Mini Handbags

In case you missed these first time round, I've jiggled with past posts and added them again today ......... a friend showed me how to make these little handbags, so I cannot claim the idea as my own, but I loved them so much, I thought I would put my own spin on her idea.

They are so simple to make.  Just take a strip of paper 4cm wide by 12cm long.  Score the strip into 4 sections, measuring 2cm, 4cm, 2cm, 4cm.

The first 2cm makes the flap of the bag, the next 4cm makes the back, the next 2cm is the bottom of the bag and the final 4cm makes the front.

I have used 4 Twilight mints inside my bags , just  tape them together so they don’t fall out, and secure them to the bottom of the bag with a sticky pad. Add a short length of ribbon at the crease of the flap for the handle, and then use another sticky pad to fasten the bag together.  Finish off with an embellishment of your choice for the fastener, I have used gems. Simples! 

Since I first posted these bags back in 2009 they have changed the wrappings on the Twilight mints - to plastic instead of foil and paper (not so classy!!!) but you could use Cadbury minatures instead.  The basic template & dimensions can easily be tweaked to suit whatever confectionary you want to put in them.

What’s On My Desk Wednesday?

Piles and piles of bracelets – the fruit of my Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening labours ……

Every one is different.  I have used a Primark multi-stranded wooden bead necklace (£4), two bags of wooden beads from The Range (£1.99 each), and a mixture of bronze and cream coloured pearls that I had already.  They are threaded on transparent plastic elastic thread which costs about £1.75 a reel – and is probably enough to make at least twenty bracelets

The larger, more unusual beads come from The Range bags of beads and have proved to be the most popular.

But now all my wooden beads are used up except for a few odds and ends ……. so what’s a girl to do ……………???

………. but start on her collection of glass beads of course!!!! This is a collection gathered from car boot finds, Hobbycrafts and Primark plus odds and ends I’ve had for ages.

I’ve gone for a very random look, no pattern, just what came to hand first, and I am thrilled with the results.

I reckon I will get at least fifty from my collection. I intend to give several as end of term gifts and then put the rest away until nearer Christmas.

Lisa and I are planning on doing a bit of car booting in the summer holiday, but we have agreed to walk on opposite sides of a row and then swap over at the top because we will both be looking for the same things …… especially beads and the sight of two ladies fighting would be unseemly!!

Needlecase – Mark One

I never know whether to post projects that I have made but am not 100% happy with ….. then I thought why not, it's not like you are going to bump into me in Poundland or Primark and say "Oi Fiddle, saw what you did on your blog today and it was pants!!!!"
So today I am going to show you a needlecase I made ever so quickly, while the idea was buzzing about in my head and bearing in mind that sewing (like stamping) isn’t really my thing!

The idea came from a Stampin’ Up felt flower set, too lovely to be put on a card, so I got some felt that was as close a match as I could find, with the idea of making a (some) needlecase(s).

 

I made some templates and cut out the felt......



...... and then  used my old Singer sewing machine on the first attempt, it looked rubbish and ended up in the bin!

I then decided to do some running stitches round the edges, on the front panel and to secure the inside by hand.

I added very small mother of pearl buttons to the flower centres.

This first attempt is very crude, well out of my comfort zone and done in about half an hour …. but this prototype will now sit on my desk begging me to do it again, but with a little rethinking and a lot more care.

One for the Boys - World Cup Sweetie/Favor Bags

This is what I have come up with using my Poundland and Home Bargains goodies from last weekend.

I fiddle farted for too long trying to incorporate a football background in the bag, but in the end decided to keep things very simple.

The bag topper is made using a Nestabilities label die on my Big Shot
The footballers are so cute!

This is a less fussy idea – boys aren’t really into fancy toppers and stuff but I did think that this was a good idea for summer fetes etc. I've ferretted around the shops looking for England/World Cup sweets and then split the bags to make "party bags".  They contain a Swizzles Ref whistle (10 for £1) a Swizzles England lolly (10 for £1) a Poundland marshmallow footballer (8 for £1) and three chocolate footballs (Poundland or Home Bargains).

As the footballers are without a wrapper I have sealed them (using my bag sealer) in seperate pretzel cello bags available from e-bay.

After I had made a batch of bags I found some football table confetti, a sprinkle of which would have been a nice finishing touch to each bag IF had I added it!

Crafty Makes - Matchbox Suitcase

It’s funny how one idea triggers of another … I was thinking about the end of the school year when I make small and quirky, inexpensive gifts with a holiday theme for some of my colleagues

 

This bag of jelly babies was my first idea, but it just looked  very naff and boring!

Then,  I remembered a matchbox template I had downloaded for my Quickutz silhouette ages ago (sorry I can’t remember where from).  I had to jiggle the template about a bit, but eventually cut out the bottom and the cover.  I  made the handle separately, by hand, with a bit of  trial and error.

Putting it together didn’t take very long at all, I just added a bit of faux stitching and a couple of corner peel offs. The handle is attached with small coloured brads.

The tag was made using the Stampin Up jewellery tag 117190 - £8.50 and available from my friend Lisa  (see Stampin Up link)

I am not sure what sort of sweets I am going to put in the box … obviously they can’t be too big. 

I thought I would cut out a small piece of  map to line the bottom of the compartment and also pop in a hand written note saying “ We’re all going on a summer holiday” etc.  …..

My Holiday Toothbrush …..

As my sister would say, you have TOO much time on your hands……………………….. !
Remember my 2 for 10p toothbrushes from Asda a few weeks ago?

Well, I used my Sharpies permanent pens on one of them to make me my holiday toothbrush …..

Complete with flat backed gems!

Wouldn’t little ones have a brilliant time designing their own? And perhaps it might make them want to brush their teeth a little more too.

Lovely Sweetie Packs

This idea would be suitable  for both  Valentines Day and Mother’s Day

I’ve used Twilight mints, using one wrapper to make the template from .  I left the other wrappers on and just put the new wrapper over them, it was less fiddly.

The paper I have used is by Making Memories from the Love Notes range and have stuck the ends down with double sided tape.

I have added a small wooden heart and a clear flat back gem for extra fiddlefart.

The cello bag I have used is very narrow (2ins x 9ins)  and can be found on e-bay as either pretzel or lolly bags. They cost about £1.99 for 50 plus p&p. I always have a good stock of them, as they are brilliant for little sweetie projects like this.

When I made these, I used Twilight Mints leftover from Christmas, but I have a funny feeling that the makers have only recently changed the wrapper to one single plasic wrapper (instead of the foil and paper layers) - but I am not 100% sure - it might be worth double checking, if you can, as it will have an effect on the overall appearance! Bum! I am now on the look out for a substitute mint!

Wish Bracelet

This is a little bracelet I give to all the girls I work with, who do GCSE Food, before they go off to do their exams.  One of them came bursting  into my office yesterday and said “It worked, Miss, I got A*!”

I bought 100 “Wish” charms off e-bay, a while back.  I was very very apprehensive, as the seller was in China, but they arrived safely and cost about £6 inc P & P, what a bargain! I have seen other people selling them at £2+ for just 5. All I did was attach a pink cotton thread.

The organza bag is so dinky, I think I found them on one of those rotary stands in a craft shop – something very similar to “Craft for Christmas” (their packets have a white label with a blue pattern, if that’s any help!).

You could use this idea for lots of different occasions with different charms (I like the Tibetan silver charms best, they do other words too, like love, hope and believe).  What about a tiny wing for a child just going off to University or a star on a red thread for Christmas?