Cardboard Earring Display Template

For a while I made jewellery which I sold at craft fairs, but since I’ve discovered my love of fabric and yarn is all-encompassing, I’ve decided that the jewellery has to go!  Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding it to my Etsy shop at clearance prices, basically because I need the space to fill with more fabric!

I decided to take some photos of the jewellery, but couldn’t find a prop I liked to show it off.  Then I found a template for making my own cardboard necklace display stand on Pinterest and voila here is my necklace stand.



Now that was all very well, but the colour of my card was too light to show off the necklace, so I grabbed some crepe paper & covered the cardboard.



Much nicer don’t you think?  Well now my next problem was that some of the sets I had to sell also had earrings.  So I grabbed some more cardboard, messed about with shapes and here is my solution:



I then changed the words:


and then tried a little subliminal messaging:



But then I decided that there was too much cardboard and too little earring on show, so I adjusted the template again:

Anyway enough of my creative process, here is the template I used to make them.

Copy and paste this template, and print it out on an A4 sheet of cardboard, and you can make your very own stand.  Cut along the lines, and crease and then fold along the dotted lines. Thread some ribbon or string through the bottom two holes and pull it together to make it stand up.  The letters are back to front as I printed it out on the reverse of the card, that way you can’t see all of the template lines – clever eh!

Hope it’s useful for you

Sally
xxx

Retro Arcade Cross Stitching

Introducing my new cross stitch design, well actually it’s based on a picture designed by my son, but as long as I pay his royalties in chocolate biscuits, he’s kindly given me permission to use the design!



The cross stitch chart is available as an instant download in my Etsy Shop
You can also take one element of it and create a card, ideal for the retro gamer in your life!



I really love this design, I guess because I’m one of the generation who remembers these space invader machines the first time around!
Sally
xxx

Keep Calm! Cross Stitch Chart

One of my crafting friends had her birthday last week and I wanted to make her a small gift.  I was at a bit of a loss what to make until she mentioned that she had cross-stitched the keep calm sign for a couple of her friends.  So I designed and printed out a cross stitch design, but 2 days before her birthday, when I’d still not started it, I realised wouldn’t have time to cross stitch it. So I cheated, traced it onto a piece of red cotton and embroidered faster than I’d ever embroidered before.

I then turned it into a small tote bag which I lined with red gingham

If anyone would like to succeed where I failed & wants to cross stitch my design, here is a copy of my pattern which is free for personal use. 

Enjoy

Sally

xxx

Giant Fabric Snakes and Ladders– Tutorial

Several months ago I decided that what my nephews couldn’t live without was a giant snakes and ladders game, big enough for them to use themselves as counters. 



Annoyingly this is the only photo I took of the finished game, sorry for the poor quality, I should really have ironed it before photographing it.

Right here is a quick guide to how I made it:

Firstly cut out your fabric – you will need quite a lot of fabric, I used 36 squares, each about 14” x 14”.  I was lucky enough to win a bundle of blue fabrics in giveaway a few months ago and with the addition of a few fabrics from my stash, I had enough to make it with.



Lay them out on your table to see how they look.

Next print out or draw lots and lots of numbers.  I printed 4 numbers on a landscape sheet of A4 paper, and this seemed to fit well in the squares.  Next trace the numbers onto bondaweb, (remember to trace them in reverse otherwise your numbers will be backwards when you stick them on) iron them onto some white cotton and cut them out.



Here is my pile of fabrics and numbers.

Your next job is to iron the numbers into the centre of each square, and then the time consuming bit – use a zig zag stitch to outline each of the numbers.  I used to bright blue thread so it stands out from the numbers.  Sorry no photo of this step, but I’m sure you can get the idea from my main photo.

Start to sew your squares together



Make sure you sew them in the right order as you want number 7 to be above number 6, so the rows go back and forth.

I used some felt to make the word Win on the final square, just to make it different from the other squares.
Once you’ve sewn them all together, you can either hem all around the outside edge or you can back it with another large piece of fabric.  I used a cheap patterned poly cotton to back it with. 

Next make and decorate some snakes and ladders from felt to place on the game.  This was my daughters job as she really wanted to help.





We made 2 snakes and 2 ladders, both different sizes, but you can make as many as you like.

So there you go, a giant snakes and ladders game.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to answer them.

Sally

Cross Stitch Instant Downloads

I have been crafting over the last few weeks, and a few times I’ve tried to write a blog post about it, but words seem to be playing tricks on me and hiding somewhere deep inside my brain and refusing to come out, no matter how much chocolate I try to bribe them with.  It seems that the longer I’m absent on here for the harder it is to write anything that makes any sense at all!

So today I thought I’d keep the words to a minimum and share a couple of photos of some cross stitch patterns that I have been designing:

This one is called “Through the Square Window: Animals” and is a collection of 9 cartoon animals.

And this one is “Game On! Retro joystick” based on a drawing by my son.

Both are very different styles, but both patterns are available as an instant download in my Etsy shop priced at a very reasonable £2.70 and £2.03.

Now my first post for a while is over I’m hoping that words will come a bit easier – we shall see!

Sally

xxx