Hedgehog Pumpkin!

When my husband came home with a pumpkin, I knew straight away I was going to do a street of topsy turvy houses. That was until my husband cleaned out the innards for me, and I became completely indecisive! Eventually, I settled on a cute little seasonal hedgehog - scarily cute, right?!

Forever Friends Baby Card II

A family friend welcomed another gorgeous little girl to the world recently, so I put together this little card for them. I coloured in the stamped Forever Friends teddy bear using Whisper Strokes pens, before cutting it out with a circular punch and mounting it on one of these gorgeous marble papers and some brown parcel paper. I added a pink paper flower and small silver gem from my stash too :)

You can see the previous card I made with this stamp here.

Crochet Butterfly Snuggy

I've made quite a few snuggies over the years (you can check them out here), but this time I wanted to mix things up a bit! I began with this crochet star pattern, but made six points rather than the stated five. (It doesn't sit flat, but it works find when folded into wings.) I then used basic amigurumi techniques to create a body for the butterfly, that I thought would be a good size for little fingers. I (securely!) added some antennae and eyes, before folding the star in half and stitching the body to it. It's not like a traditional snuggy, but I think it still fulfils everything you want from one? I'd love to hear your thoughts! (Colours are all from my stash.)

Daisy Card

Since getting my Cricut Explore Air 2 machine, I confess to spending a lot of time trawling the internet for free cutting files! One resource I found is Bird's Cards, and this daisy cutting file stood out to me as an appropriately neutral card for a family friend going through a difficult time. I've always been reluctant to hand write words on the front of cards - one little mess up and it just ends up looking unprofessional. The brilliant thing about the Cricut is that it can write an array of fonts for you, so I was able to add this little message to the design. (Just don't talk to me about placement issues in Cricut design space, it's been the source of much stress!) I then added some shimmer to the centre of the daisy with some pearlescent paint from my stash.

Crochet Poppy - Remembrance Sunday

I've been meaning to crochet myself a poppy for years, and after a bit of fiddling I found a pattern I liked. The black wool is a generic DK, the red is Stylecraft DK Lipstick, and the green is Wendy Four Ply Courtelle, all from my stash. The flower is made using the "Remembering You" pattern, as seen on the top row. The leaf is made using the first half of this Bleeding Hearts Leaf pattern. I stitched a safety pin on the back and it's good to go!

Lizard Shawl

So I was in my local Abakhan earlier this year looking for some specific wool for a project I wanted to start. Bored of waiting in the car, my husband came in for a mooch around - it's amazing what seven years of marriage can do! My husband saw some wool on sale, showed it to me, and said these colours would look great on you. Well, I took that as an invitation to buy them!

The wool was Sirdar Divine DK, and there were two balls. On closer inspection it turned out they were actually different shades, but so similar that they work together in the shawl. You can see one shade (064) has an emphasis on dark blue with a silver sparkle, whilst the other shade (062) has dark green with a gold sparkle. You really have to look to see it though.

I chose the Lizard Shawl as my pattern, and enjoyed working it up. I'd love it a bit bigger, but it will go nicely over my leather jacket as the weather gets cooler. I just love the colours and the sparkle, and the textural marriage of the yarn with the stitch changes in the pattern - delish!

Lili of the Valley Bunny Cards

If you've followed me for a while you're probably aware I have a great love of bunnies! So when I saw this range from Lili of the Valley in their eBay store I couldn't resist adding some to my collection.

They've made some lovely Birthday cards mounted on various papers from my stash, as well as cards just to say hello. (Btw, if anyone recognises the green and lilac tartan in the card below could you let me know? This was my last piece and I would love some more!)

I also made a rather cute wedding anniversary card with some amazing hand marbled paper I received from my Dad. Having a contact in the world of printing and book binding has sure helped build my stash!

Beach Hut Card

Recently I've struggled to post projects in the same season as I've made them. To sum this up, today this blog enters October with some summery beach huts!

 I found this beautiful image by Andy Frith on Google and just knew it had to be a card. I printed it out twice and carefully cut around a few of the beach huts so I could layer them up for a 3D effect - I really like how it worked! I also added a bit of sparkle to the bunting, and mounted it on white hammer card and a dark turquoise pearl paper.