Christmas Crafting

Now that Christmas is over I can share some of the homemade things I did for Christmas presents :-) I will say that even though I find crafting fun, crafting to a deadline when you have 2 little boys to look after is STRESSFUL... Thanks to both my parents and the in-laws for all the baby-sitting! I think I'm going to have to start Christmas crafting in say June next year so I don't leave it until the last minute!

First up - Christmas Cards:

Next was some glass blocks with vinyl stickers of Christ from Stick By Me:

Then some frames... The little house frames were pretty labour intensive... I made my own letters by using 3 layers of cardstock, a layer of paper and then Crystal effects on top. And I had 9 families to do :-)

Next some handbags for my nieces - I made 3 of these. The pattern is from here.

Another small tote bag for a friend. This is loosely based on this tutorial from Homemade by Jill and is made out of tea towels :-)

And last of all, this dress for my niece. The pattern is Simplicity 4711.

No wonder I was worn out by Christmas :-) I'm looking forward to moving onto more projects for me and my family now ;-)

Retromummy giveaway!

Check out this giveaway from retromummy! The fabrics are so beautiful... and 20 fat quarters is a LOT of fabric :-) Fingers crossed... :-)

Block Party

Almost a month ago now I attended a workshop with Adele where we made these blocks:

The pictures don't do justice to how good these look :-) They are about 7cm square and look great on my shelf. After finding out how easy they are to do (and after finding out that my husband has a drop saw and can cut the blocks for me!) I wandered off to Bunnings and bought some wood, and made some more smaller blocks for my Visiting Teaching sisters for Christmas. These smaller blocks are about 4 cm square (42mm to be exact...)

Then I made some blocks for my brother and his wife for their anniversary (just because I could!)

Thanks Adele for your quick and easy idea!

I won a giveaway!

Sew, Mama Sew! hosted a giveaway day last Monday where probably over a hundred blogs participated in offering giveaways. I went a little crazy and entered probably about 20 different giveaways on various blogs. And... I managed to win one! I won some fabric from The Crafty Nomad, who is a blogger from Western Australia :-) I can't wait until it arrives!

Skirt refashion

I know, I know, I'm still not posting very much. I still have a lot of catching up to do on this blog but I'd rather be crafting than writing about crafting :-)

I had this green layered skirt that was one of my favourite skirts to wear - just so comfortable. Unfortunately I bought it at my skinniest weight and so after 2 babies there was no way I was going to be able to fit into its non-elasticised waist...

So I unpicked the top two tiers of the skirt (the skirt originally came to below mid calf so I had plenty of length to work with), sewed them together to form one huge loop, shirred it, then sewed it onto the skirt.

Ta-da!

I have my skirt back! If I were to do it again, I'd attach the top tier before shirring it - I think it would just have been easier!

If you want more ideas on refashioning, check out http://www.newdressaday.com/ - the blogger gave herself a challenge of creating a new item of clothing a day for a whole year, with a budget of $1 a day. The transformations are amazing :-) Now, to raid some more op shops... :-)

Simply Modern Mom giveaway

Tiffany from Simply Modern Mom is having some great giveaways on her blog.

Check out the giveaway from Jessa ZG for some wall art - I like the "Dad Wins" print, and the height chart.

Dana from MADE is also giving away patterns on Simply Modern Mom. I've used Dana's Summer Vacation Dress pattern and her patterns are so easy to follow.

And check out the Starfish Jewellery giveaway.

And the best thing about these giveaways - they are open to international readers!

Stampin' Up

I've also managed a little bit of time lately to stamp... Not as much as I'd like with Christmas coming up but with all the sewing I've been doing there hasn't been room on my desk for stamps! :-)

This first card was for a baby shower I attended a couple of weeks ago. I've used Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Whisper White cardstock. I've used the Scallop Border punch on the Certainly Celery to create the scalloped border. I stamped the Baby Tee's wheel with Staz On ink, and then water coloured the onesies, cut them out and stuck them on with Dimensionals. I've also embossed the background (which you can't see in this photo very well) with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. The "It's a boy!" is from Nursery Necessities (unfortunately retired) and punched out with the Word Window punch.

Christmas Ideas! (Which I badly need... cause December is just too close now...) I hosted my own workshop with Debbie a few weeks ago now, where we made the patchwork Top Note card and the little red Milk Carton. Then I attended her November Stamp-a-Stack where we made the lolly tube, gift boxes, felt flower clips, apron card and a lollipop flower (which was grabbed by my son before I got a chance to take a photo...).

This card I made on Saturday for my niece's birthday. I've used Melon Mambo, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock, the Flight of the Butterfly and Sweet little Sentiments stamp sets, the butterfly punch, the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, and the Scallop Square and Timeless Type Big Shot Dies.

Now to just make a start on my Christmas cards!

Stick By Me

I attended a Stick by Me party about 3 weeks ago. Stick by Me produces vinyl stickers that can be stuck pretty much anywhere - glass, walls, etc. I've been eyeing off their products for a while now and was really glad to have the chance to see their products for myself. My order arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to put it all together and show you! They've just brought out this image of Christ, which I've used here on a white glass brick (which I bought through Stick by Me). You can also add your own phrase - my pick was "My Redeemer Liveth". It was so easy to do (even for me who routinely gets things crooked) and looks so great on our shelf.

So much crafting...so little blogging...

It's definitely been a while between posts! I borrowed my mum's overlocker in order to get a little bit of Christmas gift sewing done. Well that little bit of sewing turned into a sewing marathon that I've finally just finished - and I still haven't done all the Christmas sewing I wanted to! Oh well. Here's a quick snapshot of some things I've made recently:

Some more Big Butt Baby pants

Shorts for me :-)

Pyjamas

Long cotton pyjama pants

Decorated t-shirts. The pirate image is from Lil' Blue Boo

I have more to show you over the next couple of days :-)

I went a little crazy...

Do you remember a few posts ago when I showed off the blocks and goofball that I made for my sister-in-law's baby shower? Well, as the baby shower came closer I found more and more tutorials that I wanted to try - I had the material, so I thought why not? ;-) So here's what I ended up making...

I had a couple of singlets put away that were a more t-shirt like material than your general singlet type ribbed material. So I decided to add a couple of sleeves and applique the middle...

(I'm actually working on my first ever tutorial to show you how to make these sleeves... Hopefully it will be up soon!)

A shirred baby skirt from Creation Corner... Yes I am a little addicted to shirring...

A pair of Big Butt Baby pants from the pattern by Made By Rae. These pants are designed with an extra panel in the back to be able to fit over cloth nappies. These are probably more like 3/4 length on a newborn, and I've added a couple of rows of shirring to the legs to make a cuff (yes, more shirring again ;-D)

A nursing cover from the pattern by Christina from Sometimes Crafter:

And I pulled out my Stampin' Up! supplies to make a card and decorate a gift bag:

It was so much fun to go a little crazy :-)