Craft Schmaft

Now that Kirsty has her name badge I can do the full reveal… ta dah…!!

The name part of the badge can be removed so that Kirsty can just use it as a brooch after SIT. Oh, I hope she likes it.

I’m working on some teeny tiny bunting this week for Franklin’s christening decorations/cake. You might remember the bunting from the balloon mobile.

Well I thought I’d just make a big stack of it to string up around the place and to go around his cake. I found these cute little adhesive letters that I  might put his name in too. This is the perfect project for sew it together next weekend – once I have the little triangles cut out expect to see me threading away all day (that is if I stop talking long enough to manage any actual crafting!). I’m thinking of going with white and natural colours although I may just be tempted to put in a little blue as well.

After a little hiccup in delivery of my bamboo birdies, they’ve finally arrived. I have to tell you that it’s such a thrill to open something that you designed on the computer (see the design back here) and see it in all it’s physical world glory! The cutest thing is that they just pop right out of the bamboo sheet, all perfectly lasered.

There’s a few things I’d change for next time but overall I’m loving the birdies.

So my SIT badge will be finished and posted to it’s owner today and I’ll post pics of the final version on the weekend.I also did a few other little shapes for brooches that I’m thinking of putting in the SIT swap. Is it cheating to swap brooches rather than something you’ve stitched? Perhaps a few little owls will have to be whipped up instead.

It looks like we’re going to stay in our lovely rented house for a while – no sign of anything we want to buy and the thought of moving house again so soon fills me with dread. So I’ve decided that my boys need their rooms decorated. There’s a million other things I should be doing, like tax and the next load of washing, but room decorating is so much more fun, isn’t it? Starting with the big kid I’ve been thinking about a space room. His obsession with Buzz Lightyear continues so off I went in search of star and space fabric for a doona/duvet cover. I had planned to applique a rocket ship and maybe get some planets going in there too. Then I stumbled on what I have to say is the coolest boy fabric I’ve seen in a long time. Check out this superhero goodness!!!

It really is hard to find cool boy fabric so this is an absolute find. It’s by a German designer Susanne Firmenich. Not only do I love it but the big kid is even more obsessed with superheros than he is buzz. My morning kindy bag packing consists of water bottle, spare clothes. comfort toy and cape. You don’t even want to know about the tears if I forget the cape! So I can’t believe I didn’t think of a superhero bedroom before.

To go with the new bed I’m thinking of getting some hooks up on the wall to hold capes above his new super hero shoes (black trainers) and the new range of masks I’m making him. Another great find and all thanks to my new favourite fabric store, Spoonflower. Spoonflower lets you create designs and upload them to be printed onto fabric. You can create your own or buy other people’s designs and it’s all just printed on demand. Genius. It’s the democratisation of textile design. God I love the internet, but you already knew that.

Ok I’m babbling – here’s the mask fat quarter by Jenimp that you can buy ready to be whipped up into masks.

Have to go, the big kid is yelling at me to come play with him.

Look what arrived in the post, so cute! Hand crafted by Sara of Willow and Moo. The detailing in the embroidery is amazing, thanks so much Sara, I love it.

I’m still waiting for my bamboo birdie brooch to arrive from ponoko. They tell me it’s on it’s way and as soon as it’s here I’ll be popping the cross stitched name on and sending it off to it’s rightful owner.

Not long to go now before Sew It Together, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen all the crafty laydeez and I struggle at the moment to read everyone’s blog. Seriously, where does the time go? So I can’t wait for a big old gossip session with you all and please forgive me if I’m way behind on what everyone has been up to!

I gave Frankie his first owl this week. Here’s what he thought of it…

This morning I snuck in a little cross stitch for the Sew It Together name badge swap. I found a whole world of fancy free cross stitch alphabets on the interweb but went with a very simple block alphabet.I haven’t cross stitched in such a long time, it was really quite medatative… at least it was until the sick 3 yr old hadn’t started screaming about which bit of Toy Story he wanted to watch next.  Still I managed to multi task remote duty and crewel needle and finish off the name. Result! Next I just have to get my badge design through ponoko’s upload checker but that, my friends, is a task for a time when little ones are in bed.

This new little owl kit has made it to the store just in time for the Craft Schmaft sale which starts today.

30% off everything in store, just enter the code THIRTYOFF at checkout.

I spent some time revamping the store today – it’s not quite as pretty but I think it will be easier for you lovely peeps to find things. Which is just as well because from midday tomorrow I’m having a 30% off sale, storewide. You heard it here first sista.

http://craftschmaft.bigcartel.com

Ahhh yes, I know, it’s been a long time between posts. The thing is that I’m finding life gets in the way of my blogging these days. In fact, life is getting in the way of my crafting too. I seem to spend all my time doing little chores rather than being creative. There was a great article in the Sun Herald Life supplement on the weekend about our daily lives being so filled with little chores – like email – that when we’re supposed to be working nothing meaningful gets done. It seems that the real work, and the best creativity, happen in stolen moments, when we least expect it. And that, my friends, is exactly what happened with me this weekend.

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I’m off to Sew It Together in March and the Snailblazer swap that I’ve signed up for and the name badge swap have provided me with a crafty purpose and a deadline. I’m one of those people who works best under pressure.  While I have dreams of being the chilled out yoga babe who takes life in her stride and is supremely organised, I am in fact a queen of chaos, creativity,  and adrenalin. I’m sure those who know me have known this forever but having kids  has highlighted my need for playing, making, exploring new things, raving about it like a lunatic to anyone who’ll listen and above all else deadlines.

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In the spirit of all this I’ve started my SIT name badge. I could whip this up in a couple of hours out of felt but I’ve been dying to try out ponoko, a making system where you upload designs and they make them in 2D/3D for you. The fact that there are 3D printers out there really blows my mind… you can design something, like a vinyl toy,  in 3D and it comes out of a printer. Incredible. So for the badge I’m designing a bamboo bird brooch to hold a little cross-stitched name sign. Originally I had designed a little owl but, to be honest, I’m a bit tired of owls. I’m feeling quite inspired by the 60s at the moment and I wanted something a bit more… um… flippant? Anyway, the beauty of this is that after SIT, the new owner can remove the name and just use it as a brooch (if she even remotely likes it).

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Here’s where the designs are so far…

P.S. Sorry about the raving, once I started writing this post I realised how much I’ve missed blogging. Note to self that I must blog more often to avoid extended navel gazing and rambling tendencies.