Katy and Lucys Day Out

On Saturday afternoon my sister and I went for a walk, picked up a few bargains and had a bit of a picnic.
The first thing i bought was in a charity shop on Byres Road, it is a mini set of wooden shelves for displaying thimbles on, with a few alterations i think it will be perfect for displaying rings on at craft fairs. £3.00

The next thing that i found was a set of bed sheets in Glorious Clothing in Ruthven Lane just off Byres Road. I love the pattern on these and thought it would make some great bags if they don't end up on the bed! £10.00

They have a co-ordinating spotty pattern on the back and came with two matching pillow cases and a third not so matching pillow case that looks a lot like Cath kidston fabric, more on that next.

How cute is the postcard from Glorious Clothing!

Our picnic, in the botanic gardens we spread out one of the pillow cases to add touch of class to our park bench. Lunch consisted of poppy seed rolls, roule cheese, kabanos, olives and Irn Bru. Yummy :)

It started to rain while we were having lunch but we decided to finish our picnic anyway, a little rain never hurt anyone!

There was a book fair in the park on Saturday, we took a look at that after lunch and Katy got a few books.

We walked home via Great Western Road where we had a look in Caledonia Books, a second hand book shop. I found a couple of books filled with felt creatures and people, they are so cute lots of inspiration there. £6.00 amd £6.50

and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this shelf!

A great day, good food good company and a bit of a spending spree, what more could a girl want?

Introducing Mugdock Makkers Art and Craft Gallery

I would like to introduce you to the Mugdock Makkers Art and Craft Gallery.

I joined the Mugdock Makkers before Christmas last year, the Makkers are a collective of artists and crafters, working across a number of disciplines, all living within 30 miles of the park, providing locally produced art and craft.

The gallery is Located in the Visitor centre in mugdock Park in Glasgow near Milngavie.

Depending on how you come into the park you may see this:
Go through the door and down the stairs and the Gallery is on the right hand side of the courtyard.

Or you may see this: Go through the Archway and we are on the left hand side.

These are our front doors, the gallery is open from 12pm-5 pm in the summer and 11 pm-4 pm in the winter.

Come on in and browse our wares.

You will find: art, Ceramics, Woodwork, Textiles, Glass work and Jewellery.

The staff you meet in the gallery are all Makkers, if you visit at the weekend you can meet a Makker at work, see them give a demonstration or perhaps try a craft yourself.

I hope to be introducing some of the Makkers and their gorgeous products to you soon.

Spotty Bags

I know i was supposed to be introducing you to the Mugdock Makkers gallery but i have been busy making bags.
I was in John Lewis the other day picking up some red gingham fabric, some felt and looking at the Amy Butler Fabrics and the Really nice assistant Helen (i think) (who also sold my mum her sewing machine) opened this magic drawer under the table and pulled out some Amy Butler spotty fabrics that had been miss cut or end of rolls and they were priced down, well in my opinion when things like that happen it's meant to be. so i took them and decided to make a bag.
I had a general idea of how i wanted the bag to look so i set to work on making my pattern, i just roughly drew it on paper and tweaked it as i went along. The first bag turned out well, I am keeping it for myself, i am quite proud of how well the pattern turned out. Is it wrong that i want to keep most of the things i make?

For the next bag i made a few more tweaks to the pattern, and instead of three puffs i made one giant one doubled up with a gorgeous textured green button on it, the button is from a pack of big buttons from BigFish on Etsy she is a super Lady and has the most wonderful buttons.

This bag is for sale in my Folksy shop.

I have the pieces cut to make one more of these bags and some fabric left over, not sure what else to make!

lets start with the buttons and bags!

I just don't know what to start with, i have a couple of things that i want to share, after finally getting the sewing machine out to make the cupcake tea cozy, i have been on a sewing mission, making bags.

Then there are the Giant Buttons that i have had especially made by Brian Morris a fellow Makker, that are just yummmy fabulous. I have taken some photos of the Mugdock Makkers Gallery that i am a member of and i want to start introducing you to some of the other talented members as there is such variety of crafts and art in the gallery.

Ok lets start with the buttons and bags.

After making the tea cozy i have been on a bit of a sewing frenzy making bags. The need to make bags all started with the Giant wooden buttons that i had custom made, for anyone else out there who loves buttons you will understand how cool and exciting this was. I have had 6 samples made and i love them all, they are hand turned and not only look amazing but feel great too. They will be appearing in my shops soon on bags and on books and maby i will have some to sell too (not 100% sure about that yet though.)

This one is Laburnum

These have great shapes.


The largest is 9cm Diameter and the smallest is 7cm diameter, and once they arrived i had to make something to put one on so i made a bag.

The outside is a linen and cotton mix from Ikea and the inside is a cream cotton,

I have listed the bag in my Folksy shop so that i am not tempted to use it, i really like it, i think i will have to make a similar one.

I then proceeded to make three more bags, this leafy one with neon felt accent. I also made a plain version of this bag to put another of the buttons on.

Then while looking through my fabric stash i found a bag of samples and they just sang out to me, PATCHWORK BAG patchwork bag and that is what i did.

I love this bag too the colours are really good together considering it was a bag of random samples and i used the whole bag and didn't really do any planning. I'm not sure if this will make into one of my shops or if i will just have to use it.

Introduction to the Mugdock Makkers Gallery Coming soon!

Tonights Tea Cozy Project

The tea cozy that nearly never was.
It all started when my sister Katy started drinking tea along with my mum and dad. I should probably inform you now that i don't drink tea, i really don't like it i find that it has a metaly taste, maby i have weird taste buds!
Anywhooo Katy started drinking tea and then my dad started to complain that he wasn't getting a refill so I decided to get them a new teapot for Christmas a really big one so they could all have a cup of tea and there would be plenty left for a top up. Although i don't drink tea i found a teapot that was ohhh so very me........ A Giant Cupcake.

Well once i bought a giant teapot i realised that the tea cozy wouldn't fit over it so off i went to get some cupcake fabric to make a tea cozy to match the teapot. Since Christmas the gorgeous teapot has had to get by wrapped in a teatowel, so sad.
I know it's more than 4 months late but look how cool it is. I am so happy with it, i had no pattern I just measured the teapot in all directions and winged itfrom there.

I added a nice mixture of buttons in co-ordinating colours, it is a shame i wont be using it as i really love it now that it is finished!

Crafty Cups / Kits

This is something i have been meaning to make for a long time, Craft Kits for a make it yourself craft experience. I wanted it to be something that kids, teens and adults would like, something for a rainy day to do together or just to make something nice for yourself.

Well here it is, if you are buying it online it will come in a bag and look like this:

It has everything you need to make 2 brooches, felt, stuffing, instructions, templates and......

a bag if bits; buttons, sequins, threads and brooch backs.

The kits come with two colours of felt for your brooches these will be random unless you have a preference.

If you are buying at a craft fair or market it will be a Crafty Cup (they look funky but not so letterbox friendly) they have exactly the same goodies inside.

I have a pyramid of cups all waiting to make their first appearance at the Dennistoun craft fair on Saturday.

Easter Treats Craft Workshop

My Easter Treats workshop at Mugdock Park offered a make and decorate a book day.
This is how we did it:
Collect a pile of paper for the inside of your book
Choose a patterned paper for the front fold those in half
Choose a ribbon to bind them together
Get holes punched in the spine
Thread your ribbon through and tie.
Then find a space round the decorating tables where you could find patterned papers, plain papers, paper punches to make shapes, pre punched shapes, monopoly money (which was a big hit) stickers, sequins, coloured foam, ribbon scissors and glue.

Get stuck in.

This was my first workshop and I wasn't sure what to expect, the weather was awful it was pouring with rain and i thought it might be quiet but the complete opposite happened, there were loads of people. It was a drop in and have a go event, it started off quite nice a few kids with their parents and then all of a sudden everyone arrived one after another and i thought i would have to send people away. the decorating tables were so full there was no room for anyone else to join in and then luckily a few people finished their books.

Then I had the awful thought that i might run out of materials, I didn't and the whole day was a huge success. I had a great time, the kids really seemed to enjoy it and all of the parents seemed happy. All of the creations were excellent, they really liked using the monopoly money!

These two boys who were some of the first to arrive and made great books. This one has a really cool retro look
His big brother made a wonderful under the sea scene with some great hand cut details I was most impressed.
It was fantastic, crazy,messy fun, its a shame I didn't get a photo of how busy it was but I was there myself and i just didn't get the chance, but that's a good thing.

I am looking forward to the next workshop, just need to decide what to make next time, best get my thinking cap on.