Craft Groups & a Revamp

Happy Saturday to you dear friends & readers

And Welcome to some new followers

My friend Gail had attempted to start up a small craft group when she closed her Shop earlier this year.

Unfortunately it was not really getting off the ground & she asked me to come along & offer some suggestions.

I suggested they try what Michelle's Kindred Heart Sisters Group do occasionally & that is, all bring along some craft supplies to share & then each one put their own special little stamp on it

This is the mottley odd looking selection we all came home with . . . it was clear this was going to be "an interesting one" !!!

First off, I decided to cut hearts out of the paper pieces & string them from an old mossy tree branch

I stitched the hearts in rows on my machine then tied them to the branch.

I stiffened (with pva) some of the crochet flowers & added these to one end then glued the butterfly to the other end

I printed off the words "flowers"  "butterflies" & "I love Spring" & strung these on coloured papers also

Then for the rest of the supplies, I decided to make a lavendar lady doll ... this idea was mainly to use up the soft sculpture face that was in amongst the bits & bobs.

She is made over an old knitting wool cone which I filled with dried lavender, then used the pipecleaners for arms, a peg for the neck & then I dressed her.  I stitched the beads & the buttons to cards to make her into a Pedlar Doll, then gave her a basket filled with her wares ... also adding the remaining buttons, pegs & frippery

An old piece of crochet lace became her shawl, & the remaining crochet flowers got tucked into her tin of wares beside her.

I thought you might like to see what the other girls came up with . . .

Gail made 3 items, the printed card she framed, then made a mermaid doll using the sculptured face & some silk flowers.   I loved the tray she painted & attached a bunting & the pegs & butterfly ... very shabby chic.

Sharlaine made a gorgeous wallhanging using all of her pieces up.  She dyed the pipecleaners to bend as twigs, made the cardstock into swing tags, used all the crochet/silk flowers & beads as flowers to fill her basket.  It was stunning.  The pegs were used up in the top of the actual hanger part but my photo has missed this out.

Liz painted her paper pieces black & made a canvas picture, then added embellishments to it using flowers, beads, buttons.

She also made a small "toilet roll person" using up the other left-over bits & bobs.

Joyce decorated a shabby chic frame with her bits & added extra butterflies.  She also decorated a hair band & a heart shaped box with crochet flowers, papercraft & other bits of bling.

Fay thought completely "outside the square" & chose to make a terrarium up using all her bits based on the theme of "a day at the beach".  She made characters using the pipecleaners & sculptured heads & added her own unique embellishments.

I thought it was fascinating how each one thought quite differently & came up with such a diverse range of end products.
It was actually a really enjoyable challenge.


This little wooden bowl-on-a-stand was in the $1 bin at the Op Shop.  At first my intention was to paint it & then make a big plump wool felt pincushion in the bowl part of it.

However, it was seeing it on my bench alongside the Fancy Feast Catfood tin that changed my mind about this somewhat.
I decided to add the tin to the centre of it & make a small size pincushion, leaving the outer rim for sewing supplies.
This was how it looked when I had painted both the stand & the tin, screwed the tin to the centre & was ready to line the outer rim with felt.

The tin is painted pale pink & also the lower base of the stand. The rest is painted cream & sanded to distress it.
The circle of baking paper was my "pattern"

This is the completed revamp.  I lined the outer circle with pink wool felt, then trimmed this with a pretty braid.  I made a pincushion in the (catfood) tin, then tied some sewing related embellishments to the stand.  

Really quite "tickled pink" with the finished result   :-)

I have had a large Garden Circle group to my Cottage today - the rain stayed away but the winds whirled around
The ladies had a lovely time in the shelter of my deck area having their morning tea.
The numbers grew from 15 (yesterday morn) to 29 today !!!!  
Bit Frazzled there by any chance Julie ????!!!

I will be off soon to find my jim-jams .... feeling rather tired.

I shall leave you with little Madam-butter-wouldn't-melt-in-your-mouth in the garden yesterday .  .  .

Just click on the photo to enlarge

.  .  .  . when I had just discovered she had dug up my miniature tulip bulbs.
Thanks So Very Much for your visit today dear friends,
Wishing you all a restful weekend doing just whatever makes you happy,
with much love & friendship,
Julie, Fat Black & Madam Pippi 
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