New Book

I bought this book from an op shop for $1 and I'm pretty impressed.

Home Handicrafts Book  

While it does have some shockers...


My eyes! 

There are also some pretty good projects.


This is pretty cool 

And some pretty amusing pages too.


I'm easily amused 

That one's my favorite!

Noah's Ark Cross Stitch

It's taken me years but I've finally finished this!


Noah's Ark Cross Stitch 

I got given this cross stitch pattern years and years ago but I've only just finished it. The problem has been that I haven't worked on it continuously but in chunks and then put it away. It seems like the last little bit has taken a while too, and I eventually finished the back stitch in a couple of hours while watching tv. Yay!

Now I just have to do something with it. I'll probably get it framed so that it's protected.

Glass Marble Magnets

I've thought the glass marble magnets were pretty cool for ages and had some of the pebbles sitting around for a while, but I only just got a roll of magnetic tape stuff so I decided to make some magnets.


Glass Marble Magnets 

I got the embryo development series up the top and the 'magnetic' text from an old Double Helix magazine, and the rest of the pictures were from junk mail, using pictures from fabrics, long stitch kits and bedding. I made a couple of others but they didn't look as good as I planned so they've been put on the fridge and aren't coming to Adelaide with me when I move.

Fortune Cookie Magnets

I made some fortune cookie magnets for gifts. They're pretty cool and I think they'll look great in those chinese take-out containers along with other bits and bobs.


Fortune cookie magnets 

To make these I cut out circles in felt, folded them in half and hot glued them and then pinched the center so they looked like fortune cookies and hot glued them like that. Once they dried I glued a magnet with tacky glue onto the back. On some I had to cut out a puckered bit of felt so they were flat but I didn't have any problems with them falling apart.

Gifts

I've given the housewarming presents of the Pug toilet roll holder and the Flaky toilet roll holder and they were very well recieved. I was a bit worried giving kind of bizzare gifts but my friends 'got it' which was a relief. I thought they would otherwise I wouldn't have given them away but it's always nice when someone is excited and amazed by something you've crafted.

Christmas ornaments stage 2

I've painted them now. I didn't end up buying a binder to prime the stars because I could only find a teeny little bottle which was a bit expensive for this, and as I don't really paint I didn't think it was worth it. They turned out nice and pretty anyway.


Painted Christmas ornaments 

I ended up doing a couple in gold, and they actually look better than the single gold one in this photo but they don't have the same impact as the red ones. I'll leave it until Christmas to put names on (I think I'll have to buy a gold pen for that) thread them, and maybe put a Merry Christmas 2006 sticker on the back.

Christmas ornaments/gift tags stage 1

I signed up for the Christmas Craftalong on Craftster and I'm behind already! The theme for January was ornaments and I made almost 50 of these salt dough stars which I'm going to paint red(I bought paint, but only realised I needed primer once I got home) and then put names on in gold and use as gift tags which double as personalised ornaments.

As I'm not going to hand sew anything and I don't have a sewing machine, February's theme wasn't really going to happen anyway.


Christmas ornaments 

I made salt dough using about 1 cup of flour, 1 cup salt and 1/2 cup of water. I had a few trays which ended up being cooked for different times at different temperatures as I turned the oven up a bit.

Crocheted Bookmark

I've now made a little bookmark for my diary (which is shown for size in the photo)


Crocheted bookmark 

The pattern is from here, with a chained tail and tassel added.

Oooh! It's a butterfly

It's a surprisingly big butterfly. Due to me not being interested in anything like gauge, correct thread or crochet hook, this butterfly is about 5 times bigger than I wanted it. I still think it's pretty though, so one day in the distant future I might use it as an applique for a bag or t-shirt or something.

I am glad I made it though, it's probably one of the more complex projects I've done and I've found the last two projects I've done with smaller thread to be quite challenging and enjoyable. Now I've just got to find something to use the butterfly for and make a small enough bookmark for the little organiser I've bought (the butterfly is larger than the organiser).


Crocheted butterfly 

The pattern in from here.

Crocheted bookmark

I got the job I applied for in Adelaide which is fantastic. I'm starting on the 27th of February so I've got a big move interstate (alright, not that big) so the regularity of this blog may suffer somewhat. It's all very exciting, it's the job I've most wanted since finishing university and applying for jobs so I'm kind of glad that most of the others fell through and I ended up with such a fantastic position.

Anyway, as well as getting a job today, and doing some shopping (when I bought a new crochet hook which I used for this project) I made a lovely bookmark.


Crocheted bookmark 

It's the double trouble bookmark taken from here although without rows 7 and 8.

Crochet Hook Case

I made this little crochet hook case because I was sick of my hook collection floating around aimlessly. It also fits a couple of tapestry needles for finishing off and some scissors so everything stays a little more organised.


Crochet Hook Case 

It's done in single crochet in the round with a flap added at the top and the bottom stitched closed. It's very handy!

Away

There won't be any new posts for a few days as I'm going interstate for a job interview. Wish me luck!

Amigurumi elephant

I'm going away for a few days next week and staying with a friend, so I've made her this little elephant which she's getting along with some chocolates.

Hopefully I can get hold of some button eyes before I go, because I think the beads I've got at the moment are a little creepy and need changing.


Amigurumi elephant 

The pattern was from Roxycraft's Amigurumi collection

Amigurumi monkey

I made this cute little Amigurumi monkey which I've now given to my mum because I need to reduce my stuffed toy collection as it is, but this was just so much fun to make!


Amigurumi monkey 

The pattern is from Roxycraft in the Amigurumi animals collection.

Crocheted scarf

This is one of my earlier crochet projects. My mum wanted a cream scarf so I made her this one. It turned out really well, it's lovely and light but nice and warm when you wrap it around.


Crocheted scarf 

The pattern is the V-ery easy crochet scarf

Skull Beanie

This is a bit of an old project, but it's been too hot here to do any kind of crafting over the last few days. I made this skull beanie for my sister's boyfriend as part of his Christmas present. It's a bit messy because I was carrying threads a bit too much so I didn't have to weave in as many ends.


Skull beanie 

I made up the beanie pattern as I went along, and there were a few errors in it so I won't post the pattern, but I got the skull chart from here, posted on craftster by cityruins.

Fortune cookie cards

With the left over gold card from the bookmark I made for my friend, I made a couple of birthday cards. One is for a friend who's birthday is coming up soon, who we often go out for Chinese food with and the other, well...it was as easy to make two as one.


Fortune cookie cards 


Inside of cards 

Bookmark

Along with the earring holder for my friend I needed a card of some sort. I wasn't feeling in the mood to make a card so I made a bookmark instead.


Bookmark 

I used some shiny gold cardstock I got in a big pack I bought recently and my new leaf puncher. After writing a message on the back of the bookmark I put it in an envelope full of punched leaves.

Topics:

• papercraft

Record earring holder

I've got a house warming party on Saturday and as I couldn't think of any wildly amusing toilet roll holders which would suit this friend I decided to make a record earring holder, as well as that, she's getting a lovely photo frame with a sepia photo of most of my friends.


Record earring holder 

I used the craftster tute posted here by chellovsky except I used a small metal thing so post/stud type earrings will be held in, and I put holes around the sides for hoop earrings. I bought a plate stand so that it can stand up too, as the earrings make it difficult to hang.

Beanie with ear flaps

I was house sitting last week and not much else to do so I crocheted this beanie for my friend for her birthday...which is in June. But that's good in a way because it's the middle of summer right now and a present of a beanie may be seen as a little weird...or inappropriate, or both. Anyway, once it gets to winter, because she's working in a country vet practice, she will no doubt be assisting calvings at hours of the morning which really shouldn't exist, and as such something to keep her ears warm will surely come in handy.


Beanie 

I used the pattern from here but
reduced the number of rows increasing (I'm not sure how many I ended up with because I had to undo a few after I made it too big) because I was using thicker yarn and just used 2 yarns. I also only used double crochet for the green and single for the brown.

Panta

I had some left over yarn from my skinny scarf and decided to make a matching panta.


Panta 

I used the pattern posted on crafster by askaboutrpickles located here but reduced the chain to 60 then did 8 sc, 12 hdc and 20 dc in each row until I ran out of yarn.

'Pug' toilet roll holder

Well this is a bit hideous isn't it?

I was attempting to make a toilet roll holder that looked like a pug. Basically it doesn't, it just looks like a half crazed bear thing with really big eyebrows.

Anyway, it was supposed to be a joke housewarming present for one of my friends who likes pug's(she's moving in March, I just don't have much else on at the moment) and I guess it will stay that as I'm not going to use it and I would have gotten her something else too. Hopefully she gets the joke!


Pug toilet roll holder 

To make the actual toilet roll holder I used the pattern from here.

Ears: (make 2) Chain 7
Row 1 - 3: sc in 2nd st, sc to end, ch 1, turn
Row 4: 5 dc in 3 sc, sc in 6 sc. FO
Join to head, then fold and sew as you wish and embroider edges with darker wool.

Eyes: (make 2) Use half a ping pong/table tennis ball and make holes around the edge. Sew on and chain around border. Draw in pupil and any light reflections.

Face: Sc where you wish fold lines to be, then embroider over.

There you have it, you too can make an embarrassing and ugly gift for a friend.

Skinny Scarf

I bought some yarn on special after Christmas and made this lovely scarf with it from the pattern at Interweave Crochet. Initially I made it far too long, as I just made a chain until I thought it was long enough, and then it stretched a bit, so unfortunately I had to restart it, but it was worth the effort.

The yarn is a mixture of red, orange and a pinky-purple colour and so it contains all the colour of the sunset, so I've named the scarf 'Sunset'.



Skinny scarf 

ipod Cozy

My sister got an ipod nano for Christmas (lucky thing) and didn't want to spend $50 on an arm band style holder, so I said I'd make one for her.


ipod cozy for my sister 

It's mainly made from felt, with clear plasticy material from a pocket on a sleeping bag holder over the screen and wheel. There is a bead and some elastic for the headphone holder and it's held together on her arm with velcro, although if I had to do it again I'd do it like the velcro shoe tie things where you pull one end to tighten it, because it's a little hard to tighten on your arm.