Merry Craftmas

Seasons Greetings!

Its been a while since my last post, so thought I'd update you (imagined audience) on what I've been making recently. I ran out of sculpy about a week ago and have been pretty busy with work, so I've been crocheting more than usual (taking advantage of the bus journey).

I also thought I'd run out of aida, which made me sad because I've been aching to cross-stitch recently. Fortunately however I found a couple of offcutts which were big enough to use. Being December I figured I should make something festive, so I made my 2 closest friends some lovely Christmas cards. 

Made almost entirely from scratch. I painstakingly cut out the card with a window for the cross-stitch, lined it with paper (to cover the card holding the aida in place) and made a cute little tassel. 

 

Closer pic of the stitching and tassel (the second one came out better). I didnt really think about adding writing until I had finised the border and tree. When I came to do some text I realised there was no way that "Merry Christmas" was going to fit. Oops. I think Merry Treemas is a bit cuter and quirkier anyway.

I even made my first envelope!

 On to the crochet! After making the little grey bear amigurumi (from the last post) I decided I really liked the contrast between grey and orange. With this in mind I took a ball of grey wool with me to work and arrived home with a longish grey rectangle. I then cut a smaller rectangle out of an old orange t-shirt and sewed it to the middle of the crochet.

 I folded and stitched the bottom third into a pouch, first with grey thread (for strength) and then added some chunky orange stitches and a big orange button to achieve that contrast. I added a press-stud for fastening.

 This is the perfect size for any small bag (especially compared to the huge purse I use at the moment).

 

 Crochet phone case with button fastening. Big enough for my HTC Hero.

Three little duckies. 

 I spent about 2 hours re-organising my thread box. It makes me smile to see it so organised.

 And finally! Our Christmas tree :) 

Hope everyone has a wonderful festive season! See you in the new year!

A productive week indeed (plus some old pictures).

Ciao! 

I started my first real job as a qualified psychiatric nurse last week, hence the lull in updates. I've really enjoyed it and am settling in nicely. One of the things that concerned me about starting this job was the commute. For the past three years (whilst at university) I'd been taking the train, which took about 20 minutes each way and gave me time to get some reading done. I am now having to get the bus, which takes about an hour each way. I'm one of those unfortunate people who gets sick if they read on a bus or in a car, much to my annoyance, but I have found that I can crochet whilst travelling. Better still, it makes the journey practically fly by :) So I've managed to get quite a bit done.

A weeks work. 

A little grey bear.

 Blue button-eyed bunny.

 

 Pinky grey bunny.

Not 100% sure what this is, possibly a mouse?

A couple of shots of the llama.

 Fluffy coat, made by splitting the wool.

Finished product.

 Pocket monster/alien things. Very quick to do.

With Sculpy mouths/teeth.

Thread-craft.

Konichiwa!

I learned to cross stitch when I was about 8 or 9 (I think) in the usual way I picked up a craft. I was bored. My poor mother has spent so much money on me being bored over the years - sets of acrylic and watercolour paints, a violin, those awful scratchy copper pictures, bags of beads and big bundles of fabric scraps to name a few purchases. We bought a beginners cross stitch kit, I cant remember the pattern, but It was one of those with everything included. So, I had a go, enjoyed it for a few days and then got fed up (curse you short attention span!). I remember my younger brother (by 2 years) picked it up and actually got quite into it, which I, the mean big sister I was, laughed at him for (sorry Ben).

2 years ago Steven's mum (who knows what a craft fiend I am) gave me a box full of multicoloured thread, which up until a couple of weeks ago I had used mainly for friendship bracelets and a couple of bits of jewellery. I decided to buy some aida and have another go at cross stitch. I LOVE 8-bit / pixelated things and thought it'd be fairly easy to work out the pattern from a picture, one pixel equalling one cross.

Boo (tried to edge it, but I don't like how it looks).

Bob-Omb.

 Goomba.

 

Scott Pilgrim <3 (Getting more adventurous by this point. Scott and Kim form part of a set but I ran out of aida before I could finish Stephen Stills).

We are Sex Bob-Omb (ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!)

 

 My coffee table, covered in supplies!

   

Some freehand embroidery practice and button flowers.

Dayglobots (freehand stitching on black fabric).

I spent about 3 hours yesterday trying to hand appliqué a Cylon onto a black background, but I think I need to practice a bit more before taking on something tricky, especially when I'm only just learning.

Today's plan involves more robots. Yay robots!

Alex 

I've fallen in love with tiny things!

Guten Morgan!

I've always worked under the premise that smaller equals cuter, and seeing as cuteness is one of my main criteria when I make anything, it only seemed like a matter of time before I was scaling things down even further.

These were inspired by this little hedgehog/mushroom scene, which is to become a ring at some point in the future. 

After making that, I sat and drew some more designs for other tiny creature scenes, all of which (I think) will become rings.

I called this one 'Mother and Baby' and it is sooo sweet!

Crab on Beach. I love the level of detail in this one; there is seaweed, shells, rocks and I've tried to make the base itself look like sand, just by using a little pokey tool.

Me and my wonderful boyfriend Steve spent close to an hour (if not more) trying out 5 different cameras, just to see if we could get a better image, but alas, these were the best we could manage with what we had.

Frog on a Lily. Steven said this looked really sad, but I don't see it...

This is one of my favourites. I don't think its true awesomeness can be appreciated in the pictures, but its a happy robot, taking a break from his tough day at the rubbish dump (where he works, obviously), leaning against a washing machine. The base is littered with copper tubing, sheet metal, wires and rocks.

I'm particularly proud of the washing machine :P




And finally, because I managed to get some better pictures, here are some from a couple of days ago. Swirly rainbow snail brooch.

Abstract green ring.

And that is that! 

Alex