Baby Cot Mobile Spring Birds tutorial

Today I will share with you how I made this beauty. My inspiration for this piece was my not yet born baby girl... Bring on 8th November...heh So a while back I found this on the web: Brid Mobile This is a project from Disney Family Fun website. It involves printing those shapes of birds on a paper then cutting gluing both sides and putting the string through. I loved the birds on this mobile but wanted something more durable than paper!

I decided to use felt because is lightweight, doesn't fray, comes in loads of lovely colors, is durable, is soft and easy to work with, can be sewn, appliqué or glued.

 

I've cut out the templates out of paper and then used different colors of felt to decorate the birds so they look more like those on the picture of the template.
I've made some decorative stitching with embroidery thread, put fronts and backs together and sew them using blanket stitch, before I've closed the outer stitching I've stuffed those birds with some wadding (batting) so they don't look flat.

To put those up I've designed special holder, kind of bird cage looking. I've used for that some mount board, cut the shape (needs loads of hard work this one, it isn't easy to cut complicated shapes out of mount board, you will need very sharp craft knife! and don't cut yourself!) then I've decoupage the shapes with colourful papers.

 

You can download template for this one that I've designed: just print out this images on A4 paper they should be on the whole page of A4.

 

 

After I've decoupage it I've punched the holes where I wanted the ribbon to go to hold my birds. Tied everything together added some letters to spell my baby's name and here it is lovely girly baby mobile to hang in her room.

 

You can download the birds template from here: printable PDF birds mobile

Here are couple more mobiles that I've made, if you would like a special template to make your own mobile please contact me, I can design something extraordinary for you for really small fee up to a £2 at most.

Owl baby girl mobile no fuss ready handmade available to purchase through my Etsy store: Owl baby mobile

 

 

 

Penguin baby boy mobile no fuss ready handmade available to purchase through my Etsy store: penguin baby mobile

Thanks for looking! Have fun making your own baby cot mobile!

which is the foxiest of them all?

As you might know I'm making few cold/ heat rice packs in a shape of woodland animals. Recently I bought some felt and cannot decide what color combination to use for the actual products. have a look at my foxy board and choose which you like best! Thank you. Fox cold/heat rice pack owl pocket warmer heart owl pocket warmer

Cold/ heat packs, wheat bags, rice bags, hand warmers Design Ideas

Today I'm experimenting with couple of felting techniques like needle felting and felting appliqué. My design idea is to create unusual, unique personalized hand warmers or if you prefer cold/ heat pack or rice bag, wheat bag. I really like the product from WormeWoole on Etsy they are really cute and I think something like that will go very nicely with my products that are Muffs hand warmers and bags MKT Design muff bag owl. So I experiment and here is my journey:

Hand stitched felt shapes Owl fox and more filled with rice....

Very nice shape and all. BUT... heats nice and stays warm for long time, cooling: bad... doesn't stay cool, felt prevents it from getting really cold even if in freezer couple nights.. Other issue is hand stitching, looks lovely but takes really long time with the details and all.
Conclusion: Price point too expensive, doesn't stay cold:(

Needle felting: Felt on felt: tried to needle felt my pre cut shapes to a larger piece of felt...ok attached nicely it isn't that sharp as the hand stitched shapes and the greatest disappointment is: try pulling on the edge of attached piece to see if is secure and guess what? it all came out... No No for needle felted owl design on my heat packs!:( what a shame

BUT.. here is a pleasant surprise... tried a loose merino wool floss or other and love the thing you can do with it.. like a letter and you wont be able to pull this out;) Will need to incorporate that in my design... I've tried to write something...
-unfortunately my skills aren't advanced enough and one letter that was nice I've made by mistake :P heh

 

and love the simple 3D shapes, had some flower shapes cut out from felt and decided to play with it too.. and have a look-see... started from the middle and got pretty little 3D flower sticking out... this will be nice for e.g. hair clips or hair bands or something?
Conclusion:needle felting maybe nice for some but for me isn't working unless the 3d shapes. who knows future projects??..

Last but not least machine sewn felt shapes: ok I think it looks good, I've tried appliqué on bigger piece and also cut out shape and can manage to make both with pleasing results...

 

 

how to make them into a heat/cold pack?

 

 

attached them to a 100% cotton fabric, one with nice designs and voila! cotton is better for cold packs and felt at the front better to keep warmth. Plus got unusual and personalized designs.

 

Conclusion:Job well done, if I may say so myself;)

Now need to make a variety of stock and include them in my Etsy and Folksy shop!

Owls

For the last weeks, months or so I got crazy about owls!!! Don't know what's whit them but they are so adorable in all form. Currently I have owl earrings, owl ring, owl bracelet. Cannot get enough of them!

As a designer I saw an opportunity there. If I love owls so much and could get a hand on some owl accessories that must mean there should be more owl funs out there! After much deliberating and designing I came up with stunning owl design! I started my business making muffs- a hand wormers that were worn in the winter by lovely Victorian ladies. unfortunately you don't see them so often now. I've made few different styles over the past couple of years. They include pocket that can store all your essentials including wallet, they keep you worm and best of all you will never loose your gloves any more!! MKT Design website

OK. My business history aside, Owls! So here it is an Owl adaptation of muff bag, hand warmer.

Get an Owl for yourself

Tea Cups by Ann Wood

Recently while browsing the internet I came across really great little thing.

This Tea cups are made by Ann Wood.

She also have made a tutorial on how to make this cute little Tea cup!
Here it is:
Ann Wood Blog
She also makes other great things ! really inspiring!

I had a go at making those cuties! I make them tiny, big and medium, but didn't use paper mache technique, was too messy for me;P
I have transformed the pattern a little adding tabs so I could glue them together in one piece. I have printed The Tea Cup Template from Ann Wood on the back of decorative card.
Then I have put it together in a 3d form and voila!
Here are my little tea cups.

Creative business Keeping track of things!

Thinking of setting up your own creative business?? Here are few tips and advices you might need.
For the starters I thought of shearing some info with you that comes with experience and saves you a lot of time and effort. Because most important thing is to be crafty not a bureaucrat who is stuck under no needed paperwork!
First tip: Keeping track of what you are doing.
Keep your stock under control!

You can do this in your notebook or Word or as I did use an Excel. Write what have you got from your suppliers, how many, what you can do with it, price and most important where you got it from!!! If you would like to do it in an Excell here I have prepared for you one ready to download: Stock control

Keep track of your suppliers

Keeping track of your suppliers will do you good in the future; saving you time and possibly money to when you run out of particular thing you had in the stock.
Also when browsing internet, bookmark, Bookmark, BOOKMARK. All the websites, that you find interesting make a little folders, and add them! Most important make a folder of supplier’s websites, where you can buy thing from, Bookmark is the greatest tool!!

And make sure you google stuff you looking for truly, compare prices, qualities and availability!
The best supply web I can recommend are:

www.ebay.co.uk – the best market place there is for everything, and I mean everything you can think of! It is amazing and fairly cheap to start up with and no need for wholesalers quantities if you just trying the ground with a new product!

Recently I stumbled across this web: www.seamstar.co.uk – looking for some quirky and unusual fabrics! Ohh so amazing! And if you need your fabric extremely fast if you order in the morning you will receive your package the next day, and inside simply stunning, first time came across such an effort in wrapping and extras! Thought fabrics were a bit pricy but when you receive them they wont disappoint! Love the pandas!!!

I bought my first domestic sewing machine on: www.jaycotts.co.uk they do an amazing deals and packages, also I got some additional foots etc, really good service and affordable, machine still works perfectly as new after about 4 yr.
My industrial sewing machine I bought directly from the supplier who deals with recondition machines and he also puts together brand new ones! Very affordable! Nigel Mann- 41 Tennyson Road Kettering tel. (01536) 514880/ 518859.

Can also add
www.u-handbag.com
www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk
www.theidentitystore.co.uk
www.fabric.com –good if you need a name of fabric, they got special glossary

There are so many you might want to check out but it will take too long;) ok good source of suppliers can find in Sew magazine, it is loaded with so many!!!

Just remember that some items bought on the internet got extra price for postage. Devil is in details, remember to check the postage price and add it on to the total for your item/items, sometimes there is option of combined postage (eg on ebay) but you might need to contact the seller to update that before you pay for combined goods.

Don’t forget the real world there are many amazing deals you can find down your local market in the haberdashery stall or fabric stall, some town have got little local shops which stock some cheap fabrics imported from India. If you are in different town or country is worth checking out this places for some unusual, different and inexpensive stuff!!

Space saving home improvement DIY project for crafty people.

For all those crafters, designers etc.

Did you ever find yourselves short of floor space, moving your furniture around just to have enough space, to cut some fabric or draft a pattern? Pinning your pattern to a fabric and discovering that is also pinned to a carpet! I'm telling you it's a nightmare. I live in one bedroom flat and with all my crafting supplies and furniture; there isn't a lot of floor space left.

I have been struggling with it for ages until, came across plywood/MDF and a great idea sprang to my mind. I could use a big piece of that wood to make a provisional table for all my pattern cutting needs! So I went to DIY shop nearby and as it happened they had plenty of what I was looking for and the price per square mtr. was reasonable.
I bought 1.20mtr by 1.80mtr piece they also cut to any size you want without extra charge so I was very pleased and paid £12, only what a bargain!
Carrying this piece of wood to my flat was quiet tricky because it won't fit in my car! Have that in mind when deciding to do this DIY project.
I had to walk with 120x180 piece of thin wood under my arm, only my head was visible and all people were looking at me and my wood, crossing over to the other side of the street.

I got home in the end, cleaned my wood a little and duck taped the raw edges. I also bought wallpaper, only for decorative purpose. I wanted to use my wood as a 'decorative background headboard' for my bed. Only mistake I have done was to attach the wallpaper with glue of some sort, the background turned out a bit bumpy. You could use double sticky tape which will give much smoother outcome.

And here we have a mock-up pattern cutting table on your bed and a pretty background on a plain wall.

I've attached some nails to the wall on each side of the wood board coz was sticking out a bit, but with those bent nails is great!

Now I can cut and make patterns easier and quicker!

Do try this at home!:)