Baby Olympic Torch to Celebrate Relay in Our Home Town Lichfield

I made a mini Olympic Torch for my 1yr old niece Maud to celebrate the torch relay passing through Lichfield on 30th June 2012.

The torch is made from stiff cardboard with gold paint (bubble wrap used for the hole effect) with red and orange felt flames.

It was great to see the real torch (even if I did feel a little sceptical beforehand) and I’m very glad I made the effort. It was a little bit magical and very different to watching it on the telly or seeing pictures.

Lovely to see such a fantastic turnout and to see Lichfield packed with happy people (and hardly any cars about!).

The local young lady we saw carrying the torch, Molly, is only 14 and has already done loads for charity to help children with terminal illness. Very moving and I hope she and everyone who took part had a very special day.

Olympic Torch Bearer – Photo by CoasterMadMatt via Flickr

As for crafting thanks for the inspiration from Domestic Goddeseque and Vic from Entertaining Monsters

Domestic Goddeseque

Entertaining Monsters

Christmas Makes 2011 – Handmade Stitched Gifts

As Christmas 2011 was on a bit of a budget I made a lot of our gifts. As well as biscuits I stitched some gifts mostly from beautiful patterns I found online.

Crossstitched heart decorations, felt baby shoes for my niece, a festive cross stitch tree, a snowman decoration and a felt decorative Holga.

The snowman and Holga are my own patterns but the rest came from patterns from various web sites and blogs.

Small hearts
www.lesgrillesdeliselotte.com/article-grille-gratuite-poi…

Baby shoes
www.marthastewart.com/good-things/felt-baby-shoes

Blue work heart
gazette94.blogspot.com/2011/04/coeur-rouge.html

2011 tree
chezelisa.over-blog.com/article-sapin-2011-88265395.html

Winter heart
gazette94.blogspot.com/2011/08/coeur-hiver.html

Felt snowman decoration

Holga decoration from my own pattern

Push It 10k – We Did It!

We did it! I was pushed for 10k in my wheelchair by friends and family who walked part (or in my husband’s case all) of the 10k with me. We raised £701 (plus £105 giftaid) for ME Research UK.

It was a fantastic day and everyone was brilliant. Lots of chatting, lots of smiles, quite a bit of rain!

View Lichfield 10k Push it in a larger map

My husband Paul and friend Phil walked and pushed for the first 5k which we did in about 1hr 15mins. The we started laps of Stowe Pool and I’d say half a dozen or so walked each lap with me.

My neighbour Nick pushed me for the 1st lap in under 15 minutes he was going so fast! My dad’s partner Isobel pushed for the 2nd lap a short stretch shared between her, my dad and my neighbour Hazel taking a handle each of my wheelchair (ending in hitting the grass verge of course).

The 3rd lap my sister-in-law Kate pushed and the rain had gone.The 4th lap my big brother Simon pushed with a little help for a short stretch from my a couple of my neighbours kid’s – we had a conga line of kid A pushing kid B pushing Simon pushing me.

Paul walked the whole 10k. Phil walked the 5k plus a little of the last lap and covered a lot more ground taking photos which I was very grateful for. And my dad, Isobel, Simon, Kate (and Maud my baby neice in her pushchair), my mum, Hazel, Nick and 3 of their lovely kids all walked at least 2 laps each.

Everyone was chatting as we went round and it was a great atmosphere and a lovely group of people. We had a sharp rain shower at the very start, then sun. Then as the laps started for it poured down with rain and was very windy, but it dried up and everyone stayed the distance. We’ve raised £701 for ME Research (plus they’ll get another £105 in giftaid).

I was rather tired after we finished and had scheduled an easy week to recover. It was a great day and everyone seemed to enjoy it despite the wind and the rain. I’m so grateful to everyone who walked, pushed, sent messages of support and donated. I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.

http://www.justgiving.com/push-it

Push It – Sep 2011, a set on Flickr.

Festive Crafts Dabbling

I’ve been dabbling with fabric for some Christmas crafting to brighten up our home and tree.  Sometimes I’m following patterns and other times I’m using them as inspiration to make my own pieces that look like my own style.

I’ve made two birds from the spool pattern. The first in red with gingham and the second I did some freehand embroidery (my first attempt at embroidery really) to cheer it up. I added ribbons to their backs so I could hang them on the Christmas tree

The first thing I made was this little felt gingerbread man which I cut from a freehand pattern. He’s only about 8cm tall which made it a bit fiddly and I think I need to practice my embroidery!

Then I made an ice skate out of felt again with a freehand pattern but inspired by Rosy Little Thing’s pattern (which is a hundred times neater than mine!)

It’s around 10cm long and 7.5cm high.  It’s not stiff enough to stand up like this on it’s own – it is supported by pins (the magic of photography!).  I’ve now added some ribbon to the top of the boot so it will hang on the tree.

I didn’t have any grey felt so I embroidered the blade.  Unfortunately the blade isn’t quite stiff enough.  I did put some interfacing in the blade but I think if I did again I would lightly stuff it.  The embroidery I thought would stiffen it more but has made it a bit more prone to twisting over.  Oh well! I’m still pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I’m in the process of making a small version of this cute felt gingerbread house and also a Tilda santa doll from Tone Finnanger’s Christmas gifts book.  I’m hoping to make some kind of banner/garland sometime over Christmas if I can. I bought all this fabric off ebay so I had better get some use out if it!

I’ve wanted traditional and unique things to decorate with for ages and now I’m  making up for it

And I’ve made a few paperchains – this one from recycled wrapping paper.

There’s another from coloured A4 paper and one recycled from leaflets and a Dorito’s packet (shiney silver!) which I haven’t taken photos of yet but will be on my Flickr at some point.

Simon’s 40th Birthday Pop Up Card

My brother Simon turned 40 in November and I made him a pop up card with balloons, cake and a fab outfit for him.

I scanned my drawings then coloured them and arranged the pop up tab design in photoshop. I printed the card and the pop up pieces then assembled by hand. The card is approx 125mm square when folded.

I also made a gift box for his present as I couldn’t find the right size and they were really expensive to buy. So I used this simple tutorial with a cereal box and power pritt stick. Then I covered each half with a sheet of A4 printed with a design I made on photoshop. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Simon & Kate Wedding Card

My brother Simon got married to the lovely Kate back in August and here’s the card I made for them which I cut by hand and then painted with gold acrylic using a red paper insert for contrast.  The card was approx 125mm square.

We gave money as a gift so I made a little gift envelope for the cash to make it a bit more special using brown paper, silver tissue paper and a pair of drawn hearts in ink and watercolour on a sticker to seal it.

Snow Hug Pop Up Card Featured on Hello Gorgeous Blog

My Snow Hug pop up card has been featured as a Folksy Friday pick on the blog of Hello Gorgeous

There’s a lovely selection of handmade snow themed goodies which can all be bought from Folksy

Snow Hug Pop Up Featured on Folksy Home Page

My Snow Hug pop up card was featured on the home page of folksy.com today.

How exciting!

Snow Hug – no need to feel cold this winter with a snow hug:

Folksy Friday – Mistletoe, Holly and Christmas Pud

To celebrate my 2nd year selling Christmas cards on Folksy I thought I’d pick some wonderful festive items from other sellers to share with you.  So here’s some mistletoe, holly and christmas puds – all beautifully crafted and for sale on Folksy.

Everlasting Mistletoe Sprig from Phoenix Glass

Christmas Pudding Coaster from The Mosaic Garden

Christmas Glass Storage Jar in Holly Design from Poulsom Glass Painting

Brandy the Christmas Pudding Snail from The Snail Emporium

Mistletoe Christmas Decoration from Court & Spark

Winter Holly Candle Holder Pair from SarahDesigns

Figgy Pudding Christmas Decoration – single from Devonly Crafts

Christmas Bunting from SnowFish

ceramic Xmas pudding decorations from Dottery Pottery

Solid Silver Holly Leaf Christmas Decoration – Small from Pea Pod Jewellery www.peapodjewellery.co.uk

Wet and Windy – Vivi (Photography)

Me and Mr Creative last year – it was wild weather but we were still smiling!

We laughed so much – the weather was awful that day but I insisted on standing on the beach having not been to the sea for so long.

Dinas Dinlle, nr Caernarfon, North Wales September 2009.

Taken with Vivitar Ultra Slim and Wide, Fuji Superia 400asa.