Snails

We had a forum workshop last night, we created snails according to Tilda's pattern. It was great fun as always, great company, good food, plenty of carbohydrates that I just couldn't resist, I'm taking advantage of the fact that I now fit into my winter pants so I allowed myself...Here's the snail I made, I used one of the fabrics I purchased last week.
The stitches are all made by hand so it took quite a while, the next one I'll sew with the sewing machine.

Paper Doll

I have been planning to make one of these for ages and finally sat down to create one.
She is 25cm' high from toe to the tip of her crown.
If you want to create one of your own all you have to do is follow these simple instructions:

Print the template

Put it over the cardstock you want to use and trace using carbon paper.

Cut out all pieces, you need 1 of each. I used black and white cardstock for the legs and arms and plain white for the face and body as they are covered.

Punch out little holes where indicated the size for your brads to fit in.
Print out an image of a face, I used this site.

Use chalk to create a blush look and a red ink pen for a lipstick effect.

Glue the face to the face template and assemble all parts using brads.The brads enable motion so if you don't want your paper doll to be able to move her body parts you can just glue them together instead of using brads.

Now you can start to dress her, you can really go wild here, I cut out a dress shape from fabric textured paper and glued a piece of lace to the bottom of it.I then attached a ribbon to act as a belt with a bow shaped charm in the center and I also used fibers to act as a scarf, I just tied them round her neck.

Now glue the clothing you made to the body of your paper doll.

The crown is made of gold color cardstock cut into shape and I used crystals to embelish it.

I then gave her a key and glued a sentance from a book I liked:"I think this is the real key, to love what you do, it is often very difficult to know what you love to do because you want to do so many things" (see picture at the top of this post).

What can it be used for? I think I'm going to frame her and take her to work, can also be used on a greeting card but then you must make it smaller.

I will love to see yours!

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Inspiration

My husband is away for the weekend, bike riding in the desert with friends, I have some time on my hands so I planned to sew but inspiration has a life of it's own and as inspiration is not easy to come by I decided to take advantage of what I have and found myself elsewhere.
I decided for a change to add the envelope to the photograph of the card, usually I only take a picture of the card but realized the envelope is also part of the design.
The flowers in the flower cards are doodled by hand accompanied by a button or brad in the center.

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More fabric

Yafit from Artishok, an online art store in Israel, had her end of the year sale today so I pampered myself to some new stuff - cardstock, inks, rub-ons etc. She received some new fabrics to try out and I just couldn't resist the black/white and pinks, aren't they gorgeous? I think they are going to be a success and how do I know? Nothing left...
I know what I'm going to be doing this weekend (-:

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Granny squares

I love granny squares, when I was a child my mom made me a poncho from these granny squares, isn't it amazing that more than 30 years later I still love them and so does my daughter?A few days ago my friend Michal told me she took all her wool leftovers and started making granny squares for a scarf. As I have plenty of leftovers to say the least I began knitting, I use the following pattern, it's basic and simple, can change the color of the wool every line or every 2 lines or not at all.10-15 of these and you have a scarf, for a poncho it depends on the size, here's a diagram how to form a poncho shape.

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Fabric

I was looking for fabric in order to sew a Tilda snail, I saw a couple that Keren created and just couldn't resist. It's amazing what I find lying round the house when I just look...

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My sewing machine

Many years ago I used to sew, when I was pregnant with my eldest son I designed and made almost all my pregnancy clothes by myself.I haven't touched the sewing machine since he was born, he's 15.5 years old already and until today the sewing machine was stored on the top shelf of my wardrobe.
Every once in a while I thought of taking it down and opening it up but I never got round to it, I actually started thinking that it's intimidating.
Today I had the courage to finally take it down, open it, clean it and remarkably found that I still remember how to sew in s straight line.I think this is going to be the begining of a renewed beutifull friendship.

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Cornflour cookies

What can be more fun on a rainy day than hot tea and crumbly cookies? These cookies take exactly 10 minutes to make. My family and I love this simple recipe, it's being used for a few generations, my grandmother and mother baked them the same way. The dough is so tasty that every time I make these my children insist on tasting some of the dough before it's baked, so I make them a small ball of dough, they even have a name for it, they call it "goolgool". When I was a child my mother said I will have a stomach ache if I eat unbaked dough but I couldn't resist so I would sneak into the kitchen and take some and never had a stomach ache...

The ingredients are:
350 grams (2.5 cups) self rising flower
1 cup sugar

200 grams butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and the zest of the lemon

1 table spoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cognac

1 cup cornflour

1. Mix all ingredients together to form the dough, I use my Kitchenaid but you can also use a foodprocessor or mix by hand.
2. Form little round balls of dough or use cookie cutters to form shapes to create your cookies.I keep it simple and just divide the dough into 4 parts and flatten it on the baking pan with my fingers, then I use a sharp knife to cut the dough into finger like shaped cookies.
3. Put into a preheated oven, medium temperature (180 degrees celsius) until the cookies are nice and golden (approximately 20-25 minutes) be carefull not to over bake.
4. If you use my method of flattening the dough then after the cookies are baked, use your knife again or spatula to space between them and spread them in the baking pan and return back to the turned off oven so the inside part dries out, in this case leave inside the oven to cool.
5. Let's see you resist the fantastic smell and wait for them to fully cool, mission impossible! Enjoy!
6. Keep in a dry tin or glass jar.

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Mom's patchwork

All of a sudden patchwork is back in fasion together with embroidery and sewing. I love textiles, they give such a warm, homely feeling.My mom created these more than 20 years ago.

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It's finally winter!

The temperatures dropped from 26 to 22 degrees celsius and it's raining outside, I love the smell of rain but only when I'm inside, nice and warm...

Is it finally winter?

it's mid November already, it's about time.

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Crisscross scarves

I love winter, it gives me a chance to knit and the scarf is certainly THE winter accessory as far as I'm concerened. This year I created a few of these simple crisscross scarves, I gave a couple as birthday presents and made 2 for my private collection.
If you want one just follow these easy guidelines:

You will need a #5 hook and 1.5 packs of single color wool (100gr packs) and 1.5 packs of a thicker, more colorful wool for the crisscross.Chain about 300, it depends how long you want your scarf as this scarf is knitted across.

First line: sc in each chain (you can skip this line and start from line 2, it gives the scarf a nice finish but I created a few without this line and they came out just fine.

Second line-the end: chain 4, skip one sc from the first line, dc in next sc, chain 1, skip one sc from the first line, dc in next sc etc until the end of the line.

Turn over and repeat line 2.I like my scarves nice and wide so I knitted 17 lines but I found that you can make do with 12-13 lines, If you want a throw you can knitt 30 lines.

You basically get a net pattern.

When you reach the width you want, take your colorfull thicker wool (suitable for hook 8) and crisscross across the net. Start the first one from the bottom of the net and the second from the top.Crisscross 2 rows in every dc line.

Make a knot at the begining and end, you can either tie the 2 to one another or tie each to the first dc in the row.

Leave the wool hanging on the sides to act as a fringe, I like it when it's not symmetrical, but if you want you can always cut them to the same lengh.

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"Face" cards

These are so cute and so easy to create, I saw something simillar in a magazine named 'You go girl' a few months ago and I can't get enough of them. What I like about them the most is that they can suit every ocasion so they are great to have around the house. Every once in a while I need a card NOW, a last minute party or occasion I forgot about... When I create these I keep them blank without the stamped wording and at the last minute I can add (or not) an apropriate line.
All you do is divide your card into 2 parts, each part a different color, I like the use of black and white. Take a ribbon and adhere it at the center of your card all across.
Take a silk flower and cut it in half, you can adhere both parts together to get a puffy look and you can use just the one half, adhere it above the ribbon in the middle of your card.
You can also stick a bow or button or any embellishment in the middle.
Now all that's left is to doodle the face, you can draw any expression, a smile is always nice but other options can be an O shaped mouth for an astonished look or a curved mouth for a sad effect, play and experiment with it, it's fun!

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Congradulations!

I have been dreaming of my own blog for ages now and finally I sat down and created one, I'm proud of myself for that.