Handbags at dawn!

Well it was nearly handbags at dawn! I was up early enough preparing some of these beauties for a craft demo I gave today for the lovely ladies of the Dorchester WI.  

What a fantastic few hours with a lovely bunch of ladies making these bags.  I really wish I had taken photos of their creations as there were some truly wonderful bags made.  These humble offerings were mine.  The larger ones are made from 12x12" scrapbook heavyweight papers, the middle sized one was 9x9" and the baby one 6x6".  The card you can see was an example of the cards we made to go inside!

Also hidden among these luscious girly bags is a 'man bag' (without a handle!) it is meant to look like a mans shirt, the tie lifts with the collar to reveal the box inside.  The paper I used for this was 12x11".

'But what could I do with them? I mean they look nice but...' I might hear you say.  Well in the past I have bought large tins of sweets and split them up between the bags so my daughter can give them as thank you presents to her teachers.  (that is if there are any sweets left I have tested a few out...wouldn't want to give them gone off sweets would I!)  Other ideas? maybe you could roll up a pair of socks, or pop in a lipstick and a mini tube of hand cream.  I occasionally sell my jewellery in them as they provide a good open space inside and look fab.

If you would like to see how to make these bags I did a tutorial a few years ago which you can find on this blog under tutorials, or follow this link http://alltcrafty.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/handbag-tutorial.html there are a few differences as I have developed the design since creating this video.

Happy bagging!!!!

New Makes

I haven't stopped!!!!!

Honest!

I have been busy crafting as and when I have been able to, what with a baby to look after as well! I have managed a few bits and bobs as birthday presents so thought I would share some of my latest things!

A new style plastic bottle bracelet, the beads look a little like roses and like the other upcycled plastic bottle pieces I make the colours are easy to customise! I particularly liked these colours and felt they suited my friend just right.  Hope you like.

This Peg bag is made from water resistant material and with the flap that can be pulled down your pegs won't get wet and rust if they are caught short in a little rain!  This was really just an experiment, the design criteria was to use fabric a little like Cath Kidston fabric but to be better proportioned to hers and to also be resistant to sitting in the rain occasionally! This one seemed to do it and was v successful!

Heart Bunting.  I love this! each heart is made from upcycled cereal boxes and then covered in scrap papers.

This Quilled J is using thinker papers than my previous experiments, it worked far better in that it was more solid but due to the larger paper it didn't work well with a tighter pattern like my other designs.  That said however, I think I may try an ornate one with the 10mm paper next time.

Quilled B, this is using 3mm quilled paper in a variety of blues, I used 5mm papers around the edges to form the template but all the rest are narrower.  It worked well I think although I do find that the paper buckles a little sometimes and it is hard to make a straight line look truly straight!

Cake Pops!   MMMMMMMMMMM  a commission for a birthday party.  I made these ones with a proper cake pop mold, they were very yummy although I think I may prefer my other, denser recipe with out using the mold.  Advantage of the molds however is that they always come out round...ish! and they are a lot lighter for decorating.


I have done a few other bits as well but just can't find the photos anywhere! Oh well that will give me something to post next time!

xx

Creative cards

Some of my makes this week, hope you like!