At the weekend

click on the picture for detail

Hope you had a good weekend. And I hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend to those of you who are American.

I've worked on a couple of comic strips this year, without success, so I'm happy with this completed number. See how much my weekend revolved around cooking and eating?!

To those people who put orders in the shop ~ when the packages arrive, and the stamps are really wonky (like on the back of the package), it's because I let three year olds take them to the post office. Just so you know. : )

Hope you have a good start to your week.

All wrapped up

This weeks has been a little bit less about producing work and a bit more about lying down on the couch! A little rest after my shop update shall we say. Never the less I wanted to show you the packaging I made for the shop orders. I'm always so inspired by Sonia's packaging - every time I order something from her beautiful shop it is so thoughtfully packed with stitched fabric bags for the items to go in. I knew I had to smarten up my act and make something too. I made cardboard envelopes which are stitched down the sides and printed on the 'lid'. I puched holes and added ribbons. Now the items looks pretty for people who are giving them away as Christmas gifts.

ps~ have you guys seen Sonia's natural dyed scarves in her shop? I've bought two and they are exquisite!

Tambourine Gal

Just a tambourine gal to bring you some cheer this

Tuesday morning (a day late but nevermind).

Thank you so very much to those people who bought items

 from the shop this weekend! I was delighted. Items should hopefully

go to the post office tomorrow.



Shop Update!!!

Today I spent all day adding finishing touches, photographing and etsying. Now I can say that there are lots of handmade items in my shop! Yay! Here's a list of what I've added; two hand printed needlecases, two hand printed pencil cases, three patchwork needlecases, four pincushions and three printed notebook covers! Below are photos of just some of the items. Nothing costs more than $15! I've really enjoyed making all these items the last few weeks so I'm happy and excited to share them. Hope you are having a good weekend. I'll be back on Monday with some drawings!

Fabric printing pattern crazy

I haven't managed as much crafting this week, I've been meeting up with old friends instead. But as I haven't shared my latest fabric printing with you I have scanned in some pieces of fabric to show you. It's dark in the mornings and after work now so photographing can only be done at the weekends. Below are some of the pieces I'll be turning into pencil cases.

I think the next step for me with all this printing is to start making stamps which are like my drawings. I started by making a few tiny shell stamps and stamped them on paper. The first one is meant to be a fisherman's net with shells in it. The second is the seashore.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope your week is going well. I'm super excited about Sonia's shop update.

Colour wall

That's how we spell colour in England, I haven't spelt it wrong, even though I know spelling isn't my strongest point. Anyhoooow, remember a while ago I said I'd been painting my bedroom wall and I'd show you when I finished. Well I haven't finished it. So I figured I'd just show you anyway. I haven't finished it because I'm not quite sure I like it. I may paint over it and do a different pattern (like the patterns I've been working on recently). Even so I still think it's fun and colourful. Hope your week started well yesterday. I had yoga which is always a positive.

Finishing touches

Just dropping in to let you know that the weekend seemed to fly by and I didn't manage to get any items in the shop yet. I guess it won't happen until at least next weekend.

Here's a photo I took whilst putting some 'finishing touches' on the needlecases and pincushions. I also managed to make three notebook covers on Friday evening (they are the little pile on the right above the zips). Hope you had a fun, relaxing and enjoyable weekend!

Pencil case

This week I've been having a go at using my new colour fabric ink pads. I've been trying quite geometric patterns which isn't very me, but I do like the way they have turned out. I turned the fabrics into a pencil case (following youtube instructions this time) and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm already making more.

And as you can see a bit of the mehndi on my hand in the above photos I thought I may as well show it all. One of the mums at school came in and did mehndi on the children's hands as part of Eid celebrations. It wraps around my arm!

This weekend I hope to finish off some of the craft projects I've been working on, photograph them and put them in my shop. Hopefully there will be needlecases, pincushions and pencilcases for sale.

Hope you have an enjoyable weekend and find some time for yourself. I'm hoping to find time to go to the park.

Printed pouch

After a week of muddled up blog sizes, widths, layouts and what not I've had a sort out (and a bit of a new look). Everything should now look readable on your screens. Let me know if it doesn't.

I wanted to use the printed fabrics to make a more interesting object. So I did one of my google searches for a 'japanese sewn gift' or something like that and I saw this beautiful triangle purse . I decided to have a go at making my own. Perhaps it was a little ambitious considering I haven't made any sort of zipper pouch before. Looking back (and at a youtube video explaining how to make a zipper pouch) I realise I didn't go about it in the most logical way, which explains it's wonkyness. hmmm. BUT I have a little moto which I like to say to myself when I'm stitching, 'It's the mistakes which make it perfect'. Total dork!

Thanks for the japanese magazine suggestions, telling me the blog faults (all fixed now I hope) and for telling me about your craft projects! Always nice to hear what you are up to.

Pins and needles

Before I get stuck into this post can I just ask you if my blog looks normal again? Everything was overlapping and going of the side of the screen the last few days. I've had a go at fixing it and wondered if the extra large photos are too big. Do they go off the side of your screen? Thank you in advance for letting me know. Bloomin blogspot! : )

Ok, on we go.

I've been getting into making lots of quilted needlecases recently. I think I've made six. First I started with fabrics from my collection. Then I made some with the fabrics I printed on recently. I can't stop doing google searches for things like 'japanese sewing project' and 'tiny japanese patchwork' but with not much success. Do any of you know of some good japanese sewing project books for small projects?

This is a little pincushion made from the printed cottons and linen.

This is the outside of a needle case (I'll be folding it in half and adding felt and a fastening).

and this is the lining of the same needlecase.

I'm hoping to finish these and get them in the (somewhat rather empty) shop soon. I'm really enjoying sewing at the moment. I'd love to hear about any nice sewing projects you've been up to.

Chevrons, dots and stripes.

After my evening of printing on paper I had an evening of printing on fabrics. I used the one pad of fabric dye which I have, that's why they are all the same colour. After my fun evening of stamping I saw Melissa's post and thought it was a good idea to take a photo of the fabrics on the wall too.

I can't wait to try some of these patterns in the new colours I've bought. Yellow, orange, sky blue, grey. I'm thinking silk scarves.....any other ideas? I really would like to hear them.

Technical difficulty

Just realised the sizing is all crazy on here. Bear with me till this evening when I'll try and sort it out. I'm finding it difficult to adjust the layout of the blog. Will see what I can do this evening. x

Stamping and folding

Making these paper boxes is a bit addictive! I learnt how to make these when I was a little kid. The other night I had a go and was pleased to find that I could remember how. They're quick and easy to make and there's a tutorial which shows how to make them in a very similar way here.

Here's a shot of the some of the papers in daylight, much more beautiful when you can see the actual colour.

And whilst were at it here's a picture of my rather 'busy' desk. Just to remind us that we're all human.

Have a good start to your week and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Cutting and snipping

Hope you each had a good weekend, finding time to relax, craft, go out in nature, or whatever it is you enjoy.
Each day this week I'll share the craft projects I've been working on. Here are the paper collages I made with the hand stamped papers (you can see them in the previous post). As you can see, the first collage is a mixture of printed paper (the blue stripes) and papers from my collection.

This collage is made of different printed papers. I was thinking a lot about quilt designs whilst making these and that's why I printed on fabrics the following evening. The fabrics have been turned into quilted needlecases, which I'll show too.

I bought six new ink pads in different colours this weekend. I'm looking forward to trying them out on fabric this week.