When I was making the violin card I made this one as well. Brown paper cut to size and glued onto the blank card. Card topper from the magic box of tricks attached with a glue dot. I added some raffia to the fold, just tied in a bow. See, ridiculously simple.
My very musical cousin turned nineteen last week, and in honour of the event I made a musical themed card.
My cousin is training to be a primary school teacher and art and craft is a pretty big part of it, but unfortunately she’s not that into it at all, so I’m hoping this card will encourage her in that area. I used coordinating paper to cut out the shapes. The pegs aren’t great but you get the idea. The strings are done with some embroidery thread. I drew in the “f” holes with a gold pen, you can’t see them very clearly in the photo. I didn’t get around to making a bow for it….maybe next year.
Damien has his fluffy badges, Alexia has her Geek is Good badges and Grannymar has her Toyboy branding! I figured it was time I jumped on the badge wagon (oooh that was cringe worthy). So I have some handmade Flower badges for whoever wants them…all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I know they’re flowers, but they ARE unisex I swear. The colours were as close as I could get to the flower in the banner and in fairness Green and Yellow are unisex colours.
I started these when I was on holidays, they were my time killers while my better half was staring at maps planning our routes.
I finally got around to finishing them yesterday, weaving in the ends of the yarn and sewing on the pins was the perfect project for a lazy Sunday.
So, just leave a comment and one of these can be yours.
I have 100’s of crafty ideas running around my head at any given time, so I’ve decided that I need to commit some of them to paper and by paper I mean the blog of course.
In the near future I hope to:
Before I do any of the above, I need to find a better storage solution for my crafty stuff, we live in a 600 sq foot apartment, the spare bedroom was full to the brim of “stuff” before I got into all these crafts. And let me tell you paper and yarn crafts are not space saving hobbies.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to get started on Embroidery this weekend, I’m also going to buy some fine yarn and small crochet hooks if I can find them. And I’ve roped my mother into helping me with the sewing machine on Sunday week so the wheels are in motion for at least some of the above.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
I am really on an earring kick lately. Before I went on holidays I ordered a pair of handmade earrings from Sulu Designs on Etsy. Susan’s husband has some Irish blood in him so she was delighted to be sending some earrings to Ireland. She doesn’t charge any postage and her stuff is really pretty, so as Joe Duffy would say…highly recommended!! I came across Sulu Designs through one of my favourite craft blogs House on Hill Road, I am so jealous of Erin’s sewing and photography skills. Anyway, these beauties were waiting for me when I got home.
Note: this is Susan’s own photo from the Etsy listing.
Huge thanks to Margaret from Cookzors for keeping an eye on my post by the way.
In other news. I’ve been working on more of the “Very Special Project Scarves“, they work up quickly but I’m on my third one this week and I’m getting a bit tired of them so thankfully this is my last one. I’ve decided to put my crochet hook down for a while and try something new. I’m going shopping at the weekend for some embroidery supplies, I did a few embroidery projects back in primary school so hopefully it will come back to me. Any hints or tips are most welcome.
I was very honoured to receive this Arte y Pico blog award from Grannymar today. Grannymar famously said at the blog awards that comments are the lifeblood of blogs and I have to say that Grannymar has been keeping this blog breathing as she is nearly always the first to comment on my posts with great encouragement or welcome advice. So thank you Grannymar.
As a recipient of the award I get to pick five blogs to nominate for their creativity, design, interesting material and contribution to the blogging community, no matter what language. I didn’t have to look too far, I could easily have nominated Grannymar herself but she has no more room left on her award shelf 
Vulgar Moon. Emily has just turned twenty and is very much reminding me of the much missed Agathe from Style Bytes (no link anymore) with her imaginative use of vintage and inexpensive clothes. I cringe every time I see a college student in O’Neills trackies and an Abercrombie and Fitch hoodie and I ask myself “why do they all have to look the same” and then Emily comes along and proves that college students have some individuality left!
Perfect Bound: Julie and Kathryn’s blog is possibly the one that I most look forward to seeing in my feedreader, their photos of moments from daily life are so pretty. I wish I could buy some and frame them because they would make the most wonderful art.
Homebug: Zee has a keen eye for design and I am continuously impressed with her internet finds. I wouldn’t know half the things I know about classic furniture design if it wasn’t for Zee. If you need convincing of the keenness of her eye, check out the flickr photos of her own home. I’d move in in a flash.
Little Bird Eats: Jen has provided me with two of my favourite recipes this year. Skinny Red Beans and Chickpea and Red Pepper Salad. I would never have started using beans so much if it wasn’t for Jen, so cheers for the inspiration and the mouth-watering photography.
Lidl Treats: Kate has been getting loads of recommendations lately but here’s another well deserved one. Loads of people talk about Lidl and Aldi being great but a lot of the time it’s hit and miss, you could spend a lot of money trying to find the hits, and in the meantime all the misses end up in the bin…*hello lidl cereal*!!! It is great to have someone to cut through the misses for you. This blog definitely fits the “interesting material” bill.
All my nominees can now go forth and nominate five blogs each, have fun.
After two linky love posts, normal service will resume shortly, I swear!
Damien has challenged us all to do our own Fluffy links..here are mine.
Loads of people are back from their holidays, like Aileen, Yvonne and Catherine.
Margaret and JD are cooking up a storm.
Devin has wowed us with her bravery.
Lette is thinking about giving up the blog….quick, head over there and convince her not to!
Deborah has been making me hungry.
Nathalie has been posting some really inspiring interiors.
Grannymar has given me an award, Woohoo. Thanks Grannymar (more on that later today).
Here are some thank-you cards I made over the weekend.
Very simple one, I started with a blank white card. Cut some blue paper to size, this paper came from Daintree, it was part of a sample set that I got for Margaret and JD’s wedding invitations. I used glue dots on the back of the roses and stuck them on. I also used a glue dot on the little pot and attached it over the bottom of the roses. I stamped a plain piece of white paper with the “thank you” stamp and then glued that on.
This one was even easier again, the topper came in this box of tricks, I stuck that onto some purple polka dot paper and then attached that to a plain card. I stamped directly onto the card this time. These were so easy that I made two of them!
Have any of my homemade cards tempted you to make your own? It’s so easy, you should. If you do, please let me know, in fact send me some pictures and I’ll post your efforts up here!!
I’m a jewelery addict, I love it. I can’t resist a jewelery sale, you never know when those lime green earrings will come in handy. The result of course is too many things and not enough places to put them. I saw this picture recently on flickr and was so impressed that I decided to try to reproduce it.
Photo by ninainvorm
I picked up a cork board in Atlantic Homecare for about €5 and ordered some pretty paper from Craft Factory for €4. I got a box of pins from Easons for €1.
I measured the cork board and cut the paper to size, it was too big to use a guillotine so I had to use a scissors, it would have been better with a craft knife and a cutting board, these are now on my “to buy” list. It was a little bit see-through so I put some plain white copier paper behind it. I attached it to the board with plain flat pins, in red to coordinate with the red design. I picked out the jewelery I wanted to display and roughly laid them out on the board. I added the “sticky-outy” pins in the appropriate places and then finally added my jewelery.
I find it brilliant, when I’m getting dressed I can see everything at a glance, no wasting time rummaging and de-tangling stuff, not a bad storage solution, craft project and lifehack all in one, and all for €10, plus I have loads of the pretty paper left for other crafty projects. What do you think?
Note: I did this post, before my latest earring splurge, so I’ve added a few extra pins in the last few days.
We arrived back from our holiday on Thursday night/Friday morning. We had a lovely break and I am brimming over with inspiration for cards, crochet and how to combine the two, as well as some ideas for new crafts to start. Embroidery is on my list and I am more determined than ever to take that sewing machine out of it’s box and get it going.
The holiday was amazing and we saw some beautiful places, amazing architecture, art, design and of course crafts. We spent four days in Riga, an overnight in Tampere then three days in Jyvaskyla and four days in Helsinki.
Riga is well known for it’s Art Nouveau architecture and is famous for two main crafty things, linen and amber, both of which are ubiquitous at the market stalls. I bought this cute flower crocheted with linen yarn and these amber earrings and necklace.
The stopover in Tampere and Jyvaskyla was the main reason for our trip. We celebrated the wedding of our friends Ronan and Laura, this little fella’s parents. We had a fantastic time at the wedding, I could rave about the food they served but I’m conscious that this isn’t a food blog. Maybe I’ll hijack Cookzors at some stage.
Then it was onto Helsinki for the final leg. Helsinki isn’t short of amazing market stalls either and I picked up these Turquoise earrings at one of them.
It also has some wonderful workspace type places that sell everything from handmade ceramics to jewelery. In this one, my better half treated me to some very pretty earrings (yes I did go a bit overboard on the earrings) for my birthday.
We saw many of the creations of these guys and I saw so many iconic design classics in one day that I nearly exploded with excitement. We had a drink in the Arctic Ice Bar….yes it was as cold as you imagine. I made the HUGE mistake of wearing sandals and you could have snapped off my toes and used them as ice cubes.
I read my way through three books, one fluffy but appropriately themed and two slightly more highbrow. And I also managed to fit in some craft of my own….more on that at a later date.
All in all a fantastic holiday.
Now, I’m off to start about 100 thank-you cards!
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