30 April 2014

Little Red Riding Hood & mushroom carved stamps













One of my favourite quick and easy crafts is making eraser stamps. It's so handy to be able to create just the stamp you need, just when you need it!

The tools that I use are a set of small gouges that are actually meant for woodblock carving, but they work just as well for this purpose.




I used the stamps to decorate the front and back of some tiny notebooks I made using binding rings.

29 April 2014

Book Review: the Wool series













The Wool series (Wool, Shift, Dust) by Hugh Howey is one of the best series of books I’ve read in ages. I had been meaning to read Wool for ages. It took me a long time to get started, but when I did I couldn’t stop until I’d read the whole trilogy in a week.

The series starts off by introducing us to some of the residents of the silo, an underground structure, and shows what happens when someone goes outside to carry out the hazardous task of “cleaning”. The setting of the silo is so vividly described, I had dreams about it, and would recognise parts of it in my environment (like the spiral stairs in the photo).

The book evoked feelings of claustrophobia, isolation and loneliness for me. The closest thing I could compare it to in terms of feeling, is the movie Moon, although Wool had a much larger cast of characters. I found these characters really compelling because the majority of them acted from altruistic motives, even though some were misguided.

The thing I found difficult at first was that it would follow a particular character for a while, then move on to another. I found this a bit easier when I realised that the first book had originally been written as a series of short stories, and eventually it did settle down into following a few main characters. I was quite impressed that the author had started off by self-publishing the stories.

I really enjoyed the series, and I’ve been insisting that friends of mine read it!

28 April 2014

Wooden strawberries


These little guys sold out pretty quickly at the craft fair I had a stall at! They were pretty easy to make, too. They started off life as simple wooden balls, the sort you get to put among your clothes to deter moths!

I drilled a hole in the top of each so I could insert a piece of kebab-skewer as the stem. To make sure they would stay upright, I rubbed each one on a piece of sandpaper to create a flattened area. It's fun because you can have them all leaning at slightly different angles.

I gave them a coat of paint and added the details with a fine brush. I used a piece of patterned paper on each  as a leaf, and coated it with a gloss medium. I added a small flower and some stamens.

27 April 2014

Mountain cards

These are male and female versions of the same card, the male one being the plain mountains, and the female one has faces, a heart, a star and general all-around cuteness! They were based on the design of a cute notepad I got a few years ago from Paperchase. These were among the last photos I took in my craft room before redecorating it - making good use of the old purple walls!

26 April 2014

Can you guess what these dolls are made from?


















Can you guess what these dolls are made from?

I’ll give you a clue…

















Yes, they were made from salt and pepper shakers! (although the ones I used were plain wooden ones, rather than vintage painted ones!)

I used a little wood filler to fill in the holes in the top, then painted them and added little polymer clay blue birdies which helped to disguise any dimples still left behind after filling the holes.






25 April 2014

Paper patchwork



















Sometimes I think that eventually I will run out of ideas for cards for my family and friends. But somehow I never do! Inspiration always seems to strike at the last moment, maybe I need a deadline to get the creative juices going!

Usually I base cards on the person's hobbies or interests. Which means that cards for Mum are not as difficult as for some other people. She has lots of crafty hobbies, just like me.

This card was a great way of using some of the scraps of patterned paper that are left over from other projects. And it was fun picking colours that would go together - I think that's one of the things I like best about making cards!

24 April 2014

Dinosaur playmat














I'd bought my nephew wooden dinosaur and volcano toys from Imagination Kids on Etsy for his birthday, and I wanted to make a playmat to go with them. It turned out to be a much quicker project than I'd imagined, and I couldn't believe that I got it finished in one afternoon!

I made a large pond in the middle, some rocks, some leaves, and dinosaur footprints.



23 April 2014

Letter rack makeover



















This letter rack was inspired by one by Hazel Fisher, which in turn was inspired by one on Camille Styles. I loved the bright colours that Hazel had used on hers, and my colours are somewhat inspired by that. I like the idea of a craft project evolving as different people make different versions, which end up being quite different from the original.


The letter rack I used was a plain silver one that I've had by my computer for many years. First I spray-painted it pink (I'm just getting into using spray paint, it's a lot of fun!), then I added the cross stitch embroidery to the front of it. It's gone from being a very plain and boring item to something a bit more special.


22 April 2014

Book review: Decorate with Flowers

I always admire photos of other people's houses where they use flowers as part of their decor. But I wasn't really sure how to start doing so myself. Luckily this book, Decorate with Flowers, by Holly Becker and Leslie Shewring, came along at just the right time to help me out!

Let's start with the cover - isn't it just gorgeous! The pastel colours and the cool triangle design on the spine are just perfect, and the hand-cut style lettering on the spine is carried on for titles throughout the book. It's certainly a book I'm happy to leave out on my coffee table.

Inside, the book is full of just the sort of projects I love - making thrifty reuse of items that you might have around the home, like jam jars and coathangers. And it's not a stuffy manual full of how to use weirdly named things like oasis and frogs. It's about making arrangements that look good, without sticking to a rigid set of rules. It's pitched at just the right level for someone like me, who wants to use flowers in a modern way, but just needs a bit of inspiration.

The photos in the book are bright and beautiful, and the rooms in the book are really inspiring. It really shows how to use flowers as part of the decor of the room, rather than just a vase of flowers plonked in the middle of a table.

All in all it's a really excellent book that I'd recommend, and as you can see it's already been inspiring me!

21 April 2014

Craft room sneak peek - blackboard area

I've been tempted by the idea of using blackboard paint in my home after admiring blackboard walls on many blogs. When I decided a few months back to decorate my craft room, painting this area as a blackboard came to mind.

The little clips were already there before the craft room makeover, but I didn't really use them to their full potential. I think the black background will make a good contrast with items hanging in front of it, so I plan to use this as my inspiration wall and have removed the large pinboard  I previously used for that purpose. It will also make an interesting background for photographing some of my craft projects.

I've also used blackboard paint to paint the fronts of some wooden drawers - I'm looking forward to labelling them so I know exactly what's inside!

20 April 2014

How to design a unique set of Russian dolls




Today I'm going to tell you a bit about how to design some Russian dolls. You can pick up the blank wooden dolls fairly inexpensively many places online. Or if you find a cheap set of painted dolls in a charity shop you could try painting over them (I've haven't tried that yet, though, so I don't know how well it would work).

Here's how to get started.

1. Decide on a theme. This could be absolutely anything that interests you. Bear in mind how many dolls are in your set, and how you can fit your theme onto this number of dolls. I've done three sets of dolls so far - the first based on a Japanese fairytale (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), the second on the theme of Little Red Riding Hood, and the third were based on a very simple flower design with each doll in a different pastel colour. One artist whose work I really admire is Irina Troitskaya who makes some amazing Russian dolls in animal designs.

2. Draw outline shapes of the dolls on paper (you could even draw round them) and sketch your ideas. It's a good idea to have two outlines for each doll, so you can draw the front and back of each doll. If your doll is going to have a face, it's a good idea to draw this first, then work the rest of the design around it. Work on your design until you are happy with it.

3. Draw the design onto the dolls (I like to paint the dolls with white paint or gesso first). Your pencil lines don't have to be exact, as you will be painting over them.

4. Paint the doll using paints of your choice. I like to use acrylic paints and emulsion paints (I often buy tester pots from the diy store for craft projects). You might need to use a few coats of paint. Make sure that any areas that extend over the join in the doll match up perfectly. You may need a very fine brush (and a steady hand) for painting the details of the dolls' faces.

5. Protect with varnish if desired. I like to use extra pale dead flat varnish, as it's pretty much invisible.

6. Admire your finished dolls!

Another project I'd really like to try with Russian dolls is painting them with blackboard paint. Not only would they look cool, but they would be an easy way of sketching designs for future dolls.

19 April 2014

Blog redesign

I'm really excited to reveal the new look of my blog! Some of you might have seen it evolving over the past week, but now that the header is finished, the blog is finally ready.

I've been redecorating my craft room in more neutral tones, and I decided to do the same with the blog. I've added buttons to the sidebar to make it easier to find the types of posts you are most interested in, and a "Related posts" section to the bottom of each post.

There will be bigger, brighter photos, and, I hope, more frequent, varied content, including lots of fun craft projects. So stay tuned!



Bright bathroom



I've always found neutral bathrooms a tiny bit boring and predictable, so one of my early decorating projects was painting some of the tiles in my bathroom a bright terracotta colour. For many years I paired this with orange towels and accessories, but lately I've decided to try something a bit different.


I'd seen a few turquoise painted ceilings online, and I realised that the dark coloured wooden ceiling in my bathroom could maybe benefit from this. I added some turquoise and white accessories around the room, like the framed postcards from Ikea, the vintage wooden painted Scandinavian bowl, the hanging heart (a cheap find at the charity shop), and the cable-knit effect handwash containers (which were also ridiculously cheap!). A beaded bracelet hanging from the knob of the bathroom cabinet is another fun way that I tied together the turquoise and orangey tones.


18 April 2014

5 projects to brighten up your garden

Since it's such lovely weather here today, I decided to put together some ideas for brightening up your garden. These are some projects that I've done in my own garden over the years, and they are cheap and easy ways of adding some colour.

This has the added benefit of making it more comfortable! This throw is one I brought back from Peru, and I love the vivid turquoises and pinks in it. Of course, with the weather being as unpredictable as it is, using soft furnishings can only be a temporary measure in Scotland!


Either use a brightly coloured container, or paint a container in a bright colour. This 3-tiered storage container was rescued from a skip, and I turned it into a planter by drilling some holes in the bottom of each layer. Fill your container with a selection of plants.

Use some brightly coloured gloss paints to make some cheap chairs look bright and cheerful. These chairs were only £3 from my local charity shop!

4. Paint some cheap garden ornaments
This was a quick and easy project to brighten up a couple of cheap looking grey lanterns – I just gave them a quick coat or two of brightly coloured gloss paint. You could also try spray paint – I’ve got a little geisha ornament that I might spray bright pink.

5. Paint a mural
I used acrylic and emulsion paints to paint my mural, and it’s still holding up fairly well 8 years later. When the wall was just painted white, it needed repainted every few years to cover up mossy areas and peeling bits, but the design of the mural makes these less obvious, so it’s a time and money saving solution!

15 April 2014

Cocktails!

I got a cocktail shaker and glasses for my birthday, and I've become addicted to mixing some tasty fruity cocktails!

The one in the first photo was my favourite, and it consisted of:
Midori
Grapefruit juice
Angostura bitters
Lime juice
Cucumber and mint (muddled in the drink and as a garnish)
Black pepper garnish (I also attempted to put salt round the rim of the glass, I think I need more practice at this!)


The next one was a Chambord cosmopolitan, with:
Cointreau
Vodka
Chambord
Cranberry juice
Lime juice



















The final one was:
Cointreau
Midori
Chambord
Pear juice
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