A Crafting and Family Fun Filled 2014

Hi,

Well, here we are in our final hours of 2014 and I must say on a personal note I am glad to put this year behind me.  However, it has been a great year for some crafting and I feel my crochet skills have definitely improved this year.  Here at Crafting Addicts we have covered quite a range of crafts when you look back over the course of the year....

It's hard to believe how much we have created between the three of use during the course of this year and that we have only been writing our blog since March. 

We have had some great family fun this year too!  Visits to other places and family get togethers and celebrations as well.

So, let's look forward to another new year and we wish you all the best wishes and fortune for the new year.

Bye for now

Crafting Addicts

xxx

Almost there... Blanket a long

Hi,

Almost there...    The Christmas holiday has been great to grab some moments to continue with my blanket.  I have been very busy adding the borders to each of the squares and then joining them.  I must say, it is a huge blanket and is great for these cold days we have been having this week.  I have been quite happy snuggling underneath its warmth as I have been joining it together.

The next job is to complete the border and get rid of all those thread ends.  Fingers crossed, I may get this done by the new year.  I will show you better photos of the finished result then.

   We have been having a lovely break and we have enjoyed taking our dogs for walks around our local area.  We are very lucky to have some relaxing walks to get away from it all on our doorstep.  One of our favourites is a walk along the canal that runs alongside our housing estate.

I hope you have all had a wonderful break and enjoyed your Christmas festivities.  I hope to post my finished blanket in the near future.

Bye for now

Von x

Christmas Cake

 

I love Christmas although the build up to it can be slightly exhausting at times as there is so much to do but it is always worth the hard work when you see everyone having so much fun.   There is always lots of time spent with the families and lots of giggles along the way.

I have made some parcels and a reindeer to go on top of the Christmas cake this year.    A quick effort but pretty pleased with the end result.   Every time I do any cake decorating I learn some more lessons along the way.

The next cake will be for my daughters 11th birthday.  She is all grown up this year - her party this year is a visit to the cinema, a meal out and then back home for some fireworks and a sleepover with just a few of her very closest friends. 

Julie x

Christmas Card Making

Hi,

What a busy time!  I started making my Christmas cards quite a while ago and I have gradually completed them in the lead up to the season.  I bought a beautiful stamp from Woodware this year with the song lyrics "O Little Town of Bethlehem" on it and a view of the town.  I began by cutting some card just slightly bigger than the stamp, then using a tissue I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink Wild Honey to smooth across the card.

This created a nice antique style to the card and it was on this that I then printed the Bethlehem stamp with Archival Ink(which actually was a little mistake because it did bleed a little later when adding colour with my promarkers.)

Once coloured I backed some card with a lovely red print paper and attached this on top.  Then my final touch was a lovely golden yellow ribbon.

I was quite pleased with the finished result as I am not the best card maker.   Ah well, off to complete all those other Christmas jobs now....

Bye for Now

Von x

Disco Cake

The lead up to Christmas is such a lovely time.   I am looking forward to getting our Christmas tree up this weekend.  There are already lots of Christmas decorations up everywhere but this last weekend for us was a busy one with lots of fun and laughter with our families to celebrate my husbands birthday.

 

As it was also my nephews birthday earlier last week I made a cake to celebrate the two birthdays.  The disco / dance theme was due to them both having had a laugh together the week before on the dance floor at a family wedding.   Lots of lovely memories ..  this cake was  bound to make them  both smile.

 

 

 The next cake challenge will be for my daughters birthday just before Christmas.  

Julie
x

Little Christmas Tree

Hi,

Oooh, we are now well on our way to the run up to Christmas.  We love Christmas in our family and this weekend we put up our Christmas Tree. Our tree is a black one and we dress it with silver baubles.  Which, I think, do look pretty good - if I do say so myself!

 

 

I do love this time of the year and seeing all the Christmas trees and lights in everyone's homes as I pass by on the way home from work.  We bought some new additions for under our tree this year from our local Garden Centre.  These lit presents caught our eye as we wandered through all the fabulous decorations and ended up coming home with us.

 

 

I do think they look pretty good under the tree.  Just need something for the other side now....

 

This gave me an idea!  I had recently bought this great Christmas fabric and here was my inspiration to use it!  So I set about making a simple pattern with the trusty greaseproof paper.

 

 

A little bit of careful sewing and filling and here is my finished result....

 

 

I added some jingle bells to the end of each branch and found these great little glittery star decorations that I then added to the top of the tree.  I have placed the sewn tree on this pot for now but think I will add a bit of Christmas glitz and glamour to brighten it up a bit more.

 

Bye for now

 

Von x

 

 

 

A Visit to Birmingham

Hi,

I thought I would share with you a recent visit into Birmingham which is very close to the town where we live.  We always go by train which is only a 15 - 20 minute journey.  We had visited for a quick shopping spree and a visit to the new Library which was well worth going to see.

 

Birmingham, Council House where the council is based.

 

 

 

The Library

 

 

 

The Shakespeare Room at the top of the Library.

 

 

                                          Views of the City from the top of the Library.

The Library is definitely a huge success for the city and was very busy on the day we visited with a lot of visitors enjoying the views and looking at the Shakespeare Room.  We did visit the New Bullring which is a great shopping centre and would be great for a Christmas shopping spree.  The German market will soon be in the City too which is always well worth a visit.

I am continuing to make progress with the blanket a long that I have been following from Zooty Owl.  Here is a photo of my four Zooty Mandala squares which are all complete now and I have made a good start on the final four squares so hopefully the big reveal of the finished blanket will be soon.

Bye for now

Von x

Remembrance - Close to Home

Hi all,

I thought it was only fitting this week to have a focus on Remembrance Day.   With the 100 year commemorations this year of the start of World War 1 it has really brought home the links to our own family.  I am sure many of you have some relative that you can trace that served within the First World War.

Our family has two significant members who unfortunately did not return from their duty and they are often in our thoughts during these moments of remembrance.  Thomas Bishop, who is my Dad's Uncle was lost just before the end of the war and although we have no photo of him we do have the medal that was given on his death and the letter from King George.

 

Our other lost family member was Albert Coopey, who was my Grandad's Uncle, whom he was named after.  My Grandad often thought about his Uncle particularly when he himself had to serve during WWII.  My Grandad told me how he strongly hoped throughout the second world war that he would not follow the same fate as his Uncle and lucky for him, and us, he did indeed return safe and sound.

 

It was with these brave men in mind that when I spotted the latest patterns in the Simply Crochet Magazine I decided to have a go at making my own crochet poppies.  The first I attempted was the larger poppy as shown below.  I have been wearing this on my own coat.

 

Then my daughter said she wouldn't mind a poppy either and would much prefer a home made one so I had a go at the other pattern in the Simply Crochet magazine.  I added some black beads to this poppy too as my daughter thought they added a little extra to the overall finish and I must agree with her.

 

 

I have ended up making another of these too for my Mum so they have been a very popular make.  Of course, we have donated to the British Legion and totally support this wonderful charity.

 

Bye for now

 

Von x

 

 

An Autumn Walk and continued progress with the 'Blanket a Long'.

Hi all,

We have had a very busy half term break but managed to get out this afternoon to enjoy the warm Autumn weather and one of our local parks.  We took the dogs to visit Pooley Country Park and enjoyed a lovely stroll along the canal and through the woodland.

 

 

The dogs loved the walk and we enjoyed it just as much.  The October sunshine was warm, and really, I did not need the coat I had put on.  We walked through the Silver Birch woodland and discovered no end of beautiful red mushrooms throughout the walk.  The colours were beautiful!

 

 

 

Well, after our walk I managed to find some time to photograph my progress with the 'Blanket a Long' from Zooty Owl Blog.  I have finally managed to complete Part 5 and 6 of the steps.  Here is a photo of the Popcorn Flower and Leaves squares from Part 5.

 

 

And I then ploughed on with Part 6 and managed to make the Box Stitch Squares which came out quite well, I thought.

 

 

I managed to sew these together last night to make 4 large squares as instructed on Zooty Owl's blog. 

 

 

So there we go, another two steps complete and on to the next one.  I will update you when I have managed to get round to completing these because there are another 4 larger squares - Zooty Mandala squares! 

 

Bye for now!

 

Von x

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween - Spiders Web Made From Beads

Halloween never used to be something that we really bothered with until we had our two lovely children and now each year we make something new to add to our homemade Halloween decorations.  I love seeing the children get so excited about decorating the house.   This year I decided to have a go at making a spiders web from beads.   Here is a photo of the finished result ....

Julie
x

Blanket a Long Making Progress

Hi,

     Just a quick update on how I am getting along with my blanket making.  As you know, if you have been following the blog I am trying to keep up with Zelna over on ZootyOwl Blog.  In my last post, I had completed the small squares and since then I have sewn these together to make larger squares.

 

I have, then, worked on Zelna's next step making 8 "Popcorn Flower and Leaves" squares.  It has taken me a little longer to do these as I have been so busy lately but I have tried to find a sneaky five minutes here and there to manage to get these completed.  So here is another stack of granny squares ready for my ever increasing blanket.

 

 

So next step is part 6 of the "Blanket a Long" to make 8 Box Stitch Squares which are another batch of smaller squares.  I will post a picture as soon as they are done!

Bye For Now

Von x

Thank You Tag Tutorial

Hello,

I am always in need of Thank You cards or notelets for one reason or another and, when I can, I like to have a go at creating my own handmade ones.  This was the finished result from my most recent attempt.

 

 Let me share with you how I went about it.  Firstly I cut a piece of pale blue card 15 x 8 cm which I then trimmed to make the tag shape.

 

I then rounded off the corners using the corner trimming feature on my paper trimmer.

 

 

Next I cut a small piece of bubble wrap and using an Airondack Denim Blue inkpad stamped across the whole of the tag to create a lovely speckled/blobby effect.

 

 

Then I went on to cut a smaller piece of blue card measuring 10 x 7 cm in size.  I used my corner trimmer to round off each of the corners.  Then I used Clarity Stamp Alium 2 with a Versamark pad and stamped these overlapping across this piece of card.

 

After that I used Perfect Pearls powder (Perfect Pearl shade) and brushed this over the stamped aliums to create a lovely delicate background.

 

 

Then, using a Black Archival ink pad I stamped a simple Thank You message at the bottom of the card.  I used Clarity Stamp's Thank You clear stamp to create this.

 

 

After this, continuing to use the Archival ink pad I stamped another alium across the card.  I used another Clarity Stamp for this.

 

 

Finally I used some foam pads to attach this to the bubble wrap printed tag.  I hole punched the end and will add some ribbon.  You could use brad here as an alternative.

 

 

I am sure I will be sharing further Thank You related tags or cards in the future.  Please share your own ideas as I am always looking for ideas.

 

Bye For Now

 

Von x