Saturday 22 December 2012

Another tick on the list!

I'm still busily stitching, but I'm pleased to announce that I've finished my daughters presents! As promised I'm posting pictures to show off my successes and failures!


I found these curtains in a charity shop with lots of different animals on which I thought would make a great mini quilted picture. I love recycling!


I found this cross stitch kit in a charity shop about a month ago for £2.99 and wanted to stitch it for her room straight away. I've been stitching into the early hours and was nearly finished when I realised I'd made a mistake and had to unpick some of the backstitch. Unfortunately it was one of those occasions when you can't just leave it and pretend it was supposed to be that way! The kit is 'Doll House Hutch' by Bucilla and I especially liked that it came with the frame.


I started this sock monster ages ago, but its been sitting around without a face poor thing. Now she's a happy sock monster!


And finally my first attempt at making some clothes for her. I made these 2 tops using some of my old clothes and following an online tutorial (can't remember which one now I'm afraid) and I think I went slightly wrong as the necklines are too big. Rather than try and alter them or throw them away, I'll keep them until she's a bit older and has a bigger head!


I love making things for her, even though at 20 months she doesn't care what she gets, it still means a lot to me!

I'll update with more present pictures when I have more to show. How many days left???????

Monday 17 December 2012

Have yourself a merry little robot

I've finished all my Christmas stitching and can sit back, relax and enjoy this week........ in my dreams! 

I've still got lots to do and not many hours to do it in. Unfortunately my daughter is still too young to be helpful, or I would be using some child labour right about now!

I did manage to get my nephews presents sent off on time, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures on here to try and motivate me to get everything else done. 

He's ended up with a robot theme, not sure why, but all little boys like robots right? If he doesn't he might be disappointed!

I made a small quilted picture (I'm still a learner, so excuse the wonky lines) and decided to embellish a t-shirt with a simple applique. Thanks to lemonwoodclock for the applique idea. I thought I'd better make him a smiley robot!




I'll post some more finished Christmas presents soon, I hope!!!!

Friday 9 November 2012

Crafting for Boys

Good news! The crafting community has a new member!

My 6 year old nephew has suddenly decided he wants to be creative. He must get the crafty bug from our side of the family.

That's great of course, but now I'm a bit lost. What sort of crafts would a 6 year old boy be interested in? Most of the crafts I can think of might be considered a bit too girly (like sewing for instance)

Has anyone got any suggestions for a confused auntie?

As this post is for my nephew, I'll show you the card I've just made for him using felt with a stamped background. He likes Timmy Time on Cbeebies, so here's Paxton the pig having a party. Oink-tastic!



Monday 28 May 2012

Toys for my daughter

I haven't been making much to sell recently, but I have been making a few things for my daughter which I wanted to show you!

 Owl family that make a crinkle sound when you squeeze them, made using a tutorial from craftstylish

 A stripey sock monster from my own imagination!

 A ragdoll made using a tutorial from make-baby-stuff 

A sock pig rattle made using a tutorial from homemadebyjill

I think I'm addicted to making her toys!

Please vote for me before 31st May!

I've entered a competition on the Crafter..oo! website. There were 4 different categories and I've entered 3 of them. I was aiming to make something for all the categories, but ran out of time!

If you have a minute to spare, I'd be very grateful if you could head over to Crafter..oo! and vote for my entries before the 31st May! I would also encourage you to have a look around at the forum, there's a lot of talented people with great ideas over there and they produce a quarterly online magazine to inspire us crafters!

I had great fun and here are my choices for entries:

My lovely beaded owl in the Air category

A crochet necklace in the Fire category

Finally my favourite hanging frog organiser in the Water category

Thank you!

UPDATED: If anyone did vote for me, thank you very much! I didn't win anything, but I had fun anyway!

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Who loves frogs?

It's my husbands birthday this weekend, I bet you can't guess what his favourite animal is? 



I've made him a dopey looking frog hanging organiser with pockets. I hope he likes it! I really like the way he's hanging onto the pole! I doubt he'll ever have anything in his pockets (my husband isn't very organised at all!) but at least he'll make a blank wall look a bit more interesting!

I might make a cat one next for the nursery........


Of course I had to make him a frog birthday card as well using felt.

Let me know what you think!

Sunday 11 March 2012

A crafter without the right equipment? Not any more!

This is one of the many birthday presents I've had to work on at the moment!

I go to a craft club with my friend Laura and I found out that she was missing some important equipment. She'd been out to buy a nice big sewing box with lots of bits and bobs to fill it, which is great when you need loads of stuff at the club, but what about when you want to craft on the move?

She needed a small crafting pouch and luckily her birthday was coming up! So I've made her this:



The pouch has a matching needle case and tiny bag for holding small items like buttons. She loves stars so when I found this fabric in a charity shop (an old nightie, I do like to recycle!) I thought it would be perfect.

I hope she likes it and it makes her crafting a bit easier!

How to make me smile!

I was not having a very good week and was feeling a bit down yesterday, until the post arrived with a parcel for me. It was like having an extra birthday!





Inside the lovely packaging was this amazing owl! I love it soooooo much.


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Thank you to Sue at The Krafty Cupcake, you have got two of my favourite things together (owls and felt) in one fantastic present.

We're taking part in 'Craft it forward 2012' and I was one of the lucky 5 to receive a gift from Sue.

Please see my Craft it Forward 2012 post for details on how you could receive something from me to (hopefully) make you smile, although I can't promise it will be as good as this owl!

Craft it forward 2012!


I saw a post recently on The Krafty Cupcake about a great way to spread some crafty love.

I signed up to receive a gift from The Krafty Cupcake and received it yesterday (Thank you so much Sue!) I'll post up a picture later.

It's my turn now and this is how it works....


Craft It Forward 2012:





I will make something for the first 5 people who leave a comment on this post. Those 5 people must then make something for 5 others and so on! You can make whatever you want as long as it's homemade, just make sure they get it before the end of 2012.

Please leave me a comment on this post,and if you are one of the first lucky 5, please email me your details to moodycatcrafts@yahoo.co.uk

It may take me a while to make your gifts, but I will let you know when I've sent your surprise!

Open to all UK and International.

Please, please, remember that you do have to make 5 items for another 5 people to take part.

Let's craft it forward!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Owls everywhere!

Like everybody else these days, I love owls!

So when I was thinking of making something new, an owl was the first thing that came to mind!

I am entering the 'Four Elements' competition on the Crafteroo website and for 'Air' I had to come up with something related to air made using beads.


Owls sounded perfect to me! I'll be entering the purple one I think, but I couldn't help creating another one as well! It wasn't planned, but I love the fact that the brown one looks so moody! What do you think?

I've made them by threading the beads onto beading wire in lines. It was a bit fiddly, but I enjoyed making them.

See them both on my Etsy shop MoodyCatCrafts

I don't think this will be the last time owls feature on my blog!

Now I just have to work on things for water, fire, and earth..........

Thursday 1 March 2012

Where has the time gone?!!!!

Is it really March already?

I haven't made much for my business at all!

I've been busy making cards and presents for people. It seems that most of the people I know have birthdays in February or March!


 
I made these cards for my brother and mother-in-law. My handyman brother loved his card, even though the toolbox had a big bow on it!

My favourte is the rabbit card, especially the bite out of the carrot cake!

I love love LOVE felt! You can make almost anything out of it. I was only introduced to it recently at my craft club, but since then, my felt stash is growing. It's probably a good thing that my local craft shop is a bus ride away or I'd be there every day!

I'm busy making my husbands birthday present at the moment (not out of  felt shock horror!) so I'll post a picture of that when I'm finished.

Happy crafting!

Sunday 29 January 2012

A New Start

Happy New Year! Well here we are. It's a new year and the start of my new crafty life!


I've been crafting for as long as I can remember. My main obsession is cross stitch, but over the last few months I've been introduced to different crafts thanks to a local weekly group I attend.


Now I'm at home looking after Little Miss, I've got plenty of free time (when she's not eating, crying or needing a nappy change) to indulge my passion for all things handmade! 


Yesterday was a BIG day for me. I had some of my items on a craft stall and sold a sock monster and a zombie keyring! OK, so it was to a friend......... but it still counts for me! It was my first ever sale and I was very excited. I hope I'll be able to sell many more goodies in the future.


I've opened an Etsy shop and I thought I'd start sharing my crafty ramblings with anyone who will listen. I think that's enough rambling for now, I'll post some pictures of my creations soon if you promise not to laugh!


x