Spawn more Overlord (plushie)!

Hello! Gosh, only a day between posts? What's happening?! I figured that since now I don't have uni *or* Christmas to spend time on, I'll upload additional posts whenever I have them ready! So, the posting schedule is going to be kinda weird for the next month or two, but I'll still post a least once a week so you really just have to worry about getting sick of me! (Which could totally never happen .... right?) ~___^

Anyway, here is Scott's Christmas present - an Overlord plushie! Yay!

 

He's got kinda funny face, huh? ^___^

 

 

I used a sewing pattern from Arixystix which required more skill than I have! I'm not that experienced making plushies, and so I had some troubles with the pattern which is an advanced one.

But I finished him, and Scott's happy, and that's really all that matters, right? ^___^

Anyway, Scott has named him Gasbag; apparently Overlords are basically full of hot air? *shrug*

 

 

 Here's Gasbag with Squishy, for size comparison. They're totally buddies now! ^___^

Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon, so I'll have to hunt around for another Zerg plushie to make for Scott! It's good to have a go-to theme for gifts, don't you think?

So, what do you think? Do you have a thing that people always make or buy for you? For me, it's craft supplies; surprising, huh? ~___^

- Lisa xx 

Cross-stitched rose lavender sachet and faux vintage jars

Hello! Did you have a nice annual festival of togetherness? I'm on to my *fourth* day of celebration today; wowzers! Today is the day I get to open my presents too, but while I'm waiting to do that I thought I'd show you two presents that I made for other people! ^___^

For my Nana I made this lavender sachet, embellished with a cross-stitched rose. Yeah, I didn't really think that one through, huh? ~___^

 

The rose pattern is from Mollie Makes issue thirty, but I did change it a bit. Originally there was a heart to the left of the rose, as well as some additional buds above the main flower; I didn't want the sachet to be huge though, so I reduced the rose into more of a square shape.

Lavender sachets are super easy to make, as all you need to do is sew a rectangle that is open at one end. After scooping in the dried lavender, I added a few stitches across the top and then tied on the ribbon. 

My house smelt like lavender for days after making this; it was so lovely that I may have to make one of these sachets for myself! ^___^

 

For my mum, I made this set of faux vintage bottles. They were also quite simple to make, but they look really effective. I used this tutorial and some of the jars that I kept because they are interesting shapes. (I swear I'm not a hoarder!)

I thought they looked a bit plain straight out of the oven though, so I decorated them a little bit. My mum likes a vintage, country-rustic aesthetic, so I used baker's twine, old book pages, brown paper, vintage buttons, and thick jute twine. The Coca-Cola bottle and the Sarsaparilla bottle I left mainly as is; I just removed everything except the front logos before I coloured the bottles.

I also gifted some bright yellow chrysanthemums with these bottles, but they look pretty good as is, don't you think? ^___^

Did you make any gits this year? Did you receive anything handmade? And did you/ are you having a lovely holiday? I hope you are!

- Lisa xx

Leather bat bows

Hello! How are you? I feel like somehow my life has actually been busier since uni finished which really does seem improbable! Maybe it's just been going by quicker since I've been having such fun! ^___^ If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know some of this, but since my last blog post I have dyed my hair blue (well, bluey green with sections of black ... ~___^), crocheted enough granny squares to now have over 100, had a flower crown making party to celebrate my birthday, completed an epic thrifting roadtrip with Rebecca (photos of which I will share with you soon!) and I've also been making myself a scarf (highly practical in this Australian summer heat!), sewing a few Christmas presents, and I even finished a project to share with you today! Omg, right? ^___^

I saw a photo of cute bat-esque bows on pinterest, but unfortunately the image was uncredited (don't you hate it when that happens?). I still wanted to make some though, so I drew up a quick pattern and got to crafting!

 If you'd like to make some too, you can click on the image above to download the pattern from Google Drive! ^___^

Here's what you'll need to make your own batty hairclips ^___^

1. Some leather or pleather scraps

2. Fabric and paper scissors

3. The pattern

4.  A needle and thread

5. Bobby pins

Firstly, cut out the pattern. I have a special pair of scissors that I use only for cutting paper, because I don't want to dull my lovely fabric scissors ^___^

 

Then use the pattern to cut out the shape from your fabric. If you can, do this without pins because they will often leave marks on leather/pleather. If you find this step tricky though, you can draw the outline on the back of the fabric and use that as your cutting guideline.

You'll also need to cut out a small rectangle of fabric to serve as the middle of your bow. Mine was about 1cm x 2cm, but this doesn't have to be exact.

 

Then fold the middle of your bat shape like the letter 'm' and use your needle and thread to secure the fold.

 

This is what it looks like from the back ^___^

 

Wrap your small rectangle of fabric around the bow and sew it together to make a small tube around the middle of your bow.

Tie off your thread, and then slip a bobby pin through the fabric tube. 

 

The tube should be rather snug so your bobby pin will stay in place without the need for glue or stitches.

 

And then that's it! You're done and now you can make more! ~___^

Yay! I think I'll make an extra big one to wear as a headband too! ^___^
I hope you like it; if you make one then I'd love to see it! ^___^

Now I'm off to refresh my university emails repeatedly until my end of year results come in! Eeek! Wish me luck?

- Lisa x

Cotton string wrapped candelabra

Hello! How are you? I've had a lovely start to my uni break; I've cleaned and gardened my little heart out! One of the things I found while cleaning was this candelabra which was, you know, nice, but not really in keeping with the rustic aesthetic my style.

So, I grabbed some washi tape and some cotton thread and got to work! And now it looks like this:

Ta da!

 

And this is how it looks like when it's lit up! ^___^ Although it's not really traditionally Christmas-y, I think it goes well with my pom-pom tree so I'm going to consider it a Christmas decoration. Plus, anything with candles is automatically extra Christmas-like, right? ~___^

This was a very easy project to do, albeit time-consuming. To wrap the candelabra I cut lengths of cotton thread off the main ball and made them into smaller balls; this really helps make manovering the thread around much easier. I tied on the thread with a knot and then wrapped the thread around both the candelabra and the tail of the knot. Then I just kept wrapping!

For the actual candle-holders, I just tore off strips of washi tape and wrapped them around the glass. I used two strips because, hey, the more washi tape the better! ~___^

And that's that! ^___^ 

The next post I had to share with you was going to be a sewing project, but my machine has thrown in the towel. Oh no! So I'll need to think of something else to finish, but now that I can't do a sewing project, that's all I can think to do! Typical! ~___^

- Lisa xx

Mini bud vases

Hello! Today I've got some teeny tiny bud vases to show you! ^___^

Eeep! Aren't they precious? I think small things are always extra cute! ^___^

They were also very easy to make! I used washi tape (not much of a suprise there!) and some of the little bottles that my glucometer test strips came in. I was really pleased to think of something to do with these sweet little containers because I have dozens of them! 

All I did to make them was cut off the lid using a pair of scissors, peel the wrapper off ...

 

... and then decorate with washi tape!

 

So simple! A coating of mod-podge doesn't go astray, since they will be coming into contact with water, but you can also skip that step. Without the mod-podge, the washi tape is easily removable, so you can have bud vases that you can update to suit any occasion! ^___^

 

I know that most people reading this won't have heaps of empty test strip containers lying about, but this would also work for reusing almost any kind of small container. I'm just pleased I've been able to use up some of the waste that my diabetes creates! Now ... to work out something to do with all the empty insulin cartridges ... ~___^

- Lisa xx