I guess I should start this off by greeting all the wonderful people embarking both on this blog and onto this article in particular…
Hello, my name is Rebecca. I’m 27 years and a born, bred and raised Londoner who (I’m guessing like the majority of you reading this blog) has an infinite passion for arts and crafts!
What do I have to offer in the world of arts & crafts?
I wouldn’t say that much to be fair. I don’t have a particular skill set per say (editor: she has a bunch of skills, yay craftiness!), probably my strongest craft skill is cross stitching. I’d love to be able to do other forms of embroidery but cross stitching is something that I was taught at a young age by my school teacher. I find that cross stitching is relaxing for me. I love to see of an evening myself and my mother sitting down with something interesting on the TV (usually Coronation Street – she loves that!), she will be knitting away and I will be cross stitching alongside.
Oh, I guess that means the craft genes were passed on to me through my mum – she has a better skill set than I, but I think because she’s used it so much over the years she’s not as keen on using it as I am??
Anyway, back to my skill set (or lack thereof!!). I also have some basic sewing skills (I can do things like patching holes in things, sewing on buttons, stitching a basic plushie together etc.). Although I would like to enhance those skills to be able to sew to a pattern or to confidently use a sewing machine…
What I’d LOVE to offer in the world of arts & crafts?
Crochet, I am amigurumi mad!! Soooooo adorably cute and cuddly and everything. I am trying to teach myself how to crochet. Problem is, I’m trying to learn too much at the same time and my brain will end up hemorrhaging crochet stitches, car maneuvers, and Polish phrases if I keep this up. So, for now (since I’ve paid to take classes) I will keep up the Polish language until the end of the school year and think about taking up the latter two then (WOO HOO JULY 2017!!).
What am I working on right now?
I am part of an online crafting community. The initial members met on a website called Cut Out & Keep. We kind of wanted to work by our own rules and keep the friendly social interaction we all had, so the League of Extraordinary Crafters started, I’m guessing a good 6/7 years ago? Maybe more? The thing is, they’ve felt like my online crafty family for so long, who was counting the time, right?
…there was a point to this. We host swaps, just like some of these other crafty websites do. We traditionally do at least two swaps a year; one for Halloween and our beloved Christmas ornament swap. Since life has taken over so much, I haven’t been able to participate in a swap for so long so I dived in feet first with this one and I’m swapping with four people!!
To add the cherry and icing to your delicious chocolate cupcake, I will end the blog here and finish it off with some tutorials of the ornaments I am currently working on for this swap. Please do note that the taste and likes of my swap partners are quite varied, so you will find ornaments styled both traditionally and untraditionally alike!!! Enjoy…
Flowery Snowball:
Materials
- White wool (yarn)
- Pom-Pom maker.
- Scissors.
- Glue gun & glue sticks.
- Any small wired flowers (I got mine at Hobby Craft).
Steps
- Grab the ball of white wool and follow this youtube video (this video uses the exact brand of pom-pom maker that I use): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDmtd1h9P00
- However at the end, I tend to cut a longer piece of wool, so as I am wrapping it around the pom-pom and tie it together, I tend to leave a length so that I can knot it together to make a loop that you can hang on the Christmas tree.
- Take the wired flowers and cut most of the length of wire off, leaving the head of the flower with a small wire stump. Do this for as many flowers as you want to put on the snowball pom-pom.
- Heat up your glue gun. Once heated apply an amount of glue (not too much otherwise it will squirt out of the sides and congeal badly) on the wire stump. Then press it against the wool snowball.
- Do this to all of the flowers you want to use. I dotted mine about randomly but you can arrange them how you like it you had a pattern in mind.
- Leave at least 24 hours to dry (just incase).
Your flower snowball is done and ready to hang on the tree!!
Pink & Fluffy Heart:
Materials
- Pink Fluffy Material (you can get this at a local craft store or online, I got mine from Amazon AGES ago!!).
- Ribbon (you can get this at a local craft store).
- Sharp sewing needle.
- Pink thread.
- Plushie stuffing (you can get this at a local craft store).
- Sharp scissors.
- Pencil/Sharpie marker.
Steps
- On the non-fluffy side of the material, draw out two regular heart shape (you can find stencils online).
- Using the scissors, cut out the two heart shapes.
- Take the two heart shapes and put them together, fluffy side on the inside.
- Fold the piece of ribbon in half, to make a loop shape.
- Have the edges of the ribbon along the top edge of the heart with the loop tucked inside the middle (as you backstitch along the edge of the heart, it will sew the ribbon along the edge of the ornament.
- Back stitch along most of the edges of the heart shape.
- Leave a small gap so that you have a space to turn the ornament inside out so that the fluffy side is now on the outside.
- Fill the ornament with plushie stuffing.
- Over-sew the gap so that the two halves are fully sewn together
Fluffy heart it all made, if you want you can add some more glamor to it, some stick on diamontes (heat set gems) along the ribbon, or some glitter etc.
