Beautiful Birdies...Oh My!

I just about hyperventilated when I saw the new Birdy range from Tonic. I can't wait to get my grubby little paws on all this birdy goodness. If you've been following this blog for a while you may have noticed birdies popping up from time to time. I kinda like birdy motifs. Well, be prepared, you're going to be seeing a lot of birds in the near future. I have quite a few projects lined up for these little beauties!

Here are a couple of past birdy projects...

brooches in polymer clay

pincushion jar

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Daffodils and sunshine in the garden

We had a lovely sunny afternoon in the garden yesterday but today it has been cold and rainy. The weather is so changeable just now. At least we were able to get out in the fresh air for a bit so I could take some pictures. (excuse the butt in the background of this picture - my husband was out doing some weeding!)
The denim skirt I made for my little girl turned out fine. I decorated it with fabric from a top that used to belong to my older daughter. I cut out the shapes with Tonic Studios Begonia Die and added some chain stitch. I may make a top to go with this skirt sometime soon.  I'm still in sewing mode. Next up I'll be adding some fabric to the bottom of a long sleeve t-shirt so that it turns it into an easy to wear dress. We'll see how that turns out.

As you may have noticed, my little girl loves to wear her wellies (gumboots).

I'm in Sewing Mode

Some while ago bought this linen embroidered panel at my local auction for only a couple of pounds. It was glued to a piece of board inside a dirty old broken frame. I cut it from the board and washed it a gazillion times and it's been sitting in my utility room waiting for me to do something with. I finally made it into a cushion. The texture of this linen is gorgeous. Someone must have spent many a long evening stitching this beauty.

To finish it off I made some cotton yarn tassels and added a bead to each one. I may get around to a simple tutorial for the tassels one day. They are really easy to make.

I've also been sewing a skirt for my little miss. Here's a sneaky peek.

White Wedding Card

It's spring-time and traditionally it's a popular time for weddings.  A cascading card is a fun, easy way to make a fancy looking wedding card that isn't actually very complicated to make and can still fold flat into an envelope - great if you're reluctant to take out a mortgage with the Royal Mail like myself ! 

There are plenty of tutorials out there on the www. Here are a couple of links if you've not tried one before...

• Payper Box Video Tutorial
• The Craft Club

I've used  Tonic Studio's wonderful products to create all the detail on my card and I think they look great on a white on white card - OK, not pure white, white with touches of gold this time. I used a gold ink stamp on the lilies, and on the foliage I drew with a gold pen  to colour and add detail to the leaves. (BTW you can get fab metallic pens at poundland just now.)

Don't forget to check out Blog Tonic for more crafting inspiration.

One man's shrunken sweater is another (wo)man's hot water bottle cover

 I've just completed this fun little sewing project. My friend Tony gave me his very nice soft woollen jumper that had shrunk in the wash - he was thinking it might fit one of the skinnier members of our family, but nobody really suited it. Never mind, I needed a new hot water bottle cover, and so it has now been re-purposed.  But what could I  do to jazz it up a bit....Tonic Studio's Bouquet Boutique Flower Dies to the rescue!

First I adhered some fusible webbing to the felt before cutting with the dies. The dies I used were the anemone for the petals and leaves, and the cornflower for the centre. 

I prefer to use a wool blend felt for my crafting. Wool felt will withstand higher heat from the iron and so can be used with fusible webbing. If you try to do this with acrylic felt, the lower heat needed when ironing will not be enough to get a good fix with the adhesive - and if you try to use a hotter iron the felt will melt and stick to your iron - not a good scenario really! - not that I would know ;-) 

I stitched around the flowers for two reasons, 

• 1. It is decorative.
• 2. The heat from the bottle might unstick the glue. 

I attached the rib from the sleeve of the jumper to the top of the cover, and made use of the ribbing at the bottom of the jumper for the reverse opening, (so you can get the bottle in and out for washing the cover.)

Do you want to see what's left of the jumper?

Any suggestions what I should make with the remainder?

Some recent cards

I thought I'd show you some of the recent cards I have made using Tonic Studios wonderful products.

If you would like more details on the products used in these cards please pop over to Blog Tonic and check out my posts.

My New Arrival

Here's my new baby! Isn't she a beauty?

If you have been to this blog before you might have read my post where I was frustratedly trying to find a laser printer that would work for Citrasolv transfers. Well, I've finally found one. It just arrived today and my first test print worked beautifully. It's taken me about a year to find a printer that will work for me so I am rather pleased. So, if you are looking for a new printer that will work with Citrasolv transfers, may I recommend to you the HP Lasertjet P1102w.. I hope this saves someone the same headache I had looking for one.

Upcycling Tomato Paste Tubes

You can see my ideas on using Tomato Paste tubes in your crafting over at Crafting Ireland Blog today.