Genie Cat

Darcy drew this fantastic Genie Cat and for Christmas I made it into a toy, she loves it. I love it! I would never have come up with such a cool design, kids really do take the biscuit when it comes to characterful drawings!

Sweet peas re-posted

Last May I think it was, the weather was truly awful and with the help of my children and nieces, we invented this great way of making sweet peas. I thought I might re-post it as it's pretty nippy out there and we're all dreaming of Spring

Well, it’s still pouring with rain here in Devon, gail force winds etc. Plenty of time to make sweet peas and dream of more gentle June weather…

You’ll need a piece of kitchen roll and some felt tips and a glass of water.

Start by folding your piece of kitchen roll into quarters and cutting out a couple of circles, they don’t need to be perfect.



Now, with a felt tipped pen, dot around the edge of one of your circles.

Take another colour and dot inbetween the first dots, add a few more and some green dots in the middle.

This isn’t an exact science, have fun and don’t worry about doing it “right”.




Now dip your finger in the glass of water and just dab the circle with drops of water and watch the colours merge.

Repeat this process on each of your circles, with different colour combinations and varying amounts of dots, then leave them all to dry naturally, or as I did, dry them with a hair dryer. While I dried them, I scrunched them up a bit, it gets rid of the little indentations on the kitchen roll and adds that just uncurled from the bud look.

When they are almost dry, peal the layers of tissue apart. The kitchen roll we used had three layers.

Lastly, form the circle into a flower shape, almost impossible to describe this bit, sort of pinch the centre back, brush the rest forward then lick your fingers and twist the centre back to form a stem.

I’ve noticed that sometimes a disk doesn’t look all that inspiring but twisted into the flower shape can be very charming.

What to do with them now?

I thought they’d be lovely hung up on lines of cotton as a mobile, anyone got any other ideas?

Gardening dolls

I just put the finishing touches to this latest group of dolls commissioned by Selvedge magazine for their dry goods shop.
Gardening ladies; Vita Sackville-West, Alys Fowler,
Nancy Lancaster and two land girls.
I really enjoyed making them and will be sorry to post them off to London later in the week.
I'm hoping the sun might peek out for just a moment tomorrow because I'd love to take some photos of them outside amongst the Spring flowers.

Christmas Angels

I don't quite know how I managed to get these little angels finished with Louie and Darcy home from school with colds. Actually I do, CBBC.....

Wool decorations

These are all going off to London today, to a great shop on Upper Street in Islington, Folklore.

I got my first crafting injury making them though! A blister/mini rope (wool) burn, too much repetition!!

But, after DAYS and DAYs of rain I had a lovely time on Monday morning looking for sticks in the sunshine, and because I was "working" it was great to spend a couple of guilt-free hours outside.

I love these.

I know, I shouldn't blow my own trumpet, but - I really do love these!
I sit happily painting each one and then stitch them to a couple of layers of felt and blanket.
I like making them so much because every one is different and for once, they are actually good for kids, I've always found it a little difficult that my dolls are not quite suitable for children.

I had a great time!

I had such a great time at the Selvedge Winter fair last Saturday, met so many lovely people who appreciated my work. I sold lots including ALL my pixies!
I'm hoping that Jen West might read this post..... if you're out there Jen, you ordered 3 pixies and paid me but in all the chaos of the fair I didn't take your address!