5 brooches #32

Welcome to 5 brooches!!

I have a colourful selection for you this week, hope you enjoy them.

A double brooch to jazz up a very boring outfit!  The button one came on a handmade handbag we bought at a craft fair about 5 years ago. Seen on 5 brooches once before. The felted balls one was from Spitafields- has it been in 5 brooches before? I think maybe!

Here's my handmade ice-cream brooch I made last Summer out of Shrink plastic.

Le lapin matin bunny which was a birthday pressie from my deputy head.

It is hard to photograph this acrylic strawberry brooch but for once I got the sparkles perfectly!!

The donut was part of a Junk food trio from Topshop which I got in the sale, buy one get one free on sale items!

Have you seen or worn any nice brooches?

Go and see Anna's incredible brooch heaven on a denim jacket!!

5 brooches #17

Hello there,

Here's the next instalment of brooches I've worn.  I sometimes think that this post should double up as 'some collars too' as I seem to combine them with shirt collars quite often!

This Blue tit brooch is from Cath Kidston, he's beem kicking around for a fair few years- he was in a set- I gave 2 as gifts and kept the latter two.  Seemed to match the pattern and colours of this Closet dress.

This Dalek button pin came free with Doctor Who adventures comic a long time ago! Was aiming for Osgood chic here with my ? lapels embroidered by Ang. I wore this for TARDIS Tuesday last summer.

Not the best photo but I wanted to combine my Lady Bird Likes collar clips in the photo with my double bird cardie!

Mmmmmm, fried egg....

CBC bought me a handmade blue corduroy handbag about 5 years ago that had this delightful button brooch on it- I decided to transfer it from bag to hat!  Stopped a boring outfit from being too boring!

Any favourites? Have you been sporting any brooches?  Do share!

xxx

Other brooches:
http://shortbreadandginger.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/bonny-wee-brooch.html 
Liz found a beautiful Scottish Luckenbooth brooch in a charity shop!

Sunflower

Mum's birthday has now been and gone so I can share the latest card I made.  When my sister was about 10 or 12, my Mum made her an incredible purple and orange sunflower birthday cake. My Mum always used to make us the most wonderful cakes based on our interests and favourite things so we always used to look forward to her birthday cake. Thus, when I see sunflowers, I think of my Mum and sister simultaneously.  Thus, having made my sister a quilled sunflower card this year for her birthday, I decided to make my Mum one too but in a different way.

I have said this on various occasions, but the most versatile and recommended craft items include general punches like a flower shape. This daisy one has been used on many, many occasions- you can buy one similar here at Hobbycraft.

To create the 3D effect, I punched around about 6 daisies and then used an embossing tool on a piece of foam to emboss lines to create a texture which made the petals more realistic-looking.  Likewise, rubbing the leaves (also punched) in a circle in the middle of the leaf curls the edge up.

Linking up to Daring cardmakers and Creative Mondays with Claire Justine

Crafting essentials: Buttons and Cath Kidston catalogues!

A Cath Kidston catalogue is a many splendid thing!  So many pretty prints! Much to pretty to be thrown away once it has been ogled to full capacity!


The main feature of this card was the panel of card which was the back cover of an old Cath catalogue which I saved. It was the size that fitted perfectly on this pink card.I then decided to try and cover up whatever word or logo was in the middle by collecting together a selection of pink and lilac buttons from my collection. I've said this before, but buttons are a HUGELY versatile craft essential you should try to have when beginning card making- they can be all sorts of things: wheels for a new baby pram, wheels of a toy car for a boy, centres for flowers, make a heart shape out them. The possibilities are endless!



And it's not just the big chunks of Cath magazine that can be used- I was a little sad a couple of years ago and tore off a border on each page that was a different Cath print.  They're only about 3 cm wide and A5 length long but I foresaw a weaving possibility and finally got around to it.  I quite simply wove these strips, beginning from two pieces joined at a right angle and stuck the ends down.  It looked a bit bare as just weaving so I decided to make a paper flower (which button head- AHA neat segue from the previous card!) but decided to experiment with using heart shapes as petals.  I punched about 16 pink hearts and used my embossing tool to curl up the ends and stuck down in a sort of spiral!  The button, in its quintessentially versatile way, made a fitting floral centre- luckily it matched the base-card and drew an otherwise disparate card together!

Linking up to Claire Justine's Creative Mondays

Super-easy Valentines card craft idea

 In case you haven’t noticed, since I am sure all the shops will be peddling their Valentines tat, sorry, confectionery and romantic goods, Valentines day will soon be upon us!

Thus, I thought I’d give you a super easy idea for card you might want to make your loved one.  You have had a preview in my last photo scavenger hunt.

Like me, I am quite sure you have a stash of buttons- regardless of my large crafting hoard, I have a huge collection of those spare buttons that you get with clothes (which I never seem to sew on (how sad that is).  If you’re not so hoardsome, then you can easily buy some from a craft store.market haberdashery.

All you need is a white card (or colour of your choice).

Sort the colour scheme you want, you could choose...
All blues:

 

All pastels:

 

A balanced rainbow:

Lay out your buttons in the middle of the card into a heart shape.  You can make a solid heart OR create the outline.  You might have to fiddle a bit, especially if they are different sizes and to get the shape.  To ensure once I found the shape that I liked, that I didn’t lose it in the process of sticking them down, I took pictures of the card.    Stick them down with PVA glue- I apply it with the end of a cotton ear bud that I have removed the cotton from.  I picked up one at a time to try and keep the shape and replaced carefully.  (by the way, I dip my finger into water and pick the button up with the tip of my finger which then means I don’t knock the others out of place.  Or lick your finger. Whichever.)

You can just leave it there but I chose to fix use a message sticker below the heart.  Actually, I think I ruined the outline heart by adding that sticker- would have been nicer in the silver ones or just blank!

And voila, you have a finished card!

If you are a Valentines cynic, then this can always double up as a wedding card, engagement card, new baby card, Christening card or even just a girly birthday card!  Whatever floats your card-giving boat.

Oh and since the buttons were out, I decided to give the black ones an outing too (because they’re harder to use apart from for poppy earrings or musical note heads!) and made a card for my chess playing sister-in-law’s birthday card (really hope you don’t read this Monkey girl!)

FYI, none of these are CBC’s card as I’ve given him Valentines buttons before!!

Linking up to some of the lovely craft ladies' blogs which I have been terrible at joining with recently with actual crafts!

Claire Justine at Creative Mondays 

Caught on Camera

Here's a really simple card idea you can make out of very few things!

This card was made for WOMOTM, my Father-in-Law who is into photography and I imagine might make a good card for any photo-happy blogger or man of photos!

You will need: Long, thin base card in colour of your choice,Black felt-tip pen, ruler, scraps black/dark brown card (mine came from a Green and Blacks easter egg box), scraps of silvery/holographic card (could easily come from Christmas crackers or other festive metallic packaging) three medium/small black buttons, 3 small white pearly buttons, scissors and circle punch (can be done free hand), PVA glue/doublesided sellotape

1. Cut three identical small rectangles out of the back card.

2. Cut 3 circles out of the silver mirror card and stick to the centre of the rectangles.

3. Stick the black buttons centrally onto each of the mirrored circles.

4. Stick the pearly buttons on top of these (double sided sticky tape works well).

5. Cut three thin strips of mirror card to the length of your 'cameras' and adhere to the button.

6. Cut three pirate hat type shapes and adhere to the top of the camera. Draw on a little black rectangle for the view finder.

7. Stick the three completed angles at equal intervals, at a jaunty angle, along the middle of a long card.

8. Get your black felt-tip pen and draw 2 black lines close together above and below your cameras (like negatives). Draw in little thicker lines to join these at 3mm intervals.

9. Draw 2 vertical lines between the three cameras to complete your 'film'

10. Voila, finished and made very cheaply indeed! This card could cost you less then 10p if your cards were cheap!

(11. You could also add a little loop of black ribbon to the side of each camera to make handles (you could use the hanging ribbons that come in many tops or a clothing label string or wire) but I chose not to!)

Linking up to:

Creative Mondays with Claire Justine

IN and out link party with Feeding Big

Valentines buttons: in which Kezzie arranges buttons on train as strangers looks on bemused!

A make a month has taken on a decidedly buttonish (nice word- (C) Kezzie 2012) theme in February!

CBC's valentines card. Hastily thrown together on Saturday night around midnight before departing egregiously early to gay Pareees on Sunday morning. Was a challenge as all my 3d pads and glue seemed to have gone completely AWOL. I tried to do it on the train on the way to CBC's house but as I arranged buttons on the card, to the bemusement of my fellow passengers (not as bad as licking a muffin as a stranger looks on as a certain blogger did recently!), I realised I had no scissors to cut my own adhesive, double sided sticky tape! It had to wait!

The blue background is some sort of packaging from some box or other (always SOME recycling). The buttons are an assortment I obtained from my Mum, whose husband was going to give them away. Spying, I pounced! Apart from the double-sided tape, a cream card blank (from my Christmas swap from Millie) and some outline silver stickets, that was it! (Apart from a blue card heart with a glowing red button topping it inside the card!) Quite quick really!

I can't possibly comment on the card I received as I didn't :-(
although I did get a treasure hunt in Brugues with furry heart keyring as the prize on the 17th which kind of made up for it!  It was a sweet thought!! :-)

Was denken Sie?

(Blog post title, slightly plagiarised from The Chrlog's recent post on muffin licking! Read it, it's hilarious!)

Button button, who's got the button?! A make a month!

AS part of my pledge for 2012, thanks to Annie the Felt Fairy, I have pledged to make something every month!  So far, I am doing well in February!  I've been carrying on with making jewellery after my experiments at Christmas
(I say making- what this really translates as is choosing colour/size combinations, opening jump rings with pliers, shoving on items, closing jumprings and then hoping for the best!  Perhaps I'll become more advanced through the year! So let's call it 'faciliating a meeting of compatible buttons. Speed dating for buttons...?).  I adore buttons so this is pure joy!!!
It all started when I was doing my PGCE and I had to personally go and out and buy the materials for 60 children to make puppets (yes, it gets like this in primary schools- you just go out and buy the stuff yourself from your own money).  I asked in my local charity shop if they had any buttons and rather like Pick and mix,I went out the shop with about 200 beautiful pastel miniatures!!!  Then of couse it grew...

Here's my makes so far...



Flower button earrings!  These cute buttons have been kicking around for ages! I deemed them to nice to waste on a card! Yay for jewellery! They sparkle in the correct light (i.e. if you are not a rubbish photographer like moi)

 This bracelet took aaaaaaaaaages!  I am a little slow at things at first but then got into the swing of it!  It's too big for me so hoping the eventual receipient has bigger wrists! (these were part of the original button haul!)

I HEART buttons!  (these are intended for another crafty endeavour later in the week!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 By the way:
Can you remember WHO says the quote about buttons in what film (saddo that I am!)   Answers on a postcard below!

Sloshing the acrylic paint around!

Ahrgh blogger how annoying you are!  I NEVER know what order it is going to upload pictures in and of course it does it backwards to what I expected!

I decided to make a pair of earrings for my Secret Santa at school as she loves buttons and has the most gorgeous Cath Kidston necklace made of buttons.  So I decided to use some of the cute this lilac buttons I have to make her some (my first experience with jewellery pliers and jump rings.  It wasn't too painful.  I then recycled a small eyemakeup jar to house them in which I covered in buttons (see left).  I was rather pleased with them

I've also made a little red pair of my sister (she doesn't read this so tis ok for me to post!)

 And another lilac pair for my pal M. Again, I've recycled a packaging item to house them in.  I've adapted this mint tin by covering it in buttons- except that I left the 'sugar free' label as it amused me!

 Oh and here are all her gifts!  I was quite pleased with what I managed in this case for the fiver!  Stripy socks, a cute mug with a cable-knit cosy and marshemellows inside and then also a cute grey beaded bracelet (not shown)

 The craft began on SAturday with Christmas card making!  My main 'ingredient' this year was white acrylic paint and recycling tissue boxes and a tofu box!

Firstly, I used a design from Papercraft inspirations as I initial inspiration (and basically copied for the mini-gingerbread cards)

I stuck a piece of paper at an angle and then sponged acrylic paint along (graduating quantity)

Then did the same with some small scalloped squares cut from an old tissue box, an old brochure and an old blue envelope which looked like an interesting night sky.  Not at an angle!

 Then with one or two larger cards, I experimented with roughly sponging a graduated acrylic paint border around the edges of one or two cards.

Did the same with a few more...

Then got a white gel pen and made some snow dots

...On every single bit of acrylic-attacked card... 

 Then, using the outside of an old tofu box, I made some mini gingerbread men (details in white gel pen)

 And then made one or two large gingerbread items...

 Then I punched a large quantity of black card bristly looking trees!

I noticed after this, that I had somehow punched them in a dead straight line from the sheet of black card, all the trees equidistant from each other.  My thrifty mind thought, "Hmmmmm, vot haf vee heeer???"

Putting all those ingredients together, I made the following...

Here's the final set of Christmas landscape cards

And a close up!

Here are the 3 bookmarks which were basically the negative from all the black Christmas trees I punched, (my cunning plan).  I like to think that I was being enviromentally friendly and liked the thought of people being able to USE the card I sent through the post!

 
Here's the final ones of the bigger range.

All in all, rather a success.  Now what else can I make for Christmas?