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.

Christmas has begun

Little m and I are very excited about Christmas this year.
I remember reading something somewhere on another blog, where the girl was writing about loving all the excitement of Christmas, all the preparations, all the planning, but feeling a little bit let down by the actual day itself. I know what she means. Especially since being here in Australia, the Christmases don't feel like those of my own childhood in England. No fires in the living room, twinkling fairy lights lighting up the house by half past three as it's so dark outside. Frost crunching underfoot in the mornings, the excitement and possibilities of snow, icicles hanging off the windows, and cold, how I miss the cold at Christmas!
But of course there are positives here too. Sunshine, lots of it. Light, warmth, long days, cider on the roof terrace, barbeques, eating seafood.

So this year I decided that we'll make the most of the excitement of Christmas, and spread it out over the whole month. I have finally (nearly!) finished making Toby his advent calendar. Just 2 more felt ornaments to go. But it's hanging up. It's being used and loved.
Everyday a new felt ornament to hang on the fabric tree, and a little surprise for him in the pocket too. Yesterday he couldn't believe it when he found a large gold (chocolate) coin, and that he was allowed to eat it before breakfast! And today an even bigger surprise, a tiny letter from the Christmas fairy, a small chocolate coin and a Lego skateboarder. He was beside himself with excitement! And he's been re-counting the story of how he found everything in his advent calendar, how the Christmas fairy had left it all there for him while he slept, all morning to anyone who'll listen.

This is what Christmas is all about for me. Magic, family, the sharing of excitement, anticipation.

Crafty weekend

Some friends and I snuck off last weekend for a crafty retreat in the country. We rented a little cottage that was as cute as could be, and crafted away with just each other and some red wine for company! It was heavenly.

I started making an advent calender for little m, the idea came from this advent calender, and I'm making mine pretty much the same, I've just changed the Christmas tree a little. And all the ornaments are my own...I managed to get quite a bit done. It's amazing how speedy I can be without a little one hanging around me!

But there are still 7 ornaments to make, and all of the assembling to do, and 24 buttons to sew on. And only 5 days to go until the start of December, so I better go while little m is still sleeping and make a few more things....

Fabric from Spoonflower

And here is the latest of my projects on the go at the moment. Another quilt for my little one.

But this time to be made from my own design. My fabric has finally arrived from Spoonflower! And I'm so very excited about it.
Lots of Woodland animals, and a raccoon, posing as a robber. Playing police and robbers is one of little m's favourite games, so I knew he would love this.

(You can see it at Spoonflower here.)

It's been a while.....

 It really has been a while since I've been around here.
And it's been a while since I really did any kind of crafting or sewing or drawing. I had a bit of a dry spell, and started back at work, and found myself with not a lot of time to do anything...

There are still piles of unfinished quilts, one of which was begun way before Little m's 2nd birthday, (he was 3 two months ago now) and has sat unfinished for nearly 18 months!

I went off it a bit, thought it looked a bit busy and crazy. And wasn't sure how to go on with it. I put it away for a time, and having looked at it again recently, thought that it's probably worth finishing.

And another quilt has begun for Little m, been cut out, sewn together, and now needs to be finished...

Inspired by a baby quilt a did a while ago

I'm starting to feel a little inspired to be creative again.

Birthday Cake

How did this come around so quickly? I can't believe another whole year has gone by...

Based on my little one's favourite book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, it was a bit of a rush job. (Following an entire day spent in emergency, with his second broken arm...) I managed to decorate the whole thing in just a couple of hours, but I was quite pleased with it in the end. And my little one just loved it, and ate all of the sugar food for his own tea.

Unfinished

Birthday present making for Little m's second birthday.

This is teeny tiny Bebo. Much loved bear and best friend of...

Percy. He's a little bit shy.

I've made Percy for little m. He's not quite finished yet, by Thursday (hopefully!) he should have a coat and a little pair of boots to keep him warm. And a bed to sleep in. It's one of little m's favourite games of late - getting his toys dressed and putting them to bed. And I'm hoping he'll adopt this little bear. I made him just for him, with love.

Boris

Hello.

This is Boris.

Handmade by me yesterday, and I'm very pleased with him. My first attempt at needle felting.
I seem to spend hours browsing around Flickr looking at things I could make, but always feeling like I'll never have the time.... I've been obsessing over needle felting for the longest time, ever since buying this book for a friend. So on a whim I popped into Spotlight yesterday and bought a few supplies, quickly looked at a youtube tutorial and started making.


I have ideas for many more things, and with Little m's birthday coming up, I can feel my craft fire re-igniting....

Paper dolls

Over a decade ago, I saw this idea in an English magazine, way before I had children, or even knew any. I tore it out and somehow managed to keep it for all this time, despite now living on the other side of the world. I don't think I've seen it or thought about it in all that time in between, but I came across it a few weeks ago whilst tidying some drawers out. Just in time for my niece's birthday.
Paper dolls, joined together with paper clips, with moveable arms and legs. The original idea used tissue paper skirts, but I thought using some of my collection of cupcake cases would be cuter. The bodies, arms and legs were all painted with watercolour on watercolour paper,



cut out, pieced together using tiny paper fasteners and then the cupcake paper skirts attached. A pretty little paper doll garland for my neice's bedroom. I think I may add some wings to turn them into fairies before I send them off to her tomorrow...



Looking at this one, I think you can tell that I've been obsessively watching all 3 seasons of Mad Men in the last few weeks....