Simple Homemade Magazine – Great Excitement

I had a very exciting e-mail about a week or so ago from Paula who wrote to tell me that Fiddle Fart had been included on the Inspiring Blogs page of Issue 8 of Simply Homemade magazine, which I knew absolutely nothing about. 

Well, vanity got the better of me and I went in search of a copy, only to find that getting this issue was like gold dust, even from the website!  However ever resourceful I wrote to Lindsey at Practical Publishing and she sent me a copy.  THANK YOU Lindsey.

And there I was at the bottom of page 34 – In The Blogosphere!  I am dead chuffed.

The magazine is brilliant, the ideas are simple and use products I am familiar with and includes ideas like knitting, sewing and jewellery making that I wouldn’t be afraid to have a go at,  like the painted coasters made from tiles which I will be having a go at in the coming week. 

I very rarely buy craft magazines now, after having several subscriptions for a couple of years everything became very boring and samey, but my interest has been rekindled and I will definitely be picking up a copy of Simply Homemade when I see it.

Sewn Handbag Card

I really don’t know where to start with this card, it’s a one off and was made to order for my sister in law, the brief was:-  pink, bag, girlie, her name and charms would be nice!

At the widest point the card measures 8.5 ins and is 7.5 ins tall including the handles.

I made the bag shape first, scoring it three times down the middle so that it would stand up.

After this, I made two copies of the bag panels, drawing lines on the one side of each and sticking pink Brazill paper on the other. Then, with the lined side facing upwards I machine sewed along all the lines (I hope that makes sense).  When this was done I stuck both panels onto the sides of the card blank.  This gave the card weight and texture (plus a lot of fiddle fart for me!)

I made double sided handles for the bag and machine sewed them together round the edges ….

….. and stuck them on the inside of the card, covering the ends with another panel shaped piece of paper….

……. I’ve then used self adhesive Velcro dots as fasteners to keep the bag together when standing up.

The finishing touches were made by adding  the name “Jess” and some silver charms.

Then, goodness knows what possessed me, I made a wallet to go inside the bag to put some birthday money in, which stays in position with the aid of another Velcro dot.

An awful lot of fiddle fart for one card …….

……….which is why I said at the beginning it was a one off!

Birthday Rabbit card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and is made using ivory linen effect card which is mat and layered on gold mirror card

This is a very less is more type card, I didn’t know whether to add “Hoppy Birthday” somewhere, but in the end decided against it.

The printed die cuts are from Eno and came in a pack of 5 for about 99p from Hobbycraft.

Party Picnic Boxes

A friend asked me if I had any ideas for boxes for her Granddaughter's picnic birthday party …. the brief was pink, pink and pink with strawberries, and twenty ….. please!

I used my box scorer that I got from e-bay years ago for about £6 - £7, it might be rough and ready but it does the job. It has two sides, where the distance between the grooves is ever so slightly different, one for the lid and the other for the base.

I made two boxes in different colour ways for a bit of variety. They measured 29cm x 21cm with a depth of 5cm.

The strawberries are made using a large scalloped edged heart punch and the stalk is half a daisy punch, which I have further embellished with a bit of doodling, using a black fine liner pen.

I didn’t make all twenty, just the two examples and then put everything that was needed in a pack so that someone else could have all the fun and satisfaction of putting them all together ….. I ain’t daft!

Clippy London Customisable Bags

One of the MANY things on my Wish List/Objects of Desire for a long time has been a Clippy Bag after seeing them in a gift shop at a Craft Centre, I think it’s because I have a big thing about pockets and little bitty things!

So you can imagine my excitement when Connie from ClippyLondon e-mailed me out of the blue to say that she’d read my blog and thought that Clippy bags would be the perfect thing for me to review. She then asked if there was anything Clippy that I would like to have a look at and play with ……. oh my life ….. is the Pope Catholic? I didn’t need to be asked twice.

I spent a long time looking at all the lovely stuff, but the final choice was hard, as I really fancied the pink tote bag but decided that as I was writing a review the Clippy Make Up bag would be the best choice, as it only had four pockets and I knew that it wouldn’t take me too long to personalise and show to you. I also asked for a packet of the Desperate Housewives stickers ( £4.00) as I am more of a stranger to the feather duster and rubber gloves than I ought to be and thought that I might be able to do something funny with them.

The bag, which retails at £10 measures 8ins x 5.5ins so there is plenty of room for all my slap! The plastic is sturdy, strong and very good quality. The gold trim and zip are well sewn and blingtastically gold and shiny. I did wonder how I would be able to get my photos/inserts for the four pockets just the right size; I needn’t have worried because part of the packaging includes a template, so I can get a perfect fit each time, which is brilliant.

My bag arrived last Friday so I have put these three examples together very quickly, because I was anxious to show you the bag and just how versatile it is. There are four pockets on the bag …. but again for speed I have just done the front two.

I used  the Desperate Housewife stickers first. I looked on Google to find pictures of an original Sixties kitchen and bathroom, putting the apron, rubber gloves and feather duster with the kitchen and the champagne, shoes and perfume in the bathroom …. with the words ….. “Desperate housewife …. seeks lap of luxury!”  as that pretty much sums me up!

As I have started writing my Christmas posts, I thought it would be nice to include a Christmas idea using some Forever Friends 3D stickers and Papermania Christmas papers.
And finally, probably my favourite pockets, which took a matter of minutes, but if I say so myself it looks pretty classy.  All I have used is a flowery patterned paper with self adhesive glitter flowers and clear flat backed gems.

I can think of so many more ideas, and that’s the beauty of the bag, when you are tired of one design you just make up another set of pockets.

If I have tempted you into having a look at the ClippyLondon website http://www.clippykitlondon.co.uk/ and perchance something should accidently fall into your basket, ClippyLondon are offering a 10% discount voucher code to all my readers, just type in HELLO10 at the checkout…… and wayheeeeeyyy!

And now a bit of a sneak preview as we are all starting to get a little bit festive, these are not on the website yet, as they are so new but ClippyLondon will soon be releasing their Advent Calendars Trim the Tree and a Gingerbread House……. and it doesn’t take too much to work out which one I fancy!

ClippyLondon also have a Facebook page where there are always competitions and discount codes http://www.facebook.com/Clippylondon which might also be worth having a look at.

http://www.clippykitlondon.co.uk/

Advent Sock Calendar

Not a craft project today, just an idea I've seen lots of times on various blogs and sites including Martha Stewart for a really cheap re-useable Advent Calendar.

I found three packs of three pairs of baby’s first size Christmas socks in BM Bargains for 99p a pack – so that’s 24 little “Christmas Stockings” for £3.96 – which is OK!

I then hung them on a length of red wool using small red pegs, that I already had, to keep them in place ….. but I might have to use slightly bigger pegs if I put anything too heavy in the socks.

 

And finally, I stuck peel off numbers on each sock for each day leading to Christmas.  That’s it! 

Packs of adult socks in Primark are pretty cheap, about £2.00 - £2.50 for a pack of 4/5 and they have some lovely colours and patterns  and I always need a socks…. so I was thinking of buying a few packs and hanging them all along the washing line over Christmas for fun and then when it’s all over a quick wash and I’ve got a new set of socks to start the New Year with!

Sock Jam

Not much crafting here today and I can’t claim this to be my idea either! I saw little jars of baby socks that had labels on saying Baby Jam in a shop window, when I was on holiday in Brixham and I thought it was an idea that I could use, especially for Christmas and birthdays.

I can’t bear to throw these empty Douwe Egberts coffee jars away, it seems such as waste as they are screaming to be filled with something else and now I have found a perfect use for them. Each jar will take up to two pairs of socks.

I designed and then printed the labels (one on each side of the jar) on canvas inkjet paper to add a bit of texture and then filled the top with lots of spare seed beads for added glitz.

Halloween Trick Or Treat Box

I think this should really be called “When Halloween Meets The Bush Tucker Trial!”

The idea for this box started when I found a bag of chocolate frogs in Marks and Sparks, reduced to £1.50 for a bag of 12 but with a use by date in January 2012 so I knew that they would be perfectly fine for Halloween.

 

I’ve used a small papier mache box from HobbyCraft and coloured it with a green Promarker pen. On each side I have handwritten  “Trick or Treat”, adding a pair of googly eyes for extra creepiness and on the top the message “Dare You Eat One?”.

Sitting comfortably inside the box  are two of the frogs padded out with a bit of green tissue paper.  Done and dusted! 

If you can’t find any frogs I am sure that there are plenty of other horrid Halloween foil wrapped creatures that could be used, as well as chocolate eyeballs and pumpkins!

Little Bird In A Tree

This card measures 5ins x x 5ins and is made using ivory linen effect card.

 

There isn’t much to this card really, just a simple tree stamp (from Stamps Away), a very small Accessorize bird sticker and a scattering of small flat backed pearls.

Sticker Advent Calendar

I have lots of tiny leftover Christmas stickers from Paperchase and Accessorize and it seems such a waste not to use them … so I’ve come up with this idea…. a sticker advent calendar. It's an idea for a child/children, where they can choose a sticker/s and put them the on the calendar, perhaps with a bit of colouring in the days leading up to Christmas. 

I made the calendar part by creating table in Publisher, with spaces big enough to put a sticker, it was a bit trial and error taking  me about half an hour to get right.

 

I’ve mat and layered the calendar, first on silver and then red card and put adhesive magnetic tape on the back so it will stick on a fridge etc., but a loop of ribbon could be added instead. Finished, the calendar measures 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

Then I’ve taken an empty sticker sheet, put an assortment of my leftover festive stickers on it.  That’s it.  Naturally I’ve have gone all fiddle farty and added doodles to each space …. but that’s just me …..

If I were into scrapbooking … I think I would try to work a scrapbook/journal page around it after it was completed as a lasting memory.