Unscheduled Craft Hiatus Update

Bit of a lull in the old craft workshop, my elves have gone out to watch the Olympic torch or something and there's not much work being done.  Also I have been working more but for minimum wage so I haven't had lots of free time and definitely no free money.  And my days off have been spent doing other exciting things like going to the dentist and updating my Amazon account.

 I went with boyfriend recently to an Art Market and was inspired/impressed/put in my place by the awesome arts and crafts on show especially Butterscotch and Beesting from whom I bought a lucky dip pack for £2 and recieved a charcter straw, 3 menagerie cards, 5 guess the filling sweets, a magnet, and a sticker.  It's all very cute.  The 3 menagerie cards (in case you were wondering) each have part of a bird on them, one the head or a Peacock with the letter P, the next the body of a Pelican with the litters elli, and the last the feet of a Rooster with the letters ster- so put them together and make a Pellister!  The character on my character straw is a Froocan, a cross between a frog and toocan!

I'm thinking I might start doing craft fairs to make a bit of dosh from this hobby of mine...what do you think? Also how much would you pay for a small felt ninja? 
I'm also planning to go down to a local art gallery/craft centre to do one of their courses in September (missed the June starters) possibly drawing/painting, or creative writing.  They also do textiles and sewing classes but they are expensive plus you have to provide you're own materials and I'm not sure how much I would get from the course.

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Cactus Pin Cushion

Well I wish I could take credit for this idea because it's so cute and clever but obviously I stole it appreciated someone else's genius.  I got this idea from PC of MeiJo's Joy and followed her excellent tutorial.










It's quite simple to make, first I collected my ingredients:
Spare green fabric, pot, thread, needle, paper template, and chocolate finger.  I also used some brown felt, stuffing, spare pink fabric, pins, and scissors.

I used my paper template to cute out 6 semi-ovals of green fabric, then sewed them into 3 pouches.
I turned the pouches inside out, then placed them on top of each other and sewed up the middle.  This created 6 gaps into which I stuffed the stuffing.


I sewed the bottom closed, and created a little pink flower for the top.  The hardest part for me was stuffing the pot (MeiJo's Joy has a tute for that but it didn't quite work for the pot I had), essentially I just covered some stuffing in brown felt and shoved it in the pot but making it the right size and getting it look nice was a bit fiddly.  I attached the cactus to the felt filling in the pot, and voila...#

Just a quick update

Alas I have just discovered and reached the Blogger photo upload limit, and therefore had to delete quite a few of the photos I uploaded for the blog.  So I have reverted some of my early post back to drafts, while other posts may have unseeable pictures in them.  And for some reason my thumbnail has turned into a circle with a line through it.  I will also have to be more selective in the future about which photos I upload, so my blogs may be more chat less pics-sorry.

Ninja Lavender Bag

I struggled to work out what to get boyfriend for our impending anniversary...I love giving and receiving presents, he does not.  And said boyf took seven weeks to give me a birthday present...so I can't hold out much hope for something in return...

But I love giving presents so perhaps this is my present to me? Well that's sad but regardless I have made him...a Ninja lavender bag!

I used my little felt ninja as a guide for how my lavender Ninja should look.  I made the Ninja the same way I made my Mario plushie; I drew my Ninja on some A4 paper, then cut it into the individual pieces.  I had some black cotton fabric from when I attempted to make a work skirt and some peach-ish fabric from an old pillow case for the skin.  I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut each bit out (very simple pattern; black body and arms, and two black strips for face and one peach strip for face).
I used the handle of a paper bag wrapped in black thread for the ninja erm...stick...

Then I bought some lavender on Amazon (£5 for 250g approx), and filled the Ninja with lavender.
He can use it in his wardrobe or under his pillow to aid his poor sleeping.