Category Archives: CRAFTY THINGS

Felted Cats

I love crafting and I love cats, so when I saw an advert on FB for learning a new craft and raising funds for Cats Protection League, I knew I had to sign up.

A box with everything we needed to make needle-felted cat baubles arrived in the post and a live FB tutorial was held by Steffi @TheMakerss.co.uk.

Felted cats box

Needle felting is literally stabbing wool over and over with a barbed needle so it pulls the wool into itself, mats and becomes firm.  Have you ever made the mistake of washing a pure wool jumper in hot water and it comes out matted and stiff?  No?  Just me then ;)

Felted cats progress

Once the basic cat shapes were formed and the eyes were stuck on we started felting the top coat in our chosen colours.   Chilli and Bean are both tortoiseshell so I’d selected their colours when ordering the kits.

Bean & laptopBean overseeing our work!

Felted cat and Chilli

Although not looking overly impressed, I think Chilli could see the work that had gone into her bauble!

Chilli & Bean on Tree

The tutorial was easy to follow and we did it in two parts because other Christmas preparations got in the way.  Making the baubles was good fun and they looked amazing on our tree too.

Cats & Bean

The brilliant thing about this was that 2,840 people took part in Craft for Cats and over *£28,400 was raised for Cats Protection!

*Every £10 could buy bedding to help keep an unwanted cat warm and cosy this winter, or the total amount could feed all the cats at 10 small CP adoption centres for an entire year!!

EDIT:  EVERY SINGLE bauble posted on the FB Craft for Cats page has looked incredible.  Every bauble is filled with love and blood (needle stabs!) and the photos and the stories of the cats have made me laugh and cry.  It’s been really quite emotional.

Fun with a ball of wool and cardboard box

I told you Chilli and Bean would feature in more of my posts!

Some time ago a friend sent me a link to an online article where a cat owner had photographed her cat poking its head through a hole in a box, to which she’d attached wool ‘hair’ on the outside, with hilarious effect!  Stay with me, it will all make sense in a minute …..

CatSalonFlowers

cat

Helping!

Arm

Green Curls

catred

Frida BeanFrida Bean!

Oh Deer!

Made from cardboard, this deer head has been covered with a pretty blue and pink ‘vintage-feel’ papier-mâché and adorned with Capodimonte roses for eyes.

Deer (3) resize Upcycling at it’s best!  Capodimonte roses saved from a chipped candle holder.

Deer (4) resize

Although just for display purposes, the deer head looks great with lightweight jewellery hanging from it’s antlers!Deer (2) resize

Finding it’s way into my Shop tonight :)   (Follow menu on the left to shop safely)

Little blue pot

It has come to my attention that I don’t have green fingers.   I follow lots of people on Instagram who share photos of their lush green houseplants and I turn to look at mine and I have to admit I have Plant Envy. I water them, feed them, gently wipe their leaves and try to find the right light and temperature for them, but many (not all) still refuse to live.  I’ve killed so many that I’ve resorted to tucking artificial plants in high places where you really can’t tell the difference! Consequently, I have lots of empty plant pots whose inhabitants have long since gone to the composter.

It was shortly after I returned from said trip to the bottom of the garden, carrying a now empty little blue pot, that I realised it could become a paint brush pot and not join the other pots piling up in a cupboard …. so out came my Sharpies.

Frida pot

“I paint flowers so they will not die”   Frida Kahlo   (Seems like an appropriate quote!)

Eggcellent!

Back in October last year my son mentioned he didn’t have any egg cups at his flat so the next time I was in the supermarket I bought two, but they were plain white and very boring.  What could I do to brighten them up?   Yep, that’s right, personalise them, of course!

Egg cups 1 resize

Using ceramic paint (I used Pebeo) here’s a brief outline of how I did it :-

Egg Cup Collage resize 1

Egg Cup Collage resize 2

Following the paint manufacturers instructions bake in oven and then enjoy boiled egg and soldiers for breakfast!

Click the link below to watch my YouTube tutorial for more details :)

PERSONALISED EGG CUPS

Egg cups resize

 

Christmas Stick Tree

Earlier this year I collected fallen branches from the woods so I could make a Christmas stick tree again.  My last effort was made from big branches and it was VERY heavy,  so this time I was more selective!  (Yes, I am that woman with leaves and twigs in her hair, seen dragging things back to the van!)  This year I was determined to be more successful!

Stick Tree

I was so lucky to find the little hearts and stars in a charity shop and they were perfect for the tree.  I also bought some new lights (such a great price, from B&Q).

Stick Tree and samba

Stick Tree6

It looks so pretty all lit up at night :) and I’m definitely going to keep this one for next year too.  It’s amazing what you can do with a pile of sticks!

Stick Tree bokeh

Sheer fluke that I took this bokeh image!

 

Papier-mâché impala

The beauty of papier-mâché is – if you don’t like it, stick something over the top!

Some of you may remember me posting a photo of a cardboard impala covered in a dark red paper ….

Red impala

As much as I loved the red paper, something wasn’t working for me, so I found a lighter, brighter paper and covered it again. this time in a pretty blue.

Impala blue

But it was still lacking something.  Eyes?

Some time ago I bought two candle holders from a charity shop; each with three roses on the base.  I had intended using them for a mosaic but I thought they’d be perfect for this.  Anyway, after enlisting the help of my husband and a Dremel I now had a pair of peepers.

Impala

Well, in actual fact I think they look like fluttery eyelashes!

Skeleton leaves

My favourite place to walk our dog has to be the woods.  Walking under the canopy of leaves is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.   I could stroll for hours taking photographs of birds or picking up leaves.

On some of my walks I’ve found some beautiful skeleton leaves and have taken them home and pressed them in a big heavy book.  Recently I went through my collection and framed some of my favourites.

Triple setting

WBR setting 2

A1 setting 2

BR setting

 

WBL setting

The skeletons have been highlighted with a sprinkling of glitter and mounted onto acid-free card.   All available to buy in my newly opened Etsy shop :)

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/tattythings

 

I need to work on my tension

I’m well known for having too many projects on the go so I’ve decided that I really must finish off as many as I can before starting any new  (haha, famous last words!!)

I took crochet lessons at a local wool shop two years ago.  Armed with a beginners knowledge of basic stitches I then made a nest of colourful baskets and also started “a winter project”, a granny square blanket for our campervan.   Over two winters I have made 144 little squares, sewed them all together, tied in all the ends (insert crying emoji here) and added two or three rows of border.

Granny Squares

This has really been a mammoth task and although I love the finished blanket, I am in no hurry to start another.  I am very slow at crochet and lack the confidence to look away from the hook at any point, and I found the sheer size of the blanket weighed me down in more ways than one (even though it could probably have been larger – one of us is going to feel a slight draught in the camper!!)

Crochet blanket (2)

I finished off the border with these adorable pompoms.

Pompoms

Does anyone remember making pompoms at school?  We used to cut out two cardboard circles with a hole in the middle, sandwich them together and wind the wool round and round.  Well not much has changed except there is now a little plastic gadget that doesn’t bend or disintegrate after one pompom.  Genius.

Crochet blanket (7)

Crochet blanket (9)

Looks like it has my cat’s approval.

Crochet blanket (14)