Basic Crochet Baby Blankets

Good Evening All

 

Again I have been neglecting my blog.  I do have excuses though, working full time, shift work, seeing the family plus trying to get some crafting done on my down time but I am saving up photos of projects for blogs and will be doing some Christmas Stuff in the next week so there should be plenty coming your way.  I here lots of resounding yayyy'ss! or not lol.

 

Anyway, it seems that there are lots of new babies being brought into the world this month and so I have been asked to do a few blankets.  As you know I am only able to do the most very basic of crochet but its a great start and some lovely things can be done using the basic stitches. 

 

 All the blankets that are made have a lovely little "made for an angel" or "handmade with love" charm on them just to add a wee extra touch.

 

I have also been using up the remnants of wool to make comforters to match.  These are just little extra wee bits that kids seem to like dragging about with them or fiddling with when they are sleeping or trying to get to sleep.

 

 

I am also hoping to try and get the HUGE double bed sized blanket finished for myself this year, I say hoping as it hasn't been touched for over a year now!!

 



 

 So its something that's really easy to do or learn and it is also very therapeutic with the added benefit of keeping your knees warm in this freezing cold weather.

 

I am not really at a point where I could take anyone through all the different stages of making a blanket with names of stitches etc, but for this basic style you can look at the following link for step by step instructions.  It has been the easiest to follow on the web (as always though there are loads of different sites to be found on the web).

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Crochet-a-Granny-Square

 

Happy Crafting!!

 

Amanda xx



Tatty Ted 30th Star Card

Morning Peeps

 

So as you know it was my lovely Sisters 30th this week and so I wanted to make her a very special card that she could keep in her memories box. 

 

I decided on a Crafters Companion Project using the Ultimate Pro.  I chose to complete a star card and use the Do Crafts Tatty Ted Card Kit to decorate as well as lil' gems and ribbons and such.

This is the card when it is sitting open on the shelf.  I love the look of it, its more like a decoration than a card, yet it folds up into a lovely neat A5 sized card.

There were five individual star card pop outs that were put together to give the fan effect.

A very dimensional card giving the WOW factor!!

Its a great card for adding lots of lovely little message's to the dangle stars, brilliant for looking back on and makes a great keepsake.

Matching gift card/ money wallet.

I was really pleased with how this project turned out and my sister loved it.  I think I will definitely be making another in the future, it was loads of fun.

 

Happy Crafting!!

 

Amanda xx

Keepsakes for the 30th Keepsake Card...

Hello Crafters

 

Just a wee quick post to show a couple of pictures of the cards that I made to pop in the envelopes as part of the Envelope Keepsake card which is on the Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro DVD.  There was still space in the card for my Mum to go out and chose a couple of other wee keepsakes for my Sister to pop in her special birthday box.

Credit Card Size...

A5 Size, great to use as bookmarks....

This has been probably the biggest most special paper crafting that I have had to complete.  It took 3 days from start to finish which isn't that long but it was great and I really enjoyed it.  It would have been so much harder though without the Ultimate Pro though as I was also able to make a lovely presentation box for it to be put in.

 

Its a MUST for any paper crafter!! My advice if you do not have one is to pop it on your Santa List and hope that you make his "nice" list :)

 

Happy Crafting

 

Amanda x

Fairyopolis 30th Birthday Keepsake Card...

Morning World!!

 

Well today is a very special day.   It is my little Sisters 30th Birthday, I cant quite believe it!!

 

For her Birthday my Mum asked if I would make her a card.  It is so hard to make special birthday cards for family members, something for them to treasure and keep as I know I have kept all my special birthday cards.  So I wanted something with a "Wow!" factor and turned to Crafters Companion for inspiration and help.

 

I had already decided to use the lovely Fairyopolis Kit as my Sister and I had loved these Flower Fairies when we were younger and they are really timeless but I wasn't sure what type of card to make and so I popped on the Ultimate Pro DVD.  The lovely Sara takes you through some great projects and I chose to try this one.  The Envelope Keepsake Card, it was the first time I had tried it but having the DVD to take me through the stages was just fantastic.  I really recommend it.

 

So I started with the basics of putting it together and then I decorated each page in turn, choosing different poems, some about fairies and some about being a daughter.

 

The theme of the card is Fairyopolis and these are mostly in decoupage form to give lots of texture and dimension.  I have tried to incorporate lots of "30's" and flowers.  In the DVD the card folds flat on its own, because I added so many flowers, lots of decoupage, extra pages and bling, I chose to add a bow to secure the book closed for popping in the presentation box.

Each page is decorated with a decoupaged Flower Fairy, this was achieved using 3D Glue Gel.  The envelopes are closed over using bows in the same colour as the one that is used to secure the whole book.

 

The Internet is a great source and I found lots of poems about fairies and daughters that are free for you to use in your projects.  If they are written by someone in-particular, I always add this at the bottom.

 

There are lots of flowers throughout the book in lots of lovely bright colours, I have added adhesive pearls or gems to the centres and secured to the card using 3D Glue Gel.  I hadn't left any room for my Mum & Dad to sign the card so added a little sparkly sentiment.

 

I have tried to matt and layer on either Glitter Card or Mirri Card just to give a little bit of an expensive sparkle look.  The envelope edges have been decorated with bling and corners from the Fairyopolis Kit have also been used as well as some of the rub on sentiments which were just perfect.

 

I have also used Handmade paper and decoupaged some of the backgrounds that the little Flower Fairies are sitting against.

I have also added tiny butterflies throughout which just add that little bit of nature.

As this is a Envelope Keepsake Card, I thought I would also make some matching Keepsakes for inside a couple of the envelopes leaving free space for my mum to add a couple of keepsakes of her own.  I will show you these on tomorrows blog.

 

This has been my favourite paper crafting project to date.  All I needed was a little help from Crafters Companion :)

 

Happy 30th to my lovely Sister and Happy Crafting to all my crafty friends.

 

Amanda xx

Halloween Bath Bombs, Bath Souffles and Pumpkin Competition Entries!

Morning!!

 

So if you have been following since my very first blog you will recognise the Bath Souffles and Halloween Bath Bombs.  I have had some great fun this week making these up. 

 

I had forgotten just how satisfying it was to see these and use them in a lovely warm bath especially in such cold weather.

The souffles are made by packing the mixture into wax paper cups.  These get ripped off just before popping into your lovely warm cosy relaxing bath.

 

For the Halloween Pumpkin shape, I simply used a silicone mould with the design in the bottom.  These get packed with the mix and left for 24hours before turning out.  The mould cannot be used for food products after using to make bath products.

 

The turned out Pumpkin bath bombs,  These can be wrapped separately and given to trick or treaters as an alternative to sweeties.

 

The souffles were made for different reasons, some were for a bride, some for my poorly Sister and a couple of course for myself.  They look great all wrapped in cello,

 



The Pumpkin Bath Bombs were placed around a soy candle and wrapped in cello.  These were the 1st prize for the competition that my Brothers Fiance was running.

 So the Pumpkin Bath Bombs were made to go with the favours and invitations that were put together earlier in the month for the Pumpkin Carving Competition that my Brothers Fiance was running.  the pumpkins that were entered were just awesome.  The girls did a great job!!

 

Here are a few of the entries,

 

 

The winning Pumpkin is the one at the back with the tangerine in its mouth, isn't it just great, what a fab idea!!

Well that's Halloween over for another year!  The next big event is Christmas!!

 

Happy Crafting Friends!!

 

Amanda xx

This years Pumpkins!!

Happy Halloween Bloggers!!

 

I do hope you all have a lovely time.  For most crafter's I think its a tough decision on our most favourite time of year, mine is definitely Halloween.  I have become a particularly big fan of the old pumpkin carving, this is mainly due to being excited to see what my brother and his Fiance come up with each year. 

 

This year they had some requests for a couple of old designs with a few tweaks,

 

And this years design has to be my favourite so far,

 

 

I also got in on the action for the first time,

 

 

As did my other half who also made a wee tiny one using a turnip!!

 

 

And my final mention goes to my sisters boyfriend.  It was also his first year for carving but I foresee a bit of a competition for next year!!

 







They are all just fab!! and we all had an awesome Halloween.

Happy Carving!!

Amanda xx