Mushroom Pins and Pincushion

I discovered this tutorial yesterday and I just had to have a go. My air drying clay, was a little to hard and dry to use so I improvised and used Sculpey instead. I am not sure if air drying clay can be rejuvenated if it has not completely dried. I might test it to see if it can be used if I add some water to it. If any of you have any prior experience with this I would love to hear about it. I am sure others would like to know too.

Anyway, back to the topic, I made the mushroom pincushion a while back and thought that it would look cute with the mushroom pins displayed in it. I have made a number of these pincushions in all fabrics and patterns. My favourites are the spotted and gingham fabrics.

The pins are 35mm long. Instead of painting the clay I just used coloured Sculpey. I am sure it was far more time consuming this way, but at least I could start displaying them as soon as they were cool enough to touch, after baking. A word of caution - the pins get very HOT! (ask me how I know!)LOL

DD made a few things for the fairies when they come visiting - mushroom chairs (without pins), a tea set and a fairy pizza only 3cm wide.!

Bookmark Swap at Crafts Beautiful

I just received some mail today! In it was a bookmark from Lazy Trout. It is beautiful and has the Miracle of Friendship poem on the front.
It also has two surprises! 1) It is also a card and 2) the tag on the front slides to the side and underneath it is stamped! I love it in case you hadn't noticed!

I sent mine in for the swap a couple of weeks ago and now I can show you what I made for it.

I am not sure who has received it yet, but I hope they like it.

I used some pink card and sage green striped scrapbooking paper from my stash. (I am still trying to stick to my New Years Action Plan Challenge I set for myself) Then I scanned some pretty fabric and printed it for the front. I did some paper pricking on my sewing machine around the outside, then added some pretty ribbons and a couple of cute butterflies.
It was the first time for me participating in a swap, so once I got past the nerves and uncertainty of what was expected I actually enjoyed myself.
What do you think?

I am now getting ready for the next swap - animals and/or sweets theme. YUM! I suppose you can't guess which theme I 'm going to choose?

Collecting Seeds and Free Printable Seed Packets

I collected some seeds from our parsley today and instead of keeping them in ordinary envelopes I decided to do some online searching for printable seed packets. Yes, I know I could have designed and printed some myself, but then where is the fun in finding some really great sites to share with you!

Here are a couple of links for you. I particularly like the origami seed packets that you can print and make up or use you own pretty paper then just add a label. This is a fun activity to get kids involved in. Collecting dry seeds, identifying as well as cutting and gluing the seed packets.

Alenka's printables

Mardar"s Stuff - Seed packets

Origami Seed packet

More origami seed packets

Allfreeprintables seed packets

Katydid Creations Seed packets and tutorial (Edited 13 Oct 2008 - This link appears to be requesting a password so may be going through upgrades or now made private. I will check the link periodically in the event it is just being upgraded)
(15th April 2009 - This link still appears set to private, however her templates have been shared here. Hope that helps anyone after them)

These are really great not only for seeds, but also for novelty gifts like bath salts, coffee or tea bag samples, and even for giving a gift card.

There are some really cute seed packet angels you can make. (They are on my to do list) You will find some gorgeous photos of them here and the instructions for making them are over here.

If you know of any other great sites that have printable seed packets, you can email me or leave a comment so I can add them to the list.

Green Challenge

Cottage Magpie has set a green challenge this time. So here are my green photos.

Our Siamese fighting fish, Ben, in his tank on our green walls.
The water is very clear but the reflection from the
wall and the gravel make it look green!
Mr Bump lives in there too.
Ben sleeps under his arm at night!

A nest of eggs the Easter Bunny left on Sunday.
I think I forgot to mention that the Easter Bunny
left some very suspicious looking chocolate buttons
over the floor in several places around the house!
What a naughty bunny!

My sage green and cream sewing boxes.
Sage green is popular in this house at the moment. You
can just see the striped green curtains in the background.

Where would a sewing box be without thread?
These are some vintage wooden threads I bought on
ebay last year. A number of them haven't even been used!
You can just see some new green spools in the
background there on the right.

Coming up last there is the doll's house in green.
It was painted to match the walls, in our house
making it a little less obvious in the room.
It will no doubt receive another coat of
paint sometime in the future.

Well that is it for the green photos for now. My camera's batteries are recharging, but I wanted to get this post up before the deadline.

You Make My Day Award

I received a wonderful surprise You make My Day Award yesterday from the lovely Tullavilla over at Edwina's Random Ramblings.

Now I will pass it on to 10 other lovely people. Just right click the award and save to your computer. Then you can upload to your blog and pass it on too!

Little Cotton Rabbits

Happy Birds Crafting Haven

Natalie's World of Sparkling Cards

Lazy-Trout

Crafterella

Thrift Shop Romantic

More to come shortly.

Free Easter Printables for Craft Projects

This is my early Easter present to you all. I have made up a page of cute Easter pictures for you to download and use. These are great for decorating Easter cards, eggs or baskets or any other Easter craft project you can think of.

Just click on the images and it will open in a new window. Then right click it and save to your computer. They should be able to be printed on an A4 sized sheet so that the individual pictures and words can be cut out and used, but you can make them whatever size you need.

The pictures are made using some free fonts I found on the net. They are for personal use only and can be used as is or coloured in. You may provide a link to here but please do not add these to your site without my permission. If you have any problems with downloading or printing them please let me know.

I would love to see what you do with them. Just send me an email. I may even add your photo here!

Added 25/3/08

This how Stardust used my free printables. I never even thought about using them to decorate cupcakes. They look fantastic, but I am sure they would not have lasted very long!

Winner of the Craft Guessing Competition 2008

Congratulations!

The winner of the Noodle box filled with 214 crafty goodies is.......

Elena from eptreasures who guessed 210 items in the box.
There were a few close guesses, but hers was the closest. Well done Elena!

As promised, I also have some consolation prizes to give out.

Randomly drawn consolation prizes go to......

Lightening

Bloggernoob

Make and Takes

Akhn

Jules (Creative Makes)

And lastly those of you to receive my pay it forward blog candy are:

Jane

Max

Recycle Cindy

If you are a winner please email me your details so I can post your goodies out to you. You will find my email on the right.

Congratulations to all of you!

Sewing Pet Bed Covers with Waterproofing

I have been sewing up some more covers for my little chihuahua's pillow beds. I have made them pillowcase style with a waterproof and toweling layer for added comfort and protection. At 12 years of age she has the occasional wee problem now, so waterproof covers that I can change are better than putting on doggie nappies! I just layer the outer cover fabrics, plastic and toweling and treat them as one.

I made a few covers plain like this one...

Then I decided to add sides to the edges of one of the covers and lets just say it was such a big hit that my little chi was more interested in getting straight to sleep rather than posing for a photo! I had to turn the whole bed around to try and get a cute photo! LOL

I made the sides by making a long tube of fabric and stitched it to the cover before filling with stuffing. I then stitched the ends closed by hand. There is slightly less stuffing at the corners to allow them to sit better. I didn't bother with pattern matching when I cut these out and it wasn't until after I took these photos that I realized that the fabric patterns almost match perfectly!

If you have made any of these I would love to see your photos!

Blog Candy Crafty Surprise in the Mail

Wow! Look what just came in the mail for me from the lovely Susie over at White Ribbon Cards!
Some pretty ribbons, flower embellishments, rhinestones, and card making things!

Now I am going to pay it forward to three lovely people, so be on the look out!

Only a few more days to enter the contest. The link is on the right. Have you had a guess yet?

Changing Layout

My apologies for some of the strange happenings around here. I am trying to make things a little easier to find and also make some more room for links to pages you might like to visit.

If anything is not working properly, please let me know, so that I can fix it.

If you like some of these changes, you might like to check this site. There is a lot of information for new bloggers wanting to add some of their own personality to their blog! I find most of the information very helpful and easy to follow.

I don't like to post without a photo so here is our Little Easter Bunny having a nap. He is 18 mths old and a fully grown mini rex. One of his ears is heart-shaped, making him very special indeed! I will try to get a photo of his ear next time I remember. Just too cute!

The Handmade Pledge

Well I finally took the Handmade Pledge today. Yes, I know, a little late for the Christmas holidays just gone, but at least I am getting in early for this Christmas (only 9 & 1/2 months away) and a few birthdays too! LOL

Many of the gifts I give generally have some handmade component to them. Handmade items are made with such love and dedication compared to mass produced products, so if you can, buy or make your own gifts. It is much better for the environment and your wallet too!

If you want to take the pledge, just click on the image above or the one in my sidebar and it will take you to the Handmade pledge site. You can then add a badge to your blog too!

Crafty Contest Update

Just a quick update on the guessing contest for you all.

I will tell you that..........

No-one has guessed the exact number of items yet, BUT........

There are 2 people who have guessed close to it, and NO I am not going to say who! (Just in case you were wondering!) hehehe

At the closing of the competition in the event that there are two guesses the same number away from the actual answer, the winner will be the one who's entry was received first and I will make up a special consolation prize for the other person!

HINT: The printable noodle boxes in yesterdays post are much smaller than the purchased one in the contest.

If you have not placed your entry yet go to the contest entry link just above the photo here. It ends on March 14th 2008, so there is still time.

Printable Party Favor Gift Boxes to Make

I was stumbling on the web recently and came across these really cute mini noodle boxes. They are free to download and print on an A4 sheet of paper. There are so many to choose from and you just print the pages with the designs you want. Perfect for wedding and party favours

I couldn't resist having a go at making some, and with Easter just around the corner, they will be perfect to present a small gift for teachers and school friends.

The noodle boxes work really well printed on card, but if you don't have any, (or you run out like I did), then just glue two sheets of printer paper together after printing. I used a glue stick and then ironed the pages to prevent them from warping.

Use your imagination to decorate the boxes. I made holes in the sides of mine with a tiny hole punch and then attached a brad or eyelet to hold it together. For the pink one I added a plain gold wire handle. The blue one only has brads at the sides. The yellow box has a beaded handle and the purple noodle box I folded with the printed side on the inside and rather than close the top I have left it open.

Add your own ideas and see what you come up with. I like to add my own twist on things when I create, but these are so pretty on their own anyway.

Nemo Cards

Just a few Nemo cards to show off today. They are just for some boys in the family. They are actually made using some Nemo character cut outs from tissue boxes. They are a great way to get kids involved in craft and card making, without being too hard or boring.

Some close ups for you.

*** Don't forget to enter the Craft contest I have on at the moment. It is free to enter and open worldwide!

Water Crystals Craft Project

We did some gardening yesterday and used water crystals in the hanging baskets. It got me thinking of another use for them. I placed some in a vase for a different, but pretty effect.

See the beautiful bubbles created.

Just in case you don't know what these are, they are tiny crystals slightly smaller than rock salt. You add water to them, and they expand up to several hundred times their own size. They help the soil retain water, so are perfect in hot, dry climates.

How to Create This:

Add 1/2 teaspoon of water saving crystals and 1-2 drops of food colouring to about 1 & 1/2 cups water in a jug or 1 ltr container. I used my vase as it is just the right size.

The crystals will take about an hour to expand fully. Stir to create the bubbled effect, then add a selection of flowers. Extra water can be added every couple of days to help the crystals retain their size. Once flowers are finished the crystals can be buried in the garden or hanging baskets to continue being useful.

The water saving crystals should be able to be purchased at most garden centers or nurseries.
NOTE: DO NOT allow pets or children to swallow!

*** Don't forget to enter the Craft contest I have on at the moment. You will find the link on the left. It is free to enter and open worldwide!