2014 Crafting Recap

2014 may have been a quiet year on the craft blogging front, as I became rather distracted with Doing A Thing, but here's a recap of some of my posts from the past year...

Vintage Measuring Tape Belt

Made using an old measuring tape, a buckle, eyelets and glue.

Paper Sticks of Rock / Beach-Themed Party Favours
Made from paper, card and cellophane.

Easiest Christmas Pine Cone Ornaments
Made with pine cones, pins and ribbon

Wire-Wrapped Beaded Leather Bracelets
Made with leather cord, wire, beads and basic findings
A project to use up some accidentally-bought leather cord.

Pearl & Leather Wrap Bracelet
Made with leather cord, faux pearls, and basic findings.

Cord & Chain Necklace
Made with cord, chain, beads, embroidery thread and basic findings

Upcycled Festive Heart Decorations
Made with an old pillow case, pillow stuffing and embroidery thread

Charity Christmas Window Display
Created from donated, handmade and recycled/upcycled items!

 Well, that's probably about it for this year. I'll post more leather cord crafts as I make them, and some others along the way. Until then, seasons greetings to you all. :)

Cord & Chain Necklace

Though I had some hassle getting cord ends that would fit my reams of leather cord, I finally settled for some coil end springs (which are slightly too big, but close enough).

So, armed with my shiny new pack of cord ends, I began experimenting and now I have this cord & chain necklace tutorial to share with you!

This project will take 1-2 hours; it took me a while because I made a couple of mistakes during the process.

Here comes the how to!

Brown Paper Packages...

'Tis the season when the makers of gift-wrapping products are rubbing their hands in glee.
Well, sorry rich dudes, but I wrapped all my presents for the grand sum of 89p.

(Yes, 89p!)

Christmas Window Display

As I've mentioned here previously, I volunteer at a charity shop. One of the great perks of volunteering is that I get to flex my creative fingers in putting together window displays!
Being a charity, we don't have a huge budget to play with (or any budget, really) so it's a case of being super-inventive with reams of donated stuff and scrap card/paper/etc.

Get your skates on and grab that charity bargain before someone else does!

This year in particular, I've tried to make some displays that are more visually interesting! I've intended to post about some of them for a while, so will eventually share pictues of the summer and autumn-themed windows I created.
For now, here is our Victorian Christmas-themed display!

Ivy & Pine Cone Wreath

With Christmas in just a couple of weeks, Channel 4 have gifted us with more Kirstie's Handmade Christmas. One of the features on this week's episode was an ivy wreath. It was made to be hung up horizontally, and was adorned with candles and little paper stars in true Scandinavian style.

I was inspired to make one myself, but opted for one to hang vertically on the door. I ended up with the wreath in the picture above, which I decorated with some ribbon, baubles, and good old pine cones.

Hopefully this will hold together during Christmas--the ivy is remarkably easy to manipulate and holds itself in shape, but last night we had really strong winds (luckily I'd seen the forecast and brought the wreath indoors!) For a first attempt, I'm pleased with how this turned out!

Upcycled Festive Heart Decorations

Yesterday I made these Scandinavian-inspired heart decorations for our Christmas tree. They're very simple to make, and almost completely upcycled!

The method is so easy it's guessable, so I didn't make a proper tutorial, but here's a quick run down.

I used:
Template (from junk mail)
Fabric (old pillowcase)
Filling (from knackered old pillow)
Embroidery thread (from charity shop)

Using the template, I cut out hearts and sewed them right sides together, leaving a gap for turning.

Then I turned them so the right side of the fabric was facing outwards, and stuffed them with filling.

After sewing up the gap, I threaded a darning needle with 5-6 inch lengths of embroidery thread and pushed it through the top of the hearts, tying the ends in a knot to make a loop.

Here they are on our tree! Also seen here are several homemade items I've posted about in the past:
Recycled Magazine Garland
Tin Can Tea Light Holders
Felt Doves and Peace, Hope & Joy Stars Decorations

Pearl & Leather Wrap Bracelet

In my attempt to use up some more from my leather cord stash, I made this pearl and leather wrap bracelet!

With this DIY you can make use of any small beads you have lying around; I went for faux pearls as I had lots of small ones left over from some broken vintage necklaces.

You'll need:

Leather cord (I used 4mm cord)

Small beads

Beading wire

Jewellery wire (I used approx. 1mm wire)

Clasp

Jump rings

Crimps

Tools:

Scissors

Wire cutters

Round nosed pliers

Flat nosed pliers

Crimping pliers (optional--use flat nosed pliers if you don't have crimpers)

Wire-Wrapped Beaded Leather Bracelets

Today I want to share a how-to for these wire-wrapped, beaded leather bracelets.

As I posted previously, I have a ridiculous amount of leather cord, so I used a little of it in this tutorial!

These bracelets would make a nice little gift for anyone, as you can pick colours and beads according to their personal tastes.

Adventures in Leather Cord

When making a costume last year, I ordered some 4mm leather cord for a lace-up detail. When I came to use it, I realised I'd bought the wrong thing for the job.

Ten metres of the wrong thing.

So it has been stashed away in my cupboard for over a year.
After finding it the other day, I decided I ought to do some crafting and use it up!

Having looked for inspiration online, I've seen a lot of bracelets. Mostly they used much thinner cord.
I have my thinking cap on. I'll try to come up with something different.

In the meantime, my next couple of posts will probably be bracelets ;)

Keep an eye on the blog to find out what I end up making. There might be lots of things (I do have ten metres of the stuff, after all...argggggggh!)


Have you ever ordered the wrong thing and only realised when it was too late to send it back? (Or decided to keep it anyway, in case it's useful?) 
What did you do with it in the end?

Easiest Christmas Pine Cone Ornaments

Alright, so I haven't updated here for ages, and it's been even longer since I shared a DIY!
So here I am, with a shiny new tutorial for pine cone baubles!

This how to is ridiculously easy and obvious, and there's a no-sew version, yay!

You'll need:
Pine cones
Ribbon
Drawing pins
Needle and thread to match ribbon (skip this if going for the no-sew option)
Fray stopper/clear nailpolish/glue to stop ribbon fraying
Scissors or pinking shears

Folk Tales of the Sea People

Over at Doing A Thing, I've been sharing a writing and painting project, Folk Tales of the Sea People. Since it's a creative endeavour, I realised, "Why haven't I written about it on Unfortunately Oh?"

What is Folk Tales of the Sea People?
An illustrated collection of Grimm-style fairy stories, presented as though collected from people of the sea by Cadogan Browne, a fictitious explorer of yester-year.

What mythical creatures are in the stories?
Mermaids, Siren, Selkie, Nereids, and more. I borrowed from the folklore of various different countries.

Which age group are the stories suitable for?
It depends on the story. Some, like Yam and the Octopus, are suitable for younger children; others are more suited to older children, teens, young adults and adults.

The Stories:

Preface and Introduction
In which a modern-day professor comments on the fact science has proved that mermaids to not exist, and Cadogan Browne introduces his compilation with insistence that they do.

Halwyn, or A Pinch of Salt
A tale of Selkie-folk in a saltless sea, set upon by a terrible creature--and what they do to defeat him.

A Havsrå's Fortune
The tale of a lonely Havsrå, who has the gift of seeing the future, but is cursed that Human men shall never remember her face.

Yam and the Octopus
A simple story about a nosy boy, and a grumpy octopus.

Golden Scales
In which Glyndwr the Vain learns not to be vain, through rather awful means. (Do note the warning at the beginning of this one.)

The Clam Keeper and the Sailor
A story about a Siren and a Human, who meet on the surface of the sea.

A Pearl For Your Daughter
A cautionary tale about a spoilt young Mermaid.

There are further stories to come, including that of a sea monster, a strange gentleman, sunken treasure, draugs and more. I'll post them all on Doing A Thing, so please follow there to see future posts.
Meanwhile, to see all the stories together, use the Folk Tales of the Sea People tag :)


Well, that's it for now. Sorry my posts here have been so few and far between, and so lacking in tutorials. I've not been particularly crafty recently, and when I have been, my crafting has been things that are fairly obvious (like shortening a skirt). So I've nothing to share!
Still, I'm grateful to everyone who takes a moment to read my posts, and hope you continue to enjoy them. :)

Refashioned Dress #2

Remember the far-too-costumey dress that I introduced as my 'next project'?

I finished it at the weekend. This is what it looks like now:

 And here's how I did it...

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Don't forget I run another blog, Doing A Thing, where I post about goals created and completed from a 101/1001 list!

Next Project!

So, this is going to be my next refashion project!
I bought this dress at a kilo sale last year, but it is far too small on the ribs, and a little too costumey.

My main reason for buying was the fabric...however it spent a few months stored away, as I couldn't decide what to do with it!

Recently I was watching a new TV show, This Old Thing, which has a section where vintage clothes are transformed with a little nip and tuck, and I was inspired!

I've decided to do something similar to what I did with my retro floral dress (which I wear so much during the summer months!)

This time, I won't be able to use the bodice (it's too small!) so I'll keep that aside for future projects.
Instead, I'm going to:

• Cut off the bottom half of the skirt and rehem
• Make a new, sleeveless bodice from the bottom half of the skirt.
• Remove the white broderie anglais trim
• (Maybe) replace it with a flat trim

Overall it will hopefully have a similar shape to my floral dress, but I might play with the shape of the neckline a little. We shall see.

This won't happen yet as I've still got another project on (appearing soon on Doing A Thing) but after that, I'll be cutting and sewing like a madwoman!

Watch this space to see how I go :)

Paper Sticks of Rock, or Beach-Themed Party Favours

Recently I made a beach-themed window display for a charity shop. No British seaside resort is complete without sticks of rock, so I made these fake ones out of paper!

These would also make cute party favours if filled with little sweets, or an addition to beach-themed décor.

Read on for how to put them together (it really is as simple as you think)

Vintage Measuring Tape Belt

Though I’ve been massively sidetracked by Doing A Thing, today I sat down and made this belt from a vintage measuring tape.

This is a project that’s been in my To Do pile for a long time, which is ridiculous considering how easy it was.

Read on for a how to. This project is simple and doesn’t take all that long: fifteen minutes at the most.

Retro Clothes by the Kilo

Went to a Kilo Sale at a Vintage clothes warehouse yesterday. Bought things! Wrote about it on Doing A Thing, including retro shopping tips! 

Read more

Ideal Home Show

This is a bit of a plug for my new blog, Doing A Thing :)

Head over there now to see my post about the Ideal Home Show, which I attented last week :)

(I won't make tonnes of posts like this here, but thought this might be of interest to some of you!)

Wardrobe Revolution Update #2

I first posted about Wardrobe Revolution last November (twice). A month later I posted some progress, then this blog fell by the wayside and I didn't post anything else about it. Boo, me.

So it's time I updated, isn't it?

Dress (worn as top): TK Maxx
Skirt: Charity shop
Belt: Charity shop
Necklace: Handmade

I think I'm doing well. Aside from the few off-days where I slobbed about in jogging bottoms and t-shirts, I've more or less managed to never wear exactly the same outfit twice (accessories are your friend!)

New Blog!

This blog is still on hiatus (I have plans, but haven't acteed upon them yet, and still feel a bit of a creative drought...)

Meanwhile, I created a new blog:

Doing A Thing

I'm going to use it to document, surprisingly, doing things. This year I want to get out and do new things, see new things, be more productive, be more creative... That's what Doing A Thing is for.
I've written more about it on the new blog, so please head over and check it out!