Crazy cat lady

One of the many hobbies I take up and then shortly ditch (due to my inability to stick to anyone project at a time) is needlefelting. 'Needlefelting' is exactly what it says in the tin, you jab a needle into roving wool to create felt. It's actually very theraputic, albeit time consuming. And when I had run out of any other colour wool but white I found myself wishing I had a sheep to keep me stocked up with my new crafting materials. I don't own a sheep. But I do own a cat. [insert evil laugh here]

 

To my grandma's delight I asked her to buy me a book for Christmas, but she had no idea what kind of book because I ordered 'Crafting With Cat Hair' online for her. Yes. You can craft with cat fur! You simply collect it by grooming your puddy cat with it's usual brush and use it as if it is roving wool. And I gave it a go, here's the result:

 

 

 

 

Because I'm still a newbie at this craft, I stuck to the simple designs the book gives you and it didn't turn out too bad. I think I was a little too ambitious and made it bigger than I needed to (this piece of felting is about 10cm x 6cm). It would have been cute to try and felt or sew my cat's name onto it as well - ah! the things you think about after you commit to art. Anyways, my mum accepted this little craft as one of her Christmas presents without thinking it was too weird. Although, I'm not sure where it is now...

I also made my kitty cat a Christmas gift this year. She got some pac-man themed cat-nip toys. These are made with felt I bought from Hobbycraft (70p or so a sheet). I believe I read somewhere that cats are colourblind, but she definitely prefered the red ghost. Maybe it had more cat-nip in it?

Toys before Madison got to them!

 

It's important to keep a check on your pets toys. Madison was always supervised when she plays with my felt toys because it is possible for her to pull the thread out and try and eat it. So when they become too damaged or worn I get to replace them with new ones, yay!

In keeping with the theme of the blog...

I'm not doing very well as an up-to date regular blogger, am I. As my blog is called 'Crafting Super Cute Cards' I'm just going to share with you a selection of some of the cards I've made in the past, minus my annoying waffling.



Playing card birthday card

A cute thank you card

Sparkly boys card



Boys birthday card

Best wishes

Get well soon!



Leafy thank you

'A New Chapter' - An Old Cliche?

So... it's over. 

Finally, after three years of studying my university degree comes to an end. So many of the friends I made at school have also finished this huge part of their life and my facebook news feed is just filled with sentimental statements such as 'it's time to start a new chapter in my story'. Bleugh!

I'm not a fan of this metaphor, as you can tell. I mean.... yes I have finished uni, yes I'm moving on from the town and house I've called home for the last 3 years, and yes I will be leaving behind a few friends I met during this experience.

 

But it's not a storybook - it's my life.

These things will always be with me, I intend to keep in touch with my uni mates, I have some pretty photos of the places I've visited and of the home I've had and they'll be with me where ever I go next. I don't  feel as though I'm closing any particular aspect of my life, if anything I'm just learning and growing from it.

Although, if I'm honest, seeing all my possessions packed away into carboard boxes does make me feel a little emotional.

 
In the midst of all this emotional turmoil and stress of packing/cleaning I have found a little time to craft (my craft stuff will be the last things I pack.) In fact, I discovered from the swapbot blog that the UK has a charity dedicated to making ill children happy. (How cute!) It's called Post Pals and the other night me and a friend stayed in and ate cake as we wrote to some children. Here are a couple of pictures of what we made:


Sophie loves princesses and the colour purple

For a fan of Liverpool FC. I made stickers using a stamp and some double sided tape

 
Hopefully finding these in the mail will make some kids smile. I know it makes me smile to get anything other than bills in the post! The joys of growing up.
 
I also tried my hand at making some friendship books or 'fbs'. Here are a couple of photos of the ones I've made. Traditionally they have paper stapled into them for people to sign and leave their address, but I don't have a stapler and chose to be different and sew it in. :)
 

 
I also made another ATC for somebody on swapbot, we arranged to trade Pokemon themed ATCs and out of the suggestions she gave I picked Marill. So here's what I created:
 

 

 

Here is a good opportunity to show my sewing skills - I previously made a Spheal (no doubt named so because he is a spherical seal) out of felt. Here's how he turned out:


 

 I have also tried needle felting, and I can tell you it is the most theraputic thing, second only to colouring in! Maybe next time I'll show you what I've made out of wool :) But for now, I think I'll leave it here. Thanks for reading!

Overdue ATC Update

Some ATCs I have collected:

It's half way through April already!! Eeeek. I haven't updated my blog in what feels like forever. Not only that, but I really shouldn't be doing it at all at the moment because my university dissertation is due in next month.(Naughty me!) But I am taking this opportunity to post about some of the ATCs I've added to my collection recently.
 
Remember the bird ATCs I was making last time? Well, I traded them on www.swapbot.com and the ones I got in return were beautiful! Take a look; the lady I traded with chose to create them with my favourite animals in mind, cats and a fox;

 
I love them so so much and they will stay in my collection forever. :D Hehe.
 

Some I've made myself:

 
I don't want to type too much out today (mainly because I should be concentrating on uni work, but also because I'm aware that I can waffle quite a lot. So I will leave several photos of some ATCs I've made for various Swapbot Swaps... Here goes!



Theme: A country of your choice
 

Theme: Glitter ATC

This was SO fiddley to make! I stamped the flowers, bird and bow then coloured them in using Pro Markers and had to cut them all out. I'll admit that took a lot of brain power and effort. The background was simply yellow covered with a beautiful font so I inked it up, using a dusky pink, leaving the middle a little lighter and going back around the edge with a black ink. Then I remembered I had to put glitter on this one! I thought the strongest method of sticking down some glue would be using double sided sticky tape (then it wouldn't come off in the post.) But of course, it doesn't stick properly on inky oily surfaces! I'm so glad I left some un-inked yellow paper in the centre. The sticky tape worked!

Theme: Any Animal ATC

This is for a swap I am currently hosting. The idea is that you create an ATC using any old image of any animal you like/can find. I had a sneaky look at my swap partners profile and saw she likes cats almost as much as I do! So I've cut this cute kitty image from a card I had, found a fitting sentiment in the fortune cookie messages I have saved and tried to add some glitter in the shape of a heart (bottom right). Once again, I hope it doesn't fall off in the post, although this time I've used a glue pen instead of sticky tape.

And finally:



A little piece of mail art I posted all the way to Australia. I know I know, moose(s)? don't live in Australia! The lady to whom it was sent loves Alaska, so I sent her painted picture that hopefully relates to an Alaskan scene. Just love the moose :D Hehe.



Right, that's all for now. Gotta go do some work non stop for the next four weeks!
Wish me luck!

Birdies

A growing collection

 

My Artist Trading Card collection so far consists of.... two cards. Well it's a start! I have a lot of card protectors in a folder, ready to be filled up, and I'm entering a few ATC swaps, so I'm hoping I will have some new ones to show you very soon.

 

So I have been making some ready to trade, and I have become hooked on the theme of birds.

 

 

 

I'm not really a bird fan to be honest. I like looking at them, and feeding them from a distance but my neighbour had a parrot that used to attack me so I tend to avoid bigger birds! But I found a book in a charity shop that I thought I could take home and use in my crafting. I have been cutting out the photos of different wildlife and the inspiration hasn't stopped! :)

 

I'm currently participating in a private ATC swap with a lady from Wales, she mentioned that she likes animals, but I checked her Swapbot profile and it turns out she's very interested in the local flora and fawna of the areas people live. So I've made her two ATCs of some birds I have seen in the countryside around Leicestershire, my birthplace.

Here they are!

 

 

Items used to make these:

300sm card background
Poster paints
Cut out bird photograph from magazine
Backing paper for photo
Embellishments (Brad, Gems, flower)
Copper coloured embossing powder
Heat embossing gun

 

 

To make these:

•  I cut out pages from another charity shop book I bought, painted them and glued to cardstock.
• Then, I stuck the bird photos onto the painting (although the owl has a spotty background because I thought it would look too dark if I stuck it straight on.)
•  Then for my favourite bit! I heat embossed a stamped pattern around the edges. I used a copper coloured embossing powder and I think it really compliments the regal posture of the owl and the bright flashes of colour you get from watching kingfishers speed past.
• Finally, I added a few gem embellishments and dah dah! Prettiful :) 

Returning home after a week away

I went back to my parents house for a week last week. It was lovely to be home, in a warm house (us students can't afford to have the central heating to be on all the time) with the cat sat on my lap clawing away at my leg 

/\  /\

meow  =0.o= ouch!

 

When I had to leave I was pretty down... even though I'll only be away at uni for about 4 weeks before the Easter Holidays. But it's still horrible having to leave for the 3 hour drive in the opposite direction from family. 

 

I was practically falling asleep in the car (no I wasn't driving, don't worry!) My lovely boyfriend Luke was driving. He lives with me, making travelling in his car a hell of a lot more comfortable than having to catch 3 trains and the London Underground.

 

So I was moody and tired and we finally arrived at our house at about 10pm, I opened the door and WOAH!!

 

So much mail waiting for me from my swapbot trades. All of a sudden I was very hyperactive, it took a lot of concentration not to tear all the pretty decorations as I opened each envelope. It actually felt like it was my birthday.  :)

 

I do wonder though, if I put half as much effort into my dissertation as I do for my penpalling... I probably would have finished it by now!

Mail Art Challenge!

This is my next Swapbot challenge!

 

 

The themes I've been given to choose from are: clouds, sky, galaxy, rainbows and whales. I had a good old think about how to decorate an envelope in each of these themes and I think I'm going for a mixture of sky/clouds/rainbows and galaxy (well a few stars dotted around.) At the moment I am waiting for the paint to dry but I will post a photo of the finished envelope soon.

My mail art :) A sky-scape

The materials used were as follows:

• Night sky coloured in in permanent marker pen.
• Stars are small silver stickers.
• Clouds painted in white poster paint.
• Blue sky coloured in with gel pen (used up all of it's ink!)
• Rainbow also with gel pens.
• Sun and moon are glued on glittery paper/card

We were also directed to pop a little something inside the envelope that our partner would like. I hope my partner likes what I sent her.  :)