A sort of tutorial type thing

I think this is the first time I've attempted a tutorial, and after half an hour of messing about and swearing, I realise why that is. :DI decided that I wanted to make some gift bags for my jewellery, and for some reason, decided I needed a very specific material for the bags. I *needed* an out-of-date UK road atlas which I found, despite the best efforts of my cats:

So, here goes. I should point out that I followed this tutorial on Cut out and Keep, and just added my own special touch to it. *ahem*

What you will need:
Paper - gift wrap, old magazine pages, whatever you like.
Glue
Scissors

(Just in case you didn't know what these look like - man, I'm so doopid. OK, moving on...)

1. Cut the paper to the right size - it needs to be double the width of whatever you want to put in the bag, plus some room all round for 'seams'.
2. Fold one side in about an inch or so and crease it well:

3. Fold the bottom of the paper up by about the same amount and crease well:

4. Suddenly get distracted by the thought that there might be amusing place names on the paper, unfold it again and search:

5. Decide that 'Chaddlehanger' is your new insult of the week and resolve to call at least three people it by Friday.
6. Make sudden discovery which causes an attack of childish sniggering:

7. Still giggling slightly, drag one's attention back to the job in hand *snigger* and continue with tutorial by folding sheet of paper in half and creasing it well:

8. Open paper back out again and cut out the far right hand 'tab' (rectangle shape) and two triangles to form a 'tab':

Note: This is a stunt paper, as I messed up the first one by not cutting the triangles big enough, and I glued it before I'd realised my mistake. So, make sure you use the folds as a guide for the triangles - large triangle goes from bottom diagonally across the fold, the smaller one goes from the bottom of the paper up to the crease diagonally. OK? Good, let's keep going!
9. Fold side flap back in and apply glue to flap (paper turned 90 degrees so I could apply glue correctly):

10. Fold paper in half to glue in place:

11. Apply glue to bottom flap and fold up to glue into place:

12. Praise self for having produced slightly useful, if confusing, tutorial.

13.Remove glue from background card, ironing board multi-purpose craft work table, fingernails, hair.
14. Realise cup of tea has gone cold but drink it anyway, whilst admiring handiwork. I am clearly easily pleased. :D

Fin.

All of your buttons are belong to me.

I've gone mad for buttons, and I am in danger of being barred from my local fabric store for picking out about 20 tubes and asking for only a couple of each button earlier today. :D But look what I made (yup, earrings - go on, act a li'l bit surprised):

The eagle-eyed among you may also have noticed a change in background style for the earring pics. I read somewhere about using scrapbook papers as backgrounds (why didn't I think of that before now?) and I think they work really well.

I bought so many pretty buttons - looky!

Close up because the colour and texture is so pretty:

Yum!

These buttons will be made into jewellery - mostly rings, I think, although I am also pondering making one or two into pendants. Just waiting on some more findings before I make the next batch of buttony pretties.

Sorry, no video clip related to buttons, as it's either Pussycat Dolls or the Sugababes. Unless....well, it sort of works. Altogether now "I like big buttons and I cannot lie..."

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

My apologies for the lack of posts in the last week, but I am melting. I am a very fair-skinned British woman - I do not cope well with high temperatures and too much sunshine. Don't get me wrong, sunny days are great, but when it's too warm to move/eat/sleep, I get grouchy and even more lethargic than usual.

So, in order to get myself back on track, I decided that a little refreshment was in order. No, sadly, at the time of writing this, it's too early for Pimms. However, this selection of cool, fresh handmade items from Artfire should help to cool us down.

First up is this gorgeous looking soap from the fantasically-named Soapy Pleasure:


According to the description, it is ginger-y, melon-y and herb-y. And it looks edible. *drooling*

And while it may be too warm for knitting or felt work, I could see myself sitting in the shade, doing some embroidery and listening to bees buzzing about in the flowers. This hand-dyed thread from cymberrain is ideal with its beautiful, cool colours:



This pendant from GlitzGlitter just looks like a slab of ice - it's an elegant and unusual piece of jewellery:



And when it all gets too much and you need to have a lie-down, this pillow from BCharmerDesigns looks light, airy and very inviting:



And while you sit in the shade, your fingers daintily wrapped round a glass of something cool, refreshing and slightly sparkling (no, nothing to do with Twilight, thank goodness), you can show off this pretty mint ring from EternalEden:



Well, I feel a little cooler now, so hopefully normal blog posting will resume over the weekend.