Crochet Octopus for a Premature Baby

When I was pregnant last year we were told that if our child survived the likelihood was that they would be premature. It was around this time that I found out about octopi for prem-babies, and decided to make one in case we needed it. As I have mentioned previously, our daughter didn't make it, but I completed this octopus and have wrapped him away, just in case.

If you are donating to a hospital they ask that the octopi are made from cotton. Since this is a personal octopus I used some Stylecraft DK I had in my stash.

The tendrils must be within certain length limits, but are designed to mimic the feel of an umbilical cord when a baby wraps their fingers around it. I suspect any young baby would appreciate an octopus, not just those born prematurely!

I stitched the outline of a heart to the back of the head. The octopus was made with love and it seemed a nice way of adding extra detail. I'm currently wanting to experiment with cross stitch over crochet thanks to the Scheepjes Hygge crochet-a-long (which I wish I could afford to participate in!), but it wasn't to be on this octopus, as the increases and decreases of the curve made it more difficult.

You can find the pattern I used here.

Found Letters I

About ten years ago I was introduced to the concept of finding letters in our everyday surroundings and photographing them in to a collection. For various reasons I never began, partly because I felt a need to look for all the letters at once and it was overwhelming. However, this year I joined a group which has spread the alphabet out over the course of a year, and I'm really enjoying looking for letters one at a time! I have chosen to stick to upper case letters, at least for this series.

'A'

'B'

'C'

'D'

Neutral Tones Birthday Card

An acquaintance of mine recently sold off a large amount of her craft supplies. Of course, I did what any artist would do and bought way too much stuff whilst it was available at great discounts! Included in everything I bought was a range of "masculine" card toppers and papers - think wood grain, brick work, metal sheets etc. It's all really quite lovely! And they are great for more masculine cards, when flowers don't quite cut it! For this card I paired them with some beautiful shimmery dark grey corrugated card I have in my stash, and kept with pure white to accentuate the "chalk board" lettering.

Festive February: Large Beaded Snowflakes

A couple of years ago I made these small beaded snowflakes, and I love how sparkly they look on the tree! So when I was in a bead shop and found similar snowflake bases that are approx. 22cm in diameter, I just had to buy some.

They are a bit big to hang on the tree really, but they look lovely hung around the house, and the beads catch the light so beautifully.

I can imagine an impressive wall display of these snowflakes in a whole range of sizes! Just think of all the beads! This is the last post in Festive February, but thanks for sticking round for this belated Christmas round up :)

Festive February: Cute Wintery Cards

I needed to make a couple of extra cards for friends in December, and they ended up embracing the season! The first was for a lover of penguins. I love creating the shapes of penguins, they're so pleasing! I used some black glitter card, and left the bottom of the card uncovered to be snow - I love this effect. The "Birthday Wishes" stamp took the Christmassy edge off, just!

For the other card, I delved into my stash of old stamping extras - leftovers from years of previous projects - and found this lovely cuddly polar bear. I mounted him in the same way with the snow in relief. Wish upon a Christmas star...

Festive February: Cross Stitch Penguin Decorations

I wanted to stitch a little penguin decoration for a dear friend of mine for Christmas, and went to Google to find a pattern. Well, I didn't quite find a pattern, but I found this, an image of a completed cross stitch, which just happened to be simple enough to use as a pattern! Very useful :)

I ended up falling in love with these little dudes, and so made one for our tree too!

Made on plastic canvas they came together quite quickly, and I attached a ribbon and a felt backing using my glue gun. I really need to get more plastic canvas in time for next Christmas, I'm always finding last minute projects for it!

Festive February: Bauble Gift Tags

When I thought about making gift tags, I decided I wanted to stick with my Christmas card theme of baubles - made much easier with a large circle punch! I took a large sheet of textured cream card, and painted stripes of white and metallic gold across it in different widths. I then punched out the circles I needed, and added extra details to them with Liquid Pearls, before attaching them to presents with sparkly gold thread. I thought they also looked a bit like planets! Maybe that will be a future project...

Festive February: Bauble Christmas Cards

For Christmas 2015, I received a really cool Christmas card from a friend where she had made baubles out of strips of different paper and ribbons. I really liked the idea, but wanted to simplify it to make it easier to "mass" produce. I also had a Graze subscription around that time, and noticed that the Christmassy designs on the delivery boxes had great patterns, so I put them all aside for a few months...

I cut a larger bauble for each card from the Graze designs (and some other glitter card I have) in both "bauble" shapes and with my circle punch. I used a smaller circle punch to cut complementing baubles out of a range of papers from my stash.

I added some embellishments to each bauble, be it a strip of glitter tape, some glitter gel pen, or other such sparkly bits. I drew hanging threads directly on to the card background, before attaching the larger baubles raised with foam dots, and the smaller baubles flat. They're quite simple cards, but I like to think they're effective.

(I just love the red robin and blue snowflake design from Graze!)

Festive February: Butterfly Ornament & Behind the Scenes

Happy Christmas! Well, maybe not quite. But welcome to Festive February! Normally in the run up to Christmas I fill this blog with seasonal creations, but as I mentioned on my Facebook page last December was very much focused on my health and my family, rather than blogging. That didn't mean I didn't spend time creating though! So I thought we'd have a little mini-series sharing all the things I didn't get a chance to blog - it made more sense than waiting til November!

The first project I want to share is possibly the most important, and also fits in with why Christmas was quiet. Our baby daughter, Youngling, was stillborn just days before Christmas, and we were in and out of hospital with difficulties. Even though she's not with us, she's a Christmas baby, and I wanted to make an ornament to remember her every year on our Christmas tree. The room where I gave birth was filled with butterflies, and it just seemed right to blend a butterfly motif with the pure white of a new born child. It doesn't scream of grief or loss, but just something that brings her into our Christmasses for years to come.

It is made from two pieces of white felt, one with cut out shapes. There is a layer of interfacing and a layer of angel hair sandwiched in between, and hand sewn together. I added a hanging ribbon, some sequins and beads, and embroidered her name on the back.