Crochet Puzzle Balls & Charity Craft Auction!

I made more puzzle balls! My previous versions can be seen here, including a free printable for the instructions :) I enjoy making these, and I love mish-mashing colours together! The above puzzle ball has traveled all the way to Australia to live with one of my nephews, but the one below is up for grabs...

Have you heard of a charity called Post Pals? They're a wonderful organisation run by a friend of mine, and people volunteer to send post - letters and gifts - to seriously ill children and their siblings. As an adult with chronic health issues I know how much a piece of post can make me smile, so the work this charity does is brilliant. They are running a craft auction over on Facebook from 1st-8th August 2016 and I have donated one of my crochet puzzle balls! The auction is full of handmade items and craft supplies, and is intended to raise money to take all the children involved with the charity on holiday. They can't get away from their illnesses, but with our help they can get away from the same four walls.

I don't currently crochet items for sale, so if you want a puzzle ball, now is your chance! The puzzle ball up for auction is pictured below. Interested? Click here to visit the Facebook auction to place your bid and look through the other items for purchase - both handmade items and some craft supplies!

Plane Card

Have you ever heard of Wallies? I first found Wallies about 15-16 years ago, when I used their products (specifically their funky flower stickers) to decorate my bedroom walls. Wallies are a brand of sticker designed for wall decoration. They're really great, however I have found they are very difficult to locate in the UK - typical! As part of the stash I inherited last year I received a set of "transport" Wallies, including fire engines, cement mixers, trains, tractors and planes. They are great brightly coloured images which are quite useful for card decoration!

This card features a plane Wallies sticker mounted on some beautiful cloud paper from an old issue of Craftseller magazine, and some blue paper from my stash. The Wallies are designed with an adhesive back which is activated by a damp sponge, but since I was making a card I simply used Pritt Stick. I wanted the card to have a 3D element, so I cut out an extra propeller from matching orange paper and attached it with a hinge. It can fold flat for an envelope but open out for display!

Such an easy way to create a really graphically stunning card :)

Crochet Starfish

One of my many little nephews recently celebrated his Birthday, and I found this cute wooden book called "Little Shark" for him. It has a finger puppet shark in built into the book who features on every page, and who the story line revolves around. I wanted a little something extra to go with it, and since in the story Little Shark befriends a golden starfish, a thought that would be the perfect addition!

The starfish is made using Tangled Happy's Tangled Happy Star, although I increased the centre of the body by an extra round to reach 40 stitches. This means that each point on the star starts with 8 stitches, and it makes a slightly larger star. I made two identical stars, stitched a face on one of them and slip stitched them together. The wool is Hayfield Bonus DK and it is crocheted with a 4mm hook.

Hopefully it will make for a happy story time :)

Star Wars Cards

I was wandering around B&Q (a DIY store here in the UK) at some point last year, and I found a roll of Star Wars wallpaper. If you've read my blog for a while you will know that my husband is fairly obsessed with Star Wars, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it! We don't have a wall in our house to use it on at the moment, but it features a panel design, making it great to cut up and use in so many ways!

One way I've been using it is in card making. The big panels make nice A5 cards with a splash of colour behind them, whilst the mini-scenes within each panel make smaller cards in their own right. I've also been mounting the larger panels on mountboard for my husband to display around the house. Given that I have a whole roll of this wallpaper, I'm sure I will be using it in many future projects!

Red and Gold Chinese-styled Card

A bit different from my normal card making adventures, I do hope I've titled this one appropriately! This beautifully detailed stamp is another one I inherited last summer, and is inked on to a thin cream paper. This is mounted on red paper and another styled with Chinese lettering. I added gold highlights to the lady's dress and hair using metallic paint, and some extra hair highlights with gold Liquid Pearls. I love the rich red and gold against the black outlines, it makes me think of Chinese New Year!

Moving Pinwheel Card

I have such a fun, bright card to share with you today! With a hint of pink, lots of bright yellow, mandala patterns, polka dots and some pearl paper... and a pink brad that ensures it even spins!

Of course, it then needed an envelope which it would fit in. Thankfully there is a wonderful resource on the internet called Template Maker, ensuring I could make an envelope to fit. I think next time I'd add tabs to the envelope design, but it fulfils it's purpose :)

Pink Hearts Anniversary Card

Last time I used this stamp I experimented with white embossing powder, but this time I decided to stick with black. I stamped it on to some mottled ivory card, and coloured it in with watercolours. The image is then mounted on the sparkly, slightly corrugated grey card I keep talking about, and dark pink pearly paper. I love how well this matches with the paint colour! I added some extra off-white pearl paper to the background as I love it when things are a bit quirky and off centre :)