Life & All That Stuff: handmade gifts

Monday, March 8, 2010

Inspiration . . . Thanks Kirstie!

I have been loving watching Kirstie's Homemade Home on Foxtel. I had never pegged Kirstie as a handmade kinda girl. But that just goes to show how wrong you can be :)

Just because I'm feeling lazy (and had already typed a lot of this earlier today blogger had a hissy fit!) here is the blurb from Lifestyle channel website:

From Life

"Location Location Location’s Kirstie Allsopp transforms a dilapidated country cottage into the ultimate “homemade” home. Kirstie Allsopp is on a mission to change the way we furnish and decorate property in the brand new series, Kirstie’s Homemade Home.

From Life

Journeying into the world of craft and homemaking featuring old and new, handmade and homemade, antique and bespoke, Kirstie attempts to prove that homemade beats mass produced designs every time. In a dilapidated farmhouse on the North Devon coast ripe for renovation, Kirstie shows how buying wonderful, unique, quality items will not only add character but can be handed down to future generations.

From Life

Over five episodes, she transforms the derelict space into a dream home by visiting auctions, buying bargains, searching out brilliant crafts people as well as restoring and making a number of items herself."

It was Bedrooms in last night's episode, and I got all inspired to make a doona/duvet colour for DD4 with thrifted fabrics. Here's today's haul. Might need to add a couple more patterns though . . .

From Life

How cute is that little brodré remnant? I took the colour palete from the hand coloured detail. So sweet! There was actually a whole heap of stuff I put back too. But this happened to slip into the basket

From Life

I'm hoping to convince Rochelle to make a little cushion for me, just like the little ones I saw on Saturday night ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Now, as this will be my first attempt at anything like this, it will not be elaborate. Basically just strips of varying widths, with some fun frays or button details. And I may need to add some of Jodie's pretties too.

From Scrapping Stuff

I'm looking forward to the challenge, and have already got the old Bernina out!

From Life

Sunday, December 27, 2009

My Homage to the Basic Grey 2010 Calendar Kit

Last year I fell in love with the Basic Grey 2009 Calendar Kit. And what's not to love? Everything you need to complete each little page is included in the kit for around AUD$35. A perfect gift. Last Christmas I made up three - one for each set of Grandies (yes, three - don't ask!). But it seems so did the rest of the scrapping world. Do you know how hard they were to get hold of this year? I could only get 1!!!

We were going to get some other present for the other two sets of grandies, but then a request came in at the last minute. And how can you say no to a Nana that wants to look at piccies of her grandkids all year long????

So I did what any resourceful scrapper would do . . . I made my own. That is to say that I made up the Basic Grey kit and sent it off to Grandad Queensland, then used the template for inspiration to make up the remaining two calendars. Sort of like a sketch. The kicker is though, that EVERYTHING WAS FROM MY STASH! Every last strip of paper, embellishment and the like. We didn't spend a cent! Well, we bought the Cardstock from OfficeWorks to print the calendar template on, and $4 at the printer on the 23rd of December for the binding (for both calendars).

I printed the calendars on to A4 210gsm white card (using the automatic Calendar generator in MS Publisher 2007). Then printed an 8"x8" square on the back of each month to provide the "workspace" for the scrappy part. And this was the result. The original Basic Grey image is on the left, and my "homage" on the right.

From Scrapping Stuff

I am pretty happy with the overall result. And they were well received. Nice to know that all the effort that goes into a handmade gift is well received :)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your Christmas was truly magical.

See you all on the flipside LOL