Guest Blogger 'Create it With Samantha' - Wedding Ring Pouch Tutorial

I am lucky enough to have another great guest blogger featuring on Make, Do, Sew today, Samantha writes 'Create it With Samantha'.  This blog is an eclectic mix of craft, motherhood, home life, vintage and recipes.  It's a really good read and appeals to a wide audience with its broad range of subjects.  Samantha is also in the midst of putting together a website and also has an Etsy shop, she is one busy woman!!!  Today's guest post is a fantastic tutorial with step by step instructions/images to follow.  I hope you enjoy!

Project: Wedding Ring Pouch Designer: Samantha Schofield

This Wedding ring pouch, is a perfect customised gift for the Bride and Groom and also handy for the Best Man too!  Wedding rings are so tiny and on the big day can be easily mislaid, make this little pouch to not only to give reassurance to the Best Man but also a keepsake of the Wedding Ceremony.  I still use mine for holidays, swimming trips, DIYing; those times when it is safer to take your rings off and put them in a safe place.

Here is how you can make this project within two hours with many items from your sewing box.

You Will Need:

15cm x 12cm linen fabric
75cm x cream double faced 3mm ribbon (Cut into 3 pieces 2 x 20cm and 1 x 35cm)
1 skein of embroidery stranded cotton thread DMC 3712
1 pot of fabric paint Dylon gold
Heart stamp (this one was in a stamping kit from Boots.com)
1 cross stitch needle
1 sewing needle
1 spool of self coloured thread
Sewing scissors
Sewing pins
Use of a sewing machine
Cross Stitch Pattern ABC

Let’s Create!

1. Fold The Fabric - fold into thirds length ways and then in half.

2. Stamp Your Hearts - Test first to get your stamping technique perfected on paper! Print using equal amounts of fabric paint across your stamp, five hearts across your fabric using the picture as a guide.

3. Stitch Your Hearts & Initials - thread your needle with two strands of stranded cotton in 20cm lengths. Firstly using a backstitch, outline the printed hearts.

Then following the cross stitch pattern, add the initial of the bride and groom over the hearts which will form the inside of the pouch.

If you are new to cross stitch this link on technique can help. Link to http://www.cross-stitching.com/how-to from a click through from ‘help’

4. Detail of cross stitch and backstitching

5. Add The Ribbons - pin the longest ribbon to the centre back and hand stitch on. With the two smaller ribbons, tie in a knot in the middle. Handstitch the ribbons in the bare centre square so they are in line with the initial hearts. This is where the rings will be secured.

6. Sew The Pouch Together - with the right sides together and the ribbons tucked in, pin and sew on the sewing machine the pouch together down one short side and the longest side. Grade the seams and cut the corner bulk off. Then turn inside out to show correct side. Press. Handstitch up the open side to form a seam. If the fabric frays, it maybe easier to zigzag the raw edge to make easier handling. 

7. Press The Ribbons & Seams - with the end of iron on a low heat press.

Your Finished Wedding Ring Pouch!

For more inspiration visit my website www.samanthaschofield.co.uk or my blog http://createitsamantha.blogspot.co.uk to rediscover vintage and ladylike crafts!

Pin It

Crochet Guest Post - Home to Roost Blog

There's been a lot of guest post gorgeousness this year, a few of us who've met through blogging have been guesting for each other.  Today I am returning the favour for the lovely Sarah who writes a blog called Home to Roost.  You may remember Sarah, she wrote a great post on Make, Do, Sew about crochet and knitting back in March and now it's my turn to return the gesture.

I decided to write about a crochet puff stitch neck roll I have made, it is to go with a hat I have previously crafted. There was some delay in getting this post together (due to both my children having chicken pox and some technical internet issues) so I was concerned that my woollen scarf would not be suitable for Spring. However the weather has been so miserable that a snuggly Aran neck roll is still very wearable even in April!

I have to thank Sarah not only for letting me guest but also for her fantastic technical help. She managed to give my post a bit of a 'buff and a polish' and made it look fantastic.....thank you so much Sarah!  Please take a look and let us know what you think.

Pin It

Guest Posting - Handmade Easter Egg and Hen Tutorial

I made this Easter decoration over the weekend and today it's being featured on Cassie Jene's blog in the form of a tutorial. If you want to see how to make it click on the link. It looks great even if I do say so myself!  Cassie writes an inspirational blog offering tips and advice for keeping the 'work life balance' in order as well as being a creative entrepreneur and hobbyist.  Take a look at her blog, you won't regret it.

Easter Egg and Hen Tutorial.

Pin It

Guest Blogger - Mandi's Easter Gingerbread

Earlier on in the week I featured as a guest blogger on Mandi's blog 'Poppy Fox at Home', now its time to feature a recipe post from Mandi.  The blogging community is full of generous people happy to share and show mutual appreciation....it makes me feel all warm inside.  Over to you Mandi...

An Easter Crafternoon

I'm honored to be a guest blogger on Make.Do.Sew today.  Hi, I'm Mandi (Aka Mummafox) and I write a blog called PoppyFoxatHome which is a blog about living the simple life, motherhood, my two little people and my handmade creations.  I'm an Expressive therapies counsellor, at home mum, a social worker in a previous life and owner of PoppyFox so it's a great honour to write today's post.

Being Easter our crafternoons are filled with baking, painting and craft.  It encapsulates our tribes effort to live the simple life and enjoy the art of handmade.  Instead of giving eggs as gifts we decided to bake Easter themed gingerbread and DIY our own gift tags and wrapping for gifts using what we already had at home.

Gingerbread was one of the first recipes I shared with my daughter.  Entertaining Miss 3 with a 12 week old has it's challenges so for Easter I wanted to create a week of activities.  Making art collages at Mother's group, sewing fabric bunny headbands, painting and dying eggs, making gingerbread presents and bunny calico bags for the egg hunt.

I thought I'd share my recipe for Easter Gingerbread and Easter craft with you all today.  It's a great recipe for those that don't like traditional gingerbread as it cooks softer and more like a gingerbread cake in a cookie so kids seem to like it.

Part 1 - For the Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of light molasses, golden syrup or honey
• 1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tblsp unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp of ground ginger
• pinch of cinnamon
• pinch of ground cloves
• pinch of ground cardamom
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of tepid water

How to Make

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
• Line baking paper sheets on baking trays.
• In a mixing bowl add butter and sugar and blend until smooth and creamy.
• Combine flour, the cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and ground cardamom in a mixing bowl. Add the golden syrup and stir to combine.
• Dissolve baking powder in tsp of tepid water and add to flour mixture.
• Refrigerate dough for half an hour which helps with rolling it out later on.
• 30 minutes later take dough out of the fridge.  Roll dough between two baking paper sheets (this saves mess and flouring the bench top) to a thickness of 12mm.
• Using cookie cutters cut shapes out of dough and place on prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. 10 mins gingerbread are pale gold, 12 mins golden in colour.
• Allow to cool on baking trays for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Cookies can be stored in airtight container for up to a week.

 

Crafty DIY - If you want to make them for gifts

Part 2

You'll need icing pens and decoration balls,sprinkles or powder coated mini chocolate drops. These are available in the baking section of your supermarket or any cake decorating shop.

How to Do

Using the pens decorate your cookies with icing and add decorations to give cookies some colour and personality.

Miss 3 loved spending time decorating each cookie and I helped with the icing when she needed a little help.

Leave cookies on a wire rack and let dry while your doing craft.

Part 3 - Crafternoon activity

You'll need-

• Water based paints
• Coloured paper or white paper
• Paint brushes + water jar
• A pair of scissors
• Small plastic bags or clear plastic pockets
• String
• Big Sticker dots (optional)
• Black marker/Sharpie pen

 

How to Do

• Get your little one to paint a colourful picture on the paper using lines, dots and shapes covering much of the page.
• Paint 3-4 pages as these will be the backing in your gift bags and shape the rabbit heads you'll use as a decoration and gift tag.
• Cut a rectangle piece of painted paper and place in the gift bags.  You'll want it to come two quarters of the way in the bag as a backdrop to the cookies.
• Place decorated and undecorated cookies in the bag with the decorated cookies at the front.  I put 6-8 cookies in each bag with at least 2 decorated cookies at the front.
• Let the paper dry fully before drawing rabbit heads on the painted piece of paper.  Depending on how many gifts you are creating you'll want two rabbits per bag.  One for decoration and one as a gift tag.
• Using a coloured Sharpie marker pen draw an outline of a rabbit's head and face.  Using scissors cut out the head and place inside in the corner of your gift bag.
• Using string tie the gift bag up and secure with a knot or bow with another rabbit as a gift tag.  Place a whole in the gift tag to aid you attaching it to your gift bag of gingerbread.

I used a neon pink coloured dot for the back of the gift tag to write a message on.  This was placed on the back of the gift tag easily and kept things simple.  I had a gift bag and plastic gift pockets so I had gift bags tied with a bow and gift packets wrapped as a present with string for gifts.  The trick is to use what you have and be versatile.  No two bags look the same and I liked that.

Then a you have left to do is give your handmade gifts to those lucky people.  Miss 3 loves being the gift giver and it's a great way to help teach them to share and give.

I'd love for you to come visit my blog at www.poppyfoxathome.com, or over at Instagram @thepoppyfox and take a look.  I'm busy opening up my Etsy shop over Easter which is exciting, sewing up some PoppyFox orders and will be doing a giveaway shortly so stay posted.  I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for having me Lou. Xx

Pin It

Guest Posting - Victoria Sandwich Recipe

What's so great about the blogging community is the support and friendship that's offered from people all over the world. Guest blogging is a great way to show mutual appreciation and today Mandi who writes the blog 'Poppy Fox at Home' has kindly agreed to feature my Victoria sandwich sponge cake on her blog.

Mandi, whos lives in Australia, writes about her life as a mother, crafter, thrifter and gardener, 'Poppy Fox at Home' is an inspiring insight into another persons life.  Why not take a look?

Pin It

Crochet and knitting – does size matter? Guest post.

Imagine my excitement when Lou bravely asked me to pen (or should it be type?) a guest post for Make, Do, Sew! I generally blog about anything and everything handmade, mostly about crochet, my current go-to craft. So I volunteered to cover something crafty, to fit in with ‘Make’, and have been musing on what to talk about, and also ask you about, dear reader.

Since I started knitting and crocheting last April I’ve always used a ‘standard’ size of hooks or needles, between 3mm and 5mm. But one day I was flicking through my copy of Inside Crochet and something potentially very exciting flashed in front of my eyes.

This thing was a pattern for a bag (I have a serious weakness for bags) made from t-shirt fabric yarn, with a 10mm crochet hook!! I was immediately hooked (please pardon the pun) and ordered the yarn (called Zpagetti from a company called Hoooked – yes there are three Os) and a shiny new bejewelled hook.

It took a few minutes to get used to wielding a hook so much bigger than I’m used to, and the yarn was less forgiving than a standard DK, but once I got the hang of it, there was no stopping me! What was really great for an impatient being like me, was the speed that the bag took shape. And once the bag shape became more apparent, I saw that it wouldn’t even need lining – bonus!

Completing the pattern made me think about what else I could make with a t-shirt fabric yarn. I trawled online and found some similar yarn, called Hoopla, this time in two fabulously bright colours.

I felt that my bag needed some embellishment, so followed an Attic24 pattern to hook up an anything-but ‘teeny tiny star’. With a few chain stitches to create a loop over a fuchsia button at the star’s centre, the bag was properly finished!

A yarn like Zpagetti gives anything you create a real feeling of sturdiness – that you’ve made something that’s built to last. The bag stands up beautifully, and is perfect for transporting new knitting and crochet projects to my weekly craft group.

And that project has made me think that maybe size does matter when it comes to crafting. I’ve now started knitting a Suzie Johnson-designed pyjama case for my niece, and this time I’ve gone even bigger – size 12mm needles! Again, it’s perfect when you’re in the mood to make something quickly – which such chunky yarn (I’m using Rowan Big Wool) and fat needles, it’s coming together at a rate of knots.

So, although generally my first instinct would be to craft with a ‘standard-size’ hook or needles, I would fish out something a lot bigger if I needed to make an emergency present, or wanted to turn a doily pattern into a floor mat (don’t think I haven’t already considered doing that!).

What size hooks or needles do you usually use? Have you thought about super-sizing your crafts?

You can follow my ramblings and join in my bespectacled conversations on my blog, I’d love to hear from you! And thank you so much for having me over here, Lou!

Sarah x

Pin It

Guest Blogger - Home to Roost

I'd like to introduce my third guest blogger Sarah Johnstone, Sarah writes a great blog called 'Home to Roost'. She lives in the UK and shares her love of her hometown, crafty makes and other day to day adventures on her blog.

I have long admired Sarah's technical blogging skills, I've seen her blog grow and morph through a number of stages each looking great, but with each change the overall design and layout just gets better and better.

Sarah has written a fantastic guest post discussing her love of crochet, check out her other crochet work on her blog and you will see just how talented she is, I really love the cupids arrow she made for valentines day!

Pin It

Ocean Waves - Guest Post

Hi I'm Susie and the very lovely Lou has kindly invited me to guest post on her blog which is a huge honour and really rather exciting. I mused for ages on what totally brilliant subject would be perfect for such a stylish blog and then a truly incredible happenstance occurred. The great thing about the blogosphere is that it gives you the opportunity to meet like minded people, connect with their lives and share the moments that make life special.

I have never met Lou in person but we have stuff in common. We blog, we teach, we bake, we make, we love our children and are separated from some of our family by thousands of miles, way too long on an aeroplane and definitely more money than we could make from our craftiness (although actually Lou is so talented she could probably make a tidy packet).

When the opportunity to guest blog coincided with an invite from my sister to head off to Australia to look after her daughter whilst she had what turned out to be her son, I thought a bit of winter sun would be the ideal subject.

I arrived in Kiama, NSW, Australia on 1st February 2013 for a flying visit. Isn't it beautiful?

For some, having children is a breeze and for others like my sister and myself, it is a difficult and traumatic process. I did not sail through any of my pregnancies with a healthy glow. Instead I spent hours laying in hospital beds always fearful of the worst, too sick to eat, alone, frightened and anxious. My sister has suffered that fate that is all too common and has had to wait six years for her little man to arrive.

Of course I couldn't fly half way around the world to meet my nephew without some crafty endeavour. The day after he arrived and with my head spinning from the long flight, the excitement and soaring temperatures, I walked into a little yarn shop in Kiama and picked out a selection of ocean coloured yarns.

 The woman who ran the shop was brilliant and incredibly helpful. I loved that she didn't even know how to knit when she took over the shop from a woman who had run it for 40 years. We chatted and agreed on how neither of us had to the time and patience for knitting patterns with all that counting and concentrating. Any how I took home my package of yarn and my big needles and cast on a huge amount of stitches and began to knit.

I knitted on the grass outside school on the school run. I knitted on the beach. I even knitted on the way to the rain forest. It didn't take me long to realise the enormity of the task I had set myself and wonder why, when I am so bad at knitting that I had decided to knit a blanket and perhaps a small crocheted teddy would have been a better plan for such a short stay.

So I knitted and knitted and knitted. Yes I could have packed it in my suitcase, finished it at home and then posted it back but just ask the unfinished crocheted blanket that I've been working on for two years, how likely that would have been. No this was one project I had to finish by the deadline of my flight home (I'm in transit now as I type.)

........so did I finish this bad knitting challenge? Of course I did! The blanket is totally un-blanket shaped (very wide and not at all long) but it is completed and embellished with a crochet edge.

 It does so remind me of the ocean waves and will be warm and cosy as the autumn and winter approach the Southern Hemisphere. And when it gets too small for wrapping a baby, it works perfectly well for cosying up the big sister.

Thank you very much for having me and if you do ever feel like popping in for a chat, you can find me over at Ridgeway Cottage Anyhow. 

Pin It

Another Great Guest Blogger!

As some of you may be aware I am lucky enough to be hosting some great guest bloggers on Make, Do, Sew this year. My second guest is Susie, a blogger I've admired since I first stared blogging, Susie writes a blog called Ridgeway Cottage Anyhow, take a look. It's full of great ideas and insights in to everyday life including a page about her cat Herbie!

Susie also has an Etsy shop where she sells her gorgeous hand made prints and other paraphernalia, I especially like her toadstool knitting needles.

Susie has written a great post that's both heartfelt and interesting and as always comments are very welcome.

Pin It

#52Lists

I am so happy to be a guest blogger on the wonderful Make Do Sew blog.  Very exciting, as this is my first guest post anywhere ever!

I write over at www.catseatdogs.com and I have been blogging for almost a year.  I make jewelry and sell it on Etsy and locally here in the Mid West of America where I live with my husband and 2 boys. We have lived here for about 10 years and I am from Lincoln, UK originally

I am going to share with you a new project for 2013 which could be a great collection by the end of the year.  A nice change from the photographic challenges, although I do love them and I post my 'Photo a Day' every month.  I started the photo challenge at the end of 2012, and I am looking forward to having a full 2013 collection.

 

February 7th 'Your Name'  

The new project is #52lists from the lovely Pip Lincolne of Meet me at Mikes and Justb Blog School. The rules are flexible, make a list and blog/tweet/facebook it using the hashtag #52lists.  One a week with a bit of a catch up to make 52 is my aim.

Rainbows over Brentwood. List 2 

Not strictly a list, but more a gathering of rainbows taken from various locations in my neighbourhood this morning.

Here at Make Do Sew,  I will be listing some iPhoneography apps and filters I use and enjoy.  Let's see where it takes us.  Please do join us and let me know what your favourites are - filter, font, best effect found.  Which app can you not stop using?  Have you always used the same one or do you cheat and go find other apps to use and dump the old ones?!

I use the iPhone 4 for all of my photos, so all of the apps I mention are from the iPhone repetoire.

So, here is List number 3 (yes I included the rainbows and my first list was a photo of a shopping list!)

Seven iPhone apps I like to mess about with and my favourite lens/font/filter in each them

1.  Hipstamatic.
This photo of my French bulldog, Pablo, is taken with the James M lens and the C-Type Plate.

 

2.  Camera +.

     I like to add the 'Clarity' scene and on top of that put the 'Vibrant' filter in FX Effects and Color

     filter.  This really pulls out colour and detail.

3.  Overgram.

This a photo of some earrings I made.  I added Clarity in Camera+, then popped the photo into Overgram (it is worth paying for the full version I think) and added the Text which is 'Live Simply'.

4.  Laminar Express (used to be called Iris).

For the bananas fighting for a place in banana bread, I used the crop in Laminar Express then added the speech bubbles in Edit - Annotate - Bubbles.

5.  TypeDrawing.

I took this photo in Instagram, then put it in TypeDrawing to get the words on.  It took me a few goes to get the circle right and even more goes to get the last word to end correctly and not overlap.  Thank goodness these apps are very forgiving and we get to try try again!

6.  PicFrame.

I picked the six frame.  Tap each box and add a photo.  Position the photo with your finger.  Keep an eye on the positioning as they sometimes move back to where they started.  I narrowed the frame and added a label.  Remember to save when you are done!  I had to do this one twice as I accidentally hit 'clear' instead of the save 'cloud' thingy.  Oops.

7.  Instagram.

Some bracelets close up.  Instagram is a great sharing machine and I enjoy seeing other peoples photos on there.  It is also a good place to swap techniques, most people are happy to tell you how they got to the end picture.  Just be sure to think before you post as it is a public playground.

 

All of the apps are in iTunes, some are free and some not.  

Pin It