Homeware & Craft

Simply Bunting

by Anna on January 27, 2013

new buntingLast time I made bunting was for a very specific occasion…a summer of Britishness, and what a summer it was! I think I am still dreaming of mobots and Jubilee street parties. But now that 2012 has left us and we have 2013 to look forward to, I thought I would take a bit of inspiration from one of our (be it wetter) Summer holidays and some really simple yet gorgeous bunting.

It’s really easy to do and looks great as an easy decoration in the house and not just for special occasions.

Firstly you need your cardboard template. I wanted my bunting to be a bit smaller than last time so I measured it out at 10cm across the top and 13.5cm from top to bottom.

templateAs before in my Very British Bunting blog post, I used a cardboard template to trace around. I picked a heavy canvas in Navy and in White to create a bit more of a nautical feel. Well, we do live by the beach. Anyway, after tracing around the templates on the white and then the navy canvas 6 times each I cut the pieces out.

triangle template on fabric

cut out fabric template

After all of the templates were cut out I used my herringbone tape and folded it over the top part of the bunting. The great thing about this bunting is that it is really easy to do in that you don’t have to sew two triangles together each time. It’s simplicity creates a great raw feeling that I love – it doesn’t matter if a few strands of the canvas comes loose around the edges, that just adds to the whole look.

fabric tape

Use your sewing machine to stitch along the tape making sure your canvas triangles are correctly inserted into the tape.

sewing of bunting

Instead of leaving a gap between triangles this time, I decided to sew them side by side in order to create a more compact look. I actually put my new bunting up this morning and it’s already made me feel like spring is on it’s way.

{ 1 comment }

I’m dreaming of a beaded Christmas

by Anna on December 16, 2012

Snowflake CardsI blooming love Christmas! It always gives me the perfect excuse to rummage through my craft cupboard and whip up a Christmas thing or two. Every December, I always start out with the best intentions of sitting in front of a much loved Christmas movie, drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows on whilst I make my Christmas cards. Christmas bliss right?

However and I don’t quite know how, but 2012 seems to have run away with me and before I knew it December was upon me and I hadn’t even unpacked my Christmas decorations, let alone even begun to think about how I was going to make this years Christmas cards.

Therefore, I needed something that I could make quickly as I did have around 45 cards to make, but also looked seasonal, fun and put a smile on people’s faces. The answer came in the form of picture beads. After looking for some inspiration online, I found some great images on a beautiful blog called craftandcreativity.com. Using this as inspiration I set about buying the materials needed to create my Christmas cards.

I already had some seasonal red and green card and envelope sets left over from last year, so all I needed to purchase were the picture beads and Hama boards themselves. After speaking with the staff at hobbycraft they told me that the best board to make snowflakes (my chosen Christmas shape) was a circle. A circular board in hand, plus a star shaped one (just because I love stars…), some red and white beads and some ironing paper I was ready to start making some picture bead shapes.

Templates

Always starting from the center of the board, build your snowflake outwards. Remember to make it symetrical by counting the beads as you build each stem outwards. The fun part about these beads are that you can really experiment with these shapes and be as creative as possible. Mix your colours if you like or keep it simple like I did. I needed the shape to fit easily onto the front of the card so I kept my snowflake quite small.

snowflake formingAfter you have made your shape and are happy with it, you need to cover the board and the beads with the ironing paper. Then heat your iron on the hottest setting. Once ready to go, gently iron over the shape, slowly melting and fusing the beads together. Be careful not to press too hard and keep the iron even, as I learnt quite quickly when I ended up ironing the board as well as the beads. Lets just say I bought a couple more boards the next day, just in case.

ironing

Once the beads are fused together, leave them for a couple of minutes to cool down. I placed them in between two books to keep the shapes quite flat.

melted snowflake

I then placed the cooled snowflake onto the front of my card and sewed it on with a contrasting coloured thread. It added an extra hand crafted dimension to the card that I really liked. I actually enjoyed the ease of this process so much that I got a bit carried away and made several decorations, some gift tags and a star for the top of my tree! Easy peasy and quite effective.

card

close up snowflakes

{ 0 comments }

Push the Button

If there is one thing that doing all of these wonderful projects for our blog site has taught me, it is that I love re-upholstering furniture. Hopefully, one day I’ll even be able to sell a piece and someone will get as much pleasure out of that piece of furniture as I did creating it. [...]

Read the full article →

A Very Happy Birthday

I am sure Chris wouldn’t want me to disclose his actual age and whilst denial is a man’s best friend once you pass the 30 threshold, I still wanted to make the big day as memorable as possible. This included the card. What kind of craft lover would I be if I let a birthday [...]

Read the full article →

Vintage Mirror

It’s amazing what yarn someone will spin to try and sell something for a higher price. There we were at a local car boot sale, being slowly convinced that the picture frame we were looking at was actually a door. A door you say, but it has a big hole in the middle? Yep it’s [...]

Read the full article →

A Floorboard Jewellery Stand

You may have noticed, we’re kind of into making new things out of old bits and pieces. A new lease of life if you will, and right now I’m patting myself on the back. No, not because I ate all the apple pie biscuits from the last story, but because I conquered an impossible challenge. Don’t [...]

Read the full article →