Wedding Acceptance Card

This week a friend asked me to do a nice Wedding Acceptance Card for her. I haven't done one of these before! I decided to quill a large white butterfly with a couple of hearts. I added a little glitter gel on the butterfly. 

Whilst we were catching up she also asked me if I would like to have a card stall at her school's PTA Ladies Night on February 27th - just in time for Mothers' Day. I always have some card stock at home but I'll need to make more! I'll let you know how I get on.

Owl Phone Sock

I've been quite crafty this weekend, so this is the first of three posts! To start with, my youngest daughter really needed a phone sock. After looking at ones to buy I remembered that I had some spare wool (bought originally for gloves) that would possibly make a nice knitted owl phone sock.

All I needed to knit was a long rectangle. The width is the width of the phone plus a bit and the length is double the length of the phone plus extra to make a flap over finish. I knitted the flap-over-end in all rows knit and the rest in stocking stitch - 1 row knit, 1 row purl. Once I had my rectangle I sewed up the sides (leaving the end to flap over) to make the basic sock. 

I used a press stud to close the sock (advice would be to use the largest press stud you can).

A few strands of wool at the corners made the ears (apparently it's an eagle owl, according to youngest daughter).

I made the owl eyes using circles of felt attached with buttonhole stitch and buttons for the centres. 

I always use http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org for nice clear stitch instructions. The beak is two pieces of felt held together, and stitched to the sock, with buttonhole stitch.  

To finish, I used a similar idea for the wings.

See what else I've been up to next.....

Christmas Wreath

I just can't seem to get enough Christmas decorations! This year I've added a new wreath over the fireplace. It needed to match the swag on the fireplace, so it's red, green and gold. 

I started with a plain wicker wreath and wrapped a piece of fake greenery around the bottom. 

Then I simply added Christmas trimmings, tying them in as I went. 

Over the last years I have collected the odd bit of Christmas trimmings - plenty left for next year! 

Finished wreath!

Origami Christmas

I needed an idea for last minute Christmas cards for the kids and my Mum. Origami was a new way to go. I did end up spending some time practising before I settled on a couple of designs which I thought I could make with small squares of paper.  I used 9cm squares of paper for the santas and a 12cm square of paper for the dove. I used Christmas printed paper - looks nice but hard to fold especially when small.

The kids thought they were really cute! There are lots of websites for Christmas origami but the ones I eventually used were:

http://www.origami-make.com/howto-origami-bird.php

http://www.origami-resource-center.com/santa.html

I also wanted an idea for an attractive way to give my eldest daughter some money. Again lots of websites filled with plenty of original ideas but we used this one because you can make them using any notes (so long they are all the same).

 Also, many of the ideas use dollar bills - so use lots of notes! We made an origami star out of our British banknotes and presented in a CD case.

To top off our origami Christmas, we folded cloth napkins to make Christmas trees for our Christmas lunch. 

http://www.handimania.com/diy/christmas-tree-napkin-fold-all-steps.html

Anniversary Gift

This year was our 20th wedding anniversary. Traditionally, it stands for china but we didn't need ornaments or dining sets and a trip to China was likely out of the question so....inspired by Pinterest I made a photo gift.

The general idea was to take pictures of the children in positions forming the numbers of our wedding date - 3.9.14.  We tried several ideas but eventually settled on photos where the children made the numbers with their bodies. The trickiest to film was my son on the trampoline - I had take the photo before he actually jumped in order to catch the number he made.

After I'd put the photos onto the computer I changed them to tasteful black and white. Still not sure though if I prefer them in the original colours, will probably print them out one day to compare.

For your information, my husband found me some china-themed gifts including green tea from China and the 80's film 'Big trouble in Little China'!