Busy bee!

Woooahh! It's been a while! My apologies but as you can see, I've been busy.


First thing's first... I've been bookbinding! And It's great =D It's my new favourite craft.

To start you will need

• Paper (for signature and decoration)
• Card (for the covers)
• Embroidery thread or thick yarn
• Embroidery needle
• Awl or thick, sharp needle
• Glue (I just used a glue stick but adhesive spray is pretty effective)
• Decoration (I used buttons and ribbon from a cute local shop)

Right! Here we go.
Start by making your signatures. I used presentation card, A4, and folded them in half.


I used 9 pages to make 3 sets of 3. 3 is a good number for your signatures, although you could use more depending on weight.

When you've put these into sets, meaning stacked and folded, you can make the holes.
Use a scrap piece of paper to mark where your holes will be. They don't have to be evenly spaced but it does help later on if you can.

Now you can put the scrap inside your set, using your awl, punch your holes through the fold line.

Signature's done, Easy peasy!!

Now for the cover's. I used some blue card, A4. In future I will make my covers a few mm larger then my signatures, it helps keep your pages hidden inside.

I cut the card in half and used backing paper for the back, I also used some scrapbook paper for the spine edge, just for decorative purposes.

Using the scrap you can add holes to the spine, half a cm from the edge should do fine

Now for the binding. Here's where i let you down :-( My camera is pretty naff, so a picture tutorial will be useless, and without picture's i'll just confuse you. sooooo.... here's a tutorial with the method I used. Sorry!

Are you back? I hope so ;-) Here's my finished spine.

Then it's the fun part. Decorating!!
I made mine for my pop's on father's day, and here are a few pages.

And needless to say, my Dad loved it!!! Proper chuffed =D



Up next, Another Father's day goody. This time for my fella, It was his first father's Day so I had to make it a little personal. I used my pro markers and a plain baby vest to make his unique card.
Using an Iron to heat seal the ink (don't take my word for it) he also has a baby keepsake.







And last but not least.

Personalized photo necklace.
I'd seen these on pinterest and i think they would make beautiful handmade gifts.
I had a nosy on Google for some glass tiles and they are surprisingly cheap!
Bought some findings and cord from my local bead shop and the beautiful Angel, the most helpful shop assistant you could ask for!
Cut the photo slightly smaller then the tile, this gives it the perfect fit, no sticky out bits. as you can see, I cut mine a little too small, oops!
A bit of super glue and hey presto!!
I used only a dab on the back of the tile and placing the photo face down, moved it around a little to spread the glue to the edges. Using to much will cause the glue to seep from the edges, Messy!!
I also put backing paper behind the photo.


And that's it for now!
I've noticed that the vast majority of readers are crochet fans, so my next project will be along those lines. And i'll try not to leave it so long next time!!
Chow for now =D

Purple peril.

I love this little dude!! I thought I'd have a little play about and here's the result.

Monster's are so cool to design because anything goes. Made a mistake? No one will know ;-)


Sc- single crochet

Ch- chain

-Monster applique

magic circle, ch6 and pull tight.

2sc in each stitch for 2 rows so that there are 24 stitches.

Sc in 3 stitches, ch1 and turn. Repeat for 6 rows.

Sc in each stitch for another 6rows, inc2 in each row.

-For the eye
magic circle, ch6 and pull tight.

2sc in each stitch. Finishing with 12 stitches.

Sew them together, add your own detail and... Tada!!

Last minute!

Grandad's birthday this week and I completely forgot! Major boo boo... almost.
I remembered seeing an idea on pinterest which would make a fitting gift for me old pop's. I grabbed an old mug and my promarkers and sketched out my family tree. Baked at gas mark 4 for 45 minutes and hey presto!



He absolutely loved it! I was pretty chuffed myself to be honest.
My first attempt was a fail, i put the mug in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes and the pattern washed straight off :-(
For my second attempt I put the mug in a cold oven, after 45 minutes I turned the oven back off and let the mug cool over night and so far so good. I think if I scrubbed at the pattern it would eventually wear off but luckily he doesn't want to use it, 'its far too special' apparently. :-) winner!
I also knocked up a quick handmade card

Happy birthday grandad!

P.s. sorry for the rubbish photo's. It was such a rush I had to take them after he'd received them :-/

No crochet project left behind!

You know, I really annoy myself. I'm terrible for getting halfway through a project and losing interest because I've 'discovered' something else, I have a shelf full of half completed projects which in all likely hood will never be finished. And that's what almost happened to this poor little mite after I started my 'galactic nursery' crusade.

But enough's enough!
I hereby do solemnly swear to finish all future crochet projects before starting another, so help me god!

The elf hat.
This cutie is from my obsession with photo props. I did a quick Google search for free elf hat patterns and found plenty here at Crochet pattern central, but I wanted newborn size which was a little harder to find. Finally I found this pattern at oodles 4 noodlesand fell in love!
I used my begere de france wool in pastel shades and I am so happy with how it turned out.



A little advice for anyone attempting this pattern though, I kept getting lost on the tail so count your stitches carefully on each row. other then that it was a pleasure to make.


Before I go I wanted to share this great post I found with references and conversions for all things crochet at Crochet eclectics. This is so useful for beginners, and the more experienced because let's face it, we're not all 'rain man' and we could use a reminder sometimes ;-).


Well now I've got that finished I can make a start on my aliens! I've found some great patterns and I'm hoping to attempt some of my own, but i'll save that for another post.

Have a good and crafty weekend :-)

Galactic nursery!

Ahh my little man is growing up so fast and will soon be in his own room, not that he ever sleeps! So I've been busy deciding on a theme for his chamber. Whilst I was pregnant I was adamant he was having a woodland theme, all owls and little critters, cute ay? But, as always, I'm bored of that now. In fact I think most baby themes are a bit boring, is it just me? All pale, pastel colours and cute little animals, pfft.... Everyone ends up with the same thing, or similar. Well, not my little champ. I was thinking different, original, bright and vibrant, but most importantly, awesome! There's only one answer to that.... Monster's, alien's and all things galactic!
What little boy doesn't want to be an astronaut? Exploring the universe and uncovering life on mars. Hehe, I can really let my imagination wild. Obviously i'll have to keep it sweet, I don't want to give my tiny spaceman nightmares.
So to get me started, I have my pinterest

board full of inspiration, and I've been jotting down ideas in the form of doodles. Stay tuned to watch my progress, no doubt there will be plenty of tutorials and patterns to come!

Little boy blue...

... or rather little boy in a girly head band. Oh dear I am cruel, but he is just going to have to put up with being my model until he's old enough to resist.
This was sooo easy, anyone could do it.
No gauge. Use any size hooks, any type of wool. Easy peasy.
For the headband...
Simply chain the length of the head circumference you wish to fit, and slip stitch into the first chain. Then double chain in the round until you have the width desired.
For the bow...
Exactly the same method! Wrap some wool around the centre quite tightly and shape your bow and then sew in place onto your headband.
Like I said, easy peasy!

And so it began....

My first ever post on my first blog! Ooh exciting! So here goes.

I'm a little obsessed with photo props at the minute. Because they're teeny they take no time at all to knock up, which is good for me. I'm so impatient and usually abandon large projects half way through because i get bored.

I had my beautiful baby boy on 7/2/2013 and at 2 weeks old was given a freebie photo shoot by the very talented Gemma at Lu_Mi_Li Photography. She had some gorgeous little photo props and it got me thinking, I could make those. so I got out my crochet hooks and scoured the tinterweb for some measurements and inspiration and here's what I have so far.

Fluffy pink diaper cover.

I started with this little beauty. I searched for diaper measurements and found some super cute fluffy wool in my bag of tricks and off I went. I finished it off with some parcel yarn, which I know sounds strange but it worked great, and a funky little button.

Newborn legwarmers with ruffles.

These teeny legwarmers were so quick and easy to do. It took a couple attempts to get the measurements right though.

Newborn baby bonnet.

This is my favourite, Its so cute. I made this in a pixie style with a little point on the hood, with long tassel's in contrasting wool. 


I'm a complete newb at crochet and I hate being a beginner so I always throw myself in at the deep end, but I don't think I've done too badly lol ;-) 


I'm not sure whether to make more of these and maybe sell them or to write up the patterns and share them.... either way I need testers/models to check the sizing. so these 'trials' are up for grabs for any budding photographer!