Cross Stitched Birthday Tags

Hi all. Hope you're enjoying summertime. We are lucky this year with quite a lot of sunshine in the UK (so far!) I've got plenty time for myself these days :) So alongside with preparing for the driving exam (the less appealing bit!) I'm trying to do some blogging, photographing and of course crafting. I've got 3 projects on the go so I alternate them - a crochet one, a knitting one and a cross stitching one. Just a thought popped into my head: Is this way to keep a multi-crafter happy? What do you think?

 Sothis is what I have stitched recently: a set of birthday tags. They were a freebie to the Cross Stitcher issue 281. 

It's nothing much but I just fancied a small quick project in between the larger ones like Riverdrift House samplers for example :) It was good fun to stitch every of them.

I'm pleased how they turned out. My favourite is the blue tit, strawberry and cherries. All perfect for summer birthdays.  

Today I'm going to join the Hand-made Monday blog hop, no. 179. Get clicking guys!

Festive Houses

Hi all and welcome back here again :) Last week was pretty busy for me. Work, gym, home, crafts, work, gym, home, crafts... and so on :) I've been trying to do as much crafting after hours as I could as Christmas is coming soon and I still haven't done my regular Christmas cards! As always I've got a few projects going on at the same time, typical! :) Last Friday I spent hours at my sewing machine making these little festive houses :)

Some pics taken in the garden :)

They came out quite well, what do you think? I tried my best to get my machine stitching as straight and neat as possible :) My mum loved these and she ordered some for herself and my nan so it seems like I'll be making some more in the near future!!! For those who want to know more, this project comes from Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 244, Christmas 2011. The houses were a freebie kit, which provided materials for the first 3 of them, there was also a choice of 6 cross stitch patterns. I made one extra using my imagination :)

Needles to say, I've been also working on my big cross stitch project for the cushion:

There's been some visible progress since I showed it last time, yet plenty remains to be finished. Getting there!!! 

Apart from my big project I've been trying to keep up with my festive linen bunting :) (Doesn't look like bunting at the moment but hopefully it will soon! :P ) So far I've stitched L O V E  C H R I S T M A S

You prolly think the polka dots letters are cute but they are quite fiddly to stitch due to numerous fractional stitches and frequent changing of the thread colour :) Can't wait to see it finished and hanging on the mantlepiece!!!

Today I've made this simple, quick card:

...for a colleague who has recently had her baby, Jay. I didn't want anything excessively fussy or fanciful, rather a simple card, something that is above all...blue and white :) Hope she likes it.... I'm desperate to sit down, lay out my card making toys around and make some proper decent cards but as we are going through a temporary house fix at the moment, some of the bedroom stuff is piled up in our lounge and blocking my card making space for days. Argh!!!

Tonight I'm joining Hand-made Monday at Wendy's. Get clicking chucks to see some lovely crafty creations. I'll be catching up with your blogs tomorrow evening as I am off to my bed in a moment :) (big yaaaaawn!) Back to work tomorrow!

Houses of Love tealight candleholders

Time for Handmade Monday linking fun! Pop over to Wendy's blog to see some lovely stuff from other crafters.
What have I created for the past few days?
This week has been pretty busy for me and I've got a lot to share :)

Well. first of all, my Houses of Love candlelight holders have finally been finished! Yipeeee! :) It took a while to paint them as glass with curved surfaces takes the longest to be painted all around. I had to do it in stages. Piped some outliner, stopped and waited till it all had dried up, then piped some more, waited again, then piped some again till all glass had been filled. Then filling up with colours - same thing done in stages. Glass painters will know what I mean ;)

Houses of Love are my favourite motif and I've painted them on clipframes and on a glassy cube before but this time it's a set of round tealight candleholders that features them! I used vitrail glass paints, silver relief outliner and martini glasses for this project. 

Deep inky blue night and some colourful vibrant houses pulsating with love! :)

Some painting details...

Secondly, there's been some progress with my wedding sampler with folky birds... this is what it looks like at the moment:

Thirdly, I have finally got myself round to making my first own home made elderflower cordial! I found "my" tree in my area. Hacked it down the other day :) plonked the whole stuff down in sugar and boiling water and here it is! Elderflower syrrup with a citrus twist. It hasn't been bottled yet, just "doing its time" in containers at the moment. Needs to stand like this for 5 consecutive days. Actually I've made 2 lots: one is elderflower + lemons, and the other is elderflower + lemon + orange. Elderflower has a wonderfully refreshing taste and is great in fizzy drinks :) Simply can't do summer without some sparkling elderflower pop! Try for yourselves!

Yesterday we had a great day out - we went to Kelsall Steam and Vintage Rally to see the whole lot of many stylish vintage cars and steam engines. Vintage buses, landrovers and campervans was what we liked best. I ended up bringing home another cup for my expanding mug collection :) Campervans! The iconic cars of the summer season in Britain! (I thought Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts Blog might like them! ;P )