I thought you might be sick of seeing Christmas decorations photographed on my kitchen table. So here are the ones I finished today hanging appropriately enough on the apricot tree. (Don't say I never do nothing for youse. I do care, dear reader.)
The fabric is from a vintage kaftan - but panic not! It was stained and unwearable - obviously! Or I'd be wearing it! I love turquoise blue and silver.
The template is on this previous post.
The stuffing was recycled pure cotton stuffing from a friend's futon. The wings are coffee packets and doilies. The feet are pom pom trim.
A flock of them sewn on the machine one sunny morning and finished today in readiness for gifts for teachers and neighbours.I'm sure you could make them sweeter than me!
Are you like me? Do you have a tendency to over complicate your life? (have I mentioned the five kids???)Now that I am a few years into this designing-eco-craft-kits lark, I have realised that some of the old kits are unnecessarily over complicated. What was I thinking? Well I think it was a lack of confidence in the product and that I was perhaps trying to over compensate. In any case I'm older and wiser (and more confident. Yay!)and so I'm re-vamping some of the more fiddly kits.
And the sugar skull bag-tag is getting a special re-vamp in readiness for some muchos Mexicana mayhem which is coming soon to the hood of Brunswick. Will tell you more later....
New and improved skully bag-tag kit is still bursting with colour, recycled trims and lots of decorative floral fun but is now a simpler shape, smaller and only single layered (but still double sided.)
So if your life is overcomplicated then I hope you can find a way to simplify something today too!
Okay – so how many
hours until Valentine’s day?
Yes - it's me –
doing last minute craft….AGAIN! When will I learn? But maybe you need
some last minute inspiration and ideas too? Or you can tuck the
idea away for another time. Next year. It comes around fast enough.
Using mostly
recycled materials I’ve made some last minute love heart lace stamps. Here's how:
Look at the doilies
and find bits that would fit together to be a love heart. The scalloped edgings
are great for the top of the heart. Any square or rectangle doilies have corner
bits that work for the point. Don’t worry about gaps in the puzzle. It still
works.
I only had two bits
of wood blocks left over from the skirting boards at our house. I also used box
lids.
For the stamping I
used acrylic paint. Because that's what I had. I added a bit of water too.
I placed the paper*
on top of the stamp and pressed down.
Add any extra
designs with a sharpie or other stamps. i had some letter stamps.If you are still making something for your Valentine, may the Saint be with you and enjoy! Is there anything better than making something homemade for your loved ones?
*I love this paper
that my Mum made from recycled paper. She passed away almost two years ago and this
is pretty much the last of her paper I have left.
