Tunnel book round up

 A while ago I joined the Collabor-ART page.  Donna who I met at a WOYWW crop put me in touch with them, then the group closed (just bad timing I think)!!!  Well, I met up with Sarah one of the founding members as part of Free Art Friday and she set up a FB group and asked if we would like to do a tunnel book group project!  It sounded like fun so I signed up.

It was easy to do, purchase a childrens board book from a charity shop, cut a series of holes in each page, choose a theme and paint the cover in the theme before posting it to the next person who completes their page and so on until eventually after a few months it came back to the owner.

This  was my 50p book!

 

 I cut holes in each page to make a 'tunnel' and chose the theme of "Discworld" in honour of Terry Pratchett one of my favourite authors.

 On the cover I painted Great A'Tuin the gigantic turtle that floats across the skies with the discworld upon its back.

 On the next page I decided to use the librarian as the inspiration.  Now in Discworld the librarian is an Orang-utan (he wasn't always, the strong magic at the university changed him and he decided to stay that way!). Now, having never completed a book before I had NO idea that it was easier if you did a double page spread, but no worries as the next person on the list, Carmen, kindly finished the double page for me (I love the eyes peeping out from between the books!)

 Carmen then did a Death spread (I love the depth of colour on these pages).

 Next up was Jas and a spread about Greebo (a cat with attitude).  The shine and lustre on these pages are sublime.

 The next pages are by Sarah - Rincewind with the Luggage (I love the feet!) and the way the hat is thrown over the hole cut away.

That means I have the final double page and the back cover to finish off.  No idea what to do on the double page spread, but I think I will do Death walking off into the sunset with Terry on the back cover, fitting.

Thanks Sarah for organising us and for everyone taking part.  It was totally amazing and I am in awe at the talent and would happily take part in another.

Kyla

 

Knitting needles and brag books

Hello peeps, so here we go again with another roundup of some of the Christmas presents I made this year (looking back I didn't realise I had made SO many!).

This photo isn't brilliant, but its a knitting needle roll that I made my mum.  Its made out of quite heavy upholstery fabric so that it should withstand needles being poked in and hopefully stand up to quite a bit of abuse.

 This is a brag tag book for my Nan in NZ.  Its a chipboard tag mini photo album that my Nan can keep in her handbag and contains recent photos of me, my hubby, brother and his wife too.  The fern leaves are made out of air drying lightweight clay with a Martha Stewart (I think) mould and coloured with Dylusion sprays.

The letters are cut from a cereal box, coloured, glittered and then glossy accents to finish them and make them shine.

 

For family I also made a few more fabric covered notebooks

 

 and another quilted one (these really are a pain to make though as they take me SO long!)

I have more books to cover during 2015 but at the moment I cannot bring myself to make any more as, I think I need to concentrate on another craft for a while!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Mens gifts

 So, did you all have a wonderful New Year?  I always find its a bit of a damp squid where a taxi costs £40 and pubs charge you to walk through the door to spend money!!  Plus living in a City with 2 universities (yep, 2) it means we are over-run with students so town is  a bit of a no go area.  This meant we stayed in and watched a TV dramatisation about Tommy Cooper!

Now the tree is down, the Christmas cards cut up and I have already made some re-purposed cards ready for next Christmas (Sam Hettie you would be proud of me!).

So, this means I have had time to upload some more photos of the gifts I made over the past few months.

This time its mens gifts.  Me are SO difficult to buy for let alone make for.

So this year I made 2 of the mens gifts, both basically the same with a few tweaks.

I covered a note book in leather.  This one was for my Uncle in New Zealand.  I added a binding to keep the book closed and I created end papers for the book with a map of wales (where he used to live before emigrating).

 The next book I made was similar and for my brother.  I made a wrap out of Ecuadorian fabric that he brought back for his wedding (he and his wife lived there for a few years)

 I used maps of London (where they currently live) for the end papers.

So there you have it, a couple of presents for men-now if anyone has any other suggestions I have my brothers birthday on Valentines day!!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

First part of my Christmas make round up

Hello peeps, as many of you will know I have had to be a bit cagey over the past couple of months about what I show on my desk in case I uncovered something I was making for Christmas!

Finally I can share with you some of those makes.  First for each brother (hubby has 2 and I have 1) I made a homemade hamper.  They each contained a bottle of elderflower cordial, some spicy rhubarb chutney, spiced sugar (which contains flavours such as clove, orange, cinnamon and bay leaf, yep, bay leaf...it really does work) and some sloe gin.  All handmade and I finished off the hampers with some candy canes and some christmas tree decorations with their names on (not handmade but they did look so cute)!

 Back in the summer I did a glass fusing course and made necklaces, keyrings and coasters.  Now, I did make a few but I kept a lot of them myself so I need to do another course (luckily my brother in law and his lovely wife bought me a glass blowing course voucher so that's another craft to try!).

 I also made several book covers.  I made a few quilted ones (but these are a PAIN and took me hours to make just one!)

 So I decided to try using solid fabric instead and this worked just as well but took a lot less and didn't cause my RA to flare after.

Then there is the proverbial problem of what to make for men!  Well, my brother currently works for a Japanese company and I know that tradition states that they respect their business cards so I made him a leather business card holder with his initials stamped on the front.

So, that's a few of my latest makes.  I will finish uploading the rest of my photos soon and share them.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Truly unique at 90

 Hello peeps.  I hope the weekend is treating you well.

The other week it was my Nan's 90th Birthday!!  I know, she is totally amazing.  She lives in New Zealand so I wanted to be 100% sure that she had opened the package before I blogged about it!

This is the card I made her, I used some vintage paper from an old finance book (in old money!) and stamped some butterflies.

I then mounted this on a patterned background and added a hand stamped and coloured butterfly.  I distressed the edges of the card adding some paper brads from craftworks which I coloured to match the card.

Finally I gold embossed the 90 twice and added them to the page.

Now the present was a real dilemma. I had NO idea what to make Nan.  It had to be something I made as I have been making gifts for my Nan since I was about 7 years old and made her a felt pincushion.  I made her a hand painted and stitched wall hanging for Christmas so that was no good, I made her jewelry recently too...what to do?

Then it hit me...I could cover a notebook with a felt and machine stitched embellished cover.

  So that is what I did.  I took a day off work and spent the day at the sewing machine, a fabulous day and I was really proud with what I achieved (as well as putting doing the ironing off again!!).

 

I layered different colour sheer fabrics, ribbon and hand dyed wool and first used a blue then gold thread to over stitch.

I also used a blue thread to edge the book cover so it was all nice and neat.

There you have it, a one off and truly unique gift for a one off and truly unique Nan.

Happy Crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Hello peeps.  How are you all keeping?  Well I hope.

On my desk this week is my 365 journal as I am trying to get ahead of the game and am already prepping Februarys backgrounds.

The truvia box is empty and it seems too good to throw away, so I am thinking of covering it, painting it and turning it into a treasure chest!  Not sure yet, just an idea I have floating around.

I will keep this short as I know fellow WOYWWers will have many desks to get round, but if you'd like a legal snoop around desks across the globe, feel free to join Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday here .  The Queen of WOYWW, the lovely Julia is very friendly (mad as a box of frogs if you meet her, but a lovely lass) and there are SO many of us loyal followers that you are bound to be inspired (I know I am).

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Wow, Santa was very generous this year and I have lots of new crafting goodies to experiment with (boy, am I going to get in a mess!). I can finally publish some of the items I have made for people for their pressies (now that they have opened them). Here are just some of them....

This is an altered book I made for my mum which contained a necklace and ear rings that I made. I carved the book out to create a recessed area to hold the jewelry.

I also embroidered some serviettes for my sister-in-law as they have recently moved into a new home, I love the retro feel of the flamingo, she is a great baker, hence the cake, they have an aquariam, hence the fish and the love birds are because they were married last year...ahhhh...

This is a necklace I made for my Nan, all the way over in New Zealand, it's made from serpentine and is long enough so that she can slip it over her head, but also has a lobster clasp so that she can make it into a double shorter neckalce should she wish.


This is a bag I made for my mum with a removable brooch, its lined and has a magnetic clasp inside to keep it a bit more secure (I'm not too good at working out how to insert zips yet!) and is made the fabric (blue and butter cream spots) from the 2 skirts I have already made her (I have a few more in the nest that I need to crack on and make).

And finally, my multi-cultural snow people!! .......

Seasons Greetings.
Li'l Pidge x