Fido

Here is Fido an embroidered dog for Lilly :)
It features ribbon roses, bullion roses and the usual freinch knots and other straight stitches. These are lots of fun to make too!!

Eric The Red

This is a beaded pot made for my Dad. This is a very time consuming project, yet very rewarding as i feel the end result is wonderful!! I am looking forward to making more pots in the different patterns featured in a book i have, called Beaded Boxes by Julia Pretl.

Felix Felicis Necklace

I made this for a swap at the Harry Potter crafts group, its a miniature bottle of the ultimate good luck potion, Felix Felicis!! Its made using Swarovski crystals and the spiral rope stitch.
I also made a mobile phone charm with "Grow-Your-Own-Wart" potion in a miniature bottle.

Beaded Thistles

These cute thistles are beaded over a wooden bead using a netted stitch. The tops are stitched using a very easy fun "rolled" flower. This design is by Diane Fitzgerald, i bought this kit about 6 years ago, and finally made it up during the past week. I bought a new vase to display them in....it gorgeous Royal Doulton!!!

Latest Polymer Clay stuff

I made the cupcake earrings for a donation to the Mother's Day stall at my childrens' school :)




Here is what i have been making in clay.....not as much as i would like too....i find its a difficult craft to do on the "go". I can pick up my beading and embroidery whenever...but clay i really like to start and finish on the day....the Dragons and lollipops are for sale at my Etsy shop :)

Latest Cross Stitch

Here is the piece i made for my nephew as a housewarming gift :) It is a barramundi by Graeme Ross Originals. This took quite a lot of stitching time. More than i had thought....well aren't all cross stitch pieces like that?

Alice In Wonderland Inspired crafts

Here is what i created for an Alice in Wonderland swap at ravelry. As i am not a knitter, i am a member of a group where you can participate in other types of crafting :) I enjoy these as they are a challenge and you get tp put together an awesome box for your recipient :)

Jellyfish Jam

I have created this piece for a challenge, thropugh one of the beading groups i belong to, Beaddreamz@yahoogroups.com The theme for this challenge is Ocean Adventures. I love the beach, the ocean, the sand the coast, mermaids, fish and coral and everything about it!! It was too tempting not to do a piece! The focal bead is from Earthworks Glass on ebay. They make beautiful glass beads, vessels and paperweights.

The base for this piece is done in 4 bead tubular herringbone stitch. I then added the focal using a small spiral rope piece, as the bead had a "loop" rather than a "hole". From there i added loads of branched fringing and added pearls, swarovski bicones and my own little 3D jellyfish. I made these by making 3 heart shapes in brick stitch with the base row being 5 beads wide. I then sewed these together with the points meeting at the top. I then added fringing where you go back through the strand and skip every secong or third bead to make it crunch up like tentacles. There are also 3 swarovski star fish which i loved and was so glad to find a use for them here.

The clasp is based on instuctions from Laura McCabe's Crystal book.

Stumpwork Geranium

Stumpwork Geranium Pattern

Stumpwork Geranium Instructions

I love doing stumpwork embroidery. Here is a pattern i created and mounted into a lid of a pot. You could also make it up into a card or a small picture.

You will need,
Calico x2 20cm x 20cm
Main Fabric 20cm x 20cm
Starnded cotton either DMC or Anchor i mixed mine up using a bit of both 666 dmc is a good bright red, but geraniums are many shedas of pink too.
2 shades of green stranded cotton
Florist wire 28 guage
embroidery needle and large chenille needle
Here is the basic outline of the design. You will need to print it out and then trace it using a black pen onto tracing paper, then using a light box or sunlit window trace it onto your choice of fabric in pencil, a soft 2B is good. For the fabric i used white satin which i backed onto calico, as with most stumpwork you need to back your fabric as it needs that extra support. This is mounted in a small hoop and screwed in tight, it needs to be drum tight.
Once your design is traced onto it you then stitch the stems in STEM STITCH. I then outlined the leaf in SPLIT STITCH. I used a nice bright fresh green green :) and a darker green for the raised stems, play around with the threads you have on hand. The leaf was then stitched in CHAIN stitch going round and round working from the outside in. Keep these stitches small.
For the flowers, i did 6 detatched patals and 6 surface petals, i picked one from my garden and used it to copy. For the detatched petals, mount a piece of calico in a small hoop. Take a piece of florist wire and following the petals picture stitch the wire onto the calico, and then cover the wire using BLANKET stitch. To fill in the petal i used LONG and SHORT stitch. Make as many as you want then carefully cut them out as close to the wire as you can. Really sharp scissors are good :) Keeping the tails at the base of the petal to attach them to the main piece.
Stitch the surface petals, outline them first in SPLIT stitch and fill them in LONG and SHORT stitch. Stitch buds in SATIN stitch. Attach petals to the piece with chenille needle making a hole and pushing the wire ends through, stitch these down at the back. Postion them to sit nicely by moving the wires around before securing.

Crystals for Sarah

I also made this for my niece Sarah, it has swarovski crystals and pearls.

Spirit Doll-Kahuna

I made this for my niece Sarah, in memory of her Dad, my brother Ricky. The charms etc., represent him and things he loved to do in life.

Leather Exotics

Finally! Some crafting to put up on my blog!! Busy busy summertime and not much crafting getting done. These are really quick to whip up, strung on beautiful Kangaroo leather and two of these i have for sale at my etsy shop.