Crochet flowers...... and a cunning plan

I have been having a wee tidy up in my craft room, and consequently found a load of crochet flowers - from various different workshops.

There are only so many crochet flower brooches you can make and give away, so I have decided to do something different with these ones - and any further ones that may blossom in the future.

What might that be?   Well, you will just have to wait and see   ;)

Do you crochet flowers?   What do you do with them?

Roll-Up Craft Tidy Tutorial

A few weeks ago the lovely people at Hobbycraft HQ sent me some gorgeous fabrics to play with.

I made three projects in all, and the first one is now live on the Hobbycraft Blog for you all to see and make yourself, if you like.

The fabric is just delightful  - I mean, who could not love purple elephants?

These roll-up storage solutions are great, just think of the things you could store in them.  I especially find one useful for my crochet hooks.

If you would like to make yourself one, pop along to the Hobbycraft Blog and check out my tutorial.

Hope you like it.

"Love" spray-dyed T-shirt

When I was down in Bournemouth doing some video tutorials for Hobbycraft, I made one of these t-shirts using a stencil and spray dye paints.

The one I made was with a spiral shape rather than the letters, here is the video...

If you would like to make one, I have prepared a step-by-step photo tutorial.

So.... grab a t-shirt and pop some cardboard in-between the front and the back to save the dye soaking through and marking the back.

Get some vinyl - this one is leftover Fablon from another project, but you could use masking tape, Duck Tape, anything sticky.

Cut out your chosen letters and stick them to the t-shirt.

For the dye I used this fabulous spray paints from Tulip.  They work really well.

Give them a shake..

... and start to spray in small patches - you can always add more but you can't take it off, so start small and build up to the colour you want.

Add other colours.

Until you are happy with your design.

Now leave to dry for 4 hours before removing the letters.

Wash as instructed on the packet and Voilà!
You have a funky, unique t-shirt.  Just for you.

Mosaic making with Jane Rose.

Last week I trotted myself along to a Mosaic making class with Jane Rose.

Now, I have done a wee bit of mosaic-ing in the past - namely my large Gecko project, which is still unfinished, but you know when you just want to put the time aside to play for a while?  It was all about that.

This is Jane, chatting through the options.

She brought loads and loads of tiles with her, many different colours, textures, shapes, material.... plenty to choose from.

But first we had to choose our shape. I picked this temple shaped cut-out, and started by sticking a mirror into the centre.

Then it was time to get to work playing with the tiles and nuggets.

As well as using ready cut tiles, I cut some pieces of glass myself to make a "crazy paving" effect.

Once it was done I had a bit of time left, so Jane invited me to make another.  I thought I would do a door number for my house.

 I used glittery black glass tiles and blue glass nuggets, filled in with chopped up plain black tiles.

And that was the first day over with.  All tiles glued in place and left to dry for grouting.

The next day we mixed up our grout.  I chose black for the door number.....

..... and purple for the temple.

Then just slapped it all over as if I was icing a cake.

After rubbing it into all the cracks and joints, it was time to wipe it all off again.

Before leaving them all to dry.

Voilà!  My house number....

.... and my temple   :)

I have to say I was pretty pleased with them, and it was such a fun day too.

If you fancy having a go, check out Jane's workshop page with her dates and times on.

Lush Carlisle, Bloggers Event

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a "Bloggers Event" at Lush in Carlisle.

I love Lush stuff, and whenever I pass a shop I seem to be drawn in and my purse pops open and money falls out to buy things with  :)

I particularly like things like the shampoo bars and the scents, not forgetting the smell of the shop even before you go in.

So, it was a Saturday evening, 6.00pm, the shop had just closed, but of course they opened the doors to let us in for an exclusive event just for local Bloggers.

Healthy smoothies were on offer - veggies and fruits made up this colourful concoctions - I had the purple one, couldn't quite bring myself to drink something that green, but everyone who did said it was delicious.  The purple one was delicious too  :)

And cute little blueberry cupcakes... or were they muffins.  Either way, I ate one - just to be polite you know.

First we watched some "Mermaid Shimmer" being made.  A "Big Blue" bath-bomb and a little piece off "Sunnyside" Bubble Bar mixed together made this electric blue water with a gold shimmer running through it - beautiful.

Then onto the fun stuff - making a bath bomb!  How exciting, I was chuffed to be actually getting to mess about in a crafty manner.

I really wish I could remember the ingredients - other Bloggers were taking loads of notes, but I just wanted to get my paws in and start playing.

There was a big bowl of blue stuff (we were making a "Big Blue" bath-bomb) and a bowl of white stuff with sea-salt, and another bowl of white stuff.

After mixing white stuff with salt, and white stuff with blue stuff and chuck in some citric acid, which got right up my nose and made me sneeze!, it was time to press the powder into a mould.

So THAT'S how they get the names on the balls.

First the sea-salt mixure went in to give Big Blue the recognisable white top it has.  Pressed down hard to compact, it was followed by the blue powder.  Both halves of the mould were filled then it was simply pressed together - and just like that a bath-bomb was made.

Then it was time for a little pampering and to try out some summertime products, such as toners, cleansers, scrubs, massage bars....

And this unusual sun-screen powder with an SPF of 15.  Clever idea if you don't want to be gunked up with wet, sticky sun-screen lotion.

And these are the lovely shampoo bars that I like so much - have you ever tried one?  If not, do, they make seem expensive but they last for ages.

This is why I love Lush.....because they are against animal testing.   In that bag was a whole array of goodies for me to try out.  They were so generous!

The bath-bomb that I made, along with a Stepping Stone foot scrub, some Powdered Sunshine, as mentioned above, a tub of Ocean Salt face & body scrub, Breath of Fresh Air toning water soaked into some cotton pads, The Comforter bubble bar and other bits and bobs too - we were very lucky.

This was a great event, and if any of the ladies who looked after us that night are reading, I would like to say Thank You very much, it was so much fun.

A couple of colourful crochet ripple blankets

I have been rippling away of late, making colourful blankies  (small blankets).

This one I made for my Granddaughter, Hope.  It's hard to see the beautiful colours in this photo but the green is a bright vibrant green, and the rainbow is bright joyful colours full of purples, blues, oranges and yellows.

I love rippling, it's so pleasing to see the stripes taking effect.  I also love random colour changing yarns, you never know quite what pattern will pop out as you work.

This one was the perfect size as a pushchair blanket - and for playing "peep-oh" with ;)  (sorry for the blurry shot, she was "peep-oh-ing" too quickly to catch her!

Babies seem to love bright colours, I was a little afraid it might give her a headache - along with the bright lime green pushchair I bought to go with it  ;)   Well, you have to buy a pushchair to match the blankie don't you?  (Just for Nana's house)

The second blankie I made was for a good friend, Shelley, who is nearly fully baked with her bun-in-the-oven.  (a wee chap).

I knew someone was making her a pram blanket so I set about doing a car blanket - one that you can chuck over baby when in the car seat in case it's a bit nippy.  So this one was, again, a small size blankie.

I used Hayfield Bonus Buzz for this one in "Sizzle", along with Hayfield Bonus DK in "Signal Red".

They work together so well, with the Signal Red picking out the red splodges from the Sizzle.

She seemed to quite like it - makes a change from baby blue I suppose  ;)