Etsy shop now open for biz

Apologies for lack of posts over the last year...I've been beavering away designing some pretty new prints (among other things) which can now be purchased through my Etsy shop.  You see these and more in the shop which I've just updated, ideal for home and nursery wall art.  Hope you like them!!

Give Nana's ornaments a facelift

You've seen them before - the forlorn looking ornaments gracing the shelves of pretty much every charity shop.  Give those ornaments a new home and a new lease of life with this super quick tutorial I made for Craft Candy.

Toilet roll craft pinatas

Who knew loo rolls could be so cute!  I made this tutorial for Craft Candy who are celebrating their birthday this month.    Instead of being filled with sweets, these pinatas are filled with crafty treated instead.

Build a little birdhouse in your soul...

"Not to put too fine a point on it, Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet, Make a little birdhouse in your soul"...

Here's a little DIY cardboard and pom-pomy birdhouse demo which will surely cheer up your soul (Please note, any bibliophiles watching this video and cringing at the book being cut up - it was already damaged!) 

DIY: Pom pom twigs

Another quick tutorial I did for Craft Candy recently, simply using pom pom fringing, a splash of paint, some twigs I picked up in the park and my favourite craft tool of choice - the glue gun.  

Flashback: Helen Musselwhite

I first found Helen Musselwhite's work back in 2010, and wrote about her intricate paper cut creations on this blog.  I have recently seen her creations cropping up on Pinterest a lot lately and wanted to show her current work to you all again, in case you missed it first time round.

Helen lives just south of Manchester and takes a lot of her inspiration from the countryside round there which is obvious from her work which feature lots of British flora and fauna.  Helen has been busy since I last featured her and her work has been used on many magazine covers and advertising campaigns, including Audi, Cadbury and Nokia and also window designs for Stella McCartney and Smythson.  

I love to read about people making a living from something they LOVE doing, which is sadly a bit of a rarity in this day and age.  You can see how much care and attention goes into her work and its lovely to read on her website that ..'I think it’s simply that I love doing this so much I can get totally lost in what I’m doing and the time passes by without me noticing. I’m at my happiest when I’ve nearly finished a piece that I’ve been really caught up in – sometimes I feel quite bereft when I’ve finished them!..'

DIY round-up: height charts

Do you remember standing up as straight and tall as you possibly could while your mum or dad marked off your height on the family chart, willing yourself to be a whole 3 or 4 inches taller than the year before?  I do, and although I've never made it past 5ft tall I was always excited to see my progress on the tattered giraffe growth chart.   Here are some creative ways to create height charts that look pretty on display all year round with the added bonus of being able to take them with you if you move house:

Burlap Chart

Measuring tape

This measuring tape by Variations on Normal was made and used as a diary, but you could do the same thing for a height chart.

  
Giant ruler

Trending: Pom poms

Traditionally, pom-poms were simple creations made by children but they seem to be having a bit of a grown-up renaissance at the moment.  Pom-poms are being turned into all manner of homewares and used to decorate clothing and accessories and have recently been seen on the catwalk too.  Join the trend by adding these fluffy delights to scarves and blankets, turn them into garlands, poufs or necklaces and even make chandeliers from them.  Have you jumped onto the pom-pom train yet?  

Pom-pom fashion

Pom-pom pouf

Pom-pom scarf

Pom-pom garland

Pom pom chair

Pom-pom flowers

Pom-pom chandelier

Trending: Weaving

I remember the first time I was introduced to weaving.  I was 9 years old in craft class and our teacher, Mrs Sayer, gave us each a yoghurt pot with 5 or 6 cuts made vertically down the pot to its base.  She gave us some little balls of wool to weave in and out of the pot slits and once finished it was offered to our Mums as a Mother's Day gift.  I can't say it was my finest work, but I remember it was lots of fun.

It seems weaving is having a bit of a renaissance if Pinterest is anything to go by and I'm a big fan of this contemporary take on a very traditional craft.

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Flashback: Su Turno

I first featured Su Turno back in 2009, after I found their products on etsy and fell for their surface pattern design.  SuTurno was founded in Madrid by Julia Vergara and Javier Gutierrez Bayo who work on different design areas and media (fashion, interiors, graphics…).  When I revisited their work recently, I was struck not only by the quality of their design but also by the incredible photography.  But after reading more about their day jobs (they have worked in projects for international clients such as Marc by Marc Jacobs and Zara Home to name a few) I can see why the quality is so strong.  Running SuTurno, their personal projects are carefully crafted in limited numbers by local artisans, combining quality natural materials and striking prints. 

All images from Su Turno website

Best of the Blogs: Wit and Whistle

A new find for me, Wit & Whistle is a lovely blog written by Amanda Wright who also has a wonderful online shop full of beautifully designed stationery, tea-towels and homewares.  A mix of DIY ideas, scrumptious looking recipes, snapshots of her work as an illustrator mixed in with lot of lovely shots.  She has a real knack of evoking the seasons with her posts too and it's a nice blog to read to relax.

DIY Round-Up: Dolls Houses

My baby girl is growing up so quick.  She's almost 2 and already loves pretending to cook me dinners of play dough and 'looking after' her baby dolly (this usually involves giving it milk before hurling it on the floor, or grabbing it by the head and shoving it roughly into the mini pram upside down) and I guess it might not be long before she might be interested in having her own dolls house.  But have you seen how much they cost?! A bomb, is the answer.  So here are a few creative ideas to DIY an imaginative dolls residence fit for a child to explore and will save you a few quid at the same time.

The pretty cupboard dollhouse

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The bookcase dollhouse

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The suitcase dollhouse

The cardboard box dollhouse

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Ok, so this one isnt a DIY idea but I do love it - Dual purpose - a coffee table for the grown ups and a mid-century modern dolls house for the kids.

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Trending: Shibori

I keep seeing shibori in my Pinterest feed. It originates from Japan and refers to several methods of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, compressing it, or capping. Some of these methods are known in the West as tie-dye. It seems a world away from the multicolor tie-dye experiments I used to try as a teenager.  I just shuddered remembering a pair of horrendous patchwork tie-dye trousers I owned aged about 17.  Worn tucked into Doc Martens they seemed to be all the rage, though I've since asked friends from other parts of the country whether they were aware of such a trend, and no-one knows what I'm on about, so I guess it must have been a very local (Cumbrian) trend!  Maybe if my trousers had been made from shibori fabric in the beautiful bold blues you see below, I could have started a national trend.  I've completely fallen for Rebecca Atwood's cushions below, the combination of linen and blue shibori is just perfect.

Rebecca Atwood

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Image from Kinfolk

Image from Kinfolk

via Designsponge

Etsy

Flashback: Tas-Ka

Now there are over 500 posts on this blog, I thought I would re-visit some old posts and see what those people are up to these days.  I originally did a short post about Tas-ka back in 2008 here, I was interested to see what they are up to now.  Well, they now have have a brick and mortar shop in Den Haag, Netherlands and are still stocking well chosen products like the wonderful Marimekko teapot below.  They design their own fabric which you can buy online too.  I love all their designs but my favourite is the last image.