A week in Crafts...

This week I have been feeling like abit of a fickle crafter, my mind has been buzzing with the endless craft ideas, perhaps it’s the position of the moon, but something has been effecting my craft vibe!

Ages ago little Bee and myself brought a small jewellery making collection from eBay, I then sat under my vintage sewing machine table collecting dust, feeling neglected. This week I had an urge to get that little box of goodies out and start learning a new skill, I’ve never done any jewellery making (well except little plastic beads bracelets as a child, but I don’t think that counts!) so I thought with little Bee being almost 9 now, that it would be a fantastic opportunity for Mumma and Bubba to learn a new craft skill together.

There are so many great resources and tutorials out the on the web, my personal favourite place to search is pinterest.

Our first mission was to identify what the many little bags contained. Who new jewellery making was so technical?!

I found a fab little tutorial here, which explains how to make a basic bracelet, along with loads of other fab tutorials. I know what you’re thinking, you don’t need a tutorial to make a bracelet, just thread the beads on, well you over achiever it’s actually a lot more involved than one might think.

I quickly realised I was missing a key tool, pliers! Good old eBay came to the rescue and I managed to order 2 pairs of pliers, one normal round nose (like I know what that means!) and a pair of crimp pliers. Both costing around £3 each.

So at this point, armed with absolute minimal knowledge, we were good to go!

Let the jewellery making commence!

Obviously the beading part is the easy (and fun) part, manipulating the fastening into place is a little trickier, but with a little practise myself and little Bee managed it.

And so our first bracelets were created!

Little Bee intends to make more to sell in the little handcraft shop in our village. 

Last week little Bee had a 'head teacher challenge' to produce a piece of work on someone who inspires her, i was extremely touched that she wanted to do it on me, however the teacher said 'no parents!!' (mean!) So little Bee changed it to Cath Kidston, and i was extremely proud when she won first place! Good work little one! I think i have a budding craft entrepreneur in the making!

On to all other craft business of the week!

I have been crocheting a round cushion for the shop using the delightful pattern over at Pink Milk, i love Heathers tutorials and patterns, they are always a visual delight with her happy colour choices and also very clear to follow.

I'm making mine using Stylecraft DK in a lovely soft peach colour, 

Ive also been working on some little crochet twine baskets for the boys bedroom, they are going to be blue and the usual brown twine colour, I'm making the pattern up as i go, so as soon as i finish the first one and have a spare minute i will pop the pattern on here for anyone who might be interested!

 My next creative adventure was making these sweet little hanging fabric fish! I drew up a template myself, and after some trial and error of getting the twine hanging from them i eventually came up with the best way of doing it, i plan to pop a little tutorial on my blog for that too in the near future.

I'm selling these little beauties in our local
handmade craft shop, The Hive

 At the beginning of the week i had a lovely delivery of soap supplies, so i delved straight in and made some Shea butter and rose soaps.

Ta-Dah!

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And last but not least, i made some little zipper cases. The vehicle one was quickly snapped up by the boys, and one has become my new craft case, for crochet hooks, pens, etc.

And here is my little basket of lovlies all ready to head of to the shop!

I would love to hear about your crafting week! So make my day and leave me a little comment!

Toodle-Pips

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