Craft Goodies #2

Is it possible to be both good and bad? So April will be the first month in, well, months that I haven't added to my stash. That doesn't mean I haven't looked but I haven't bought anything yarny. I did buy some crafting goodies and since my last post on crafting goodies was back in September I think that' not too bad. 

First up we have a blocking board that I have been trying to get my hands on for months. I thought this would be an ideal way to block all of those little squares that I have. The board is by Daisy Boo Creations. The reason they are so hard to come acrosss is that they are extremely well made and they are done by hand. As you all know these things take time to create and they have quite the reputation so everyone is wanting one. It was first come first served but now you can join a waiting list so long as you are willing to wait and happy to pay a deposit up front. I was more than happy to do this and my patience paid off cause look what I now have. It made for a very pretty parcel too which you can see on my instagram feed if you are interested. Now I just need for my wrist to get better so that I can crochet all those squares together.

I have long been an admirer of needle minders ever since I saw one from my old knitting group with one. I have since seen them about Instagram and I have always meant to purchase one for myself. I then came across Arty Moments and I could no longer resist. She has a whole host of different needle minders but it was the scrabble tiles that appealed to my not so inner geek. I then spotted the dominos tile and the next thing I knew there were two winging their way to me (oops).

These are fab for stitchers. I am very guilty of threading the needle through my fabric when I'm not using it. Other stitchers will tell you that this is not good for the fabric. These little minders will hold onto the needle without fear of distorting your fabric. It's also a good way of holding onto extra needles if you have a lot of colour changes. Saves you from constantly rethreading your needle. I will warn you that the magnets are strong so you should always keep them seperated otherwise you might separate the magnet from the front piece. Something that the lovely Stacey warns you of if you are ordering from Arty Moments. And did I start a new project just so that I could show these off? Don't be silly, pfft!

Lastly I treated myself to some washi tape because I really don't have enough! Moving on. I got these tapes from etsy too. These are by Unwrap Colour who do a whole host of lovely washi tapes. It was actually a challenge not to go mad. I even bought one with little cats for my sister. For myself I stuck with little houses, biscuits, hot air balloons and little pineapples.

I'm going to be honest. The houses are my favourite. I can't wait to use it.

All of these pages have been added to my craft shopping page as well as linked here. If anyone has any new crafting toys I would love to hear about them.

Pins I Love - Getting Organised

 I thought it would be apt to have this pins I love post following on from Wednesdays.

Believe it or not people love to share their organiser and planners. A lot of creative types use it as just another creative outlet. I love seeing them on pinterest and have a board dedicated to filofaxes (although I pin anything planner related in there).  Scattered Fashionista shared her Erin Condren planner. It would seem that Erin Condren is a US stationary designer famous for her planners. Why I am sharing this one though is that I think it highlights how you can use washi tape and post-its to be both useful and decorative (I love washi tape and post-its). I haven't linked this blog to my list because it's more of a lifestyle blog than a craft blog. However, you can link on the above image and it will take you to it.

This one is one of my favourites. Viv's of Oh Shoot writes in detail how she uses her filo fax. She has lots of useful ideas in there based on what works for her. The images here are so pretty! While I like her post and I love the look of her filofax it's a little too big for me. I would want to carry this about everywhere and I already carry far to much in my bags. Sadly this blogger has disappeared from both her blog and twitter so no link.

As we all know I am a book fiend. I LOVE this idea although it involves a lot of work.  Incarnations of Organization is a blog about planning. Sadly it hasn't updated in a year but the author was very creative with her filofax. A fellow lover of washi tape. However, it was the above image that caught my attention. She uses her planner to keep a list of books that she wants to read and books for her book club. She came up with the idea of putting images of the book cover in there. These are little stickers which she has printed out and can be moved from 'to read' to 'read'. I love this but like I said it's a lot of work. A lot of time spent in front of the computer manipulating images. I would lose patience with it very quickly.

Bullet journals have become increasingly popular. I've noticed that just by my feed on pinterest. This is just a form of list making. It originated by Ryder Carrol. It's supposed to be that by using bullet points in a more creative manner you will become more organised.  It's fairly easy to follow and saves on lots of post-its all over the place. As much as I love a list and often use checklists. I just put them on post-its and stick them in my planner. Not sure I would want to dedicate a diary or journal to it. Might be interesting to see if it works though.

This last one isn't in English I'm afraid. It's a tutorial by Lucy Wonderland. It shows you how to make pockets for your organiser/filofax. Normally I wouldn't link a blog which isn't in English, or doesn't have some form of translate. The images in this tutorial though are kind of self-explanatory. I also thought it would be nice to have something that you can actually craft in the hopes that it would make it a little more interesting (for those of you who aren't stationary geeks like me).

Project Round Up!

This is the last of my catch up posts. The truth is that I haven't done a whole lot of crafting this year and so it's fairly easy to fit it all in on the one. My photo's are also a little all over the place and in some cases I have only taken and I would have much preferred a few other shots if I was posting about them on their own.

This first finish is a freebie kit from a magazine I have taken too. I stopped buying cross stitch magazines years ago in favour of knitting magazines (which I have also since stopped buying) because the tended to have almost the same things every week. Cross Stitcher seems to have changed it's style in that period and quite often there are retro or vintage designs in there that I love. This freebie keyring was one of them. I am a huge fan of Cath Kidston and I think this keyring fits in to that style. Having said that I passed it on to my mum as soon as it was finished. It was my first time stitching onto wood which felt strange and a little awkward when threading off ends.

This mini accordion scrapbook was taught to me by my friend Lyn. She gave my knitting group a class on making these whilst we were away the weekend. At first it felt a little footery. I am normally okay at papercrafts but I had to concentrate to ensure I stuck everything down the right way. I like the end result although I have yet to decorate the insides. I will post that as soon (if I every) as I do that.

This is Colin and he is one of my favourite finishes. I love instagram and someone I followed was stitching this design. I had to ask where she got the pattern from which she kindly told me. It was designed by a lady who has her own shop on etsy under the name Pickle Lady Farm. The key recommends a gold colour but as it's done in the one shade it's easy enough to change it. My sister wanted a Dalek as soon as she heard about the pattern and I got her to pick the colour. So here is her alternative Dalek. He's not the most conventional!

This photo doesn't show the true size of this blanket. I wish I had take more photo's of it. It's a large granny square which I did for my sister's best friend. I did it in aran yarn which had a fab feel to it when done. I picked out the colours special for her and I think it's one of my favourite granny projects so far. I even did the fan edging round the border.

A few people at knitting group had been learning from Laura how to do a bobble stitch in crochet. I have since learned that it is actually called popcorn stitch but we call it bobble. It was nice to learn a new crochet stitch and was surprisingly easy to do. I did this scarf in the stitch using a glittery cotton by Sirdar. I have since handed it in to the knitting group for the shoebox charity.

For a while back I was obsessed with these tiny cross stitch kits by Mouseloft. My sister can be thanked for that as she bought me a few as extra gifts for Christmas or birthdays. I now have a fair collection of them with no idea what to do with them. Any ideas? This bumble bee I actually stitched for my sister.

I stitched three animals she liked, including the bumble bee. and put them in a pencil stand. The fabric turned out to be shorter than the stand but she likes it.

So that's my project round up. I am working on other things so will have more up to date posts for you soon.