Happy birthday, Louise!

For my friend's birthday this year, I wanted to find something a little bit different to give her as a gift. I couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to expand my creative horizons and try making a unique photo frame.

It was quite a simple project, in theory! All I did was take a plain wooden photo frame and the embellishments to decorate it with and a glue gun. I found a mixture of purple and pink buttons, some flower buttons and some pink seed beads to decorate the main frame. I bought the wooden scrabble tiles to spell "Friends Forever" or "Forever Friends" depending on how you look at it - part of the design charm ;)

First, I used the glue gun to glue the bead pearl string around the edge of the frame. Then, I made the top left corner button from a large purple button, 3 flower beads and some purple ribbon. Then, I glued that to the frame and glued the letters on. After that, I glued on the buttons and inserted some pearl beads and pink seed beads at random and pressed down to secure. All in all, the project took about an hour, which is pretty good for a first attempt I think! Pretty pleased with how it turned out - hopefully the birthday girl is too (and that the beads have managed to stay on - those seed beads were a bit pesky!!)

The Finished Article - all it needs now is a photo!

My 12th and 13th Love Quilt Squares

Lizzie and I met for a Stitch 'n' Bitch yesterday, which allowed to make great progress on my 13th square. I didn't quite finish it before I went to bed last night, but I had a 5:30am wake up call in the form a cold wet dog nose and seeing as I only had 2 small swirls and the name to finish I figured I might as well finish it now!

This is my 12th square for Chloe D's Disney themed quilt - she loves Toy Story! I found this pattern online. It was easy enough to stitch but the logos on the shirts were patterned to be all orange, but a Google image search says that's not accurate so I adapted it. I finished this square a while ago but forgot to blog it!

Look at that!!

This is my 13th square (the one I've just finished) for Megan T's heart themed quilt. I found this design on Etsy (I think) and it was originally charted in white and shades of green. Megan's favourite colours are pink, purple and blue so I adapted it. You could easily adapt it to any colour scheme - I changed the white for a cream and then used a blue, purple and two shades of pink but it would look good in just about anything I'd say! 

Seeing as I did all the stitches in the left half first and then the right, I was amazed that they all lined up correctly when I finished!!

With the cream and the blue...

...then the light pink...

...then the hot pink...

...and finally with the purple and the name!

This is my last quilt square for the moment, but once I've posted these to headquarters I'll keep checking the website to see if there are any other sign ups I can do. You can see all of my Love Quilt squares by clicking here and you can see the quilts that have been made using my squares by clicking here

Christmas is approaching, so it will soon be time for me to switch my attention back to my Christmas stocking. Yes, I do mean the felt and sequin one I started 3 years ago...I've moved 3 times since then!! This year will be the year it gets finished!! I've also got a couple of stitches I want to do for gifts - watch this space!! 

My Craft Room

It must be the crafter's ultimate dream to have a craft room in their house. I've tried in 4 different houses now - it's not easy!

But, this summer I finally managed it!

Ok, so it doesn't look amazingly organised yet, but I know where everything is! Of course, I'm always adding new supplies to my stash! I'm hoping now to be able to make lots of skirts and dresses using the fabric on the shelves. I made the yellow sundress on the mannequin many years ago - needless to say, it doesn't fit now!! Also, the pole for the mannequin got lost in the last move somehow, so she's pretty short! (No short jokes please! haha)

Currently, I'm working on a heart themed square for a Love Quilt, which I'm hoping I'll be able to finish this weekend, and the Alphabet Adventure Scrapbook is ongoing. I've done the pages for S is for Skiing and Z is for Zoo but I'm not sure if they're finished yet...!!

Scrapbooking: T is for Theatre

So my husband and I have decided to start our own Alphabet Adventure in order to make the most of our weekends together. The plan is to complete a fun activity beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

As you might have noticed, we've gone against the grain and started with T. We got last. I ute tickets for Aladdin the musical in London and it was absolutely incredible! Quite possibly my new favourite musical! (Which is a tie between that, Wicked and Matilda) 

I've just finished the page to go in the Alphabet Adventure themed scrapbook I've been making (turns out that craft is magic medicine for a wisdom tooth extraction if I can stay awake long enough!)

I picked a sunset themed background paper because it reminded me of the backdrop settings from the musical. I printed the photos from my FreePics app on my iPad and stuck them on with transparent photo corners. I made the tag using cream paper and my Sissix machine to cut the tag shape. The black and white letter came as part of a fabric letter set from Hobbycraft. Then I just added a pink flower button, which reminded me of Morroco somehow, and some black ribbon which came off  a Links of London gift box. I arranged some scrabble tile letter embellishments to spell "theatre" and added some diamond gems in the corners. I'm pretty pleased, if I do say so myself! 

Still to come: S is for Skiing, Z is for Zoo and I is for Ireland. 

Did you really think we'd be going in alphabetical order??