ATC

This is an ATC I made this week for an online swap. I joined a site called SwapBot which is a great site. You can join all sorts of swaps from ATCs to postcards to greetings cards and more. The title of the swap I joined was 'Wrapped'. Every ATC in the swap has to be wrapped in wire, thread, ribbon etc. It can be interpreted however you like and your image can be whatever you want it to be.

I've decided to call this one 'wrapped and trapped'

I used a stamp and Stewart Gill embossing powder for the dragonfly. The main background was done with a floral stamp and a multi colour pigment ink pad and I finished the edges off with a Markal Paintstik. The smaller background was a peice of card painted with puff paint, heated and then painted over with two colours of Stewart Gill Paint. I attached the dragonfly to the background by wrapping copper coloured wire around it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what ATC I get in return :-)

I love Wild Women

I adore making Wild Women. They were created by Sarah Lawrence who produced a book on how to make your own. This design was taken from her book. I made it using a small face charm and lots and lots of seed beads.

The great thing about Wild Women is that you can make each one completely unique and you can make them as easy or difficult as you like as well. This one took about a week to make (an hour or two every evening) and I was really pleased with her.

They can be turned into brooches but I just put them up in the shop to give customers inspiration.

Here are some more examples:

This is the inside of the box. I was gojng for a jewel look inside. This picture dosen't quite show the sparkle effect that the Bijoux Blends have but they catch the light in the most amazing way and give the impression of little sparkling crystals.
I used Puff Paint around the edge of the Bijoux Blends and then painted over it with some Stewart Gill Byzantia Paint which also has a jewel tone quality to it. Puff Paint is great fun to use. Just layer it on and then heat it using a heat gun to puff it up. You can add more layers on top to create a raised effects.

Decorated Paper Mache Box

This is a paper mache box that I have decorated. We've had them in the shop for quite a while and I was always looking at them and wondering how I could decorate them.
After pondering on what to do for a while I eventually decided to use various Stewart Gill Paints, Stewart Gill Poly-Glitter and
Stewart Gill Bijoux Blends. Stewart Gill paints and special effects products can be used in so many different and unusual ways and I had a lot of fun making full use of them to decorate this box.

Threads of Imagination ATC Swap

Dan (my lovely fella) and I made ATC's to go into the swap we organised in Threads of Imagination
The theme was the seaside. We got loads of people involved which was great because they all had so many wonderful and individual ideas. I only made one ATC for this swap which sounds a bit lazy but I spent so long making it look great there was no time to do anymore. I couched my ATC with some sparkly cord that I had made and then beaded into the card as well. Letting go of my ATC was a somewhat tough after putting so much effort into it but the one I swaped it for was equally fantastic. I've also swapped some ATC's on the internet which is another great way of getting ideas and inspiration from all over the world.

Busy times

I've had to take time off the internet. Work and family commitments have taken presidence over the last few weeks but I now have time to carry on with my crafting. My lovely fella has cleared out the side room in our house to make room for all my crafting bits so I now have a "space" to work. Looking forward to getting back on track. xxx

Other Blogs

I am starting to follow quite a few other blogs to gain inspiration for my own. I'm off to what I think is a bit of a slow start but looking at other blogs is inspiring me to do more. If I'm following your blog I'll list it on my page.

Textile.net

We are now listed on

Threads Shop

I'm on my own in the shop at the moment. It's been a difficult couple of weeks and I haven't been able to do as much crafting as I'd hoped but I'll get back on track over the next couple of days.
The shop we have is lovely and it's a joy to work here. It's not been easy mind you. I had visions of opening up a craft shop and sitting behind the counter doing my sewing and waiting for the customers to come in but of course it hasn't worked out like that. It involves so much work keeping the shop and the website running. There is so much competition and while we're trying to be different and stand out from the crowd, there are so many other people trying to stand out that we can go un-noticed sometimes. It's a shame because we put our heart and souls into the business. As alway's we keep battling on and I hope that one day we'll become a recognised name in the crafting world.
I have to get on with my jobs for the morning now but if you're ever in our town, please give us a visit. If your too far away that take a look at our site
and let me know what you think. Your kind comments always help to lift us and keep us marching on. Many thanks x

I love beading, I find it so addictive and I think seed beads make a piece look so pretty. So I've decided to add beads to my felted piece to try and lift it a bit.
I have soooo many seed beads at home. I've taken to using stacker jars to keep them in. I used to keep them in little bags and then put them into a bowl when I needed them. The problem was that my sons like playing football in the house and they would frequently knock the bowls on the floor scattering hundreds of seed beads everywhere.
Anyway, here's the piece half beaded. I'm not sure at what point I should stop. I find that one of the hardest things in craft (for me anyway) is putting the brakes on. I find I just want to keep going and going and going. I've ruined a few things by not stopping.

I took my needle-felted piece home with my sewing machine and finished it off by free machining on the remaining petals and some leaves. It's not the best as you can see.
Not one to give up on something, I've decided to keep going with it to try and make it into something usable...like a panel maybe.