Grungey Leather Poppy

Wow, we are having some lovely hot sunny days here in Bristol.  It makes such a difference to be able to go out without a heavy winter coat and an umbrella.  It is supposed to go on for a bit longer, but my only worry is that this may be our summer and come June/July and August we get rain instead of sun, agggrhhhh - I hope not!!

I have not made much this last week as I was trying to source some more leather so I could get a few other colours.  I managed to get some red leather so made a poppy, it's quite a grungey style poppy but I am pleased with it.  Here it is:

I've have also got some lovely yellow leather so I think I will go for a sunflower style one next!

Pop on over to my Facebook page if you are interested in buying any of my leather brooches.  You can find them in the album named 'Flower Brooches'.  The large ones are £8 plus postage.

More Leather Flowers

Hi - just a quick one from me today.  I have made a couple more leather flowers using the same tutorial that I posted a few days back.  This time I made a petal template that was much shorter than the die cut one that I made previously.  This gave a smaller flower but looked very nice as well.  The finished flower was approx 10cm in diameter.

Here are the 2 latest ones

I've placed a £1 coin next to them to give you an idea of the size.

These are very addicitive and I need to source some more leather scraps now to make more of them!!

You could make these out of card and shape the petals using an embossing tool rather than burning the edges!  I may try this next!!  They would look great on shabby chic items and you could adjust the size of the petal to suit your project.

Lunch at Brick Lane and Leather Flowers

Well we've had a lovely couple of days weatherwise in the South West of England. I caught the coach up to London on Saturday and spent the afternoon with a friend of mine who was over from India.  It was so nice to be able to roam around in the sunshine without a coat.  We did alot of walking and went to Brick Lane for a very tasty lunch in a Bangladeshi restaurant called Aladin!  For non UK readers, Brick Lane was the title of a book set in this area of London written by Monica Ali.  It was also made into a movie and is about a Bangladeshi woman who comes to England after an arranged marriage.  If you haven't read it, it is a nice read and the movie was also good.

Onto crafting now!!!  I have a bag of leather offcuts and they have been doing nothing for quite a while!  I decided to make some flowers using some new Sizzix dies that I recently purchased.

I made some quick and simple ones to start with which will be good to sell at fairs I think.  The one die was used to cut all the layers on the flowers.  I made a few different colour combos and turned them into brooches.

I have another Sizzix die that cuts out 2 different sized petals to make large flowers and I saw a fab video on YouTube which I followed.  My petals are bigger and a different shape but I am really pleased with how the flower came out.  It is very large and a gorgeous vibrant pink colour.  I also made this into a brooch!  I have put a £1 coin next to the flower just to show how big it is!

Hope you like them!

A Mother's Day Card

Hi there

I spoke too soon about the weather improving!!!!  It's turned cold and wet again!  The summer was on it's way but took a wrong turn!! 

Here in the UK it is Mother's Day, also known as Mothering Sunday on 30 March.  I haven't made cards for at least a year or maybe more but saw this unusual 3d matchbox style card on Pinterest with a great tutorial and thought I would have a go!  Here is the tutorial by Stampin Haven.

It's made using an Envelope Punch Board - We r Memory Keepers or Stampin Up! make them.  If you haven't got one of these boards then you don't know what you are missing!!  You can do so much with them!!

Here is the card that I made for my mum.

I'm pleased with how it has come out, especially as I am out of practice!!!  Hope you like it too!

Homemade Printed Cloth Labels

Hi everyone

Hope that you are all enjoying your weekend so far.  We have lovely blinding, sunshine but it is feeling very chilly!  Can't complain though as at least it isn't raining!!

I've been wanting some cloth labels for my makes for a long time but they are so expensive to buy!  I been searching and saw various ways of making them yourself either by stamping or by printing onto t-shirt transfer paper.  I finally had a go at using the t-shirt transfer way and was really pleased with the results.  I managed to make 105 labels from just one sheet!  I used some plain cotton tape this is around 25p a metre - I had some in cream and some in white so used both colours so that they would  match with items that I make!  Sometimes a white label will look better on a colour than a cream one and vice versa!!  I know - that makes me sound abit OCD!
  
Tutorial link at the bottom of post!!

Here are my finished labels

 

I've stitched them onto the back of my felt shabby hearts.  I think it gives them a more professional look and it means that although my crafting name is on the heart, it doesn't get in the way of the front design of the heart.

I will do a tutorial and pop it on my side bar for you to have a go.

*****Link to tutorial*****

Spring is in the Air!

Well, the weather has certainly been abit better although it seems to have got colder.  We even had a warm sunny day last Sunday.  I took advantage of it and dug out a lightwight summer top and went with a friend to a Caribbean Restaurant where we sat outside and drank cocktails in the sun - it was lovely to be able to do this!!  Sadly, no sun since so back to wearing my warmer clothes!!  Hopefully Spring is here now at least as lots of beautiful flowers starting to bloom.

I've not made that much recently - after the Christmas rush I seemed to burn myself out!  Anyway, I've started to slowly get myself sewing again and made some more shabby felt hearts and a cute felt bunny.


Here are some of the hearts

All available to order over at my Bumblebee's Craft Den Facebook page

Here is the felt bunny.  I think he is rather cute!  I made him totally by hand (as I do with all of my items!)

Thanks for stopping by.  I am also over on Pinterest if you fancy having a look!