31 October, 2011

Gifts gifts gifts... handbag for a special friend

I went away this last weekend with a group of lovely ladies. After the week I'd had it was a very welcome getaway. We celebrated the birthday of a friend who is becoming quite dear. She is quite precious and needed a special gift to match.

Here's her gift...

The fabric is a really thick weave linen. It's totally gorgeous!!
This is the lining fabric



So... happy birthday Faff!! You're one in a trillion!! Love you!! :)

Kerryn

26 October, 2011

helium balloons and felt teeth and ice packs... oh my!!

Today's 'just because' gift is one that makes me giggle. My brother has just had some of his wisdom teeth removed, poor guy!! I absolutely HATE the dentist (sorry to any dentists reading this, I'm sure you really are nice people... ;). My brother has been dreading these few appointments so I thought I'd make something special for him to come home to. My brother has a terribly funny sense of humour so I was really able to go all out on his gift. I decided to make him a cover for a ice pack with felt teeth and blood drops dripping off one of the roots of the teeth. Hee hee hee...

Here it is...

I've put some snaps on the end so that the cover can be removed
Sorry to my mother-in-law and all you expert embroiderers out there. I've only had one lesson in embroidery and I couldn't be bothered doing it properly... so... it's a bit 'rustic' ;)
with the ice pack
I also bought him a set of replacement teeth

Here it is on his doorstep with a helium balloon chosen by Lachie. This is actually the second balloon that we bought. The first one got popped 15 minutes after we got home from a very stressful trip to the balloon shop. And yep... I cried!! Not sure if it's better or worse to cry over a popped balloon as opposed to spilt milk?!?!? Hmmm... lots of child related stress at our place at the moment. Anyway, blah blah blah...
Ok, hope you like this random little project. Know someone who needs to be cheered up?? Why not go out and buy a helium balloon?? I am a firm believer that anyone can be cheered up with a helium balloon. ;) Who cares their (or your) age... you're never too old for a helium balloon!!

See ya,

Kerryn

24 October, 2011

Gifts and bows...

After Adele's party I had a massive, unexpected, creative slump... but now I'm back into it again. Hoorah! I'm super excited to have made some progress into a few more of my Christmas gifts. Hoorah again! I've also been taking some time out to make gifts for people who need a bit of extra love. As i've mentioned before, I am so passionate about gift making and gift giving. One step better... making a gift for someone for no reason other than to let them know that they are loved, valued, precious and always in my thoughts and prayers. :) So this week i'll be making a few gifts... 'just because'. :)

The first gift i've made is a fabric covered art journal. I'd never done one before and am happy with the way it ended up. I took the whole book apart to cover it and then put it back together again. If you're keen for a tutorial then let me know and i'll see if I can get one together. :)

Anyway... here are some pics...

The purple fabric in real life is an awesome electric purple colour. It looks really drained of colour here. It's actually quite vibrant and delicious!! ;)


This is the opening page. The book is a little bigger than A4 so the lettering is quite large. I cut the lettering out with my big shot die cutting system. 'Hope' is in purple.

As mentioned last post I have made a little brooch to pin to Adele's new dress. I used one of the straps from my bargain top to make it and hot glued it onto a brooch back. So cute!

Here it is on the dress.
Ok, that's all for now! How about sending a card or gift to someone special today?? :)

Kerryn

21 October, 2011

A dress for Adele... 2 weeks late... :)

Well I've spent a lovely day sewing!! I love how creating gives you a chance to grab hold of a bit of joy and claw yourself back into the land of 'Happy'. :)

Today I made the dress that I wanted to make for Adele to wear to her party. 2 weeks late... as Lachie would say... "not to worry".

I am so in love with the fabric! It's part of Sarah Jane's, Children at Play range. Isn't it gorgeous!!!!!



I bought this top at Myer for $2!!! I saw it on the sale rack and couldn't go past it. I just knew it would come in handy for something. I cut the bottom off for the base of her dress. I also reused a few of the buttons for the back of her dress. There's still stacks left so lets see what else it comes in handy for... :)

See!! From $35 down to $2!!! Score!! :)

I LOVE the cute little buttons. :)

Isn't the fabric just divine!! :)
I am planning on making a little brooch to add to the top section of the dress for a little bit of extra colour and maybe a little bit of hair embellishment-y goodness... Hmmm... we'll see... :)

Ok, till next time...

Kerryn

14 October, 2011

Tutorial - Pinwheel and glass bottle decorations

Ok, as I mentioned in my last post, I used stacks of pinwheels for Adele's 1st party. If you missed my tutorial on how to make a basic fabric pinwheel then just click here.

Here is one way that I used my stash of pinwheels...

I used these babies as table decorations. Read on to find out how... :)
Supplies...

Pre-made pinwheels
bamboo skewers or wooden dowel
spray paint
polystyrene board
hot glue gun
variety of glass bottles
fabric scraps
sand

Ok... lets go...

Step 1 - stick your bamboo skewers or wooden dowel into the polystyrene board and spray paint. You'll probably need a few coats. Better to do lots of light coats than have one gluggy coat with lots of runs going down the skewer. :)


Step 2 - choose your bottles. I used  maple syrup bottle, Vietnamese dipping sauce bottle & boiled lollie bottles. Remove labels and any sticky residue. I used tea tree oil. Clean the bottles up and give them a spray paint.


Step 3 - tie some scrap fabric round the top to cover the screw top thread. This makes the bottle look less 'homemade'.



Step 4 - use your hot glue gun to glue the bamboo skewers to the back of your pinwheels.


 Step 5 - fill your bottles with sand and poke in your skewers with pinwheels...

Tada...



See you next time for my next pinwheel tutorial... :)

Kerryn

13 October, 2011

Tutorial - Fabric Pinwheels

Pinwheels... Is there anything more delightful?!?!? I must have made 1000 different type of pinwheels for Adele's party last weekend. I used them for the invitations, decorations, hair clips & cupcake toppers. So I thought I'd write a tutorial for a basic fabric pinwheel. This is my very first tutorial so please let me know if it's helpful. :)

So... here goes...

Supplies...

scrap fabric
fusible webbing
buttons
thread
needle
cardboard
iron
fabric scissors

My fave scraps and roll of fusible webbing
Step 1 - cut out a paper/cardboard square the size you want your pinwheel to be. I used a lot of different sizes so cutout a lot of different sized squares from 4cm by 4cm to 12cm by 12cm.


Step 2 - cutout a square of fusible webbing slightly larger than the size of the cardboard square you have chosen.


Step 3 - Fusible side down iron the webbing onto the wrong side of your fabric.


Step 4 - cut fabric out around the webbing.



Step 5 - peel paper backing off webbing. Webbing should be fully fused to the fabric.


Step 6 - Iron squares, webbing side down, onto wrong side of coordinating fabric.


Step 7 - get out your square pattern pieces and cut your squares.


Step 8 - cut 4 diagonal lines starting from each corner of the square and ending halfway to the middle (doesn't have to be too specific, so don't stress).

Step 9 - get your needle and thread out, it's time to sew. :) Tie a knot in the end of your thread and take your needle through the centre of the pinwheel. Start with one corner of the pinwheel. Take one of the points and sew it to the centre of the pinwheel.

Step 10 - Take your needle up through the centre of the pinwheel again, through the first point (this helps to anchor it down).

Step 11 - Repeat for point 2.

Step 12 - Repeat for point 3 and 4.

Step 13 - Sew your button to the centre.
Tada... a perfect pinwheel. :)

In the next few days I'm going to be putting up some more tutorials that use this basic pinwheel. So if you love these little babies and would like to use them on some sweet projects then pop back and have a look.

Here's a sneak peek...

hair clips
decorations

Pinwheel invites


Ok, I hope this helps. Happy pinwheeling... :)

Kerryn  

10 October, 2011

Sweets Adele's 1st Birthday party

Tim and I are so thankful for our two precious children and yesterday we celebrated ONE year of life with our sweet Adele. We have had some pretty average weather here in Sydney, Australia but we were blessed with a beautiful day! :)

I have been planning Adele's party for over 2 months. My theme and colours were decided when I found the most divine fabric online. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it... DIVINE!!! It went straight into my online cart... I bought the fabric from Hawthorne Threads which is an American based website. The fabric range is Children at Play  by Sarah Jane. So lovely!! :) After finding my fabric my theme was decided... Pennants and Pinwheels!! Hoorah! As for colours... Aqua, pinks and white. nice, clean and fresh... and most importantly not super girly!

I sourced a few other 'must haves' online and the rest was... well... handmade. :)

I am planning on posting tutorials and more detailed pictures for most of the things I have made. So take a look back in the next few weeks if you're keen for more details.

Ok... here's some pics...

THE table. It turned out just like i saw it in my head! Don't you love that!! :)
With food
Pinwheels in spray painted glass bottles and spray painted frames filled with some of my favourite fabric. :) 

I bought these gorgeous tiny buckets online for gift for the women. I added the pennants to match the theme of the party and filled the buckets with chocolate. :)

The 'lemonade stand' was one of my favourite parts of the party. My Mum and I made lemonade and I bought vintage bottles and paper straws. I love the 'lemonade' bunting too!! :) The box was an ugly folk art painted pine box which I took apart, sanded back and painted. The jug actually sat inside the box but I didn't get a pic of that.
I made some cute little fondant pinwheels for the cupcakes. :)
The cake! This was my 3rd different sized bunting and by far the cutest. So tiny! :) Tim actually iced the cake. I got a bit over it and he took over. How wonderful is he!! :)

She's excited! baby LOVES cake!! :)

Happy birthday sweet one!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this sweet girl!!

I made her a little pinwheel hair clip to go with her dress that I had made earlier. I also made these hair clips for all the girls who came to the party. More pics to come. :)

Me and my family! love THESE 3 people!!

I had to add this photo! We did the cake early so that we could let her go wild and get dirty... and she did. :)
Ok... so, I'd love to hear what you think of the party. It was 2 months in the making and over in 2 hours. Haha... so worth it. :)

Pop back soon for some more detailed pics and some tutorials.

See ya...

Kerryn