Rosy Decoupage and Christmas Puds

Hello all, and thanks so much for all the fabric love the last few days :)

I still haven't touched it or made any attempt to even think about organising it! But what I have done instead is a spot of decoupage. You may remember back here I showed you some gorgeous napkins given to me by a lady on SCC, at the time I had no plans for them, but knew I would save them til I found the perfect project. And I found it...

These little wooden IKEA boxes which I have had for absolutely years had a pretty little makeover. I also painted the insides to match and am so happy with the outcome. 

I am using them to store the new additions to my blogshop. Surprisingly I only used one of each type of napkin, so I still have loads more to use and would love some other ideas for what I could use them on.

Any thoughts?

This week I also made a little christmas purchase from the lovely Debbie at Aunty Wainwrights Treasures. These adorable felt christmas pudding decorations. They are beautifully crafted and will look fab on the tree. Please do visit Debbie's shop to see more of her lovely handmade goodies.

Have a wonderful weekend all X

Out of Control?

Looks pretty and neat and organised right?

Take a step back....

And look on the next shelf down....

Oh dear, time to start organising the stash!!

Any tips? X

Fantastic Fabric

Thanks for all the enamel love yesterday guys :)

The correct price of the bread bin was £5 as guessed by another Gem at Echo Lodge - bargain!!

This week has seen a few little packages dropping through the letter box for me. Little packages of beautiful, pretty and oh so lovely fabric.

This pretty pink parcel arrived from Seamstar which I have recently discovered, which sells some absolutely gorgeous fabrics including these beautiful Tanya Whelan 'Darla Rosie Dot' fabrics which I am actually going to declare right here and now as my favourite fabric EVER! Yes a strong statement!! Tanya has a beautiful blog too, so please check it out here.

I got a FQ of the pink and the red background, to add to the blue background I bought a little while ago, I would love to make a quilt or something for myself using these, but oh I just don't want to cut into them! Ever!

I also bought this Michael Miller 'Tea Time' fabric from Ebay, I bought it because yes its pretty, and its very sweet and vintage looking, but also, it really really reminded me of my own illustrations that I've shown you before here.

Obviously mine aren't as lovely as these, but there is quite a similarity I thought...

Like this cupcake filled cake stand...

And my illustration...

Little violet topped cupcakes...

Chocolate cake?

Mmm yes please!

Anyway, I love it, and think it would make a great fabric for some kitchen things, tea towels, oven gloves etc...the only problem is cutting into it! X

P.S Only one month to go! Can't wait!!

Enamel Love

Is anyone else a big fan of enamel? 

I certainly am, and was lucky enough to spot this gorgeous vintage enamel bread bin in the Charity Shop the other day. I've not seen anything similar before and pounced on it, I had already decided I was getting it before I had even picked it up. I gave it a quick once over and proceeded to carry it around with me as I looked at the rest of the shop!

Of course its not going to be used as a bread bin, we already have one of those! But I am using it to store all that wrapping ephemera you have sitting in various drawers and cupboards, you know the type, labels, string, ribbon, odd pieces of wrapping paper, tissue paper and so on. Well this is now storing it all in preparation for the big C word! And I have been busy wrapping today, and its really handy to just chuck everything back in when you're done, no special drawer for the selotape or ribbon, just bung it all in!

It looks quite old to me, but I could be wrong, has anyone seen this style before? The rose motif has been stenciled on rather than hand-painted, so thats more of a newer thing I would guess. Any ideas?

Its pretty big as you can see from the top photo next to some other rather lovely enamel, and considering it was pushed at the back of the bottom shelf I think it was a rather good find!

Would you like to take a guess at the price?????

Well not silly cheap now, there are no 10 pence bargains to be had in London!! X

Stocking Up

You may remember I did a little WIP post a while back here about these pretty christmas stockings I was in the process of making. Well all five are now finished and have been very sadly sent off to Emporium to be sold. Although I do wish I had kept the red and white floral print...I do love that yummy fabric!




Anyway before they went I did a little photo shoot with them as you can see they posed rather well together on these hooks. I really really enjoyed making these, and am looking forward to seeing them hanging in the shop.

This pink paisley rosali one is my second fave, I teamed it with a Cath Kidston antique rose hanging heart.

A little rosali heart for the red floral one...I wonder if it doesn't sell if I could ask for it back?!?!

My new handmade felt button heart made with christmas in mind and some lovely little vintage buttons for the red polka dot...

And for this fabulous print below, which is really unusual.

And blue for the boys! Although I am a lover of pink (you'd have never guessed would you?) I enjoyed crafting with some more boyish colours and fabrics.

Some of these scented hearts also went off to the shop, just enough time to take a quick photo for my archives. I hope these go down well as they will be decorating the tree in the front of the shop!

Instead of making another batch of stockings for my blogshop I have decided I am just going to ask for commissions so if anyone would like a unique, handmade and very special personalised stocking for themselves, or a little person please check out my blogshop Roses and Gingham. X

Lavender for Emporium

Yesterday I showed you the cushions I made for Emporium, well today I am showing you what I did with all the odd bits of left over fabric from the material I was given...

I made lavender pillows!

I know I said that the fabrics weren't really 'me', but in smaller pieces they do look rather nice, I especially like the iris/lily fabric which was very small, but I have managed to get two pillows from it.


They are all the same size and lightly filled with stuffing and lavender - what with these and my Christmas spice decorations my room is smelling very funny indeed!



I just thought I'd show some of the fabrics, I like to keep a record of the things I make, and here is a good place for me to keep one.

I really like this one, something very simple about that little fern style leaf, its very pretty.

This is the same material, but a different section of it, I like this too, especially the little birds sitting within the patttern...

My favourite one....

Hope you likey X

Remember That Green Fabric?

It seems like absolutely ages ago that I wrote this post about making cushions for the Emporium tea shop. I showed you this bundle of vintage fabrics I'd been given to make cushions and other little goodies with. I seem to remember the green fabric on the right was a particular favourite with some of you...


Well the other day that fabric finaly got made into these ::




Two cushions for the shop, which I rather like, although I am a little disapointed I couldn't get more out of the fabric, but the print was very spaced out across the fabric, so there was rather a lot of green.

Love those gorgeous painterly flowers, so pretty, and what a shame they don't make fabric like this any more. The material was actually one curtain piece, but now instead of sitting in a cupboard going musty, they have been re-purposed into these cushions.

They also have little vintage buttons on the back too, plus a Roses and Gingham fabric label.

As well as the green fabric, I also got a bag of mixed fabric (although not particularly to my taste, they were quite interesting) and I have made a couple of cushions using these pieces too...

This above is a pale yellowy fabric with what I am guessing are Japanese scenes on them. I may be wrong, if anyone recognises the material please let me know - these had no selvedges so I am clueless!

Another unusal piece, which was only enough for one side of the cushion is this intricately patterned leaf print fabric.

The back is made from a (sort of!) co-ordinating material which has some lovely colours in it. Again I have no idea where these fabrics came from, or how old they are...

So these are the cushions that I have been busy making, they are off to the shop next week, so I hope they fit in ok!

Have a lovely weekend!

X

Cosy and Felty

Hello Ladies,

It has turned very cold this week, so chilly in fact that I have been using two {yes two} quilts on my bed, my own handmade one, and the smaller one from Zara.

I have also been wrapped up in big cosy jarmies and socks too.

Something else I have found to keep me warm is this pretty hot water bottle. I spotted it in TKMaxx and because I only have a mini water bottle, I thought this would be good to use when its reeeeeally cold. And I am always reeeeeeaally cold. Is it just me?


I bought some felt from Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to try making something for my cousin's little girl. I thought she might like some felty play food, so I started with something I thought would be pretty easy... would you like to see it?

A little donut. I wont tell you how long it actually took me to make it - far too long considering how small it is, but those beads are a fiddle.

I like how its turned out, and think if I make a little batch of different foods, or maybe a bundle of different coloured donuts, that they might make a nice little present for a little lady.

My favourite part is the beads - little mini sprinkles.

I think it looks rather sweet on the little plate I...erm...borrowed from my mum.

Have you been making any presents lately?

I have a whole head full of ideas, just need to make them come to life now....

X

Stashy Swap :: Sent!

Now that I know Claire has received my Stashy swap I can show you the tat (I mean handmade goodies) I sent her. It has been a long running joke between Claire and I that we would send a load of rubbish to each other.

Clearly I didn't receive rubbish, as you can see what I got from Claire here.

This is what I sent to Claire ::

I had heard a little rumour that she liked the birdies in the new CK book, perfect I thought! I'll make them!

And I'll make them pretty and pink too :)

And erm..one sided - the other side is just plain fabric as I had a little "issue" with cutting them all out the same way round and then realising they needed to be mirrored pieces to fit together - oops - then I ran out of the fabrics I had chosen :(

Anyway, they can now be hung up against a wall to be looked at from only one side ;)

I also sent a little bundle of six fabric coasters I made using the tutorial in the Quilting In No Time book. Making these with the theme of 'green spotty' as I recalled Claire has a spotty tablecloth.

I also made a lavender heart from a piece of CK fabric I had, and I know the fabric matches Claire's CK crockery, so I thought that would co-ordinate nicely :) And a cute textured button on the front!

Front ::

Back :: Also CK but this time multi coloured spots!

A pretty padded hanger in a blue floral fabric with matching ribbon and lace.

Close up detail ::

I had a small plain canvas that I didn't know what to do with, and thought as the theme of the swap was to use up our stashes (could be stashes of anything) that I'd do a little Home Sweet Home painting, in blues of course, coz Claire has a blue flavoured family.

I sent a couple of my handmade fabric bunting cards for Claire to use...

And some other crap that I will leave for Claire to show you hehe!! X