Ribbon Storage

I have a craft cupboard under the stairs which is by no means big enough to hold all my crafting goodies (I also have under my bed for material, & draws & boxes in the lounge). When they are box up I can never remember what ribbons I have and they frequently get tangled, so I set up a "washing line" behind the door in my cupboard where I can peg up my ribbons. I can now see them clearly and get hold of them easily.

As you can see some of the pegs have been decorated, in time I hope to get them all covered, just so it'll look nice. There is still plenty of washing line left so I can make this even bigger as my ribbon collection expands, as I'm sure it will.

Plaited Bead Headband

I bought a plaited bead headband from primark as I wanted the beads. Having used the beads I needed I had loads left and decided to put together my own.

I took 5 strands of strong thread, long enough to go round my head, minus 2.5 inches and knotted them together.

I then threaded beads onto each of them

& plaited them together (1st thread on the right goes over the 3rd from the right, 1st thread on the left goes over the 3rd thread from the left, repeat until complete), then tie the ends.

I took a piece of elastic 2.5 inches long and attached some double sided tape to each end, and stuck the tied beaded ends to it.

I then wrapped more double sided tape around it, and then ribbon to hide it.

Then the only thing left is to wear it

Pulling my hair back...

Just under my hair (what seems to be the latest fashion, though I really dont think it suits me.

Or in the 1970's over the hair way.

How to make a Fabric Beaded Necklace

I couldnt find a necklace to suit the dress I'd made, so I decided to use the left over fabric to cover some beads.

Primark has some great large bead necklaces at the moment so I picked one of a similar colour to the material I wanted to use. I snipped the thread near the fastening and took off all the beads. The beads have lovely large holes, making the whole process easier.

I started with the largest and cut a rectangle of material that would cover it.

I then glued a hem on it, and trickled a trail of glue across the material

Then rolled the bead on it, with the glue going along the centre of the bead.

I then snipped the edges as shown in the diagram.

Glue the bead and then tuck the edges into the hole, you can always snip them at this point if they are too long, and a knitting needle or similar helps to tuck them into the hole.

As you can see you dont need to tuck all the edges in, as long as the hole is free, and the bead fairly neat.

Repeat on both sides. Leave to dry. To finish off the beads you can give a coat of varnish or glue to ensure no ends come free or fray.
Finally I choose which beads I wanted to re-thread.

And the necklace was complete.

Cooking to a timetable

When I'm cooking a large, special meal, such as Christmas or Easter I tend to get a lil OTT with planning. I dont like leaving anything to chance so start by writing in rough all that I'll be cooking and what timescale each takes. This then leads onto a timeline of jobs to do through out the morning so that each item should be cooked at the right time


I then set alarms to remind me (you know what its like when you get into crafting or something ;)
At the moment I am using my iphone as I can set several alarms with notes with each but before that I would set an alarm clock and alter the time for the alarm to go off each time it rang.
I keep the sheet with the timeline on and if something isnt cooked right I make a note on it, such as if the roast carrots arent soft enough I make a note to either make them smaller, or par boil them for longer. This is then used in reference the next time I make a similar roast.

Its a constant process of improvement

And heres what this list led to, our Easter Roast :)

Starting out using beads

Starting out with any new craft can be expensive, especially when you dont know if your going to be any good at it or even enjoy it, so I always look out for cheap alternatives. Buying beads is one of those crafts that can get very expensive, depending on what beads etc you buy, so to start off I have been looking out for cheap beads. The other day in poundland I found some very long necklaces. I checked that the beads werent attched to the wire thread, merely threaded onto it. They were so I grabbed 3 to have a play with.

The quality of most of the beads definately arent upto that of glass beads, and they feel different as well, lighter and not as cold. Some of them (such as the blue) are wooden and are very nice quality. They will give me something to play with, to create new designs and get a feeling for jewellery making. If I dont end up enjoying it I havent lost much money on it, and I can always use them in other projects.

So tuesdays tip is, keep you eyes open in other shops for cheaper alternatives when your just getting started.

Promarker Tip

Sometimes it can be quite annoying that you pick up a Promarker, use it and it isnt the shade you expected it to be. This is even more so when you have several colours that are similar (such as the skin tones). I use a sticky dot system, its simple and effective.

When I got a new promarker I colour in 2 sticky dots with it, I then stick one onto the other and pop it onto the flat edge on the lid. One sticker wont do it, the black of the cap makes the colour appear darker so layers is needed. I colour both in so if I dont put the sticker exactly on top of the other theres no white edges.



I can quickly see which one I want.....

....especially as I keep my promarkers in a ferrero rocher box.

To verify or not verify, that is the question.

I asked last month at the end of this post what you liked/disliked on blogs, and the main thing that kept re-occurring was word verification. People really dislike it, myself included. Its meant to stop "bots" posting on your blog but it can also stop others posting comments as well. If you make people jump through hoops, even one or two some of them will get fed up & give up, & you lose a valuable comment. (all comments are valuable, its great to have feedback and shows you what is & is not working on your blog).


So have a lil think, do you need word verification on your blog? I have all comments emailed to me automatically, and on average check my email twice a day at least. Any spam that might get posted can then be deleted. I have only ever received four spam messages, and thats in about a year, 3 of those were before I removed word verification so it doesnt seem to be a preventative, more of an annoyance.


Today I will show you how to turn word verification off, as well as how to have comments emailed to you. Its very simple


Go to your Dashboard and select "Settings", then "Comments"

Close to the bottom of the page it says "show word verification for comments, yes, no"
Choose the one you want to do.

At the very bottom of this page it says "comment notification email", if you want to receive an email every time you get a comment then fill your email address in here

I hope this helps someone, or at least makes you think :)

Capturing ideas on your digi camera.

I find the camera on my mobile invaluable when it comes to remembering ideas I've seen - its only a 2megapixels but thats enough to remind me. Its almost always on me and is less bulky (& obvious) than my digital camera.

So when walking around and I spot someting I want to have a go at, or I like how certain colours go together **click** its on my mobile, shhhh, if its somewhere I shouldnt be taking piccies I pretend I'm sending/checking a text message. I also make visual shopping lists/pressie ideas for my family so can use this as an excuse as well.

A card I liked the idea of and plan to do something similar (I know its sideways, thats the way I held the phone, lol)
I saw these where my sister was staying for a few weeks & thought they were a fab idea, a fairy caught in a jar! so quick **click** and a little reminder on my phone.
This was in a book I was flicking through & I loved the colours (well, colour) especially as an all blue page would bring out my eldest sons stunning blue eyes.
At the NEC a couple of cards I liked the style of.

And finally a pair of shoes I noticed while shopping for kids clothes. I loved the pattern on them and hope to create something similar.

SO my tip this tuesday is to make the most of your digi camera, whether its on your phone or a normal one, to save those ideas that you can see anywhere.

Scrapbooking #fail

So today I was all ready to do a new layout, I knew what I wanted to do, had all the embellishments etc ready to go, was just printing out the photos when, horror upon horror, the ink ran out!!! I have sent the troops out to get more .... but as of yet they have gone AWOL.



So instead I thought I'd tell you about what has helped me this year the most when it comes to scrapbooking...
...it is my Scrap Journal.

Its just a recovered diary, but every time I take a picture, that evening I sit down with the Scrap Diary, turn to that date and write in what the photo is about, what it represents and any funny, quirky & as much detail as possible. This way when I come to do a scrapbook page I can turn to the page linked to it and the memories come flooding back, even the little things that I might even forget the next day, like a funny little comment, are all written down.

Sometimes I can copy it straight out and use for the journalling.

My memory is awful, and this way I dont need to worry about it.

Do you have a trick to remembering whats in the photo? or do you have a good memory and dont need to take notes?

3d Flowers

Tip Tuesday will sometimes be a quick tip, other times a tutorial.

Today I'd like to show you how I made the flowers on my Butterflies layout.

Start off with punched flowers, for the small ones I use 3 all the same size, for the larger flowers I punch out 2 largers ones as well. You can also cut these out by hand.
Make a solution of 1 part pva or tacky glue, and 4 parts water, then dip the flowers in there.

After they are thoroghly wet place them on some kitchen roll or tea towel so remove excess liquid.
Take something such as this embossing tool and glide it along each petal so they curve downwards, you could even gently curl the petal round it to get an even stronger shape. Be careful though as the petals will be delicate due to being wet. You can also do this after they have dried to add more shape.

Place the flower over a rolled up ball of foil, patterned side down, and dry with a hair dryer or heat tool.

For the flower being used for the centre scrunch this around the foil before drying . You can also do this afterwards as well if necessary to give more shape.

Put a small amount of glue to stick all 3 pieces together.

How to auto post at a specific time & date

Setting your blog to post at a specific time and date is soooooo easy.


First of all you need to check your blog settings to see if they are at the right time zone..

So on your blog dashboard got to "settings", and then click on the "Formatting" tab

Then scroll down to Time Zone & alter if necessary.

Go write your post, and when you finish, before you save it click on Post Options at the bottom left of the box

A box comes down. On the right its says Post date & time, type in the time and date you want your blog post to be posted.

Finally click publish post, all done!!!

Talk of Change .....

I have to admit that I have been a little despondent about my blogs and my crafty pieces lately, lacking a bit of confidence, so I've decided to spend a little bit of time on them and try focusing my craft blog. So, starting monday, what have I got planned .......

Mmm....mondays:
Mondays are about food, something I've recently cooked, tried out, or a recipe I've come up with/tweaked. On occassion it'll be a recipe I want to try, or a display, such as a cake, that just wows me.

Tip Tuesday:
On Tuesdays I shall be giving away tips that have helped me out, or maybe a tutorial on crafting, and sometimes blogging.

Want to make Wednesdays:
An item, tutorial or some other inspiration I've seen that I want to make or try out.

Papercraft Thursday:
Maybe a card, a box or anything else created out of paper. Sometimes a tutorial, sometimes just showing off what I've made.

Free Choice Friday:
I dabble in a lot of crafts, On fridays I will post items that dont fit into other sections.

Scrapbook Saturday
A way to try & get me scrapbooking on a weekly basis, I have a LOT of photos, and am always adding to them so need to keep going at this, so not only is it motivational but also shows you what I've been upto.

Sewing Sunday:
I keep meaning to sew, wether its just repairs or make something new, I just dont get round to it so now I must ;)
Sundays will be about showing you what I've made, or where I've got up to. Sometimes it'll be a tutorial on how I made something, other times it could be showing what I want to make, or a free pattern I've found.

So thats the plan anyway, there will be other things included as well such as blog hops, or something linked to a specific occassion.

The layout is also going to change slightly, so what I'd like to know from you is what do you like to see on a blog? what do you hate (I really dislike having to type in verification codes, choose a profile etc when posting a comment, I'd like to post a comment, not jump through hoops!)?