Advent Challenge Day Twenty Five..

... What Christmas Means To Me 

Christmas to me means all of the above but also spending time with family and friends.

I thought today would be a good day to recap all the designs over the last month, Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my blog and hope you have enjoyed my Advent Challenge.

I hope you all have a magical Christmas and a fantastic 2015 :)

See you soon

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Twenty Four...

... Santa's Sack

 HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Today is my last day at work and I'm travelling back home to spend Christmas with the family, I hope you all have safe travels and have got all last minute Christmas presents sorted. 

Just one more day of advent challenge left (which I may post later as will be up to my eyes in wrapping paper, bucks fizz and tinsel tomorrow).

See you soon

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Twenty Three...

... Surprise us

Just a quick post tonight as feeling a bit poorly, just in time for Christmas :( - bad times!

But on a happier note today is Christmas Eve-Eve, YEAY!

Hope you are all feeling lovely and festive,

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Twenty Two...

....Wreath 

Happy Monday! I really enjoyed doing this one it just came together and I'm really pleased with it.

Can you believe it, we are SOOO close? I can almost smell the Christmas dinner cooking, EXCITED!

See you tomorrow,

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Twenty One...

.... Vintage Toy

Hope you're having a good weekend. I'm back to good old felt and freehand machine embroidery today to make this little train. I treated myself to some better quality threads and they're a dream, no more fighting with my sewing machine, YIPPEE!

See you tomorrow,

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Twenty...

...Three Kings 

This design is slightly different to my others. I thought if I cut the three kings all out of felt and stitched them, I'd get in a terrible mess and so I used Photoshop to add felt to one of my hand drawings. 

Wow.. we have got to the twentieth already, where is this month going?! Five more days to go!

See you tomorrow

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Nineteen...

... Dala Horse

When I was a little girl my Papa gave me a beautiful wooden horse decorated in brightly painted colours, I love it and still have it to this day. I never knew it was called a 'Dala Horse' until Googling what one was for this challenge. So here is my embroidered interpretation!

See you tomorrow,

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Eighteen...

... Festive Food 

I love a Christmas pudding motif, I think it's so jolly! So I'm glad I can include it somewhere in my advent challenge! 

Only 7 more to go! 

See you tomorrow

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Seventeen...

... Frozen 

This time next week it will be Christmas Eve, can you believe it?! I cannot wait! 

My Christmas shopping is getting done slowly but surely, the plan was to hand-make my gifts this year, but true to form I've left things too late, there's always next year, maybe I'll get started on them in January (or maybe not!)

Have a good Wednesday,

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Sixteen...

... Gingerbread House 

Things are getting busier round these parts, as Christmas gets closer, my to do list gets longer! (Shamless plug: if you would like a free download to-do list that I created look here). 

I'm trying to stay on top of the advent challenge as I'd be gutted if I didn't finish.

How are your Christmas preparations going?

See you tomorrow,

xxx 

Advent Challenge Day Fifteen..

.. Stars

A simple one today, I'm not entirely loving it (in fact I don't love it at all), I spent ages on it and just decided 'this will do' not the attitude I know, but it'll do! 

In other festive news, our Christmas tree is up YEAYYYYY! It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Have a happy Monday,

See you tomorrow

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Fourteen...

... Favourite Christmas Colour(s)

This one was a tricky one to think of an idea for. So, I decided to do a design of one of my fave Christmassy items and I love rich reds, gingerbread browns and white together.  

I've been pinning some of my favourite festive things over on pinterest and this is the colour combo I keep noticing. 

Have a happy Sunday, 

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Thirteen...

...Pear Tree

Day 13 - unlucky for some, today brings another fight with my sewing machine, I've worked out it's the new thread I've bought that is snarling up my machine! That will teach me for thinking I got a bargain, I need to do a search into quality threads! 

Anywhoo, have a lovely Saturday, I think I'll be putting our Christmas tree up today (YEAY!) 

See you tomorrow,

xxx

Advent Challenge Day Twelve...

...Angel 

We are about half way, can you believe it?! 

 I had a little falling out with my sewing machine with this one. The threads kept pulling and looping. I am new at embroidery and applique. I only really started while doing this advent challenge, so I'm learning a lot and enjoying it but it's still quite new and scary! 

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Eleven...

... Robin Red Breast

We are flying now (get it?!). I think doing this challenge is speeding December up! Day 11 brings these romantic Christmas robins <3 got to love a bit of mistletoe. 

Happy Friday Eve, have a fab day,

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Ten...

...Christmas Jumper 

Woo double figures! Christmas is definitely in the air! I went to see my first ever panto last night (oh no you didn't) No I did honestly! It was fab!

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Nine..

.. Nut Cracker 

Day 9.. nearly into double figures! 

Now this one was a tricky one, I've not seen the Nut Cracker and short of just making a pair of silver nut crackers out of felt this is what I've come up with! I think the Nut Cracker character is meant to be mean and this lil chap looks more friendly with a need to see an orthodontist than a baddie! But hey I tried my best! (I may re-do him at the end as a friendly toy solider!) 

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Eight..

...Ding Dong

 

Happy Monday! Day 8 (Wooo 8 is my lucky number!) Today I'm back to mixing some freehand machine embroidery with Photoshop digital touches. 

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Seven...

... Winter Wonderland

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. Today is the turn of day 7- to be honest I was a bit stuck as to what to do for this one so thought I would use typography!

See you tomorrow 

xx

Advent Challenge Day Six..

.. Christmas Market

Yeay we have made it to the weekend! Today's design was hand drawn first then scanned in and finished off in Photoshop. I tried to make it cosy looking! 

Have a lovely Saturday and I'll see you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Five..

...A Snow Creature

Today's design is this dapper fellow. I think he is my fave so far. Crikey, we are on day five already, time flies while you're creating festive pictures (as the old saying goes!)

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Four...

... A Penguin

Penguins are my absolute favourite animal. I recently went on a zoo experience and got to go in the enclosure with the penguins (life made!) honestly the most fun ever! 

I've jazzed up this little fella with a pair of fancy dress antlers!

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Three..

.. A Tree Decoration.

Today's design is more digital than crafty. I cut out dark green felt and attached it to textured,recycled card and scanned it in. I then edited it in Adobe Photoshop. I used to do quite a bit of digital design and I am now doing a lot of handmade crafty work. I'm really enjoying combining the two.

 I wonder what tomorrow will bring :)

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day Two...

...Christmas Tree 

Ooo I'm really enjoying this creative challenge. Here is day two, it's mixture of fabric, card, twigs, embroidery and digital design. I'm liking trying to think of new techniques and media I can bring into my pictures, I'm having a hoot! 

Are you feeling christmassy yet? I certainly am. Now where's the mulled wine??

See you tomorrow

xx

Advent Challenge Day One..

... Santa's hat

Yeay it's finally here December 1st. I chose to practice my freehand machine embroidery  for today's advent challenge. If you want to get involved see my previous post for details.

No.1 done just 24 to go :)

Have a happy Monday,

See you tomorrow

xx

An Advent Challege..

Hello,

Happy Friday, the weekend is nearly upon us, and so is December. I'm so excited I LOVE Christmas and everything about it. I would be lying if I said I hadn't had any mince pies yet or listened to Michael Bublé's Christmas album on repeat in my car for the last week! I'm certainly ready for 1st December to roll round.

Faye Brown Designs has launched a fabulous advent challenge which encourages people to do something creative everyday on the run up to Christmas using her festive prompts..

What a fab idea, I'm really going to give this a good go and post a new print, photograph of festive phrase over here on my blog on each day. I can't wait. 

Is anyone else joining in too?

See you soon

xx

WOO HOO I'm a winner...

Hello,

Last week I entered Lily & Mae's competition to win a selection of their wonderful goodies. To my surprise I got a notification pop up on twitter from Lily & Mae to say I had won. Cue excited squeak.

The goodies, which are part of the Vintage set, came beautifully packaged in a cute gift box sealed with a wax stamp (how fab!). Each item was individually wrapped in tissue paper. The package felt so special, with a hand written note from Lily & Mae's founder Nina Austin.

The products are gorgeous, such good quality I can't wait to use them. They will definitely make having my morning cup of coffee and drying up a lot more special! And I can't wait to send my first note card out! 

I urge you to take a look at their web page here and pick up some lovely Christmas pressies, I reckon you should treat yourself too.

Thank you Lily & Mae you have made me one very happy girl.

Have a good week, 

See you soon

xx

Birthday fun...

Happy Monday :)

This weekend was my other half's birthday, we had such a fab time, he was a Zoo Keeper for a day at Dudley Zoo. It was such a fun day. I will post more about that (with loads of pics) later in the week!

I decided this year, I was going to hand make a card and some wrapping paper for him. We have been together 8 years and there are only so my soppy cards you can buy for one another so I decided this year to make my own (soppy) card!

I  chose a quote that I'd said to him a few days ago, which had made him laugh. I really like the bold print against the kraft card. I think I have accidentally stumbled across a new range! 

I also hand-printed this wrapping paper with a stamp that I made. I really quite like it too. It's so much fun printing your own card/wrap, it just makes the gifts a bit more personal. 

Watch out Christmas I'm printing mad at the moment!

Have a good week,

See you soon,

xx

Success comes in all shapes and sizes...

...Mine came in the shape of an egg cosy! YEAY! I've been having a look through my new books and bookmarking products I think my designs might look snazzy on. And the humble little egg cosy was one I thought would be super cute to make (I wasn't wrong). 

Now as you know from previous posts like this one I am not natural at sewing and I'm fairly new at it but I'm (slowly) getting there. So I thought a cheeky little egg cosy would be a nice project to start with.

My first attempt didn't go quite to plan, I ended up sewing all the edges together with it inside out (thank god for that stitch unpicking-thingy-ma-bob)and I didn't believe the template was the right size so made it smaller. What I ended up with was, not so much of a cosy, but an egg hat, that had to sit on top of the egg and not snuggle around it.

Not one to be 'beaten' (sorry) by an egg cosy I had another go last night with another of my designs. And excited squeak it worked....eeeeee how eggcellent (sorry again). I love my little cosy, look how cute it is! YEAY! 

See you soon

xx

Gotta love a to do list..

Hello, 

 Well I've been slowly cracking on with things I need to do for 'May I Design'. To be honest, I've just been writing a million 'To do' lists and slowly, one buy one,ticking them off. I love a list, I love even more ticking things off. 

For this reason the first point on my lists are usually 'write a to do list' just so I can immediately tick something off! With my love of lists in mind I have created a free printable download for you, so you can write yours on a jazzy print out to make it seem less hard work. 

You can find yours here! Hope you like it :) 

 Have a good weekend, hope you get things ticked off your list! 

 See you soon xx

May I do business?

Hello there and a very happy (rather chilly) Monday to you.

This weekend I went back home to Lichfield and had a lovely time with my parents. On Saturday I went through the plans I have for 'May I Design' and bless my folks they listened while I babbled on and then chatted through different ideas with me. (Thanks Mum and Dad you're both ace).

What I have decided to do is blog my way through the processes of setting up a small craft business. I am by no means an expert, and I know I'm going to make mistakes and experience challenges along the way. But I have dreamt of making and selling my designs since I was VERY young and have decided now is the time to really focus on doing just that. 

Ever since I can remember I have been doodling and decorating whatever surface I could lay my tiny mitts on, paper plates, school exercise books, drinking glasses and even kitchen roll. This has never left me and now I would LOVE to turn this into a small business. I don't plan to make millions (although that would be nice!) but if i can do it part-time I would be super proud!

I found this on pinterest, so true!

The problem, I'm finding out, is, to run your own business it's not as simple as creating beautifully decorated things, you have to be in charge of the finance, the marketing, the making, and every other bit in between.

 I am planning to launch 'May I Design' properly in the early parts of next year. And instead of being a secret squirrel and  doing everything behind the scenes it might be nice for both me (and hopefully) you to track the progress of a small craft business starting out. And if I can help and inspire any other designer/ makers along the way, then all the better.

So I'm going to do a series of blog posts called 'May I do business?' and bring my findings to you. 

If anyone out there is reading this and is just starting out too or has a more accomplished business and would like to give any advice of their own, please drop me an email here. I'd love to hear from you and possibly feature your advice in my blog too.

The crafting community is such a friendly one, I look forward to being a part of it.

Have a happy week,

see you soon xx

I'm getting brave..

Hi, Happy Friday eve :)

I've been having a week of more experimentation and trying out new things. As I've mentioned I'm learning how to sew, I'm really enjoying it and learning about all the things that are possible to do with the humble (pink) sewing machine.

Yesterday I received two new books I had ordered from Poppy Treffry. I LOVE her work and her quirky style. I am keen to learn how to embroider on my machine (to be honest I didn't realize there was a difference between just sewing and machine embroidery but hey there is!!). 

So with Poppy's gorgeous books in tow, an embroidery hoop (also completely new to me) an embroidery foot (who knew?) and the darning plate on (I know, I cant believe I managed it either) I was armed and ready to get embroidering. 

Well let me tell you, It's a whole new kettle of fish. It's so free, and flowy and FUN! Now my first attempts are a bit (VERY) wobbly but I'm proud of every stitch. Even the ones that look as if I drank a bottle of gin before starting (I didn't, it was just tea I promise).

The possibilities are endless. I definitely need to practice, practice, practice. But I'm so proud of how far I've come, especially from this post. 

Right back to it, now where's the gin, I mean tea!

See you soon

xx

Tunisia

Happy Monday,

I have just returned from a lovely week in Tunisia. My partner has family over there, so we try and visit as often as we can. I love it, the way of life, the beaches, (the cakes) but mostly all the wonderful colours and patterns. 

We usually stay in Hammamet, it's beautiful. In the Medina there, there are so many gift shops each filled with decorative souvenirs. All the door are adorned with gorgeous decoration too.

 I took a sketchbook away with me and have been busily sketching and working on 'May I Design'. I'm in the process of doing a bit of a re-brand, which now I'm back, is all go, go, go!

I'm like a little duck at the moment; all calm on the surface but furiously paddling underneath the water, or in my case, I'm busily getting fabric samples and working out, what, when and how I'm going to launch 'May I Design' properly. 

I best get back to it...

Have a good week,

See you soon

xx

Creative Weekend

Hello,

Happy Monday, hope you have all had a lovely weekend. I've had a very creative weekend, it's been wonderful.

I started on Saturday with my screen printing kit. I thought I'd begin gradually and use the stencil method rather than using the screen block solution.

I am really happy with the results, the print is so crisp. It's so exciting doing the print and waiting to see the results. Each one is sightly different with it's own quirks. Love it.

 I can't wait to do an actual run where I can begin printing my design on real life products! I'm hoping to get some finished and out there by Christmas (hopefully). 

Hope you have a good week, 

See you soon 

xx

Planning my new collection..

Evening,

Hope everyone's Monday hasn't been too bad.. one step closer to Friday though.. WOO!

This weekend I received a little present I had ordered myself.. a screen printing set(yipee!). I have had my eye on this set since last year but never been brave enough to part with my cash and start experimenting. Well with a little bit of spare birthday money I thought now would be the perfect time.

I have purchased a book about screen printing at home too and am now all ready to go. I planned to get cracking on Saturday but after reading the instructions realized I had to wash the fabric first (woops) so I had to wait a little bit longer! In the mean time I have been busily sketching ideas in my sketchbook and doing some trials, printing on fabric with a stamp I made. Later I used my sewing machine (by myself... how brave am I???) to stitch around my motif. I am super pleased with the result and am keen to get screen printing and make my first proper collection.

Sneak peak of what I've been doing

 

Isn't it funny that as soon as you start being creative your brain just goes into overdrive and comes up with more and more ideas. I have now popped a little notebook in my bag so if inspiration strikes I am ready to note it all down.

Saw this on pinterest, so true..

I hope you have a wonderful week and will update you when I do my first run of screen printing at home!

See you soon 

xx

A few bits and bobs..

Evening,

Well just a little update with what has been going on. Although the blog has been quiet, I have been being very creative, I promise.

I completed the final brief a couple of weeks ago for the Make It in Design Summer School. The brief was Jewels. I was really happy with my final design. I think It's the colours that I feel makes it work.

 

 

Once the Summer school was over a needed a new challenge, I certainly had one of those lined up. A couple of months ago you may remember that I signed up to a sewing machine course at New College in Swindon. Well the course came around quickly and I attended on Saturday with my brand new (pink) sewing machine. I hadn't got it out the box since my birthday so I was keen (and a little frightened) to get sewing. I just prayed I didn't sew my hair/sleeve/hand to the cushion cover we were making..

 

Luckily a lot of the class had, had their sewing machine for a while and theirs hadn't made it out the box either. So we were all in the same terrified boat. I shouldn't have been so scared. The day flew by and by the end of it I had my very own cushion cover with concealed zip and I am happy to say nothing got sewn on that shouldn't be there and no trips to A&E were needed to get a sewing machine removed from my hand!  AND I only had to unpick one line of stitches... YEAY GO ME!

 

 

I am very pleased with my cushion!

 

Unfortunately the other course I signed up to 'Using Textiles' got cancelled , So instead I have signed up to learn how to make curtains and other soft furnishings (I am a glutton for punishment!).

 

Hopefully by the end of the 8 weeks course I will be a dab hand with my sewing machine or at the very least a little less frightened of it!

 

Have a good evening,

 

See you soon

xx