Upcycling is fun!

So the other night at mutual (our church youth activity night) we made tie cushions.  They were super easy and fun to make and the girls loved it.  There was tonnes of little scrap pieces of the soft fluffy blanket fabric left over, and inspiration struck me!  I would make a mini quilt/table runner!! It took me about 3 hours in total to make.. mostly because its the FIRST TIME I've ever made a quilt of any sort.  I am so pleased with myself.  The front squares are all the lovely soft fluffy leftovers from the cushions, the back is a orange corduroy I had in my fabric stash, and the fluro green ribbon is from my ribbon box.  I am super pleased with it!  What do you think??



Happy Crafting!

Christy

Giveaway time! *CLOSED*

 (Pictured above: earring stand, 2 pairs of earrings, 3 greeting cards, 2 paper flower embellishments, 2 pillow boxes filled with MM's, 2 ribbon hair clips, a beaded long necklace & fabric rosette headband)

Well folks, it's about time I did a giveaway!  I have been thinking about this for quite some time and am super excited to finally be doing it!  You have three chances to win this pack of fun goodies.  Here's how....

1.  For ONE chance, post a comment on this post.

2.  For TWO chances, follow my blog, and leave a seperate comment to tell me (if you are already a follower you still need to leave a comment).

3.  For THREE chances, post about this giveaway on your blog, and leave a seperate comment to tell me.

I'll draw the winner on  Thursday 30th September 10.30pm (Brisbane Australia time), and notify the winner (feel free to enter no matter where you live in the world!).

Please be sure to leave your email address in your comments if you don't have a gmail/blogger account for me to contact you through.

And be sure to put my Blog Button in your sidebar!

Good luck!!

Christy

Stashbusting Confession #1 & Stashbusting Creation #2 - amongst other things.

As some of you may know, I'm participating in The T-Shirt Diaries Stashbusting September.  Conditions of participation, are that you will not buy any new crafting supplies for the month of September, and only create with what you have in your "stash".  IF you cave in and buy something during the month of September, you MUST name and shame yourself.

Well here I am.  I am weak.  Yesterday I bought Christmas paper.  BUT along with my confession comes justification - and it is quite valid.

I sell ALOT of my cards that I make.  I am always having to replenish my supplies of cards up for sale.  I am going overseas very soon... for a month.  I will be out of the country for the most of November, and part of December.  So I need to make my Christmas cards NOW - so I can start selling them and will have a good stock pile to sell even whilst I am out of the country.  So I think that this is an exception to the rule.  What do you think?

On to the next thing.

So you might have noticed that I haven't blogged about my Stall at the Fete last weekend.  I've ummed and ahhhed about whether I will bother.  Let me outline why I feel this way.

- My spot at the fete cost me $30.
- I had to finish work 3 hours early on Friday (which my boss wasn't thrilled about) and got to the Fete early to set up.
- The carpark wasn't close to the hall I was to set up in.
- I went back and forth four times to get everything inside carrying as much as humanly possibly on each trip.
- It was drizzling rain and humid, I got very sweaty and wondered why I bothered wearing makeup.
- My sister was really sick and couldn't come help me.
- BUT - my brother's girlfriend came and helped for a couple of hours which was super nice of her.
- I did end up standing there by myself for a few hours which was disastrously boring.
- A kid stole a bracelet off my table.
- A woman searched through my entire card range - there was at least 70 cards and was picking out all her favourites which was making me super excited.  She ended up buying one card.  I had to pretend I wasn't about to cry.
- I only made $26.50 - over a 5 hour period - which means I didn't even break even, let alone make a profit.
- I couldn't even go to the toilet.
- I had a hard time getting people to even stop at my stall to have a look, let alone eat a lolly out of the bowl on my table.
- I was starving and thirsty but food was a good distance away and couldn't leave my table (I didn't trust other stall holders to watch it.. I'd only known them for like an hour.. and getting to know them consisted of "hi, how is your stall going? and pretending to be interested in Enjo")
- I had to pack up and drive myself home and try to not cry because of the disappointment and tell myself this was the first time and the first time is always the hardest.
- I got home to no dinner.

I did take a photo of my table and will post that when I get home, as I don't have my cord with me right now.

So I have somewhat gotten better at hiding over the disappointment of my unsuccessful attempt.  On Monday whilst driving home from work I drove past the local Uniting Church and saw on their sign out front they were having a Car Boot Sale the weekend after next.  It was really hard to write down all the details as I went by so I had to turn around over and over again and drove past it 4 times before I got all the info I needed hehe.  I gave the fellow a call and I'm in!  They have been running this sale every second month for as long as I have lived in the area.  Get this... my table (which they are providing) will only cost me $10!!  Much improved.  So if I make $10 plus the $3.50 that I didn't make at the last stall I will break even.  Downside is I have to get up at an unearthly time of morning cause it starts at 7am (and I'm only groaning cause I don't have kids) and set up time is 5:30am.  Yuck!  Fingers crossed for good weather and success second time round!!

Now, I have already been busily preparing for the Car Boot Sale.  This is where my Stashbusing Creation comes in.  I have been busily making jewellry.  Mostly earrings, to fill my awesome new earring stand I found at the Op Shop for $4!!  Can't go wrong there!  I have so many beads stashed away.  Making jewellry is not my most favourite craft so I spend more on beads then I probably should because I rarely make stuff, but I'm pretty sure this is the case with most crafting fanatics.. we have more stash then we have time and motivation to do something with.  The photo is bad quality, but is all I have for now.

When I showed my husband the stand when he got home he said "Whoa that's alot of earrings".  I think that means that is going to be enough.  But I'm still going to make more incase...  I've also made a few necklaces, bracelets and matching necklace/bracelet/earring sets.  I'll plug away at the jewellry for another day or two, then move onto cards.  I'm running low on my essentials let alone making Christmas cards!! (with my new delicious paper hehe).

I also have a supportive father/boss.  I work for my dad in an Accountancy office.  It's as boring exciting as they come and I work 3 days a week.  The other week he built me a trusty little stand so I could put it on the Reception desk and hopefully sell a few cards here and there.  I painted it white and put in a nice long nail to hang the cards on, and it sits just to my left.

I've only sold two so far, but at the end of the day, it's an Accountant's office.  Can't expect huge things...

Let me think if there is anything else...  Oh yes, I'm having a Stampin Up! party next month.  I have the most awesome demonstrator who conveniently is a good friend of mine.  You should check out her website as she has HEAPS of awesome classes and demonstrations and hosts a truck load of parties.  My party will be on Saturday 23rd October - no time yet but I'm thinking morning.  Kristy will be showing us a whole heap of the new products from the new catalogue so I'm super excited about that.

And I think that's it for now.  I will still do a post with pictures of my BIG card stand for my stalls and how my table looked last week... but for now this will have to do!

Until next time..
Christy

More Giveaways - Fabric Storage Bins

Here is another opportunity to win something fantastic.  Pop on over to Piou Piou for your chance to win these hell cute Fabric Storage Bins.  You could be the proud owner of 2 of these baby's.  All you need to do is pop over to her blog post about the Fabric Storage Bins and all the details are there.

Aren't they awesome??  You could store all sorts of things in these babies!  CD's, DVD's, fabric, winter
clothes, shoes...





Good luck ladies!!! 

Yo Yo Christmas Tree Giveaway

You need to check this out people!!  It is the height of cuteness.  Kiwi at Heart has an amazing/astonishing/astronomical giveaway in progress.  She is a local Brisbane girl too!  Just enter on her blog post about the Yo Yo Christmas Trees and you're in with a darn good chance.  You gotta be in it to win it right?  (cheesy but true).

Good luck!

Stresshead!

I have been uber busy preparing for this Fete Stall on Friday.  I have been taking lots of pictures of what I've been making, but not time to blog them I'm afraid.  That will have to wait until next week.  My husband finally finished my card stand on Monday night and we spray painted it white.  I also spray painted like 20 photo frames to make Earring Stands out of... we emptied 5 cans of spray paint.  It was fun trying to get all the paint off my body.. and out of my nostrils :)

I also finished making 8 awesome library bags... I don't do plain so you'll just have to wait for pictures to see how awesome of of them look.

Now to make about 30 cards, and price everything.  That will be the fun part.

In my lunch break today I'm making fabric flowers to pin on the front of my tableclothe to make sure it looks pretty!  Last night I also made my fill in bunting sign with my name on it out of laminated cardboard.  I will eventually make a fabric version.  The cardboard version looks pretty cool though!

Also, can I just add something of a more personal/non-craft nature.
1.  Steamed Dim Sims rock my socks off.
2.  Pineapple Lumps also rock my socks off.

Photos to come!!  Wish me luck to get it all done (especially since tomorrow being my last day to get things done I have a commitment in the morning for 3 hours that I can't get out of and I have to work in the afternoon...)!!

Happy crafting :)

Stash Busting Creation #1

Incase you haven't heard, Robin over at The T-Shirt Diaries has a MAD competition going on!! It's called Stashbusting September... which may come across as an odd or alarming title. BUT... it is a fantastic idea. Basically all you have to do is take a pledge that you will buy copious amounts of fantastic supplies not buy any new crafting supplies for the month of September, and dig through your "stashes" and be creative with what you already have. So if you want to participate (cause there is a prize!) head on over to Robin's blog. Hurry, time is running out!
 
Now for what I've whipped up. I have HEAPS of fabric. Now for those who may have only just started following my blog, let me fill you in a little about me. I do not buy new fabric from fabric stores. It's my general rule. I prefer to buy my fabric in the form of old quilt covers, old sheets, old clothes, scraps etc etc - from Op Shops (Thrift Stores). That way everything stays fun and different and I like it that way.

I started off with a bunch of fabrics that I thought went well together in a fun way...

....and made these!

I love them!  What do you think?

Happy crafting... (and stash busting)

My First Official Stall!

I am heaps excited folks! Next Friday afternoon/evening I'll be holding my first official stall at the Hilliard State School Fete. I am busily going through all my things, working out what I need to make, which things to take, putting prices on everything in preparation for the big day. I'll let you know more throughout the week!

My creative space...

In our current town house, I have the use of the spare bedroom as my (newly named) Craft Quarters. (one of the perks of having no children I suppose). It is ever changing. I buy more, I need to re-organise to fit it. Of late I have become 'obsessed' with Op Shops (Thrift stores). Until recently I never noticed the copious bins full of fabric offcuts, quilt covers, bed sheets, tableclothes etc etc, sitting there, awaiting to be recreated. Almost every week I wander through an Op shop... I'm lucky enough to have 6 within 5 minutes of my house. Not many people are as lucky as I am in that department :D

Today, I visited the Lifeline Furniture Store! It has all the other goodies, but does specialise in bigger items of furniture. For some months I have been frustrated with my main work table in my Quarters. Boxes stacked on top of each other, my folders & craft magazines falling over, trying to fit the sewing machine on there... it was grinding on my nerves. So I've been keeping an eye out for some sort of new smaller shelving to put things on in a more effective manner! Today was my lucky day. I found what some may think is an odd piece of furniture but is PERFECT for my work table. So folks... here is my "creative space"...

My main work bench. This is where all the goodness happens. It is only clean like this about once a week, and only lasts until I sit at the table again and then the chaos returns. (I'm not good at cleaning up as I go when it comes to crafting)


My fantastic new shelf thing.. I really don't know what to call it. I love that I can stack things on each shelf, and also tuck things underneath. As of today my laces live underneath! The green & brown boxes are full of ribbon! I hope to one day have my husband build me rods on the wall with the spools of ribbon on them - but as of now we rent and the boxes will do. My rule is that all my ribbons must fit in those two boxes - this is the ensure I don't buy too much (cause I'll have nowhere to put it). The box on the right up the top is all my sewing bits. Cottons, elastic, needles, pins, scissors, measuring tape, fabric pencils, and all those kinds of goodies. On the bottom shelf, the black box is FULL of embellishments for my cards. Geez I love $2 shops :D The blue box is my hot glue gun and all the glue sticks ready to go. Then all my craft magazines & my green idea's folder. I'm LOVING the shelf.


Drawers contain felt, ink pads, sponges, pens, punches, cardstock & smaller patterned papers/cardstock. On top is my cutter, buttons, brads, stationery, and then the black box is full of unfinished card projects and cut outs from the Big Shot all ready to go.


My trusty drawers from Ikea. Full of goodness. On top is my box full of cards ready to sell, embellishments & pillow boxes ready to sell, my box of stamps, and then cards & boxes I want to keep and use myself. I have to keep these seperate or else they vanish.


Top drawer. All my supplies or card making: tape, dimensionals, sticky spots, bags etc.


Second drawer. Non Stampin Up! rubber stamps, embossing powders (in he cardboard box) and beading supplies.


Third drawer. Fabric scraps.


Fourth drawer. Projects waiting to be started or finished.


Fifth drawer. Other odds and ends supplies. Spray paint, acrylic paint, brushes, wool, fabric embellishments, etc.


Sixth drawer. I think it's obvious my husband took over this drawer. I hope to buy him his own storage bin and transfer these to that :D


And all my paper scraps sorted into their colours. It makes it easier to use them up instead of wasting the good stuff!


All my fabrics. I love having them hanging, it makes creating so much easier.


Then there's my presentation table. This has a handful of my finished products on them ready to sell.


And tucked underneath is all my baskets and baby gifts (inside the bags) ready for all the baby showers I'll be attending in the upcoming months.


And then my beading bag. All this stuff used to be in the Ikea drawers, but they have been kicked out to fit in fabric.


Then there's my Blog To Do List. I can now cross off "my creatice space"...


What does your creative space look like??

Catch-up

As previously mentioned I'm quite behind in my blogging. Here are a few more things that I've purchased/made/done over the last month.

I bought coathangers. Lots of them. All of my fabric is now hanging in the wardrobe in my Craft Room (which still needs a name). It makes my life SO MUCH EASIER. Before it was all stacked in drawers. Inspiration comes more freely these days, cause I can see!!!!





It was Nanna's birthday earlier in the month. So I made her some cushions for her bed. She LOVES THEM.



Mum gave me all her old laces that have been in her sewing cupboard since we were wee ones. I'll use them on something one day I'm sure!







I whipped up a pincushion. My mini apple one just wasn't cutting it anymore. I needed a big soft one. It's a bit wobbly, but functions perfectly.





Tonight I finished a skirt off.. for me! First time I've made myself something.... cause let's be honest, this body ain't easy to fit. But I had fun, and it's not toooo bad. The fabric is hell cute - and was only $4.50 from a Thrift Shop.. and best of all, it was a Quilt Cover. Ahh, the things you find when you dig :)





And lastly, the other day I had a big ole pile of fabrics and things on my table. I thought it looked cool, so I took a pic.

More FANTASTIC giveaway opportunities for Quilters!!

Hi folks. Once again, Canton Village Quilt Works has an awesome competition in progress. Be sure to enter here if you are interested in winning Barbara Cline's "Star Struck Quilts" book.

She is amazing! (geez I wish I had the skills to do this....)



Jackie, of Canton Village Quilt Works is also adding in a bonus second prize of a $20 gift voucher to her online shop.

Don't miss out ladies. You gotta be in it to win it... :o)

What i've been up to lately...

To be honest I haven't had time to do anything much lately in my Craft Room. She, she being my Craft Room, has been cold, empty and lonely for quite some time. Don't you love over-scheduling?? :)

I have a few projects to show you from earlier in the month that I haven't had time to blog about yet.

Firstly, Lil Blue Boo recently had an Ugly Knit Upcycle competition. I didn't have much time to come up with something super fantastic, but did manage to whip up a skirt out of an old tank/singlet my sister gave me. It never did fit my properly and I hated the crocheting up the top (I like crocheting as a general rule, but this one just didn't fry my burger).

So it went from this...

...to this!!

(closeup of the fabric rosettes at the bottom of the skirt)


It is nothing fantastic but it was fun to make. I don't expect to win, the competition is far too stiff... geez I hate clever people :P

Also, I saw this fantastic idea whilst blog surfing a looooong time ago. I printed out the picture and put it into my "idea's folder" thinking one day I might take a stab at it. Well about two weeks ago I was quenching my Op Shop thirst/obsession and found a giant bin FULL of doily's. I sorted through the entire box, and bought every single one I liked, in all different shapes and sizes. There was all the bedding and such next to where I was looking through the box, and a lady was sorting through it, and she turned to me and said "so you like your doily's do you?" I laughed and explained what their purpose was. I don't think she believed me cause she gave me a funny look.

Anywhoooo.. I made it!! I took a different approach on how to attach them all together - I sewed them on the machine. I wanted it to be long lasting and sturdy. I love it. My husband thinks otherwise. What do you think??


I like it and it's a keeper. If you want one let me know, I've still got plenty of doily's!! (especially considering I bought MORE today hehe)

Well that's all I have time for now folks.. I'm only about 4 blog posts behind. Maybe I'll catch up in my 'free time'.

Fantastic Giveaway for all you clever Quilters...

Hello my crafting buddies. Today during my daily blog surf/stalk I came across a neat competition!! Jackie from Canton Village Quilt Works has a AccuQuilt GO! Cutter up for grabs! Simply stop by her blog, and make sure you enter four times so you are in with a good chance! Good luck to you all!!

Sprucing up

Last week I was wondering around Target and found some onesies on sale for $3 each. Now I have over 10 friends/family currently pregnant, so I have started stocking up on baby goodies in preparation for the onslaught of baby showers and births. I grabbed 6 onesies (and upon reflection should have got MORE). 2 pink, 2 blue and 2 white. I also found a fantastic stripey onesie in the clearance section because the stitching had come undone in the armpit area. I brought my 7 onesies home, and promptly repaired the hole in the stripey suit. Then I had the sewing bug... and wanted to sew some more! I soon had the idea of sprucing up the onesies! Now so far I've only done one of the pink suits and one of the blue, but I have plans for the other 4 suits. Here is what I did...





and...



They're not perfect, and there are things I will do differently when I spruce up the other pink & blue suits, but I still like them, and am happy with them. They were fun to make, and hopefully the bodies that fill them will be just as cute :)

Flower Headband

Recently my good friend had a baby girl. I decided to make a little something as a gift for bubby on her blessing day - a lace flower headband. Doesn't it look schnookums on her?