Julie is 2 ....

... well, at least her blog is! And to celebrate she's rounded up a group of scrappers for a game of Chinese Whispers. For those of you who don't know you create a page, take a photo and then email it to the next person on the list who takes their own inspiration from it and makes a new page. You don't get to see everyone else in the chain's pages until the grand reveal which is today.

So you should have arrived at mine via Alison's (if not you can check the full list here) who provided me with a lovely page to create from. I really liked all the layering under Alison's photo and who can resist a bit of twine!

I passed my page to Ruth, so to see what she did with it visit her here.

Please do leave a comment on every blog and then on Julie's as she's offering a prize.

The Great British Sewing Bee ...

... did you watch it? I loved it and it has really renewed my interest in sewing, which I think is probably my first love as it was my first proper craft growing up. I liked Lauren's style but Ann was a truly worthy winner, her skills impeccable.

The staff room at work (well, it's more of a space really) is having an overhaul and when the officer manager mentioned she'd run out of budget for cushions I offered to make some.

The office is white but has splashes of colour from vinyl wall decals, so I thought this Ikea fabric I had would work well, along with some denim.

I need to stock up on large buttons now! And my sewing machine has a crises half way through so I finished up on Lily's mini John Lewis machine, which coped fine.

I'm please to say that they have gone down very well. Need to find some more projects now (once the machine is fixed) and get the WIPs finished!

Blog Hop Winner ...

... firstly thank you to all the wonderful comments that were left on my tutorial. This is the first tutorial and blog hop I've ever done and was so thrilled to see it well received.

So my winner is Stacey Scrapred - well done Stacey, I'll contact you via UKS to sort out your prize.

UKS Spring Blog Hop ...

Welcome to the UKS Spring BlogHop! You may have come to me via Alison, but if you have dropped in on me directly (or lost your way!) and want to follow the hop you can see the full list here . 

UKS are also offering a prize to a randomly chosen person who comments on all the blogs, so check the thread for details.

First of all gather your supplies, you'll need:

- paper scraps

- fabric, needle and thread

- assorted punches - scalloped, pinked, plain circles etc

- ribbon scraps

- gems, pearls, buttons

- foam pads and glue of choice

We're going to start by making some yo-yos - these are little puffs of fabric. You'll need to draw a circle onto your fabric twice the diameter of the desired yo-yo. I drew around a mug measuring 7.5cm across to get yo-yos about 3.5cm across.

Next sew a running stitch about 3mm away from the raw edge. I double up my thread but don't bother putting a knot at the end, just make sure you watch it doesn't disappear as you're sewing.

Then pull up the stictches to gather the edge. Tie your two threads together in a knot.

Arrange your folds/gather evenly.

Cotton weight fabric works well for these, but felt and denim also give good results.

Now, punch out various shapes and sizes from your paper scraps. My largest is a 2" scalloped punch 2"  going down to a 1" plain circle.

I work in colour sets, so I pull out the circles I want for my bottom layer, including the yo-yos.

Then I layer up with other circles, shapes and embellishments until I'm happy with the arrangement.

 

Once I'm happy with that I ink all the edges (I've used Distress Ink in Pumice Stone) and then glue the layers together with foam pads and glue depending on how much dimension you want - I've just put pads between the bottom 2 layers for the smaller ones. Add gems, buttons, ribbons, whatever you fancy and there you go. Cheap embellishments completely customisable to your projects.

GIVEAWAY! I'm giving away one set of the following (primary, pink or blue) to one person who follows my blog (regular or new today!). So just leave a comment saying which colour you would prefer and how you follow my blog (google reader, feedly, bloglovin etc) by Midnight 21st April. I'll choose a random winner on 22nd April.

Thanks for stopping by.

Now hop on over to Sarah.

The best thing about blogging ...

... have you been reading Julie Kirk's Push-Up Bra Blogging? Not only has she great tips on inspiring your blog posts, she's raising fund for Save The Children, so if you haven't already then please do check it out.

In conjunction with Jenny Bowlin Studio Mercantile, Julie's issued a challenge today on the best thing about blogging.

Well here's mine - the amazingly talented ladies I've met and wonderful friends I've made through blogging. I would never have connected with these ladies without crafting and blogging and feel blessed that I have.

Here's some of them ...

Scarlet Lime get together October 2009

Bloggers Weekend Retreat Match 2013

Happy days!

Currently ...

listening ... to random 80s tracks on Spotify

reading ... The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

eating ... far too much chocolate

drinking ... lovely Tetley Vanilla Earl Grey tea courtesy of furrypig

wearing ... jumpers, jeans and boots

weather ... cold, cold, cold

thinking ... that the holidays are over too quickly

wishing ... it would get warmer

What are you doing currently?

A bit of masking and misting ...

... this week's challenge on UKS was to use a sketch, misting, masking and washi tape.

I had bought a new mask at Hobbycrafts NEC and with some new Simple Stories Vintage papers I sat down to play.

4 sheets of white cardstock later I was finally happy-iash with my background. I'm not used to such precise masking and kept getting splodges everywhere, I've definitely learnt lots in the process.

I'm after more mists - what would you recommend? What are your perfect colours??

PS - Thanks to Alison and Lesley for taking part in my PIF.

2013 Pay It Forward ....

... I  posted this on Facebook in January and filled up my first 3 slots but want to share this further.

So comment on my blog and the first 2 will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift- perhaps a book, or baked goods, or a candle, music, art - a surprise! There will be no warning and will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those people must make the same offer in their Facebook statuses or blog.

 I'll contact you to get your addresses.