Making Fimo Beads

How to make this bad boy:

Get yourself some Fimo clay. I bought mine online. Preheat your oven to 110 degrees Celsius. Break off a piece of clay, the size depends on what size beads you're after. Knead it with your fingers to make it more malleable, then form into balls by rolling between your hands. Use a skewer to carefully and slowly insert a hole through the ball. Place them on a piece of foil on an oven tray. Give them some oven lovin' for no longer than 30 minutes. 20 minutes should do the trick. 

Let them cool for a bit, then admire them for a bit.

Thread the beads on to a piece of leather, string, chain.. whatever you fancy. And Tadaaahhhhh, you made a spunky necklace:

Framed Vintage Postcards

 I bought some vintage postcards from an antique store and I think they're cute enough for a frame. They look lovely in a cluster on the wall with a bit of crafty loving. I bought some cheap photo frames made from wood from a cheap shop, then painted them to look pretty. So first I sanded them back to remove the laquer already on them. Next I painted them white (just in acrylic paint, because that's just what I had at home). Once they were dry, I painted on another layer of white paint. Let them dry again, then sand them back roughly to give them a vintage/rustic look. Rub them back until the original wood peeks through. I pimped mine by adding doilies and ornaments to the frames, just using a craft glue. And here's the result:

Festive

So I've made my own Christmas tree this year, and its made completely from recycled materials. I've cut out an old calendar and second hand doilies and used a couple of branches from a park. I also made those uber cute felt-face-puddings. And I think its a pretty darn cute tree.

Rainy Day = Crafty Day

Rainy days are the best for crafting and drinking tea.

So today I made some paper love heart bunting, drank some tea and listened to some Jonathon Boulet for some crafty inspiration.  Here's the result, I think it looks pretty darn sweet:

I've used pretty scrapbooking paper, both plain colour and patterned. Its super easy.. fold the paper in half and draw half a heart to create a symmetrical heart:

 Use this as your template to trace the others:

Thread the hearts on to cotton (or twine would work well too). That's it.

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Softies!

I began using existing patterns to create softies, but now my creations are freeform. There are loads of books available with super cute patterns and instructions to make softies. It helps if you follow a pattern for the first few so you get an idea of the processes and how to go about it. These are some that I've made without a pattern:

And here is a sweetie I made using a pattern from a book from the softies range. It is Beetle Bug: 

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