My Bauble in Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine

Firstly sorry for the blog silence, I did blog but the posts didn't upload from last week. This post is from Monday (16th December)

You may remember my felt bauble from a few weeks ago. Well I sent a picture of it to Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine as I got the inspiration from an up-cycling feature. Today after a hectic day at work I found my copy of the magazine had arrived and had a quick flick through to see how they used the free gifts when I saw my bauble! It was 'editors favourite'. I'm so surprised and happy

Now I really ought to start preparing dinner (currently leaning against kitchen sink with a half made coffee!)

Christmas Decorations Using Felt Flowers

I've got quite a lot of felt and had this idea while laying in bed recovering from a migraine (the part where I think my head feels fine but am scared to move incase my migraine is just pretending it's gone)

I absolutely love cutting fabric and felt on my Sizzix Big Shot using the bigz dies and had a polystyrene ball from the Crafty Creatives birthday box still left over. 

The things I used to make the flower ball were:

Three colours of felt 

Polystyrene ball (mine had been drawn on when I was contemplating another project)

Red satin ribbon (5mm wide)

Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and my BigShot

Silver glitter glue

Silicone glue 

To begin with I used the Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and cut two large flower shapes from red felt (if you dont have a die like this you can cut one by hand, its only to cover the top and bottom of the ball and wont really be seen). I then cut lots of the small flowers from the die. I cut around 100 flowers from the felt in three colours(cutting 5 at a time...got to love Bigz dies) and put these to the side. You dont need 100 but I wanted enough for other projects. 

Take one large flower and cut a slit in the middle as wide as your ribbon then thread the two ends of your ribbon through the slit so you have a loop one side. Glue the two loose ends to the felt.

Next glue the flower with the ribnon to the top of your polystyrene ball (I used silicone glue for a firm hold) and place the other large flower on the bottom. The flower shape easily moulds round the ball due to the petals. 

Next cover the ball with your small flowers again I used silicone glue, and I started on the middle which didnt have any felt on, built this up and then covered the rest of the ball. I found it was best to randomly dot glueon the ball, add the flowers then work on the gaps inbetween. If you also glue just the centre you get a more 3D look to the flowers.

You can stop here but I then added some glitter glue to the centre of each flower (that was showing). To do this I put my flower ball in a small cup so I could glitter one side without touching it, left it to dry, turned the ball round and glittered the other side.

I got so enthusiasic about covering the ball with flowers that I did it to the woodern hearts I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. This would be great on the front of a card and the recipient can then hang it on their tree.

Youcould also use just one colour felt to fit in with your theme or leave off the ribbon, add a wooden stick/rod and put it in a little bucket or pot for a table decoration (which could be used all year round)

Ninja Gnome!

My Dad gave me this kit to try out for a review and it sounded brilliant! A kit comprising of a book on how to make a number of felt gnomes and materials to make a Ninja Gnome.

There were a few bits wrong with this kit though as it promised you could make a ninja gnome with the items contained in the box however there wasn't enough felt, not enough thread, no needle, no glue and no stuffing! Luckily I had all the added bits needed in my stash.

The gnome took 2 hours to make from start to finish. He is pretty cool and now hides around our flat! My husband and I started playing a game where we hide Jeffrey (the gnome) but it has to be in plain sight. I first put him in our bathroom ontop of a canvas print and it took Lee until the next time to notice him. It's a bit childish but a funny game!

I think I'll make some of the other gnomes at some point as they are pretty cool

The front of the box (the packaging was upside down)

The back of the book

The Ninja tempate

The kit

The pieces cut out (the back of his head should have been red but they didnt give you enough red felt!)

Finished Jeffrey!

Jeffrey hiding in my mug

Jeffrey hiding in the bathroom