Parklands Leisure Centre Christmas Fair

22nd November 2009


PARKLANDS LEISURE CENTRE, OADBY, LEICESTER

If you are popping along to this Christmas craft fair, you will find me there with my eldest daughter Mel, please come and say hello!


I am busy making more items and organising myself and my table ready for the big day.



I will have jute bags for sale decorated with my handmade felt pictures, for each bag sold 20% is donated to Fleecehaven sheep sanctuary http://www.fleecehaven.org.uk/



Plus, you will find my usual fused glass jewellery and more!

I usually work sundays, so am very pleased that I was able to get this particular sunday off :0)

Hope to see you there!

Button jewellery swap

I recently took part in a button jewellery swap organised by Sam http://tinyurl.com/yzk64l2

Incy's shop: http://tinyurl.com/yzvlrcq

My swappee was Amy of Kat and Toad http://tinyurl.com/yg2cqon

The theme was pieces of jewellery that incorporated buttons of any shape and kind.

I made a ring with two buttons stacked and a piece of felt under just to add a finishing touch.

I used wire and real copper findings to make copper dangly earrings and a pendant and I hand stamped cards to present the jewellery on.

And then I made a wet felted clutch purse in purple/blue and pinks with lilac wednesleydale locks, lined it with purple fabric and finished it with glass beads, metal dragonflies and a really pretty polymer clay button made by Gill...http://www.folksy.com/shops/HollingdaleDesigns

I also sent some cute fabric, extra buttons and finished the parcel with some Cadbury's chocolate at Amy's request.

Then I wrapped everything up in mulberry paper and yellow tissue and found the perfect sized box for posting.

I really enjoyed the jewellery making swap and Amy was a really fab partener to have.

Here are the gorgeous items that Amy sent me, I was totaly spoilt...Thanks Amy!

Gorgeous fabric, cute button posy, scrummy sweets and..........

all this fab jewellery! =)

Meet the OH's new missus!

Hubby has himself a new gal!

She is a bit of an old lady but........ he's in lurve!

She is keeping him very busy, I hardly see him now!

She keeps in out of my way.......which is GREAT as I can get on with all my crafty stuff lol!

Wet felting tutorial

Today I have been wet felting a little bag, purse, pencil case? Don't know what it is really but it has turned out just as planned, which is good!

I chose chocolate and blues mixed and cut or pulled them into the lengths I would need.

Firstly, I put a mat down with a piece of bubble wrap over and then layered my wool over the bubble wrap, pulling it apart gently.

Then I did the same in the opposite direction, I repeated this four times making sure I went in the opposite way each time.

I then popped it into the bath and poured some soap flakes on and added some warm water.

I put another layer of bubble wrap over the top and massaged and rubbed in circular movements to get the soap and felt all lathered up.

Firmly but carefully I massaged and rolled the felt until I was sure it had shrunk away from the edges and knitted itself together.

Pull it gently to check that it is strong, if it is still pulling apart carry on with the process for a while longer.

Then rinse the felt carefully in luke warm water until soap has gone, squeeze gently not wringing, do a final rinse in water and white vinegar, just to make sure soap is completely rinsed away.

You now have to scrunch the felt into a ball shape and sling it hard at the sink (I love this bit!), do this several times until all nicely shrunk and firm, then you can roll in a towell to remove excess water, stretch out gently to get the shape back and leave to dry flat.

While this was drying I made some small felt balls to embellish the finished project, you do all the same thing really but in the palm of your hand.

Take a piece of wool, add soap and massage in a circular movement in the palm of your hand, dunk the ball in hot water and carry on rolling in the palm of your hand.

You will feel the ball get firmer and when you are happy with the size, rinse the soap away and press onto a towell to remove water, leave to dry.




When everything is dry it is ready for your project.

I made a pouch bag lined with gorgeous cute owl fabric and embellished with felt balls and beads, this is for my friends birthday, I will stuff it with chocolate and then she can use it for anything she likes, make-up, pencils whatever.

Resin Dog Tag!

I needed a new dog tag for "Woody" and decided he should have something totally different from the usual metal stamped type, which he had just lost!

I thought a lovely resin one would really suit him, something that you don't see doggies usually wearing.

So... I looked here http://www.ilovespoiltpig.com/

I really liked Chrissy's style and asked her if she could do a tag for me, after a few e-mails discussing what I needed, Chrissy came up with a design and I love it!

It has his name on the front with studs and blue leopard print and on the back it has our phone number and the message *I am chipped *

Doesn't he look pleased with it?

Here is woody posing, he's not smiling I'm afraid, he only does that when you show him his favourite sqeaky toy, then he grins like a cheshire cat!

I think he was wondering what the hell I was doing when I got him out of his warm bed, thats why he looks so serious lol!

Anyway, Chrissy made a fab job of the tag, she also does gorgeous resin heart shaped pendants and lots of others too!

Thanks Chrissy!

More resin attempts!

This week I have done two more paper weights, a trinket dish and some extra's, not sure what to do with them, I can only see them as fridge magnets. The large items were made with poly resin and the small items with easy cast, very simple to mix, but doesn't seem to get a nice result like the poly resin.

The trinket dish was quite difficult with the piece of fabric, I pushed out all the bubbles but some escaped me, I don't really mind though. I had to put it in the airing cupboard as it seemed to be taking ages to set and then I had to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes to assist with getting it out of the mould, I completely forgot about it! three hours later I remembered, doesn't seem to have done it any harm!

I finished it with pink felt on the bottom for protection and embellished the sides with buttons.

The domed paper weight was great to do, and....I remembered to coat my papers with pva glue a couple of days earlier, so they were ready for the project.

I have used seed beads, watch parts, an old chain and a vintage button, there is also a little red ribbon rose at the side. I put black felt under for protection.

The flat round one has watch parts, beads and some nice news paper print style paper and fake stamps, these were all coated with pva first as well. Preparing for a project a few days in advance really is the best thing, I am normaly really impatient with projects, but I took my time with these and am happy with the results.

I finished this paper weight by sprinkling lime green/gold fine glitter on the base and then putting black felt on top for protection.

These last few bits have had glitter and glass paints added for a bit of colour.

Like I said earlier, they will probably end up as fridge magnets.

I have also done another bangle, but it needs sanding at the moment and finishing off so I didn't bother showing you that one! :0)

Fused glass decals

Well....here are my decal pendants, the daisies look very nice against the green dichroic and I think the plums and white flowers look nice against the shimmery light green/shimmery white and silver dichroic.

I was very patient and didn't touch them until they were cold, I have buffed them up and I am pleased with how they turned out, I think I will do more!

I have only listed the acorns so far in my Folksy shop, I like the subtleness against the shimmery crackle dichroic and I have put it on cream/white thonging so that they all blend together.

This is a pretty glass heart topped with glass frit and small chunks of dichroic, I love the way a shimmery piece has rested just off centre, this is a very dainty summery pendant.