Crochet Taxidermy Moose

After falling madly in love with the crochet rhino i made i knew i had to make some more - and this is the latest addition - taxidermy moose!! Isnt he just gorgeous!! I modified this reindeer pattern by RoxyCraft, extending the neck and mounting it on an oval plaque, just like with the rhino. I love love love him!

Cake Tin Shelf

  

It always annoys me when i make biscuits or cupcakes with soft icing and i can only fit one layer in a tin - its such a waste of space! So i decided to add a shelf into one if my plastic tins. I screwed 4 screws, one on each side, in the sides, halfway between the top. Then rested a bit of cardboard covered in tinfoil on the screws. Now it has double the capacity - good times!

Peg toys

I love these peg toys (the shark gets me every time) and my sisters boyfriends son (tenuous much!) if a little crafter in the making so i decided to make some peg toy in a kit for him to make. I basically just put all the parts (pegs and cut out drawings) in a bag with some instructions as posted them off to him - simples!

Christmas Makes

Loads of things i want to make as gifts this year!

Reindeer Flannels by bumble bees craft den


Loofah soap by martha stewart



Candied Pecans bysimplyrecipes


Caramel sticks by givers log


Credit card pouches by how about orange





What are you making/hoping to make this year?

Packaging Makes - ideas

I sell packaging in my etsy shop and ive been working on some ideas and makes relating to the packaging.
Some of the ones i found that i love are below

Paper bag lanterns

Stiched glassine bags

Printed paper bags

I might even make my own free printables like these

Glazed glitter letter tutorial

Fab, easy tutorial for a glazed glitter letter over at iheart2stamp. I even have some diamond glaze left over from a previous make so i think i'll be trying this soon!
See my attempt here

Cami band - made!

I got round to making my cami band this weekend. I made it with stretch black lycra following the instructions at makeit-loveit. I am pleased with how it turned out (sorry for the terrible photos, it looks nicer in reality) but i'll definitely make some changes on the next one. I wont use the shiny black lycra again, its too slippy and the band tended to rise up while i was wearing it today, and i think i'll make it longer too. As you can see from the picture i wore it with a particularly short tshirt and i was a bit self conscious all day of the tshirt rising up and exposing the band (and my tum!). Also i think i might try and taper it round my waist a bit more, it fit perfectly round my hips but was a bit loose round my waist, which also made me a bit self-conscious, that maybe you could see the layer of fabric beneath the tshirt. But even with all those negatives i still really like the effect and ive ordered some stretch jersey cotton to try out for the next ones :)
See the mark 2 version here

 

The Make Lounge

My brother kindly bought me a voucher for the Make Lounge in north London for Christmas. I've been on courses there before and they're excellent, really detailed, and they do crafts in a contemporary way. Now I just need to decide which course to do...

Power of Making - V&A

Although I've always loved handmade crafts I've never actually made it to the V&A museum - horrifying I know! But when i saw they had an exhibition called The Power of Making i knew that was the one for me, and it didnt let me down. It was only a small exhibition, in one room, but i spend nearly 2 hours in there looking at all the amazing items. From incredibly technical pieces of mechanical engineering to bespoke shoes and incredibly detailed anatomy models of animal, i was amazed that everything could be grouped together in one exhibit, but it could. Everything there was handmade by incredibly creative and talented craftsmen and women. It was actually really humbling as the level of skill was just inmmense, far beyond anything i could even dream of.
Some of my favourite items were the alphabet pencils, where each letter of the alphabet was painstakingly carved into its own pencil lead (picture on the exhibit homepage), the dissected frog made from lego, disgusting and fascinating all at once and the Widow dress made with over 10,000 dressmaker pins, which at a distance i thought was fluffy or maybe furry and it was only when i got close up that I realised every bit of what i though was fluffy/furry thread was in fact a pin!
A really lovely 2 hours of my life, in fact so nice that i didnt leave enough time to go round any other bits of the museum - definitely an excellent excuse to go back again this year!