OperationChristmasChild

One of my favourite charities is Operation Christmas Child.  I think I have as much fun filling the shoe boxes as the children do opening them.

This year I got a bit carried away making hats as I have knitted 16 beanie hats and 3 crochet ones. 

Here are a few of the knitted hats.  I used a lot of Patons Fab as I love to watch the way the multicolour patterns emerge.  It's great value too as House of Fraser are selling it for just £1.60 per 100g.  One ball will make three hats.

 

I also like to crochet this cute girl's hat.  It takes me about an hour whilst watching TV.  It's done in a circle so has no seams to sew.

I designed a small bag to go with one of the hats.  It's a great way to use the novelty buttons I have had for years.  These buttons are two wrapped sweets from a Halloween set.

I also knitted some cute purses that are just big enough to hid a small box of crayons.  I will share a photo later as blogger will not upload it at the moment.

 

Hope you are having a nice day.  I have to take the cat to the vet for a check up later and all I can say is she doesn't travel well!?!?!  Wish me luck.

 

Anne x

MemoryLane
A few weeks ago we spent a lovely morning in Ross-On-Wye.  Paul went to an autojumble - bit like a car book sale for car parts - and I had a mooch round the shops.  It's a really lovely shopping centre full of lots of lovely independent shops and perfect for buying small gifts.

In the afternoon we took a trip down memory lane to Monmouth.  We used to go every month when we lived in Wales.  I haven't been back for about 15 years so it was interesting to see what had changed and what was still the same.  Lovely town but mainly the same shops as any other town.

Here is a layout I made of the photos I took of the main street in Monmouth.  I was pleased to see they still had a tiny market.  The layout is from Shimelle's UKScrappers series called 'and now for something completely different'  This is her August layout.  UKScrappers is free to join and this class is free too.  As far as I know you don't have to be in the UK to join.

UKScrappers are having a birthday celebration with lots of free classes and an on-line crop.  I'm in the Scolars group and decided to purchase the mystery kit.  The contents are gorgeous and I will do a blog post, after the deadline, with details of what I make.  For now the contents are top secret.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Anne x

MoxleyCrop

Each month I love attending the Moxley Crop.  Lisa and Debs who run it are so lovely and put so much thought and effort into the day.  This Saturday it was a Halloween themed day.  The crop meet in a small hall near Wolverhampton, on the first Saturday in the month.  Please let me know if you are interested in joining and I will send you more information.

We also have the option to buy kits from Total Paper Crafts.   This is my finished double page using one of our October kits.  The photos are of the baby monkeys at a nearby monkey forest.

Here is a closer look at each page.  Can you see the tiny monkey on the back of the adult?

This is a photo of me showing how the monkeys are free the walk anywhere they like.  Humans have to keep to the paths.

 

 

 I hope you are having a lovely weekend.  I need to get off this pc and do some crafting.

Anne x

DrawingInMyArtJournal

It took a bit of juggling, but at last I could visit my Yorkshire relatives at the same time as Kate Crane held a workshop at Art From The Heart in Harrogate.  Great you might think, but just one tiny snag - Yikes!?! it's a drawing workshop!?!  Oh well never mind I thought I can manage to draw a few houses - like on her DVD...

Well to cut a long story short we didn't draw houses, instead we had a great time drawing faces.  Some of the class were so good that they could teach drawing faces!  Here is my first attempt at a free hand drawn face.  It can't be too bad, because even my mum liked it.  I know it's a bit unfinished but I've decided to leave it as it is.

The saying comes from a random page in an old book and says 'Mr Banks wondered why it was that every time he discovered an attractive woman Mrs Banks said her hair was dyed.'

Here is a closer look - please be kind, I know her eyes are a bit scary in bright blue and that she looks rather sad.  Next time I will try giving her a fringe and put the pink bits in her ears.

The background is a Kate style arylic painted page - I discovered I need to use way more white than I expect to get a nice blend.  I also used Dylusion stamps and stencils, and a few coloured pencils.

 

Now I'm selling off the family silver ready for the next time I'm 'Up North'. - hahaha!  Just joking.  Seriously if you get chance to take one of Kate's classes you will be in for a treat.

 

Have a lovely day.  Anne x

BagsOfFun

The knitting bug has struck again.  So while I've been watching TV each evening I have also been knitting lots of colourful charity jumpers and hats. 

I fancied knitting something else so when The Little Knitting Company asked on FaceBook for sample knitters for a Create and Craft TV show I thought why not.  Then I got the kit.  I immediately loved the cotton tape yarn but the pattern - yikes!  Cables I remember how to do but bobbles...no idea!

I had a practice with some scrap yarn and got the bobbles on the second attempt - read the pattern carefully Anne - LOL! 

I love the finished result but know that if I'd bought this I would have given up after the easy iPod holder. So it was a lesson in how not to give up because the yarn is too nice and I might spoil it!

Here is the finished bag along with the phone holder and iPod holder. 

 This is my iPad modelling the bag.

Finally here is a close up of the stitches.  The colour is a lovely gold and much nicer than it looks here or on TV.  I think it was the mustard option.  It was odd seeing it on TV and knowing I knitted it.  Hopefully it will return here one day to keep my iPad warm on these cold winter nights.

Anne x

SmileRoundRobin

In January I sent off my circle journal out into the big wide World - well mainly round Wales - but you get the idea.  Here is a link to my introductory pages.  Now it's back in all it's gorgeousness, the swap is over, so  I can share the pages I made in everyone journals.

My first page uses Dylusion stamps and some discontinued printout houses.  I paper pieced all the leaves using paper I had painted and inked.

The lovely quote is "There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it"

As usual I had no idea what to do for page two.  The theme of trees was a bit of a challenge for me, so I decided to do a scrapbook page of the bluebell woods at the end of our road.

The next page used lovely paper from my monthly kit.

I think this was my favorite theme as it was the easiest!

I used my silhouette to cut the title.

Also used my silhouette to cut buckets.  The jars are from American crafts.

My current passion is making yoyo flowers.  I didn't like them when I was a quilter, but they look lovely on scrapbook pages.  Very easy just cut a circle of cotton fabric, do a running stitch near the edge (don't turn under a hem or it will be too bulky) pull up the thread and attach a button.



The quote is "Flowers that bloom in the Springtime, fade in the early fall. But the lovely flower of friendship, never fades at all."

Here is a close up of the flowers.

I keep using my favorite papers for this swap and I love the Graphic 45 background flying pigs paper as it is so quirky.

This time I used the flower border I was saving for a wedding page.

I doodled the song words between the rows of music.

I bought the heart in Aberystwth for a wedding page, but had to use it here as it looked a bit plain without.  Guess who bought the set of six types of wood shapes from Create and Craft?!?!?

Here is a close up of the figures made using a Tim Holtz die and Dylusion stamps.

I love the saying and it is so true of my friend Sara.

Finally a close up of my metal flower heart.  I'm still looking for another one, but so far the only one I've found was bigger.

This swap was great fun and really challenging.  It helped me use up lots of new papers and things I would likely have kept as they are 'too nice to use'.

 

I've been taking the tiles off the wall in the bathroom and chopping down bushes in the garden.  I think I must have a destructive gene as it's great fun and I can't wait for the rain to stop so that I can fill up the green bin, with my latest victims, yet again.

 

Have a lovely week, Anne x