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Friday 18 January 2013

Finally finished...

Took me a while and i had to undo a few stitches but i managed to get there in the end, and i can say that i am more than happy with the result! Have a look below at what my child will be tucked up with when he's born.


I ran out of blue so my pattern doesn't really add up but i don't mind at all. As this is my first project i have learnt a lot along the way, such as...

Crochet is very therapeutic and holds you in a trance for a while
It's very calming
Its great to have full control over what you are making
The feeling when your'e finished is amazing!

So, i'm not sure what my next project will be, probably a 'better' scarf than the first attempt.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

All colours...

The past few days have been filled with nothing but vibrant colours. Today i've been painting the baby room, a nice shade of green, and I didn't spill any! wonderful!


Room finally starting to take shape and more decorating will follow!

As for my crochet projects i thought about changing colours on the blanket i'm making, instead of looking for videos on how to do it, I thought i'd apply common sense before looking for help and i'm glad to say i had zero problems with it, took about 10 seconds and I was away with the second colour. My speed is picking up too and i've perfected my grip and tension now. Considering i first picked up a crochet hook less than a week ago i'm doing very well with little to no mistakes. The only mistakes i've made is when I lose attention and i miss a double crochet or do one extra without noticing until about 200 double crochets later and i have to unwind it all but i guess that's part of the learning curve! Here's my progress so far.


Let me know what you think or if you can offer any advice, follow me on twitter @craftandmess 


Saturday 12 January 2013

Wall decorating...

Me and my girlfriend are slowly making the transition into baby life, emptied out our spare room and are slowly planning on decorating it to make it more 'baby like'. We're both liking the typical idea of a jungle kind of theme, so i've designed a few animals with a few more to come, I might make them into small stickers and stick them around the room once it's painted.

These are the designs I have so far...

Polar bear, Giraffe, Lion, Monkey and a Penguin.

Still have to make other animals and a bit of scenery but when i've finished them all, they should look pretty good. I took inspiration from 'googleing' different animals and just using photos and other designs to make my own interpretation. I might make a tutorial on how to make them, maybe the giraffe as it's the easiest. If you would like the files please contact me via twitter @craftandmess and i will be more than happy to email them to you.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Homemade paper...

After seeing a really nice piece of artwork on pinterest I decided I would do the same for my child when he's born to mark the day he is born. This is the artwork I found.

 http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/littlebirddesigns/product/new-baby-personalised-map-picture

I wanted to make this from scratch including the frame and the paper and then maybe with some calligraphy practice I could do the writing too. So first I wanted to learn how to make paper and this is how I got along my first time round.

 
1. I took some old toilet roll tubes, some junk mail and some news paper.


2. I tore up the two rolls, one piece of junk mail and 4 pages of the news paper, put them in a blender with warm water. Then blitzed it for about a minute until I had some nice bubbly pulp.



3. I took an old print screening screen I hadnt used for a while and laid it over my sink.

  
4. I poured the pulp onto the screen and let the water drain through. After some water had drained through I shaped the edges to 'straighten' it up a bit and then lightly pressed a sponge over the top to take out any excess water.




5. I propped the screen on top on a radiator for a few hours to dry and it came out perfect, i'm going to add a few colours in my next few pieces and experiment with a few others and see what i can come up with.

This is the paper I ended up with, I have about 3/4 sheets from the first batch of pulp I made. I'm very proud of the outcome and thought making paper would be harder and messier.



 



Wednesday 9 January 2013

Miguel the bear...

So as i'm looking through the mountain of crafting pictures on pinterest I come across a post that shows you how to turn an old glove into a chipmunk. You may think to yourself 'what?! is this possible' that's exactly what I thought when I saw it. So I thought I might as well give it a go and give my baby boy a handmade teddy bear. So I followed the instructions on the picture (see below for info).

I got a glove, a few buttons, some stuffing from an old toy, needle and some thread. A few hours later and this is what I have come up with.


Not exactly a chipmunk but I wanted to give my own take on this project. As for the other glove... who knows... maybe lucy the bear.



To find out how I made this bear, take a look at the website below for instructions

http://www.boredpanda.com/diy-glove-into-chipmunk/

Baby bears scarf

Whilst looking at clothing i saw a handmade scarf that was priced at £25 and I immediately thought that i could make that myself if i learned how too. So i started to look at ways of making a scarf and whilst looking through pictures on pinterest i came across a form of knitting called 'crochet' it looked relatively easy so i went to my local sewing shop and bought a ball of yarn and a crochet needle, first few attempts came out weird and all tangled up so i really got determined and started to watch some yotube tutorials and really got into the process. Attempt number 3 came out very well i must say.