Making a trellis

I happened to get 4 tiny bamboo tongs in a chocolate dipping kit which i thought i would put to good use. You could use thick card instead.

 This is what i used to make everything, the tongs, one sheet of 300gsm card, craft knife, pegs for clamping, glue, ruler and paint and paintbrush. Also some foam board.

 Cut thin strips of card to make the trellis back

 Glue and Clamp the trellis frame together. Make sure the tops are the same height, my bottoms weren't but that's ok.

 Glue the thin strips of card criss cross over the frame.

 Use a craft knife to cut away the excess.

 Paint it thoroughly. Next i made the wooden boxes that they would sit in. A rectangle of foam board with card round the outside. easy peasy.

 Paint the boxes and glue the trellis' to the back

 Mix PVA glue with tea from a tea bag! I used 5 tea bags full for the large one and 3 for the little one. Push the soil mix into the boxes.

 Then i stuck some green thread through the holes. i'm not totally convinced this works but it was cheap. well free.

Before Planting!

 Planted using some very cheap flowers from hobby craft! WOOHOO!!!

I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

Much Love,
Freya xxx

Making a Path

First i chose the layout of the path i wanted then cut foam board into squares to make the paving slabs.

 I then gouged out the sides with my nail to make the pieces uneven and painted them using a variety of colours.

I then made the others in the same way, it didn't take long and i could watch tv whilst doing it as it didn't require much concentration.

Next i made 'wood chippings' in the Victorian era alot of paths were made with loose bits of stone and soil as a cheap substitute so that is the look i went for. I made it by mixing rice with paint and then gluing it around the paving slabs using PVA glue.n It was messy but easy!

I let this dry and then glued the grass on. I didn't let this dry enough and when i tapped off the excess there were a few holes which needed plugging with glue and more grass.

Much love,
Freya xxx

Dolls House Garden

I decided to make my Dolls house a lovely garden for them to relax in.

First i cut a piece of foam board to fit the outside portion of my house, then i decided on the rough layout, i wanted a path that split to the two entrances, one to the house and one to the shop, a flower bed under the window and thats as far as i planned. ~Other features i could decide on once the rough layout was laid.

as you can see, i cut out foam board into squares for the path. I will post seperate posts showing how i made all the bits.



After Laying the stones i then added 'wood chippings'

Next i added fake grass. I tried to make this but after several failed attempts i bought it. much easier.



I will update this as it progresses

Much Love,
Freya xxx

Pin Cushion and Needle Case

Pin Cushion;

This was very easy, i bought a cup from the charity shop - i chose this one as it was 10p! then you stuff some wadding down the bottom. Cut a square of fabric and sew it messily around more wadding, then super glue it into the cup. Very easy.

If you made the ribbon holder you can hang this from a bar. You could also stick a magnet to the bottom and then get a kitchen utensil holder thingy and then you can hold it with that.

Needle case;
There are hundreds of tutorials for this so i won't bore you with one, basically you just sew an outside casing of your design and cut felt with pinking shears and sew down the middle. Easy huh!

Much Love
Freya xxx

French Chaise Longue

This was great fun and fairly easy due to the amazing instructions by the master, but it took me 2 days and 3 tubes of glue, but it was worth every second as i know have two great pieces of furniture for my dolls house!

Please click the link below for Kris' instructions they are so comprehensive

1 Inch Minis by Kris

 The finished articles!

 This is the Chaise whilst drying
By using Super glue it dried faster, i thoroughly recommend this

 A Different angle

 In the soon to be bedroom

After a Party!!!

Much Love
Freya xxx

Disaster!

Do not under any circumstance try to remove a bed on your own... it will get stuck and you will cry

Ribbon Holder

Another easy idea!

This is an old CD rack from the charity shop - 50p no less, i have spray painted it silver on the inside and pink on the outside, a five minute job at best. I had some old garden canes which i chopped up with my scissors and threaded the ribbon spools onto it. SIMPLES!

Much Love
Freya xxx

Butterfly Hair accessories

These are SUPER easy. I went to the £1 shop and bought some nail decorations (the butterflys) and some clips and an alice band. Then i Super glued them on! EASY! effective too I think!

Much Love
Freya xxx

Steampunk Outfit

 Ok so it's not the world's best steampunk outfit but it shows you can cobble something together quick easy and CHEAP!

 Perhaps you could do it without the chubby Leg

 The lovely Parasol is from Ebay - delivered from China at only £6 bargain!

The steampunk goggles are also from Ebay, they were about £5.

Essentially it's a big flowing dress with an under corset over the top, again an Ebay buy as it had a bustle attached i think it cost £20ish so i very cheap outfit all in all.

The key is layers and accessories. Get creating!!!!

Much love
Freya xxx

Wedding Games!

 So i decided for our wedding That i wanted to have some of those seaside cut out thingys for people to play with! This is my attempt!

 I am clearly not the worlds best drawer but i think they look ok and trhey may get rained on so its best not to be too precious!

Obviously i still need to cut the holes in the faces.

This one is a little different, it's about waist high and will have the mouth cut out so you can through dog biscuits through!

I bought a HUGE sheet of MDF from B&Q and they chopped it into 4 6foot bits for me. I bought a tin of there cheapest white paint and lots of little tester pots in different colours. I waited for a nice day then set about painting. First i painted the back ground white and then sketched my design in biro, then i painted the shapes in and went round then with a black marker pen to make it 'pop'

I will cut out the holes with a dremel drill and sand down the edges. I say 'I' very loosely as this is likely to be a job I give Vinny so if it goes wrong i can moan about it! haha!

When people play this, if they manage to get a dog biscuit in the mouth they will win! And choose a prize from the lucky dip! In the lucky dip will be utterly useless things that no one would want like toilet blocks and car sponges. 'Cause we are hilarious like that. It will seem funnier after a few bevvys!

Much Love
Freya xxx

Everybody needs knitted animals!

 This owl is from Knitted Amigurumi animals which is a good book which can be bought from amazon at this address below. It's easy to follow and this owl took me about 2 hours which is very fast!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amigurumi-Animal-Friends-Michele-Wilcox/dp/1592172784/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387578833&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=kniied+amigurumi

 RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!

Knitted Dinosaurs! Woohoo! These are for my Fiance and his best friend, both are called Sebastian (?) They may be 23 but they are still children at heart!

The book is excellent - the instructions are great and bar a few examples all the patterns are super cute and excellent! I love dinosaurs so i'm biased.

Buy it from Amazon from the address below

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitted-Dinosaurs-Tina-Barrett/dp/1861088175/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387579089&sr=8-1&keywords=knitted+dinosaurs

Much Love!
Freya xxx

Repurposing an old book

 This is how i re purposed an old and out of date maths text book to make my steampunk wedding guestbook... I err got distracted so i still haven't finished it!

 Take an old book. I couldn't bear to use an old novel so my neighbour gave me this hideous text book from a college he worked at, obviously it had willys drawn on every page! tee hee!

 Because you are going to fill it with stuff you first need to remove half or more of the pages, even though i removed THIS much it wasn't enough really. Go overboard.

 Next glue all the pages into sections by gluing across the top and down the side. you can't use too much glue. I use Wilkinsons own brand All purpose glue - mainly because it's really cheap and holds very well. I would also suggest Elmers wood glue but that takes a long time to dry.

 Start covering the pages, i just used bits from my stash of scrap booking paper. anything here will be fine. If you use a thinner material such as wrapping paper you may need to glue this carefully and glue over the top to seal it.

 If you don't like any you can always re cover any pages.

I started to get very lax about now about taking photos so sorry about that. I will find it again and take more photos to show you the process.

Essentially you fill it with things you like. as mine was going to be a guestbook for my wedding reception, i cut out 3 blanks for each page for peaople to write on and aged them with distress inks then stuck odd things around the sides. It's trial and error, just place things about before gluing them on.

This shows the cover, i had some old leather which i used to cover it, not very well but i will cut a piece of leather to cover up my rough edges. Leather is good as it doesn't fray but it can be quite thick.

I will upload more photos when i re-find it! I put it in a safe place a while ago and err... well.. it's still safe!

Christmas Candles!

This is how to make very cheap Christmas candles!

Ingredients
Old candles (or new!) i like using scented ones
Wicks with bases - buy these ever so cheap off Ebay
Votives - I used GU pots, but you can use teacups, little glasses, anything that can take heat.
A milk pan
A Grater or knife which can get super waxy and never be again used for food
Glitter is optional
Buttons are optional


1; find a suitable votive (holder) I went on ebay and found that this lovely woman had saved all her GU pots and i got over 50 for 99p! I suggest eating 50 GU pots instead.

2; Get a little milk pan that you will only use for crafts, it will get very waxy. I picked mine up from Wilkinson for about £1

3; Collect candles! I live very close to an IKEA so bought all my candles there.

You are ready to cook candles!

6; Stick your wicks onto the bottom with generous amounts of tacky wax as this melts a bit when the hot wax hits it.

5; Shave up your candles or chop them into bits and then warm them gently in your pan until liquid then simply poor carefully into your votive. Let cool. When it cools i sprinkled some glitter on it! and added a cute button which you should take off before lighting.

TADA!!!

Getting Started...

Well here i am entering the world of blogging, let's hope it will be a partial success and noone will think i'm nuts and/or horrifically boring.

I aim that this blog will be where i can share the things i've made and hopefully inspire others to try their hand at crafting too. I am certainly no expert as you will be able to see, but if you never begin you can never get better!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Freya xxx