25th: Christmas Card 4

Equipment:
Red concertina card (see Christmas card 2 for link to instructions)
Patterned paper
Matching Chipboard, and Chipboard sentiment
Glue

1) Trim patterned paper to fit the inside of the concertina, and attach
2) Layer the Chipboard off-centre,and glue together
3) Attach the chipboard to the front flap of the card

The easiest of my cards yet, but possibly one of my favourites. The colours are a modern twist on the traditional, and, to me, tartan pattern screams warmth and comfort.
I hope you enjoy these cards, easy and simple, you can find them on the 25th of every month this year.

Camera Experiments: Freesias

 

 

Using just a standard Digital Camera, it is still possible to take some gorgeous photographs. I like to get so close to the flowers that the lens is almost touching them. The trouble is, I'm addicted to taking photographs,but I don't know what to do with them. They store up on my computer, endless reams of pixellated objects, most of them a little dodgy - I have many more of these freesias, just not as nice, in my opinion -  that I don't know what to do with them.

 

It also doesn't help that I have a dreadful printer, that prints lines of ink in varying thicknesses across the page. Works brilliantly for essays,but is awful for pictures, which means they are stuck on my computer until I have a sufficient need to use them.

 

Perhaps I should scrapbook them?

 

Or use them to make Notecards?

 

There are probably tonnes of tutorials across the interweb, but I can't seem to find any at the moment that don't involve merely putting them in a frame.

 

Challenge accepted.

 

And is instagram only for Smart phone photos? (because I still carry a brick. I throw it at the floor and can reassemble it and turn it back on. Yup. It's one of those)



6

Something Knitted
 



Knitted, completed and left in loving hands 'up North'.

A little Cafetière cover, knitted in pastel blue and green, on 4mm needles, from the book '20 to Make: Knitted Mug Hugs'. I love these books, as the projects are so simple and easy, and I'd recommend them for any beginners, and more advanced knitters for simple projects.

 

Amazon

The projects range in difficulties - from simple purl and knit stitched ones, to cables, fair isle, knitted motifs -they're all so lovely! And can be knitted in an afternoon. I particularly like the bunting one, which I may make for myself at some point. They'd also make great gifts, if attached to a specific mug also, so are a cheap option also, if you find a nice one in a second hand shop.

 

I would say though, that some doctoring may have to be done in order to get the 'Hugs' to fit the right sized mugs - five repeats were recommended, yet here it was only necessary to do three. They knit up in two ways - one starts with the button band and works horizontally,the other works from the bottom up and adds a button band. I would recommend the former for the first time, as you can cater the length to a specific size of mug by just missing out a few repeats.

I lie.....Two Knitted Things!

A Mug cosy which turned out to be far too big for most of the mugs that have ever existed, so is currently being modelled by a glass. Another example of where the patterns didn't work out quite to a suitable size

 

50 Things to Make

Two Jumpers North

We spent the Easter Weekend in North Yorkshire, with some old family friends. It was gorgeous.

 

It involved:

 

Harry Potter References!

Pretty Villages!

 



A baby Pineapple!

 

Making cake!

 

Seeing one of my felt hearts 'en situe'!

Knitting (products to be accounted for later)!

And the prettiest, cosiest house I ever did see!

I wish I could crochet blankets.

 

Alas, I did not steal a blanket, but I did get some very nice fudge and a pretty tweed notebook - plain pages too! I loved it up there. Although chilly,and hilly, it has the charm and intrigue of somewhere new to explore....

 



5

A decoration.

 

 

This is a long awaited post of some goodies I made for my Mum for Mother's Day. Inspired by this post on HelloLidy, my mum is the most avid tea drinker I know. Left to her own devices, she would drink at least two cups an hour, if not more! Therefore, it was a fitting Idea.

 

I altered the instructions slightly, to make a neater representation - when following instructions, I tend to make a variation if I can think of one. For each tea bag, I used a star-shaped hole punch to cut a pair of shapes from different papers, and sandwiched the loose ends of a piece of folded thread between them. At the folded end, I tapered it to a point and threaded it through a large eyed needle. This i then sewed through the top of the tea bag, removed the needle and threaded the paper end through the loop.

Sounds complicated? It's not. It's just like adding the fringing to the end of a scarf, or that tassel onto a bookmark... You know the ones I mean.

 

I packaged these in a glass jar, with a few fake flowers poking out of the top. Mum was most pleased, but perhaps that had more to do with the poster of Daniel Craig I gave her? Never mind...

 

50 Things to Make



NO! NOT HELLOCOTTON TOO!

It would appear that the blogging world has fallen out of the sky.

 

And I do not see that as an exaggeration.

 

First google reader decides it wants to close down. All fine and dandy, I was only following, what, maybe ten blogs there? But disappointing all the same.

 

BUT, not only that, Hellocotton is closing too. And I love Hellocotton. It amalgamates everything good and lovely in the blogaverse in one place, gives recommendations, and it is suitably girly. And I follow over 50 people on it.

So, I must now venture into the site called 'bloglovin' and it is telling me that I have to put this:
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5230593/?claim=pzfwtfsqqm6">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
Into a post so I can tell people that this is my blog. So that is what I've just done.

And now I shall despair over everything else.