More from the art room…

I’ve really gotten back into the swing of things in art class and this is my latest attempt at painting.

I’m really not good with faces, so a back view is just perfect for me… except this one involved a hand… I’m also bad at hands 😦

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how she turned out though, despite the damn hand 🙂

Nennie the photography assistant…

 

Nennie was determined that the hubby not leave without her on his next photo job… I think she makes an awesome assistant 😀

Christmas Boxes…

I’ve been a little busy lately putting together Christmas boxes.

‘What are Christmas Boxes?’ I hear you ask… Well, they are basically care packages for disadvantaged kids in Eastern Europe. There’s an organisation here in Swissyland that delivers said boxes to kids in need (I’m pretty sure these organisations exist everywhere as I remember there was something like it back in Australia too) but, of course, they need people to donate these boxes filled with goodness so that’s what I do – I make up as many boxes as I can and donate them.

For me, this brings back a bit of proper Christmas spirit 🙂

Now, of course, I’m not the only one making up these boxes – the organizers work with a lot of international schools in Swissy and the kids at those schools make up and donate these boxes too, along with various church groups and women’s clubs and what have you. I just jumped on the band wagon as I think it’s an awesome thing to do.

Anyhoo, I like to put in something warm for the kids that are on the receiving end of these packages so I’ve been making hats and scarves… and I’ll be making up a few more too, thanks to a yarn donation from a friend of mine 🙂

Along with these, the kids get toiletries, school supplies, something to hug (soft toy), something to play with and of course chocolates and sweets and other bits of goodness, all wrapped up in bright Christmas paper. For most of these kids, it’s the only gift they get all year, and the only time they get toys and sweets. As you can imagine, that makes these packages all the more special 🙂

On top of the kid’s boxes I try to make at least one ‘Adult’ care package too… these are filled with basic food supplies (flour, pasta, rice, tea, sugar etc.), toiletries and things like candles and matches etc. and go to the most vulnerable people.

If you’re interested in taking part in something like this just Google ‘Christmas Boxes’ in your area and I’m sure something will come up, and if you happen to be in Swissy and want more info about this, feel free to drop me an email and I’ll forward all the info to you.

Monochrome Cards…

Here are my latest offerings from my craft room… a couple of monochrome cards.

I know that black and white together is ‘classy’ and all that but I’m a sucker for some color so these go against the grain for me and I found them a little challenging.

And, yes I know I cheated a bit on the ‘just because’ card as yellow IS a color… but I couldn’t help myself 😀

Crochet Turtle Key Rings….

Phew, it’s been a while. Sorry all, life seems to be getting in the way of both my blogging and my crafting 😦

Anyhoo, I wanted to share these little turtle key rings I’ve been making – how sweet are they?? Of course, they don’t need to be key rings, you can make your little turtles into anything you like (I’m thinking turtle cat toys).

I found the tutorial for these here from HappyBerry Crochet.

D.I.Y. Wine Crate Spice Shelves

Front View

Side View

 

So I spent last week updating our kitchen. We’ve been in this apartment for coming up to 6 years now, and they didn’t do much to freshen it up before we moved in so we took it upon ourselves to at least freshen the kitchen up a little…

It was really looking shabby 😦

The walls were supposed to be white, but obviously weren’t prepped properly before they painted them last as there were patches (of what I assume was grease) coming through the paint and it looked bloody awful! And the floor was linoleum, but had definitely seen better days… No matter how much I cleaned it, it still looked dirty and Nataly was not a happy camper!

Our apartment is a rental so spending a load of cash on it is kinda pointless but I got the walls re-painted and laid some new linoleum flooring so at least it’s clean now.

While I was on the kitchen re-vamp I found some old wooden wine crates in my neighbour’s attic, and had a brain wave! I had seen them used as shelves online and figured they would make brilliant spice racks, so once I’d convinced my neighbour to donate them to my kitchen revamp (I sent her a text and she replied within 5 mins saying of course I could have them) I cleaned them up a little, removed any stray nails / staples and sanded down the edges a bit. Once that was done, I got out my scrapbook papers and chose 3 that I thought went rather well together, cut them to size and modge podged them to the bottom of the crates.

I gave the inside of each crate 3 layers of modge podge, just to make sure that the paper and wood was sealed reasonably well, arranged them on the wall and drilled them into place.

Voila! Funky new spice racks (shelves) that cost me less than 5 CHF… not bad for a few hours work 🙂

Bling Ring Pendant…

 

Here’s a cute little pendant I whipped up.

It’s called the ‘Bling Ring’ and it’s a free pattern from the super talented Sabine Lippert from trytobead. The pattern is super simple to follow and beads up really quickly so it’s perfect for when you’re feeling crafty but don’t have a load of time to make something…

I really like it so I might go make some matching earrings to go with it 🙂

Up-cycled Cat Bed…

 

A while back I scored an awesome vintage leather suitcase from my wonderful neighbor and set about making this…

I wanted a cute cat bed and, well, what’s available here in the land of Swiss is either boring or really, really expensive, so after consulting with my mate Google I decided to have a go at making my own.

With the suitcase part sorted, I logged onto my other mate, eBay, and ordered the legs for my new creation, then trawled my fave Charity Shop for miniature pictures to decorate it with.

Once my legs arrived, I painted them and, as they had to be attached with giant screws, got out my power tools and drilled some holes in the bottom corners of my suitcase and screwed them in.

The blanket is one the kitties have been using for a while, so that was easy, it’s just a fluffy baby blanket I bought for them at a discount store. I tried putting a pillow in the suitcase but the kitties weren’t having any of it so I tossed the pillow and just put their blanket in and they LURVE it!

I painted all my picture frames the same color as my legs and used my trusty hot glue gun to glue them in place.

The little black cat toy is also from the charity shop, which reminded me of their mum, so of course that’s in there too 🙂 and because the pocket the toy is in had lost its elastic, I wove some mustard colored ribbon through it to tighten it up a bit.

And last of all, the bunting at the top is from my stash of crafty bits, but I think I got that on eBay originally too…

All in all, their new bed ended up costing me about 15 CHF, (roughly the same in US $) thanks, of course to the suitcase being donated but I have since managed to find some similar ones at random charity shops for around 15-20 CHF.

Total bargain, and so, so cute! And even better, now my shadow kitty, Nennie, has somewhere to sleep in my craft room 😀

Kitty Magnets… :)

 

How awesome are my new kitty magnets?

The incredibly talented Noelle from Hold My Broom made these from some photos I emailed her of my two little princesses ( you can get your hands on some through her Etsy shop here) and I am totally in love with them 😀

They have pride of place on our fridge – you know, because having the actual kitties isn’t enough, I had to have magnets made of them too … yeah, yeah, I’m a crazy cat lady now, what are you gonna do, huh?

Anywhoo, you all should definitely check out her blog and her shop, she makes some amazing stuff!!

Love… with Washi Tape

 

My Washi tape collection has been growing… in fact, I’m beginning to think I’m a little obsessed with the stuff.

I was sitting at my crafty desk, staring at my collection when I came up with this card. I have a big old felt heart, from where I don’t know, that I traced onto some card and cut out. I covered my heart in Washi tape, then using a plain white bit of cardstock made my card, The spotty backing paper is from Dovecraft (one of the basics paper packs), edged in Versafine red ink and the sentiment is a Dovecraft stamp, stamped with the same ink. I glued it all down and used some pink pearls to accent my sentiment and a red ribbon to tie it all together.

So cute, and so simple 😀 I knew there was a reason i loved my Washi tape!