Author Archives: Crafty Kath

Recovery

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Well, this week I am recovering from my surgery.  So I’m working day-to-day depending on how I feel.

Typically in the times when I’ve been feeling rough I’ve been thinking about everything I’ve been making and having second thoughts about all my designs and ideas!  In particular I’m rethinking my makes for Bury Show at weekend.  I like my card design but I’m not sure it’s adventurous enough, so I might have to make something else.  The one causing me the most worry at the moment though is my knitted make.  It’s very different for me but I’m now sure it would class as a knit for a baby or toddler.  I don’t really have enough time to make something else though, so I shall stick to it and try to get it finished in time.

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I’ve also been thinking a lot about what I need to be making at the moment, mainly about thank you cards and gifts for the teachers at school.  Well it’s only four weeks to the end of term for my little one, so as I feel a little better today I have decided to make some apple cards for my daughter to send.  This year I’m going to add a little tag with the teacher’s name on.

Thank You Card

I can’t believe how fast this school year has gone. With all the health scares I feel like I’ve been out of it for quite a while. But now I’m recovering I can hopefully, put all the pain and discomfort behind me and we can have a fun packed sunny Summer – as long as the British weather decides to play nicely!

Well I had better get back to my apples, leaves and tags before school pick up.

Happy crafting
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Happy Father’s Day

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A very Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I hope no-one has forgotten and that you are all spending time with or thinking about your Dad on this day. It’s my Dad’s birthday as well, so we will be paying him a visit later.

Watch Dad

Watch Dad

Have a great day
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Christmas in June! Not me.

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Many crafters are thinking about Christmas already.  I’m afraid to say I’ve only got as far as thinking about it.  It’s just too hard to think about making Christmas cards, when we’ve finally got some warm weather!  I have made a decision to make some owl cards this Christmas, not sure how they will look in Christmas papers, but there’s only one way to find out!

So while I’m supposed to be busy making all my Christmas cards, I’ve actually been making my entries for the 72nd Bury Agricultural Show.  I think I’m only going to be entering two classes this year.  As I was awarded first prize in the card class last year, I have a tough act to follow.  I’ve made one card already, and have an idea for another, both quite different for me, so fingers crossed!

I’m also working on something for the knitted / crochet class.  This year it’s an item for a baby or toddler.  I haven’t placed in this section before as the standard is always high, usually won by an incredibly intricate item of clothing.  However, this year I’m going to try and show my knitting skills with lots of different stitches.  I might enter one of my crochet baby comforters too, depending on how I feel on the day!

I shall post some pictures when everything is completed and the judging done.  Here’s hoping for some more places this year.

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Happy crafting
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Summer’s arrived!

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Well I should have been recovering from my gallbladder operation this week, but after spending an entire day in a waiting room, it was cancelled.  So, after calming down I have been crafting to keep my mind occupied.

With the weather having taken a turn for the better too over the last few days, I’ve been able to do some crafting outside.  I’m afraid my knitting needles and crochet hooks have been set aside as my hands get too hot in the sun, so it’s been papercrafting all the way this week.

I’ve been thinking about different motifs to add to my cards and I’ve decided to make some owls.  I haven’t really explored this idea, short of knitting an owl last year and using a card kit to make some cards, but it’s been on my list of ideas for a little while.  Having been watching ‘Springwatch‘ on TV I have become a bit obsessed with wildlife and the owls seemed like the ideal way to bring wildlife into my crafting.

As I said I get a bit hot when knitting in the sunshine, and sewing isn’t one of my passions, but I do like the look of papercrafting with faux stitching.  I looked through my huge stash of papers and found some lovely vintage florals from Craftseller magazine and using some Creative Crafting World templates, I’ve put together a few owls.

P1020160I have half a braincell thinking about my card entry for this years Bury Show and I think I might use this owl for something different this year.  Maybe an owl shaped card?!

I’ve also made some little owls which I think I’m going to put on the thank you cards for my daughter’s teachers this year. I might even make some little felt owls to add to keyrings.  I shall see how much time I actually have before I commit to that one.  It might be apples as I have a few already made up.

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It hasn’t been just owls though, I’ve also made some little birds which I love making using up scraps of my favourite papers.  These really lend themselves to kraft card too.

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These birds have ben very popular with my daughter and she is very happy with her pens and pencils, designing her own.

So my craft space has been quite ornithological (easy for some to say) this week. Just shows you never know what will inspire you to craft!

Happy crafting
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Back to School

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Half Term is over already and we haven’t done half of the things we set out to do! We have had lots of fun and done some crafting at home as well as the decoupage at the library.

After a hectic start to the holidays we had a relaxing couple of days in the middle, where I caught up with my paperwork and we both did some making. This has ranged from lots of loom bands again (thanks to an activity at Rainbows) – pottery and drawing.

We had a clear out of a toy cupboard and found a pottery set that had only been partially used. So while I was busy making cards, my daughter was having fun playing with air drying clay.

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She made an uneven box with a lid, a candle holder and a dinosaur! Not a bad afternoon’s work.

It’s great now she’s getting older as she will do her own thing without wanting to do everything I’m doing. So we get to share the space and enjoy each other’s company, listening to the radio and singing along. I managed to make about 7 cards without her input or wanting everything I was using. It was a fun way to spend a very dull and miserable afternoon. So much for Summer!

She’s back at school now and enjoying all her different activities, while I get to crack on with my knitting and card-making. It’s certainly quiet around here!

Let’s hope we do get some sunshine and have something of a summer. I would like to do some outdoor crafting soon.

Happy crafting
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Half Term Crafting Fun

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I can’t believe that half term is almost over already. It’s gone so fast I’ve hardly had chance to sit down.

We haven’t done a huge amount of crafting yet as we’ve been on all of our visits with friends and family, and we are well and truly exhausted with all the walking around. But we had a great trip to Manchester yesterday visiting one of our favourite places, John Rylands Library. There’s usually something on there over the school holidays, and this time we found a decoupage class. It was in the traditional form of decoupage, using copies of some of the incredible collection from the library. We were provided with everything we could possibly need to decoupage a small trinket box however we liked.

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What a fabulous way to spend a few hours. We had great fun, considering my daughter is only 6 she concentrated for over 2 hours to make her box. It was ell past our normal lunch time when she finished. This is definitely a craft we will do more of at home. So I need to keep a look out for items to cover and stock up on pva glue!

Here’s my finished box. Very different from my daughter’s.

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Happy crafting
x

Half Term again!

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It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since the Easter holidays! Half Term certainly has come around fast.  So the burning question is, how do I fit some crafting into this week of hospital appointments, playdates and phonics screening revision?!

I don’t want to spend the entire week indoors doing phonics practice on the computer, so I’ve arranged a few trips out, one to Chatsworth and I’m going to combine a hospital appointment with a trio into Manchester.  We haven’t been into the city for some time so it will be a girls day out.  After the softplay centre visit and a birthday party that only leaves us with a couple of days to fill, ideal for some crafting – particularly if the weather forecasts are correct!

It would appear that my friend has saved the day and the arrival of belated birthday and Christmas presents for my daughter have reaped great crafting goodies – a doodle book, glitter pictures, painting by numbers and glitter pens!  Maybe this will be a fun messy crafting holiday!

Happy half term crafting
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A Look Back in Time

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I woke up this morning thinking about all the toys I used to make, wondering where I had put all the photographs of them. Mum and I spent a lot of time making toys for people about twenty years ago. It’s what really got me back into crafting after University. So I spent some time hunting out the old photo boxes today, which was a great opportunity to reminisce about my lost youth. It also gave my daughter a chance to have a laugh at my huge 80’s hair and glasses!

So I’ve scanned some of the pictures to show everyone what I used to make back in the day!

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I must have made about thirty of these octopuses over the years for friends and family members. If you’ve got one out there I’d love to see it now! My daughter has one in her bedroom that I made before she was born. In fact they have become a staple gift for all the new babies in the family!

I also made a lot of pierots and dolls for friends and colleagues. I believe one of these dolls was sent to Australia.

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It’s been fun hunting out these reminders, I may add more in the coming weeks.

Happy crafting
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Knitting!

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I haven’t done any knitting for ages and while I was looking through my knitting bag by the settee, I thought why not knit something for a change?! I normally knit in the winter, but it’s been so cold here recently that knitting has been really appealing to me.

I decided to have a real sort out of my craft room and found a pile of knitting patterns that I had forgotten about completely. I fancied making something different, but quick to make, and I came across a pattern for wrist warmers. Ideal for Spring and the current weather, and they don’t take up much yarn. An ideal project for using up some odd balls of yarn.

I started with a pair for me. I have a good stash of yarn, mostly double knit, and found some pure wool that I thought would be lovely to use. It knits up very easily and was so soft on my hands. (I was once told that lanolin occurs naturally in wool and that can soften skin – I tested this theory out in my previous life as an energy efficiency officer where I had a sample of woollen insulation and it was a great alternative to having handcream on my desk). The cold has made my skin quite dry recently so any help I can get to keep them feeling soft is appreciated!

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Anyway, I managed to make up the simple wrist warmers very quickly and decided to make some more for my daughter as an alternative to gloves. I scaled down the pattern by using smaller needles and cotton yarn.

I generally enjoy the knitting but not the sewing up of my projects, so I always have a few projects in the bag waiting to be put together. But this time I set myself a target to learn how to mattress stitch seams together. I’ve always struggled with learning from a picture as I can’t convert the flat 2d picture into what I need to do in real life, so this was going to be a challenge for me. I found a small set of written and pictorial instructions for this stitch, which took me a while to fathom – including unpicking a couple of times – but I mastered it and can’t believe how amazing the seams look. I was so impressed I even took my work up to show my Mum who was equally impressed and has requested a lesson!

So here are the finished cotton wrist warmers I made for my daughter.

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They were just what was needed for going to her dance class and they certainly attracted some interest. My daughter wants some legwarmers now to go with them!

Time to get back to the knitting needles and look for some interesting yarns and colours to put together!

Happy crafting
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Therapeutic crochet

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As I’ve been trying to get back into some crafting on a more regular basis, I thought I’d have a root round my craft stash and make something for the house. When my cats were ill, they completely wrecked a cotton crochet cushion cover I’d had for a number of years, so over the last few weeks I decided it was time to throw the old one away and make a new one. I found a lovely stash of pure wool yarn and went for it with a crochet hook. I started with a basic treble crochet granny square, as it kept my fingers busy and I could do it without having to think to much! It certainly stopped me biting my nails. It’s a bit of a trial and error job this as it’s my first crochet cushion cover.

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I made two matching granny squares and sewed up three sides. Having put the cushion pad inside, it looked a bit plain, so I thought I’d add some flowers to one side.

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I’ve put them in two clusters of three flowers. It certainly changes the look of our settee.  Now I’m just deciding whether I should add some buttons to the centres of the flowers or not.

What do you think? Buttons or plain?

Happy crafting
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