If You Go Down to the Woods Today....

.... Look Out for a Crafty Creatives Craft Tea Time Creation!

So having sat and looked at the beautiful goodies in box again and again, I remembered my  box picture frame, which I've been wondering what to do with for a while now. I love all the beads in the box, but I wanted to try and do something a little less obvious than simply make some jewellery from them, and then inspiration struck- I'd make something for my box frame!!

The standard insert to the frame happened to be trees anyway, and after a discussion my boyfriend he thought it would be more interesting to leave the size and details on the background- the idea being people would think it was empty and then on closer inspection discover the contents.

From CC Box 7 I used;

Flower Soft
The felting kit
A mushroom bead
A fox bead
An owl cut from the fabric
Some of the buttons
A birch heart
I also used the wire holding the foxes together to make the flowers.

I

I added some of the flower soft to the tree pictures on the insert to give an autumn feel to the picture.

I felted different shades of wool to make some grass. I used the wire holding the foxes together to make some flowers by covering the tips in glue and then rolling in flower soft. I cut an owl from the fabric to perch on a branch, and then used a strong glue to fix the mushroom and fox in place. As a finishing touch I sprinkled a little of the flower soft on the felt to give the autumn feel of fallen leaves.

Finally I added some of the buttons and a heart to the outside using a strong glue.

And there you have it, CC box 7 in a box (frame)!

As Light as.....

....a Peacock Feather.

It's my Grandma's birthday on Feb 6th so I thought I would make her a card using something from my crafty creative box.

I'm not sure where I got the idea to turn one of the leaf skeletons into a peacock ut that's what I decided to do and here's how it went...

You will need;

A blank card
acrylic paints
leaf skeleton
tissue paper
paint brushes 
glue

First draw around the leaf skeleton onto your blank card.

Then using your main choice of colour fill in the outline. Before the paint dries completly place the leaf skeleton on the paint. 

Decorate the leaf skeleton- I trace a few of the lines and added some "eyes". I also painted on two legs.

Once the paint hhad dried I stuck on a piece of tussue paper for the head and body. Give it some eyes and a beak and there ya have it!

 

 

 

 

Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his....

...Crafty Creative Box!!

So, this is a little late really as I got my Crafty Creatives Box 7 last week BUT hey it's been snowing (that just seems like the excuse for everything at the moment so it could wash!)

Anyway, the Crafty Creatives box 7, arrived last week and is pretty special I have to say. With a woodland theme, the first thing I laid my eyes on was the gorgeous art card by Lucy Farfort (/www.lucyshappyplace.com/default) Featuring a family of foxes in the autumn weather and I LOVE foxes :)

Also packed into the box were;
2 little fox beads
toadstool beads
leaf hearts
flower soft and glue (never heard of this but am looking forward to giving it a go)
leaf skeletons
an owl charm
some leaf pendants
Owl fabric
a pine cone
some birch hearts
and a felting kit

Not only amazing contents but amazing value I'm sure you'll agree. 

The boxes are from Crafty Creatives
(craftycreatives.com)

Subscription is £10 + 2.95p&p and is well worth every penny, not only the excitment of getting some crafty goods every month, but the not knowing what you get and getting to try some crafty goodies I'd never considered or tried before plus the fun lasts all month iwth the logging and tweeting of what people have been doing in their craft-tea-times,

LET'S PUT THE KETTLE ON

Do Robots Dream....

.... of Electric Sheep (with electric wool for knitting patterns)?

Here's a little knitting pattern for a robot I drew up a few weeks ago.

If you would like an electronic version of this pattern please e-mail greatandsewn@hotmail.co.uk and I can send you a bigger version.

"I'm the Gin in.....

.... the Gin Soaked Boy."

Neil Hannon, The Divine Comedy, 1999.

This has to be one of my favourite "makes", Gin Liqueur. It's so simple and so delicious.

I first had some of this at my friend's house one afternoon after lunch, when I asked her where she got it from I was amazed when she said she'd made it! I quickly got the instructions and the next day went into production. I'm pleased to say it worked really well and I have since given mini bottles of this as Christmas presents, I have only heard good things from the recipients.

Materials Needed;

Gin or white rum (I have been told vodka isn't a good spirit for this but I have used both of these and they work fine.)

Fruit- it's better if the fruit has a stronger flavour.

Sugar

2 glass bottles

Knife

Sieve

Small glass bottle - if you want to decant into smaller bottles as gifts, otherwise you can our it back into the original bottle.

In these pictures I was making mango,  mango & apple and blueberry. But I have also made strawberry & raspberry (using frozen fruit) and  orange & ginger (using powdered ginger!) which have both been delicious. The steps are the same, just substitute the fruit.

Here's what to do...

1. Cut up the fruit in to small pieces- they need to go into the bottle and come out easily.

 2. Put fruit into the bottle until it almost a third full (in all honesty I think I didn't use enough in the picture shown, but in other batches I used more)

3. Add about 1-2inches of sugar.

 4. Pour spirit into the bottle until it is full, leave about 3cm at the top of the bottle.

5. Give the mixture a good shake.

This is a bottle of strawberry & raspberry I had brewing at the time.

 6. Put the mixture in a cupboard and leave it! I usually take it out every few weeks and give it a shake.

7. After 3 months take the liqueur out and taste it, if you are happy with the taste move onto step 8.

If the fruity flavour is not really strong enough leave it in the cupboard for a bit longer (upto 6 months is fine) if it's not sweet enough add more sugar.

8. When you are happy with the taste, drain the liqueur through a sieve to remove the fruit. As the fruit has absorbed quite a lot of the spirit, I recommend using a spoon to help get the moisture out.

 I also placed the fruit in a bowl and found the liquid naturally drained out and I was able to refilter- I think I recovered another shot worth of liqueur doing this, so it's worth being patient!

9. When you've finished draining pour the liqueur into a bottle for the cupboard. These were presents so I collected smaller glass bottles from cafes and pubs, but also have some in the cupboard for me in a larger bottle.

And there you have liqueur, it's lovely after a meal sipped from a shot or sherry glass.

If You Go Down to the Woods Today....

...Beware of the Scary Bear Cushion.

A while ago I said I would have a go at making a Radiohead Scary Bear cushion and then the sieve-brain I am I totally forgot about it. I was reminded over Christmas and here are the results.

Materials Needed;

White material
Various round objects- I found a saucepan lid and a tutterware container were the perfect sizes.
Black and white cotton
Toy Stuffing
Scissors
A pencil
A Sewing Machine

This is a real Scary Bear...

And this is how I made my Scary Bear...

 Using the various round things from the kitchen I drew an outline of Scary Bear's face plus two ears in pencil on the white material.

I found that the circle for the eyes was also the right size for the ears.

Once the ouline was drawn, I then added an extra 2.5cm circle around the outside for the seam.

*Remember to cut out pieces for the back of the cushion too- for the head and both ears the same size (including seams allowance) as the outlined pieces.

I then set my sewing machine to a full stitch and set about sewing over the penciled outline.

For the ears I only completed about 3/4 of the circle.







When the entire face was complete I turned it over
and threaded all the loose ends through to the side
with the pencil on, leaving a neat sewn outline without pencil marks on the right side. 

With the right sides facing I then tacked the ears to the piece with the sewn face making sure to include a small dart to allow for the curve when sewing together and some stuffing.

Then sew all three sections- ears, sewn face and plain material -together, leaving a small gap on the side somewhere.

Turn Scary Bear right side out and stuff with polyester toy stuffing and hand sew the hole closed.

And there you have a Scary Bear cushion :)

Pots and....

... Pens.

Before Christmas and the New Year I decided to have a go at some pottery. I bought myself a (massive) bag of airdrying Newclay and then did nothing about it as present making took over.

This week I finally sat down to have a go at making some pen pots for work (I'm a teacher and move classrooms every other lesson but have a chaotic cardboard box of stationary, so I thought I'd solve the problem esp. since at least half the kids don't bring a pen to class!)

Materials Required;

Newclay airdrying clay - I got a 12kg bag from ebay
Some pottery tools -These were also from ebay
Newclay hardener (H1)- from ebay again
Acrylic paints-  from Wilkos
Brushes- -
Varnish- also from wilkos



Here are a few pictures of the results...

First I used the Newclay to make a pot shape. 

I made the pot from one piece by hollowing it out rather than rolling and sticking together.






Then I added a bit of decoration and
 left to dry for 48 hours.

 Once they were dry I painted them with 2 layers of Newclay hardener and left for another 24hours.

I'm not sure how well this stage worked to be honest, it didn't seem to mix all that well with the water and has since separated in the jar despite saying it will last indefinatly?!?

  I painted the pots with acrylic paints from Wilkos, I bought primary colours to mix together.

Finally, I coated the pots in 2 layers of varnish- this was just simple wood varnish also from wilkos and seems to have worked nicely.

Now they are all ready for my pens....

Welcome....

... to Craft-Tea-Time.

There really is nothing better than a bit of craft with a cuppa, and as such, that's the inspration for this new blog (though I have shamelessly stolen the name from someone else's brain- you know who you are and I hope you don't mind!)

The main purpose of this new venture is to document makes and crafts, which I have done or which interest me, rather then to be a day-to-day living blog (though the two may possibly overlap at some point).

To start theings off here's a few pictures of my favourite makes I completed from last year (2012), seems a few things never made it to being snapped though :( ....

Greedo and Yoda from "Star Wars"

Pacman  ghost tea cosy

Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit"

Fruit liqueurs

I took part in a mini tote bag swap- this is what I made for my swap with Hannah (you can read her blog here) 




Watch this space for more soon....