Easter Top Ten day 3

Day 3 of the Easter top ten is an experimental project.  I recently purchased a freehand machine embroidery foot for my sewing machine and have been dying to try it out.  I thought i might as well make something towards Easter so i used it to freehand applique a chick and some writing and then made it into a fabric gift bag.

 i have to say it is really hard to get used to at first as the needle goes all over the show! 

 I used the same grey fabric for the lining to co-ordinate it.

Felt Easter booty bags

Ok why is it that i get myself organised months in advance for things but then right at the last minute still seem to have loads to do!. I have been making experimental easter gifts and accessories for weeks now which given Easter is a couple of weeks off i thought was ok. Then it dawned on me whilst sat soaking up the sun yesterday that Lili's last day at school is tomorrow and that i had promised we could make to make her 20 little easter presents for her classmates. Uh oh panic stricken i grabbed my sewing machine and some fabric and ribbon scraps and set about making little bags big enough to hold mini eggs or mini cadbury bars. In the end they have worked out quite sweet..

 I used poundland stickers on the front and attached them with fabric glue to make sure they don't come off.

I thought that will i was at it i might as well make some extra so i have listed them in my folksy shop.

If anyone wants to make them you will need 2 pieces of felt 3" x 4.5" 2 pieces of scrap ribbon or cord and some stickers or embellishments for the front.

Take one of your felt pieces and along the short edge sew the ribbon on like a handle ( i did 2 rows of stitching for strength) and then repeat with the other piece of felt.

Take your 2 pieces of felt and place them with wrong sides together inside and sew around the 2 long sides and the bottom short side.  Then stick your embellishment on the front and that's it....

decorating stationery

Morning everyone.  Its half term this week so i haven't had much time to craft as i have been spending some mummy daughter time with Lili.  She does love crafting though so while she was drawing some pictures for me i decided to do a few quick projects.  i have quite a few birthdays coming up so thought i would make some fancy gift bags and i have also been meaning to try decorating plain notebooks again.  Heres how they turned out..

 I used plain brown sandwich bags and scrapbook papers,ribbon, stickers and little embellishments

 I used my new cricut expression to cut out the letters

 I just love these doodlebug papers and accessories i used

 I also decided to make a fabric cover for this one then cut out the embellishments with my cricut and used mod podge overthe top to make them durable.

These projetcs are really simple and fast so give it a go and let me know how you go on!

Another Applique bag

Two posts in one day i really am spoiling you all!!.  This is just a quick post to show you the pumpbag i made for my friends little boy this weekend.  I used my cricut to cut out the owl and the letters and heat n bond to adhere it to the fabric.  This kind of project is really easy to do and it only took me about 45minutes.  Hope he likes it!!

Easy Applique pump bag

For months now i have been meaning to try applique using Heat n bond (or some people use freezer paper) and last night i finally got round to it!.  I jumped in at the deep end and tried it out on a bag which is a present for a party Lili has been today - no pressure to get it right then!!.  Have to say now i am addicted i can't believe how quick and easy it is and how cool it looks not to mention the fact i don't have to sew round each letter anymore to prevent fraying.  Ok i'm sounding like a heat n bond advert so i'll shut up and just show you the bag..

 The pink gingham fabric is actually some bargain curtains i bought from Argos in the sale.  £3.99 and they will make approx 9 or 10 fully lined bags.

This bag took me about 45 minutes to make.  I used my Cricut machine to cut the letters out (but you could easily cut them by hand) by ironing the heat n bond to the back of the fabric and then putting it through my cricut machine to cut.  I have never tried this before so was a little nervous but the heat n bond makes the cotton fabric stiff enough to cut easily in the machine.  I will be making another of these next week so i'll do a step by step tutorial.

3 more sleeps!

Ok can someone please tell me where December has gone!.  i have been fairly organised all year then suddenly there are 3 days left and i have loads to do!.  it doesn't help that Lili has been ill again!  Every weekend in December so far.  This time was a bad ear infection which got worse when she had a bad allergic reaction to the antibiotics.  All of one side of her face ballooned and was a real mess so a nice trip to A&E on monday night!.  Anyway i am feeling slightly less stressed now as i have finished all my orders so i can now concentrate on finishing presents!.  The picture above  is one of the pump bag and crayon roll sets i have just made.  I did another 2 the same but with different names on for my Auntie.

This Peter Rabbit bag i have made for my friends little boy and have filled it with books - including one autographed by the author who came into Lili's school last month.  I have made him a personalised notepad, crayons and eraser for in the front pockets along with pencils and a sharpener.  Hope he likes them!

My Birthday

It was my 36th birthday on Friday so i haven't had much chance for crafting this week!.  Every year i complain about it being 2 weeks before Christmas as everyone is always too busy on works do's etc to celebrate with me.  This year as well as most of our friends being busy or saving for Christmas Lili was also really poorly so i spent my birthday cleaning up projectile vomit and had to get up a few times in the night as well!!.  Despite that hubby always spoils me and is such a sweetheart.  This year he bought me a Kenwood chef robot (Kenwoods version of Kitchenaid!)which is amazing and lots of other things.  he also took me to Selfridges for lunch at weekend and when lili was better yesterday took her out so i could have the house to myself to potter round and play with my new gadget. I did get chance to whip up one of the orders i have for a bag.  Excuse the naff light i had to take the photo in the dark!

CUTE OWL BAG

Firstly let me say sorry to everyone for my noted absence!.  i haven't been in blog world for over a week. Life sometimes gets in the way and this past week as been one of the worst i have ever had.  i don't want to go in to the details at th moment so i'll move on and tell you about thius cute bag i have made.  for a while i have had a thing for Owls and there are some lovely owl patterns,papers and accessories around.  I have been promising myself for a while that i will make something owl themed and other than a few cards i haven't got round to it.  Till now......

This is a really easy pattern to follow and didn't take that long to make.  I am going to put it up as a stocking filler for Lili for Christmas.  The pattern wasn't free unfortunately but for £6.95 i got this pattern and a cat one so not bad value at all.  It is the owl and the pussycat set from www.mellyandme.typepad.com if anyone wants to give it a go.  i didn't buy the patternb direct from here but i can't for the life of me think where i did buy it!!

Crafting for Christmas officially starts now!

                                    
Ok now that Lili's birthday is out of the way i can start focusing on Christmas.  There is only 44 days till Christmas day and i have a lot of presents to do.  Now not everyone appreciates homemade gifts but personally i do.  I think it shows someone has made a real effort.  I think that people associate homemade with cheap and that certainly isn't the case most of the time.  With all the cheap shops around it is definitely cheaper to pick up bits from those than make things from scratch.  I have decided that as well as buying presents for family and friends this year i am determined to include in each present at least one item that has been handmade. Bearing this in mind i'd better get some serious crafting done!!.  I'll show you the bits i have done today so far.

Friends testube of mints.  These are dead easy to make if you want to make some.  Just buy some plastic test tubes (i got mine of ebay) and fill with tic tacs then tie some ribbon round with a tag on.  its upto you if you want to put them in a clear sealable bag but i have.  i designed the tag myself on picnik and if anyone wants a copy of it just drop me an e-mail to scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk and i send you my jpeg file.

Next i decided to make some animal treat bags.  I haven't got a dog but i will give these to my friend who has a dog grooming business and 2 dogs!.  I might make some for the craft fairs i have coming up to!!.  Again i designed the topper on picnik.com then stuck it onto a piece of backing card.  The text was red but i didn't like ti when it printed so i have gone over it with a black gel pen.

I picked up some red giftbags in tesco which are 20p each but on offer at 3 for 2 and thought i would have a play around.  For some reason i keep chuckling when i look at my finished santa bag.

This next gift bag i have made using some organza.  i have sewed it as a drawstring bag then threaded ribbon through and sewed on the label (which i printed onto the fabric using transfer paper).  then i have put patterned tissue paper inside.

Lastly (slightly cheating as i made this a bit back but only got round to adding the motifs today!) i have made this bag for my niece . 

Hello kitty bag and other random makes

Tomorrow is Lili's 5th brithday party and instead of buying naff plastic party bags i decided i would sew nice organza ones with each childs name on the front.  I have done 10 and have another 12 to do - so of course i am sat here doing everything but sewing!!. I'll get back to it in a minute.  Here is what they look like so far but i will be wrapping the contents in tissue paper then putting in the bags later. Now the picture really is pants as it was taken in the dark and the bag is hung at an angle so the label looks wonky but its not i promise..

Recently i bought some gorgeous hello kitty fabric and have been waiting to use it so when my auntie asked if i would make her grandaughters personalised pump bags and crayon rolls i knew exactly which fabric to grab!!.  Heres how it turned out.

 I have cut out individual letters from fabric then used a blanket stitch around the edge of each letter.  it would have looked better if i had used a contrasting darker pink thread but i didn't have any so had to opt for pale pink. 

When i started crafting many years ago (god that makes me sound old - i'm not honest!) i used to just make cards and for quite a few years i didn't try any other crafts.  Once i started trying out new crafts i kind of stopped making many cards until recently.  i seem to have got back into it and here is a card i made last week for Lili to take to a party.  The thing i like about card making is it can be so quick to do (which is a major plus for me as a busy mum who also works full time!).

Ok now i really must get one with those party bags!!