Thank you

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by my little blog over the last few years.  To all those who stopped by, leaving lovely, encouraging comments - I really appreciated them all!
It has been very much neglected in recent times, as my interests have moved into other directions. I will no longer be posting on this blog anymore, but instead I have a new blog  and website focusing on my design and illustration work. Please feel free to stop by!

www.drawnbyrebeccajones.com

Nutcracker paper garlands

My little boy has always loved nutcrackers. For Christmas just after he had turned 2, it was all the wanted. Anytime anyone asked him what he wanted for Christmas he always answered, a nutcracker.
This year  he is now four, and just beginning to get into craft in a big way. I drew some  nutcrackers for him on the computer. We cut them out, and pieced them together in the same way as the paper angels, using tiny paper fasteners. And then glued bits of cotton wool on as their beards.
He just loves them.

And you can download the templates so you can print and make your own garlands below!

Doodling...

and embroidering,  little woollen felt birds for my Christmas tree.

Christmas Fairy Garland Tutorial

A long time ago, I made some paper fairies for my niece's birthday. She is old enough now to make them all on her own. So I thought I'd put together a little Christmas Fairy craft kit to send over to her and her sister in England, with a more Christmas feel to them, with their glittery organza skirts.
And you can click on the link below and follow the tutorial if you would like to make them too.

Things you'll need:
Card stock and printer
Scissors
Sharp tool such as a large needle
Paints/crayons/pens
Scraps of fabric
Scraps of pretty paper for the wings
Mini paper fasteners
Japanese MT tape (or other decorative tape)
Glue stick
 

 First of all, you'll need to print off the template onto card stock. You can download the template here.
Once you've printed it, you can begin to paint the fairies. I used watercolours, pencil crayons and even some Japanese MT tape. You can use whatever you have.
And you don't need to worry about going outside the lines.....it's all going to be cut out later.

Once the fairies are all decorated, using a sharp tool (such as a large needle) poke holes in the paper, where the grey dots are, on each arm, leg, hip, shoulder and hand. Do this before cutting them out, it's quite tricky to do later.
Cut each fairy out carefully, try to cut a little inside the lines, so you can't see them once cut out.


You are now ready to assemble them, using a mini paper fastener to join arms and legs to the body.
The next step is to add their skirts. I gave mine double layered skirts. For the underneath I cut out tiny scraps of fabric about 3 cm by 5 cm. I gently gathered the fabric in my fingers and attached it to the fairy using some Japanese MT tape that I had cut in half horizontally ( to make it quite narrow)

On top of that I cut out some glittery Christmasy organza fabric, about 8cm x 5 cm. Again, I gently gathered the fabric with my fingers and attached it using another layer of tape.
Then I cut out the wings from some pretty metallic paper and glued them on to the back of the fairies using a glue stick.

Join the hands together with more paper fasteners, and your garland is now ready to hang!

( I only made 3 for the purposes of this tutorial,  but a garland of 6 or more looks best)

A chicken quilt

A new quilt for a new niece, the aim is to try and finish it before she gets too big!

I spent a lovely Saturday with a friend of mine. We went to our favourite fabric shop in the morning, and managed to while away nearly 2 hours browsing the shelves, lost in the possibilities of all we could do. Beofre heading to the city for afternoon tea followed by more shopping... it felt very luxurious for both of us to have the day to ourselves without little ones in tow.

I bought a selection of Liberty fabrics for the baby quilt

And I'm so inspired to get crafting again, I started to applique some chickens for the quilt

Chickens, because my little boy Toby calls his new niece Audrey Chicken.
Why? I asked.
Because she is so delicious I want to eat her all up, he replied. Of course.
So a chicken themed quilt it is.

New Spoonflower fabrics

I designed some new prints recently, and sent them off to Spoonflower.  I'd kind of forgotten all about them, until they arrived yesterday....

* Edited:  I've had a few requests to buy these fabrics - they are for sale through Spoonflower  - please follow this link!

Christmas card making

Dusted off my print gocco, I haven't used it since I printed this fabric (2 1/2 years ago now!)
I drew my design in a special carbon pen, and exposed my mini screen and literally within minutes I was printing.
The first colourway I kind of liked, but I thought the green tree would have come out a few shades lighter than it did.
And then today, while my little one took himself off for a nap (most unusual for him, but he did work really hard in his swimming lesson this morning!) I decided to try a different colourway, I quite like these ones, bit of a shame the white tends to lighten off quite a bit once it's dry.