Mini Notes

Pegs are just about the most versatile craft base. you can stick-em together and make little amimals (reindeer at Chrissy time are my favorite) flip them upside down and make note or photo holders. string them along some craft string or wire and they will hold your Chrissy cards! the best part about them is that they are cheap! Cheap as chips! Cheaper THAN chips actually. I got this whopping pack of 100 wooden pegs from the local cheap variety store (GoLo - how i love thee!) with the intention of making something from them. Here is my first attempt. Magnetic note holders in colourful floral designs! perfect for the fridge or magnetic note board! I just stuck a piece of designer paper along one side of the peg, a flat sticky magnet on the other and quilled a little design for the front! Selling them at craft market for 2 bucks a set - Total bargain craft!

Love it!!

Quilled Magnets

I Made these magnets with some old plastic covered magnets that are designed for use on whiteboards. I honestly didnt think they would hold much, but cute for decoration, but was surprised when the bigger ones held around 5 or 6 sheets of paper before falling off the fridge. To make, I simply created a large tight coil (much like one used for making 3D items) and molded them over the plastic of the magnets and shaped them until I was happy. Glued them down with my regular PVA glue and then when they were dry brushed them with a coat of glossy Mod Podge.

I made a few with quilled designs on them, but have yet to take a photo.

- Laura

Trinkets!

Cute Little critters! I Don’t know where I got the idea for these little guys, I think I saw something g similar on eBay or online and decided – I can do that! So if you know, I am happy to give credit where credit is due!Of course, I have tweeked them a little and added a few bits of my own!

My other pic today is of these cute little trinket boxes  that I made for market this Saturday.

Quilling on Canvas

I have a few crafty markets coming up, so in the days that follow I thought I would share what I have been working on for the past month or so.   One of the things I LOVE about quilling is that it is so versatile. One minute I’m making flowers for a birthday card and the next I’m making a gift basket for a mini Easter present! I could be fringing flowers for a trinket box, then suddenly get hit with inspiration for a piece of quilled jewellery... AND it has to be just about the cheapest craft I have ever come across. All you need is a tool (in the early days I actually just used a toothpick that I slit with a craft knife and some paper and glue.) EASY!! Now, I don’t pretend to know everything – My quilling is still in the amateur stage on a good day - but this item is one of the more elaborate pieces I put together. Good news is, that my hard work definitely paid off because it sold to a lovely young girl I met at a craft fair and she  hung it in her little boys room!

Materials:

Quilling Paper

Scrapbooking paper

Acrylic paint

Canvas board

Beading wire (rear side for hanging)

I Just LOVE the puppy - Isn't he the cutest! LOL

Busy, Busy, Busy

No excuse for neglecting this... thing... I have decided to do here (I’m not yet calling it a blog as that would imply that someone out there is ACTUALLY reading this) But seriously... how does one get a following on these things?. Anyways - as the title suggests I have been super busy for the last few weeks. Namely trying to sort out my university hours and study times and getting ready for the festival I had booked (which has been and gone last Sunday, Thank goodness)

So beyond Neglecting my 'thing-that-shall-not-be-names' I have been frantically making and pricing things for my Festival and trying to fit study, work and the gym as well as have a social life... and I’m pretty chock-a-block.

So less about me and my horrendously busy life, and more about the pretty things I have been making! As I said, there have been many things lately... but these are my favourites.

Rainbow Button Necklace - I LOVE LOVE LOVE buttons! And around 6 months ago I went berserk (bonkers, nutty, absolute bat-crap crazy) at my local Go-Lo and bought thousands of the little buggers to use in Jewellery projects. Admittedly, the majority have just sat around doing nothing, but I managed to grab a few out and make this the night before my market.

So pretty!

And I am a sucker for anything that sparkles like this and you do not want me to get started on my love of the purple/orange colour combo so I will just show:

It's very regal looking, I think, and the photo doesn’t nearly do the piece justice... If only I had something to wear it with... Sigh!

long day

It's the day after our national holiday and I am officially exhausted! To say that yesterday was a long day is an understatement of understatements and being back at work today sure doesn’t help! The reason I am so tired was not because I was up late celebrating our Nation like everyone else in the workplace seemed to be doing, no. I was  out in the sweltering heat of our Australian Summer trying to encourage people to buy my stuff. (Not very enthusiastically i might add due to the fact that a) it was abysmally slow due to the heat and i always get an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever somebody buys something that i am especially proud of, or something that took hours of patience and creativity and i wonder if it will be appreciated thusly. Call it weird, or sentimental, but i like my things to go to good homes!

Anyways, the point of this post being - I was feeling down yesterday afternoon so i went home and (after a few Vodka & sodas ) Made this this.

I feel better now.

First Post - Introducing...

 First of all - I am a 22 year old Australian girl . I am a university student and work full time in a government office. I am single with no children and living at home with my Mum, Dad and younger sister.  I love to write and even more I love to craft. These are the things I will be sharing with you through my blog.

I plan to share with you  new works, inspiration and previous crafty things I have completed. I know that Christmas is over and here in Oz summer is in full swing, but I would like to share some things I made for the holiday season.

Some chrissy jewels! These are always a big hit at fairs and markets closing in on Christmas time and I LOVE making them!

Some beaded baubles

And some cute quilled gift tags! Quilling is something that I have been doing only recently, even though I started as a child. I was looking at some other crafty ideas and found a beautiful quilled item (I think it was a gift box) and it inspired me to dig out my old tool and start cutting my paper strips!

For those who don’t know, Quilling is the art of taking paper strips in al different colours and using a tool to ‘twirl’ them into coils. Once the coils are twirled, loosened and glued, they can be shaped with your fingers to form just about any shape desired. It is easily the cheapest craft around and can be done for two minutes or hours on end, depending on what you want to make. And it isn’t just limited to cards and scrap books, oh no. 3D quilling is the art of making free standing ‘miniatures’ that are free standing and can be used as many different things. Centre pieces, Shelf sitters, trinket boxes, cake toppers, finger puppets... the list goes on an on!

Ok. Thats enough on that for today. You all now have had a quilling rant that could have been summed up in the single sentence:

I LOVE QUILLING!

;-)

Keep on Smilin’

xx Laura