I started off by Mod Podging a layer of fabric to the cardboard. It becomes quite stiff with all the glue. I smoothed down all the lumpy bits on the inside.

Using the fabric as a base, I wrapped lace around the tube to create different designs.

I used a hot glue gun to add felt to the inside of the tube. They were slightly too big on the wrist with just the fabric and lace, so I thought it would help make them a little comfier and also a better fit. I ordered a pile of different colour felt off cuts from eBay a few months ago to make felt badges so had a few colours to choose from to match in with the designs. I actually decided to make a feature of it and choose fun colours.

In case I don't get to blog again this week, Merry Christmas everybody xx