Sunshine swap

The latest swap I did was a "Send a box of sunshine" swap. Just what I needed in this dismal weather!!! The point was to send a box of sunshine coloured things. I used both yellow and orange - as they both remind me of sunshine!

Firstly some soaps. These are lemon scented, orange on bottom, yellow on top - and each contain a few yellow coloured heart shaped beads for added interest. I added olive oil into the melt and pour base for these - so hopefully they will be lovely and moisturising :)

(Sorry for the shocking photo - I was desperately trying to get the box packed while I took them - and didn't realise that they would blend into the background so much!

Some candles (about tea light sized) I am pretty sure these are Jasmine scented - but I can't remember 100% - yes I know that is awful!

Then some jewellery - similar to styles I have made in the past - but with slight differences. First, the necklace - using dagger beads, silver seperators and using crimp beads to keep them in position whilst showing of the funky crimped wire! The dagger beads are a transparent yellow colour - this photo doesnt show the colour well!


Earrings - the same as I made myself for my cousin's birthday party - but using the yellow dagger beads - this picture is pretty spot on colourwise.

And lastly a bracelet - made using Citrine chips.

The parcel is currently on its way to America - I really hope my partner likes what I have sent!

purple and silver and red oh my!

These are two sets of jewellery I made for my cousins 30th birthday present and a necklace/earrings I made for me to wear to her party! Get mine out of the way first. The necklace was made with purple glass seed beads, purple glass dagger beads and some amethyst

 Next is the first set I made for my cousin. At the last minute I redid the necklace with smaller silver colouredcomponents but forgot to take an updated picture! The necklace is amethyst chips, red glass beads and silver coloured bead dividers. The bracelet uses delica beads and is done using the peyote stitch. The earrings are red glass and amethyst.

 

The last set is made from amethyst (she is also a purple freak!) And Garnets which are her birth stone.


 

Hope you have enjoyed. Will have another update later today hopefully!

Just a couple of photos of some little things I made for a swap. Am using photos taken by my partner as I forgot to take any! I have lightened the necklace photo to show the colours a bit better. I would have loved to orientate the big heart as a pendant but I got the impression pendants were not really her thing so I did it this way instead 


I know the key ring is only small and looks easy but it took me ages, it was the first time I have tried wirework and those spirals I found quite tricky (spirals as antennae and also wing tips)! I think this was try 3 but I am actually really pleased with it!

Christmas Jewelry

I am really getting into jewelry making lately. I have made quite a bit which I have not photographed yet - but for the moment this was my mums main Christmas Present (I bought / made her a selection of little bits) some jewelry for her to wear at Christmasses:

I will be putting some more jewelry on in the next few days.

Soaps and Candles

So - for a while now I have been wanting to get into soap / candle making. In early January I made a trip to HobbyCraft and they had a soap making kit and a candle making kit on sale - so I bought each of them. I then proceeded to stock up on some other items such as essential oils  - and scour our cupboards for things to include - this is what I ended up with:

Christmas soaps - soap base with Cinnamon and Orange essential oils and crushed / a couple of whole cloves

Christmas candles - same recipe as above but without whole cloves and only a spinkle of ground.

Lavender soap - soap base with dried lavender - if I were to do this again I would reduce the amount of lavender it contains - my thought for putting so much in was two fold - first it would be an exfoliater and secondly if you were having a bath how lovely to have lavender in your bath, but I think I went a bit OTT!





I bought some little trays from The Range - and made Christmas presents for aunts and mother.

This is what the final product looked like before it was covered in clingfilm and wrapped

 

I enjoyed doing this so much when I got home from Christmas I ordered some 'proper' supplies as oppose to a kit so there will be more soaps and candles to see soon! 

Cushions

For Christmas I made cushions for my mum, my mother in law, my grandma, my grandma in law and one of my aunts. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of any other than my mums and grandma's:

For my mum

For my aunt

Christmas Stocking Swap 2013

Well, I have a LOT of updating to do here! Some things I have not got photos of yet - but I will add what I do have!

The first post is going to be long - it is what I sent for the Craftster Christmas Stocking Swap 2013. I had a wonderful partner who is rather 'bohemian' and encouraged me to buy things from a charity shop and repurpose. I did that for most of my items - some of the things I sent were made from my stash.


She requested a 'sack' for her soul daughter (she has taken her in as she was having family trouble) who is French and loves things that are black / white and lacy! I made her sack out of a skirt and a table cloth I found in a charity shop

a close up of the embroidery

unfortunately I got the name wrong - goodness knows how - it should have been Helene - still, my partner says she was able to fix it easily!

The top is drawstring so it can be closed.

Also for her daughter I made a 'welcome to uni' kit as she hopes to go to university this year. This was the box:

it had some uni essentials in - notebooks, diary, pens, chocolate of course and a pen holder - this was a plain wooden owl when I found it in the charity shop - so I drilled a pen sized hole in it's head and painted it black / silvery white

I made each of her two boys a felt penquin to hang on the tree:

I also sent them some "reindeer food" a book each and a craft kit each.

She and her husband keep bees and make their own honey (they have 100 hives) so I made her husband a bee keyring:

This was originally a russian doll shaped keyring which I repurposed.

Then - I got to spoil my lovely partner! 

I made her an airdry clay snowman

a bent metal wind chime:

Some food pouches she had requested with charity shop fabric and a pair of my old jeans (she asked to have them lined with denim:

a needle felted wall hanging for her barn (she is a psychiatrist and has just opened her barn for group therapy etc)

The words are sewn with green seed beads and say "Jump for the moon, even if you miss you'll be among the stars"

A set of jewelery - necklace bracelet and earrings:

 

Some coasters for her Barn - made from overmelted hama beads (As I prefered the look of overmelted) with felt on the bottom:

 Some knitted bunting - accented with beads:

A long long string of beads got from charity shop necklaces as she said she liked hanging strings of beads around her trees / in her barn etc

And lastly for this post some air dry clay baubles for her trees.