Vintage Style Gift Tags

I've just spent the entire evening cutting and pasting to make 50 gift tags - mammoth effort but lots of fun too!

You need some old children's picture books, preferably ones that are torn and tired.

A glue stick, scissors, pen and a rounded object - a cotton reel spool is ideal or a suture material casing is what I used,  a hole punch and some card stock. I cheated and bought pre cut artist trading cards which are slightly bigger than business cards

 some of the 50 card ready made to go

card stock, hole punch and template

Select picture

glue card and place carefully on picture

It handy if you can use a roller to help the picture stick smoothly to your card stock

cut out around card

the make a curved edge at the top of your card and round off the edges at the bottom

punch a hole for the string to pass through

Repeat 50 times!

Mondocherry make vintage style gift tags for sale if you cant be bothered making them, find them here

Almost Finished

A while ago I decided I wanted to try to dye with eucalyptus leaves and try to iron infuse my material with a leaf imprint.

My grey material below was originally a dusky pink from berries but when I utilized my eucalyptus leaves infused with iron I used the whole bath not realizing that everything would go grey.

Not to worry I threw the material aside and thought that perhaps maybe it might do for something later on

My husband recently had his birthday and requested a pair of shorts .

I wandered into the surf shops and was appalled by the cost of a relatively plain pair of shorts, it got me thinking that perhaps maybe I could make the boys some shorts.

This is an idea of what I was thinking about and I could utilize my own dyed fabrics. Finding the pattern was really hard. Once upon a time you could buy numerous styles of mens short patterns in every pattern book you looked at. I found maybe three short patterns and none of them came near what I wanted

I trolled the op shops a came up with nought for many days, then yahoo I found 2 mens patterns and one child's  short pattern. I really wanted to utilize a pattern to get the sizing right because I hate unpicking.
I left off the back pockets and chopped the legs in half to give a two tone effect. This pattern had also a lot of extra material utilized for facings and I was short on material so they went too.

blurry photo but you get the idea of matching seams!

 I am really lazy and did not wash the material so it still has plant debris on it and smells of eucalyptus.
But I did manage to match up all my seams..amazing

 I still have to add a button hole, but a little practice is in demand before I do that, my machine is not so good with button hole - nothing to do with the user!!!

back view

Also been working on the crochet cushion for the back room, have to sew in the ends and sew it together

And last but not least Matilda and I want to send a big warm welcome to everybody whom has joined. Makes me feel like not such an idiot for talking to myself for the last year. So thank you, thank you.

 See you next time..
PS .. so far the reaction to the shorts from my boys has been less that luke warm. Not a very appreciative lot   are they.

Giveaway - follow the link

want to join in a really fabulous giveaway visit http://cheandfidel.blogspot.com/ and get excited!~!! lovely stuff to glean over

Swing and Whiskers

My little lady mouse now is the  proud owner of her own mouse sized swing

I picked up a couple of silver spoons at a school fete and this one had a bent lip so wouldn't be very utilitarian any more despite being silver and a lovely deep spoon.

My dad and brother were both shocked to know that I wanted to drill holes in a silver spoon  let alone utilize it for Christmas ornament. My response was  that I paid nothing for it and it now was being put to good use, in my eyes at least.

My brother kindly bent the spoon for me as I didn't have enough strength to do so my self. My pearl beads got pulled out again (lucky I found another stash at an op shop) and wired up over head

Silk thread whiskers added. I tried knotting them but it didn't look right so be warned they are not held in

 Two little festive critters ready to travel the world. They just need the appropriate packing to ferry them safely to their new homes - Tomorrows job.

And lovely pottery jug I found on the way home tonight for a bargain price $4 

Eeek Another Mouse! - Christmas Ornament Swap (2)

 Whom is peering over my Christmas Hipestrium?

An inquisitive Christmas mouse gathering flowers 

Sparkly and sweet in her Christmas best

She looks a rather angelic (She has come a long way since last night) She too still requires a tale and whiskers.

Her limbs are a little awkward (luckily most of them are hidden)

She'll be needing a pair of pantaloons as well (we cant show you a ladies undercarriage) and maybe we might be able to fit her with a pair of ballet slippers - i'm not too sure how well I'll manage that)

I also plan to give her a swing made of spoons of course!
Nothing like letting you imagination run wild
I know that the photos are overkill but I couldn't resist and I really was having a lot of fun.
Show the end product soon I hope....
Wow two post in one day!!.

Hello, How Are You? - Christmas Ornament, Santa Mouse

Hello! How are you?

That is what this cute little rascally fella seems to be saying.

 My first Christmas ornament is almost complete, all he needs is a tail and whiskers.
This little guy is completely hand sewn and crafted for a very special person in the Christmas Ornament Swap found here.

Now if anybody has noticed that I've visited their web site just let me inform you that I have visited everybody on Christina's list for the ornament swap and some of the sites even twice. So this guy could be for any one of you. I've started a second mouse but decided to try to make a girl in a sparkly dress, sounds nice but at the moment isn't looking so great. Needs a lot of work.

So you can see I have only utilized one of the ornamental/ souvenir teaspoons so far. I have plenty more to play with.

Santa mouse is a little scruffy looking (almost homeless) but cute none the less and maybe a little Irish!

His limbs are fully mobile so he can be positioned in anyway and is not attached to the spoon other than bending his wired limbs

The original mouse didn't look quite so scruffy and can be found in Better homes and Gardens: Holiday Crafts 2010  by Pamela Gracia. I've always wanted to make him but I did make a few alterations

Can't wait to see what everybody comes up with

Weed or wreath ?

Outside the other day I was considering this invasive plant/ creeper that just loves to piggy back on other plants and then gradually strangle them out.

 Its nearly impossible to get rid of and seems to flourish with vigorous pruning  My neighbour persists in trying to maintain some control, me on the other hand tends to ignore it. Until now.. I was thinking of Christmas and wondered if I would be able to twist it into a wreath. Selecting the green shoots and tearing off the leaves did enable me to twist it off into a wreath shape. Now to let it mature and dry and make a hanging decoration for the door perhaps.

That is about the extent of my weeding efforts.. laugh! The wreath was made by making a few loops of vine and then working in a clock wise fashion pulling the vine over and through the centre until thick enough for my liking. The ends of the vine are tucked into the wreath.
Here is the red-work finished but not yet sewn into anything useful. That will be a weekend job although I will only be having Saturday off between reverting back to my usual shift work.

And an old angel hanging around outside on the back shed, gradually being weathered away but kind of charming in a rustic way

Stay safe