Hello October!

I'm a couple of days late with this but never mind... It's now October (yikes hasn't this year gone fast?!) so I've decided to list a few things that I will do this month, or at least hope to do =)

• Complete the #craftblogclub October challenge! This month it is "Create a Halloween decoration using a craft/skill you haven't tried before". I am very excited about this and have all my supplies ready. I'm starting over the weekend =)
• Unveil my secret commission. I can't upload pics here or on Facebook until I secure permission from the customer. Hoping to unveil in the next couple of weeks. I'm very proud of it!
• Sign up for more craft fairs in time for Christmas! I have two in the pipeline but would like to sign up for more as the festive season approaches!
• Get 1000 page views! Might be a big ask but I enjoy a challenge! I got 641 pageviews in September.
• Start a feature called "Theme Thursday". This will start next week. Basically I will suggest themes for a baby shower and how to organize the decorations, food, games etc. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone planning a baby shower!

Well there we go! Hopefully I will be able to tick all of these off as the month passes =)

Heres hoping!
Hayley x     

Belated September round up

September is my first whole month on this blog, so even though its a little late I've decided to write a round up! Then tomorrow I'm whole to post my aims for October =)

So in September I opened a Twitter account and came across the fab #craftblogclub! Ran by the lovely Emma from Life is Peachy Craft Blog Club runs every Tuesday 7-8pm. Just use #craftblogclub to join in! September also saw the first ever Craft Blog Club challenge, which was to cover a notebook! Now anyone who has read my blog in the last couple of weeks will know I had a couple of problems with this challenge...

You can read about it here:

• Notebook disaster
• Second attempt
• Finished notebook

So what else have I been up to? Heres the full list including the points above.

 

In September I have:

• Opened a Twitter account
• Joined #craftblogclub
• Completed my notebook
• Made a lion, butterfly and a pirate ship
• Wrote my first tutorial on how to make your own butterfly
• Had a rant about ridiculous magazine projects
• Asked the questions Why do you craft? and also When did you "officially" become a crafter?

Not bad for my first proper month =)

I'm going to post my goals for October shortly,

Bye for now,

Hayley x

Pirate ship nappy cake

A few weeks ago I wrote this post about a challenge I had set myself on Facebook (with the help of my lovely likers!) Basically I asked people to suggest objects for me to make a nappy cake of.

I have already made a lion and a butterfly: 

 Today I picked another suggestion, a pirate ship! I will hold my hands up right now and say that it looks more like a sailing boat... but I'm still pretty pleased with it =)

Bye for now,
Hayley x

#CraftBlogClub notebook challenge

Well I finally finished my notebook! All it took was two attempts at paper marbling, a big mess and a bit of swearing ;)

Why the alien? Well I was looking through my embellishments and found this little guy. He has a sticky pad on his back and when I put him on to see what it looked like, the sticky pad got well and truely stuck... I was going to re-position him but the paper was going to tear so he can stay there lol.

So I have completed the challenge, even if I did it very clumsily. At one point I didn't think I was going to finish at all, as my blood pressure was rising and I was very close to hurling the notebook out of my bedroom window! Oh well... Bring on the October challenge! 

Hayley x 

When did you "officially" become a crafter?

This is something that was being discussed on Facebook a while ago. A page I follow (can't remember which one) posted a status saying that she felt like she was now officially a crafter because she had sliced her finger with a scalpel! 

This got me thinking... Before I started making nappy cakes I made greeting cards and paper crafts. I think the moment I became a "proper card maker" was when I had an accident with my hot glue gun... Well two accidents actually!

First I stuck two of my fingers together with molten glue. To explain how the second accident happened I will have to show you a photo of my desk. Ha it almost looks tidy in this pic!

Look at the wire basket hanging under my desk, my glue gun is on it (the purple thing!) which is fine when it is turned off... You can probably see where this is going...

So back to the story! I glued my fingers together, swore and put my glue gun onto the wire basket while I unstuck my fingers. Problem is when my glue gun is turned on, glue slowly comes out of the nozzle as it melts, without me having to press the trigger. So the glue dripped out of the gun and fell through the square holes in the basket onto my jeans... So I ended up with burnt fingers and ruined jeans! That was the moment that I decided I was a "proper card maker" and a clumsy idiot!

As for the moment I decided I was officially a nappy cake builder? Thats an easy one! It was the day that I realised that I regularly buy nappies, despite the fact I have no children! Haha =)

So I've shared mine... When did you "officially" become a crafter?

Bye for now,
Hayley x

Custom Orders are the best!

I'm very excited today because I have been working on a custom order! I love custom orders... When someone says "Could you make a nappy cake in the shape of *insert random object here*?" and I say "I have no idea... But I'll give it a go!"

I was asked if I could make bears... Turns out I can =)

On Sunday I received a message on Facebook asking if I could make a nappy cake resembling a certain object... I won't say what it is yet but hopefully I'll be able to post photos soon. So today I spent a lot of time on this idea and I finished the nappy cake and I have to say I'm really proud of it! Personally I think it really looks like the object it is supposed to be (if that makes sense) and I have sent photos to the lady who enquired. I'm waiting for her response, hope she likes it!

I think the reason I love custom orders so much is that I love a challenge! There's always that thrill as I think "Can I really make *that* out of nappies and baby items?!" I love to plan how I'm going to assemble it and there is no better feeling than sending photos to the customer and saying "Look, I did it!"

Fingers crossed that the lady likes it!
Hayley x 

Second attempt at Paper Marbling

After my first attempt at paper marbling, I was ready to give up but thanks to encouragement from you lovely lot I decided to give it one more go. So did my attempt look like the photo in the book this time? Nope! But it was a huge improvement on last time... and this time I didn't cover my kitchen floor in wallpaper paste whilst trying to tidy up =)

I'm still not sure if I will use my marbled paper to cover my notebook for the #craftblogclub challenge. Either way I am glad I had another go! Here is a reminder of my first attempt.

Not good... Here are some of sheets from my second attempt.

Not exactly a work of art but I'm much happier with it! So thank you for the encouragement! I have another idea that I want to try out so who knows what will happen to my poor notebook! Haha =)

Bye for now!

Hayley x