Creative Crafting Spring 2014 by Creative Crafting

Issue 27, SPRING 2014

CREATIVE

Crafting

By Crafters, for Crafters

CREATIVE

Welcome to our Spring 2014 Issue! Regular readers will think that this one is a month late… but it isn’t. This is because from 2014 we are switching to publishing our issues quarterly. This will enable us to move fully with the seasons and gives you (our writers) more time to send us your fabulous articles. So what are you waiting for… email us now to be included in our Summer Issue out in June (articles@creative-crafting.com) This issue we cover various spring related themes and you will find regulars plus some new writers. We have three wonderful interviews, the odd project or two. A few informative pieces and lots and lots of product features. We even have some reviews for you. So put your feet up and if you have grabbed our digital version scroll away. Those with luscious printed copies (aren’t they just fabulous!) get ready to turn those lovely thick pages. We look forward to working with you on our June 1st Issue so get in touch soon.

Anna

CREATIVE

INTERVIEWS with Jan Knibbs Diana Coe - Beadwork & Coe Nikki - The Crafty Kitten

CreativeCraftingMagazine CreativeCraftin

EDITORIAL Editor - Anna-Marie Miles Technical Editor - Avril White CONTRIBUTORS Tina Tracey - WowThankYou Tina - Shinyies Joy - Beaded Bazaar Hollye - I love Markets Leanna - Small Surprises Boutique Kate - Katewritesandmakes Sharon - The Old Button Ioan

ADVERTISING Anna-Marie Miles theycrystallady@creative-crafting.com Tel: 07763 566636

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ARTICLE SUBMISSION To: articles@creative-crafting.com PURCHASE IN PRINT www.creative-crafting.com/buy_your-copy.html

Publications

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Creative Crafting publishes articles, features and projects provided to us by crafters and suppliers. By submitting articles to be published the author grants Creative Crafting copyright of each piece.

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CREATIVE 6 A beginners guide to crafting for Charity Useful information from Kate Teasdale.

8 spring is in the air!

Issue 27

11 an interview with …

blog

Award winning fashion and textile designer Jan Knibbs.

Joy is back with another crafty blog review – crème de la craft

14 Tina in the

25 an interview

garden

with…

We take a wander through the online marketplaces and find some Spring themed items.

Tina is out of the country again and takes us on a cruise!

Beadwork artist Diana from Beadwork & Coe.

10 shall we see!

22 the christmas

28 spring wedding

We review a new craft book.

market at the o2 A review of this event by stallholder Tina from Shinyies

24 a chip off the old

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We wander off to the marketplaces again, this time looking for Spring Weddings.

30 as seen by creative crafting A review of Heartfelt Occasions.

38 millie-mae, toby, cousin emilija and mummy make …

46 a salt dough project Meet 13 year old Ioan who has a fabulous dough project for us.

Fizzy bath bombs.

31 south africa celebration patchwork quilt Sharon from The Old Button quilts for charity.

34 An interview with… Fabulous polymer clay artist Nikki from The Crafty Kitten.

41 crafting on a

48 the craft box

budget Leanne is back with the next instalment of this popular series.

This issue Tina from Shinyies shows us how to make a feature wall.

43 we’ve been on an easter hunt! Yes, we have been searching out handmade products again!

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A Beginners Guide to Crafting for Charity Purple Day for Epilepsy Awareness on March 26th is a huge international fundraising and awareness event which will see many people turning their crafting skills to fundraising. Crafting for charity is on the up with the online craft selling becoming more and more popular. Getting started however can be tricky and there's many things to weigh up before starting. Here are our top tips for crafting for good:

1. Do Your Research When starting out it is best to do research. Check out your chosen charity very carefully as many have different and specific rules for fundraising. Some charities also would prefer the charity name not be used, for example stating you are raising money for an Epilepsy charity, or a children's charity rather than naming the charity itself. Lee-Anne Mann who raises money for Epilepsy charity ESUK alongside other crafters understands the importance of research. She said: "I researched a lot first. This is something anyone needs to do for it to work properly. Chat with the charity directly, they may be able to give some advice and support too.â&#x20AC;? For more information on fundraising for Epilepsy visit: www.epilepsy.org.uk/involved/fundraise

2. Be Aware of Copyright When raising money from a organisation it is important to make sure you don't break any copyright laws. Avoid making anything with the charities logo or that is too similar to a logo. Although you will be donating to the charity you may still get in trouble for copyright infringement on anything that is a registered trademark. Check out this website for full details on crafting and copyright: www.craftsandcopyrights.com/faq.html

3. Make Sure Your Items are Seen Amanda Owen, a crafter who in the past has knitted dog coats, blankets, made jewellery and cross stitch pictures to auction for dog charities gives this advice: "Make sure the items can be seen by lots of people. Sometimes my items went for less than expected." In order to get sales, or to get the most money possible if auctioning items, it is important that your items can be seen by as many people as you can. Utilise social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well as selling on crafting sites such as Etsy and Folksy. "I would also do auctions on a dog rescue forum," said Amanda. Using forums and websites of the charity you support or similar forums is another good way to get seen by people who share the same interests and support the same causes

4. Consider Other Fundraising Opportunities Before starting out it is worth thinking realistically about much money you will be able to raise. Look at how much you would like to raise and how many items it would take to get there. Depending on your craft it may not always be possible to give the time or money to raise a significant amount of money. In this case it is a good idea to sell craft items along with other fundraising. Carol Duncan who is selling Valentines Hearts for local charity Shropshire 6

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Air Ambulance, is fundraising with her family. She said: "My dad was airlifted in 1982 following a brain haemorrhage and wouldn't be here without them. We have supported them since then. My daughter has raised nearly ÂŁ200 by collecting clothes to take to the weigh in and by persuading her dad to do a sponsored 10k run just before Christmas. We have decided to sell the hearts as an on going way of raising funds. For more information on the Shropshire Air Ambulance and to see Carol's Valentine's Hearts check out the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MidlandsAirAmbulance To donate please see: www.justgiving.com/Lucy-Duncan3

5. Vary Your Items If the goal is to raise as much money as possible for your chosen charity then a greater variety of items is a necessity. Lee-Anne Mann echoes this, she said: "try to find out what people like and are interested in - the more variety the better." Being aware of what people like and what is selling well is a good indicator of what you should make in the future. The more variety you have the more people it will appeal to and the more potential for sales. To see the full range of items on sale to raise money for ESUK visit Lee-Anne's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/craftmagicforesuk

6. Be Clear on What You Want to Achieve Set yourself clear targets to work to - this will make it easier to plan what you need to do. Decide on a figure you hope to raise or how many items you are going to sell. This makes sure the contribution you make is worthwhile but also ensures that you don't commit too much time that you can't realistically spare. Claire Staffordshire from Buttons For Rescue give this advice: "Stay true to your cause and do not lose sight of what you want to achieve." Buttons For Rescue hand make 30 items per month which are auction for animal rescues and sanctuaries. Follow their project at: www.facebook.com/ButtonsForRescues Written by Kate Teasdale

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Spring is in the air! We’ve been spotting some lovely Spring finds in the online marketplaces…

Spring Flowers with Easel This is an original encaustic art (wax) painting, supplied with miniature easel for display. This would make an ideal Mother's Day gift or present for someone who loves flowers. Dandelions Miniature Gallery www.folksy.com/shops/DandelionsMiniatureGallery £6

Spring landscape cuff A hand illustrated aluminium cuff with design of daisies on a background of fields and a blue sky. Claire Gent www.folksy.com/shops/clairegentdesign £29.95

Spring Garden Silk Ribbon kit A simple kit designed for those who wish to try their hand at silk ribbon embroidery for the first time. Lorna Bateman www.folksy.com/shops/Lornabatemanembroidery £20.95 8

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Nature Inspired Spring Pendant Made with silver plated wire and painted with colours of yellow, green and purple which poured into resin. The oval is attached to a silver tone chain. A fresh spring design! The Purple Balloon www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ThePurpleBalloon £15.41

Spring Wild Flower Boxwood Wreath Perfect for spring, summer or fall! This lush greenery wreath is made up of multi-toned green leaf boxwood, petite coral wild flowers, on a grapevine structure, and hung by a natural colour burlap bow with black detailing. All greenery is secured to wreath structure with wire. PaintedPetalShoppe www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PaintedPetalShoppe £41.46

Wash Day Mug This mug features a quirky hand painted design inspired by those days when everything gets cleaned and aired, even the dog has ended up drying on the line! Meanwhile, the cat contentedly washes its face sitting on a comfy pile of washing and the birds enjoy a splash in the birdbath as the washing blows in the wind. Free Spirit Designs www.wowthankyou.co.uk/free-spirit-designs £15

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SIMPLE ELEGANCE By Katy Handley The Big Little Homemade Gift Bible

This delightful book spans a very wide selection of things ranging from various craft projects, cooking and recipes (right down to stocks and preserves), pet delights and gift hampers. In the introduction of the book we meet Katy herself and learn about her family and her reasons for writing it. A couple of lines immediately struck a cord with me: ‘

Now we launch ourselves straight into the book after a brief explanation from Katy about all of the projects and recipes being simple to do and not complicated. And she’s spot on! Most, if not all of the creations in the book could be easily done with your children and don’t seem scary at all! There is also quite a vast selection so there should be no trouble finding something to suit your mood or budget. I will certainly be trying some of these myself with my own children. Here is a quick taster from the contents: : Dried Fruit Charms Felt Stitched Hearts Beaded Key Holder Homemade Gift Book Summer Sweet Bag

: Chicken Pie with a secret Savoury Muffins Peppermint Droplets Biscotti Super charged Spiced Raisins

The Birthday Emergency Hamper The Get Well Soon Treats The Never Too Old Hamper Child’s Birthday Hamper Dinner Party Kit

So my verdict on this book? I really like it. One of the best bits for me is that at the end of every item whether it is a craft project or a recipe there are ideas for how to turn it into a gift. If I had to find one thing to complain about it would be the fact that there are no images in this book! As many of the pages have blank spots on them after the text I do feel a bit let down by this but I’m still very pleased to have it in my collection.

Reviewed by Anna (Editor of Creative Crafting) 10

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Have you always been interested in crafts/how did you start Yes, I've always been interested in being creative, especially working with fabric. I remember making a fabric collage for one of my Brownie badges and my Nan taught me how to knit and crochet. My Mum had a knitting machine and had done some embroidery when she was younger but mostly I taught myself as I went along when I wanted to make specific things such as a calico smock like the one worn by Jenny Agutter in Black Beauty. I was always designing clothes and loved the cut-out dolls from Bunty magazine too! I saw from your website that you've had quite a bit of formal training, did that influence the way you create now, or did it give you the means to fulfil your own dream? Yes, I've been very fortunate that I've been able to follow my dream and receive formal training. I had two years at my local Art College, one on a Foundation course where I tried many different media and the other on a Weave course once I decided I belonged in the Textiles department. I then went on to do my degree at Loughborough College of Art which gave me a good grounding in all the www.creative-crafting.com

different embroidery techniques both hand and machine but steered me away from fashion and more into doing large scale wallhangings worked mostly on the machine which I called "Poembroidery" as each one was inspired by poetry. More recently, I did an MA at Bath Spa University where I discovered the Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery which helped re-awaken my passion for hand embroidery. I've now entered it 6 times winning the Swarovski Prize once and coming 2nd twice which I'm thrilled with but would still love to achieve the elusive 1st place!

Tell us a bit about the process of getting from the design you have in your head to the finished article. When I start working on a new project or idea, my head is just swimming with ideas day and night, especially when it's for the competition as they give such challenging briefs (this year I chose to combine Marie Antoinette with Barbarella!). I do loads of research from books and the internet and gather all my ideas together which I call the incubation stage. Then gradually they seem to come together and one creation starts to emerge in my head and I start working on samples and sketches. I'm always nervous of starting the actual piece as I want it to be perfect but once I get going it all flows and the work develops very organically often changing as it goes along which keeps the whole process fresh. Who would you say has been your inspiration? My major inspiration has always been the amazing world of nature and the changing seasons but I'm constantly inspired by everything around me from beautiful interiors to films and theatre ( I was also a Wardrobe Mistress for a while) and all the amazing images that are now at our fingertips via technology. Like many other designers, I am completely hooked on Pinterest and find it such a convenient way to store ideas for future inspiration. 12

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Nisa Kiley from Fabrics of Nature would like to know, what is your favourite technique? It's difficult to choose just one technique as what I really love to do is combine many different techniques in one piece but at present I suppose my two favourites are ribbon embroidery and beadwork. I also love learning new techniques. For my last competition entry I taught myself Shisha mirror work and I'm hoping to do an intensive 3 week couture embroidery course at Hand and Lock in January. Do you enjoy the teaching aspect of your work, and are there any benefits? I do enjoy teaching when everyone is enthusiastic about learning from you but I'm very bad at organising classes. I'm hoping to start a weekly group in the near future if there is enough interest locally. I love the atmosphere of everyone working together, chatting and bouncing ideas off each other which I miss when working on my own. Being a designer and working from home can be a very solitary experience, especially when you live in a rural environment. My work can be seen on my website www.janknibbs.com and at present is available at Creativations in Chelsea. I'm hoping to start an Etsy shop very soon but I find the whole marketing aspect a real challenge! www.creative-crafting.com

Hi! I'm Tina, Well here we are the first of the new seasonal magazines. Valentines day is almost here as I am writing this in the first week of February, and Easter is yet to come. I am sorry that you all could not visit me in The Garden, but as you see I am not there. I am making my usual winter visit to Florida. As I have mentioned before I love flying (I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really), but I love to visit here. So this year we came by sea and it was a great trip. It took two weeks! It was hard, no cooking, no cleaning, no washing, I don't know how I survived. I enjoyed it so much it was a holiday in itself.

Ponta Delgada

We left from Copenhagen in Denmark, a really beautiful city, sailed into the Baltic Sea, then the North Sea and into the Atlantic Ocean. The first and only stop was made in the Azores (a group of small islands in the Atlantic), they are Portuguese. We docked in Ponta Delgada on the Island of San Miguel. It was a damp and misty Sunday morning and we thought we should take an excursion to see the island. Our first stop was in the town of Ribeira Grande, it had some quaint Portuguese buildings and the river ran though the town.

Ribeira Grande 14

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Gardens Then through some lovely gardens and out into the Atlantic Ocean. Most shops were closed but that did not worry me, I was quite happy in the gardens with my camera.

We then got back on the bus as we were going up into the mountains to see the lake which looked a beautiful blue on the photos shown to us when we booked the excursion. On the way up we stopped at some hot springs, it was quite a walk but well worth it.

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Hot Springs

The Colours in the rocks were amazing, and just look at this forest of tree ferns.

There was a swimming pool (we did not try it as we had further to go), but it looked very tempting. Remember the bind weed I was fighting all summer in The Garden, well they had it too, but a lot more colourful. If mine was this pretty I would leave it alone. It does however seem to have my other problem the snails and slugs. Or maybe something more exotic but just as greedy judging by the holes. 16

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Then back on the bus and on to the Lake. We kept climbing on the narrow road with a steep drop on either side. The mist got thicker, by now it was fog we could not see a thing. We were all a little worried, except the driver who luckily seemed unconcerned, this made us all feel a lot better. We stopped as we had arrived at the lake, but could not see a thing through the window, just the thick fog. Then our guide asked if we would like to get out. Someone asked is the view any better outside and we were told no. As it was wet and thick fog we all declined. So back we went all the way down the mountain. I have to say it was not the most rewarding visit.

Pineapple Farm

Next we arrived at the pineapple farm which was very interesting, a small family business. They grew the pineapples from small cuttings in a series of greenhouses. I could not resist taking a photo of this statue and the beautiful bougainvillea which grew everywhere. The weather was beautifully warm and humid, but still grey. I love the warm humid weather, my better half just hates it, he is happy at 60 or 70 degrees. It would not do for us all to be the same would it. Well back on the ship bound for Florida, for some sunshine and to meet up with all of our good friends. I am sure that they do get some sunshine in the Azores but unfortunately we missed it. Maybe next time. Here in Florida there are some beautifully kept gardens some of the plants are similar to at home, but others are totally different. Here is the dahlia which we all know and love, but this other beauty is a desert rose. I would love some of those in The Garden, but they would not care for our weather I am afraid.

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I am having a great time here but am looking forward to getting back to The Garden. With our new four seasons magazine of course I will be giving you three months of what has happened in The Garden in one article, I will never manage to get it all in will I. I will let you all get on now as I am sure you are all busy with work and family. Maybe you relaxed a little on your trip across the Atlantic Ocean with me I do hope so, and I look forward to our next meeting when I will be back at home in The Garden. See you then, Your green fingered friend

Tina

FUN FACTS The Pineapple

Fierce on the outside, sweet on the inside. Given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone.

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Here at I Love Markets HQ, we still can’t quite believe it’s 2014. There’s always a pressure in the first few months of the year to clear everything out and get new stuff, but – as we always enjoy challenging the norm – we’re inclined to oppose this ideal. There is just too much good in old things, a notion that, thankfully, the crafting world has latched on to. In this modern age of landfill problems and dodgy economy, the art of upcycling could sort out a lot of issues… and the results are pretty nice aesthetically, too. The trend for upcycling seemed to surge a couple of years ago and the ILM team have personally not looked back. The idea of giving life to a forgotten, pre-loved or pre-hated item is one that is very special indeed, and provides an act for all kinds of creatives, as well as assisting to swerve the environmental issues we are all facing today. The World of Markets is a great place to find an upcycled gem and we got talking to two very different serial upcyclists to unearth some of the values and practices behind this wonderful craft.

Queenie and Ted own a charming boutique on the bustling Columbia Road, home to the famous flower market. The levels of both intricacy and love that goes into their stunning pieces are exceptionally obvious as you walk into or even past their shop. What is it you love about upcycling? It’s the idea of making no-longer-loved garments loved again, and ﬁnding them a new home. We often ﬁnd ourselves telling customers that a garment has been waiting for them, as they are just such a perfect match.

How did you get into it? After both having backgrounds in Fine Art and then teaching, we found ourselves at a point in life where we wanted to use our creative skills to earn our livings. We have a passion for clothes, although not high fashion: it’s more about upcycling, rummaging through our grandma’s air cupboards (or anyone else’s grandma’s for that matter), and creating - so we combined all these elements and Queenie and Ted were born. What kind of process do you follow for the creation of each piece? It varies. Sometimes we have an immediate reaction to a garment and can instantly visualise a design on it, other times we are inspired by a particular piece of fabric. Of course, when working on a commission, the client will lead

Why is upcycling better than brand new? Because there are already far too many things in the world and all they need is a little bit of sparkle to make them beautiful again. www.creative-crafting.com

On a very different end of the upcycling scale, we reminded ourselves that it is not just clothing that can be subject to the magic of the craft. We wondered what answers these questions would evoke in someone who dealt with a completely different product type, and so spoke also to Wendy Boorer of Clocky Wocky, who has sold her fabulous clocks at many I Love Markets pop-up events, such as Portobello Rocks. What is it you love about upcycling? I like the idea of taking something no longer used and turning it into something functional! I love the idea of giving it a new purpose, and also keeping it from a landfill. How did you get into it? I can get bored very easily and am always looking for new inspiration - I think that’s the reason my work tends to become so eclectic. Then I reached a certain age and became obsessed with time…! So I made a clock out of an unwanted vinyl record and Clocky Wocky was born. What kind of process do you follow for the creation of each piece? I tend to find an idea will suddenly come to me while I am doing something mundane, such as washing up. A reflection or colour may spark an idea. Recently, I was washing out a coffee jar for the recycling bin and had been mulling around in my head for something I could do with it - I throw far too many away. I thought about a lamp, but the artist in me wanted something more, so I started to use porcelain paints on it. Held against the light the results are really interesting. I’ve tested the lamp with many types of bulbs, and I’m happy with the result now – although I still need to experiment in this area! I intend to try different forms of lighting to run alongside my clocks. Why is upcycling better than brand new? We live in a world of mass production and we throw far too many things away - and so easily. I walk the streets and see furniture and clothing just dumped there. There’s too much waste! I read an article about the blight of the carrier bag and found it so shocking, that I have been working on ways to recycle them. I have managed to achieve some interesting effects and am now trying to decide the best way to use them… 20

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Upcycling has a plethora of assets to it, whether you want to rescue an aging item, challenge your creative mind in a new way or contribute to saving the planet. Why should the discoveries of a lifetime have to last just one of those . lifetimes? Hit the markets to find out why the upcyclist is truly an extraordinary artist, and uncover a Pieces from both Clocky Wocky and Queenie and Ted are available to buy from the I Love Markets online shop. Written by Hollye Murphy Photos by Hollye Murphy, Queenie and Ted and Clocky Wocky.

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I had a stall at the 2013 Handmade ChristmasMarket at the O2! It was summer 2013 and I was wiling away some time in twitterland. I chanced upon a tweet from I Love Markets (ILM) that mentioned the Handmade Market at the O2 in December and invited crafters to register their interest in a stall. So I did! I followed the instructions and sent an email stating what I did and that I was interested. I received a reply via email requesting my website address and was very pleased when I received a further email offering me a place. At first I found communication with ILM to be slow and a few times I had to send the same email twice before a received a reply. This was frustrating, but then, the person I was dealing with at I Love Markets changed and I met the lovely Hollye, and communication was suddenly quicker. There was a lot of work to be done, designing my display and creating my collection. The event at the O2 was being run by Peninsula Exhibitions with I Love Markets working with them, having a number of stalls with which to fill. The event itself was over 3 days, Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th December. ILM had to balance stall holders who wanted to have a stall for either, 1, 2 or all 3 days. Not an easy task, whilst working with Peninsula Exhibitions. During the months leading up to the event a lot of information was sent out to the stall holders, some from Peninsula Exhibitions, including an exhibitors manual and some from I Love Markets. Hollye from ILM kept us as informed as possible, stall numbers, a layout of the stalls so we knew where we were and even photographs of the stalls as they were being constructed. Invaluable information and allowing us to make adjustments to our display before the day. My experience as an exhibitor at the O2 was not a particularly pleasant one, however, before I proceed to explain why, I would like to let you know that the issues faced were in no way the fault of Hollye or ILM, the blame lies with Peninsula Exhibitions. Walking into the entrance of the O2, myself and a friend who had volunteered to help me, began looking around for signposts or directions to guide us to where we needed to go. There were none. However, luckily, security guards were present and they provided the required directions. It was quite a long walk

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and we were worried that perhaps we hadn't fully understood the directions given. Then, thankfully we spotted a sign, though a rather discreet one. There was much still being done and metal fences were ringed around the stalls giving no obvious way through. Again we had to ask. Then we had to ask where our stall was. The stall layouts and locations we had originally been given had been changed. Instead of the ILM stall holders being given a nice location, we were placed at the back. In fact my particular stall was facing the back wall and the row was inset so that approaching from the entrance you were unaware that those stalls even existed. For a Christmas market, set indoors there was no music, no atmosphere and promises had not been kept regarding an appearance from Father Christmas and activities for children. The estimated footfall of 20K people compared to actual footfall fell so short of estimations to be a complete joke and a charge of ÂŁ8 entry put off many potential customers wishing to browse. The highlights of the event were meeting Hollye from ILM who chatted with all the stall holders booked through I Love Markets and photographs were taken and placed on facebook. Then of course there was the opportunity to walk around the stalls, meeting the very talented crafters, enjoying the great mix of products and styles. In summary, would I book an event through I Love Markets again? Answer- yes! But I would not make a booking if Peninsula Exhibitions had any involvement. Written by Tina Cook from Shinyies

www.shinyies.co.uk

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Best Bits By Bloggers Written by Joy from www.beadedbazaar.weebly.com For this issue’s blog review I’d like to introduce you to a crafty blog I found when searching for a tutorial on personalised gift wrap on the run up to Christmas - Creme De La Craft.

Natalie Pirveysian runs Creme De La Craft, as well as teaching craft for over ten years and running craft parties in and around Los Angeles. Through her blog and work, many of her projects have been featured in publications including Glamour and Good Housekeeping. The blog has regular posts with roughly one a week, with each post covering a different project from fashion to home and gifts, as well as plenty in between. The posts are very well written, clear and concise. Each project creates something unique, unusual and personal to you. The tutorials within the posts have lots of photographs to guide you through, as well as simple, easy to follow instructions. The DIY posts generally include items that can be found in the home, or purchased very reasonably. This makes it easy to give a tutorial a try, even if you’ve never tried to craft something before. Perhaps trying a simple paper craft by creating the cereal box notebooks, or working with textiles for the no sew scarf. There are several posts for re-purposing items from around the home, like transforming Christmas baubles or nail polish pots into vases. Other DIY projects can give your items a new lease of life, for example the simple idea of painting your necklaces or changing other necklaces into headbands. I think this is a great idea, not only as it encourages recycling and reusing, but gives you the opportunity to try something new for free (or almost free). The site is very easy to navigate, with tabs at the top of the page for DIY projects, Craft events and press and sponsor links. There are also lots of links at the end of the blog posts to encourage you to view other tutorials. If you prefer a ‘live action’ project, there is a link on the site to video tutorials from Natalie too. I’d highly recommend Creme De La Craft to everyone. The projects are simple to follow and achieve brilliant results. They are well laid out, and there is also the option for video tutorials if you prefer. You also don’t have to be the most skilled crafter to attempt the projects, so it would be ideal for those looking to try something different or who don’t normally craft. Also using items from around the home is a very cheap and handy way to create something personal and perhaps take some of the projects further, completely making them your own. www.cremedelacraft.com 24

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Well, I am in my mid thirties *cough* and a stay at home mum of two - my son is 6 and my daughter is 4. I was born and grew up in Germany with a little sister that is 14 years younger than me. All women in my family are very crafty and love DIY. My grandmother knitted, crocheted, painted and wallpapered amongst other things and my mother's ambition was to become a mechanic. She didn't make it as it was just not the thing to do for a young woman in that time, but times change and I actually trained as a Vehicle Electrician. After completing my apprenticeship I went to university for a degree as Technical Author and worked for Volkswagen and Bosch. Still in Germany I met my husband who served there with the army and as we moved around from posting to posting our little family grew. After my son was born I was a bit lost at what to do with the time I had at hand and went into a craft shop, hoping to find something interesting to do. They had seed beads and some free instructions to make a beadwoven necklace. People that know me can confirm that I usually jump right in with both feet and my way of thinking is "How hard can it be?", so I took the instruction leaflet and bought the needed beads ... In 2011 my husbands time in Germany ended and we relocated to the Midlands where he is originally from. To give the children and us enough time to settle in I decided to stay at home and because my beading skills had developed quite nicely I got registered as self employed and opened my Etsy shop www.BeadworkAndCoe.etsy.com So here I am now.

The time varies a lot really. Of course it depends on the size of the piece and the detail, but especially the unique designs can be very time consuming. When I start I have a picture in my head of how I want it to look finished and then it usually develops a life of it's own. Sometimes a new piece is nearly finished and I decide â&#x20AC;&#x153; That other bead colour would have been much better there!â&#x20AC;?. At that point I'll take it all apart again. It's a luxury I take for myself to not care too much about the making time and if I consider it necessary to get a more satisfying result I will start over again. www.creative-crafting.com

I find it very relaxing, almost meditative and I forget everything around me. Sometimes my husband will touch my shoulder after the fifth attempt to talk to me and I jump. Also I am absolutely hooked on the endless possibilities of beads. With the same beads and the same thread I can either make a really romantic design with lots of flowers and fringe or they can become a minimalistic geometric shape – which is definitely more my style. The choice in colours of beads available is another thing that keeps amazing me. Just a change of colours can make such a difference to the overall feel of a piece. You see, there are so many reasons to love and enjoy what I do ...

I don't think I have a specific achievement. In general it makes me feel really good when I try something new and after a lot of effort and work it turns out well. I made this dinosaur costume for my son a few years back. To see his face when he went into school with it and the pride in his voice when he said his mum made it was just THE BEST. Or my first venture into sugar craft because he had to have a Nemo cake for his birthday and I thought “How hard can it be?” It wasn't quite what he expected in the end, but he loved it anyway. I learned that spending the money to buy a cake is probably the much easier option, but the experience still was priceless :)

I do enjoy a good book, the thicker the better. That does not mean I don't read thin books, I just really enjoy the elaborate descriptions and details which you usually just get in the thick books. At the moment I am working my way through the “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon again or another one worth reading is the Avalon series by Marion Zimmer My husband is a Scout leader and a keen hiker and geocacher, so we do spend a good amount of time outdoors, either hiking or now that the kids are a bit older on the bikes.

Ohhh, I hate this question. It is like asking which one of my children I love the most – impossible to answer. If you insist though, I think the one I am working on is kind of my favourite at the time, because until it is finished every piece is so full of possibilities and it is almost a shame to do the last stitch. Then it has the final form and is done with – closure is not always a good thing.

Think it through thoroughly, what you want to sell, where you want to sell, how much competition there is, what you can charge, what you need to charge and of course all the legal stuff. Then decide whether you want to do it as a hobby to just cover cost or as a business to make a profit. Both is perfectly fine, but stick to your plan. Stepping up and turning that hobby-business into a professional business can be tricky and a lot of work without return can be

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I wish my hands could bead faster – lol So many beads and so many ideas, but so little time.

ven though I still find it difficult, networking is key. May it be in the Etsyteams, following others on facebook etc. or reading good business tips on blogs. I intentionally don't mention any names (I'm aware that most people hope to discover the holy grail in posts like this), because I believe you have to find the ones that suit you yourself. I have followed and unfollowed many pages/people/blogs since I started and some of them are quite popular amongst other crafters. First, my time is too valuable to spend it reading every rubbish people write and sometimes even a good tip or approach that works for someone else might just not be how I want to handle my business. So I only have a few that I “connect” with and really enjoy – that makes the networking much easier too :)

Everywhere! My husband took our old computer apart before scrapping it and it had some really interesting parts. I didn't know what to do with them straight away, but as I liked them somehow they went in my box with odd bits and bobs. That box is usually my place of inspiration and I dug those pieces out again when I started experimenting with beadembroidery. So I put them on centre stage and then let the creative juices flow to find an appropriate setting.

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Handmade bridal tiara made with Swarovski Crystals for extra sparkle! Aura - Handmade Jewellery

www.wowthankyou.co.uk /aura-handmade-jewellery

£50 Wedding comb with pearl and diamante decorations. Katyjane Crafts www.folksy.com/shops/katyjanecrafts £16

Luxury cubic zirconia earrings. Tre Perle www.etsy.com/uk/shop/2010louisek7 £27.72

'Titania' is a real fairytale bridal gown. It has a boned lace bodice with an off the shoulder frill trim. The soft organza skirt is wrapped with an overlay of tulle and trimmed with a floral corsage. (Which is detachable) LaCosturera www.folksy.com/shops/La Costurera

Sexy and sophisticated deep blue shiny satin hand painted shoes

£450

Norakaren www.etsy.com/uk/shop/norakaren £95.50

Personalised Stamped Glass Cufflinks 78 Happiness Place www.wowthankyou.co.uk/78happiness-place

£15

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Crafting

Followers of our Facebook page and Twitter Account may have seen that we now offer product reviews. This can either be your creations, your service or your course/workshop etc. If you would like us to conduct a review for you further information can be found on our website. www.creative-crafting.com/product_reviews.html Depending on how many products we get submitted we may offer single or multiple reviews per issue. Our next review is of:

HEARTFELT OCCASIONS

Heartfelt Occasions offer a bespoke stationery service for cards, invitations etc. The service we are reviewing is their invitation design and creation service. Claire is a very friendly and helpful lady who we found very competent and easy to work with. On being provided with a fairly vague brief the samples sent were outstanding! The quality of Claireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is extremely high and would certainly discourage us from approaching a mainstream print house for any future requirements in this area. The attention to detail that Claire shows is wonderful and you are provided with a beautiful item which is then duplicated to large numbers in super quick time and in a highly professional manner. Two completely different samples were offered and a third variant was decided upon by the client we were helping to fill their needs. If you are looking for wedding invitations or any other kind here at Creative Crafting we highly recommend Claire and Heartfelt Occasions as your event will be safe in her hands.

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South Africa Celebration Charity Patchwork Quilt I

love quilting and patchwork and when I was asked to help out with some fundraising, I jumped at the chance to make a charity quilt. The choir is being raffled to raise money for Only Kids Aloud – a children’s choir that has been invited to Cape Town in April to help South Africa celebrate the 20th anniversary of democracy and the end of apartheid.

I just love designing things, and the opportunity to create a unique quilt that brings together Wales and South Africa was just impossible to resist. My patchwork quilts are based on my own layout ideas but I love including traditional pieced blocks that have evolved in Britain and America. I have a couple of fabulous reference books that have hundreds of images and diagrams of patchwork blocks that have such lovely names that just make you want to try them out. Some of the contenders for a place in this quilt include Peace and Plenty, Friendship, Zig Zag and Sunbeam – just perfect for a quilt about South Africa. I don’t have a particular approach to designing a quilt. Sometimes I’ll just grab some fabric from my stash and start cutting out and piecing together a block I fancy from the books. Once I’ve made a few, I’ll lay them on the floor to see how best to place them, and then sew more blocks, sashing pieces or borders to fit as I go along. So the quilt evolves as I make it. Other times, I’ll spend hours on the computer working out a good layout for my chosen blocks and borders and making sure I get the sizes right before I start. It doesn’t always work though – even with a design in front of me I often drift into “making it up as I go along”. www.creative-crafting.com

Although most of my quilting to date has been inspired by American quilts, I’ve always loved traditional Welsh versions. Most people associate Welsh quilting with whole-cloth but there are also pieced quilts too. You can find “strippy” quilts where four or five wide pieces of fabric are sewn together in vertical stripes. And there are also quilts made from fabrics cut into big bold geometric pieces – diamonds, squares and stars. But they all have one thing in common – they are closely quilted in traditional welsh quilting motifs using tiny little stitches.

Fine example of antique Welsh wholecloth quilts If you’d like to know more about antique Welsh quilts, I recommend the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter – check out their amazing website if you can’t visit in person. I decided my quilt would have a typical welsh quilt central panel – a strong bold geometric design based on a star that I’m going to closely hand quilt – gulp! – but I wanted to blend old and new, as well as Wales and South Africa, so I’m surrounding this centre with borders and pieced patchwork blocks that are inspired by Nelson Mandela and his fight for equality. Early Welsh quilts are made from flannel and wool but later quilts used cotton for the quilt top and back. I’ve always admired Kaffe Fasset fabrics but haven’t used them in a quilt yet, so I thought this would be a good opportunity, especially when I came across plain shot cottons in typical welsh red and green shades, which teamed perfectly with amazing stripes in colours that just sang Africa to me – including red, gold, green, tan, and ochre. I used the shot cottons for the central panel – and as it was critical to get the sizes of the large pieces right, I designed the layout on a spreadsheet on my computer. I also used a cheat’s method for sewing and cutting the triangles that make up the star and have written a mini tutorial about this on my blog – it’s such a clever technique. I just love the finished central panel – the star points are perfectly placed and I’m really looking forward to quilting it….

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….but first I need to finish the rest of the quilt top. The first border is a simple mitred sash in one of the lovely striped fabrics. I say simple – in theory it was, but I did have to fiddle around getting the stripes to match up – it took quite a lot longer than I expected – but well worth the effort. I’m currently working on a gorgeous Zig Zag border panel inspired by mountains and valleys – something both Wales and South Africa have in abundance. And for the rest of the quilt, I’m letting it evolve – just like a good quilt should – seeing how each of the different striped fabrics work with the quilt blocks I’m itching to try. Then I’ll just add them to the central panel, using plain spacer blocks or borders to show them off to their best.

You can follow the quilt’s progress on The Old Button blog - http://theoldbutton.blogspot.co.uk/. As well as letting you know how I’m getting on, I’ll be adding more mini tutorials for some of the quilt blocks I’m using. About the charity Only Kids Aloud is a fantastic development opportunity through the Wales Millennium Centre charity. The choir brings together children from across Wales – “broadening their horizons through performing” as well as encouraging young people to continue the great choral tradition of Wales. The choir is reformed every couple of years - the first group sang in Russia and took part in the opening ceremonies for the London Olympic Games - and it would be fantastic if the programme continues in future years so that more young people can have similar experiences. The finished quilt is being raffled at the end of April 2014 for the Wales Millennium Centre charity (Charity Registration No. 1060458). If you would like to take part you can find out how to enter on my Just Giving page. http://www.justgiving.com/Sharon-Lloyd4

About me. I’m Sharon, also known as The Old Button. I live in South Wales with my husband, two teenage children that love performing and a couple of pesky cats. I work part time as in the NHS, and have a second "job" as Mum's taxi, but my "me" time is reading, sewing and designing - I make stage costumes as well as gifts for children and the home - and I love writing blogs. Written by Sharon from The Old Button http://theoldbutton.blogspot.co.uk

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Adorable dragons, fairies, mermaids and so much more! Meet Nikki from The Crafty Kitten.

I am a thirty something woman who is living the dream in rural North Wales in the foothills of the majestic Snowdonia Mountain range. I have had a love of arts and crafts for as long as I can remember and polymer clay since I was bought a pack by my Grandmother for Christmas when I was 7 years old. My family has always been very keen to support my creative streak, for which I am eternally grateful. I have dabbled with the polymer clay on and off ever since, it is a wonderful medium to work with, but I only really started using it again regularly approximately four years ago when I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was forced to make changes to my lifestyle. I was in Peterborough at the time, and my partner and I decided to move away from the “rat-race” a little and settled on North Wales after a wonderful holiday there. I had felt so much better whilst we were there, with its slower, friendlier way of life, out of the hustle of a big city – so we started making plans to move. I found it to be very therapeutic to be working with the polymer clay again, and with everything falling into place for our move to Wales, one of the pieces I created was a little cartoon style “Welsh Dragon”, one of my friends who saw the early models I had been making, loved them and as she was also moving to North Wales just before us, asked if I could make her five like my little Welsh Dragon for her two children to give to their teachers before they moved, and so I took my first commission. My confidence in my abilities was (and to a certain degree still is) fairly low, I was happy enough making them for friends and family, but didn't think they would appeal to the wider public – it took awhile for friends, family, and my extremely supportive partner John to persuade me that they would, and set up my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheCraftyKitten) – things really took off from there. At first sales were fairly slow, and still mainly to friends, but soon, as these things have a habit of doing, word spread. By now, John had also convinced me to start doing local craft fairs as well, which was hard for me because I am naturally a reasonably shy person. It soon got to the point (although I still have trouble believing it) that I could no longer deny that my work seemed to have a wider appeal, and one afternoon John persuaded me to talk to a local letting agent about a vacant shop I had been joking about in our nearby town of Llanrwst, within 6 months I had opened my shop “The Crafty Kitten” and although it hasn't always been easy it’s been nearly three years now and thanks to my loyal customers both locally and all around the world (thanks to my online presence) I am still here and going from strength to strength. 34

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Thank you – I have always loved the mythical creatures, not just dragons and fairies, but all mythical animals, and although my dragons and fairies are the ones that are currently popular with my customers, I am working on other creatures at the moment to expand the line – I am looking at launching a new line called “The Kitten's Whiskers” later this year, which will be my larger, higher detailed works – which will include all manner of mythical beings like mermaids, unicorns, pegesi, centaurs and many more. So as they say “watch this space” on my website www.the-crafty-kitten.co.uk

I love the surprise of it, I know that sounds crazy, after all – it is me making the items, but it is true - the polymer clay has a mind of its own, and I am never quite sure how the end piece will turn out, I had a commission for a wolfess, and she gave me real difficulty until I changed her position, she didn't want to be laying down like her mate – she wanted to be sat up, washing her paw... as soon as I decided to switch her position, she was more then happy to let me create her. But I also love the other surprise, of never quite knowing what I will be asked to create next – and over the years there have been some “odd” requests, from a penguin in a boat, an Ostrich, and a Skunk – right through to various vehicles including pimped Vauxhall Nova's, and formula one cars.

This is a tough one, my biggest crafting achievement... Probably one of my pet portraits “Angel” - she was actually the first dog pet portrait I made, it was done for someone I met via Facebook game who became a good friend to both John and I. He contacted me and asked if he sent me pictures of his dog that he no longer had, would I be able to make her for him – I said I would try. He sent over the pictures of this beautiful Staffie type dog, mainly white – and I started to get nervous, how could I do this and do her justice, especially when it was so personal... However I ignored the butterflies in my stomach, and started work, posting “Work in Progress” pictures to my Facebook along the way to ensure I was going the direction he wanted me to. Angel took me about a week to complete, I had even got some chain and jump rings of the right proportion to do her chain collar. I sent him the picture (which never really does justice to the finished model) and he loved it, and quickly sent payment. I packed her up carefully, and sent her on her way to The Netherlands where my friend lived and started the nervous wait to hear she had arrived. It felt like forever, but was only about a fortnight before I got a message from him saying he couldn't thank me enough, it was like his “girl” had come home finally and that he had actually shed a tear when he opened the package as she was more perfect then he could have ever hoped... That was definitely one of my biggest senses of achievement, as I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it.

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Along side my craft I also create and maintain websites for small to medium size businesses, specialising in websites for crafters as I understand first hand how important it is for them to have a good online presence if they want to sell, especially if they have their sights set on an international market. With my Nikki Edwards : Website Design & SEO Consultancy (www.nikki-edwards.co.uk) I strive to offer bespoke, personal service at a price that anyone can afford, but without skimping on the quality of the site. This side of my business has actually been running for longer then the craft side of things, and I have over 7 years experience in this field. Other then helping out other small businesses with their online presence, I am a huge animal lover, and also enjoy walking in the beautiful countryside that surrounds me.

Oh my, now this is a tough one! I have made so many things, it is hard to chose just one – I guess it would have to be “Merlin” - He was a new design of dragon for me, and the first with a wire armature so he could stand on his own two feet... I wanted to make something a bit complex, something that when times got tough and I had a case of the “I can't do this” I could look at and tell myself “yes you can – look!” He took me several weeks to do as I did him in between other projects, but I was really pleased with how he turned out – I originally was going to give him a cape as well as his hat and staff but when I put it on him, it didn't look right with his wings, and hid much of the fantastic colour from the mica powders I used on his hide, so I decided against it.

Enjoy yourself, have faith, but keep realistic. Starting a craft up as a businesses isn't an easy thing to do, because 9 times out of 10 if you have come up with an idea, then someone else has had the same idea too. But so long as you enjoy what you do, and keep working at it, gradually you will get there – but keep realistic too, you aren't going to launch and sell hundreds of your items for lots of money right away, these things take time to establish themselves – but so long as you are having fun – who cares. If it comes to the point you no longer enjoy what you are doing, stop – there is nothing worse then crafted items that are done without passion, it is easy to see when the heart has gone out of something.

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I would love to be able to craft full time, but sadly with the overheads of a bricks and mortar shop to support, this simply isn't possible at the moment, hence I have to rely on other areas of my expertise as well.

Definitely the support of family and friends, all the books and websites in the world can't replace that – without my family, my close friends and those of my extended friend network on a Facebook group I was introduced to – The Secret Society of Crazy Crafters – which is a private group that you need to be invited to join, then I wouldn't still be here to do this interview with you – I would have thrown the towel in long ago, if I have ever found the courage to start my business in the first place.

I have always had a very vivid imagination, which is good for this kind of work, but I rely heavily on myths and legends. In the early days, I wouldn't have even known where to start on creating dragons or figures out of polymer clay without people like Birdy Haywood, Bonnie McGough, Christi Friesen, Donna Kato and Patricia Rose (to name but a few) guiding me, and even now, I find myself going back to these people (many of whom I am now privileged to call friends thanks to Facebook) if I find myself against a wall with something I am trying to create and they are always more then ready to give their support, advice and feedback.

I am animal mad – I am a complete sucker for a fuzzy little face in need, and frequently rescue animals that for one reason or another are deemed “un-homable” from blind hamsters, to hamsters that have survived strokes, to rats that have no use of their back limbs any longer, or even just that they have gotten the reputation of being “biters” - If I have the space for them, I will never turn my back on an animal in need.

www.the-crafty-kitten.co.uk www.TheCraftyKittenWales.etsy.com

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Millie-Mae, Toby Cousin Emilija & Mummy Makes â&#x20AC;Ś

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You will need: Bicarbonate of soda Citric acid Liquid colour Essential oils Water in a spray bottle Glitter, seeds or petals Mould, cutters Mixing bowl Spoon Cellophane Ribbon

It is fair to say we cheated with this and bought a kit with everything included! But the ingredients are easily obtained.

Directions (to make 2 egg-sized bath bombs)

Step 1. Weigh out 100 grams of bicarbonate of soda and add to a mixing bowl. Step 2. Weight out 50 grams of citric acid and add to a mixing bowl. Stir until all the lumps have been removed (sieving is quicker). Step 3. Add a few drops of colour. Step 4. Add a few drops of essential oil. Mix constantly, you must not stop. Step 5. Spray water a little at a time into the mixture. Keep mixing until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it between your fingers. Step 6. Take your mould – we used an egg shaped one. Sprinkle a small amount of decoration – petals, seeds or glitter – into the mould. Step 7. You then need to over-fill the shape with

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Step 7. You then need to over-fill the shape with the mixture, pushing it down with a spoon. Fill the other half of the mould too and then pinch together. Count slowly to 30. Step 8. Carefully, pull one half of the mould off. Place on a clean, dry surface, and remove the other half of the mould. Leave to set for at least 2 hours. With any remaining mixture, form into a ball and flatten out and then use cutters to make some star shapes etc. Again, set aside to dry/harden for at least 2 hours.

Wrap in cellophane, tie with a ribbon and give to friends as a present! Although we were pleased with the results, it was much more difficult than we expected. Getting the mixture wetness perfect is key to getting a bath bomb that keeps its shape once out of the mould. Silicon moulds would have been better too. We made enough in total for six egg-shaped bombs – but we ended up with just two and lots of ‘practice’ ones (that flopped into pancake shapes once out of the mould!) For the younger children, using the cutters was much more successful. It was fun though and all the mixture that was too dry to form bath bombs has gone into a jar and will be scooped out at bath times! Millie-Mae and Toby are the children of Tracey Kifford, who runs the online marketplace www.WowThankYou.co.uk 40

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First of all a very Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. It seems like a distant memory now, but here we are full speed ahead towards Spring. I don't know what the weather has been like where you live, but it has been rather dismal just lately here in Yorkshire; and what better way to brighten a rainy day then dig out some pretty accessories to make something for Spring! This time I have chosen to demonstrate one of my hand decorated candle votives. It is very easy to make and doesn't take long at all (the longest task is waiting for the glue to dry). All you will need is a glass tumbler (any shape or size), tissue paper, some ribbon, PVA glue and glue spreader, and some small artificial flowers. Firstly, I will talk you through the cost of the piece, after all this is and you need to be sure your purse strings aren't being stretched too far. In terms of what to use as your candle votive, before you dash to your nearest home ware store why not have a rummage around in your cupboards for a glass tumbler you don't use anymore. Any shape is acceptable, personally I found a regular cylinder shaped tumbler to work very nicely, but something with a differing shape, such as a brandy style glass, adds a little something extra to your design; experiment and see what you find.

For many of us crafters ribbon is something we keep in stock, so that again keeps our costs down, but for those without ribbon, your local market or haberdashery store is the best place to start. With regards small artificial flowers, these can easily be purchased from the local market, craft shop, garden centre or even somewhere like Wilkinson's, for instance, and for a very reasonable price too. You can buy packs of tissue paper in multi packs, giving you a rainbow of colours, again for a very minor expense. Luckily, as this is a small item you won't need too much of anything.

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task is waiting for the glue to dry). All you will need is a glass tumbler (any shape or size), tissue paper, some ribbon, PVA glue and glue spreader, and some small artificial flowers. Firstly, I will talk you through the cost of the piece, after all this is and you need to be sure your purse strings aren't being stretched too far. In terms of what to use as your candle votive, before you dash to your nearest home ware store why not have a rummage around in your cupboards for a glass tumbler you don't use anymore. Any shape is acceptable, personally I found a regular cylinder shaped tumbler to work very nicely, but something with a differing shape, such as a brandy style glass, adds a little something extra to your design; experiment and see what you find. For many of us crafters ribbon is something we keep in stock, so that again keeps our costs down, but for those without ribbon, your local market or haberdashery store is the best place to start. With regards small artificial flowers, these can easily be purchased from the local market, craft shop, garden centre or even somewhere like Wilkinson's, for instance, and for a very reasonable price too. You can buy packs of tissue paper in multi packs, giving you a rainbow of colours, again for a very minor expense. Luckily, as this is a small item you won't need too much of anything. So, let's get started. First of all you need to measure how much tissue paper you will need to cover your glass. This will of course depend on the size and shape of your glass. In order to do this, select a large cut off of tissue paper in your selected colour and after laying your glass on its side, roll it sideways wrapping your tissue paper around it, ensuring there is a bit of overlap. Once you have ensured you have enough paper, line the inside of the tissue paper with PVA glue and carefully wrap it tightly around your glass, don't worry too much about excess paper at the top and bottom of your glass as we will come to this next. This may take some time to dry, but once it is dry you will be able to determine if you require another layer of tissue paper. I wrapped two layers around my glass to strengthen the tone of the colour, but it is entirely up to you. When you return to your glass, you will see the tissue and glue together have created a wonderful effect around the glass. Once dry, the next step is to scrunch and fold the tissue at the bottom of your glass, again as tightly as you can, making sure to glue each section as you scrunch and fold. As soon as the bottom is dry it is time to turn your Written by Leanne from www.facebook.com/SmallSuprisesBoutique

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Image shown: Rachel and her Easter treats. £15. Tracy’s Handmade Makes. www.wowthankyou.co.uk/tracyshandmade-makes www.creative-crafting.com

Custom Easter bunny baskets with monogramming in pink and brown. These Easter baskets would be perfect for your little one's to collect all of those candy filled eggs this Easter. MonogramEnvyBoutique

Handmade Easter bunny baby booties These super cute handmade bunny baby booties are made using bright pink fabric and a lighter pink inside with a soft white felt, hand embroidered bunny face with pink Liberty print ‘Eloise’ ears.

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MonogramEnvyBoutique

JennyWrenCraft

£13.83

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JennyWrenCraft £6.50

Personalised Egg cup and Plate Set Beautifully hand-painted and personalised ,these lovely egg cup sets make a special personalised gift for all ages. Purple Glaze Pottery www.wowthankyou.co.uk/purple-glaze-pottery £30

Sunshine Chick This gorgeous little chick is so adorable everyone falls in love with her. She is very soft and cuddly with a really appealing face. JOLLYSAM www.wowthankyou.co.uk/jollysam £8

Easter Decoration A lovely hanging decoration created in felt. JoannaFeltCraft www.folksy.com/shops/JoannaFeltCraft £6.00

kakabaka peeking bunny t shirt This black short sleeve t shirt is appliqued with an original kakabaka design -- a peeking bunny, top stitched with the kakabaka signature white stitch. Kakabaka www.etsy.com/uk/shop/kakabaka £11.07

2 x 40g Personalised Chocolate Bars Each bar can be personalised with the name of your choice and comes with either a blue or pink background. Daffodil Days Ltd www.wowthankyou.co.uk/daffodil-days-ltd £1.99 Cotton Rabbit A beautiful first toy for a baby or a gift for a dear friend. Gabrielle Justine www.folksy.com/shops/GabrielleJustinne £16 www.creative-crafting.com

Salt Dough

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My name is Ioan which is Welsh for John and pronounced at bit like Johan. I’m 13 years old and love drawing, painting and making things and I’d like to share with you what I made for my school arts project on my favourite food. Our arts teacher asked us to draw our favourite foods in ways that could be turned into models. Well, like most teenagers, I love junk food and sweets, so it wasn’t hard thinking of things to include. My ideas for models included a Doughnut with a pizza quadrant and stuffed with jelly beans, and a Sailboat made from a hot dog, liquorice and a slice of cake. But my favourite was the Burger and pancake towers with candyfloss.

We were told to make one of our drawings into a model over the Christmas holidays and I chose the burger towers. I drew it again with more detail and added lots of notes explaining the colour, shape or texture and what materials I would use. As I go to a welsh school, my notes are in welsh – “Hoff Syniad – Tyrau Bwydydd” means Favourite Things – Food Towers.

We could use anything we liked to make our models but my teacher had suggested salt dough would be good for mine. I’d never used salt dough before so I looked it up how to make it on the Internet. It looked quite easy. I love science and was interested to find out that salt in the dough keeps the flour and water mixture from going off - but it has to be dried really well before painting.

Ingredients: 1 cup of salt 2 cups of plain flour ¾ cup of water Instructions: Mix salt and flour in a large bowl Gradually stir in water, mixing well When doughy, kneed hard to a smooth consistency Make models Leave to air dry or bake in very low oven – for a very long time Paint or varnish

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I made up the first batch using some flour I found in the cupboard. I mixed different flours together which may have been a mistake! I rolled out the salt dough with a rolling pin so it was really flat and cut out some burgers using a round cookie cutter. I roughed up the surface of the burger pieces using a cheese grater and knife to make them look like real meat patties. I cut out similar circles for the pancakes from thinner rolled dough and shaped the left over pieces of dough in my hands to make the ice-cream balls. I put these on baking trays and put them into the oven – on about 180oC – this is what the web site has said. After an hour I had a look and was horrified to find they had started to rise and crack. And they looked rather burnt on the bottom. Not at all like the pictures on the website!

My mum suggested that maybe the oven was too hot. She also asked if I had used a bit of self raising flour by mistake! Oops - maybe! So, I started again with a new pack of flour – definitely plain this time. I also left the finished shapes dry all day before putting them in a really low oven overnight – it was barely turned on and mum kept checking on them for me. Success - they came out flat and pale cream – exactly as on the website.

I then made and dried the other shapes – the chips were cut from thick dough using a sharp knife and curved a little before drying and I cut thinner dough into rougher shapes for the cheese and bacon. The rounded bun shapes were very thick so needed longer drying and I had to cut out slots in the top for the chips to sit in. The fun bit was painting the different bits of the model. I have a lovely acrylic art set with loads of colours and I really enjoyed mixing them together to get the right shades and painting different colours on top of each other to make the food seem real. I even roped mum in to speed up the painting – but she had to stick to my ideas. My favourites are the bun and the bacon.

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I got mum to help with the gluing together – I didn’t fancy super-glued fingers! We used a gel superglue– it wasn’t runny and stuck the bits together really firmly – even the round ice-cream balls. I didn’t know how to do the chocolate topping on the ice-cream – I had thought I’d be able to paint them but I wouldn’t get the dripping bits right. My granddad suggested cutting rolled out plasticine (kid’s model clay) into the right shape and shaping it round the finished ice-cream and pancake stack – it was fiddly but it worked with a bit of help from Mum. I had white and I found I could make a chocolate brown colour by blending red, yellow and blue together. It did look a bit dull but I made it shiny by pouring runny glue over it – which also glued on the sugar sprinkles made from snips of coloured plasticine. I had tried to make the candyfloss from salt dough – using crumpled up aluminium foil as a core with a shaped salt dough layer on top – I found this idea on the internet too. It worked ok and didn’t crack but I didn’t think it looked real enough. Luckily I found a great photo online of candyfloss made by spray painted quilt wadding. Mum explained I needed the cheaper polyester wadding that can be pulled apart - not the expensive cotton or bamboo stuff she uses in her quilts. It was raining so I spray painted the wadding in the shed (I only got a little bit on Dad’s bike) and when it was dry I pulled it apart to make it thinner and wrapped it round the salt dough and foil model. It didn’t need gluing as it sort of sticks to itself. Mum glued everything to a wooden platter and my model was finished. Hooray. It was really big and quite heavy, so she gave me a lift to school with it rather than risk carrying it on the bus! I’m really pleased with my finished model. I had to complete a review explaining what I learnt and what I could do differently. I had tried very hard to stick to the scale of my drawing, but the pancake stack turned out shorter than the burger tower and candyfloss! Never mind – it still looks brilliant.

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The Craft Box Feature Wall

There's a large chimney breast in my living room, wallpapered in cream. During the Christmas period I turned it into a feature wall, but for the rest of the year it's just a plain cream wall.

It seemed a shame not to do something with it, so I thought I would use my craft supplies and create a feature wall that I could change with the seasons. For my Spring/Easter theme I started with 3 sheets of tissue paper, green, light blue and dark blue. With blue tack I put the sheets up on the wall, overlapping.

I gathered tissue paper, pencil, scissors, coloured paper, flower stickers and sellotape.

With papers in yellow and orange I cut out and created 3D daffodils. I cut out stems and leaves from green paper and using some coloured patterned paper I cut egg-shapes to represent Easter. With blue tack, everything was attached to the tissue paper background with more blue tack.

With the background done I then drew grass onto sheets of green paper and cut them out. With blue tack they were attached to the bottom of the tissue paper. Flower stickers and transfer were added amongst the grass and Easter eggs. A butterfly, cut from patterned paper was created and branches of a tree were created from natural papers. Armed with stickers, I added butterflies around the flowers and using gold flower stickers I added blossom to the branches. With pink sequin flowers and blue tack I added more blossom to the branches. You can also add other item's to your feature wall, postcards, things you find on your walks, cut out photographs of your children/grandchildren. This is a really fun, never ending project that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Written By Tina Cook http://www.shinyies.co.uk

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