A bit of time away.

It’s been a while, and I am terrible for doing that. I am going to be doing something new soon, and I know you probably want to know why. Well my sort of mother-in-law (I’m not married yet, but she is my partners mum) turned 50 in January. What? It’s no secret! And she is doing a bucket list of 50 things that she has to finish before her 51st Birthday. Anywho if you want to find out more visit here
http://janetjamesmy50thyear.weebly.com/index.html
So one of the things is a Calender Girls style calender which I will be taking part in. I know its scary, and I’m sure you are wondering why this is relevant. It’s 60’s themed and we all came up with pictures each of us could do. I am going to be sat behind a sewing machine, sewing some amazing tie dye fabric.

Has the penny just dropped?

I’ve never tie dyed before, so I’m looking forward to it. I know how I want it to look too, so I’m mega excited!!!

Reforming the old into something new.

So in England or the UK, whichever, we have a tv program called SuperScrimpers Challenge. It’s aired on Channel 4, several times a week, with old and new episodes. You are wondering why this is relevant yeah. It’s a program about making the most of your money and doing things for less. There are several sections, such as, cooking for less, making beauty products, fixing your car, diy, and a craft section. Well this program has got my head spinning. I have been obsessed with trying to find stuff to UpCycle. So I’ve mentioned before that I’m a tad into http://www.craftgawker.com. Although I use the iphone app. Anyway, I found this. http://mypoppet.com.au/2013/04/upcycle-style-braided-t-shirt-rug.html . So I was desperate to start. I got home, ripped up a load of t-shirts, and made some yarn…. How? I’ll link you to where you can do this. https://sewingforlife.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/braid-a-long-2012-day-1-prepare-your-t-shirt-yarn I did this to about 6 tshirts and started up on making the braided rug. I got on well with it and enjoyed it, but then I wanted something more. Some friends of mine had bought me this amazing book with 200 Crochet Squares for christmas. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crochet-Blocks-Blankets-Throws-Afghans/dp/0715321412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367402321&sr=8-1&keywords=200+crochet+blocks Thats the link if you want to look. So I thought about it, toddled off out and bought myself a size 10 crochet hook. I looked through the book and decided to make this.

What do you think? I love it, once I’ve completed it, and got more t-shirts, then I’m going to make different designs. This one is a normal granny square, pretty easy once you know how to do chain stitches and treble crochet. I think its so good, and it feels amazing. The only problem is I’m not prepared to pay £2.50 in a charity shop for t-shirts, so I might have to beg, and car boot visit to find some!!

I am sorry about the horrible links, I can’t get them to go nice

Package Pals

It’s been a while since I wrote anything and I’ve wanted to write about the Package Pals for ages, but I couldn’t incase my pal read everything I put.

What’s a package pal I hear you all ask. Well that I can answer. C.R.A.F.T is a blog that hosts PP.

Basically you apply to it on thier website and then they join you up with a lucky individual. You spend a few weeks getting to know you, and based on what you both discuss you make this person a package and send it to them. I took part in the March/ April round and it was my first ever time.

I was paired with a lovely girl called Yoshi. She lives in America and is the same age as me. It was so exciting, getting to know someone and making them some stuff that they would really appreciate. I finished my package late March, but due to being ill I only managed to post it off in the last few days.

I have recieved Yoshi’s parcel to me and I was very impressed. It featured 2 friendship bracelets, a decorated pencilcase, a brooch and a homemade card. I will be posting photos soon but I’m not currently at home and I don’t have the items here with me.

Based on what I learned about Yoshy I made sure I sent her stuff I hoped she’d love.

Monster Transfer

Firstly I made her a t-shirt transfer for her to use on whatever she wished. It’s a SoSo Happy Monster because she said that she liked these, and this is her favourite one.

Ribbon Weaving

Yoshi told me that she loved the colour purple and collected friendship bracelets just like me. I bought some super thin ribbon and thought I could come with some way of weaving or plaiting them to make a bracelet. That’s what I came up with eventually.

Quilled Flower

I love quilling, and I didn’t want to just send things that I’d made. I wanted to send things she could use as well. So I made her a flower which she could use on cards, or decorating something.

Rainbow Charm

This isn’t really something based on the things Yoshi likes. I love Rainbows (as you may or may not know) and I made a few of these charms so I decided I would send her one.

Eiffel Tower

Yoshi really wants to visit Europe and France and when I saw this little charm at a craft show I visited recently I had to get one for her.

Lego Friendship

Another purple friendship bracelet. This time with a lego piece (actually megablocks) attached. I’m really into making these at the moment so I had to send one.

Greeting Card

It was her birthday in March so I couldn’t let the occasion pass us by without making her a card.

Friendship Bracelet

Another friendship bracelet, this time the classic candy stripe.

Elegant Bracelet

This is a design I knocked up out of nowhere but I really do think it looks lovely.

I hope this enspires people to join PP next time.

Thanks for reading.
Rainbow 🙂 (Amie)

Friday, The Weekend is Coming!!

It’s FRIDAY and obviously the start of the weekend. I have the whole evening to do what I want.

So I am dyeing, sticking, printing and ironing.

I have a turquoise green dress. and a peachey wrap that I am dying black. Hopefully to wear out on Sunday!! I am so excited because I love this dress but I felt like it needed Jazzing up!

I also bought some felt. I love Nyan Cat (rainbow tail) and I want to make myself a nyan cat of some sort, maybe a cute little keyring, so I am currently also going to make one of those.

I also have found my T-Shirt Transfer paper and I am going to print tonnes of things ready to iron. I don’t know what I shall iron onto. But I will find something…

I just went to check on my dyeing and I’m annoyed because the water has drained out. I have to hope that the dye it had soaked up is enough, and then wash it out in an hour. Leaving it a little bit longer than you are supposed to but I need the dye to take!!!

Let me know what you all plan to do this weekend….Any mothers day crafts?!

Printables in all thier glory.

I, like many other people, have become distinctly addicted to printables. All sorts of ones. I love them and I think they look amazing. Now I didn’ have a clue how they were made, but I knew I wanted to find out and I wanted to make some of my own. I won’t be ashamed in admitting I thought that people painstakingly drew them up on paint or got some amazing graphics designer to draw them up. But it is so much more simple….

PicMonkey. It’s a program you download and sign up to, and make them on there…. According to the blog I found (link to follow) it is much better to sign up (not to mention relatively cheap) due to the fact you get tonnes extra stuff…..
http://www.themotherhuddle.com/picmonkey-tutorial-diy-printable-greeting-card/
This is where I found out all my info and it’s all so useful!

Where Inspiration Arises from? – Rainbows

Where do people get thier inspiration from? I’d love to know. I use:

www.cutoutandkeep.net

www.pinterest.com

www.craftsy.com

www.craftgawker.com

Craft Gawker, and Pinterest have thier own apps, for iphone and they are similar, except craftgawker is obviously craftcentric. They are both excellent ways to store inspiration for use later. Does anyone else use any other similar pages? Please comment and let me know so I can update 🙂

Cookery….A Craft

It’s a Monday and although it’s back to work for most people for a part timer like me it makes no difference. I go back to work tomorrow after just one day off. But today was well used. I made some lemon curd.

Homemade lemon curd is heaven. The best bit is the house smelling so beautiful. So here is my basic homemaade recipe.

6 Lemons, rolled in your hands to get extra juice out and the rind of three.

4 eggs and 1 egg yolk

110g Caster Sugar

200g Butter

Put the juice, zest, butter and sugar into a pan and melt, whilst stirring. Beat the eggs all together until smooth. Try not to leave any snotty little lumps. Pour this into the sugary juice and turn the heat up a little, stir constantly. Once it starts to thicken (and this can happen fast) pour into a jar. Mine made about 3 small jar fulls. It was so zingy and amazing!!!

Also I went and bought some more supplies today. I bought some carnations to try dye rainbow, but they are so hard to cut the stalks, so i gave up. I also tried to buy roses but couldn’t get hold of any. I bought some lovely colourful ribbons to weave into a nice friendship bracelet!

It’s late and I’m sleepy. Tomorrow I’m thinking of making a cadbury’s/reeses cup. It will be amazing!!!

Weekend Round-Up: Rainbows

So it’s saturday and I’m on my break from work. I’ve been busy crafting, managing to make a woven bracelet from ribbons. I’m super happy with it. I’ll add a picture and possibly a link to a tutorial later. Also I made a little quilled flower, its a beaut.

I still need to finish the Lego friendship bracelet, mameshiba bracelet, sosohappy keyring, but I am waiting for my PP to message me back, I need a few more little bits of information. You’ll find with me over time that all my projects tend to be short and snappy. I doubt I’ll ever manage to make a whole quilt or anything that extremely large. Im more of a pillowcase whizzed through the machine kinda gal.

Rainbows: A First Look

Hiyaaa. I’m Amie, also known as Rainbows. It’s a long story, but there is one behind it, and if you want to know it then read the “Rainbows” section. Currently I’m working on a few projects for my package pal. If you don’t know what a package pal is I will explain. It’s like a penpal, that you get for a month, and send them something super crafty. The idea has came from the super cool blog http://starsandsunshine.com/.

Anyway, my PP has told me she likes purple, and SOSOHappy monsters and Mameshiba beans. So I already have a few ideas. Im thinking lilac friendship bracelet, mameshiba charm brace, sosohappy monsters keyring 🙂
I’m also starting a scrapbook, using lots of ProjectLife printables that I have printed, so I can really remember things that have happened.
Anyway, it’s late and I’m tired. But I will be posting again. Tomorrow!

A Start

It’s the last day in February and today me and Georgina decided we wanted to make this blog. SO we have. If you want to know more about why then you can read the about page and that really explains a little bit more about why we started this up. A blog is a great way to document things in life, and doing it this way we can really share that experience with everyone! We hope you like our blog!!