Dec
Furniture Crafts
There are many ways in which you can jazz up old furniture and make it look trendy. With some paints, papers and a bit of creativity you can breathe a new lease of life into your old furniture.
Painting:
Simply just giving your wooded furniture a lick of paint can make a he difference. If you want to achieve a vintage look then use white paint. Once it is dry use a sanding pad to wear the paint and give it an ‘aged’ look. To make super modern furniture try using black paint as it gives a minimalist and cutting edge look!
Fabrics:
Re-covering old chairs or reupholstering window seats with new fabrics can make old pieces of furniture fit in with your new décor. If you are a dab hand with a sewing machine you could run up some table runners, cushions and other soft furnishings that is in keeping with your new upholstery.
Paper and Embellishments:
Adding new handles to your cupboards and doors is a much cheaper option than replacing the whole thing. You could buy yourself a selection of wooden door knobs and paint them up to match your newly painted furniture! Patterned papers can be layered on top of wooden items such as mirrors and then sealed with a glue or varnish. You can also use them to cover the inside of drawers or in frames as a piece of art work.
Dec
Style Event Craft Fair Pics – Leicester 3rd Dec
Here are a few pictures from the Style event last Saturday where I had a stall. This was the first outing for my new handmade cupcake magnets, wooden hearts, textile hearts and pictures. They went down a treat and I had some lovely feedback from people about how much they liked them!
Tags: Craft, Craft Fair, cupcakes, Leicester
Nov
Shabby Chic Crafts
I really love shabby chic style with its petite florals, distressed wood and cute sayings. I decided to have a go at some shabby chic crafts and made some hanging wooden and fabric love hearts.
Wooden Shabby Chic Hearts:
I bought a pack of 10 blank plywood love hearts from ebay and painted them in pastel colours using emulsion paint tester pots. When they were dry I used a black fine liner to add some stitching detail around the edge of the heart. I then wrote a message in the centre of the hearts using the fine liner. Finally I embellished my hearts with buttons, ribbon, paper and sticky gems. The hanging twine came included with the blank hearts.
Textile Shabby Chic Hearts:
I found some great fabric bundles in a local haberdashery shop that contained some blue and pink floral fabrics. I also bought some ribbon in matching colours and some wooden buttons too. To start with I drew a love heart shape on to card and cut it out. I drew around this template on to my fabric and cut the hearts out leaving an excess of about 2cms. I stuck a piece of ribbon across the front of the heart using double sided tape and attached the button in the middle with thread. Next I pinned the two heart shapes together with the pattern on the inside. I used my sewing machine to stich along the heart shape and left a gap of about 1 inch at the end so that I could turn the heart out and stuff it. Once I had done this I hand stitched the gap closed and added a piece of ribbon at the top for hanging!
I am going to a craft fair on 3rd December and will be selling them along with some shabby chic fridge magnets that I have also made. Come along if you can!
Vicky
Sep
My top 3 Christmas Craft Items
When it comes to Christmas there are so many craft items, tools and supplies to choose from. Whilst it is good to have a wide selection it can be daunting, especially if you are a new card maker. I have picked my top three Christmas craft items that every beginner should have in the run up to Christmas to make uncomplicated yet beautiful cards. Here they are!
Christmas Craft Paper:
Having a good selection of Christmas themed papers is absolutely essential. Each year craft companies like Dovecraft and Docrafts will bring out paper packs in new Christmas designs and colours. These paper packs come in different sizes and will sometimes include a few sheets of die-cuts or some stickers at the back. Whether you want your cards to have a vintage feel or a more modern cartoon look you will find a paper pack that suits your theme.
Punches:
Punches are really easy to use and can be very effective. You can get all sorts of Christmas shapes such as snowflakes, trees, baubles, stars, holly & Santa’s hats. Punch shapes out of your paper and use them to either decorate the background of your card or to create one central embellishment. You could even use them to make Christmas confetti to sprinkle on your Christmas table.
Christmas Craft Stickers:
Stickers make really great embellishments for Christmas cards. They are not as complicated to use as decoupage and a 3D sticker will give a similar effect. Christmas stickers come in all sorts of colours and themes and can be bought as single sheets or in packs. Popular types of stickers are wood cut stickers, standard flat stickers, acetate stickers and 3d stickers.
These are just some of the types of card making products that are available at Christmas.
Let me know what your Christmas card making essentials are!
Vicky
Tags: Card Making, Card making supplies, Christmas, Christmas Crafts, Festive Crafts, Handmade
Sep
Make Your Own Advent Calendar – Video
I found this fab tutorial on YouTube this morning which shows you how to make your own envelope advent calendar. It is really quick and simple and I thought I would share it with you as this week I’m going for a bit of a Christmas theme. There are lots more great videos on the Hobbycraft YouTube channel so check them out when you get a chance.
Vicky
Tags: advent calendar, Christmas Crafs, Craft ideas, Envelope advent calendar, Home-made, Make your own advent calendar
Sep
Craft Ideas for Christmas
Christmas is one of the best times of the year to get crafty as there are so many things that you could make. I have been compiling some pictures of my favourite craft ideas for Christmas and am going to share them with you. I hope that they serve as inspiration and that you have a great time with your glue and scissors this festive season!
Decorations:
It is really lovely to be able to decorate your tree with home made Christmas decorations. Kids will love to make hanging decorations and see them take pride of place on the tree. It can be as simple as attaching some ribbon to your favourite wrapped sweets or cutting festive shapes from felt and hanging them with string.
Wreaths:
Plain wreaths are available to buy from craft stores and floristry shops. If you want to make a traditional wreath then decorate it with holly, berries, pine cones, slices of orange and green foliage. For something a little more modern why not try making a paper wreath and use a large craft punch to cut out some flowers for decoration.
Advent Calendars:
Instead of chocolate calendar this year why not have a go at making something a little more personal and fun? Get a length of string and attach 25 envelopes with wooden clothes pegs. Fill each envelope with a little treat or a special message to your family. Make it really personal and have a themed calendar like the sewing one in the picture below.
*please note that I found these lovely pictures on-line and am using them to serve as inspiration. I can’t claim to be so talented that I could make every single thing in each picture 
Vicky
Tags: Christmas Craft Ideas, Christmas Crafts, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Wreath, Home-made Advent Calendar, Make your own decorations
Sep
Card Making with Lace
I was rooting through my card making materials when I found a lovely piece of white lace that I had completely forgotten about. I
decided that I would use it but couldn’t quite figure out how. Then it came to me. I would make a lace window card. Lace can sometimes look a little old fashioned so my aim was to team the old and new and make a classic yet modern lace card.
Firstly I used a ruler and pencil to draw a window on the inside of the card blank. I then used my craft knife and mat to cut it out. Next I choose a nice bright coloured piece of paper and stuck it on the inside of blank, on the opposite side to the window. This way the colours would show through the lace and make a pretty effect. Then I used double sided tape to attach the lace across the window. Finally I added a sticker greeting that matched the colours in the paper and a white bow embellishment to finish it off.
Tags: card making with lace, Craft ideas, lace, lace card making, lace crafts, make lace cards, make your cards
Aug
Cupcake Paper Cases
This week I have been slightly obsessed with making cupcakes! I have baked about six batches of them and really enjoyed it, though my waistline may not agree! I thought I would share with you a picture of my cupcakes (need a bit more practise I know!) and some pictures of my favourite paper cupcake cases that I have found on-line (just to keep the passion for paper burning). These are just images I found on-line that hopefully will inspire you to get the scales out and make your own. You could serve them at birthday parties, garden parties or just as a tasty afternoon treat. Check out my cupcake party invites and cupcake themed cards for more cupcake goodness! (more…)
Tags: baking, cupcake cards, cupcake cases, cupcakes, Paper Crafts
Aug
Cupcake Birthday Card Ideas
This weekend I have gone a little cupcake crazy! I decided that I would have a go at making some tasty looking cupcake greetings cards in keeping with the current trend for these sweet treats. I recently made some free printable cupcake party invitation templates and hopefully today I can give you some ideas for your own cupcake greetings card project.
For this card I used a square blank, a sheet of Dovecraft 8 x 8 ‘piece of cake’ paper, a die cut cupcake, a piece of white card, sticky pearls and a sticky greeting. I covered the front of the blank with the cupcake paper. Next I stuck the sticky gems on to the die cut. I then mounted the die cut cupcake on to a small rectangle of white card and attached it on to the card using foam pads and stuck on the sticky greeting. Easy peasy and almost good enough to eat!
Tags: Card Making, Card Making Ideas, Card Making Kits, Cupcake Birthday Card, Cupcake Card Ideas
Aug
How To Make Paper Bunting
Bunting is all the rage at the moment and so I decided I would put together a quick tutorial about how to make paper bunting. Bunting is fantastic for decorating out of doors at BBQ’s, garden parties or at kid’s birthday parties. It is so simple to make and is completely customisable.
