November's craft - Fail :-(

For this month's craft I wanted to try and make some simple tree decorations with a variation on salt dough that produces a white finished item when baked.

There is a great tutorial for making these on the woodside kitchen blog and the ones shown there look really lovely.

I mixed up my ingredients, cooked it on the hob until I had a clay and then cut out and baked my decorations which I decorated with snowflake stamps... all good so far, however after baking only half the recommended time they and dried out, bubbled up, cracked and fallen apart.

So either used the wrong ingredients (quite likely as I substituted cornflour for cornstarch and baking powder for baking soda) or I baked these too long.

I think I had best stick to crochet & felt to finish up the rest of the Christmas decorations I need to make!

October's craft: Icing :-)

Sorry for not posting a craft for September - I did try to do one, but it turned out so badly that I didn't even bother photographing my attempts...

So for October I thought I would give a bit of simple icing a go. First I made up a quick batch of gingerbread men from a recipe on the BBC food website. Then armed with a circle of greaseproof paper and some icing sugar had a go at making some icing and my first ever icing bag... and I'm very happy to say I managed it!

Icing bag in hand I got to work and before I knew it I had my own little army of gingerbread men... now to go and test a few :-)

August's craft: Pyrography

Pyrography is simply put - wood burning. You can either use a specialist tool like the one in this photo or something similar like a soldering iron.

One of my recent Birthday presents was a book on pyrography and a wood burning pen - very exciting! So after raiding the garage for a spare bit of wood to practice making marks on, my mother in law and I had a go. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out which nibs to use first and after a bit of playing we both managed to produce a few different effects.

My first impressions were that it was much trickier than I had anticipated - the projects in my new pyrography book are all so beautifully produced that looking at my own scruffy efforts was a little disheartening. However, after a good nights sleep I decided to get back in and see what I could do second time around. Though I still found the pen hard to use (due to the tip needing to get very hot to use you have to hold the pen much further down - it's not at all like how you would use a normal ink pen) my second attempts were much, much better and I even had a go at a simple leaf design on a basic wood picture frame.

I now have a slightly burnt tea towel (I got impatient for the pen to cool down enough to change nibs and tried using a tea towel to do it while it was still hot - not a very smart idea) but I'm keen to do more and will now be actively looking for wooden things to decorate... hopefully I find some quick as I may have to resort to practicing on our furniture!

July's craft - Machine sewing

In my on-going quest to tame the sewing machine I went to one of the 'crafternoon' sessions being held locally at Traders outlet. The session was to make reversible handbags - a simple pattern but involving sewing in curves so quite tricky for a novice like me.

Being able to sit and concentrate on some craft for a whole afternoon was a real treat - Rich took the two little ones out for the morning while I got to indulge my crafty side as well as eating up some very tasty home made muffins.

These are the two bags that I made up - they need a quick iron but I'm really happy with how they turned out. They don't need any buttons or zips to close, all you have to do is thread the longer strap through the shorter strap and it hands around your wrist.  To give them a finishing touch I think I'll just make up some crochet flowers and then into the Christmas box they will go!

I'm going to be teaching a crochet crafternoon some time in September so if you are local then do get in touch and I'll send you the details.

Thanks to my mother-in-law for paying for this as one of my presents - I had a lovely time!

June's craft: Quilting

To give me a break from all the crocheting I've been doing for my new Etsy shop I thought I would make a start on my lovely 'Art girl quilt kit' which I won from believemagic last month.

Well - it would seem that making art quilts are a little addictive and I've not been able to leave this one alone, and now it's finished!

I embellished my pretty girl with a little ruffled apron and a crochet flower for her hair. I did a bit of free hand embroidered writing for the 'Time for Tea' which is okayish - but could do with being a bit more central.

This quilt has a little bit of everything, blanket stitching, patchwork, hand quilting & my first ever attempt to add bias binding. Not too sure what to do with my pretty girl now but I'm sure I'll find somewhere in our home to display her proudly :-)

April's craft: Knitting

Just managed to squeeze in my new craft for this month - only just though!

This little knitted heart is the first thing I've knitted for over 15 years! I taught myself to knit as a teenager and could do the basic stitches as well as a little shaping, but apart from making a couple of teddy bears I never got around to doing much with my new skill... then I started to crochet and that just took over!

I've been meaning to pick up my needles again for a while though and after figuring out how to cast on (such a fiddly thing to do - reminds me so much of playing cat's cradle) it all came back pretty easily. Making this heart took a good couple of hours though and left me with very sore and crampy hands, so I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more knitting any time soon!

March's craft: Paper cutting

Sorry to be late with last month's new craft... I almost got it done in time but trying to do a new craft with a 3 year old dashing about and wanting to have a go with your exciting looking knives isn't as easy as I had thought it would be.

So this for March's new craft I decided on paper cutting and after getting the kids to bed the other night I managed to get the design for this lovely little bird decoration printed out and cut all in the same evening. I love some of the beautiful paper cut projects that I've seen on the internet recently so when I saw this quick project in my Kirstie Allsopp "Craft" book I couldn't wait to have a go.

There area  couple of things I'll try to remember to do differently next time - use a sharp/new knife, cut paper not card & set up some decent lighting before you start.

February's craft: Glass painting

The giveaway is now closed - thanks to all who took part!

I love painting glass - it's easy, relatively quick and always gives such rewarding results.

These heart nightlight holders are the ones I painted up for the recent 'sisters valentines swap'. Very simple to do - just some free hand hearts drawn on with outliner paste and filled in with red glass paint.

If you fancy giving this craft a go then have a look at my mini glass painting tutorial.

January's craft: Cross stitch

January seems to have flown by incredibly quickly - so I'm finding it a little tight to get the first of my monthly craft posts in. This year I'm going to try and complete a project using a different craft each month and to start me off I've been working on a little cross stitch project.

This little cross stitch kit is was the free gift that comes with the Cath Kidstone "Stitch" that I got for Christmas. The kit is to make up a simple little purse on some pre-printed canvas fabric. To help keep your stitches lovely and even you are also provided with a little piece of dissolvable cross stitch cloth. Once I had finished working the cross stitch design on the front of the purse I got to rinse the canvas in water and see the dissolvable stuff magically disappear. Before finishing up the purse I also added a piece of white felt to the back of the design which will hopefully help prevent any of the thread at the back of the work getting pulled.

Pretty and quick - my favourite type of project! Now I wonder what I shall do for February?