A new craft challenge- house ownership

I've hit one of those landmarks in life that shows that I'm in adult mode, I've started the next big adventure- home ownership!  It isn't much, a little two bedroom place (or rather, one bedroom and one craft room) but I can do what I want with it and no one can complain.

So to ease into my life of DIY I'm going to start with the main bedroom.  Apart from having a faint to strong scent of the previous tenant's smoking habit (urghhhh!!!), it also has a very... brown... feel.  Plus I won't be into the place properly for a few more days yet since I'm hiring big strong backs with a truck to move the furniture to the new place so the only things over there are things that I can move myself.

Well apart from the piles of clothing, but they are only temporary!

That's a chocolate brown feature wall.  Not necessarily bad, per say but with the bits I can't change easily right now (beige wardrobe, beige window frame and a beigy grey carpet) it's really brown.

So step one is now complete.  I've taken the curtains down to wash (not a pleasant job when I saw the colour of the water after the first few rounds but they came up well), used lots of bicarb on the carpet to hopefully absorb odours from the carpets and I've given the walls a wash to prepare them for paint.  Next step, fill in holes and decide on colours- stay tuned for updates!

More Christmas cards

So I've been on a card making extravaganza- I want to make sure I have enough cards to see me through the season as I'm moving in two weeks and need to pack up the craft stuff.

Oh and then there are these, which include two of my favourites... The dandelion one is absolute favourite which is funny since there isn't any Christmas specific parts to it (aside from the Merry Christmas sticker)

Lessons learnt?  Dies don't like mirror card very much and if it's looking lovely and perfect it's because the gremlins are waiting to put a fingerprint somewhere.  The bottom of the shaker card wasn't going to be like that but the gremlins put a big smear right along the bottom and some emergency additions were needed.

Just a few to go, mainly to use the bits up that I have already cut out.  Then it's back to the fun job of packing boxes... two weeks until moving day (eep!).

Tis the season to be carding. Card making? Oh well. I've made some Christmas cards

Hello strangers,
As I've hinted in previous posts, I've started to get into card making a little more.  Well since I will need quite a few cards fairly soon, I've been experimenting with the Christmas stuff I've accumulated.

Of course some of these I'm happier with than others and there are some that... lets just say that no one will ever know of the horrors lurking off camera... :P

Kits are good projects when travelling

And this is why- I'm down visiting my family which means living out of bags.  It also means that it is much trickier to do some crafts as bringing all the tools, glues etc, isn't ideal even if you are not limited by space (apart from what can fit in the car of course!).
So choosing what to bring requires careful consideration.  Knitting can be good- throw the project, pattern and maybe a spare ball of wool (or two- depends on your speed and length of the trip!) and you are good to go.  But whatever you do, don't take the cable blanket that you are working on with you and leave that little cable needle on your coffee table at home... ask me how I know... *sigh*

Since I was without a certain knitting project to work on (well at least until I can get to the shops), I dug out one of the kits that I had thrown into my 'things to do' bag that had been in the cupboard for a while.  A day later and I have a new pretty shiny bracelet (bought from the Bead Shack yonks ago).  Being a kit, it had all the things needed- the only thing I needed was a pair of scissors and I always have a pair in my knitting project bag.  It would even be useful if you are flying (well provided you threw it into your checked bag).

I have one other beading kit in the bag I might get to (it's a necklace so it will take a little longer).  Or I will have to dig through my bag for what else is in there after I get back from the shops.  Seems I need to get myself a cable needle, you see...

Hiding stitching on braids (and a dragon cross stitch)

I have a project that just needed a bit of gold braid sewn on in order to finish it off.  So I stitched it on and sat back to admire THOSE BIG WHITE STITCHES STICKING OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB!

Well OK, it's not that big but it was noticeable.  And there was already a dodgy area where a thread pulled when I sewed it up so I was feeling a bit miffed.  Then it struck me... I just need gold.  Not thread- metallics are often temperamental anyway and besides, I was feeling a little lazy....

So I broke out the gold pens and found the nearest match.  A careful daub on the thread later and...

I mean it is still there if you know where to look, but it is far less in your face.  As a bonus, I also added it to the end of the braid where the white core was showing:

It isn't a perfect match, but it is far less eye catching (and yes, I did go and do the other end after taking this photo!).  A word of warning though- I would be cautious if the object needs to be laundered regularly, you might need to keep the pen handy for touch ups
All that in order to make the final touches of this:
Teresa Wentzler's Delightful Dragon Fob

Those lines in the background are 1cm apart for scale.

 The main change I did with this pattern was to bring out the glow-in-the-dark thread to replace the ecru for the decorative stitches on the back (with the initials) and the background stitching on the dragon.  It is a very subtle effect- I find that the DMC glow in the dark thread is very faint, even when looking at it on the thread bobbin.  But it does glow and I know it glows, which is the main thing as it is stuck as mine now unless I ever met anybody who liked them and who had my initials!

Playing with stamps and glossy card

Guess what!  I've had a chance to finish some craft projects so you get two posts this month.

First up, a beading project that I have had in the queue for some time.  When I finished another project (topic of a future post) I wanted a quick job so I got the beads out.  This is a cute little kit from The Bead Shack, and not a bad price (particularly if you get it when the shop had a sale, as I did).

It comes in a few different colour options and is simple enough that if you wanted to give beading a try and like the look, this would be a good project to go for.

The other thing I've been doing is playing with some stamps that I got from my local Craft Alive, a region craft fair that is in various cities around Australia's eastern states (and SA- I'm never sure if you guys are counted as an eastern state or not!).  I can't speak for all of them, but they are a nice change when the only craft places you can visit locally are Spotlight and Lincraft. While there, I saw the amazing examples at the Eclectic Images stall and did more than a little bit of shopping...

I needed to make something for an exchange with some fellow Discworld fans.  After sifting through about 5 different ideas, I settled on a postcard from XXXX since it let me play with my new stamps and inking onto glossy card to decorate them.  While the top left is dreadful (it was my first and I learnt a lot of what NOT to do with it) I'm fairly pleased with the other three I have ready to go.

The skys are a bit to blobby, but I think that was in part because I was trying to improvise with whatever tools I could scrounge up.  Now I have an idea of what is needed, I can go and get some brushes that will work the way I need to.  I've still got a few more to make before I can post my cards, so I'll show a few more in the next week or so, I hope.  I may also add  something more to the front, so they may appear again.

(note- all the links are just so you can check out the pages if you are interested.  Sadly I am not a big time blogger and the only payment I get is the odd comment that people make- the nice ones, not the spam, mind you!)

Happy official birthday, Liz- cheers for the day off!

Hello Blog readers!

It is the Queen's Birthday holiday and that means I have been able to get a bit done this weekend.  Hooray!

I've lots of projects in progress at the moment but I've finished a few things recently.  My first is a mohair knitted scarf.  It was made using a fine 2ply-ish wool, knit double with two different colours, one cream, one a more brown colour.  Looks lovely after blocking and you can hardly tell where I had to go and fix where a thread was accidentally cut (argh!).

The scarf- pay no attention to the pile of marking on the table...

I've also succumed to the dark side- I've started to buy supplies to get into card making...
Here is my first attempt, using an old shadow embroidery piece that I made years ago.

The only down side is that I was a bit of an idiot and tried cutting some of the circles out AFTER mounting the embroidery.  It wouldn't have mattered except the whole pesky fact I had some glass beads on the piece.  Had being the operative word for several.

After this card I was on a roll.  I went to go on and play with some of the embossing folders and dies that I had acquired.  Then there was a little problem.  The die cutting machine that I had (a hand me down from my very much card-making mother) decided that it was done in a rather rash way- the gears inside shattered (plastic gears it turned out) and was so locked up that it took the embossing folder I had tried to run through it at the same time.  Sigh.

Since I had already now purchased many dies and embossing folders it has meant that I bought a new toy- a new die cut machine- to replace it.  The upshot is, expect to see some more cards in the future.  Well unless they are intended for my Mum who reads this blog, anyway!

I (still) aint dead

Phew, usual long time no post deal.  Work continues to be busy, oh and since I last posted I also moved house!

Anyway, this is just a short update of a few bits and bobs that I finished relatively recently.

Number one, my new craft desk.  Still a work in progress as far as setting things up, but it's nice to have a large flat surface to work on.  I have also started to succumb at least a little to the dark side (aka making cards).  However, since one of the main recipients also reads this blog, I'm not sure how that will work as far as making things a surprise (hi Mum!)


I also finished a scarf/wrap thing that I made using a souvenir ball of wool that I bought when I was in Sydney (wool is a great souvenir as you get to remember the holiday both from the original and then when you use it to make something!).


Finally here is something I found on the camera and seem to have forgotten to post- a pretty blue sparkly bracelet.


Anyway, this blog isn't forgotten, just lacking new material for now.  The spirit is willing but the time to develop them is lacking.  School is back on Monday so that will not change in the near future unless I win the lottery but I do have a new Discworld stamp yearbook that I'll post here for the 2015 calendar year once I finish proof reading it.