Joey's Dream Garden

Reetsweet Christmas Craft Fair - Sunday 27 November 2011

2011-11-16T08:32:00.001Z

Hello there!

Just wanted to quickly mention that I will have a stall at the very first Sheffield Reetsweet craft fair in less than two weeks! It's at the fabulous Millennium Gallery on Sunday 27 November, opening times are from 12 noon to 4 p.m., and entry is FREE!

Reetsweet is run by Becki Drury from Leeds, who has run many very successful fairs in Leeds. I'm so glad that someone has stepped in where the excellent Craft Candy fairs left off - I do really enjoy the Christmas craft fair (this will be my third). I'm expecting to see lots of old Craft Candy friends there... I can't wait! :D

Reetsweet fairs are full of bright, quirky and fun products - and of course, everything is genuinely handmade... click here to take a look at some of the goodies at the recent Leeds Uni Reetsweet fair! Leeds Uni goodies

So if you're in Sheffield on that day, please drop by and say hi!

Millennium Gallery is just five minutes walk from the train station and the bus station
For a map of Millennium Gallery and streetview from the Surrey Street entrance via the Winter Gardens, click here: how to get there
There is another entrance to the Millennium Gallery on Arundel Gate.

Best wishes

Joey x

Charlotte Liddle in Sheffield

2011-10-30T01:02:00.001Z

Close-up of my strawberry applique, one of the projects from Charlotte Liddle's new book!

Hello there!

Here's another of my quarterly blog posts! Hahaha! Oops! Maybe next year I'll be a better blogger... I finished the walking challenge (see my last post) a couple of weeks ago, so I don't really have any excuses for not posting (apart from weird times at work, but that's another story)...
Our walking team finished in 10^th place out of 177 teams (individually I came 4^th out of 885 people, with 2,695,838 steps, or about 1172 miles), which I'm really pleased about!

I've never done so much walking in my life! I'm sure I'm a couple of inches shorter now...

Click here to see the Walking Challenge League Table

Walking off into the sunset...

So what's the thing that was so amazing that I just had to write a post about it? Well, our local John Lewis store in Sheffield hosted a book signing and free workshop with craft book writer Charlotte Liddle. Charlotte has now written three craft books: “Stitch and Sparkle: 15 Easy Projects to Stick and Sew”; “Stitch Divas: New Ways to Get Creative with Yarns and Threads” (written with Rachel Henderson) and her latest book, “Cute and Easy Quilting and Stitching” which was published this spring. I found out about Charlotte's event when visiting the ladies' for a wee last Saturday, as an advert for it was on the back of the loo door - of all places! Anyway, I asked my mother-in-law Chris along, and we both enjoyed a fantastic couple of hours making one of the projects from Charlotte's new book.

Charlotte Liddle today, sitting behind copies of her new book, with some of her creations from it.

It was really interesting to be able to chat with Charlotte whilst we were stitching away, and it gave me the chance to get to know her a little. Charlotte is from Darlington, and graduated from her Textile Crafts course at the University of Huddersfield in 2005, and currently teaches textile crafts to adults and older teenagers, as well as holding workshops and writing craft books. After leaving Uni, Charlotte got a job in the office at the Coats Crafts headquarters in Darlington. She was in the right place, because after showing them her portfolio, she got her first book deal! The result, called “Stitch and Sparkle”, really is a sparkling treasure-trove full of ideas to combine printed fabrics, lace, ribbon, beads, buttons and all things twinkly to create your own unique accessories, or bling-up your tired but still serviceable old stuff. In my opinion, it really stands out from a lot of other craft books because every page is buzzing with bright treasures - there's nothing old-fashioned or tired here.

Charlotte's beautiful embellished shoes - fit for a princess!

Gorgeous combination of applique, crochet and beading by Charlotte Liddle.

Charlotte's latest book is also full of projects – 35 no less. She told us that it took her a mere 10 weeks to create. I say “create” rather than write because I know from experience that the written instructions are just a tiny part of a project. They're important, but they just don't give you as massive a headache as the times when you get halfway through making a thing and realise that the fabric's all wrong/your design's all wrong/you've messed up big time/your sewing machine decides that it's had enough and goes on strike/you have a nervous breakdown and turn to jelly... So I'm mightily impressed that Charlotte designed, made and wrote the instructions for 35 projects in only 10 weeks... and stayed sane! Charlotte had put up a display of some of her creations from the book, and it was great to see them up close to appreciate the details.

The beauty of this book is that it can be enjoyed not only by people who are completely new to sewing but also folks with experience in one technique but need a bit of inspiration to try something a little different... for example, I'd really like to have a go at cathedral window quilting – well, there's a project for that! I have already asked Santa for the book.

Charlotte's creations from her new book.

The project from the book which Charlotte had prepared for us was the appliquéed jam jar covers, using good old Bondaweb (aah, lovely Bondaweb, what would I do without you??) to bond the applique pieces to a background fabric. It was then very relaxing and easy to embroider and embellish our cute little strawberries. Joy!

The group's conversation quickly arrived at the subject of haberdashery and fabric shops, and we came to the conclusion that there aren't enough of them. However, it turns out that a few of us have made the pilgrimage to Duttons for Buttons in York, and we all agreed that it's THE mecca for button lovers!

It's a tiny shop, with about four floors I think, but the ground floor is best – if you're like me, then you'll be gazing in awe at the wall of buttons for quite a while! I went to York for my birthday this year; I'd never heard of Duttons, so when I saw it I just had to go in. I really wish it was in Sheffield so I could have a longer browse. I only bought a few buttons, but they were the tiniest shank buttons I've ever seen! I could easily have come away with enough buttons to make the best Pearly Kings & Queens very jealous.

I could have spent a day chatting with Charlotte (although she may have got sick of me very quickly!) as she is such an open, down-to-earth and really friendly person, with a lot of talent and skill. I'm truly grateful for a wonderful morning of crafting and talking about crafting – just what I needed right now!

Thanks Charlotte, and thanks to you too, for reading!

Best wishes

Joey x

The Very Very Long Walk

2011-07-16T12:11:00.002+01:00

Chesterfield Parish Church, with its wonky spire

Hello there!

After yet another long break from this blog, I'm back again! I do have a couple of excuses though... we have bought the house which we've been renting for 14 years, I now know what people mean by house-buying being stressful... But thank goodness that it's all sorted!

The other thing which has been keeping me busy, is that I'm taking part in a summer-long walking event, called the DWP Walking Challenge, for the charity The Civil Service Benevolent Fund (see the end of this post for more info about the CSBF).

So far, I've walked over a third of a million steps, which I'm really pleased with, but I'd really love to walk at least a million steps, maybe more!

So, as you can imagine, I've been walking a lot more than usual for the last couple of weeks! Mathew has been too, and he's being a brilliant support with this, basically encouraging me to go for more and bigger walks, and sorting out the routes. Which is good, as my sense of direction is almost non-existent. I'm the sort of person who comes out of a shop and has to think about which way to turn! I'm not exaggerating.

a map of the very, very long walk

This is why, last Friday evening as me and Mathew were doing our evening walk through nearby Norfolk Heritage Park, we decided to do a big walk the next day (i.e. a week ago today)... and I mean a BIG WALK – from our house in Sheffield, not far from the city centre, to Chesterfield, around 15 miles away! After we did the walk, Mathew mapped it out on Mapometer.com, but there's a screen capture above so you can see.

We started out around 6:25am, which was plenty early for us. It was light, but rather gloomy. Umbrella was packed in case of rain. This picture below was taken at the top of Granville Road, looking towards Sheffield city centre.

Walked past the big cemetery just up the road from us. These stone carvings are relatively new. I think they're of apples, because there's lots of apples trees in City Road cemetery.

Here's a brief history of City Road cemetery: City Road cemetery history on Sheffield City Council website

More new stone carvings just off City Road:

I've never seen Manor library (I don't even think that I knew there was one!) but I think they're done a lovely job of making it look nice, don't you think so? Oh, and another stone carving... bit of a trend here!

We thought these two signs were funny, outside a primary school. Very passive-aggressive! They could have written the signs in a much nicer way.

We passed this metal sculpture in Herdings Park at around 7:35am - been walking for only an hour.

This sculpture is in the same style as the deer and little robot person in Norfolk Heritage Park.

We popped into Graves Park to see if the toilets were open. They weren't. Hold on for a bit longer... But the park was really peaceful, just a few dog-walkers around.

There's some great playground stuff in there too! The sun was actually starting to make an appearance too.

Graves Park is fab, not only because of the gigantic park itself but they also have animals! We only saw a few on this morning though, some cows and goats:

Good way to clean out your nose! :-)

Don't the goats look contented?

We arrived at Jordanthorpe and saw this bizarre outdoor gym equipment! I would have had a little go but I was a little tired by this time and was a bit self-conscious too!

Then at around 8:45, we crossed the border into Derbyshire! Yay! The village of Coal Aston was very nice.

The countryside around here is really pretty, look at how far you can see!

Odd sign at Dronfield... it took us ages to work out what it meant. What was the matter with writing "it's 30 for a reason"?

road rage

WE'VE ARRIVED!! Well, not quite. It actually took us another hour and a half to reach the town centre... my feet were really killing me by now, but Mathew was fine!

Look, we can now see Chesterfield's parish church's famous crooked spire. This was 40 mins after passing the "Chesterfield" sign above. But we still weren't that close... it took us another hour to reach our destination!

Bright and jolly mural on the side of a school.

We eventually reached Chesterfield town centre at about 11:30am. To say that my feet and legs were tired is an understatement. I'm ~~quite~~ ~~very~~ ~~extremely overweight~~ a bit of a porky pig, and I think it's that which makes it tougher for me (I know, I know, it's my own fault...) but it's still not pleasant to have incredibly sore, aching feet and legs! If you are a slim, healthy person then it probably wouldn't be so much of a problem for you. Mathew wanted to have a look around the town's charity shops, but my priority was a nice sit-down!! We eventually found a lovely park, Queen's Park, which boasted a duck/boating pond, a miniature train and a cricket match! So I settled down, put on a bit of Ravi Shankar on my MP3 player and lazed around for a few hours!

Puffin' Billy

Watching cricket

Mural on the underside of the bridge which links the park to the town centre

One of Chesterfield's oldest buildings, which dates back to the 17th century, is now a coffee house.

interesting building; I like the colour & ornate windows

another interesting building... I love the tiles above the central doorway!

After a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and numerous bags of crisps, then an hour or so of watching the cricket, we staggered our painful way home. Well, Mathew seemed pretty ok, but I really struggled. At least it was a beautiful evening... look at these views!

It's tea-time!

More cricket! This time, in Graves Park (the toilets still weren't open...)

The picture you see above was the last one I took of the day. I was too tired to bother with my camera. By this time, my legs and feet were in absolute agony. Yes, I am a bit of a drama queen, but THEY REALLY HURT! I am not used to a lot of physical exercise. We got back at about 8:15 p.m., mainly because I was shuffling along at a snail's pace.

That, we vowed never to go on such a long walk in one day. But this week, Mathew's been suggesting all sorts of crazy long walks! Watch this space...

And please sponsor me, at my Just Giving page!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Moreabout the DWP Walking Challenge:http://www.csbf.org.uk/fundraising/support_fundraisers/dwp_walking_challenge/

TheDWP Walking Challenge league table:http://walkingchallenge.rightcorecare.co.uk/league-table?page=1

TheCivil Service Benevolent Fund

TheCSBF helps UK civil servants, ex-civil servants, and people connectedto them, and also the employees and their families of many associatedorganisations which used to be part of the UK civil service, in timesof desperate need. It’s the CSBF's 125th anniversary year, and tocelebrate, they're aiming to raise£125,000 during 2011 to support their help and advisoryactivities. The sorts of things the CSBF does is help people duringbereavement, long-term and terminal illness, relationship breakdown,financial crisis etc. If you want to know more about the work of theCSBF, please take a look at last year's Impact Report:

http://www.csbf.org.uk/Resources/Civil%20Service%20Benevolent%20Fund/Documents/Publications/Annual%20Review/Impact%20Report%202010/index.html

Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts - sew a seating system freebie

2011-05-29T11:11:00.000+01:00

I love the stripy green fabric!

Hello there!

If you read my last post, you'll know that I've just bought a set of partwork craft magazines that I had as a child, so I've been tripping down memory lane with them! I've also set up a Flickr group, Golden Hands Crafts - For Everyone, so if any of you have your own copies of Golden Hands or Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts, you can share them with the rest of us!

They certainly are weird and wonderful... last night I was reading about marbling paper with seaweed, and I thought, "this is something I could do", until I read that I would need a couple of pints of something called 'oxgall' that I could get from my local slaughterhouse!! I don't even WANT to know where my nearest slaughterhouse is (I'm vegetarian), let alone actually go there! So I guess I won't be using that technique...

Get a fire guard on that open fire! Health and safety was "stuff and nonsense" in the 1970s...

This is much nicer. This impressive project would really give your sewing maching a good workout... sew your own 'seating system'! In my imagination, I am tempted to try this, but I know it'll never happen. I really like the look of it, they've styled the photos so well, but what would they be like in reality? Just beanbags with a bolster? Maybe if you had some quite large blocks of reasonably solid foam, they could work. Anyone want to have a go? I've embedded the full project as a PDF below. If I ever have a go at this I'll let you know how it turns out...

GHC Seating System Project

Best wishes

Joey xx

Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts - embroidery designs freebie

2011-05-27T23:12:00.000+01:00

Where it all began...

This year is flying past so quickly, I can't believe how little I've blogged! And I don't even have a particularly good excuse for not doing so either. What HAVE I been doing? I must have just been existing really...

Well, I want to put that straight RIGHT NOW! So I'm going to share with you all something from my childhood...

They like their embroidered tops, don't they?

One of my elder sisters used to collect a part-work magazine called "The Golden Hands Encyclopedia of Crafts", published by Marshall Cavendish, in 1975. I was only two years old at the time, but my sister was about 15. I don't think she collected the whole set of 98 issues, but it was near enough. The magazines lived in a cardboard box, and when she had done with them, I "appropriated" them for myself.

Embroidered dress

I LOVED those magazines! They were full of such wonders as macrame, pottery, enamelling, basketry, needlepoint, crochet, making stuff with old tin cans, paint effects like stencilling, embroidery, woodwork, beadwork, weaving, glasswork... the list just goes on and on... you name it, most crafts were probably covered. Although I only attempted a couple of projects (most of it was outside of my capability and level of confidence at the time), I read and re-read these magazines from cover to cover, many many times. And pored over the pictures for literally hours and hours.

They don't make dresses like that anymore... cute embroidery though!

Oh! The pictures! To me, they are the very essence of the 70s... a mixture of really good design, and terrible fashion sense! Or was it really good fashion sense?

Anyway, she claimed them back from me after I'd left home, so I hadn't seen them for about 20 years, until now! I think I saw someone's pictures of them on Flickr or on a blog which piqued my interest again, but I hadn't forgotten them. Then when I found a set of a few on eBay, from a UK seller, I just had to bid for them! And they arrived yesterday! Hurrah!

Don't look so fed-up love... the embroidery is pretty, but the puffy sleeves... well, they're something else! :D

So looking at them now, they just bring back so many happy memories. To me, they are far more than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately I only have the first 16 (it was sold as issues 1 - 17, but issue three is missing...booo!), but I hope to obtain them ALL at some point...

Do you think her hair is meant to look like those ice-cream embroideries? Aw bless...

To start us off then, I'm going to share with you this collection of embroidery designs. Aren't they cute? These pictures and the embroidery designs are all from part 10. Just click on the picture below to get the full-size image.

The embroidery designs - click to bring up the full-size version

I'm going to post other snippets from the magazines too, because I think they deserve to be aired after all these years in hiding! So watch this space if your appetite for some "retro crafting" has been whetted!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Winners and Losers: Sharing Apple's Pie More Fairly

2011-05-08T09:50:00.000+01:00

Apple apple pie photo (& amazing pie!) by Lenore M. Edman, http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
Photo used under Creative Commons licence CC BY 2.0

Hi there!

I'm going to ask you a favour, but first I'm going to tell you a little story...

There was once a little girl who had a fifth birthday party at her house. Lots of children were invited to enjoy the party. It was a hot, sunny summer's day and as the little girl lived on a farm, there was plenty of space to run around. At last the children were tired, and after they had stuffed themselves with a kids' party tea of egg sandwiches, cubes of cheese on sticks, jelly and ice-cream and red pop, they settled down in the living room carpet to play pass-the-parcel.

The little girl's mum had wrapped a parcel, at which the centre was a little toy, but under each of the 20 or so layers of wrapping paper, she'd put a Quality Street chocolate. Sitting in a circle, to the accompaniment of Radio 1, each of the children passed the parcel to the next child, and so on. Every time the music stopped, the child holding the parcel, unwrapped just one layer, and got a sweetie. Then the radio would be turned on again, and the parcel began it's circuit of the children's eager little hands.

"Help! I'm Drowing in Quality Street!" photo by Natalie Johnson http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliejohnson/
Photo used under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC 2.0

Now, I don't know how it happened, but it turned out that some children got lots of sweeties, some children got one or two, and a few more children got none at all. The little girl whose birthday it was, saw this. She didn't think it was fair. Her mum had always taught her to "share nicely", and she took this to heart. Not to say that the little girl was perfect - she was, and still is, far from perfect.

What she did next seemed to her, the logical, obvious thing to do.

She took the sweets from each of the children who had won them - whether a little pile of four sweets, or just one, and placed them in the middle of the circle. As you can imagine, there was much consternation from the other children. The little party was then divided up into two groups - the ones who had won lots of sweets (the 'winners'), and the ones who had won just one or two, or none at all (the 'losers'). The 'winners' were not happy at all. The 'losers' were very pleased with the emerging situation. The little girl, however, couldn't really see why anyone should be annoyed. As she proceeded to share out the sweets equally between all the children, she knew she was doing the right thing. She was making it fair.

"Quality Street Bar Chart", photo by Garrett Keogh http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheesesnaps/
Photo used under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Yes, she was incredibly naive. She didn't realise that life just isn't fair.
As I'm sure you've now guessed, that little girl was me. To be honest, I can't remember too well how it turned out, but I do remember that there were tears from one of the 'winners' (who was getting to know how it felt to be a 'loser') and I have a sneaking suspicion that my mum came to her rescue and made a mess of my fairer re-distribution of the chocolate wealth by making up the perceived deficit.

So at last, this brings me back to the favour I was going to ask you. I heard in the news recently about the working conditions at certain factories in China which manufacture iPads and iPhones. They do make other companies' products there, but Apple is the main client. As you can appreciate, Apple is a very very rich company; they made a profit of $6 billion in just the first quarter of 2011. And we love their products; they're attractive, well-designed and very useful. The only problem is, Apple isn't living up to their clean, friendly image. The electronics manufacturing company, Foxconn, which Apple employs to make iPads and iPhones, don't treat their employees with much dignity, fairness or compassion. And I don't think that's acceptable when Apple is making such massive profits, and telling us that they're a socially responsible company, when that just isn't true.

Workers at the Foxconn Northern Campus at Chengdu, China. Exhausted and resting, during 10 minutes break.
Photo used by kind permission of http://makeitfair.org/ . All rights reserved.

The little naive child inside me is telling me that the wealth should be shared. That people should be given some basic dignities such as being able to sit down at some point in their 14-hour working day. To not have to work overtime just to make ends meet. To have the same rest breaks that we get. To be allowed to talk at work. And not be driven to despair by the job they do.

If you'd like to find out more, and ask Steve Jobs to share out his massive pile of Quality Street chocs more fairly, please click on this link to go to my online petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/we-want-a-sweeter-apple-ask-steve-jobs-to-improve-ipadiphone-factory-working-conditions

It's quick, simple, and you don't have to do anything else.

For more info, click these links:
SACOM's latest report, "Foxconn and Apple Fail to Fulfill Promises: Predicaments of Workers after the Suicides"
Make IT Fair
Make IT Fair on Facebook - join the group
Campaign Demands poster
FAQs about the campaign against unfair IT

Thank you for reading!

Best wishes

Joey xx

A Sweet Way to Help the Japan Tsunami Relief Fund

2011-03-20T21:55:00.001Z

Hi!

I've only just realised that I haven't blogged at all this year!! That's so bad! It's not even like I've been particularly busy...

So, what's brought me out of blog hibernation? Because I wanted to publicise Jojoebi's raffle of cute handmade items in aid of the Japan Tsunami relief fund. Jo is offering a lovely assortment of seven her handmade items (pictured above), including a very cute little coaster in the shape of a house, which was also featured in Sew Hip magazine.

All you need to do to win this wonderful prize is donate £5 via GlobalGiving.com and leave a comment on this post: http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-raffle-post.html together with the receipt number from GlobalGiving and your e-mail address and you'll be entered. How fab is that?

What a sweet way to help the people of Japan at this terribly desperate time.

Best wishes

Joey xx

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T18:37:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone!

Do you like the lovely orangey goodness in that treasury above? I do, I think it's all gorgeous!

I hope you're all looking forward to the New Year. Unless you live in New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Japan, Korea, India, Sri Lanka... Happy New Year to you already!

Let's raise our glasses of champagne or buck's fizz or rum and pepsi or Bailey's or just a good old cup of tea, to 2011 and let's wish it to be full of hope and surprises!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Love

Joey xxx

Angel Bunny Tutorial (Better Late Than Never)

2010-12-28T22:39:00.006Z

Hello! I hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas!

Well I had a brilliant Christmas Day, although I always find the days after Boxing Day a bit of a comedown after all the eating, drinking and merry-making in general and now I lack the energy to do anything other than sit on my bum watching films... Hence no blogging, sewing or photography. Anyway, it's a New Year very soon, and I'm going to try to bring you loads of patterns, tutorials and general bloggy goodness never seen before on Joey's Dream Garden blog! Hurrah!

So, to start off, let's have that Angel Bunny tutorial I've been promising you! I know it's a bit late - I'm sorry about that - but I do hope you have a go at making her. It does mean that you have a whole year to make her for next Christmas! How's that for forward planning? ;-) If you don't want to sew an Angel Bunny but still want one - don't despair, as I've included some alternatives at the end of the tutorial - just scroll to the bottom.

How to Make a Felt Angel Bunny

You will need:

Angel Bunny templates: download here:

Felt in pale pink, white, yellow or gold, and pale blue
Iron-on medium weight Vilene interfacing
Milk bottle plastic or similar plastic which you can easily cut with scissors - *see below about milk bottle plastic.
Embroidery thread in metallic silver, metallic gold, deep pink, blue, black, white and pink to match pink felt
Gold-lined glass seed beads (I used approx 110 beads)
Pins
Embroidery and hand-sewing needles (including a needle small enough to pass through holes in seed beads but big enough to take the gold metallic thread)
Toy stuffing (polyester or natural cotton or wool toy filling)
Baking paper or tracing paper
Ordinary pencil, (2H if you have it)
Velcro, approx. 7cm
White sewing thread
Fabric glue - UHU or similar
Glue stick - I use Power Pritt
Green ribbon or ric-rac (I used dark green velvet ric-ric), 30cm, to tie to the tree

*Note about milk bottle plastic: I get this from re-using HDPE (type 2) plastic milk bottles (it's flexible and sort of translucent white in colour). To prepare your plastic, wash the bottle out, cut off the bottom and top/handle part with scissors, leaving a strip of plastic. Flatten this with an iron on a medium setting (protected iron with a piece of baking parchment on top of and underneath the plastic). This really does take only a few seconds, so I suggest that you iron for just a couple of seconds, then check the plastic - remember, you only want it flattened a little. Please take care when doing this as the plastic will get VERY hot! Alternatives to using milk bottle plastic could be thin plastic document wallet plastic or thin card.

Steps to Make the Angel Bunny:

1. Print out the templates and patterns below and cut out.
2. Cut out Vilene roughly to the size plus a bit extra all round, of each of the wings, the halo, the body, the head and the legs - you will need two of each shape (except four wing shapes; back and front for each wing and just one paws piece).
3. Iron the Vilene pieces onto the appropriate colour felt following the instructions - about 8 secs with a dry iron.
4. Draw around the templates onto the Vilene-backed felt with a pencil and cut out.

5. Glue the head and the legs onto the back of the body piece, using very small dots of glue. Do this for both front and back. To ensure all the pieces are correctly aligned, you might want to print out another whole-bunny template and place them on top to help you position the pieces as you glue them.
6. Trace the the pattern on the wings onto baking paper, then pin and then baste the traced pattern onto the felt side of the wings. Ensure the pencil lines are uppermost, so they don't rub off onto the felt and make dirty pencil smudges.

7. Embroider the curving lines on the wings in stem stitch, on top of the tracing paper.

8. When you've done the embroidery, carefully cut and tear the baking paper away. I use a pair of tiny scissors for this, and a pair of tweezers which is handy for grasping tiny bits of paper with one hand, with your thumb on the embroidery and carefully tearing the paper away. This takes a bit of time and patience but I find it a quick and accurate method of tranferring detailed patterns for embroidering.

9. Repeat the process for the embroidering the other pieces with the following stitches:

Halo: all radiating lines in chain stitch (I drew the lines on with fade-away pen, but using baking paper would be just as effective, possibly even more so)

Eyes, nose and mouth outline: split stitch

Whiskers and ears: stem stitch

Teeth, tongue and mouth: satin stitch

Dress: back stitch

10. Glue the paws onto the front of the dress and blanket stitch around them in matching thread.
11. Trace the lines of the robe sleeves onto baking paper, baste to the front of the dress and embroider in stem stitch.
12. Cut small circles of Velcro and hand-sew the fluffy part onto the back of the bunny and the hooked part onto the front of the wings where indicated.

13. Cut a piece of Velcro 5cm long and stitch the fluffy part to the back of the bunny's head and the hooked part onto the front of the halo.

14. Trace around the appropriate templates onto your prepared milk bottle plastic (or alternative) and cut out two wings, one bunny and one halo shape.
15. Glue the plastic wing shapes sandwiched inside the wing felt pieces using the glue stick (take care to glue stick the wrong sides to the plastic, not the felt side. It's easy to mistake white felt for white Vilene so take your time to ensure you get it right.
16. Blanket-stitch all around each wing in silver embroidery thread.
17. Repeat the last step with the halo, but when you blanket-stitch around the outside (in metallic gold thread), pick up a seed bead before each stitch, then make the stitch as you would usually, to make a beaded edge.

18. Stitch the ribbon in place on the right side of the back bunny piece, at the centre of the ribbon.
19. Place the rabbit pieces wrong sides together, sandwiching the plastic piece inside but don't apply any glue. Holding all pieces together, and starting at the point where the head meets the dress, stitch around the edge in blanket stitch. When you've nearly stitched the first ear, start to stuff a bit of toy filling either side of the plastic insert, so both back and front are softly padded.
20. Continue stitching around and stuffing the bunny as you go. This will be a little tricky, but take your time to ensure the stuffing is evenly distributed because it will affect the final look of the bunny.
21. When you've finished stitching around the edge, stitch across the 'neck' in backstitch with pink thread so it's hardly visible, to shape the chin nicely. You will be stitching through the plastic insert, so you may need to wear a thimble to push the needle through.

22. Attach the halo and wings to your Angel Bunny, and she's ready to be tied to the top of your Christmas tree!

If you have any questions about making this Angel Bunny, just leave a comment and I'll attempt to answer as best as I can!

Alternatives to Sewing the Angel Bunny
If you're not really into sewing, here are a few suggestions for other ways to make the Angel Bunny:

Print out the wings, body and halo and glue onto separate pieces of card, colour them in with paints or pencil crayons, and attach the wings and halo to the back of the bunny with sticky foam pads or glue.
Print out the whole bunny and place underneath a piece of acetate. Use glass paints to trace and colour-in the bunny to make an ornament for your window.
Trace the individual pieces onto textured handmade papers or patterned fabrics and cut out, then glue onto card to make a sort of collage. Decorate with lots of glitter and sequins if you want!

I'd love to see your finished Angel Bunnies (sewn or not sewn)! If you make one that you'd like to show me, please leave me a comment below and I'll be in touch!

Best wishes, and keep enjoying the holidays!

Joey xx

Angel Bunny Finished - better photos this time!

2010-12-23T13:12:00.000Z

Hi there! I hope you're all well today and looking forward to Christmas. I spent a couple of hours last night putting up our Christmas tree - and when I say "putting up", all I mean is constructing the big artificial tree we've had for about six years now. It has around 60 individual branches that need to be 'fluffed out' and slotted into the 'trunk' ie metal pole. I was listening to a couple of very festive CDs (and chatting with Mathew, which was nice) to while away the time, Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Christmas Carols", and "Dona Nobis Pacem", and drinking port & lemonade like I did when I was a little 'un. Lovely. So now I'm just about to start loading the hundreds of baubles and ornaments onto the 6ft 6in monstrosity!

Anyway, here's Angel Bunny! Mathew said I could have taken better photos but there you go, I'm feeling slap-dash today. I still don't have a name for her so if you'd like to suggest an angelic-sounding name (or an actual angel's name) please leave a comment for my consideration! That would be really nice.

I promise I will be posting the patterns and instructions but at this rate, it might not be before Christmas! I have a lot to do, but I'll try my best! I've got masses to do before the New Year (secret squirrel, but it involves sewing... could it be another magazine project? wink wink!) so as my old mum used to say (and probably still does), no rest for the wicked!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Warmest Wishes

Joey xxx

Angel Bunny Finished! Not Great Pictures But You Get The Idea

2010-12-22T08:24:00.000Z

macro photo showing the little hooks on Velcro. They're so tiny!!

Good morning!

Well, I stayed up late last night because I couldn't wait to finish Angel Bunny! And I did it! However the light I have to work under and take pictures with isn't that great (I really should make myself a lightbox for times like this, shouldn't I?) but I figured it was better than nothing until tomorrow when I'll be able to take some half-decent pics in natural light (I'm at work today - as soon as I've posted this!)

So, cut circles of Velcro for the wings and glued them on, and then sewed around for extra strength. An Angel Bunny needs secure wings remember, for all that flying around the room when we've gone to bed on Christmas Eve! ;-)

I stitched the hooked part of Velcro to the wings and the fuzzy parts to Angel Bun's shoulders, thus:

Then I cut a piece of milk bottle plastic as a sort of 'backbone/skeleton' to prevent her from flopping under the weight of the halo (remember it's a costume, a real halo being made of holy light, would weigh nothing). I started stitching in blanket stitch and inserted the plastic 'skeleton' and also stuffed her body with toy filling at the same time, so the 'skeleton' is encased within a layer of stuffing on either side. It wasn't too tricky as she's a nice size to work with but I think if she were any bigger it would be difficult; any smaller and she probably wouldn't require strengthening with plastic, so if you'd like to make one, that may be something to consider (make a mini one).

Well, here she is! I told you the picture wasn't very good, but I couldn't wait to show you! Oh, I forgot to take a picture of the back - she does have a tie of green velvet ric-rac with which to tie her to the top of the tree (I'm sure she can undo it herself if she wants, so don't worry too much!).

I will be posting the patterns and a quick tutorial on how to make your very own Angel Bunny tomorrow, so if you don't have much to do on Christmas Eve (don't tell me you haven't got everything ready?? So it's not just me then?) well, here's a project to keep you out of mischief!

Time to get the tree up tonight then! Christmas is coming!!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Work in Progress: A Ring of Light for the Angel Bunny

2010-12-21T13:25:00.000Z

Hiya! I'm trying to get this Angel Bunny finished because I don't feel I can put our Christmas tree up until I have! You see, she's going to go on the top. Well, I finished her halo last night and I wanted to share some pictures with you.

You will remember that I already cut out the felt pieces and backed them with iron-on Vilene the other day. I made a template for the 'rays' of light (lines of chain stitch) that I wanted, and used that to draw the lines straight onto the felt with fade-away pen. I think the warmer and dryer your room, the quicker this disappears, as I had to re-draw the lines a couple of times.

I used three different threads; Anchor gold lamé thread (which you have to divide as it's six-stranded), Gutermann coppery metallic thread and DMC yellow satin thread, which is super-shiny and quite 'slinky' to work with - it slips around really easily.

I've decided that it will be easier and better to Velcro the halo to the back of bunny's head, so I positioned the hooked-side of the velcro to the front of the halo and hand-stitched it on.

I wanted a bit of stiffness to the halo as well, so I cut a piece of milk bottle plastic (which I save from milk bottles to make the bigger version of the iq lampshade... look at the first one I made, nearly two years ago and still going strong!). I use this type of plastic quite frequently when I want something to be stiffened but not padded, as there's less chance of it getting bent like cardboard may do, and it has more stiffness than craft-weight interfacing (i.e. the thickest sort you can get).

I glued the felt back and front of the halo to the plastic piece then sewed around with blanket stitch, adding a gold seed bead before every stitch to make a shiny beaded edge! Which I love, I have to say!

What do you think? Fit for an Angel Bunny?

So now all I have to do is make her wings up and put her all together! Which I am going off to do right now!

Stay Warm!

(unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, stay cool!!)

Best Wishes

Joey x

Work in Progress: An Angelic Robe and an Angelic Face

2010-12-19T17:23:00.000Z

Hello!
I thought I'd share with you a bit more of the Angel Bunny I'm making at the moment...

Here's the front piece, with the embroidered 'robe' (I don't want to call it a dress, angels don't really wear dresses do they?). I used some very easy-to-sew-with silver thread called Ophir by Coats. I used backstitch. You don't need to separate the threads which is a bonus when using metallic threads, I find that really difficult. The picture doesn't capture the effect of the silver thread but it's very shiny!

Then I embroidered the sleeves of the robe in backstitch and glued on the hands (or should that be paws? Yes, Joey). I finished the paws off my stitching around them in a matching thread.

I embroidered the features in split-stitch because I find it's quite 'controllable'; you can quite easily create tiny intricate outlines and go around tight curves without any bother, though I don't think it's the most beautiful stitch. It's quite utilitarian I suppose.

I don't know about you, but I cannot make something without taking it apart and changing some part of it at least once along the process. I've been quite good at planning this piece, but I did have to change her mouth. If you look below, I hadn't outlined the whole mouth in black...

... but I decided that it might look a bit like she's sticking her tongue out! So I unpicked it all, and re-did it like this:

Which I much preferred. Lastly, I embroidered the ears to indicate the 'openings', and filled in the mouth with satin-stitch.

Here is the finished front-piece:

Next jobs will be to embroider the halo and finish the wings.

I promise that I will finish her before Christmas!!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Work in Progress: Angel Bunny

2010-12-18T11:50:00.000Z

Hi! I have a very nasty cold at the moment, and my partner Mathew has got the same thing so our house is an incubation unit for germs at the mo. I have no voice! Which I have learnt is referred to as 'laryngitis'; inflammation of the larynx. So apologies for whispering, it's the best I can do. ;-)

Do you remember that angel I made and posted a picture of a few weeks back? Well, I've decided that I want to make a BUNNY version (of course!) in FELT. I've just started but thought I would share with you how far I'm up to because I'm going to share the pattern and a tutorial for making it too! Here's the angel just to refresh your memory:

So far, I've just cut out all the felt pieces (backed with iron-on Vilene, of course). Below is the halo pieces, paws and wings.

I glued the head, body and legs together, thus (the bunny on the left shows the wrong side and how I cut the pieces, and the bunny on the right shows the right (felty) side, how the bunny will look.

These are the wings (which will be double-sided), I'm really pleased with them so far.

So please watch this space for further updates, and the pattern and instructions on how to make your own angel!

Best wishes and have a great weekend!

Joey xx

GRRR!! Monster, Monster!!

2010-12-17T11:56:00.000Z

Hurrah! My monster bag has been featured today on Cuteable! Thank you Lynsey!

I designed and made this bag for a project which appeared recently in the December issue of the online Making Gifts magazine. I was inspired by the 'spoils bag' (pictured below) from the videogame "Legend of Zelda - the Wind Waker" because the bag looks as if it is ACTUALLY a monster, not just a picture of a monster on it... I think it's because how the the front flap on the spoils bag is drawn, it really is a mouth, and I wanted to create something like that.

If you decide to have a go at making my monster bag from Making Gifts magazine, I would love to see your creations, so please get in touch!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Best wishes

Joey x

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-01T17:42:00.048Z

Angel, originally uploaded by Joey's Dream Garden (formerly Joey 7).

Hello!

I've had a lot of fun today! Sheffield has had a massive load of snow, so I was very happy to arrive at work to be told that I could go straight home again! Hurrah! Me and Mathew had a walk through Sheffield city centre to see the snowy spectacle and take loads of pictures (which you can see on my Flickr page here if you want! The Very Very Snowy Day Set)

Anyway, I had to go into work today because I had to take in this little angel decoration I'd made yesterday! One of my work friends has made a Christmas tree-shaped advent calendar for the building. On each day a door is opened to reveal a photo with a Christmassy/wintry theme, submitted by different members of staff (four of the photos are mine).

Of course, every Christmas tree needs something to go at the top, so my colleague asked me to make a little angel. I roughly sketched the design, then re-drew it a bit neater and more symmetrical. I used carbon paper to transfer the design onto foamboard. I made the halo and each of the wings separately, then painted the angel with acrylic and gouache (poster) paints. Foamboard is quite difficult to cut around the intricate shapes; I used a Fiskars craft knife with a new blade, and made short cuts to round off the angel's curly hair. The halo is made from an oval of gold crepe paper stuck onto foamboard and the wings are glittery wrapping paper with a curly design painted on. I then glued the halo and the wings to the back of the angel to give a three-dimensional effect.

I'm quite pleased with my little angel, but I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. What do you think?

If it's snowy where you are too, stay warm tomorrow!

best wishes

Joey x

Old McJoey Had a Farm, ee-i, ee-i, o - progress

2010-11-09T09:24:00.000Z

Farm animal brooches so far... nearly all the features embroidered on

Good morning!

Yesterday was wetter than a fish's wet bits, the rain poured and then poured some more. Which was actually sort of good in a way as it kept me imprisoned in my little stitching sweat shop (actually freezing until we splashed out and put the fire on in the evening! trying to be good to the environment and our gas bills) and made good progress on the lil' critters.

Embroidering the features has to be my favourite part of making brooches and stuff, because it feels like I'm giving them their character. That's just made me think, you sometimes see dolls and characters in illustration without a nose, occasionally without a mouth, but I don't think I've ever seen something without eyes. Interesting. I think somehow that would make the doll very very disturbing.

Maybe something like this?

Travel by Leaf Number 1 by Eva Funderburgh
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EvaFunderburgh

They're wonderful, aren't they? I love all of Eva Funderburgh's ceramic sculptures, she has such a compelling and imaginative menagerie of beasts that look a bit like a familiar animals, but so other-worldly that they are quite unsettling in a very satisfying way.

Have a creative and warm day everyone!

Joey xx

Oink Baa, Double Cluck, Double Cluck

2010-11-06T09:35:00.001Z

Farm Animals Brooches - in progress

Hi there!

I hope you've had good bonfire night and/or Diwali if you've been celebrating!

If you're a connosieur of children's telly, you'll recognise that the title to this post is a little homage to the animated show, "Hannah's Helpline", as on the theme song they sing, "Moo baa, double quack, double quack" as that's the 'number' to phone Hannah's helpline for emotional, financial or legal support. For animals. Have a look! It's very cute.

I've been making some 'farm animal' brooches for my stall at the Craft Candy craft fair on 27 November; you can see at the top the progress I've made so far. These brooches use the same patterns as the finger puppets I made for Making Gifts Magazine.

The finger puppets I made for Making Gifts magazine

You can make your own if you follow this link to get the FREE pattern! Finger Puppet Farm (you will first need to register (for free) here: http://www.emagmaker.co.uk/user/register
Any brooches which I don't sell at the fair will be in my Etsy shop quicker than you can dial "oink, baa, double cluck, double cluck'!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Joey xx

The Secret is Out!

2010-10-21T09:36:00.000+01:00

the embroidery design on my bag in Quilt Scene 2010

Hi!

You may remember that I mentioned a little secret at the end of my last blog post. Well I'm pleased that I can now reveal it to you! My orange embroidered stripey bag is being published in a US magazine called Quilt Scene 2010. It's an annual publication to celebrate the International Quilt Festival held in Houston, Texas every year. The publishers, Interweave, are a brilliant crafts publishers of numerous books and magazines, including the fantastic Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts, both of which are packed with unusual projects, features on artists and crafters and new techniques for you to try out.

Anyway, Quilt Scene 2010 is now available for you to pre-order. If you click on this link: Quilt Scene 2010 you will be able to read the table of contents (my bag project is on page 56!) and it's very tempting! Selvage edge pincushions, a birch quilt, pumpkin table runner and loads more!

If you happen to buy Quilt Scene 2010, please let me know what you think to it, I'd love to find out!

Best wishes

Joey x

A different, but similar bag

Pretty Dresses

2010-10-17T21:15:00.000+01:00

Special Dresses!

My friend Claire has just asked me, "Why don't you blog about the stuff you're making?" Well, the reason (or excuse) is that I'm very disorganised! I think I keep up quite a good pretence most of the time that this isn't the case, but if you saw inside our home, you'd realise that it's all just a front.
Anyway, I'll try to turn over a new leaf RIGHT NOW, and show & tell you what I've been up to over the past couple of weeks.

work in progress... a lot of blank faces!

I have a little stash of very lovely fabrics that I never seem to get around to using, and I've had in my mind for a while that I'd make some little bunny and kitty brooches with them all wearing little dresses in these lovely fabrics. I wanted to make something different and special for the Craft Candy Christmas craft fair on 27 November (which is only six weeks away - ARRGHHH! I'M NOT PREPARED! I will be though, I will be...) at which I will be having a stall, so if you're in the South Yorkshire area you must come along to get a bit of Christmas shopping in, Craft Candy fairs are always brilliant displays of beautiful handmade arts and crafts.

I've made a collection of nine (one has already flown the nest though... She's not pictured here), each with a different dress fabric, which is also on the backs (of course! Otherwise it would be rude for a prim little bunny or kitty to have a bare behind).

the back of one of the brooches, showing back of 'dress' and the brooch pin

I've embroidered the collars on by hand (it isn't lace) with cast-on buttonhole stitch (although the pink bunny in the strawberry print dress has a green woven picot collar, because it looks a bit like the calyx on a strawberry).

cast-on buttonhole collars

woven picot collar

The next thing I'll be working on will be a bag or two along the same lines as my embroidered concentric circles bags (orange one pictured below)... more news about them soon! Oh and a little secret...

The orange 'concentric circles' bag

Have a good Monday everyone!

Best wishes

Joey x

Blog Action Day: Precious Water

2010-10-15T08:45:00.000+01:00

Hi! I thought it would be a good idea to break my 'blog-fast' by joining in with the annual 'Blog Action Day', where thousands of folks all over the world blog about one particular topic to raise awareness. This year it's about WATER. Very mundane, you may think. If you live in a country where water is plentiful, you may take water for granted. Well let's not!
Here's a little video to watch:

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Here's some startling water facts from water.org:

The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
More than 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
Diarrheoa is more prevalent in the developing world due, in large part, to the lack of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as poorer overall health and nutritional status.
1.4 million children die as a result of diarrhea each year.

Find more water facts, and how you can help, on blogactionday.change.org

To celebrate water, I've created an Etsy treasury with water as the theme... click on the picture below to take a closer look at these lovely handmade and vintage items!

Have a great Friday!
Best wishes,
Joey xx

A-haunting we will go...

2010-09-19T14:30:00.000+01:00

Hiya!

Gosh, look at this, sticking to my promise to post again today! What IS the world coming to??

It's not very often that I sit down and read a novel, I don't have the stamina for them. I tend to get very bored by novels very easily, but I do occasionally enjoy reading short stories, and especially SPOOKY short stories.

I'm a fan of M.R. James (the M.R. stands for Montague Rhodes) who is considered to be the finest ghost story writer of them all. The stories have contemporary settings when James wrote them (between 1904 to 1925) and many reflected his academic background and his expertise on medieval history, and it is this where most of his inspiration for his ghost stories comes from.

Some of my favourite stories of James' are "Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad", in which a man discovers a very old whistle with inexplicable powers; "Number 13" which pertains to a hotel room number which doesn't exist... or does it? But perhaps "A View From a Hill" is to me the most horrific, mostly because of a very eerie pair of home-made binoculars.

Many of James' stories have been dramatised for television (some of which are available on YouTube), although I particularly like the audiobooks read by the wonderful David Collings (who also played Silver in the late 70s/early 80s paranormal drama 'Sapphire and Steel', and was the voice of Monkey in the fantastic series of the same name (sometimes called 'Monkey Magic' but I always called it just 'Monkey').

Anyway, I was recommended to read 'Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror' by my friend Claire's eight-year-old son, Elliot. As you may guess, the name 'Uncle Montague' is a nod to James himself, so how could I resist? And to read a ghost book aimed at children seemed like not too much of a strain on my very short attention span. However I wasn't prepared for what turned out to be a real treat!

Chris Priestley has crafted a wonderful collection of very uncanny stories, tied together within the unsettling setting of Uncle Montague's creepy house, and by the very creepy Uncle Montague himself who tells the stories to the book's protagonist, Edgar. The stories are satisfyingly short and to the point, but with enough substance to linger in your mind for some time later. I am a slow reader by nature, but towards the end of each story I was racing through the last paragraphs as the pace quickened and the tension gathered.

Every story is accompanied by two black-and-white line drawings by David Roberts. I really like Roberts' style of spindly, spidery lines, shadowy cross-hatching and uncanny settings, which go so well with the tales.

If you want to read an intelligent and short collection of spooky stories, now that the nights are starting to draw in and the leaves are starting to fall, this is an ideal book, whatever your age.

I've already read the sequel, "Tales of Terror from the Black Ship" and just started "Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth"; both are full of imaginative twists and the same creepy atmosphere of "Uncle Montague" that I've come to expect. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for more like this to satisfy my taste for dark, creepy tales.

We have a WINNER!

2010-09-18T11:05:00.003+01:00

What a lovely sandcastle... but only one flag... :-(

Hi there! I hope you've all had a super-smashing summer! I must apologise, this is the first blog post for AGES!! What have I been doing all this time, you may wonder? Well, nothing much... though I have read two books - albeit children's books, that is quite an achievement for me! More on that later, but now I must announce (sorry this is a bit late!) the winner of my sandcastle flag competition!

It's CARLA! Congratulations, Carla! She made a lovely big sandcastle with not just one flag, but THREE! Nice work, Carla!

Carla with her sandcastle with THREE FLAGS! That's more like it! :D
(I'm sorry about the resolution of this picture, it was taken with a camera on a mobile. It's still lovely though!)

Carla has won her choice of one of my Kitty Pip brooches! Carla, please tell me (via your Auntie Claire) which one you'd like, and I'll pop it in the post to you! :-)

I have a few Kitty Pip brooches not in my Etsy shop, so if you would like to buy one, please ask via the comment form below.

I promise to do another blog post very very soon! Maybe even tomorrow! I want to tell you about the SPOOKY SUPERNATURAL books I've been reading, and the SPOOKY SUPERNATURAL audio book I've been listening to whilst embroidering... oh and I'll tell you about that too!

Best wishes

Joey x

Thank you for my Rainbow of Threads!

2010-07-29T08:51:00.061+01:00

There aren't seven colours in the rainbow... there's 454!

Hiya!

I hope you're all well and happy!

At last, I have got around to photographing all those lovely, lovely DMC threads and the wonderful Rainbow of Stitches book that I won in the recent Feeling Stitchy Rainbow of Stitches Contest! Thank you to all the kind and generous folks at Feeling Stitchy and DMC threads for giving such gorgeous prizes! Check out my Flickr set for a closer look here. I asked Little Tiger if he was pleased with the prize; he said it was nice and big, but would have preferred a set of Top Trumps cards, especially ones with monsters on. Bless him!

King of the Thready Castle!

The book is fabulous; I've been taking it around to friends and showing it off who've all "ooh-ed" and "aah-ed" at it. The book contains hundreds and hundreds of sweet embroidery patterns and cross stitch charts and plenty of ideas of what to embroider. The patterns and charts are all monotone, so it's an ideal book for beginner embroiderers. The patterns and the beautifully photographed bags, napkins, samplers and all manner of decorated clothing and other homewares are divided into sections for green, pink, blue, red, and white. The colours used are just suggestions though, so you can choose your favourite colour, or more adventurous stitchers could easily turn the patterns into multi-coloured ones. There's a good variety of styles of patterns too, from cute little children and animals through elegant women and lacy borders, to nine different alphabet and sampler patterns, giving lots of scope for personalising your creations. There's so much choice, that I hardly know where to start!

Then we come to the threads. What can I say about a MASSIVE pile of 454 DMC six-stranded cotton embroidery thread, in all the colours available?? It's WONDERFUL!! DMC thread is a joy to work with, it's colour-fast, has a lovely shine and the colours are very clear. I like how they've given me lots of variegated threads as well, because I love those. There's more shades of green and blue than I will ever need, but I'll give it a good try! I've put together perhaps my favourite 19 (there was meant to be 20 but I seem to have miscounted!) colours from the 454 I now have, pictured below.

My personal rainbow :-)

I'm going to be designing a new Little Tiger embroidery very very soon (this afternoon if I can pull my finger out, but unfortunately my greatest strength is procrastination, so don't hold your breath!) and I'll be using some of the rainbow!

Have a great day, whatever you're doing.

Peace & love

Joey xxx

Candyfloss Summer Craft Fair

2010-07-25T18:59:00.000+01:00

Cute Little Raku Bottles from Zandra Ceramics

Goodness! What a week! What with a busy time at work, having a whale of a time with friends making sock monsters on Thursday and planning some new embroidery designs, this is the first chance I've had to tell you about the lovely craft fair I went to a week ago, run by old friends Craft Candy.

There were so many gorgeous stalls, but I only took pictures of a few (you can see the pictures on my Flickr pages here) and here's my favourites of my favourites!

Zandra of Zandra Ceramics specialises in raku and wood-fired sculptural pieces and vessels. In one of the wood-fired vases Zandra had pressed a safety-pin and because the temperature in the wood kiln gets so high, the pin had completely melted and left an interesting metal residue. I liked the tiny raku-glazed bottles (pictured above) so much that I bought three!

Sian of Siansburys' stall looked as bright and fun as always, with her cute and so beautifully-made sock monkeys. Sian has been making her sock monkeys for a few years now, and each one is a unique work of art.

One of Siansburys' Cute and Colourful Sock Monkeys

Kirsten of Quernus Crafts makes wonderfully colourful and patterned millefiore polymer clay critters, the like of which I don't think I've ever seen before! Kirsten makes her own intricately-patterned millefiore canes and then creates cute little creatures like snails, moles, cats... and even a tiger! They will really brighten up your day!

Little Snaily with a Beautiful Shell from Quernus Crafts

And lastly, we come to possibly the star of the show! Gemma Nemer (who runs The Button Tin craft workshop in Rotherham) won the prize for the best-dressed stall, and just look at these pictures for a bit of eye candy! I think you'll agree that Gemma's stall was super-sweet! This is it:

Gemma Nemer's beautifully-dressed stall

Look! She even made the signs all vintage-y and cute with retro fabrics and lots of lace, with hand-stamped text.

Gemma specialises in textile accessories made from vintage fabrics and upcycled embroidered linens. She also teaches classes in her studio at Rotherham, the Button Tin and there's all sorts lovely things you can learn to make!

I can't remember whether these were brooches or hairgrips... they're lovely anyway!

Gemma made a necklace just for her Blue Bunny!

Now I'm looking forward to Craft Candy's next fair, the Christmas one on Saturday 27 November 2010. Applications are being accepted right now until the end of August, so go to their site if you'd like to be considered for a stall.

Best wishes

Joey xx

Sublime Stitching Contest

2010-07-17T00:26:00.000+01:00

"Ahhhh..."

That's the sound of me sighing a big sigh of relief, because (thank goodness) it's Friday! :D So what are you going to be doing this weekend? Me, I'll be going to the Craft Candy fair at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield tomorrow morning, a spot of lunch in town and then seeing Alice at the Crucible Theatre in the afternoon. Then a swim at Ponds Forge in the evening!

But if you don't have anything planned, and if it's rainy again like it was today, why not enter the Sublime Stitching Combo Contest? It's free to enter, and it's a great challenge: combine three themes of motifs together in an embroidery in a imaginative and exciting way, and you could win some great prizes... including my Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration embroidery pattern!

The top prize is $100 gift voucher for Fred Flare.com... they have lots of lovely goodies, including these little beauties:

Fred Flare Goodies by joeysdreamgarden on Polyvore.com

So I hope you all think about entering the contest!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Joey xx

Deja-vu!

2010-07-15T00:51:00.000+01:00

Hiya! I'm sorry to be so repetitive and boring, but I've just created my first Instructable and wanted to show it off! If you haven't yet discovered Instructables.com, then you are really missing a treat! It's a site FULL of tutorials, tips and just interesting things from crafty folk, geeks and clever-dicks the world over! Plus they have lots of competitions too.

Cute Sandcastle Flags - More DIY How To Projects

Best wishes
Joey xx

Put the Flags Out! Freebie and Contest

2010-07-11T14:34:00.001+01:00

Flag Day!

Hiya! I hope you're all well and happy. "Long time no blog" I hear you say! I'm sorry for my absence, I've been getting over winning the Feeling Stitchy contest! Yes it's taken me this long... winning something is rather a shock to my system, you see. Oh and catching up on things that I've been meaning to do for a long time... like making some little printable flags for sandcastles!

The beautiful Carbis Bay... ahh, what I'd give to be there right now...

A couple of years ago, I made a few little flags for sandcastles on the train down to our holiday destination, the lovely Carbis Bay (pictured above) near to St Ives. If you like Cornwall, I thoroughly recommend a visit as the beach is wonderful, the sea so clear and there's some great walking on the easier bits of the coast path (I'm a real pussy when it gets a bit steep and rocky!). Anyway, here's some pictures of those flags in action:

Since then, I've been meaning to make some for you good folks to download and print out... Finally, I've gotten around to it! I think this would be a good activity for children to keep them occupied when you're packing for your holiday. Then again, you might want to make yourself a little flag and wrap it around a pencil. Click on the images or links below to download the flags (you have a choice of ready coloured, or blank for you and/or your little 'un to colour in)

Summer Pals' Sandcastle Flags - ready coloured
Summer Pals' Sandcastle Flags - blank for you to colour in

Joey's Dream Garden Sandcastle flags coloured in version_ not for commercial use

Joey's Dream Garden Sandcastle Flags_ outlines version_ not for commercial use

I made them with our little long-term visitors, Little Tiger (who else??), Cotton Carrot and Bunny Giraffe in mind. Of course, the ever modest Little Tiger demanded a flag with his "beautiful" fizzog on it and nothing much else... Cotton Carrot didn't really mind as long as there was a carrot featured somewhere; so I've put lots of carrots coming out a happy sun to reflect her sunny disposish. And Bunny Giraffe, the most musical and rhythmic of the pals, gets a singing bunny in a rainbow of music! Which he's very happy with. :-)

Health and safety note: please ensure young children are accompanied by an adult when using sharp scissors, and please keep craft knives out of their reach. If your youngsters are using bamboo skewers, please cut off the pointed end for them first.

To make the flags, you need:

A print of the flags

Scissors
Glue

Clean lolly sticks (or bamboo skewers, cut in half, or pencils)

Here's how you put them together

1. Download the sheet you want, and print it out. If it's the blank ones, colour them in and decorate if you wish.

2. Cut out along the dotted lines.

3. Get your stick ready. Apply glue to the back of one half of the flag.

4. Place the stick on the centre of the flag.

When I used a lolly stick, I decided to position it halfway up the flag, as it's quite short.

5. Fold the flag over and make sure that both sides line up neatly. You now have a double-sided flag, ready for some sandy constructions!

Unfortunately, I'm not going to the seaside this year... (sob!) But because I still want to see LOTS of sandcastles with these flags in, I'm offering a prize to the most impressive and imaginative sandcastle bearing one of these flags! If you want to have the chance to win an exclusive Joey's Dream Garden brooch, here's what you need to do:

1. Make at least one of the flags

2. Make a sandcastle (it doesn't have to be on a beach; in a sandpit would do if, like me, you can't get to the seaside)

3. Take a photo of your creation

4. Add your photo to the Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/sandcastleflags/ - if you've made lots of flags and sandcastles, please add as many photos of them as you wish!

The closing date is Monday, 13 September 2010, 00:00 on Howland Island (i.e. GMT -12 hrs; click here to find your timezone's equivalent time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ) and I will contact the winner via Flickr soon after.

UPDATE 14 JULY: Blogger is currently having technical problems, meaning people sometimes cannot leave a comment. If you cannot leave a comment (please try first, I love getting comments!) please e-mail me and tell me what time you tried to comment. My e-mail is jramone@toucansurf.com. Thanks!

Take care in the sun (and the sea, if you're going to the seaside!)

and Have Fun!

Joey x

Little Tiger in Appliqué

2010-06-21T13:58:00.000+01:00

Hiya!
I'm finally getting around to showing you the projects I've made for Making Gifts Magazine. The first is the Little Tiger Baby Set! I designed and made two appliqués, and sewed one to a bought baby vest, and the other to a bib which I made from scratch.

Each appliqué is made from individually cut pieces of cotton fabric, bonded to a base fabric and then machine satin-stitched around the edge.

These appeared in issue three of Making Gifts and you can get the whole instructions in the back issue, still available on their site. However, I'm going to put up a tutorial for one of the appliqués in the next couple of days, so watch this space!

I had four projects published in issue three and one project in issue four, so I'll be featuring those over the next couple of weeks. Issue five of Making Gifts is due to be published in early July, so keep your eyes peeled if you go into Hobbycraft, you might see a familiar face in there!

Best wishes
Joey xx

Little Tiger Embroidery Pattern Launch!

2010-06-19T02:48:00.001+01:00

Hi!
I hope you've had a good Friday... and now it's the WEEKEND! Hurrah! :D

You will be pleased to know that due to popular demand, my winning Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration embroidery pattern PDF is now on sale in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden! Please click on this to take a closer look!

With the full-size (nearly A4) pattern, I've also included full instructions to making this embroidery, together with photos of my finished embroidery for your reference... And there's no shipping cost as the pattern is delivered right to your inbox!

You will be pleased to know that Little Tiger has now got over the initial excitement and is back to one of his most important tasks: watching his Gogos doing the conga...

Party Time!

Have a great weekend everyone, whatever you're doing!
Best wishes
Joey xx

Guess why I'm HAPPY!

2010-06-16T20:33:00.000+01:00

EEEEK!! YES! It's LITTLE TIGER!!

Hiya!
Nope, it's not just the beautiful sunshine we've had all day today and the clear blue sky... but my entry to the Feeling Stitchy Rainbow of Stitches contest WON!! I know, I'm amazed too! I never win anything - really! So it hasn't really sunk in yet, and I think I've gone into denial!

So THANK YOU EVERYONE who supported me in any way, I really appreciate it! :-D Big, big hugs to you all!!

Little Tiger, on the other hand, has taken it all his stride. "I'm used to this kind of thing, you know, lots of attention from my fans". Goodness me Little Tiger, that's rather modest of you... Not!

I'm thinking about my next project actually! Do you remember the Little Jumping Joan (skipping bunny) embroidery pattern that I gave as a freebie earlier this year? Well, I think I will FINALLY get around to actually embroidering her myself, for the first time! If you want to have a go at embroidering Little Jumping Joan, please, be my guest! You can access the downloadable PDF by clicking on the link here: Little Jumping Joan.

I'm going to be posting work-in-progress pictures, so please watch this space!

And due to popular demand, I will be selling the Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration as a PDF pattern in my Etsy shop in the next couple of days, so you can have a go at making your own version, and do your bit to help Little Tiger's struggle to world domination!

Lots of Love
Joey & Little Tiger xx

Feeling Stitchy Rainbow Contest - Voting Time!

2010-06-14T07:50:00.000+01:00

Which is your favourite?

Hiya!
Well, I switched on the pc this morning to find that the voting has already begun! How exciting! If you've been reading the last few posts in this blog, you'll know what this is all about, but if not, just scroll down.

My entry, Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration, is one of the ten finalists... so please vote for whichever is your favourite! Here's the link: http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2010/06/cast-your-votes.html

Little Tiger and his "mini-me"!

I asked Little Tiger himself for his thoughts on this momentous occasion, and here's what he said:

"VOTE FOR ME!! DO IT! DO IT NOW! VOTE LITTLE TIGER!!!"

Oh, Little Tiger! Calm yourself! You're getting much too excited and it'll all end in tears. Now go and wash your paws, you've been playing in the dust with those naughty sparrows again...

Best wishes
Joey xx

Skippity-Skip!

2010-06-13T18:29:00.000+01:00

Hiya! It's hard to believe that the video above, with the beautiful sunshine, was only taken yesterday, as it's gone all gloomy and rainy again... typical British weather!

I had a fantastic day yesterday! Me and my friend Louise went into town to catch a bit of the Sheffield Chance to Dance event... we saw all sorts of dancing, but my favourite was the Irish dancing, which we watched in Barker's Pool. Those kids are so energetic!! I can't believe how much they skipped and leapt around like happy little spring lambs! I think they have rubber legs, they were very springy indeed. I took a few pictures as well...

One, two, three and - float!

Hop!

I love their turquoise skirts, they were just so... swishy!

We also went to the Craft Candy mini craft fair at the Bungalows and Bears bar on Division Street, which was very nice. There will be more Craft Candy mini fairs, so check their site for more info... you can have a drink AND shop... what could be better?? I bought a little badge from Fox Bunting, bearing a cute little illustration of a fox. I like foxes.

Then a quick trip to Hillsborough on the tram to Fine Fabrics, for a bit of fabric for the project I'm currently working on for Making Gifts magazine. Which is all I can say about that for now... but watch this space!

I also have a slight sunburn as a free memento of the day! Whoops! Silly me...

Have a fabby week everyone! Whatever you're doing...

Joey xx

P.S. I'm hoping that the public voting for the Feeling Stitchy rainbow of stitches contest (of which my Little Tiger embroidery is one of the 10 in the final) will start tomorrow... I'll post a link to it here as soon as I find out!

J xx

EEK! Guess What?

2010-06-10T00:43:00.000+01:00

Orange Category Winner - Rainbow of Stitches Contest

YIPPEE!!! My embroidery won the orange category of the Feeling Stitchy Rainbow of Stitches competition! They asked me to write up a little interview thingy, which you can read on there, if you wish...

So, if you want to know how the contest pans out, just visit the Feeling Stitchy blog over the next five days to find out which other embroideries have become finalists... Red was revealed earlier today... and there will be another two announced tomorrow... I'm guessing it'll be yellow and green... How exciting!

I'm sorry if all this self-centredness is a bit much, but don't worry, it will pass! :-) It's just made my day! :D

Best wishes
Joey xx

Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration embroidery for Feeling Stitchy Rainbow Competition

2010-05-31T21:28:00.003+01:00

Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration

Hiya!
Well now, I'm a bit of a stranger to this blog, aren't I? My excuse is that I've been busy with one thing or another... the one thing was another project for Making Gifts magazine, which I can't reveal for another month when it's published (sorry!), and the other thing is this embroidery!

This is my entry for the Feeling Stitchy blog Rainbow Competition. If you like embroidery or sewing, and haven't seen Feeling Stitchy before, then why?? It's brill! Go visit now! :-)

The rules of the competion were to simply embroider a design using only one colour of the rainbow (although black and white were also included). I chose to design an embroidery in shades of orange, not only because orange is my favourite colour, but also because it would give me the opportunity to put Little Tiger into it! I based the Little Tiger you see here on a brooch that I made some time ago now. Which in turn is based on our own Little Tiger...

I also wanted to put in a representation of one of my favourite flowers, the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). I love this flower for it's simple cupped shape, it's satiny petals and its beautiful bright golden orange colour which seems to glow in the sun. I think of them as "cups of sunshine"!

California poppy, not in California but Sheffield.

After I had sketched my design, I had to think about what fabric I'd use to embroider on. I decided that a plain background was a bit boring, so I hand tie-dyed a piece of calico to use, using Dylon "sunflower yellow" - hence the off-white circles of the background. The circles were created by gathering a bunch of fabric and tying a piece of string around it, so the dye doesn't reach the fabric under the string, and repeating this all over the fabric so make a pattern. I like this effect because for me, it makes me think of sun-drenched, relaxed summer festivals.

Preparing the tie-dyed calico for embroidering

I chose to include lots of different types of stitches - and I used eight - because for me, that's what embroidery is all about! Showing the amazing variety of textures and shapes which can be created with just a needle, a bit of thread and some fabric. I love trying out new stitches, so I dived in (after a bit of practise first) and used long and short stitch (for the poppy petals) and ribbed spider's web (for the flower-like shapes in the "grass"). I also used straight stitch in a pattern I've never used before, shown to me by my good friend Claire (thanks Claire! bet you didn't expect that, did you! hahaha!) I also used stem stitch (the sun's rays), french knots (the sun and Little Tiger's eye "twinkles"), satin stitch (his eyes and nose), chain stitch worked in close rows as a filling stitch (Little Tiger's fur) and back stitch (the poppies' stems).

The poppies being embroidered in long and short stitch...

The finished poppies!

Apart from enjoying this challenge just for the embroidery, it taught me a few things. The main lesson was probably that I always underestimate how long a piece of work is going to take! I spent at least 50 hours on the embroidery part of this piece (excluding the time I spent in sketching the original design). I also learnt that you can do a lot with a very limited colour palette, and something that I am going to explore further.

The stripes going on, dark brown first...

Stitching the orange on, around the dark brown stripes...

The finished Little Tiger!

Well, I enjoyed making this piece, but I hope you enjoy looking at it almost as much!

Best wishes
Joey x

I Vote Green!

2010-05-05T21:51:00.000+01:00

And it's not even my favourite colour (which is orange)... Personally I don't go in for personalities (ie politicians) and tactical voting. I vote for the Green Party because I believe that their policies are the ones which will help us all, even those people at the very bottom of society. Read more about the UK Green Party here: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

Here's an Etsy treasury I've just made, which you will like if green is your favourite colour (but there's some rainbows in there too, for hope)... (click on the image below to see the items in more detail)

Whatever your political persuasion, don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Best wishes

Joey xx

Mottieve in a Treasury!

2010-05-04T16:28:00.006+01:00

Hi! It's a bit un-springlike here today, a bit nippy and cloudy... but here's some colour, courtest of Roxy Creations who put together this cute list... featuring my brooch, Mottieve the Owl! Thank you, Roxy Creations!

Best wishes

Joey x

Making Gifts Magazine - Issue 4 out soon!

2010-04-29T20:54:00.002+01:00

Hi! I hope you're enjoying the spring weather, whether its sunny or rainy (like it is right now... and gone pretty cold too!)

I have another project in the next issue of Making Gifts Magazine, which will be published on 07 May 2010 (a week tomorrow)! This time, I show you how to make a set of no less than TEN felt finger puppets on a farm animals theme: there is a sheep, goat, sheepdog, pig, horse, hen, goose, cow, rabbit and cat. You can see them on the front cover below, in the left-hand corner.

I would love to know if you buy the magazine and have a go at making the finger puppets! Please leave a comment below.

Best wishes

Joey x

My Green Party Brooch

2010-04-25T13:29:00.001+01:00

Good morning! It's sunny here today (yippee!) but still a bit "fresh"!

As promised, here's a picture of my finished Green Party brooch which I showed you in progress in this post.

I made this brooch by hand to show my support for the Green Party during the run-up to the UK general election 2010 and the local council election. Election Day is on 6th May, so I've plenty of days to show it off!

I copied the Green Party logo as closely as I could, using felt applique and different embroidery stitches; the petals around the world are glued on, then embroidered with a white straight stitch and french knots in green to add a bit of interest and texture. The world map was completed entired in lots of french knots in white. The brooch has a thin layer of cotton padding inside, and also a piece of flexible plastic, cut from a washed plastic milk bottle to make sure the brooch doesn't go all floppy! This is something I use quite a lot, and has the added benefit of recycling and not having to buy more plastic! I did toy with the idea of finishing the brooch's edge with blanket stitch in a contrasting colour, or working seed beads into it, but decided that I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, to go along with the simple colour scheme.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!
Joey xx

Treasury Time!

2010-04-24T19:34:00.009+01:00

Hi! I hope you're having a good weekend! Apparently it's been the hottest day in the UK this year so far, and although the sun's been out I think it's been pretty nippy! I must be getting old. Well, I am 36 after all...

Etsy's even better now they've introduced a new treasury in beta: Treasury East! If you haven't seen it yet, please take a look at some fantastic treasuries and have a go at making one yourself. Now there's no hours and hours waiting for that special moment to come around when you get to very quickly type in the title before the box disappears and suddenly there's 800+ treasuries from nowhere (can you tell that I've been stung by the Etsy treasury a few times?) or get to your computer and find that you've miscalculated the time that the treasury would be available again?? Annoying, wasn't it?

Here's the first one I've made this afternoon. I was feeling tired after a swim (just over half a mile, not much) and thought I deserved a treat! Click the picture to go to the "real" treasury.

And here's the first one in which something of mine has been featured! This gorgeously bright and summery treasury was made by Black Cat Crafts and is called "Pretty in Pink and Orange". It features Clement, the Mewberry Cutes brooch from my shop. :-) Thank you, Black Cat Crafts!

Now go and make your own featuring the most beautiful handmade things you can find on Etsy!!

Have a lovely evening everyone!
Joey xx

Earth Day in the Back Garden

2010-04-23T07:49:00.000+01:00

Hi! I hope you've had a good day! Did you know that it was Earth Day yesterday? Well, quite by coincidence but quite fittingly, I happened to be making a brooch to show my support for The Green Party during the run-up to the general election. This is my way of being political; I cannot argue over policies and political philosophies with . Why the Green Party? Well, I've supported them (and been a member, though not at the moment) for a few years now because they have intelligent and fair policies which aim to raise the standard of living for the least well-off in society. They believe that a multicultural society is a good thing, to be welcomed. I want to live in a country in which everyone will feel valued, no matter what their background.

Anyway, because it was such a beautiful sunny day, I sat outside to embroider several hundred french knots (that's an exaggeration but it's what it felt like!) which make up the Earth motif.

I was joined by a robin (or was it two?) who was collecting bits of dried grass and stuff, and kept flying back to the dark conifer in next-door's garden. Can only be doing one thing... Robins are brilliant, they come so close and I think they're so cute with their perky little beaks and big eyes! They're really acrobatic too, turning mid-air and almost hovering to change direction.

Then later on, a ladybird came to have a nosey at what I was doing. He obligingly posed for some photos for five minutes and then flew away again!

the planes are back...

I have finished the brooch this evening and I'll post a picture of the completed brooch at the weekend. It's already pinned to my coat so I can show everyone tomorrow! Wish me luck that I don't get caught up in an argument about party politics! Well, I'll only have myself to blame, won't I? ;-)

the text transferred, ready for embroidering... which I've completed now!

Here's a song by Heavens to Betsy, a band that I happened to share a bedroom with one night, many years ago. I really love the melody and the words just make my heart melt, I think it's beautiful but very sad...

Have a great Friday!
Joey xx

Dimple, the pink and grey owl brooch

2010-04-20T21:14:00.000+01:00

Hi! I've finished another cute little owl brooch, complete with moving wings, and she's on my Etsy shop now! The colours remind me of April skies; grey and heavy with rain, but also pink cherry blossom bursting from branches.

I do like making these little owls, but they are quite fiddly to make! The favourite part of making them is doing the french knots in shaded thread, because I love seeing the little knots appear in a different colour each time! Yes, I know, simple things for simple people... ;-)

I'm going to be soon making some purses with buttons and embroidery, similar to my tote bags (like the one below), but obviously on a smaller scale. I saw a lovely little purse today in Accessorize, the fabric was slightly sparkly and it had some delicate embroidery. I want to create the same sort of feeling I got when I handled it, something precious to hold something else which is precious... it was far too nice to put dirty loose change into!

My pastel circles bag... hand-sewn, with hand embroidery and cute buttons!

So watch this space for some work-in-progress shots very soon!

Joey xx

Spring Soft Beauty: an Etsy Treasury... and my Giveaway Results!

2010-04-18T17:30:00.000+01:00

I've just made a treasury on Etsy! Click on the image above to take a closer look at the items. I picked these things because they all look so soft and delicate and make me think of woodlands... lovely.

Giveaway Results!
The day is finally here, what you've all been waiting for... who will win Kitty 1000?

Here's the number drawn from the virtual hat... (i.e. the random number generator)

So number 16 is.... Sweepstake Lover! I'll be in touch to get your address, so Kitty 1000 will be flying your way very soon! Thank you to everyone else who entered; please keep watching this blog because I will be doing another giveaway soon!

Best wishes
Joey x

Tutorial: Etsy/Dawanda/Folksy DIY photo business cards

2010-04-18T12:50:00.003+01:00

If you have a shop on Etsy, Dawanda or Folksy (or any of the other similar sites) where you can sell your handmade stuff, you probably have some little cards to advertise your shop. It's nice to put in a little card with orders you're sending out, so your customers can remember you and perhaps pass on your name... or to have at a craft fair that people can pick up and then visit your online shop at a later date. However you may have been put off buying expensive printed ones.

My partner had the great idea of setting up an image which can be printed and then chopped up using a paper cutter (or craft knife and ruler) at home. I'll show you how I created my little cards, which I think are cute and collectable but cost a fraction of the price of similar cards! (mine worked out to be less than 2p for each card)

Obviously, they will be on photo paper (unless you have a decent printer at home, then you can print on anything you like!), but you will have the option of either a glossy or matt surface, and will be one-sided. Although you can always create a back and front and glue them together!

First of all, you need to have Google Picasa installed on your pc. It's free of course!

I'll assume that you've already taken the photos you want to use for your cards, so open Picasa and select them. Now follow the steps in the pictures below.

When you receive your prints through the post (or immediately if you've used your own printer), you can carefully cut them up with a paper-cutter (guillotine). This is a lot neater than just using scissors, and safer then using a craft knife/scalpel and ruler.

I'd love to know if you've had a go a making your own photo business cards using this tutorial - please leave a comment below!

Cheers

Joey x

Wish Me Luck for my BIG SWIM!

2010-04-15T08:17:00.001+01:00

Hi! I hope you're well and happy today! :-)

It's my Swimathon day today! So this is a very quick post before I get ready... I'm really looking forward to it but don't feel 100% well, which is a bit of a pain but there ya go.

So to celebrate (what is life for??), here's a video of some of the music from one of my favourite video games: Jet Set Radio which came out for the Dreamcast. I love the music from this game and if I could get the soundtrack on CD (or even a download) I'd be a very happy lady! But thanks to YouTube and Renegade466isback, I can enjoy the games again without dusting off the old Dreamcast, and turning it upside down (which is what we'd have to do to get it to work again, apparently... don't ask!)

Best wishes
Joey xx

A Celebratory Giveaway!

2010-04-11T17:34:00.001+01:00

Kitty 1000

I hope you've been having a good weekend.

I had a lovely surprise this morning when I went through my usual daily bad habit of checking my Etsy stats (yes, I am very sad!) on the "Heartomatic" bit on Craftcult.com...

I was very happy to find that 1000 people have now hearted my shop, Joey's Dream Garden! I can remember way back, when the number of shop hearts reached 100, I was so pleased, but never thought I'd reach 1000 hearts! Good things come to those who wait... ;-)

I've had so much fun since I set up my Etsy shop, back in September 2007. The first thing I listed in my shop was a little yellow bunny brooch (pictured below). I'd made a few little bunnies from felt like this a while before, but not as brooches. So when I discovered Etsy, I decided that I just wanted to join in with the crafting fun! I'm really glad that I did.

Anyway, I think this is a good opportunity to celebrate with a giveaway! I have made a special commemorative Kittypip brooch, called Kitty 1000 (pictured at the top of this post), in golden yellow felt, with lots of metallic thread stitching. To win her, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post, by 17:00 BST, Sunday 18th April 2010 (so if you don't live in the UK, check here for your time: http://www.timeanddate.com/)

I'll be using the random number generator to pick out the winning comment at random (the first comment will be number 1, the second number 2 and so on) and then post the result very soon after!

Only one comment per person please.

Good luck!
Joey x

Affodell, the little springtime owl!

2010-04-06T15:26:00.001+01:00

Affodell, the Owl Brooch

Hiya! I hope you're not too blue if you've had to go back to work after Easter... remember there's another bank holiday coming up in a few weeks!

Just like I promised, I've made another owl brooch... yes, already! Wasn't that quick for me?

This one I've named Affodell, and I think she looks like a she-owl. Her colours were inspired by all the beautiful daffodils and narcissi (I don't know the difference though!) I saw on Sunday in the botanical gardens. Just like this:

Daffodils in Sheffield Botanical Gardens

She's in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden, right now!

Have a happy day!

Joey x

Mottieve, the Blue Owl!

2010-04-05T10:53:00.000+01:00

Mottieve, the little blue owl brooch

Hiya! I hope you've been enjoying the Easter break so far... and it's not finished yet! Yippee!

I was really quite productive yesterday and finished the first one of a new brooch design: an owl! I've called him "Mottieve" (pronounced "motty-vee") which is a made-up name I found, but I like the sound of it.

The design isn't completely new... do you remember the owl and pussycat in a pea green boat sets that I made together with my friend Claire of The Pin Factory?

Well, I've used the same owl design because I loved it so much! There is one difference though... now, his wings pivot, so you can make him flap them! I'm a real sucker for a novelty, and I was determined that my owlie brooch would have flapping wings! The picture below shows Mottieve in progress, a couple of days ago, minus his striking tummy markings!

He's in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden right now... go take a look!

I will be starting another one very very soon too!

Have a great day everyone!
Joey x

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T11:05:00.000+01:00

I always love the spring, but especially this year after the long, cold winter we've had here in the UK. It's lovely to see our garden springing back to life. Just look at the lenten rose (hellebore orientalis) above; isn't it pretty? I've had this plant for about 5 years, I think I bought it as a tiny thing from one of the Sheffield Botanical Gardens plant sales. In the picture below, you can see the seed pods just starting to form on one of the flowers; they're the green pod-like things right in the centre of the flower.

The next photo shows what our clump of lovage looks like at the moment. In the summer, this grows to a massive 7ft!

Now, look at the picture below... this is what the lovage looked like just 14 days ago! Tiny, isn't it! All that growth in just 14 days...

Now for some Eastery-crafty goodness! Here's a few of my recent Etsy favourites...

Art Textile. Sparkle Cloth - contemporarystitches

I love Karen Ruane's work, it looks really pure and clean, and pretty. Her embroidered art is unusual in some aspects (like how she adds little loops of fabric to the edges of a piece) but traditional in other ways, with the flower motifs. Just gorgeous.

Pattern to make a little baby Bun - VivianneGalli

I would love a little bunny like this. I think it's that worn, "well-loved" look that a little bear of mine has (which I had when I was little, and cried when some boy turned his legs the wrong way! There was no lasting harm though) And that old bell around her neck is just too gorgeous! Tinkle-tinkle!

Spring Bunny Schnibbles Lampwork Bead Set by keiara SRA - bykeiara

Keira is SO talented with glass, I just marvel at how cute and perfect all her little beads are. Look at the bunnies!! She is a lovely person too, so friendly and is happy to make custom beads for you.

Couple of Love Birds - Gingermelon

How lovely and sweet are these? Very very much so. And if you go to the Etsy shop, you'll see that they both just fit in the palm of your hand! What is it about tiny things that makes them so adorable??

Finally, I wanted to show you my little efforts to make the kitchen look slightly Eastery...

I've had these felt die-cut rabbits for about 3 years; I bought them from Paperchase and I've only just got around to doing something with them! All I've done is simply string them together with invisible thread to make a garland for the dresser.

I bought these little glass egg ornaments from John Lewis Stores (otherwise known as Cole's here in Sheffield... it will always be Cole's to Sheffielders!) for half price and happened to have a child's clothes hanger lying around so hung them on it, sellotaped them at the back to secure, and used a jolly bit of braid to hang them in front of our kitchen window!

Have a great day!

Joey xx

Look - No Armbands! (a big swim)

2010-03-08T20:20:00.011Z

Swimmers during learn to swim week, at a suburban swimming pool, probably Wellington region, ca 1939

In just over 5 weeks I will be doing a long-ish sponsored swim for charity, as part of the national annual Swimathon event. The charity is called Marie Curie Cancer Care, and they provide special nurses who care for people with cancer in their last weeks of life, in the patients' own homes. The Marie Curie nurses do an invaluable and extremely difficult job, and I aim to raise around £100 for them by doing this sponsored swim.

I did the Swimathon last year (Little Tiger is wearing the medal below, which everyone gets just for completing the swimathon) and I’ve decided to swim the same distance, 2.5 km (so that’s 100 lengths of a 25 metre pool, or approx. 1 ½ miles). I found it do-able, but for a few days after I felt really exhausted. So at the moment I’m training myself up by doing longer and longer swims at the same pool where I’ll be doing the Swimathon – at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre which was originally built for the 1991 World Student Games, and boasts one of Europe’s deepest diving pools at 5.85 metres.

I’m not a fast swimmer at all, actually I’m pretty slow so if I manage the swim in less than 1 ½ hrs I’ll be happy. I do get quite jealous of folks who can swim fast and with a beautiful technique, then do a fast flip-turn at the end of the lane… Well, all I can do is my best!

If you would like to sponsor me, please go to my sponsorship page: Joey's Swimathon Page and you can give by debit or credit card. If you’re a bit shy and don’t want your name to show for everyone to see, just untick the box which says "I give permission for my name to be displayed...", and your donation will show as “anonymous”.

Thank you reading!
Best Wishes
Joey xx

Exit Through The Gift Shop

2010-03-05T20:49:00.009Z

This film is a sort of documentary about a French man's journey from a family man who happens to be obsessive about filming anything and everything with his video camera, through his discovery of street art, to his own rebirth as a celebrity pop artist. The reason I say it's a "sort-of" documentary because I'm not sure how much of it is partial or total fiction, because it's supposed to be a film made by Banksy. I love a lot of street art or graffiti (the sort that looks or feels like someone has put a lot of work or thought put into it, rather than what appear to be wanton acts of boredom) so it was fantastic to see a lot of great street art being created (despite the interventions of the police).

Thierry Guetta, the main focus of the film, is a very intriguing man. It's clear that he's incredibly driven by his passion for filming the everyday world around him, but when he finds the underworld of street art, he becomes obsessed by it, and forms friendships with graffiti artists in the US. It's through a particular artist, Shepard Fairey, that Thierry is introduced to Banksy and ends up following him around, assisting Banksy in constructing art and filming him (well, his hands at work, mostly!). Eventually, encouraged by Banksy, Thierry becomes an artist in his own right overnight and even hires the massive CBS studios in LA and has his own "art show". This is the bit where is all goes a bit fairy-tale-ish, but cheeky and entertaining nonetheless.

I've seen this film described as a "faux documentary" and a "hoax" of Banksy's... which may or may not be true. What I do know, is that it's a very entertaining look at the art world, and a great story. There are probably lots of critics over the world who are getting their knickers in a twist over the questions that this film might raise, around what actually IS art... Well, at the risk of sounding a little bit pretentious, my own personal view is that art is something that someone has made, and that they have some sort of emotional attachment to... but let's keep the lid of that can of worms tightly shut - life's too short!

Official Site: http://www.banksyfilm.com/ - this tells you where you can see the film - I saw it at the Showroom, Sheffield.

Discover more about graffiti and street/guerilla art: http://www.woostercollective.com/

Let's not forget my own favourite graffiti artist, Sheffield's (and Lutterworth's, where I went to school) very own Kid Acne:

nighty-night!

Joey xx

Come With Us! to see a new embroidery pattern...

2010-02-25T20:29:00.004Z

Here it is - my new embroidery pattern! The boy bunny has found something to show the girl bunny, and you can tell she's really excited about it! What could it be... a pretty little beetle, or a cloud shaped like a dinosaur, or even a new picture which he's just drawn for her?

You can get this embroidery pattern from my Etsy shop: Joey's Dream Garden.

I've got lots of ideas for other patterns (mostly involving bunnies, of course!), so watch this space...

Best wishes

Joey x

New Embroidery Pattern... Sneaky Peek!

2010-02-25T01:04:00.006Z

I've finished designing and embroidering my second embroidery pattern PDF, so I thought I'd share a bit of the process I went through with you, and you get to see a preview at the same time!

The first picture shows a couple of sketches, the one on the left is a preliminary drawing to establish the position of the bodies and limbs, to suggest a feeling of movement and balance. I referred to a photo from a magazine; it was a picture of a boy and girl half-running, holding hands with their mum who was in the middle. I missed out the woman and just concentrated on the two children. The drawing on the right is the “finished” sketch, which is still fairly rough, and from this I traced the final line drawing which I scanned in (thanks Claire for use of your scanner!)

The second photo shows a few of the steps (but not all! I need to remember to keep taking photos, but I get distracted...) I went through to make the finished embroidery (which will be revealed in the next couple of days – watch this space!).

The pictures explained: (1) Starting the embroidery – close-up of stem stitch around outline of face, (2) continuing the stem stitch, (3) sewing the split-stitch of the inner ears and (4) almost finished the first bunny...

So, what do you think so far?

Stay tuned to see the finished embroidery (hopefully) tomorrow!
Joey x

Meomi's Olympics!

2010-02-20T04:16:00.009Z

"Dress Rehearsal" by MEOMI

For someone who isn't particularly into sport, it's remarkable that I can get mesmerized by the Winter Olympics, like half-pipe snowboarding, speed skating, ski jumping or luge etc etc (but NOT curling)... but it's GREAT!! It's the same with the Summer Olympics... I loved watching the last Olympics in Beijing, and to top it off, they had a bunch of really pretty mascots! They were called "Fuwa" (good luck dolls, or "friendlies" - awww!) and were designed by Han Meilin, a famous Chinese artist.

And for this Winter Olympics, there's even more super-cute mascots! Here they are:

The Vancouver Winter Olympics mascots were designed by the fabby illustration couple Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, who go by the collective name Meomi. I didn't realise until very recently though, that they've illustrated a series of children's picture-books called Octonauts.

Link to Meomi's site: http://www.meomi.com/
Link to the Octonauts site: http://www.octonauts.com/

Here's some pictures from their book, “The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade”. I love Meomi's sleek, colourful and cute style and the amount of detail they put into their pictures.

The cover which attracted me...

Look at the cute endpaper design!

It's a noisy world at the bottom of the ocean.

Not all Olympics mascots are so cute (there's some real abominations), but another particularly cute mascot was designed for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, a little bear called Misha, designed by the Russian children's book illustrator Victor Chizhikov.

A few years ago, an odd little shop called something like “Russian Cultural Centre” opened on Commercial Street in Sheffield. It was open for only a few months and because I was a bit nervous of going in to have a look around, I never did. I do regret that now. However they did have a Misha ceramic ornament in the window which Mathew really wanted, and the worse thing was, when they closed the shop they left it behind, all alone and gathering dust when it could have been warm and loved in our house! I hope that someone claimed it and is at this moment cherishing it.

Have fun!

Joey x

Happy New Year of The (Little) Tiger!

2010-02-14T00:01:00.002Z

Oi!!!

It's ME, Little Tiger, as IF you didn't know, ya bloomin' idiot!! And because I'm so POPULAR and LOVED by EVERYONE, they've made it MY year starting TODAY, called "YEAR OF THE LITTLE TIGER"!!

So to make you all VERY HAPPY and so you can all CONGRATULATE me on me being WONDERFUL in every aspect, I've taken over Joey's blog, and put up a GOOD post for a change!!

I've seen that lots of very CREATIVE and CLEVER people on Etsy have been celebrating ME, LITTLE TIGER and made lots of things with ME on... which I know they are going to bring to me IN PERSON (as it's Sunday and the postie doesn't work on Sundays – which is SO lazy, the bloomin' IDIOT!!) so I'll be waiting by the back door for all the GIFTS! Form an orderly queue, ya bloomin' idiots!!

Anyway, I've decided that as a treat, I'm going to show you what I'M going to GET!
By the way, the BEAUTEOUS picture at the top of the page is me in the snow. But I'm NOT cold because I'M AS HARD AS NAILS!!

Year of the Tiger Kitty calendar by novarhyme - like me, very cute.

New Year Tiger 2010 - Print by Tavisha - a very handsome and fierce tiger, just like me.

Happy New Year Tiger Patchwork Doll Japanese craft kit by MeMe Craftwork - all the lovely ladies like this little tyke. It's a problem I have as well... something that us SUPERSTARS just have to get used to...

Year of the Tiger archival print by Betsy Thompson Studio - a very handsome tiger, but if it was ME, I'd be getting a PIGGY-BACK from HER!! What a cheek.

year of the tiger by Dutch Door - ME, doing a very skilful dance through some beautiful flowers. I look EXTREMELY HANDSOME, don't you think??!

And if you DIDN'T like this FANTASTIC post (I can't IMAGINE how you couldn't) then you're an IDIOT!!

Best wishes,
Little Tiger xxxxxxxx

Bunnies in Love - PDF Embroidery Pattern

2010-02-09T12:36:00.006Z

Hi!

It's the first sunny day for a long time here in Sheffield, UK. About time too! Sunshine really lifts my mood & makes me feel happy! Spring might be coming along soon, I hope so... and as they say, "in spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love..." hee hee!

So the embroidery pattern I've just created has a love-bunnies theme! This time I've actually embroidered it to show you what it may look like, if you have a go too. You can get the embroidery pattern from my Etsy shop: Joey's Dream Garden.

Ahh, a couple of bunnies who are very much in love... bless.

Here's a close-up of the flowers, which I seemed to get a bit carried away with! Whoops!

best wishes

Joey x

Little Jumping Joan Embroidery Pattern

2010-01-29T22:31:00.013Z

I am very pleased to show you the first of what I hope will be many embroidery pattern PDFs! To celebrate, the first one is FREE (click on the link below to view the PDF and print it out if you wish) and I will be selling some from my Etsy shop very soon, so please watch this space!

Click this link for the free PDF pattern: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23782359/Little-Jumping-Joan-JDG-Embroidery-Pattern

I've also anticipated that you might want to show off your creations (of course you do! Please don't tell me that I'm the only person who likes to blow her own trumpet occasionally...) so I've created a Flickr group! Which is here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/joeysdreamgardenembroidery/

So why Little Jumping Joan? Well, I have a little board book of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by Rosemary Wells and there's a particular picture in there to go along with the skipping rhyme:

"Here I am
Little Jumping Joan
When no-one's with me
I'm all alone"

The picture shows a black bunny in a happy, multi-coloured stripey cardi, skipping with a rope, and the sky looks very dark and overcast, but somehow it makes me feel cosy. The bunny looks like she's out in the countryside which I associate with my own childhood in Leicestershire, and the safe feeling of being alone and able to do exactly what I wanted. So I've drawn a bunny doing her own thing, not caring what anyone thinks and having a bloomin' good time!

I do have a confession to make though; I haven't even embroidered her myself yet! But I am going to, starting tomorrow (as soon as I've taken our Christmas tree down. Don't ask...) I just couldn't wait to post the PDF here. So maybe you will beat me to it and post your embroidery in the group before me!

Even if you don't download the pattern, I hope you like the drawing. :-)
best wishes
Joey x

The Cutest Lego, Ever!

2010-01-25T19:21:00.005Z

If you've played the Nintendo video games Pikmin/Pikmin 2, you'll be familiar with the tiny part-animal, part-plant creatures that are the pikmin themselves, and the numerous monstrous beasts which attack the peaceful pikmin in many strange ways. The otherworldly designs of the monsters are inventive and beautiful; from frog-like spotty “Bulborbs” which munch up the pikmin like a quick and tasty snack; to the floating “Blowhogs” which puff tornado-like blasts to scatter the tiny pikmin into the path of other monsters which threaten to squash, burn, or poison them. In the game, the “Piklopedia” is the name given to the collection of pictures and information about the monsters, which you gather as you progress through the game and discover more, and weirder, animals.

I stumbled across Filip Felberg's Lego Piklopedia on Flickr quite by chance, and I'm so glad that I did. Filip has been making his versions of the wonderful creatures in Pikmin, almost entirely in Lego bricks, and has shared many of them on Flickr. I got in touch with Filip and he agreed to answer a few questions about his unique project.

I think I can confidently say that we all liked playing with Lego bricks when we were kids, and some of us haven't lost that love of the brightly-coloured, well-designed plastic blocks. For Filip, it was only by chance that he rediscovered them. “One day after I played the first Pikmin game and I was baby-sitting my little brothers, I started building a Red Pikmin with the Lego bricks they were playing with. Then I made the other Pikmins and started building some monsters; after I started uploading them on the Internet I couldn't stop!”

Filip told me that he's been working on this project since February 2009. “At the start I only used pieces that I already owned, I didn't buy any bricks at all. In this period I remember that I built pretty much every week. But after a while I needed more and more Lego in specific colours and began buying some “Lego Basic Bricks Deluxe” sets. Soon I started to buy special parts from Bricklink and because I had to wait a week or two till the packages arrived, it went weeks without any Lego building. But when I do get the packages, though, I can spend the entire evening building creations!”
The process which Filip uses to transform the designs from the game into Lego models is quite intuitive and playful. “Some of my models was made using a previous model as a guide, but only those that are really similar, like the Red Bulborb and the Orange Bulborb. Most of the time, however, I print out images from the net and use them as inspirations for my models. I don't make any drawings before I start, but I always think long and hard about what the model should look like before building”.

“I've had a lot of favourite creations from my project, but I must say that my Careening Dirigibug (pictured below) is currently my favorite, mostly because it is my most accurate creation yet (in my opinion), but also because it's very cool creature. Gotta love the Tingle reference! :P”
As well as making the models himself, Filip has also created instructions on how to make many of the monsters so that anyone else with a bit of Lego can have a go at making them. You can see Filip's instructions here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39134527@N04/sets/72157622947948779/

and here: http://mocpages.com/home.php/23092

“There's only thing that annoys me about Lego, and that is that none of their bricks are perfect squares/cubes. It really annoys me when I try to make pixelated creations, and it would be a lot more easier for people to make something that is a perfect circle or something like that. But then again, I couldn't bear it if the Lego Group suddenly began to produce their Lego in perfect squares”.
Lego have brought out their versions of Star Wars, Spongebob Squarepants and Harry Potter, to name a few. I asked what else Filip would like to see made into Lego sets. “Besides Pikmin I would really like James Cameron's Avatar to be made in Lego. It could introduce some really interesting and unique new Lego parts seeing as the Na'vi people are taller than the people from Earth. It shouldn't be impossible either, seeing as the film is one of the most successful films of all time and I'm sure that the Lego Group would like to take a part of that success! Fantastic movie, by the way!”Filip said that if he had as much time and as many bricks as he needed, he might make the whole first stage in the original Donkey Kong game. He said, “it would require a lot of bricks but I think it would be cool. Perhaps I will do it in the future”.
Filip told me that what he enjoys most about building with Lego, “is to get comments on my creations. It's always fun when someone comments on my stuff, and it helps me to continue with this project”. So, if you've enjoyed reading about Filip's Piklopedia and seeing his models, please leave your comments below and on his Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39134527@N04/

Official Pikmin site: http://www.pikmin.com/

Many thanks to Filip for his kind permission for this feature and for using pictures from his Piklopedia.

Warm wishes,
Joey x

Cute Way to Store Your Sewing Kit!

2010-01-20T21:13:00.008Z

Hiya!
This is the second issue of Making Gifts Magazine, which features my house étui box. This is actually the first etui box I've made. If you haven't heard of étui boxes, they've been around for hundreds of years in various forms, and basically an étui box is a decorative container for small objects used by ladies and gentlemen, for example needlework equipment or grooming bits and bobs.

I decided to make mine as a little house. The roof (lid) lifts off, and the four "walls" of the house flop open to reveal pockets to store sewing things, although you can keep anything in there. There's also a little needle-book and I've made an apple-shaped pincushion which sits in the middle.

What I most enjoyed about making this was the embroidery on the front of the house; I'm getting more and more into embroidery and I can see myself making a large embroidery at some point soon... Secondly, it was lovely to see it all come together from what started out as a little idea in my mind, which I sketched out and then went through a process of designing how it would all fit together! It took a few cardboard models and lots of cheap felt to test my ideas out. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

What do you think? Do you like it? Would you like to make one for yourself?

If you'd like to get the instructions, you can either buy Making Gifts Magazine online and have it delivered to you free (UK customers) or you can buy it from Hobbycraft stores or your local craft supplies shop.

Smiles!

Joey x

Snow Season

2010-01-07T21:57:00.002Z

Morning Snow by Mathew, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

After days and days, the snow is still here... and according to the BBC, tonight the temperature may fall as low as -20c in places. I'm more a spring and summer person, I'm not keen on the cold and I really really dislike slippery pavements, so much so that I've taken to wearing socks over my shoes when there's ice about. They do tend to help a little, and give a bit of traction when you're walking uphill (there's a lot of hills in Sheffield!). I must add though, they're no good in slush.

And although the cold and snow isn't my favourite weather by a long way, I have been enjoying the last couple of days of clear blue skies and bright sunshine. The alternative would probably be the usual January weather of grey skies, fog and damp...

Wishing everyone warm thoughts
Joey xx

Beautiful Things!

2010-01-06T23:01:00.004Z

Do you know about the (fairly) new galleries feature on Flickr? It's great - you can curate your own little "art exhibition" of your favourite pictures, and there's no limit to the number of galleries you can create, the only limit is the number of pictures for each gallery (18 pictures). I've created a few so far; the gallery pictured above is a collection of images of things that I find particulary lovely. What do you think, do you like it? (click on the big picture above to go straight to the gallery on Flickr to look at more of these artists' work! have fun exploring!) Don't forget to comment if you like what you see! :D

The lovely things are (from top left to bottom right):
I love the simplicity and perfection of the snowflake in "my fascination continues" by carolyn_in_oregon
the "papier mache tiger" by mumblion is just super-cute!
I really like the character designs and the neutral colours of "in the woods" by Camilla Engman
"Red Door" by Virginhoney is so cute!
The "Charley Harper Tile Mural" photographed by ilovecoffeeyesido is wonderful, I just love Charles Harper's style.
The simple beauty of "with heart" by virginhoney is wonderful.
The cute felted world by pipapiep is just too cute and looks wonderfully well-made!
I think if I had the "ferris wheel bank" by unadventurous, I would definitely be encouraged to save my pennies in it!
I love the cute little boy on this Japanese yoghurt pot by Bubi Au Yeung
This short video, "el viento/Nick" by fantasiaink is so cute and fabulous!
I adore the "baby's bookshelf" by bpotstra
I think the "wool baby" by hine is so cute and clever too!
A wonderfully neat "hand embroidered Charley Harper cardinal" by arimethia - just gorgeous!
Fantastic design for the childrens' "ANORAK magazine" by Jack Hudson Illustration - creepy cute!
The very strange and beautiful "Forest Floor Beast" by Eva Funderburgh from her series of fantastical creatures
This cosy 1950s-feel scene, "Happy Holidays Everyone" by hine is adorably perfect!
The "Suitcase shelves" by Skunkboy Creatures are both ingenious and cute!
A super-pretty coaster: "Varligt underlagg!" by TM - the crocheteer! - too nice to use!

I hope you've had at least half as much joy from looking at these beauties, as I've had in compiling this list!

Smiles! :-)
Joey x

The Owl and the Pussycat

2009-12-12T12:25:00.007Z

Hiya everybody!
I hope you're all looking forward to Christmas, I know I am... I love the run-up to Christmas when all the lights are up in the streets and houses, and you get to ogle all the gorgeous Christmas ornaments in shops and on places like Etsy.

I've done my first ever Christmas craft fair the other week, which was organised by Craft Candy. The Craft Candy fairs are always a lovely way to spend a few hours looking at wonderful handmade things, and a great chance to buy some unique gifts. Me and my friend Claire of The Pin Factory shared a stall (click here: to look at photos of our stall) and the centrepieces of our wares were some things which we had collaborated on.

As we both like cute things, we decided to make a couple of owl and pussycat in a pea-green boat sets (which you've just seen in the picture above!). Claire made the boats, and I made the owl with his little mandolin and the cat (the ones pictured here includes Tototl the owl with Minoo the white pussycat, the other set was sold at the fair and included a green owl and pink pussycat. Very cute if I say so myself!)

This is a close-up of the tiny mandolin:
We also made a couple of sailor foxes in blue boats, the fox pictured below is called Kai; the other fox is called Sorley. I'm really pleased with this because the fox's tail is "jointed", meaning that you can move it to different positions.

I will be listing the sets pictured above in my Etsy shop very very soon, so watch this space!

Have a happy weekend!

Joey x

I'm In a Magazine!!

2009-11-05T19:57:00.004Z

I've been waiting and waiting for months to talk about this, so I'm so pleased to be able to share it with you! This is the first issue of Making Gifts Magazine, which features my ballooning bunnies cushion cover, amongst loads and loads of varied craft projects.
I was approached by the magazine's Craft Editor Amanda Fowler back in the summer to do some projects for her new magazine, and it's been really exciting to create original ideas for people to re-create at home. So if you'd like to make a cushion like this one, pop down to your nearest Hobbycraft store or craft shop (check first that they stock this magazine) or go online to buy the first issue (P&P is FREE if you buy online!).
Hopefully future issues will feature more of my projects, so watch this space!

Who is Amelie? I know, and you might do too...

Do you like their little pink-starry cheeks? :D

Please get in touch if you have a go at making the cushion, or anything else from Making Gifts Magazine, because I'd love to know! The magazine also has an online forum where you can post pictures of your finished items.

Best wishes

Joey x

Christmas is Coming!

2009-10-15T19:50:00.002+01:00

This Etsy treasury was created by my friend Claire of The Pin Factory; isn't it great?! I love the cosy homespun feeling you get from it, and all the objects look so lovingly created. It features my advent calendar garland with Fuyumi the bunny brooch (see below) too. Handmade decorations are far nicer than factory-made, and especially at Christmas, when it feels better for your soul to steer far away from all the bustling shops packed with harassed shoppers. Stay at home and make your own (with recycled materials if possible) decorations instead! Or if your talents lie elsewhere than the sphere of crafts, remember you can buy wonderful handcrafted and artist-designed objects of beauty (at great prices too!) on the wonderful Etsy!

I made an awful mess of our office where I work by making our team have a recycled Christmas... it would have been better I think if I didn't have such a large area to decorate. I used the empty capsules from Kinder toys and strung them on threads to make garlands; paper cranes; other plastic odds and ends decorated with sequins and stuff... it was quite eclectic!

Yes, Christmas isn't far away! The first signs have been around for a couple of months in the high street though of course (tins of chocolates and biscuits on ridiculous offers, tempting you to buy to "put away for Christmas"... haha! yeh right!) but now that seasonal feeling has come to our own house; I have finished and listed my second advent calendar garland with a bunny brooch on Etsy! The idea is that you put the bunny in the appropriate star pocket (each is numbered 18 to 24 - the seven days before Christmas) and then the next day, move her to the next pocket, and so on!
I made one last year and sold it on Etsy, and the one I've made this year is in shades of red and green with cream. It's on sale on Etsy now...

Click the picture below to see it on Etsy:

I hope this post has filled you with warm and cosy feelings, and not of apprehension and fear of the annual family get-together and the usual arguments...

It's 10 weeks tomorrow! :D

Joey xx

A Night Full of Stars - Etsy Treasury

2009-10-15T02:50:00.002+01:00

Well, it's that time of year again when the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the night falls so quickly. In some ways, autumn and winter aren't my favourite times of the year, but they do have their advantages: beautiful autumnal trees in red and orange; Halloween; bonfire night; Christmas... and when the night sky is clear, you get to see the beautiful stars earlier in the evening.

All the wonderful handmade items in the treasury above remind me of the magical feeling I get when I gaze up at Orion (my favourite constellation... because I can actually find and recognise it!!), and make me wonder at how tiny this world is in the universe, and strangely, makes me feel quite safe and calm.

The treasury is on Etsy until Saturday, so please quickly click the picture above to see it for real!

Stay warm!
Joey xx

G h o s t s . . .

2009-10-06T09:13:00.003+01:00

As its approaching Halloween (can you believe it?? Minutes ago it was still summer!!) I thought I'd indulge myself and go for a truly scary ghost theme for my next treasury. Click on the picture above to see the treasury for real, until Thursday 8th Oct when it will disappear forever). I love reading ghost stories and I went for images that evoked that feeling of chilliness I get when I reading, or listening to on audiobook, a story like M.R. James' "Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad" or Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman's "The South-West Chamber". Both of these stories involve bedrooms as the scene of horror which I find particulary effective because its something everyone can relate to; sleeping in a room with another (empty) bed in it (which I have done, and didn't like), and sleeping in a bed in which you know someone has recently died (which I haven't done, and I don't think I ever could).

The Literary Gothic is a great site; a guide "to all things concerned with literary Gothicism, which includes ghost stories, "classic" Gothic novels and Gothic fiction (1764-1820), and related pre- and post-Gothic and supernaturalist literature written prior to the mid-C20"

Spiders Infest!

2009-10-01T16:30:00.003+01:00

This is my latest treasury (which you see here if you're really quick! It will disappear forever on Saturday...) and despite it's spidery theme, I'm not a particularly big spider fan. I don't hate spiders like I used to, and I can just about take a photo of one if it's not too big (and definitely NOT like The Marvelous A's massive spider!!). I do love cobwebs, especially the ones like in Damaged's photo, glittering with droplets of dew or rain.

I do generally like all insects, even though I'm not keen on getting close to many of them. I appreciate them, and especially the pretty ones like ladybirds and shiny beetles! If you care about insects too, you may like to join in with a Bug Hunt - organised by Buglife, the UK conservation charity. Click here for details: http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/
... but you'll have to be quick, it's taking place this weekend, Friday 2 October - Sunday 4 October 2009!

The photo below was taken by Mathew, my partner, who isn't scared to pick up spiders at all, and he wanted to get a pic of this one so he's the photographer as well (thank you Mathew!). However, this isn't really a true spider.

It's called a harvestman, or harvester spider, or daddy-long-legs (but not to be confused with craneflies which are also referred to as daddy-long-legs, but they are completely different... they've got wings!). The harvestman differs from spiders in a few ways but the most notable is that it only has two eyes, mounted on a tiny little "turret" called an ocularium. And neither do they spin webs. These things used to creep me out when I was a kid, and they still do!

More information on harvestmen on UK Safari: http://www.uksafari.com/harvestmen.htm

Sweet dreams (ie not of giant spiders!)

Joey xx

Pussies Galore! Etsy treasury-west

2009-09-29T06:56:00.002+01:00

I love cats. But I don't think I've ever done a feline-themed treasury... until now! Don't you think these are a bunch of cute kitties? This treasury on Etsy will be visible until Thursday, so go take a closer look now!

September Sunset Etsy Treasury

2009-09-12T11:23:00.005+01:00

I'm back with the treasuries! A few nights ago there was a spectacular sunset, the sort which seem to be commoner in late summer, and it made me want to make a treasury of similar-coloured items. I like these things because they have something unusual or special about them. What do you think?

Sellers, left to right: dakota fire, Dotty Lotty, Apak, Leaves of Glass, Quercus Silver, Nonesuch Garden, Arts in RI, Lux Imagery, The Nebulous Kingdom, Bionic Unicorn, Jessica Doyle, Dirt Road South.

See you soon!

Joey x