ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: L is for Lace, ribbon, fabric!

Today i am writing about ideas to use up one's craft scraps. I have the week off work for the holiday period, and we are sorting the house out, that includes my study of art and cra supplies! While sorting stuff out i noticed a huge box full of tiny scraps of ribbon, lace, and bits of fabric. Just about to throw the lot away, i had a thought, why not use these scraps!!

Firstly i did a stock take of what i had, from the mess in the box, i divided it firstly into colours, then subdivided them into type. The colours were mainly red, black, green, and purple and after the sorting I realised there was quite a lot of usable lace and ribbon there.

What did i make?

(I will post pix another time)

ROSE HAIRCLIP With some scraps of red velvet ribbon i fashioned a fabric rose, i attached some green satin fabric, cut into leaves, to its base, and adorned it with black lace. I then hot glued the rose i had made onto a hair clip!

LAVENDER SACHETS I had scraps of fabric netting, i cut them into neat circles, added some scoops of dried lavender, and gathered the edges up, and tied the lot up with lace and ribbon! Shoved in the drawers of my dressing table they look decorative, smell lovelyl keeping the contents of the drawers fresh, and keep insects at bay!!

HAIR BOWS with matching lace and ribbon i formed bows, sewed them so they didnt undo, and then attached them to snag free hair ties.

LACEY SOCKS i sewed lace edging to brighten up some of my socks, and added little ribbon bows to the lace!

Ok i could rave on and on here, but the point is, before you throw stuff away have a look at it, work out what is there, and use it! Use, reusue, upcycle and recycle!!!

What do you do with your crafting scraps? I'd love to hear your ideas! Please feel free to add your comments and share your ideas!

 

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ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: K is for Kalaidescope of colours! Lime Crime Cosmetics

Another of my alphabet challenge blog posts, up to the letter K. K s for Kalaidescope colours, swirling into a chaos of glitter and gloss! What cosmetic company provides an amazing kalaidescope of colurs in their pallette? Lime Crime!

Lime Crime is both Vegan and cruelty free, is affordably priced , all products feature beautiful colours and are imaginatively packaged.

The latest of the Lime Crime brush on liquid lipsticks is their new Velvetines range. Available in two beautiful colours Red Velvet and Suedeberry. The Red Velvet appears to be the most popular shade of the two, with it selling out fast from both the Lime Crime site and resellers! The gorgeous soft matte texture of the Velvetines range and the vibrant pigmentation, make these lipsticks beautiful to use and they look beautiful on!

Lime Crime also produces bullet style lipsticks and gorgeous lip gloss! The lipgloss is called Carousel, the packaging is sublime, and the product is smooth, pigmented in beautiful colours, and protects your lips. Team the glosses up with the Lime Crime lipsticks for extra colour!

Another favourite of mine from Lime Crime is there eye liner range, a recent purchase I have made is the gorgeous metallic eyeliners called Rhyme and Reason. Rhyme is a beautiful true gold pigment, it glides on smoothly with a small brush in the cap for ease of precision and has great staying power. Reason is like molten silver, both these metallics look great teamed up with Quill, which is Lime Crime's shiny black eye liner!

In addition to eyeliner, Lime Crime also produces beautiful eye shadow palettes, available in the imaginatively named, Alchemy, Aquataenia, Chna Doll, and Pallete D'Antoinette. Packaged in sleek delightfully decorative containers, the eye shadows may be used both wet and dry. For extra colour stay power, team them up with a primer, also available from Lime Crime. Use the eye shadow primer on your lids first, then apply your eyeshadow; I prefer to use the primer, dus lightly with translucent poweder, then dmp eyeshadow, followed up with a light brush of the eye shadow in its dry form.

Lime Crime is availble online from:

http://www.limecrimemakeup.com/

http://www.beserk.com.au/

http://shopemeraldcity.com/

 

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Alphabet Challenge: Happily Handmade Handcrafts

Up to H in my alphabet challenge blogs, and today's post is about Happily Handmade items, beautiful things made by clever artists.

Beaded Webs

There is an amazing artisan creating as Beaded Webs, who makes the most delciate and decorative wire and bead creations! Based in Queensland Australia, she works from home and sells from Facebook.

Starting off with wire sculpting and hand beaded web shapes, she has since branched out (excuse the pun) into tree of life shapes, as well as owls, bats, and cars. Her gorgeous bead and wire art is created in a variety of sizes such as large hanging decorations, pendant or keyring sized and medium sized beaded decorations.

I have purchased a purple, as well as a red and black beaded web from her and they are gorgeous! I also have two gorgeous bat beaded decorations that she made to order for me!

Beautifully made, and unique items, her online store is worth a look, and why not buy yourself something beautiful from her today!

Below are some pictures of her great pieces

.

 

Alphabet challenge: crochet

Blog post brought to you by the letter C as part of my Alphabet blog challenge.

My Mother taught me how to crochet when i was about four years old, i remember making massive metres of chain out of yarn! As i got the hang of the whole crochet thing i started making clothes for my toys and granny squares for cushion covers. I enjoy crocheting and recently made myself a scarf, fingerless gloves, and matching beret out of dark sage green yarn. I don't usually bother with patterns and tend to make things up as i go along, or just use the pattern as a guide.

As well as making my own crochet pieces i like seeing the crochet made by others. There is an amazing textile artist on Etsy, ScarletRabbit, who makes the most delicate elegant fantastic crochet accessories, and i have become a fan of her work, having the honour of owning several of her fingerless gloves and wristlets, many which i have custom ordered.

Ruth, from the etsy store ScarletRabbit, is extremely talented and artistic, as well as crocheting, she draws in pen and ink, and also makes beautiful jewellery.

The fingerless gloves I have purchased from ScarletRabbit are delicate fine crochet created with 100% cotton yarn. The designs are unique, and the crochet is perfect; the lacey crochet design makes these fingerless gloves an absolute delight to see and to wear. I also have a delicate lace crochet and ribbon choker that i bought from ScarletRabbit!

My most recent purchase from ScarletRabbit was a custom order of a pair of purple fingerless gloves and a pair of emerald green. Absolutely beautifully made, they are gorgeous and so comfortable to wear! (see picture of them above)

If you appreciate elegant unique hand made crochet, please visit ScarletRabbit !

Alphabet Blog Challenge: A is for.....

Quick recap, my next 26 blog posts will feature something starting with ... whatever letter of the aphabet im up to... See my intro post here for more information. Feel free to join me in this alphabet blog challenge!!

Alchemy

I like the sound of that word, it conjures up thoughts of dark dingy rooms in castles, full of potions and scientific tubes and beakers and other scientific or magical paraphenalia. Swirling symbols and velvet curtains on the walls and covering the windows, and large leather bound gilt edged tomes balanced precariously on tables and jewel encrusted chairs.

Enchantments and potions, precious metals and acid, books about earth, fire, wind, water ....

Earth, fire, wind, water: the elements that formed the base of the Alchemists world. More than wanting to transform base metals into gold, alchemists were the forerunners of the chemistry we know today. Historically alchemy was a sacred path of learning incorporating, mysticism, science, philosophy, and the constant path to unravelling the mysteries of the world.

The word Alchemy is thought to derive from the Ancient Greek word khymeia, with 'al' the definite article from Ancient Arabic. Al kymeia ~ alchemy... Get it???

Ancient Alchemists produced findings and invented laboratory items and procedures that are still in use today albeit in modern form.

Further Reading

Medieval History on about-com
Alchemy Lab
Alchemy Timeline
Etymology of Alchemy

 

Alphabet Blog Challenge: introduction

Dear Batlings,

I throw down the metaphoric gothic gauntlet and challenge you to an alphabet blog!!! Who is in?

The rules:

1. Each blog post must star a letter of the alphabet
2. There are to be twenty six consecutive blog posts, each with the next letter featured, in alphabetical order
3. Blogs may be daily, weekly, hourly, whatever, as long as each successive blog features the next letter of the alphabet.
4. If you want to play along, feel free to post a link to your alphabet blog posts in the comments threads of my blog!
5. Example: blog 1: apples (a post about apples). Blog 2: burgers (a post about burgers) and so on till the end of the alphabet!!

Whether anyone wants to join me or not, i will be doing the alphabet challenge!!

Please stay tuned, and feel free to comment!

Links to the alphabet blog posts:

A

B

C

D