Ill Kitty

Hi! Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Unfortunately one of my kittens has been very ill. Last weekend he decided to eat some of my cotton. It then got tangled around his tongue and all the way down to his intestine. On Wednesday he had a major operation to take out the cotton. It was very tangled and he had to have 5 holes made in his intestine to remove it all. He is now awake, and purring away. He has to stay in the vet over the weekend as if there is any leakage from the intestine it wont show for 3-5 days. His brother is missing him lots, and following me around the house meowing. Hopefully I can pick him up on Monday, until then I will call and visit him!

I would like to stress to everyone not to leave things around that could be eaten! Also insure your pets!! The total bill for the treatment and care of my kitten is at £1200.

I have the weekend off work, so will be making a few things to keep me busy, so watch this space!!

And here they are! The tabby is Tails who ate the cotton, and the black is Knuckles who misses his brother lots!

My Buys

Sorry for my short disappearance. I've been working a 6 day week and have a case if the lurgy!!

I haven't had chance to make anything recently, so I have decided to post some of the craft makes I have purchased!!

First off is a lovely wall hanging from Handmade by Noelle, After seeing her work I requested her to do this piece for me, and I love it!! The scene is a picture of mine of my Dads house in the Isle Of Scilly.

Next up we have another Isle of Scilly themed item. Heat Shaped Home does these awesome map hearts, I recommend everyone takes a look. I had one made for my parents for Christmas, unfortunately I don't have a picture on here at the moment!

One of my old workmates has now set up her own craft business. Find her at Handmade with love. By Shelly Lee. I recently got one of her 'forever flowers', such a nice idea. Perfect for me as my kittens have a tendency to knock my vases over!!

My most recent purchase has been 2 sock moggys and mouse! As I love my kittens, and the work of Socksy Beasts. I had 2 of her moggys and a little cute sock mouse to keep guard of them! She achieved the tabby look amazing well! :)

Framed 'inch art'

I've seen the idea of small squares of art used to make larger artwork. Naturally I had to have a go myself!!

I decided to use a deep frame so each square could be 3d. I used the bit of paper you normally get in a new frame as the background so I had the exact size area to work on. For each square I used a base of some fancy paper. I started by cutting out some squares for the base. I then collected some bits and bobs to use in the decoration. I then just had fun. There's no set style or theme to do, just have fun with it. This is my first attempt with a red, white and blue theme.

Paper cut tree

I have finally finished my tree! Its not perfect, and there are some places where I slipped and cut too much. But overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think I'm going to make the heart in the tree red and then its done!

Valentines Cupcakes!

Today I have made a complete mess of the kitchen! But its worth it as I now have cupcakes to munch on!!

I used a recipe from the bbc food website. They have all sorts of things on there.

I had great fun decorating them once they has cooled. Most of the cupcakes I frosted with butter cream and decorated with fondant hearts. Some are covered in icing and sprayed gold!!

The main point of cupcakes in my opinion is to have fun!!

So the photo isn't great, the brown is actually pink and the yellow is gold! :)

Paper cutting

So I thought I would have a go at the art of paper cutting. I had a little trial run and found its actually quite addictive. 
I have started on a piece which will be a tree with 2 birds in it, here's how it started!

There are a lot of little pieces to be cut of so its going to take a while!! Here's how it looked after about 3 or 4 hours of cutting (with a few gin breaks of course!)

You can sort of make out the outline of the tree. I will be doing some more this evening, hopefully finishing the top of the tree!

Ribbon heart framed

As I enjoyed making my union jack from ribbons so much I have been experimenting with other designs. As valentines day is quickly approaching I decided a ribbon heart would be fitting.

As with the union jack I drew the design on some cardboard. I then stuck the background ribbon on first.

As you can see in the picture. I then stuck the ribbon for the heart in the opposite direction. I finished the piece by bordering the heart with ribbon. The get the curved effect I cut halfway into the ribbon so it could overlap its self. 

I will be trying this again soon to make it neater. You can't really see in the picture, but I can see some of my pencil lines on the ribbon!!

Bass Guitar

So my other half has been looking for weeks to decorate his bass guitar. He had seen a design of another bass and fell in love with it! So after speaking to the owner of said bass he was told dont even bother, its more hassle then its worth. Like that was going to put him off! We ruled out the idea of painting it, then he came across the idea of transfers.
So he went ahead and got some chequered transfers. The only trouble is a bass is not an easy surface to work on due to the lack of flat surfaces!
Anyway, we went ahead and started on it, and this is the result so far:

Most of the back has also been done, we are currently trying to work out how to do the edges. Watch this space for the completed project.

Ribbon union jack

So yesterday I had some lovely ribbons delivered from Molly moo's crafty bits & more . They are superb quality and I was definitely inspired! I also had some photo frames arrive yesterday so decided to create some ribbon art! 

I started by deciding my design - a Union Jack! First I got a piece of cardboard to fit my frame and made a rough sketch of the design. Using some short pins I started to lay my ribbon out and pinned them down to get the design. Once I had cut all my pieces and pinned them on, I took them off!! By taking them off in layers and setting them on my desk in order it made it easier to secure them back on. I used double sided tape to stick the ribbons on the card. Starting with the 2 styles of blue ribbon, I stuck them into place. Next I did the diagonals, white first, then the red on top. Next for the cross. I secured the white down first then finished with the red ribbon. I finished the piece by trimming the edges and framing. Overall for my first attempt I am pretty pleased :)

Valentines paper bunting

So I adore bunting! I prefer to make paper bunting as its easier and I can stick all sorts of embellishments onto it!


Here I have made a small section of bunting just in time for valentines day. 

To make the bunting, first I cut out the triangles. I prefer to use a template for this to get them all the same. Once that is done its time to decorate! I used bit and bobs I had about the place. I also cut strips and shapes from paper to decorate. To raise the paper shapes off the triangle I would normally use the sticky dots, unfortunately I had run out so I used a button (In an awful colour that would just been left in my tin otherwise!) to give it the raised look. Once you have done all your embellishments and left them to dry just stick them onto some ribbon! Again I used ribbon I already had in my stash of things, but you can use any you like. It may be best to experiment a bit first, as depending on your glue they may not stick properly. If this happens I would recommend using double sided tape. And there you have it, some pretty bunting to go around the house!

A close up of the first 2 flags. The one on the left I have used strips of paper and some little gems. The one of the right I used a paper heart raised using a button, and another gem on top.


A close up of the middle 2 flags. The left one has a paper cut out with a fabric heart on top. The right one has gems at the bottom, cut out paper with a raised heart on top.

And finally the last 2 flags. On the left I used a paper cut out with buttons stuck on top. On the right I used paper cut out shape and a paper strip again with a button.






















There are some may different things you can do with bunting, so have fun with it!!

Shabby chic small table

I have always loved the shabby chic look. So I decided to have a go myself!


Unfortunately I didn't take a 'before' photo, but it was a very dark wood colour. 


First off I sanded the piece, then painted in in a duck egg blue colour. I did a couple coats of this and left it to dry overnight. Once dry I rubbed on some wax from an old candle to the places I would be distressing, e.g the corners and sides. I then painted with a couple layers of off white paint so that none of the blue could show through. Once again it was left overnight to dry. Once dry I lightly sanded the edges to reveal the blue underneath, some places I did it a bit hard and the dark wood is showing. But I quite like that anyway!


I still need to give it that finishing touch by either sanding and/or varnishing.


If you are looking to distress something of your own, I recommend looking around at different techniques and practising on something small first!!

Welcome!

Hey there!!


So a quick introduction.....My name is Becky and I live in a town called Tavistock in Devon. I'm 24 years old and love making things!!


My blog is about all my crafts. I hope to include pictures, ideas, help, and if I manage to get round to it, some instructions too!!