Photo Frames and Famous Footprints! - Handmade Monday #27

My goodness, how can it be August already?! I hope you're all enjoying some nice weather, and that you will find time to visit the 1st Unique Gifts blog to look at other crafters who are taking part in this 27th (!) Handmade Monday.

The summer holidays have descended upon us here, so I now have to fit my work/crafting in around my two children for the next six and a half weeks - oh dear!

My handmade efforts have mainly been these two personalised photo frames.

As usual, I've been crocheting some more baby boots - I'm trying to build up some stock for winter!

I also run a baby casting business - a franchise called Little Impressions - so have been busy finishing off little hands and feet too. I love the detail that my casts capture - all down to using the right sort of clay and plaster, and usually some luck too (babies can be extremely wriggly!).

I love all the detail on this cast!

The highlight of my week (even my year, actually) was that Little Impressions as a whole, was invited to the Eurostar Terminal at St. Pancras to take part in an Olympics '1 Year to Go' event. We took footprints from some famous sportsmen, and also footprints of some lucky competition winners from all over Europe. The prints are going to be turned into paving slabs (a bit like the Hollywood Boulevard thing) and will be placed at the station, leading everyone to the Olympics next year.
I'm afraid I didn't get to take prints of anyone famous, but my colleagues took prints from Lord Coe, and also Colin Jackson who was so nice and posed for lots of photos for us :)

Here are a few photos of our very busy morning - all these are courtesy of Little Impressions - thanks guys!

Lord Coe and Colin Jackson having their footprints taken

The Sports Minister, Lord Coe & Colin Jackson with their prints

Me in action (holding the bin!) - with a lady from Paris
who won a competition to take part.

We all had a great time - although it was hard work preparing all those slabs of clay. My arms were aching the next day!

Anyway, it's back to normality now - trying to get on top of my baby casting orders before we go away on our holidays - not that we're counting the days or anything.

Oh, and the sock monster has hardly grown at all - I've been too busy :(
Maybe next time....

Handmade Monday - sort of!

Since my last post was rather long, this is a very quick and nearly late Handmade Monday.
As always, many thanks to Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts for hosting this. Please have a look at her blog and click through some of the other handmade links on there :)

So, this week I have been painting and decoupaging lots of wooden letters - so here are a few!

I have also made a start on my daughter's Sock Monster - she chose a lovely yarn with shades of brown, green and aqua, so maybe it will be a sea monster! Here it is in progress...

Sock Monster in progress!

That's all for now - I must get on with some 'proper' work!

Handmade Monday No.13

This week's post is going to be short and sweet - mainly because I've been out today at a craft fair and it's getting late!

Firstly, many thanks again to Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts for hosting this again - do have a look at the other entries, there is always something lovely to look at :)

Today I've been at a local craft fair at Aston Marina which is a lovely place for a short walk and nice meal or coffee. They had a small craft marquee and I was lucky enough to be given a spot in one of their 'cedar huts' - so here's my little setup.

It's not a great photo - just a quick one that I grabbed while no-one was in the way! It was a lovely, sunny day and it was nice to hear peoples' comments and feedback.

Here is the cushion that I ordered from Made By Emma for my parents' Ruby Anniversary - I took the children down to Bedford to see them on Easter Saturday and we gave them the cushion (better late than never because I didn't order it until after their anniversary!!). They were thrilled with it!

I've also been busy crocheting - I made these little baby 'pumps', and then Emma (as in 'Made By Emma') promptly bought them for a friend before I could take a decent photo - so I grabbed them back and quickly snapped them on my phone. They are so sweet and made from a cotton/acrylic mix yarn, so nice and cool but also washable. I will get some listed on my website or Folksy shop when I get the chance!

Crochet baby pumps

I also had an order for these cute bootees from my Giftwrapped & Gorgeous store which was an unexpected surprise since it's been rather neglected lately!

Finally, I have made a start on the sock monster I mentioned last time - I took the children to a wool shop and they chose some wool each. I'm amazed they agreed to come along since I can spend literally hours in there! My son chose some lovely bright, colourful wool - and here's his monster so far....

I know it looks like a big, baggy sock at the moment but I will try and photo it as it progresses, so you can see it take shape. My son is very excited, and keeps asking me when it will be finished - as if I need an excuse to knit!

That's it for now - definitely past my bedtime! Hope you've all had a lovely Easter x

Handmade Monday: Lots of variety!

Here we are - Handmade Monday again! Thanks to Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts for hosting this - it's really helping to keep me motivated to blog regularly and share my creations! I originally planned to blog twice a week, but hey - once a week is better than nothing isn't it?!

It's been a very varied week - a combination of baby impressions and other handmade bits & bobs. Just the way I like it - I love the variety of working from home and choosing what to work on each day.

Here are some baby casts that I finished - so sweet! It does have a little foot on the right hand side, but it didn't fit into the photo without catching reflections off the window! Still, you get the idea...

Baby hand cast with a sweet poem

On the knitting/crochet front, I made a knitted letter 'B' for my daughter - what do you think? I've also started making an 'L' and 'O' - probably to make 'LOVE' but maybe 'LOL' if I'm feeling lazy!

Knitted Letter for my daughter

I also started (but haven't finished) some crochet 'granny' bunting - I want to finish this off before the weekend when I'm at my monthly craft market near home. Nothing like a deadline to keep me focused! There are going to be some other colour combos in it, I'll try and photograph it when it's all done.

Crochet bunting

Finally, I sent off one of my photo frames to be professionally photographed for my Giftwrapped & Gorgeous boutique, and I received the files back. I was really thrilled at how well they came out - much better than I could ever manage. Now I just need to sell lots of them!





I started making these last year, but recently changed the style and size of the writing to make it look like it's written by a child - actually it was really difficult to write like that! My natural instinct was to try and be neat rather than the opposite. The little shapes in the corners are made from polymer clay, with the images stamped into it before baking. By the way, the cheeky little boy is actually my son (not called Harry!) - the photo is quite old now but he is still just as cheeky!!

I hope you enjoyed this week's post - now you've read this, please visit 1st Unique Gifts and have a look at the other bloggers and their lovely creations! See you next week (if not before...) xx

Handmade Monday: Campervans!

It's handmade Monday again - sorry I missed last week, but it's been rather busy here with lots of wooden letters needing painting, covering, varnishing, posting out.... whew!

Anyway, don't forget to check in on Wendy's blog 1st Unique Gifts to see what she's been up to, and to have a browse through the other Handmade Monday blogs.

I've also been busy with baby impressions - here's one I finished this week:

Little Impressions: hand casts of 3 sisters

So you might be wondering why this blog post is called 'Campervans'!
Well, as part of my business is dealing with cute cuddly babies, I'm often browsing the internet or looking on twitter for great and unusual baby products - anything I can talk to my customers about whilst I'm squashing their baby's hands or feet in clay!

This week I came across some fabulous little baby shoes - they just made me think "Oh wow! How sweet are these? I wish I'd seen them when my daughter was a baby." So here they are:

Campervan Baby Shoes!

They are made from lovely quality leather by the British company Pre Shoes . There are loads of lovely designs, including a blue/red campervan design for boys too!

Following on from that, I thought I'd have a browse on Folksy to see what else I could find with campervans on! There are loads of things!! However, some of the nicest I found were these cushions:

Handmade Campervan cushion

They are made by Kindred Rose and there are other lovely cushions in gorgeous colour combos. She is patiently waiting for her first Folksy sale, so please do visit :)

That brings me nicely back to Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts who, of course, makes these which you can buy here

Personalised Campervan wall canvas

Wendy very kindly nominated me for a 'Stylish Blogger' Award as did Angels and Diamonds . Thank you both very much! I haven't had much chance to return the mention and nominate my 15 blogs, but I haven't forgotten....

Perhaps, once I've got through my piles of painted letters, unframed baby impressions, bags of knitting wool etc. I'll be organised enough!