merry merry christmas

Wishing you all wonderful and fun festive season! See you all in the new year :)

my sweet little penguin...

What a lovely surprise I got when I saw the sweet little penguin I made for "Softies for Mirabel" for The Mirabel Foundation on Meet me at Mikes blog! Woo hoo!

:: Meet me at Mikes blog

It's such a fantastic softies appeal and a wonderful charity! As Pip says on her blog... it's not too late if you want to send a softie... just send it directly to The Mirabel Foundation!

Have a great day! :)

my creative space: cupcake for Christmas

We just had a wonderful Christmas No.1 in Melbourne! It was just so lovely to see my family... I missed them heaps! We do Kris Kringle for the adults each year! This year my partner got my gorgeous cousin, but I stole her from him :) She makes amazing cupcakes - see them here on her facebook page Mama Jac's Cupcakes!  I really wanted to screen print something very special for her!

:: cutting the stencils out

I hand cut the stencils, then screen printed and handmade a tote and a cushion for her! I even screen printed the sprinkles on the cupcakes in silver ink!

:: screen printed and handmade, tote and cushion

I loved how they turned out and it made me sooo happy that she totally loved them! I love making Christmas presents :)

Hope you are having a great creative Christmas week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space... 

some wonderful news

This week I had my first bit of magazine promotion for "do a bit" My little "Ginger cats grey" pouch is in the Etsy Summer Shopping Guide which is an insert in the "Shop til you drop" magazine!  I am so thrilled to be apart of it! :)

It is just so exciting to see something I made in actual print! It makes me feel very proud :)

There is also a  mini site - etsy.com/styd - for all the items shown in the guide too :)

Hope you have had a great week! :)

my creative space: softies for mirabel

It's been another crazy week of creating here! So many things I wanted to share today but the most important project I completed this week is the softie I made for the wonderful charity "Softies for Mirabel" which is organised Pip from Meet me at Mikes... this is it's sixth year! :)

I managed to spend an evening devoted (and some of the next day) to making a sweet little penguin softie! I used the penguin "Arnold" pattern from wonderful book "Hop Skip Jump" by Fiona Dalton. I've been wanting to make sweet little Arnold for ages and this was the perfect opportunity!

:: Arnold - Hip Skip Jump by Fiona Dalton

I used fine green cord for his body and my feather arrow print for his belly and under wings.

I decided that he HAD to have silver boots and beak so I screen printed some silver fabric... I love that I can screen print fabric I don't have!

The pattern was really easy to follow and came together quickly! Once I had completed him, rather late in the evening, I decided that he needed a red and white crocheted beanie to keep his little head warm!

I am so thrilled with how he turned out! He got the stamp of approval from my little man... he wants one too! :)

 

I'm SO happy to send him off too "Softies for Mirabel" where he will find a lovely little friend to hang out with! It makes my heart feel very happy :)

 

 

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space... 

my creative space: busy busy busy

It's been another very busy week... and I'm terribly late with my creative space but better late than never hey ? :)

So here is my creative/productive week in pictures...

:: lots of screen printing and sewing!

:: I made a gorgeous pouch for my lovely mother in law

:: a very happy kitty recipient Priscilla from Catsparella and
I've got things in Sweets workshop in Summer Hill... very exciting :)

:: my snowflake stamp has been extremely busy this week :)

I have another week of Christmas fun craziness ahead ... I'm not panicing just yet! How are you going with yours? :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

I am thrilled to announce that I am partaking in the "12 days of Christmas giveaway" hosted by the lovely Christina at Christina Lowry Designs today! Christina believes in supporting the craft community and buying handmade for Christmas.. I couldn't agree with her more! Christmas is such a great opportunity to buy amazing items that have been handmade by lovely crafty people! :)

I have a screen printed aqua cats tea towel, plus a screen printed and handmade aqua cats pouch in today's giveaway! :)

The giveaway is only open for one day... today! So for your chance to win pop over to Christina's blog and leave a comment at the end of the giveaway post! The winner will be drawn tomorrow! Good luck! :)

my creative space: instagram busy week

It's been a very busy week leading up to Christmas, so I thought I would show my creative week in pictures from my favourite place to hang out at the moment... instagram... I just love it!

 

I'm terrible addicted to instagram and I love seeing what everyone gets up to everyday! It's just so interesting... I'm @doabit  :)

 

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

my creative space: screen printing and mishaps

Gosh what happened to this week... so much to do and so little time! This week I have been screen printing tea towels with my poppy design... but with a few dramas!

I ran out tea towels and then I ran out of fuchsia ink! I had a few screen printing mishaps (it happens sometimes... then had to get more tea towels...grrrr) and I had to carve the flower centers out twice because I wasn't happy with the first two, they ended up being a bit too small!

I finally got there in the end and I'm really happy with how they turned out! All I need now is some sunshine so I can take some nice photo! :)

Hope you are having a great, mishap free, creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

my creative space: snowflake stamp

Yikes.. a bit late with my creative space this week! I have no idea where this week has gone...? I have been a busy little bee, carving snowflake stamps and stamping Christmas cards!

:: carving snowflake stamp

:: carved and ready for stamping

:: he had fun stamping some Christmas cards :)

:: I did some stamping too...

I also used my snowflake stamp for making Christmas ornaments for the handmade ornament swap hosted by Christina Lowry Designs! I used some air dry clay, inked up the stamp and pressed it into the clay, then used a cup to cut out the circle around the snowflake and voila!! LOVE it!

:: ornaments drying on very attractive sponges

I really love the rusticness (is that a word) of the stamp too! What a useful little stamp! Now... what else can I stamp :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

my creative space: kitty mitt

I finally got around to making my kitty oven mitt that I have been wanting to make for ages! I managed to squish the sewing in between sewing cushions and pouches! It was actually a really quick little project to do! I used some mis-screen printed cats fabric! I quite like the very rustic screen printed look!

I used the oven mitt template from sew4home which you can find under "Getting Started" No. 2. To be honest, I didn't follow any of the instructions as it all seem pretty straight forward to me so I just winged it! Luckily it all turned out fine!

:: apologies for the instagram photo I forgot to take one with a real camera!

It was also my first time quilting and I winged that to! I quite enjoyed doing the quilting bit which I think ended up looking excellent!

I am so happy with my new kitty oven mitt :)

:: my new kitty oven mitt

But I'm having a bit of a problem using it... it's just too pretty to mess up! :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

Giveaway over at Catsparella

I am so thrilled to announce that I have a little giveaway happening over at Catsparella. Catsparella is a gorgeous little blog by a lovely cat lover, Stephanie who is dedicated to finding and sharing all of the coolest cat related content online for people who are a little crazy about cats! I just love popping over there to get my cat fix :)

The giveaway is a Ginger cats grey tote and matching pouch, that I screen printed and made last week.



:: ginger cats grey tote and matching pouch

For your chance to win, just pop over to Catsperella and leave a comment! The winner be will chosen in a random drawing next Wednesday, November 14 at 5:00PM EST.

Have a great day and good luck! :)

abcd and instagram meet up

I went along to the abcd and Sydney Instagram meet-up on Saturday afternoon which was organised by the lovely ladies - Steph from Bondville and Lisa from the red thread! It was so lovely to meet up with lots of creative people and talk about all things creative and instagram! So interesting and very inspiring! We all brought a plate of something delicious to share. It was the most amazing table of yummy things!

I made some very yummy lemon thumbprint biscuits. They were really quite easy to make! I used the recipe from here and the lemon curd recipe form here.

:: Lemon thumbprint biscuits

It was the first time I had made these... a little bit risky but I was lucky it all turned out wonderfully and everyone loved them! Though I wish I had made them in the morning... it was complete chaos in the kitchen in the afternoon! My partner ended up washing ALL dishes while I ran around like a chook trying to get out the door on time! Love him!

We got to take a huge plate of yummy treats home which I knew my partner and little man would be very grateful for!

:: before the attack  - apologies for bad photo I didn't have much
 time before the plate was attacked :)

I was right... it didn't take long for the plate to be attacked and to look like this! There were some very full and happy tummies :)

:: aftermath :)

My partner thought it was well worth all the chaos and dishwashing in the kitchen earlier! He thinks I should go to these meet-ups more often! :)

There are more amazing images of the meet-up on instagram - #abcdmeetup #sydneyinstameet

Hope you had a great weekend too! :)

my creative space: screen printing and sewing

I'm a bit late with my creative space this week... but better late than never right? :) It's been a busy week... screen printing and sewing, cushions, totes and pouches!

:: screen printing ginger cats

:: screen printing cushions



:: cushions screen printed

:: ready to attack the sewing machine

:: Ginger cats tote and pouch complete!

Phew! I still have the cushions to do! At least I have a few things crossed of the "To Do" list! :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

sunshine and cat pouches

It's been a very busy few weeks and I have been trying to get some new items in my etsy shop... not easy when you have a 3 and half year old to entertain and a list of 1,000 other things to do before Christmas... Yikes!

For the last week I have been waiting for the sun to be out at the right time of day to photograph the pouches which is 11am in a corner of my little mans room! Quite tricky when there is always somewhere to be at 11am everyday (playgroups, playgrounds etc.) But I got my chance yesterday... Woo Hoo! I did have to sit and wait for the sun to come out from behind the clouds quite a lot... slightly frustrating!

:: waiting.... waiting... waiting...

How do you do you photo's? Do you have a special place in the house? And has anyone got any good advice on 50mm f/1.8 lens for a Canon camera? I am thinking of buying one! There seems to be a lot of varying prices out there!

So I have some new cat pouches (sit up and flat) in my etsy shop at last... hooray! Thank you Mr sunshine :)

:: fuchsia cats grey pouch linen and cotton

:: midnight cats copper pouch 100% linen

I love having new things in my little etsy shop!

Right onto the next thing on my ginormous "to do" list.... Have a great day! :)

my creative space: lovely bag

I was so excited when I received some Skinny Laminx fabric "Wildflowers - lemon plum" in the post earlier this week! I have been waiting for it in anticipation... desperately wanting to make a new messenger style bag, as my poor trusty old one was looking a bit sad... actually, a little bit embarrassing to take out in public... my poor old bag... I will miss you!

Anyway I couldn't wait and cut the pattern out that afternoon! It took me over an hour agonizing over pattern placement as I only have 70cm to work with and it had to be right! :)

Lucky for me, my partner was away that evening which meant I could have a whole evening of sewing, sewing, sewing and no interruptions.. Total bliss!!! I didn't get to bed until 11.30pm... whoops! :)

I love love love my new bag! I'm so happy with how it turned out, it's always such a great feeling to be able to make something exactly how you picture it in your head! I can't wait to take it out into the world! :)

:: Love you, my new bag xxx

:: my new lovely bag = happiness :)

Love Skinny Laminx - Heather Moore the very creative woman behind Skinny Laminx... soooo inspiring! Check out the Etsy shop and she has a really cool blog too :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

Ginger cats grey made it on madeit

I have been having such a great week this week... so many lovely things have happened! One of which is my "Ginger cats grey" pouch made it onto the front page of the madeit website, they had a cats and dog theme (madeit is an Australian online handmade market place for creative Australians!) I was so thrilled when I got the email this morning.. it made my day :)

:: Ginger cats grey on madeit
-you may have refresh the page a few times to see it

I opened my Made it shop do a bit a little while ago and had a few things in it but haven't had much time to get stuck into it until this week! So now I have my little link to my madeit shop over there on the side bar now... Woo Hoo :)

Have a fun weekend everyone!

my creative space: cat pouches

I have been screen printing like a maniac this week and making cushions galore! And I've also managed squeeze in some time to make some lovely "fuchsia cats grey" pouches for a few gifts for friends!

:: fuchsia cats grey pouches

I love them so much, I think I am going to have a bit of a problem parting with them... hmmm better make one for myself asap and some for the my etsy shop too :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...