Wooden Shapes

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Where to buy gorgeous but cheap Craft Supplies – June

 

Craft supplies

Sparkly Threads

So where shall I start?  Hmmm, Hobbycraft I think.

All their Gutermann sewing threads are half price at present so I felt it would be a little rude not to purchase a few reels as I do go in there a lot and I can’t not buy anything at all can I?  (Shh don’t tell Mr Chandelier as he would probably be utterly horrified at that statement!).

I will also admit to being just a little bit seduced by the sparkly threads shimmering in the sunlight calling for me to take them home!  Also, at £1.55 instead of £3.10 for the sparkly threads and just 77p instead of £1.55 for the non sparklies they were a bargain.

 

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Another half price product that I purchased was this fat quarter bundle in pinks and purples.  They are by Kirstie Allsopp and were reduced from £11.00 – which I would not have paid as I only really loved the floral ones  –  down to £5.50 which worked for me.  If each fabric had been available by the metre, I would have happily paid more and bought bigger quantities of the 2 florals but they aren’t available by the metre, so half price worked for me.  Although as you know, I have thousands of different fabrics, I am a little lacking in my purple and lilac departments so they had to come home with me!  I think they are going to stop selling her fabrics which is why they are half price.

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In the same purple and lilac vein, I did have to purchase this rather lovely ‘Violet Marguerites’ (what a fab name) fat quarter which, to be honest doesn’t really belong on this post as it was certainly not cheap at £6.00 but it is gorgeous and I kept looking at it every time I went in and as I so need more of this colour I bought it.

Craft supplies

Heart Embellishments

 

 

Still in Hobbycraft, I bought some of these little heart embellishments for just £1.00 a pack.  I do have them in lots of different colours but I had white and not cream so I needed cream ones too.  They are shimmery on one side and matt on the other which is perfect I always work with both.

 

 

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I also had to have this tiny tray of little wooden shapes which have birds and birdhouses, hearts and flowers and watering cans and butterflies.  They were just £2.00 for the whole pack which is brilliant value.

Craft supplies

Lilac Heart Buttons

I did also genuinely need these Hemline little lilac heart buttons as I made an angel garland the other day and was searching for small lilac heart shapes and struggled to find lots of choices.  Hard to believe I know, with all my materials, but true!  At £2.00 for 17 they weren’t that cheap but I needed them.

Talking of Dunelm, I bet you don’t associate them with Fabric and Craft Supplies do you?  Well the sad part is that they did used to have a fab craft department selling all sorts of supplies from artists brushes to ribbons, from paper craft products to beads and sequins and much more in-between.  I presume it didn’t sell well for them as they have stopped doing most of it however, they do have a fabric department with good prices on the fabrics that they do sell.  They do quite a good selection of oilcloth too.

Craft supplies

They also have fabulous reductions on sale fabrics and I really only purchased this Newport fabric in Hibis (pink) because it was half price.  It was reduced from £10.99 per metre to £5.50 but I only purchased half a metre for £2.75 as I like, but don’t totally love, the colour.  However, I do absolutely love it in the faded blue, so I also bought half a metre in that colourway too.  The only thing to bear in mind with Dunelm fabrics is that they only sell in half metre lengths so you cannot have for example, 3/4 metre, which is marginally annoying but do keep an eye out for remnants as I have bought quite a few in the past and they are brilliant value.

Even though, as I said above, they have stopped selling a lot of craft materials they do still have a very good habadashery department which again, is fairly priced, and has a good selection of trimmings, cottons, glues, ribbons and buttons etc., far more than you would expect, so hunt down those aisles!

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Moving on to The Range, these paper flowers above, in pretty pinks and lilacs are £1.00 per pack, which is what most of their craft materials are, but I thought these were faulty as a lot of the gold flower centres are missing.  However I bought them in blues too and they are the same so I figured that was probably how they were meant to be.  I also tend to change or add to the centres when I create anyway so it doesn’t really matter to me, but if you are bothered don’t buy these.

June blog

Finally on to The Works, this three pack of Glitter craft tapes, (like washi tape) is excellent value at £1.50 for all three.

I will confess to perhaps buying a little more than appears on this page but sometimes I get home and literally tear my new materials open straight away as I just can’t wait to ‘play’.  I also buy materials from Antique Fairs and Sales and Boot Fairs and anywhere else my magpie eye spots something pretty or sparkly!

What craft supplies and materials have you bought lately?  Were they bargains or didn’t you care as ‘you just had to have them!’

Happy Hunting.

Much Love

Sarah xx

 

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How to make a Bunny Trug – Tutorial

I always try to make presents for the special people in my life whenever I can.  I don’t know about you, but for me, to be given a gift that someone has lovingly made just for me  means so much more than any shop bought present.

This week, I had to make a present for a cute little one year old baby, whose nursery theme is little taupe bunnies. It is a very small room with not much space so I wanted to come up with something that not only looked adorable, but didn’t take up much room and was practical too!  Hmmm………..quite a lot of thought needed for that one.

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After much deliberation, I decided I would buy a sweet little heart trug and add some wooden bunny shapes which I would paint and distress.

You could of course adapt anything, from a box to a tray or any other item you have skulking around just waiting to be loved!

 

First of all, you need to decide what the end purpose of your item will be and what wooden shapes you would like to add.  Think carefully about the size of both your trug (or other item) and the size of your wooden shapes – how much do you want them to dominate and how many –  if you don’t have your wooden shapes yet, you can always cut out rough paper templates and ‘play’.  For me, this is by far the best bit as I absolutely love to play with all my materials.

This is also when my clear and tidy workspace quickly becomes absolute bedlam as I do tend to get a little ‘lost in my world’ and become a tad over excited and start pulling at jars and drawer contents, tipping everything out all over the place and grabbing at stuff wildly like a child in a sweetie shop – although Mr Chandelier might liken it more to a crazy mad woman who really needs a straight jacket – really!

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Ok, now you have, (unlike some), calmly chosen your shapes it’s time to paint them.  I know they are only tiny shapes but I always do the job properly and prime everything first.  You however, could skip this if you are not a perfectionist like me.  I also knew that I was going to paint the bunnies taupe and would also distress them so I wanted the white to show through when I sanded the edges.  You could just use two different colour paints instead.  Don’t forget to paint the edges  –  but not the back!

 

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Once your first coat is dry (which is usually pretty quick), give a good second coat of your chosen colour and then when that’s dry a ‘lick’ over one more time for depth when you sand.  Let the paint cure thoroughly before you lightly sand the edges.

For me, much as the little bunnies look ‘ok’ at this point, I wanted more definition around the edges and I wanted them to stand out a lot more, as I felt the edges were too insipid.  This was easily remedied by pulling out the wax.  I literally dabbed my finger into the wax and rubbed it into the bunny edges and then onto the top of the bunny as well.

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See the vast difference between the two – now the left hand bunny stands out really well and gives a far greater contrast which is exactly what I wanted.

 

 

 

Finally, glue the bunnies on and add some little bunny tails (tiny pom-poms).  I chose grey as the Mummy of the child I’m giving this too adores grey and also the white was far too stark against the cream trug.  Last but not least, add a little dotty ribbon tie and voila, one sweet little Bunny Trug.  I love it so much and hope she adores it too.

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Last of all, I made a little gift tag with some gold beading and wrapped it in gold star tissue paper for the final touch and when I handed it over, my friend was really chuffed and said she really, really loved it!  You just can’t beat that feeling, makes me so happy!

 

Go create something this weekend and show me what you made – I would so love to see.

Happy creating.

Much Love,

Sarah xx

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Craft Storage and organisation – Wooden shapes

As promised, here is the first post showing some of the storage solutions I have in my studio for craft supplies.  I have started with wooden shapes as I have literally hundreds of them from IMG_4039bunnies and birds to cupcakes and fairies, from watering cans and flowers to hearts and stars, from buckets and spades to butterflies and chicks, from wooden letters to dolly pegs and so, so much more.

 Then of course, there is the Christmas wooden department, with dozens of angels and gingerbread men as I use absolutely loads of these from September onwards, reindeers and stag heads, Christmas trees and baubles, stockings and santa heads – I know – it’s madness but it all has to be housed.  I also have lots and lots of angel and fairy heads in different sizes, gorgeous wooden mushrooms, tiny clothes pegs, beads and wooden sticks – I use these for masts when I make driftwood boats – and       we won’t even mention the several bags of driftwood because frankly that would spin my head!!! IMG_3487

I already had loads pre-September but obviously I had to buy many more (yes really – I had no choice!) for all my Christmas making, so although it was semi organised into bags, all the new stock just caused bedlam and I really could not see what I had without pulling loads of stock out everywhere, adding to my already ‘Hoarder next Door’ roomset lookalike. Some items, like Angels, also needed sub dividing as I have angels for hanging, angels for bunting, angels for cards etc. and numerous styles and sizes.

So you see, when I said in my last post that everything snowballed and took hours and hours and hours, you can start to understand why. IMG_3490IMG_3497

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I bought some of these plastic storage boxes which you can find in lots of places such as The Range and Hobbycraft.  However, the cheapest place I have found them is in a store called Home Bargains and the tiny ones are approx 59p, the medium £1.49 and the large £2.49.  Do definitely shop around as some stores sell an identical product for £8.49 for the large one – madness.  Basically, they have loads of little storage compartments in them and you can take out some of the dividers.

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I also used a fabric jewellery tray on the right hand side as; firstly I needed something with larger compartments for all my hearts and stars and secondly, I wanted to utilise the space I had to the nearest centimetre.

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As you can see, I used a combination of different sizes as that suited me (large, back left and medium front left – I had a gap in the middle where I inserted the large hearts and white flowers) but it does of course depend on where you decide to keep them.  I put mine in the Alex chest of drawers from Ikea, mentioned in my last post.  I also decided to take the lids off carefully and keep them underneath the box itself – they all just fit nicely  That way if I do a workshop away from home, I could in principle take the whole box.  In reality, I probably wouldn’t as I would ‘cherry pick’ the items that I need but it’s good to know that I could!

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For the larger items such as dolly pegs, wooden mushrooms, angel and fairy heads etc., I used the existing drawer with a fabric inner divider (the Komplement drawer divider £15.00) – both are from Ikea – I have a run of drawer units which are actually the drawers designed to go inside Ikea wardrobes – Mr Chandelier cut the wardrobes down as we initially had them elsewhere,  (how amused was he with that one!) and we topped them with worktop.  I have several of the fabric dividers bought purely for my studio – I think they are meant to be used for bathroom supplies and underwear etc., but as with everything in life, they are, what you want them to be!

So there you have it, the first of many storage posts, but I can’t tell you how fantastic it is to be able to pull open a drawer and find what I need instantly – heaven!  It also makes ‘filing’ away everything I didn’t use so much quicker too.

Happy sorting!

Much love

Sarah xxx