A little boy's birthday

Yesterday we celebrated my nephew's birthday: he turned 5 earlier this week. Another occasion for the whole family to get together for an afternoon. I love these moments so much, seriously guys, my family is insane and we have such laughs all together.

 

Anywho, I was asked to make something for him that he'd like to have: a plate for his bedroom door. His sister had one from her nanny a few years ago and apparently he wanted one for his door too.

 

My nephew is a huge (and I mean HUGE) fan of Flash McQueen. Now, I can try to make a lot of things, but there are things I still can't do even with all the best will in the world: Flash McQueen is one of them :-(

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Trying something new

UEver heard of Kirigami? If you're not into papercraft, probably not.

Last year at a craft show, I did see this art presented by a guy exposing his cards there. I found this quite cool but did not want to get into yet another hobby. I mean, there are only so many things a crafter can do, right? Nah! We always find new things to do!

Last week, it was one of my colleague's birthday and I was in charge of the card. As I'm still setting up my workshop (yep. Still not done!), I needed something quick, not messy but that would stil look nice though because I've do not give handmade things that look not finished.

So I though about the cards I had seen last year but I could not remember th name of the method used. Took me a while on Google but the name finally popped up. 

You still don't know what it means though, I know. Kirigami is the art of cutting a pattern on a piece of paper to make cards or decorations.

She likes cats and the colour blue so I found the pattern online, and already had some blue paper. 

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Don't know if I'll do it again because even though it's not messy, it does take some time...and I chose a basic pattern as it was my first time.

On the other hand, it does not require a lot of material which is nice.

Sewing project: needle case

During winter time, I do not usually do any fimo. It is too cold (especially in my flat!) and the fimo is harder to manipulate.

So I have...or find other activities. Apart from beading and knitting, I have been trying sewing since last year. But I have mainly done projects during my sewing classes, nothing too challenging on my own.

Last month, I tried to sew something again on my own and that I would use for sure. my old needle case getting too small, I took to make a nice one.

And here is the result

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I found the pattern on Les Chiffonneries du chat (the blog is in French but she's made the tutorial in English too).

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There are a lot of flaws and I think I will try to make another one at some point. Sewing several layers for the first time is not easy when you don't really know how to use a sewing machine :-)

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I also need to work on straight lines too! But I find it cute and I'm pleased with how it turned out with this fabric combination. Oh! and my needles are (almost) all in place now.

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Velvet cake

I am still into miniature food. Today I give you my Velvet cake.

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Ikea hack

I wanted a chest of drawers for the front room but could not find what I wanted when it comes to size and colour. So I bought an Ikea's Rast and painted it. Finished the handles last week.

 

Come on! There had to be some UK influence in the flat: a big chunk of my heart is still there and will always be :-)

 

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Chocolate cupcakes

After the Oreo ones, I tried chocolate cupcakes. Still need to work on how to make chocolate (I know what they look like lol) but the result is not so bad.

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Earrings holder...or so I thought

Last night I started my diy earrings holder. I've had those canvas for about a year for that purpose but was not sure on how to decorate them.

 

I finished them this afternoon but now that they are done, I am not so sure I want to turn it into that anymore. I have spent a lot of hours on them so I am scared that my heart will be crushed if I put little holes all over them. Might just keep it as a proper painting to decorate or something. Just need to find where.

 

For the actual arabesque, I typed "arabesque" in Google and used tracing paper. Unfortunately I cannot give any credit to anyone for that specific one as the image I found comes from a girl's blog and she says she got the drawing from a nail art image plate.

 

For the font used though, its name is "Maratre" by Claude Pelletier (on dafont.com).

 

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A little sheep...

Since I have moved into this flat, I have been trying to explain to my sisters the sound of the neighbours' baby when she cries: it is one of the most annoying crying I have ever heard and she can do this for hours and at any time of the day. The weird thing is, she has a twin and I never hear her cry (or her squeaky voice covers it maybe).

Now, I love babies, I find them so cute, especially the ones in my family (hehe) but the way this one cries is very irritating and I had never heard something like that. Anyway, it has been impossible for me to find the right sound for my sisters to hear until yesterday when I finally remembered what it makes me think of: Timmy the sheep, from Shaun The sheep!

If you don't know Shaun The Sheep, have a look here: you will not only get to know him but you will also hear what I hear every single day for hours.

This revelation also made me want a Timmy (he is sooo cute!) so I made one last night. I got started and when I finished and looked outside, I saw the sunlight and realised I had spent the night on it so went to bed at 7am. But it was worth it...and I'm on holidays anyway.

Cured it today and voila! I love it :-)

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Inspiration

I saw this wonderful butterfly the other day in front of my sister's house. I had actually never seen a black and white one before. It's a shame its wings were not spread out but it was beautiful enough to inspire me.

 

The jewellery itself is not new as I have already made cupcakes before but never in those colours. And black is my favourire colour!

 

So here are the butterfly and the Oreo cupcake pendants.

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Baby shower

Last week my colleagues and I organised a surprise baby shower for our colleague who was going on maternity leave at the end of the month.

 

I really loved preparing all of this: yes! I'm a dork when it comes to organising that kind of things. But like for everything, we had a budget so I could not really go overboard and had to be stopped a couple of times regarding what to get :-)

 

So! We pretended that my boss wanted to organise a last team breakfast before the holiday break: I sent an invite on her behalf. That way, she could not suspect anything. We sent the invites behind her back, booked a room and took care of all the logistics.

 

The day came, we prepared the room and got her to come downstairs with the rest of the team as normal. Her face when she came in and we screamed "surprise!". It was excellent. We had not planned that she would cry though: but they were good tears...and probably the hormones as well.

 

My contribution to this baby shower was my second ever diaper cake. I didn't do the same as for my twin's baby shower because I realised I would actually have to take this one all the way to work (for my sister, I only had to carry it from the third to ground floor or the house). Also, my colleague would also have to take it to her car so went for a smaller option. I looked at loads of pictures on the Internet and decided to make a stroller.

 

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We then filled it with a few presents for her: a sort of "maternity leave kit".

 

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She loved it so we were all very happy.

 

Sewing class project 3

As part of the sewing workshop I have joined, I was taught how to make a bib last month. This project was actually a project to help us learn how to sew curves and rounded shapes with the sewing machine. I was pretty pleased with my work.

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Last Saturday, I had to leave my car at the garage and ended having nothing to do for 30 minutes so walked around the shops nearby and ended up in this fabric shop. So I bought some fabric and decided I would sew something outside of the workshop, from scratch.
Of course, it could only be another bib as it was the only thing I could remember...sort of. I am proud to say that despite one step that I have missed and managed to fix afterwards, it didn't turn out too bad. I am soooo proud of myself on that one. It took me a few hours but it was finished by Saturday night!!

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I stopped by my sister's and put around my nephew's neck. The way he ran around the room either means that he liked it or that he is simply a happy toddler...well, he is a very, very happy toddler!

I need to think about what I will attempt next...

Weekend fun

One week ago, I told you I had met Alison at the ID-Creatives craft show while taking an Iris Folding workshop. We exchanged details and after a couple of emails she told me she could teach me how to make that 3D frame of hers I had seen.

 

So there I was on Saturday morning at Alison's house for a new workshop. We were joined by Melanie (from Essex) who has been making cards with Alison for a while now.

 

I have to say that I've had such a great time: time just flew! We talked, laughed, had a cup of tea and all of this in English which was even better...and yes, did some craft as well.

 

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Anywho! Here is the finished work. I am in love with this 3D frame (even though one of the shapes opened up at the top of the frame because I haven't put enough glue at the back of the disc on top of it, but I will survive).

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I am very glad I did this over the weekend: both Alison and Melanie were lovely and I had such a great time. I will definitely sign up for another one of her workshop!!

ID-Creatives 2013

Update: Alison made me realise today that I did say she was Irish when she is actually Scottish. I do apologise Alison, don't know where that came from! :-)


 

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This weekend was held the ID-Creatives craft show 2013. I had heard of it last year and went with my older sister. It was fun, we saw a few interesting things. Saw some fimo girls (some of which I follow their blogs, which was pretty cool!)

 

So when I saw that it was on again this year, I was all excited to go. It opened on Thursday and on Friday, they have a late night (free entry and parking). On my way back from work, I stopped there to try to sign up for workshops (and have a look at what I could buy the next day lol). I didn't have a look at the whole place not to ruin it for me the following day though. As my sewing teacher had a stand there, I had a good chat with her instead :-)

 

So! Not possible to sign in advance for classes, I woke dup early on Saturday morning to get there at opening time and sing up! I arrived right on time and managed to catch the last spot on the mosaic class and there you go! One table mat! 



 

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OK, it's not finished because the glue took too long to dry: the woman running the workshop asked us to finish it at home. That's where I am glad I did buy this packet of grout a year ago when I saw it half price at the bottom of a box in a shop in Lyon thinking "mmm...this might get useful someday..."

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Go check out Laurence Alvado's website: she is the one who taught the mosaic workshop and she does some pretty cool things.

Laurence

Then I went straight to the sewing stand and voila! One bookmark!

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Although I find it cute and I am happy of my work, I have to admit that except for the fun, there was not much point to that workshop. It was a stand demonstrating (and trying to sell) sewing machines. Those machines are insane! The one I worked on costs 799€. It does everything: sewing and embroidery. Now, when the woman showed me how to use it, the only "manual" thing she did was to place the thread. Then, she was typing numbers and the stitch would show on the digital screen. then press the start button, and the needle starts the job. Where is the fun in embroidery there? I don't get it. it was marked as an embroidery workshop so was excited about trying this as I had never done it (besides the bead embroidery which I don't master well). So it was disappointing to "watch" a sewing machine doing the job.

 

Then my sisters and my niece joined me and we I took my niece to the cakepop workshop. Same there: basically the cakes were already made and all we had to do was to put a bit of cream on a cupcake and add sugar flakes on it. My niece did it in 5 minutes. Same for the cakepop: dip the thing in chocolate and put sugar flakes on it. Done!

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Could have done that at home lol Now I know that the purpose of those shows is to make some publicity for your business so it worked: the queue of hungry girls was definitely long and I did ask for the girl's card to check out her website because some of her cakes are actually really cute and it might be useful one day (if my twin stops making hers one day that it lol)

 

Then went back to the sewing workshop as my niece wanted to try to make a bookmark too. In the end, all my sisters gave it a go so...I had to do another one :-) (you can see it above with the first one: it is the dark one)

 

My last workshop of the day: Iris Folding. This thing is so cool! This had to be the surprise of the day. I signed up for it because I wanted to try another one of their workshop but it was full. I had never heard of Iris Folding before and got quite intrigued when she showed it to me earlier that day, so I took the last spot. This was fun: it took a little while for me to get it but once I understood it, it was pretty straight forward. So here is my first attempt at this art:

 

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The girls were fun and did some cool things.

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I also met this very nice Irish Scottish girl called Alison. She is actually the one who made a frame I saw and wanted to make. We had a nice chat. If you get the time, please go visit her blog as she does some cute stuff :-)

Alison :-)

Well, that was a long post, but I saw and did a lot of stuff: I had a really good day between the workshops and the fun with my sisters and niece too. I enjoyed sitting with them and sew. 

 

The low point to that craft show is that there was just one fimo stand compared to last year where there were more. Also, it seems like Scrapbooking is taking over the show now: it was like half of it was dedicated to them! They had already put the poster for next year and it is already announced that there will be ID-Creatives 2014 and Scrapbooking too. There are already not enough craft shows in my opinion in this area (or country) so if now they are only dedicated to one thing...it's not going to be fun. But I will wait and see what happens next October!

 

One thing I will have to consider for next year if I go back: business cards! Every person I exchanged contact details with had one, and although I don't have a business, it was quite awkward to have to find a piece of paper to write down my blog's address each time lol Need to add this to my to-do list...

Hope you've all had a nice and productive weekend ladies!

 

A little bag

Over the weekend, I tried a sewing class....actually, the trial was the previous weekend...I did join the sewing class and started it over the weekend. I know I'm 33 and a few people think it is an "old women thing" BUT, I do enjoy that sort of things so yeah! I joined a sewing club!

 

My sister lent me her sewing machine for the length of the classes so I don't have to share and can focus on my work which is pretty cool.

 

I am super proud of myself as I have done my first ever sewing project with a sewing machine.

 

BEHOLD! My bag :-) "But there are two of them!", I can hear you think. Nooooo! It is reversible too!!!!

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