TV Debut

A week ago I announced on  my blog that I was on a top secret crafting project..well the world now knows what the mission was!!!!


I was contacted by the lovely Sarah Millsop from Beaders Companion a couple of weeks ago and she asked if I would design some jewellery for her TV appearance on Create and Craft on Wednesday 21st of March.


Beaders Companion were launching a new bead box containing over 30 separate compartments all full of lovely beads. The colour choices were purple, black and white and browns. The box was to retail at about £40.


The challenge was for me to make as many pieces of jewellery as I could using just the one box of beads in the colour purple!!!! I could use any other materials like jewellery wire and other findings but must only use the beads in the 1 box.


Well after 2 days of frantic beading I managed to make ; 14 Necklaces, 9 Bracelets and 18 pairs of earrings from the one box!!!


I sent them to Sarah via courier and she called me to make sure that I had only used the 1 box as she could not believe how many items I had made. I must admit that I was rather proud of my achievement as I am not a jewellery designer and have only being making jewellery for about a year and honestly did not think I was up to the task.


The show aired on the Wednesday and the purple set was an absolute hit and all of my items looked stunning. All of the itms that I had made had been photographed and made into an inspiration sheet which is included in each box set.


For the next 2 days Sara Davies from Crafters Companion was wearing various pieces during all of her shows.


These are the finished samples;

The finished samples

Another very talented crafter was also asked to do the same task as me. Yvonne Nash chose the black and white box and managed to make up some great pieces but so very sadly the courier company failed to get them delivered to Sarah in time for the show. I just hope that when the black and white box is next shown on air we will all be able to see Yvonne's wonderful creations.


Well as you can imagine the show has been recorded and watched several times by numerous friends and I am rather proud to say the least.....

Sewing Corner

Over the last week I have fancied doing something totally different from card making. So i dusted off my old singer sewing machine, it was my great grandmothers, and had a look for a few easy sewing projects.


I came across a special offer on RU craft and they were selling off some kits at a great discount price so thought I would give them ago to start as they contained the pattern and the fabric.


The 1st one I made was Clarence the Cockerel who is actually a doorstop! The instructions wee easy to follow and all I had to find was a bag of rice as a weight and some foam filling. And here he is:

Clarence

Side view

I must admit I am rather proud of Clarence and will be going into production in a variety of designs.

The second project was a small reversible shopping bag. The fabrics includes in this kit were gorgeous!! The pattern was really easy to follow and great for a rusty sewer out of retirement. Again I am pleased with the finished results:

The outside

The inside but it is fully reversible.

A post at last

I am sorry that I have not posted for a while but have been on a top secret crafting mission...all will be revealed on Monday .That will keep you guessing..lol


I have been up to another few crafty things apart from the one I cant mention.....I had a lovely donation from a fabulous lady called Debbie Harris who very kindly sent me some stunning House Mouse decoupage sheets. I have always loved House Mouse from Joanna Sheen but have never got any products as I have a full collection of Crafters Companion Cute Companions which are all little mice.


So the other evening had a mad session of cutting out and building up the decoupage layers. The next day I made up some of the cards and these are some of the finished results;

All cards can have any sentiment added and personalized inserts.


The next day I had a play with the Simply Sweet CD from Polka Doodles. The images on this CD are wonderful and so suited to those little girls in your life. The images can be printed coloured in or ready coloured and I went for the ready coloured version. The coordinating papers are also stunning. These are the results;

Again sentiments can be added and personalized inserts.


Watch this space for news of the secret crafting mission....it will be worth it....

Todays just another day

Well after a dreadful nights sleep the last thing I wanted to do today was crafting but you know what its like you just cant resist and then when the postman arrived with some goodies there was no stopping me. I had a couple of male cards to make and they can be so difficult to do!!!You just dont know where to start but thought I would have a messy day and got the good old distress inks out.


I used a Tim Holtz die to cut out the weathered clock from cream card and then using some brown distress ink and some black around the edges I coloured it in. I used a screw effect brad to hold on the hands and hay presto a clock. 


Using some lovely brown co ordinations card I used an embossing folder from the work shop that has clock parts on. This was then lightly sanded to show the design. As a base I used some cream paper that I had photocopied some old text from an old book onto and aged this with some more distress inks.


 The card was then put together with a few lengths of brown string and a sentiment and in the top right corner I stamped out 2 words onto die cut tabs again from Tim Holtz range and used a jump ring to hold them together and this is the finished result;

Lucky Weekend

Well I was a very lucky crafter at the weekend... I had entered the Crafters Companion members challenge and the theme had to be something using fairies. It could be anything from a card to a box etc. I decided to decorate a candle and make a matching box. This is what I created and I WON !!!!! The prize has just arrived and it is a set of Crafters Companion fairy stamps so you will be seeing more of my fairy creations soon.

The winning set

The other challenge that I had entered was over on Polka Doodles and it was to make a mothers day card in an odd shape using only 1 image and 3 colours. This is my creation and again I was lucky enough to WIN !!! The prize for this was a free original and exclusive Digi stamp from the ever so creative Nikky Hall.

The winning card