Crafts Fair Buys and Fun with Molds

My parents and I went to a craft fair recently.  I figured that this year I would write a list of the things I planned to buy.  Normally I'm a bit of a magpie - ooh I like that, or ooh I need that.  So the plan was to buy the following:

• Some big sharp scissors for cutting fabric.  I will turn that duvet cover I've kept for 3 years into a crochet rug;
• Ring blanks.  Both my daughter and I want to make some rings;
• Clip On Earring findings;
• Coloured paper.  I love finding pretty patterned paper, but when I come to make cards I struggle to figure out which patterns I can use with what, and besides I have a bit of a stockpile of patterned paper.  Oops.
• pretty flower beads like these.  I saw these bracelets and fell in love immediately,  I now need some similar beads!
• Good value yarn, lots of balls in the same colour.  I want to make something for me.
• Little gems - because you always need these;
• Double sided sticky tape;
• Black/dark coloured embroidery thread

I did manage to find everything on my list, well actually the flower beads I found weren't actually beads, but they were still pretty and perfect for adding to the ring blanks.

Oh, and the earring findings.

And I'm sure they'll look beautiful on cards too, if I can bear to part with them.  I made some cards for friends with my lovely new paper and some of the gems got a look in too.  The bird stamp set is also new.

The yarn and scissors were for more long term projects, so hopefully you'll get to read about the amazing crocheted rug from an old duvet cover sometime in the not too distant future.  I have a couple of projects I have to finish before I can find the patterns I want to use for the yarn.  And yes, I know I should probably find the pattern first and buy the yarn next, but I don't seem to work that way!

I did find something to buy that wasn't on my list at all, but I am so pleased I did!  I saw some molds like these and these.  I couldn't decide which ones to buy, I wanted them all!  I ended up with 3 different packs of molds, with a variety of shapes, flowers, butterflies, owls, birds, cupcakes,strawberries and bows.  I wanted to play straight away, but sadly the air drying clay in the house belongs to my daughter, so I had to wait until she came home from school.  Luckily she loved the idea as much as I did and we had already made a whole load of shapes before tea time!

I decided to have a go with the home made air drying clay I had used before and then my son wanted a go too, so I made another batch.  It definitely does work with the home made air drying clay, but it doesn't have such a pretty finish on it afterwards - it feels quite rough whereas the clay feels lovely and smooth.

For jewellery I think you'd need the bought clay although you might get away with it for ear rings.  I want to try it with hot glue and fimo too to see if I get different finishes.  So far it has been super easy to use these molds and I'm so pleased I bought them.

Bead Making

I recently spotted some beautiful little flower beads being used as part of a memory wire bracelets.  Gorgeous, huh?  I immediately became obsessed.  This led me to start looking up cabochons on ebay.  But ebay purchases take time don't they?  You have to bid on them, wait to see if you've won (I didn't), and then wait for them to actually arrive.

Could I wait that long?  Er, no.  I started having a look round for ways to make my own.  I found this video about using some of those glass gems to make jewellery.  I had some glass gems in the cupboard as I bought them to decorate playdough with some time ago, and later we used them as part of fairy garden creations.

I had a go with the galaxy style gem first, and it was looking good.  I am super pleased with it.  I've no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, maybe a magnet.

Then I had a try with the marbling technique.  I've never been very good with my nails, but I like buying polishes so I have a few available.  My first attempt went ok, but I was too slow and it dried a bit.  By the second attempt I had got it to work.  Pretty patterns, loads of fun, cheap, what's not to like about it!

These techniques would work so well at a jewellery making party for girls (or ladies actually!).  Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do with a load pretty gems! 

 And still I've not managed to get my hands on some of those beautiful flower cabochons.  Sigh.

Asymmetrical Crochet Flower Necklace

I was getting an outfit ready for a night out last week, and decided I needed a new necklace to go with it.  I had spotted this on Pinterest recently which advises you on what type of necklace goes with what kind of neckline.  I'd love to say that I followed this, because it seems to have some really great ideas, but I also keep spotting asymmetrical necklaces and loving that look, so that is what I decided to create.

As I could remember seeing a lot of them, I thought that it would be easy to find something that someone had already done and just copy it.  Maybe I was just not typing in the right search terms, but in the end I just decided to go for it and see how it turned out!

I made 3 twisted flowers, of different sizes.  I started with chains of about 35, 27 and 23 - I can't remember exactly.  To make these flowers I follow the below pattern and a 3mm hook. (UK terms)

Chain a length of crochet - depending on how big you want it.

Row 1: Treble crochet into the 3rd stitch from the hook, *chain one, skip one stitch and treble crochet into the next stitch* Repeat until end of row.

Row 2: half treble crochet, 2 treble crochet, half treble crochet and slip stitch into each space until end. 

Leave longish tails, roll the flower up, when you're happy it looks flower like start sewing together.   This pattern was what I could remember of this flower pattern, so it is very similar, but does create a slightly different looking flower.

I had some cord I had bought to make beaded wrap bracelets a while ago, and recently I bought some clasps to go at the end of the cord.  I would like to say I simply threaded the cord through, but I'd sewn up the flowers quite tightly, and so I sort of had to yank it through.  Anyhow I managed to do that and knot either side of the flowers, so that they stayed where I wanted them and then I added the clasps.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Making Bracelets

I started beading a while ago, beads are pretty and sparkly, what's not to like?

The first type of bracelets I made were with memory wire.  Great stuff, it is already in a bracelet (or ring or necklace) shape and it holds that shape as you bead onto it. You start by bending the wire round on one side so the beads don't slide off and then just start adding them.  Once you get to the end, you bend the wire back in on itself and the beads all stay put.

At the moment I like a more random approach, because I saw this, which just happens to be good for using up my stash of beads, but my first several bracelets tended to be based on a repeating pattern.

I also love the charm style of bracelet, so I bought some chain, some toggles, some head pins(these look like normal, but chunkier, bendier pins) and eye pins(these have a pre-made loop at the top).  To make a Charm style bracelets I used the chain to go round my wrist and put a toggle and toggle catch on either end.  Then I looped beaded head pins onto the chain at random intervals using random beads.  For the other type of bracelet pictured below I used the eye pins to sort of become the chain, adding the next eye pin before I looped the last eye pin round to keep the bead and next eye pin in place, the toggle and catch were attached at either end.

I also loved this cuff style bracelet and had used the instructions on the link to make it.

It looked better on (you'll have to trust me on that as I don't have pictures of it), apparently I'm not great at making the memory wire be an exact match seven times over!

Most recently though I've been wearing elasticated bracelets that have been bought for me, and I figured I would have a go at making my own.  I still love that layered type look, and my beading stash included some spacers, from a project that didn't quite go to plan (it involved a lot of sewing of beads), I came up with this:

I simply tied the elastic around the first spacer and added beads and the next spacer to the first row, then the second then the third.  All seemed to be going well with that method so I tried the same up to the next spacer and managed to drop a load of beads.  Luckily the Husband kindly assisted in the picking up of the beads from the same coloured floor.  After that I discovered the highly technical method of keeping the beads on the elastic you are not working with by simply putting a bulldog clip over them!  

I love how it turned out, the top row here is a semi precious stone called Jasper, the bottom two rows are random beads in my stash.  I wish I could say all these bracelets had decreased the size of my stash, but it doesn't really seemed to have made a dent!

Minecraft Mad

This describes our house at the moment.  If my Husband, or the kids aren't playing we are talking about it and to be honest, the only thing stopping me having a play too, is that I struggle to make the computer do as I tell it and get a little frustrated.

So it was only natural that when they have had their allotted time on minecraft that they want to do crafty minecraft things!  I found a couple of colouring pages they can do  here and here, which they quite like, but creating minecraft blocks out of hama beads has so far been the winner.  Here they are all together.  Now we need more hama beads, ideally in colours that are better for minecraft creations!

As everyone seems into Minecraft I am planning on giving something a go. I saw it in my Save With Jamie book I got for Christmas; Zombie Brain!  I am yet to make it, but something tells me that trying to feed my Husband celeriac, which he hates (and I'm not all that keen either) and therefore the kids have never had, with mushrooms which the kids dislike is probably not going to make it onto our favourite meals ever list.  Mmmm, got to be worth a try though.  I'll report back on the success/failure of Zombie Brain.