Make your own typography quote wall art

It's no secret that I'm on a tight budget these days - weddings don't come cheap you know!
I've been wanting to do this tutorial for a little while now but I couldn't justify the new photo frames needed. Luckily though, I found some old frames that I hadn't put up yet so I set to work making myself some new art!

I would say this was moderately easy to do.....I made it all in Microsoft Word.

Firstly, I downloaded a whole load of different fonts from a free, online website. Just google "free fonts" to find some and then you just download them, save them to a folder, open the folder and click the save font box. Easy!  (If that doesn't make sense, the websites usually tell you how to do it....)

I then went on Pinterest for some quote inspiration. When I was feeling suitably inspired, I opened up Word and inserted a text box (insert tab at the top, choose a simple text box and drag it to the shape you require.)
I found this to be the easiest way to write each word and adjust the size. This way, you can place words at different heights and angles.

When you are happy with the design, print it out! Mine are A4.

DIY quote art for simpletons.

I like the first one better than the second one, but by then my fiancé was rushing me about making the dinner (I offered) so I didn't get the proportions quite right!

I'm planning to make a load more, of different sizes and then I'll create a little feature wall of them in my hallway.

What do you think?!

Craft fail: Bicarbonate of soda and cornflour dough ornaments

Bicarbonate of soda and cornflour dough ornaments:

You can blame Pinterest for this one again! I was going to make salt dough ornaments as my wedding favours but then I read a few blogs which lead me to trying this purer, whiter dough instead. Big mistake.

You can find recipes for bicarbonate of soda dough all over the internet. Here are the dry ingredients:

It took me 3 tubs of the bicarbonate to make up 2 cups (it's all in American measurements!) and about half a pack of the cornflour.

Measure out the dry ingredients and bung them in a saucepan.

Add the water and stir it all up. There are little, black bits in my mixture which are the coating of my "non-stick" saucepan. Luckily, they didn't really show in the final dough but I should probably have taken this as a warning to give up!

Heat it on a medium heat until it starts to thicken. Keep heating until it starts to come together as a dough.



Leave it cool (takes quite a while) before tipping it out and making a ball. Knead it until it's smooth.

At this stage, it looks gorgeous! This might work! It could be fantastic! No. It's all lies.

I rolled it out and cut out some shapes.....it was too soft to hold a shape. So I threw a strop and put the ball of dough in the fridge for a couple of hours.

This helped a bit and I re-rolled the dough and re-cut out the shapes and laid them out on a baking tray to dry.

A few days later, they started to crack. You can dry them out in the oven on a low heat but I would think this would make the cracking even worse!

Ok, so they are lovely and white in colour, but the texture is crap. Cracked and quite brittle.
Most of these went in the bin and I still have a large ball of dough in the fridge. What a waste of five quid and my time!

I then went back to the shops and spent more money on some Das air dry clay, which I know works because I used it to make my Xmas ornaments.

Don't even bother trying this craft as it is a waste of money!!!

Unless..... you can send me some pictures of how it's worked for you....and tell me where I went wrong!

How to make a crochet baby shower blanket

On Saturday, I went to my best friends' baby shower! It was so much fun. We played games and ate lots of yummy vegan food, and she got lots of amazing gifts (like a baby grow that said "I'm glad to be out of there, I was running out of womb!)

I decided to make my gift for her after seeing a post on Pinterest for a crochet baby blanket. Here's the original link for a triple yarn baby blanket.

You use three strands of yarn (no wool for my vegan buddy!) for each stitch so it grows quite quickly and feels nice and chunky. I took a trip to Hobbycraft and bought some purple yarns in the sale. This turned out to be a bad idea as one ran out half way through and I couldn't get another ball! This blanket takes maybe 6 big balls of yarn?

 Make your starting chain about 35" / 90cm long so you have a nice wide blanket. I also used a 10mm crochet hook which is quite big.

The easiest way to learn how to crochet the single stitch is to watch a Youtube video. I know this because I spent AGES learning to crochet via a book ("Stitch and Bitch Crochet" by The Happy Hooker) and it was really tough. Crochet is easier to learn if you can see someone doing it!

I wish I had made mine a little bit wider but it didn't really matter. Then you just keep stitching until it grows to the length you want!

I did some of the crochet on my lunch hour at work!

Close up of the single crochet stitch.

At some point, you might need to weave in a new ball of yarn - I just tied a knot between the two pieces but this isn't a very aesthetically pleasing way of doing things! Youtube has some good videos of how to weave in the new colour or strand.

Half way through, I needed to weave in a different colour as I ran out of the thick, purple yarn - so I found a contrasting colour. The yarn was of a lighter weight though, so it did make the tension different. I had to do a border around the edge to make it stay square.....bit of a fail but it worked in the end!

Mixing in the new colour

The finished blanket!

I also bought a cute hat with ears, and a fluffy lion! The blanket did take hours to make but I was really pleased with it and it's inspired me to try and make some crochet cubes as a baby toy.

Can you crochet? Aren't handmade gifts just better?!

Upcycled pegs tutorial and life lately!

Hello peeps. Another little tutorial for you today. This one is super easy and very cheap!
We're going to make some cute, decorated magnetic pegs to use on your fridge.

They will look something like this:

What you need:
Wooden pegs
Yarn or embroidery thread
Magnetic strips
Buttons
Glue
Nail polish!

Your method depends on how you want your peg to look. Some I painted with nail polish, some I wrapped embroidery floss around one half, others I decorated with buttons and some cat stickers I had from Paperchase!

When you have made your design, simply stick your magnetic strip to the back and start pegging!

Pretty easy, huh? You could make a set and put them in a gift box as a Xmas gift. A nice, 5 minute craft.

In other news, I have been helping my housemate decorate my old room....we saw in the Dulux catalogue a picture of a dark grey wall with a funky orange band across the middle so we tried it out!



Martin was not impressed!

However, it was waaaay too dark so we have started to paint white over the top! Chickens.



Homebase one coat white paint!

I've also been moving house this week and looking at decorating ideas for my own place. I've found some lovely wallpapers recently....



Wallpaper £30 a roll: John Lewis

And coming up soon, I will be collaborating with a gorgeous online decorating boutique so keep an eye out for that! They stock ALL my favourite brands - Jan Constantine, Pip Studio, Missoni, and my latest discovery: Mulberry home! I can't wait....

My last very exciting bit of news is that Marks and Spencers have started selling mini macaroons/ macarons in the chiller section. My lovely Mum bought me some to keep us going as we shifted boxes:

Mini macaroons from Marks and Spencers - £5.49 for 12.

The vanilla flavour is to die for!

Not sure if I'll be posting for a couple of days as it's my birthday on Friday (going to London) and I'll be moving my furniture on Saturday. See you soon!

How to make a "yarn wrapped Xmas wreath" tutorial

Evening! I have a cute, little tutorial for you today. I've got the week off to move house so it's nice to have some time to craft.

This wreath is based on one I saw in Ikea for £10. I had already planned to make a yarn wrapped wreath but when I saw the Ikea one, it gave me the inspiration and the motivation to do it! I'll show you the Ikea one at the end and you can judge whose is better!

So, this is what you are aiming for:

Yarn wrapped wreath!

You will need the following:

A polystyrene wreath shape.
Some wool or "yarn" as the Americans' call it!
Some felt pieces.
Some buttons.



I took apart some old crochet work for the wool.

My wreath shape was from Hobbycraft and cost about £2.20.

The first thing to do is cover your shape with wool. Wrap it round several times until it covers the polystyrene. If you are using two or three colours, wrap them evenly over the top. I didn't glue mine on, I just wrapped the end into the wool.

Make some heart shapes by sewing around the edge of some felt. Leave a gap so you can turn them inside out and then stuff with some wadding.

Attach some ribbon to the top of each one and then tie that ribbon around your wreath so they hang underneath.

To jazz up my wreath, I sewed some buttons on to my hearts and cut out some letters to stick on with a glue gun. I also cut out some bunting shapes out of felt to go through the middle!

(In this picture, the letters are not stuck on as I'm waiting for my mum to bring me a glue gun!)

I was going to write "Merry Xmas" on it but then I wouldn't be able to use it all year round! If you look on Pinterest or Instagram, you can find loads of inspiration on how to decorate your wreath. Simples!

Here is the Ikea version:




They are pretty cute, but mine only cost about £3 to make as I had everything apart from the foam shape! If you give it a go, send me your photos :)

Buttons and bells wire heart decoration tutorial

Bonsoir! As promised, here is the tutorial (or simple "how to") for making a wire heart decoration wrapped in buttons and bells.

Firstly. gather your supplies:

I got the idea for this tutorial when I saw a similar ornament in John Lewis and thought "I could do that!" I didn't realise it would take so long to make (a couple of hours?) but as I now have the supplies to make a few more, it will end up being cheaper to make than the £6/£7 John Lewis were charging!

John Lewis heart decoration

You could make a few of different sizes and make bunting from them! I hope you LOVE this tutorial as it has taken me an hour to put together!

DIY Wedding decorations: Fabric pom pom tutorial

As you all know, I'm planning to get married sometime next year or so and have been thinking about how I can include some of my own little handmade touches. Whilst I was trying to sleep (and failing) it occurred to me that my tissue paper pom poms could easily be made out of fabric. So I tried it. And it worked beautifully!

I've already done a tutorial for the tissue paper version which you can find under the tutorials button but in case you need a refresher, here's what you do!

1) Cut out some squares of your chosen fabric. I roughly cut 8 out of an old Primark dress! It's helpful to use a material that shows the print on both sides and is fairly soft.

2) Concertina the fabric and tie some ribbon (or wire) around the middle to keep it in place.

3) You need to trim the ends with sharp fabric scissors to make petal shapes. Just round off the corners into a semi circle.

4) Time to "peel the petals!" This is sooo much easier with fabric than it is with tissue paper as you don't have to worry about the fabric ripping! Lift each layer and space them out to make a 3d shape.

5) Hang it up and admire it! If you want to use them for a wedding, match your fabric colours to your chosen wedding colour. I think it would probably look amazing to make several of different sizes and then tie them along some ribbon to make fabric pom pom bunting!