Guest Tutorial - How to Make Gift Bags from Upcycled Greetings Cards

I was approached a couple of days ago by a lovely chap who wanted to know if I'd be interested in hosting a guest tutorial written by a friend of his... it was a really nice surprise to find that my blog is starting to get found amongst all the other fantastic craft blogs out there :-)

So, here for your delectation (and I will DEFINITELY be saving all our birthday cards from now on!) is the Tara's great tutorial:

If you’re anything like me you will have stacks of old greeting cards gathering dust in the back of a cupboard or under your bed. And let’s face it you are never going to read them again so why not do something useful with them and create a gift bag? It’s easy so let’s get started.

What you need:

Selection of old greetings cards

Template (I used the one from this site)

Scissors

Holepunch

Cellotape/Stapler/Glue

Ruler

Ribbon/bottons (optional) 

Print the template out on A3 paper or larger depending on the size you want your bag/box to be. If you want to make a box you will need all the tabs but tabs H and G aren’t necessary for a gift bag.

Decide on the theme of you bag/box and discard any cards or sections of a card that can’t be used. 

Cut around the template and lay on a flat surface. Make a note of the measurements for each section and then use those measurements to cut out accurate shapes from the cards. Make the side pieces (D) an extra 1cm wider so you can fold them later on. Choose your designs carefully, particularly for sections B, C and both D’s because these will be visible once the bag/box is finished.

Take both side pieces (D) and fold them in half vertically. This will form the crease in the side of the gift bag. Draw two lines at each end, forming a triangle. Use scissors to score these lines.

 Lay all the card pieces facedown and carefully begin to attach them together using Cellotape. Try not to overlap the pieces. Instead allow several layers of Cellotape to join the sides together. The flexibility of the Cellotape will allow all the pieces to fold easily.

 Once all sections are joined the bag/box will begin to take shape. Put Cellotable or glue on tab A and fold it over, attaching the sides together, forming an open ended box. If you are making a box avoid gluing this end tab because it forms the opening of the box; instead just close both ends instead using tabs E, F, G and H.

Close the bottom (and the top if you are making a box) using Cellotape or glue. You now have your gift bag. Fold the sides to make the bag a better shape.

Use the holepunch to make holes for the handles, which you can make from ribbon. I plaited ribbon but this isn’t necessary. Feed the ribbon through the holes or attach with a stapler. 

Note: If you don’t have any ribbon you can use another greeting card to make beads. Draw vertical lines on an opened card – gradually getting wider. Cut along the lines and then roll from the wider end. Use glue or Cellotape to attach the thin end to the coil. This effect creates a bead like shape and you can feed these onto string.

You can tidy up the bag and hide any Cellotape that might be visible by adding extra detail like ribbon or buttons.

Tag – This part is the easy bit. Find a card with something pretty on, cut out the section you want, hole punch just one hole and make a loop using ribbon or string.

Attach the tag to the bag and then all you need is a present to fill it and a greeting card. You can even buy these without leaving the house – just visit a site like Hallmark and get personalised greeting cards to go with your personalised bags!

                             

 And there you have one gorgeous handmade gift bag! I'm so glad Tara decided to share this fab tutorial with us - I hope it inspires some creative pressies this summer :-)

If you want to get in touch with Tara, you can find her on Twitter - Tara West

Designing Soft Toys

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks... I've been making VW Campervans like there's no tomorrow, which has been fun as I feel like I've pretty much perfected the process now (sod's law says I won't have another one to make for a while now!)

I've also been toying with the idea (you'll get to the pun in a mo!) of trying my hand at designing teddy bears and other cuddly toys (now see it? Sorry!). I started with making a teddy bear from a Funky Friends Factory pattern for my son, who LOVES his 'Bear' as you can see:

Bear now goes everywhere, including to play on Daddy's 'Pooter!

Then a friend asked me to make her one:

And now my daughter wants one... so things are going bear-y well... sorry, I promise to stop with the puns now!

But I've not yet braved designing my own... I will, soon, honest! In the mean time, I'm going to continue to get a feel for how best to get the limbs all together and sewn into the body without an arm & a leg ending up in the wrong place!

Union Jack Swap - Great Minds!

Well, I got home today to find a lovely looking parcel with my name on it:

Inside were these lovely goodies:

What was really funny was that I had sent the following items to Cybele (including a familiar looking brooch!):

Notice anything similar in the two packages??? (Cybele & I had both made each other a Union Jack pincushion, almost exactly the same size!)

The only difference being that because Cybele is Dutch, I put the Dutch flag on the back of her pincushion so she could choose which she wanted to see:

What a well matched pair we were :-)

Jubilee Brooch Tutorial

I hope everyone had a wonderful Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend - we certainly did... we saw friends galore and went to the beach (the fantastic Barry Island, home of Gavin & Stacey's Welsh contingent!) and generally enjoyed being at home & chilling out.

Now a while back you might remember I mentioned I was taking part in the Popular Craft's magazine's Union Jack Swap and as my swap was sent off on Saturday, it should hopefully have arrived by now, which means I'm pretty safe in showing you the tutorial I made for one of the bits - A Union Jack inspired felt flower brooch.

This is the first tutorial I've done, so bear with me!

The materials you'll need are all laid out above (except for the brooch back & the button which I forgot to photograph).

• Blue felt - 2 X" squares
• Red felt - 1 X" square
• White felt - 1 X" square
• white embroidery thread
• blue embroidery thread
• small union jack button (or a suitably coloured button of your choice)
• needle
• scissors
• pins
• templates (which you'll find at the end of the tutorial)

 Cut out each of the three flower sizes you want to use and pin them onto the squares of felt, the largest flower onto the blue felt, the medium onto the white felt and the smallest onto the red felt square.

Once cut out, layer all three pieces together like this:

Then start sewing, from the back of the blue layer, bringing the needle up in the centre of the red layer (your stitches in the centre will be hidden by the button)

 You then want to sew through all three layers with your thread making the shape of the white parts of a Union Jack flag:

Then you can add your button to the centre of the red layer, hiding your white centre stitches. As those with sharpe eyes will see I've aligned the button so the Union Jack lines up with my white stitches - you don't have to be that OCD unless you really want to!

Then you need to sew the second layer of blue to the brooch (to hide all your white stitches and to add stability) I find the easiest way to do this is to leave the blue square whole and cut round it after sewing. I used a simple whip stitch all the way round:

When you come to a bit where the white layer overlaps the blue, you can just fold back the white petal and sew underneath it, like this:

The back will look like this - you can hardly see the blue stitches as the colour matches up nicely.

The sew your brooch back in place making sure to place it so that when pinned to your top/bag/coat the Union Jack is straight and being careful not to sew through more than just the back layer so your blue thread doesn't show on the front of the brooch:

Then cut round out the flower shape (being careful not to cut too close to your stitches) and voila!:

Here are the flower templates - I used the two templates on the top line and the pointed flower shape:
Flower Templates

This tutorial is for personal use only, please do not sell items made using the templates and please do not reproduce all or part of the tutorial without prior consent. Thank you for your understanding.

If you would like to buy one of these brooches (any colour combination) please visit my Etsy shop.

The Fascinating World of Fascinators

For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter you'll probably be aware that I decided to spend my birthday money on a Fascinator workshop, which finally arrived (seemed like forever, though in reality was less than a month after my birthday!) on Monday this week. My tutor was a lovely lady named Lenette Isko, who began making couture hats and fascinators 6 years ago when she was faced with the prospect of 4 weddings in one summer!

My day with Lenette started at 10am, at her home in Longhope, Forest of Dean (so a nice easy 10 minute drive from my house!) and immediately I felt at ease in her company and knew I was going to really enjoy my day.

Lenette showed me a huge range of fascinators that she had made and after working out which ones I preferred  we got to work on the basics of rolling. Rolling means to roll the edges of the sinamay (the material fascinators are most often made from) rather like rolling a cigarette or a joint - I knew all that practice when I was younger would come in handy ;-)

Having decided that I didn't actually want to make my fascinator with the rolled flower petals, I'm very glad that she showed me how to because my 1st commission (later that same day!) was from a friend who is going to the same wedding I am this Saturday and who needed a fascinator fast, so I put my new-found skill to the test and have made her a black and pale blue effort:

I'm really quite proud of this as it was without any help, but I am totally in love with the one I made at the workshop... it's exactly the kind of thing I've recently seen other people wearing and that I've, quite frankly, lusted after! (I know, I'm odd!!) so here is my lovely creation (which obviously I made with quite a lot of help on the day!):

My one is made from the same material, but the two round base layers are stitched together with a bais trim on each layer and then the thick loops are made from a long piece of bias with the edges ironed in (this stuff sticks to itself - so clever!) and the thinner loops are made from a piece of bias with wire sewn into it, to keep it in place, then all artfully arranged (ahem, more luck than judgement!) and sewn together. Et voila!

Sorry for the rather long post... I'll spare you the details of Seren's headband (my 3 year old) until next week (after the wedding) and once I've got stuff to say about things other than hair embellishments!

So much to do... so little time!

Well, I have managed to get a couple of things finished this week... but that's just left me with even more that needs doing!

First up, the Cuddly London Bus - FINISHED & in my Etsy shop- Hurrah! Patrick loved it (sadly no pic of him cuddling it as I keep forgetting to take one!):

The other thing that I've had sitting in my work in progress box for weeks is a bunch of Snowls (so called because when I asked Seren what she thought the first one was, she replied 'Itsnowl' which came out as 'Its a Snowl'!) which are now finished & also listed in my Etsy shop:

My next thing is something I've done, but can't talk about yet! (I know, what a tease!) It's a tutorial for part of my Union Jack Swap... but until I know that my lovely swap partner has received it, then I can't show you! So you'll just have to wait (but I promise it won't be long!)

Aaaaand finally, I've been contacted by the first customer I had on Etsy (who coincidentally was also my first customer who I didn't know, which made him very special! He bought some Christmas items last year (stockings and tree decs) and he's super organised and is already thinking about this Christmas and what he might send over the pond, so I'm working on a new item for him this afternoon!

Phew... after all that I think I need to go and get a cuppa and some chocolate (shush - don't tell my weight watchers leader!!)

The Log Cabin: Giveaway!

Wow - firstly, thank you to Emma (from The Log Cabin) for being my very first follower!! Am chuffed :-)

In going to have a nosey at Emma's blog I noticed that she's having a giveaway - I've entered.... the goodies look lovely & she's a very talented lady, so I wanted to share it here

The Log Cabin: Giveaway!

Good Luck and if you're the winner and you found Emma through my blog, I'd love to hear back from you when you get your prize!

London Bus – 3D and Cuddly!

My 21 month old son, Patrick is currently obsessed with Buses – from our kitchen windowsill he can be entertained for (what feels like) hours waiting for the next bus to go past, and then hollers at whoever is nearest that he’s seen a bus. This can be very entertaining (and noisy!) and it’s just as well that Gloucestershire County Council have just laid on a new bus route through our village!

We're actually heading up to London this weekend to stay with family, so a trip on a real London Bus is definitely in order, but in the meantime I decided that I would make him his own bus to play with. Given that he’s also very into cuddly toys (we have a collection that have to go to bed with him every night!) I am attempting to make it a 3D cuddly bus! I’m not quite finished with it yet, but here’s a couple of work in progress shots. 

If it works well, I’ll list it in the shop should anyone require one for their little motoring enthusiasts!

Butler in the Buff!

I know this blog is supposed to be for my crafty news, but I couldn't resist sharing this particular item with you - I went on a good friend's Hen last weekend and part of the surprise, for most of us girls, including the Hen, was a very nice *and very nude* Butler to serve us champagne and lunch on the Sunday. Meet Aaron:

The second picture he's with the gorgeous Hen, Gen (Many limmericks starting to come to mind now that I'm sober!). If you'd like your own Butler in the Buff have a look on their website :-) And just to show that I can't have a whole post without something crafty, here's a pic of the crown that I made for Gen:

You can't really see from the light, but the beads were fantastically sparkly!

Ohhh and one last piece of news - Grace's Favours is Purpledognet's #purplebiz of the day! If you don't already follow them on Twitter, they are a brilliant business who help promote other Twitter businesses and today have gained me 50 odd followers (and it's still only late afternoon!)

The Big Etsy Seller Card Table

Sorry for a double post today, but I came across this event today and wanted to get the word out to as many Etsy sellers as possible and it needed to be done today as the deadline is looming.

Keep Calm Events is holding it's first UK Etsy Seller Craft Fair in Seaham, Co Durham on May 5th 2012 and there will be a fundraising table which will hold business cards from as many Etsy UK sellers (and also UK Handmade members) as possible. Visitors to the fair will then be able to take away the business cards from this table, so they can have a look at other artists/sellers who could not attend the fair itself.

The event organisers are asking for a minimum of £2 donation (you can of course give more if you'd like to!) to be sent in with between 10 and 100 business cards by the end of April. There will be media representation there on the day and I'm sure the table will get a good bit of publicity and there is also the added incentive of getting some new free (yup free!) MOO cards in return for sending in some for the event.

If you've not come across MOO cards before, check them out, they are fantastic - the quality of the cards is brilliant, the service is great, delivery is fast and the packaging is fun too!

To contact the lovely people at Keep Calm Events & for more details either have a look at their blog or email them at keepcalmevents@gmail.com

Easter Egg Hunt & The Gruffalo Trail

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend - we kicked off Easter Sunday with an Easter Egg Hunt (in our jammies of course!). Seren & Patrick LOVED their Easter Bunny Bags to put all their loot in, they REALLY LOVED all their chocolate and they were surprisingly impressed with Mummy's quickly made Easter Bunny Masks:

Then after plenty of chocolate had been consumed (or in Patrick's case, smeared all over his face, very enthusiastically!) we went off to the newly opened Gruffalo Trail at the Dean Heritage Centre and we all loved it:

 'Oh help, Oh no! It's a Gruffalo!'

  A lovely day out - definitely worth a visit if you are anywhere near the Forest of Dean!

Being Featured!

Well, having said in my last post that I was over the horrid flu bug I'd caught off my daughter, it came back with a venegence and I've spent most of the last week in bed! However I have found the time to make a lovely friend of mine a 40th Birthday present... she let slip a while ago that her favourite flowers were tulips, so I thought a bunch would go down well that could stay out all year round without wilting:

I've also managed to finish off 3 Easter Bunny Rabit bags, 2 for my kids, Seren & Patrick and one for a friend's little boy who will be staying with us over the Easter weekend.... I will take some pics of the kids as they are doing their Easter Egg hunt and of all their spoils in the bags at the end - I expect it to be a true choco-holic's dream!

Now onto the other exciting news - I've been featured on a couple of different blogs, which is really exciting for me as it's still a novelty!! The first is Heart Handmade which has a lovely mini interview and some pics and the second is the fantastic Cuteable which has featured my cuddly owl cushion and also my Easter Finger Puppets

So despite the bug that's still lurking and forcing me to return to bed at regular intervals (and interrupting most of my craft time!) I'm really quite a happy bunny :-)

Have a lovely Easter weekend xxx