Two bags and plenty of cards

Last weekend the Christmas crafting began with a bulk load of cards. This year I've been testing out my printing skills. They leave something to be desired (more practice needed for sure!) as looking at the completed product the scale and the composition is entirely wrong. Still, I think they look pretty and it was good fun using the lino cutting tool - like carving with a chisel but oh so much easier and quicker!

 As well getting started with the Yuletide stuff I also made two new IPad mini bags for work (We finally got another two, hooray, one each! What luxury!) I made mine last weekend, adding a pocket to the old design to make it easier to carry pens and post-its around too. This weekend I made the last of them, a further improvement/addition for mark three - a little camera pocket on he inside. This one, in brightest pink, is for Kelly - I always try to make a neater job of things when i know it's for someone else.

(The bright pink fabric by the way is actually a DIY cut and sew dress pattern for a little girl I bought ages ago from the wonderful Clothkits as is was heavily reduced - knew it would come in useful one day.)

Next weekend, or indeed some free evening or other this week (wishful thinking with assessments due and twilight courses to attend!) I will really get cracking with the gift making! So looking forward to some major craftiness over the next few weeks. :)

Enjoy your week everyone.
S. x

November...Already!

Such a cliche I know but this year has disappeared so quickly! Only two months left of 2014 and with dark evenings, a birthday and of course Christmas not far away my mind and my hands are itching to get stuck into some proper crafting.

Over the half term I finally made some puppets for school - one for each of our key worker groups. They were made up as I went along so by no means are they perfect but the littles seem to like them so I'm satisfied.

And this little creature...

...taken from a drawing by my lovely niece, copied almost exactly (I just altered the mouth as I thought buttons didn't quite work there) ready for her seventh birthday next weekend. Seven! Already!

I hope he is loved (as I know he will be) by the girl who is never happier than when she has a cuddly toy to play with.

Happy November everyone.
S. x

Holidays and Hearts

The summer holidays are here! As a little 'thank you' to all the lovely ladies at work I crafted a little heart for each one, with a bit of a thank you note too. It's been a very busy but successful year, and we really have worked our socks off!

So, thank you lovely ladies! Here's to a jolly good rest and a fabulous summer. And of course another great year to come.
S. x

Sound bags for school

Phew! What a speedy week it has been, with a visit from OfSTED to round it off (we don't officially know the verdict yet so I suppose I shouldn't say but I will admit it went far better than the previous one!). I thought I'd just post a quick entry to show you a little school crafting that took place over the Easter break.

I've been meaning to make some 'Sound sacks' for school for ages to keep resources for teaching Letters and Sounds and have finally got round to it! Now all we need to do is stock them up!
Enjoy the sunshine on this Bank Holiday weekend everyone.
S. x

Finally crafting again

Last weekend, in between visiting family staying nearby and doing plenty of school work (sigh) I finally got round to some crafting....

 

Cards: two for friends and family moving house that weekend, one for gratitude and one for a birthday. I must say I like these ones quite a lot and will doing more 'housey' cards in future I think.

And an Ipad mini case for work. Similar in construction to the laptop case I made a while ago but with a shoulder strap so it can be carried around and whipped out in a moment. I've since made another (and better one in my opinion - always easier to iron out the tricky bits the second time around) for the other Ipad we are now enjoying in the Foundation Stage unit - oh technology we do love you.

Happy weekending all.
S. x

Gathering

As is becoming a bit of a habit, I put off the inevitable task of planning for the coming week with a walk and now a blog post - procrastination should be my middle name! Not that the walk on this beautiful sunny Sunday didn't provide some inspiration for things to do with my littles as the season slowly changes.


A rarely trodden path for me today. Longer and equally busier and quieter in turns as I met many a dog (and owner), muddy cyclists and myriad fat ponies (with riders) before disappearing into the woods and seeing no one at all until the Cani-X gang at the bottom carpark... perhaps that explains the bottles of water and dog bowls I spotted on the path through the woods.

Nothing quite like a little gathering to get the planning session started and the ideas flowing. Now laminated to hopefully preserve the colours my leaves and a few other bits and pieces are ready to go into school for the children to investigate.
Enjoy the sunshine all!
S. x

At last, a crown!

I've been meaning to make one of these for school for a long while now and finally put thread through needle earlier this week. Made with wool felt bought from the lovely people at Clothkits (some of the buttons are their's too - so bright and colourful!) and super easy to make with a velcro fastening. Reversible and fully adjustable to fit (hopefully!) any size head. I'm sure the littles will love it, our special birthday crown.
S. x

Grey day remedy

Yesterday the mist and fog didn't lift all day. In some ways this made me feel rather gloomy but in others it was magical. The 'drip-drip' of water falling from tiny buds beginning to form. The looming of trees from the whiteness all around as I drove home for the long awaited weekend more slowly than usual. The cuddling up on the sofa with a good film, first with my Sam and then with the cat, all warm a cozy as the night drew in.
Today, to remind myself that days like that are rare and therefore to be treasured in some way, I planned to take lots of fog inspired photos only to find it much clearer. So instead, here are a few I took a few weeks ago and haven't yet done anything with.

Flowers - always a nice thing to have around at this time of year when the world seems so grey and brown before the green of spring rushes in. These were 75p from the supermarket and as they'd seen better days I saved the heads in a bowl of water with some glass beads left over from previous craftings. Waste not want not!

And some much needed 'feelly bags' for work - super quick and easy and very useful.

Happy weekending all.
S. x

Treasure bags

For anyone who works with, and probably those who have their own children you will no doubt know that, no matter how much you (and hopefully they!) tidy up, there are still lots and LOTS of 'bits' left out - building bricks, stray crayons, bits of string, the lid off a glue stick etc. 'Bits' inside is one thing but outside, where there is much more space, many more hiding places and an awful lot more dirt these 'bits' become an altogether different problem. In other words, if not collected soon, they will invariably become lost, too weather-worn or filthy to be of any use at all once finally found.
So, to get the kiddos to tidy them all up before the worst happens we have treasure bags!

 The netting is an attempt to make them a little calmer in contrast with the vibrant fabric and also makes them see through and hopefully a little easier to keep clean. So far, after one use (they are still full of 'treasure' in the photos) they seem to work well.
One of my colleagues pointed out that they would also make lovely peg bags.
Happy crafting! S. x

Wood for school

A few months ago now we (Cathy, our Reception teacher and myself) discovered the wonders of The Phoenix Resource Center in Northampton. For a total of £25 including lifetime membership we were able to wonder the isles of this magnificent place and pick of the shelves whatever we could use in school. Along with various fabrics, bags of sequins and buttons, notepads and whole lot of other fabulous stuff, we found a stack of wooden discs.

We were limited to five, so natural we took five, without any real idea of what we would do with them but feeling sure that they'd come in useful somewhere along the line. And they were! They started out being used as chopping boards in our ice cream parlour, then steering wheels for various vehicles before I had the urge to get the soldering iron out and make them, well, a little prettier. So, several months of on and off work and a million coats of varnish later, they are done.

(And yes, I know the '16' is missing, fear not, there is one on the other side!)

As they dry from the very last coat of varnish (thank God!) I'm still not entirely sure where they are going to go - somewhere in our outside provision. I'll take a few pics of them in situe when the time arrives.
Happy crafting. S