All Hallows Church

Yesterday i had a table at a small craft Fair at All Hallows Church in Miskin. It's not the usual huge stand that I have at craft fairs but I wanted to make it as striking as possible given that there is not a lot of time to set it up.

What I did was to put a cloth on the table first.
I then added the 4ft gridwalls for height and covered them with another white table cloth.
I pinned my beautiful corsage roses to the cloth and boy, did they stand out.
I had packed my ribbons, buttons and felt, etc into boxes. All of the boxes were the same size. It looks messy if you use different sizes.
I then added the price labels so that everyone could see what they had to pay.

What would I do next?
Cover the boxes with adhesive film so that they don't look so much like boxes. I think that pink of white would be fine. It will also make them stronger.
Tape the prices to the front of the boxes so that everything looks straighter. I am not a fan of higgledy piggledy.

Any suggestions, anyone?

Poppies for Remembrance

Christmas preparations are well underway and I am surrounded by red, green and some gold. So I thought that I would keep the Christmas colours going for a while with this green, red and cream card. It is also almost November Remembrance Sunday so this card is perfect for that too.
.

The stamp is from Stampinback and available here.
The ribbon is available here.
The buttons here
The sentiment here

To make this card you will need to stamp out the poppy on to a piece of watercolour paper or even hammer card. I used Stazon in Stone Grey to do this. Colour in the image.
Stamp out the saying and mount with red card.
Use some scrapbook paper to cover the base card and leave a thin margin all around the edge.
Use double sided tape to stick the ribbon to the card.
Mount the stamped poppy onto a piece of red card and stick onto the base card with foam pads. This will give it height.
Stick the sentiment and the buttons to the card and you're finished.

Inspirational

Yesterday's post was for a rightangle weave bracelet using stretch elastic. I showed my friend, Janet how to make one and this is her fabulous bracelet using some left over pearls. What a wonderful way to use up things that otherwise would be left to waste.

How to make a quick and easy bead bracelet.

On the Craft Fairy site I have some beautiful two tone acrylic beads that I have been itching to get my hands on for a while. I just love the two tone sheen that they have and I decided that they were the perfect look and size for this quickly beaded bracelet.

The beads come as mixed packs but I sorted out the pinker of the beads and made this. It is a basic right angle weave, but to dispense with the need for a clasp, I used stretch elastic to make this bracelet.

You will only need two things to make this bracelet and what is more no tools.

Colorful Acrylic Beads, Rubberized Style, Round, Mixed Color x 50

Crystal Thread, Clear, Elastic, 1.0mm in diameter, 6m/roll

As soon as someone helps me out with a raw diagram I will post it to explain all to you.

Lace Trinket Jar

I though that I would use some of the beautiful really wide lace that we stock on the Craft Fairy site for today's project. It comes in two colours, but this time I chose the ivory lace as I wanted to make something that would be soft.

What I made was this trinket jar. It is decorated with a ribbon flower and the instructions for making one can be fould on this link.


What you will need are:

Scalloped Lace, 22 cm wide - Ivory
Wired Ribbons
an old clean jar
double sided tape
double sided foam pads
a ribbon flower that you can see on this link:
Fabulous folded ribbon rose video

Cut the lace so that it is the same height as the jar and wide enough to wrap around the jar with about half an inch of overlap.

 Put a piece of double sided tape along the lenght of one side of the jar and another around the outside of the mouth of the jar. You will need another piece inside the mouth of the jar.

Stick the lace to the jar. Use another piece of tape to stick down the overlap.

 Stick the ribbon to the outside of the mouth of the jar and then fold over and stick to the inside.

 Now, stick the flower to the side of the jar and you've finished.

Hearts for Christmas in Shabby Colours

Christmas, gulp is coming, and I feel the need to make beautiful decorations for the house. So this is the latest.

It really is a quick and simple heart to make and will look fabulous on a few dried twigs. 

To make it you will need:

Felt hearts in light stone

Buttons from the natural selection.

A length of tan and brown saddle stitch ribbon

Cotton thread.

Wadding

To make this heart:

Sew the buttons on to one side of the heart shapes. Use both and medium and small buttons.

Stitch around the edges with blanket stich. Leave enough room to fill the heart with wadding and to stitch in the ribbon.

Finished.

Have entered this for the 'Fab 'n' Funky' Button it Up challenge.

Lace with Style

I have always known that the lace that we sell on the Craft Fairy web site is beautiful, so it was a sheer delight to receive this photo from one of our customers, Jeanette. She's wearing this fabulous shawl that she made using the leaf guipure lace. I have to admit to being really envious. I do hope that this has spurred you on to make something similar yourself.

Spiral Rope Bracelet for fun

A couple of years ago I dragged my friend along to a jewellery making course.  Just for fun I said. Little did I know that I would love it to the point that I wanted to bring the beads to the Craft Fairy web site. I plotted and I planned and now they have arrived. So, of course, I had first dibs and this is what I made. It's a simple spiral rope and it is finished with cones and a toggle clasp to make it a bit more up to date. No fuddy duddy beading for me thank you.

I'll put a tutorial as soon as I've time after doing the Bristol Parchment Craft Show tomorrow.

How to make pearls pop

Well at least I think that 'pop' is the current phrase for making things look special. I decided that for this necklace, I would use pearls in a more modern way. I think that I achieved this by pairing them with some of the fab new beads that we are currently stocking on Craft Fairy. We have kept our prices so low that you can buy all of the things that you need for less than £4.

The materials used for this necklace can be found on these links:

Pale gold pearls

Drawbench beads in light olive green

golden eye pins

Some tools to make the links

So simple that there is probably no need for an explanation.

Shabby Ginghams

New in and hot are these wonderful shabby ginghams that have  just hit the Craft Fairy web site. I have tried and tried to get these and not success at last. Love them.

They almost vlook like they've beed dipped in tea. You crafters will know what I mean.

Bags More Ideas

Last weekend I exhibited at the Hobbycraft Show at the Cardiff City Stadium and had a wonderful time. I met lots of wonderful crafters and I hope that I was able to inspire them with what we had for sale. I believe that the most popular inspiration was the bag designs. You've all seen them before, but to may customers they were new. So it has spurred me on to come up with more designs and this is the latest. It's artistically arranged in my garden of course.

You will see that I've used a different bag this time. Well you do need a bit of vatiety in life and a girl can't have too many bags.

All of the following items are linked to the website.
You will need:

Natural Sage Coloured Jute Bag

Red Ribbon with Green Saddle Stitching
This is a 23mm wide fairly soft ribbon which allows you to make the folds easily.

A piece of Light Stone Felt

Embridery Cotton

Buttons


First of all, make the roses  as described in a previous post. I make three widths of rose so that they would look better on the bag. All the same size is not so good. Look at the picture below to see what I mean. The graduating in size looks best.

Sew the roses to the felt as shown. Then stitch a line of embroidery thread to make stems. No need to be too precise here.
Sew the felt to the bag with blanket stitch.

I then added some large red buttons because I love buttons and because they look good on the bag.

Organizing my Stand for the Stitches Trade Show

Every year I do a trade show at the NEC, Birmingham. I fully realise that there is a year between the shows and I always intend to improve on things for next year, but guess what, Next year is here and I am still not happy about what I am going to do.

So, my stand is only 5 metres by 1 metre. Small! So how come I managed to make it look so empty last year?

This year I have decided to miss out the wall lining in favour of the grey and to fill the stand with more colour. So I wlll take my gridwalls and they will provide me with hanging space and I won't have to pin things to the wall. Yeah!

So, this is it. 2013 show. Not the same as last year at all.

Red and Gold Inspiration

Many of you may now know how excited I am about Craft Fairy selling beads and findings. How could I not be as I love all that sparkle soooo much. I have finally uploaded most of them to the web site and now I can get on with a little craft therapy. So to start I've made this bright necklace using big textured pearls and acrylic beads. As they say here in Wales, 'Lush'.

If you feel inspired too you will need the following:

Golden textured pearls. 16mm
Spray Painted Acrylic Beads, Octagon, Crimson, Size: about 25mm 
8mm Golden Color, Iron JumpRings, Closed, Unsoldered, x 100
Golden Iron Eyepins, Size: about 0.7mm thick, 4.0cm long, hole: 2mm approx 100
Tibetan Style Toggle & T Bar Antique Golden, pack of 4 sets
Golden Color, Iron Bead Spacers, 4mm x 100

Rhapsody in blue

Well, here's my latest collage. I went for blue this time.

 

Strangely enough, the blues, rather than looking cold as blue is supposed to do, look clean, fresh and springlike. So, what do you prefer, orange or blue?

Orange Extravaganza

Orange is not usually a colour that inspires me as it isn't a colour that I can wear. However, the day has arrived when I wish that I could wear it as some beard to die for have arrived at Craft Fairy headquarters and I just had to out them together in this collage of colour.

So, now all that I have to do is use this as inspiration for a little crafting. I can't wait.

Chiffon ribbon

We'll you might see from the last and this post that I have at last discovered how to use picsart. So I do hope that I don't bore you all to death with my piccies. These chiffons are lovely though so feel free to share.

Seeing Spots

We've just had a delivery of the most amazing spotty ribbons and we now carry almost the whole range of these fabulous satin taffeta ribbons. I also decided to play around with collages and this is today's creation.

Beware as there may be more.

Cover up with Hearts

How many of you have little girls who fall over and make a hole in their tights. Result ruined tights?

Not any more as you can cover up that unsightly hole with a felt heart and very often it will look better than it did before. I saw this fantastic pin on Pinterest and thought that it might inspire you.

Buy Craft Fairy felt hearts here.

Hearts are not just for Valentine's Day

At the risk of repeating myself,  Hearts are not just for Valentine's Day. You'll think this too when you see these beautiful hearts that I have pinned into my felt board on Pinterest. They are by a really talented lady, whose blog is called Beedeebabee. To be honest with you these hearts are just a snapshot of her talent. She sells on Etsy too and makes fabulous things.

So, I just had to cut out some felt hearts so that you can make something as beautiful as these.

Elegant Silver Grey Pearl Necklace

A quick bit of inspiration this time as I've made a woven necklace from some of the new pearls and metal beads that we have on Craft Fairy. 

This is quite a good necklace to use if you have lots of ods and ends of pearls left in your workbox. 

It is made with two strands of tigertail which are threaded through the beads and finished with a toggle clasp. My clasp of choice really.

Jane Austen Valentines

The talented Susan Jane has made some beautiful cards with Craft Fairy ribbons.

She has lots more and better still a free pattern of the download.

So what are you waiting for? Get on over now. Click the image to see what she has.

Magenta Necklace

The title of this post may well be 'Magenta Necklace',  but I think that the actual necklace is vibrant and so appealing that the title does it no justice. What do you think?

You may also have noticed that my photos are getting more adventerous as I have bought both a new camera and a new edition of Photoshop Elements. Fab.

However, to business. The necklace is also made with my new Craft Fairy beads and I used:

Mother and Son Black Brass Chain x 1 metre

Spray Painted Acrylic Beads, Flat Round I used the magenta with a purple splash. That's why I chose the purple pearls.

6/0 Glass Seed Beads, Iris Round, Purple, about 4mm x 30g

Purple, 10mm glass pearl 32"approx 85 pcs/strand

Tibetan Style Twisted Toggle & T Bar Black, pack of 4 sets

Tigertail sorry we don't sell it as yet but it is on order and will be with us soon

The necklace is made with a simple process of 2 strands through the larger beads and 1 through the smaller ones. I will do a tutorial I promise.

Victorian Inspired Necklace

I did tell you in my last post that I was surrounded by beads. Now that I have unpacked almost all of them I gave into tempation and made my first necklace using some of the fabulous beads and connectors.You may have noticed too that a lot of the things that I bought are black. This is because I rather like jewelery on  a black base and I have found it hard to buy. So I bought black in spades so that you won't have to search too much.

Products used:

First of all I should say that these are the pack sizes. You will not use them all. You'll have plenty left over.

Tibetan Style Beads, Flat Round, Black, x 4

Tibetan Style Connectors, Flower, Black x 10

10mm Black Color, Iron JumpRings, Closed but Unsoldered, x 70

Brass Eyepins, Black, Size: about 5cm long, approx 100 pieces (1)

Rubberised Acrylic Beads, Red 14mm x 20

Tibetan Style Twisted Toggle & T Bar Black, pack of 4 sets

Glass Seed Beads, Trans. Colors Rainbow, Round, Fuchsia, approx 4mm x 30g

 I hope that you like my creative setting. It's the scales from my kitchen, yes I really do use one like that and some old embroidered napkins that I have had for 30 years and never used as they were too nice. So sad. Get them out of the draw!!

Beads, Beads, Beads

Can I contain my excitement? I think not.

The wonderful beads have started to arrive here at Craft Fairy and with a little bit of luck they will all be on the website by the weekend. At lease 80% of them are there already.

I had a little play around with Photoshop and I came up with this poster for my beads. "My beads" is that a Freudian slip? I am selling them I promise. I feel like one of those pirates who finds the hidden treasure. So many beads and so wonderful.

Loyalty Points

At last, Craft Fairy is giving loyalty points when you buy with us. I hope that the picture is self explanatory.

Punched petal flower card

Punched petal flower card.

Hands up how many of you have bought things and then put them aside and done nothing with them. I confess to being no slouch in this area either. This is why I've had a punch from Kuretake for a while and not really done anything with it. Until today that is. My computer was not working this morning so I really had to create. The card below and the flower on is is what I came up with.

Recently I've started to enter challenges again so this is to be entered in:

Cute Card Thursday's 'Beat the Blues' Challenge.

Rose Posy Picture so 'Chic'.

Today's post is going to be about using some of those beautiful flowers that we sell at Craft Fairy in a picture frame. I've made this because so many of my customers say that our flowers are too beautiful to use and they keep them in a draw to look at from time to time. Well we cant have that can we. So this is how to get them out of the draw and use them to good effect.

Do you like this frame? Does it look expensive? Well, it actually cost me 99p and it came from the shop of the same name. You probably have a local one yourself so get on over and have a look at what they have in stock. There was no glass. What did I expect for 99p? Better for the purposes of making this picture.

The paper is from Making Memories and was part of my stash that I'd been keeping for a long time as it was too pretty to waste.

 Cut the paper so that it fits on the backing board. Fix it in the frame.

For the posy, I used a selection of flowers.

Large curly roses in pink.
Vintage blue roses in blue

Shape your roses so that they form  round shape as seen in the image. Then apply foam pads to the back of the posy.

Stick down onto the backing paper.

To make the vase cut a vase shape from some decorative card. I used some non shed glitter card but you could use any toning card that you have.

Tie a knot in a piece of 16mm ribbon. I used french blue,  and trim to make it look like a bow. Apply tape to each side of the ribbon and tape to the back of the vase shape.

Now attach this to the picture with more foam pads and your picture is complete.

I have just entered this on the Our Creative Corner Challenge. So if you have anything in the colours pink, aqua and a flower then why don't you enter too.

Hearts and buttons

 Hearts and buttons, what more could a girl want? Perhaps some thread and ribbon?

Valentine's Day will be with us soon and this is a perfect project to get you going.

Today, I decided to  die cut some red hearts out of the fabulous wool blend felt that I showed you a couple of weeks ago. The result was that I felt inspired too and I made this heart hanging to kick off the Valentine makes. So much better than a card that ends up in the bin.

Items from Craft Fairy that I used:

Red wool blend die cut hearts

Buttons from the nursery mix

9mm red gingham


I started by sewing three buttons to one side of the heart. I used white buttons and red thread.

 Then I used green embroidery thread to sew a stem and leaves.
Quickly followed by blanket stitch in white, around 3/4 of the outside edge of the heart. This is then stuffed with any suitable stuffing. I used kapok because I have some. Stuffing from old pillows works fine too.

Pin the ribbon in position and finish stitching around the edge and there you have it a pretty scandi chic hanging heart.