Well patience really is a virtue! I can't tell you how busy I've been throughout December; gnome-ing, present-ing, generally tearing my hair out and driving the little one away from things she shouldn't touch/eat/look at. It's been absolutely lovely but, as I'm sure everyone else has felt, December has run away with me and I'm now sat here, 3 days before Christmas, slightly disappointed at the lack of Christmas baking I've managed to do this year - but thankful for everything I HAVE managed to do!
I ran #CraftBlogClub pretty much every week throughout December - though everyone seemed to be rushed off their feet with work and projects (us crafty types like to put a lot on ourselves this time of year, don't we)?! We talked a little about moving #CraftBlogClub forward and I'm so excited to start putting things in place - we have such a lovely community and I can't wait to see what 2014 brings for us all!
In the meantime, I just HAD to share with you, the lovely gift I received from my Secret Santa! The absolutely gorgeous Tamsyn from The Villa On Mount Pleasant was my Crafty Secret Buddy and I was OVER THE MOON to receive this absolutely gorgeous bag, complete with personalised tag!
If you're not familiar with Tamsyn's blog, I strongly suggest you take a look at her innately gorgeous style, her taste for vintage and her eye for upcycling. My lovely bag has all the stampings of Tamsyn's gorgeous work; I love the pastel colours she uses and I can't wait to traipse off for a cheeky coffee and a book-read with my lovely new bag! Thank you so much - I hope my Secret Santa gift is as much loved as mine is!
Have you received your #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa gift yet? Why not link up your post below - I have really enjoyed hearing about some of the lovely crafty gifts that people have received and would love to share them with my readers!
Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas!
Stay Crafty!
E x
Come Join Us
Well this is incredibly late going out...but here, I have a valid reason! I've been juggling some of my gnome orders with a bit of a poorly babes this week - winter truly is hitting us hard, it seems! It really is incredible what you can do with limited sleep and a lot of determination isn't it!
So Tuesday night, we had a rather relaxed #CraftBlogClub chat, where I decided it was high time that we talked about THE BIG C! What with the names and addresses now officially out for our Secret Santa challenge, it's been at the forefront of our minds!
It was so lovely to see some new people joining in the tweets and we mostly chatted about our plans for homemade Christmas gifts and our 'staple' products! I'm quite accustomed to making shortbread for family and friends and I'm clearly not the only one who enjoys making yummy treats to give as gifts. We shared some amazing ideas for delicious fudge and treat hampers. It seems us crafty lot are, as ever, in a quandry with what to make, how to make and just how much we can fit in between now and the big day!
So how do we manage our time??
Well, if you're like me, then pretty badly, it seems at times! There were some great ideas flying around - calendars and lists are always favourite, but t'is the season to be busy and at this time of the year, particularly for those crafters who run a business too, there simply are not enough hours in the week!
I think we left the conversation (which now officially runs from 7-8.30pm), feeling a little festive and excited for the upcoming season! I hope you're all excited about our Secret Santa challenge and I am sorry to those who missed out - if enough people decide they want to be involved, I'm happy to pair more people up!
Right...just a quick one this week, I'm off to catch up with everything else and start planning my Secret Santa surprise!
Stay Crafty!
E x
Well, the big day is here - the next reveal of our challenge projects and, my God, what a tough month it's been over at Life is Peachy towers!
I hope you have all enjoyed this month's challenge - which was to create a Halloween decoration, using a craft method you have not used before (or, in some cases, haven't used for a very long time)! I've seen a few of the results already and they are looking FAB! Please please link up your post below - I will RT these all this time, I WILL!
Soo....what did I do?? Well, originally I wanted to learn crochet, I absolutely love the little amigurumi crochet toys that you see about, so I wanted to make a little bat. I started to learn...on Saturday! I found a perfectly clear, concise YouTube video and learnt how to make a Chain and a Single Crochet. I had been warned that it can take knitters longer to learn crochet and, I must admit, it felt so strange just using one hook; but I felt I was slowly getting the hang of it!
Sadly, though, my getting the hang of it, in amongst everything else I have to start/finish/do at the moment, was not going to create a beautiful bat in time so...after much deliberation and with the #CraftBlogClub clock ticking....I decided to sew a felt bat for Tuesday's challenge, aided by my ever helpful Mr Peachy. And whilst we may be chalk and cheese in many departments, it seems we mould well like Crafty Power Rangers, when it comes to sewing projects. Introducing...Lestat The Bat!
Made from two pieces of light and dark brown felt, Lestat is handstitched with a vibrant orange thread and lightly filled with toy stuffing. His eyes are two buttons from a very old mac I used to own and his wings are attached with simple threading at the back. The only disclaimer is that he is most definitely NOT a flanimal, though were watching the Ricky Gervais film Ghost Town, when he was conceived!
I hope you like him - I've not given up on the crochet and I'm a little sad I didn't manage to get it together in time; but when I'm feeling more confident with crochet, I'm planning to pop out a little animal friend, which might just be when you least expect it!
Have fun this Halloween, whatever you're doing - I shall be curling up with some freshly baked Pumpkin Bread and Butter Pudding and getting my teeth stuck into the new programme, Dracula, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who looks rather delicious in the ad!
Don't forget to link up your Halloween craft posts below - the link is open for one week and I cannot WAIT to see what everyone has come up with!
The Next #CraftBlogClub Challenge
Well, without further ado, let's unveil the next challenge! I would like to introduce The #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa Challenge!
Now I have mentioned some Christmas ideas before and lovely Laura from Made Peachy suggested a Secret Santa for us lot. So I thought; Hey, why not turn Christmas into a challenge!
The rules are, you make a Christmas gift for someone and send it to them - you have free reign to do what you like, it can be something you know you excel at, one of your familiar products, the only thing is - it has to be in some way personalised! And, as I know us crafty lot are going to be ridiculously busy in the lead up to Christmas - I have decided to run this challenge from now up until Christmas Eve, giving everyone plenty of time to get involved and get making.
I will be in charge of pairing up and emailing so IF you want to take part in this challenge, PLEASE email me your name, email address and postal address (missemmaberry@gmail.com) and I will start listing and pairing. I will keep the listing open until next week and will email your Secret Santa recipient by the end of next week. As ever, I will open up a linky in the lead up to Christmas and it would be great if you could write a post about the gift you made AND the gift you received!
I hope everyone wants to take part, I think it will be a lovely way to end the year with the #CraftBlogClub community and I'm hopeful that next year will bring some even more exciting things for us! Now get emailing and get thinking!
Stay Crafty!
E x
Come Join In
So, here we are, another #CraftBlogClub done and dusted and it seems we are getting busier again!
It's been lovely to watch our Twitter chat hour grow and so nice to see everyone joining in and helping out this evening with retweets and advice. As I always say, one of the main reasons I set up #CraftBlogClub was to create a hub of creatives, who could all encourage and support each other. It's lovely to see that taking shape - I hope you all enjoy joining in as much as I do!
As we are just one week away from our HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE REVEAL; I thought it would be good to do another Crafty DIY SOS! We did one of these a few weeks ago, before our September Challenge reveal and it was nice to get some great feedback and help on issues our crafty creatives were having. This week, however, it seems the main issues lies with your truly!!! Yup, as host of #CraftBlogClub, I'm yet to get my behind in gear to get to grips with crochet and create my Halloween challenge! Needless to say, help was very much out there tonight - so thank you for your help, it's off to YouTube I head in a bit!
Aside from that - we had bunting and binding issues and even started to touch on Etsy selling and pricing your goods. This is a topic suggested to me to cover - although I still stress that #CraftBlogClub isn't about selling your wares, it seems inevitable that we want to talk about pricing your handmade items and getting out into the big bad handmade marketplace! I've scheduled this in to talk about at the start of November - I hope you will all join in with your queries and advice!
In Other News...
The lovely Sonia from LAYOUTLINES is hosting a fabulous giveaway this month with some fab Halloween prizes! All you need to do is tweet a picture of a pumpkin you have carved by Thursday 31st October, to be in with a chance of winning - and the competition is open internationally too! Don't delay - get your carving knives out!
Amanda from Gift Frippery is also still hosting her #FripperyFriday competition weekly, up until Christmas - with prizes up for grabs! Simply tweet a picture of a gift you have wrapped and she will pick out a winner!
A while back, I mentioned an idea Amanda Frippery and myself had discussed about swapping 'virtual' Christmas presents between members of the #CraftBlogClub. I didn't hear much feedback about this, but wondered if anyone would be up for a Christmassy challenge to see us through November and December?? We could even do a handmade Secret Santa?? Let me know if you are interested and we will look further into what would work!
Bloglovin'
As ever, I love reading your blogs and like to highlight a few each week that I have really enjoyed reading!
First off...Emma over at Emma Made makes some incredible projects on her lovely blog - but this Ripple Blanket completely blew me away. Amazing work by a very talented lady! Take a look!
Not that I'm name-biased or anything, but I am in awe of the skills of the lovely Emma Ross over at Girl In Knits and this is the cutest little clutch I have seen! Check out Emma's lovely work!
Finally, for this week, I wanted to give a shout out to the wonderful Tamsyn over at The Villa on Mount Pleasant, who was recently featured in Homemaker magazine. Tamsyn's blog is really beautiful and inspires lots of creativity on the interiors front - her notebook on our challenge was really beautiful too!
I think that's about it from me this week, next week is THE BIG REVEAL! I'm so excited to see everyone's posts and results! I'm off to amaze you all with my Halloween project!
Stay Crafty! E x
I should definitely start by apologising for how late this post is going out - multi-tasking is actually a forte of mine, being that I held last night's #CraftBlogClub in the midst of packing up a car in a power cut - but I had to deal with the unpredictability of putting the babe to bed in an unfamiliar surrounding last night and, safe to say, it did not go too well!
As usual, #CraftBlogClub was full of interesting conversations and some sneak peeks of WIPs for this month's project! I decided we should discuss learning new craft methods as, after all, the aim is to try something shiny and new for October and create a Halloween themed decoration from it! Learning a new craft can be quite the challenge...here's what the #CraftBlogClub massive thought!
1. Worship At The Altar of YouTube - Most of us confessed that, when it came to the mots efficient method of learning a new craft, YouTube always came out on top. It seems we are a very visually-stimulated crafty bunch who like nothing more than trawling through the thousands of useful tutorials, to get us started on new projects and methods. The power of learning through video, in my opinion, is the ability to film some of the intricate and complicated stages that picture books and written paragraphs couldn't explain so easily - plus the pause button always helps!
2. Don't Underestimate The Power of Tradition - Having said that, many of us seemed to agree that you can't beat a bit of tradition, when you're searching for new craft methods to learn - a lot of us looked to old craft books for both inspiration and tutorials. A few of us also seemed to hoard the most AMAZING amount of craft books - @BeekneeHoonies I'm talking about you and your wonderful stash! I'm a huge fan of craft books and, even if I don't tend to follow patterns directly, they can be a great source of inspiration for upcoming projects. Not to mention some of the older books are great at giving clearly written and simply put tutorials.
3. If In Doubt...Ask - Part of the reason behind forming the #CraftBlogClub network, for me, was to form a group of individuals who could help, encourage and support each other, in a crafting sense. It's great to be able to ask someone for help or clarity if you can.
4. Learn Traditionally...Blog Unique - We raised the really interesting point of creating unique items from the methods you have taught yourself, but never be afraid to show something new or even try an amalgamation of techniques to keep things fresh on your craft blog - thinking outside the box can really set you apart from everyone else!
5. Self-Teaching RULES - As much as it can be great to go and join a class to learn something new, not to mention great to meet new and exciting, like-minded crafty types; expense can often mean we look to the discipline of self-teaching to help us learn and develop our skills. Why not utilise the plethora of free videos and wondrous internet crafty caverns to teach yourself something new?
Just a short one this week...I'm keen to get this published and am running on my parents' gerbil-powered internet! Next week, we shall have a second Crafty DIY SOS - a chance to run through any issues we might be having with our projects before THE BIG REVEAL of our October challenge the week after!
Until next week...
Stay Crafty!
E x
This week, we had another great chat with #CraftBlogClub, where we discussed the most visual and exciting form of social media for crafters and artists alike - Pinterest.
I'm the first to admit I have had a Pinterest account for a while, but have only recently invested time into Pinning, be it visual stimulation for my novel writing or stashing inspiration for crafting projects (why not give my boards a follow HERE). And, since Pinterest has reared it's beautiful head in our previous discussions, as a key form of inspiration and go-to media for curing craft-block; I thought it would be a great idea to chat about the ups and downs of this media and how it helps us with our craft blogging.
For those of you who may not be in the know, Pinterest is a picture-sharing site, where you can choose your own pinboard 'themes' and pin pictures from just about every nook and cranny from the Internet. No moods, no in-depth chats with this one, just pure, unadulterated picture-porn.
To sum up tonight's chat, the only downside to Pinterest, really, is the amount of time that can be zapped into spending on it - you can literally while away the hours jumping from board to board and pinning endless beauties. But, on the plus side - most of the #CraftBlogClub collective cited Pinterest as the biggest cure for craft-block and the greatest tool for finding new and exciting inspiration. Like every form of social media - nothing is out of bounds and you can even create secret boards for private collages such as Weddings etc.
So how do we use Pinterest for our work?
Pin It, Don't Bin It - As lifestyle bloggers, Pinterest gives you the opportunity to separate your interests and create beautiful collages with a focus. Not only that - all your images, to-do lists and ideas remain in one safe place - remember the days of pesky paper collages that fell apart?!
Pin. Inspire. Tailor - We discussed a little bit about the amount of 'to-dos' we have on our Pinterest pages and how we endeavoured to fulfil these. Aside from a Pinterest-inspired challenge for the #CraftBlogClub collective, we discussed using our Pinterest-inspiration as simply that, inspiration. If you find you are struggling to fulfil your crafty desires - why not tailor your Pinterest ideas, using materials and methods you are already familiar with, to create something new!
Keep Your Blog's Best Pinterests At Heart - Use Pinterest's visual stimulation to create links to your own blog. Pinterest is, after all, another form of social sharing media, why should your wonderful blog creations not benefit from it? Using your own blog imagery, pin your visuals to your own boards (I created one for Life is Peachy, but sometimes find the images fit in to other boards too). Great images circulate around the internet, giving your blog the opportunity for repins on the site, which may eventually lead to increased blog traffic and new fans.
Share Your Collective Visions - As if we couldn't find a way for our #CraftBlogClub collective to benefit from Pinterest, I listened to some comments on my blog about a pinboard for #CraftBlogClub challenges etc and decided to create one for everyone to use. You can start viewing some of the pins right HERE and feel free to join in - give me a follow and I shall send you an invite. I want everyone to have free reign on this board - updates, WIPs, inspiration and ideas are all welcome!
In Other News...
Tonight, the lovely Amanda from Gift Frippery has launched her exciting Twitter competition, #FripperyFriday. To enter, each Friday, all you need to do is wrap a gift and tweet a picture to @GiftFrippery - Amanda will choose one winner each week up until Christmas and will be giving out prizes! Get thinking and get wrapping!
Blog Loving!
This week I'm loving the lovely Tamsyn's blog over at The Villa at Mount Pleasant not only a lovely blog about interiors, shabby chic and all things beautiful, Tamsyn's notebook challenge post is a really lovely idea AND she has just been featured in the holy Homemaker mag! All praise to you Tamsyn!
I don't miss a post from the wonderful Laura at Made Peachy and her beautiful lifestyle and crafts blog. Laura has great giveaways, wonderful tutorials and, this week, she's done an awesome post about knitting pattern abbreviations!
Finally, I had to give Hayley over at Nappy Cakes and Gifts another mention for being so forward in her Halloween challenge with #CraftBlogClub. Please head over and check out her papercutting for the challenge, it's looking fab!
#CraftBlogClub October Challenge
This was launched last week, but in case anyone missed it, our October challenge is to create a Halloween decoration using a craft method you haven't tried before.
I'm really excited about this challenge and I've had some amazing ideas from the collective too! Deadline will be October 29th and, as with September's, I will be putting up a linky to showcase the results!
Well that's about it from me this week - as usual, any questions give me a shout on Twitter or an email with your suggestions. There are lots of exciting things in the pipeline for #CraftBlogClub and it's continuing to grow - I hope everyone is enjoying taking part as much as I am. As always, I love hearing your feedback!
Stay Crafty
E x
Well, Tuesday is here, which can mean only one thing...it's time to unveil our #CraftBlogClub Challenge notebooks!
What I really enjoyed about this challenge, was the amount of variation I've seen, so far, in the results; I think it's fantastic that everyone has ventured out and tried new things! Please please please link your notebook posts up below - I think this challenge is something we should all be really proud of - fantastic work and a huge thank you to everyone who took part! If you have time too, have a stop by a few blogs and show them a bit of #CraftBlogClub love for their wonderful efforts in the challenge!
The Overlord's Challenge Unveil...
So, for my notebook challenge, I decided to try a bit more applique, as I enjoyed doing my anniversary picture so much. I wanted to spend as little as possible and work with fabrics and scraps that I had lying around. Here is the result...
I bought a plain page, hardcover notebook from Wilkos for £3 and started by measuring out some navy and white striped fabric (I'm Breton-mad), and some fusible fleecing to add extra cushioning to my cover.
I ironed the fleecing and fabric to fuse together. To make my applique poppy,
I freehand cut a green felt stalk and red poppy shape and, in keeping with a 'shabby' theme, I stitched the felt to the striped fabric using black thread. I love how the black contrast creates a sweet outline of the poppy.
I found an old black button, with gold edging, in my extensive collection of long-lost buttons, so decided to sew this on as the poppy's middle. The result was simple but effective - I toyed with the idea of doing several poppies, but I decided that one looked much nicer, for this project.
To attach the fabric to the notebook, I simply folded the edges in and attached using strong bonding glue. As the fabric edges weren't tidy, I covered with a peach-coloured piece of paper for a clean finish.
I was really pleased with my notebook - I've had so many ideas for more applique and notebook-covering projects. I think this has been a great challenge, to prettify and personalise something as plain as a notebook! I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have - and I can't wait to launch October's challenge!
October Challenge
Well, without further ago, I shall unveil our challenge for October!! It didn't take too long to decide that I wanted to launch something with a Halloween theme! And with the success of last month's notebook covering, I thought something quite malleable will work for us all! So here it is..
This October - the #CraftBlogClub Challenge is to create a Halloween decoration, using a crafting form YOU HAVE NOT TRIED BEFORE!
Get your thinking caps on - this is a great opportunity to try a new craft, if you have any questions or need any help - give us a shout on Twitter! The same rules apply - I will put up a linky for us all to post our results! The deadline is Tuesday 29th October for this challenge!
Stay Crafty and get linking up now....
E x
play along with us
