Button Decorated Keepsake Trinket Jewellery Boxes – Perfect for little treasures!!

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Art, Boxes, Button craft, Buttons, Crafty creations, Creative, Creative crafter, Cute quirky creations, Original, Unique

Buttons! Buttons!! AND, more Buttons!!! Routing around my vast collection has kept me quiet of late…now you know why 🙂 Creating little buttoned wonders! Sheer Bliss!!! To anyone, who shares the same passion as me for buttons, they will definitely understand! I’m sure the cost of the buttons far outweighs its sale value should they be carefully removed, even melted down, LOL!…though the pleasure of making them can’t ever have a true price tag! 😉

Making it special inside and out! A little rich red cotton fabric to line the oval wooden box! Sets thing off perfectly, I think! Just in case you missed how many delicious button were on this box……

An aerial view 🙂

Tomorrow is a special day for me ! Though, I think we should always think of TOMORROW as a SPECIAL DAY!!!! —Who knows what’s around the corner?!? Firstly, I would like to point people in the direction of a very special and extremely talented artist, called Ray Ferrer- he’s an extraordinary talented artist who’s just had a traumatic diagnosis http://wp.me/p2pdfM-nD  please visit! Then I have an extremely talented couple, who have a site on WordPress called Iarxiv – wonderful illustrations and series of stories – tomorrow marks the start of their new ‘Blublets’ series    http://iarxiv.com/2015/02/09/introducing-the-blublets/  – do please check it out!! I’m sure if past things are to go by, it will be wonderful 🙂 What is special tomorrow for me?…Well, it’s my five years of extra life…………. five years since I had a heart attack at the age of 43 (not over weight, no cholesterol, just hereditary, I’m led to understand) …..Making and creating, as well as gaining many new friends here on WordPress has given/kept me ticking along, for which I am so thankful 🙂 But, when I wake tomorrow, the next tomorrow will be one of the proudest days of my life, our daughter will officially graduate as Dr. Jen! Cap, gown and the works! – she’s worked so hard all her academic life and we love her to bits xx! I wish to congratulate her on her hard and dedicated path!!!!!!!!!!!

And then,  couple more!

The hot glue gun and a million more buttons……..so,

More unique little treasure chests 🙂

……….enjoy your every tomorrow!!!!

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Commissioned Elephant Lap Quilt. Handmade and hand-quilted with custom design applique elephants hearts and flowers.

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Appliqué hearts and flowers, Appliquéd elephants lap quilt, Art, Artist and crafter, Artistic moment, Arty, Bottons, Caren's canvas and craft, Colourful cotton elephants, Commissioned custom orders, Cotton wadding, Crafty creations, Creative, Creative crafter, Creative crafting, Designing my own pattern ideas, Embroidery threads, Fun creations, Fun with fabric, Hand quilted custom quilts, Hand quilting, Handmade patchwork quilts, Lap quilts, My Etsy Shop, Original, Patchwork, Patchwork and applique, Patchwork designer quilts

”Show and Tell” – 36” x 48”  Elephant Lap Quilt                                                             *NB  I MUST POINT OUT THAT THE CIRCLE ON THE TOP LEFT OF THE QUILT IS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE CAMERA FLASH AND NOT A BLEMISH ON THE QUILT! In all my excitement I didn’t notice it until I put this image on WordPress, by then, I had already shipped the quilt!!
This is one of the finished commissioned Lap Quilts which I promised I would show as soon as it arrived at its new home! 🙂

 

YAY! I am so pleased to be able to share with you all, a post about one of the commissioned custom order lap quilts, which has just been given full seal of approval,  by my lovely, Dear friend, Jackie! 🙂 Jackie has a couple of brilliant sites here on WordPress, which I follow avidly, her photographic work is absolutely stunning and I urge you all to pop over and have a look through her wonderful archives                                http://iamlostinthot.wordpress.com/about/

Jackie’s more recent WordPress site, Fun with Filters, has some amazing artistic effects placed over the original images, this is a link to one of my favourites        http://iamlostinthot2.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/iphone-snap-steampunk-hummingbird-v-2/     though to be honest, all her images are my favourites, it was hard to choose, but I decided on this one! 🙂

Firstly, I want to Thank Jackie immensely, for commissioning me to design and make her two (36” x 48”) custom order quilts! Not only that, but with trusting me completely, with all the design ideas, fabrics and colours, she really was in the dark from placing the order to seeing the final finished product, in both cases!

Jackie,  asked me to make a lap quilt for her cherished, two year old granddaughter with ‘Elephants’ as the theme and one for herself, with full free reign!!! Wow! I was sooo excited and a little scared too, what if she didn’t like them? But, thankfully, Jackie absolutely loved them both when they arrived in the US yesterday! 🙂  In fact, I have taken this ‘quote’ directly from her email,

”They look even better than they did in the pictures – your work is superb!!!” 

I was very very happy, as you can see, 🙂 🙂 :-)!!! Though, to be fair, my photography does leave a lot to be desired!

It was a fantastic opportunity for me and I loved every minute, from the first pencil sketch design to buying whatever palette of colours I chose, making all the double layered,  ‘turned out’, applique pieces,  right through to the very last quilting stitch!

Thank You so much again Jackie, for giving me the creative craft challenge 🙂

YAY!!!  I have just received another commission custom order, after my client saw your two designs! – my portfolio of lap quilt designs is set for an increase, again – this time as a Wedding gift!  🙂

 

 

A bored moment filler!

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Art, Art Creation, Artist and crafter, Artistic imagination, Artistic moment, Arty, Bored moment, Crafty, Creative, Creative craft, Different, Experimental art, Failure or success?, Inks, Mosaic effect collage, Original, Perpetual art, Watercolour paper

face from ripped up painting bits or ‘perpetual art’ as my daughter remarked!

Over the holidays I found myself alone one day and thought I might experiment more with the Inktense pencils. Firstly I sketched out some small, (4” x 3”ish) doodles of imaginary countryside scenes with an ink pen, I decided not to ink over the originals, so I scanned them and scaled them up to A4 and printed them off on watercolour paper to play around. All good for quick experimentation though as I had scaled up so had the width of the lines on the drawings, some were now almost a quarter inch wide, not to be put off I carried on playing with the ink pencils just to get a feel of what they were like for blending and bleeding together. after an hour of so I had four wet soggy landscape scenes, so mainly green, blue and a little brown from trees and stone walls. As I sat with a cup of tea watching the contorting and curling failed experiments, I decided there must be something I could do with them – really I think I was just trying to pass more time until my family returned – having finished my brew time I grabbed my hair dryer and gave them a quick blast. A little more dry and curly than before I started ripping them into little bits. By the time my family returned from their day out I was sat sorting small pieces of coloured papers into piles, armed with my PVA glue, a brush and the cardboard back of the watercolour pad raring to go again. A couple more hours resulted in the piece you see above formed from bits of sky, lush green meadows and trees! – I have no idea who it is meant to be it just happened!

Definitely not my best work, but never wanting to throw anything away, the mosaic effect collage is different and I liked my daughter’s description of it having become a piece of perpetual art! It did also fill a bored moment…or two…..even three or four 🙂

Wow!!! Thanks for all the hits :-)

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A new life, Amazing, Awesome, Challenging, Computer, Crafting, Creative, Different, Etsy, Grateful, Hard work, Inspired, Inspiring, Life changing, Networking, New life, Original, Overwhlming, Roofing, Self employed, Thank You, Thankful

 

Didn’t really know what image to put as a thank you for all the hits I have had on my site since I joined WordPress on January 2nd this year, Having just looked at my stats I saw that I have just gone over 10,000 views!!!!! I am overwhelmed 🙂 not only that people have found me but also stayed around and explored and then decided to follow me too. Thank You EVERYONE whether you found me because you hit a tag or you are a follower or just stumbled across me I am very grateful for everyone’s interest and support.

I hope you like the photo of my sleeping Peppy the Weimaraner, he always turns pink when he’s tired – I think that is so cute. He is not allowed onto the furniture, but while on a visit home my daughter encouraged him to get on and I think he enjoyed every restful moment though my daughter did get in trouble for letting him up there. having a cuddle from her dog far outweighed the stern words from her father

In the last , almost, twelve months, I have grown from a complete computer novice to someone who can mostly get things to where they should be when I want them to be. I have undergone ””’intense””’ computer training and instruction from my daughter on a somewhat one day basis on her short visits home, to her setting me up a blog, again only showing me for a day what to do and then leaving me to it.
Another trip home for the weekend ended up with me having an Etsy site, again a days training with a few written instructions and my daughter left me pretty much to it. I really can’t express how scary this has all been. I grew up in the age where a computer was sixteen feet wide and ten foot tall and I wasn’t allowed as a school student to go near it — it was for the ‘new intake’ , the class of 1983, to learn how they worked — I was in the last year of high school and therefore it was considered ”no point to introduce technology to us” And so I left education at the age of 16 with absolutely no computer interaction. Some 30 years later here I am.

The last few years have been trying shall we say, with my debilitating condition and then in July of this year my Husband’s family firm disappearing after 35 years of trading. We as a family have had to pull together, as so many others have done in this sad time of recession, to start a new and adventurous life. Both my husband and myself are now self employed, he as a highly skilled roofer and building maintenance worker and myself with my small Etsy site and trading at local fairs with all my self taught skills in art and craft. As I think most people would admit life is harder now than some twenty years ago, whilst family will always be there with love and support, to be able to keep the things that matter after them, like your house and simple ways of life, we have to work harder then ever before. Both my husband and myself are not afraid of hard work, and we both each still do over ten hours each day, age and illness are not compatible with maintaining this degree of exhaustion though, so another thank you goes out to our daughter for introducing me to the computer, the internet and the world of on-line trading. As we are in the early days of getting known, I am hoping word of what I do will eventually spread and I can make our life easier as a successful artist and crafter

Learning by the hard knocks of life seems to never stop and so we will continue to learn. I have yet to introduce my husband to the world of computers and at the age of fifty he has his spots pretty much set in stone against it— but I will conquer him ! if I can do it so can he!!

If you have stayed with me this far down I very much appreciate it, in my little way of showing you what I do I hope to change our future one day!

Again a VERY BIG THANK YOU to however many people have been on my site and however you found me I am grateful for the power of networking I hope to share, inspire and bring a smile to those who find me!

X

Button Craft – Recycling Old Buttons – Trinket Box Button Craft

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'Button Buddies', 'Button Buddies' my creation, 'Button Buddy Brooches, 'Button Buddy', Beautiful button art, Beautiful button ideas, Brass buttons, Broches, Button artwork, Button brooches, Button Buddy Characters, Button characters, Button craft, Button crafts, Button wall plaques, Buttons, Caren's creative canvas and craft, Caren's creative craft ideas, Crafts and ideas, Crafty creations, Creative, Creative crafting, Decorative buttons, Fashionable buttons, Old buttons, Old fashioned buttons recycled, Original, Original button ideas, Original creative crafting, Original ideas for buttons, Pewter buttons, Recycling, Recycling Old Buttons, Trinket box, Trinket boxes, Unfashionable buttons, Wall plaques, Wooden button box

Recycling Old Buttons

Having acquired probably thousands of old buttons over the years, my main idea is to give them all, at some point, a second chance. Recycling them, usually not in the way they were designed to be used, as fasteners on clothing, but as decorative and creative pieces of artwork. Also in this section, of Button Craft, you will see my original idea of creating little character “Button Craft – ‘Button Buddy’ Brooches – Recycling Old Buttons ” as Brooches and on Button Craft – My ‘Button Buddy’ Characters. This little wooden box has been covered with what we now consider to be out of fashion old brass and pewter buttons. On their own they seem worthless, not so, now arranged as decorative and beautiful on this little trinket box!

Below are other little trinket boxes covered in Recycled Old Buttons

Cushion Cover – Handmade Patchwork Quilting and Applique – Cushion Cover

Tags

Applique, Butterflies, Cotton, Cotton satin, Craft, Crafty creation, Creative, Creative craft, Cushion cover, Decorative, Different materials, Fashion, Feature cushion covers, Flower fairy, Flower print, Hand appliqued, Handmade, Handmade cushion cover, Handmade feature cushion covers, Handmade patchwork cushion cover, Handmane Patchwork, Home furnishings, Lace, Original and creative, Original patchwork, Patchwork, Patchwork and quilting, Patchwork cotton, Quilting, Recycling scraps, Ribbon, Satin ribbon, Style, Unique patchwork

Flower Fairy Appliquéd Cushion Cover

For this patchwork cushion cover I used a variety of different materials. I first designed the centre panel flower fairy, all the tiny pieces were cut separately and hand appliquéd in place. Subsequent borders of satin ribbon, flower printed cotton, lace and then cotton satin for the outer border. After hand quilting, I then appliquéd the butterflies again by hand. Another unique piece of patchwork!

Handmade Patchwork and Quilted Appliquéd Table Runner and Mats

Tags

Applique, Cotton fabric, Craft ideas, Cream teas, Creative, Creative craft, Doodling, Hand appliqued, Hand quilted, Handmade, Handmade patchwork, Hexagon table runner, Patchwork, Patchwork and quilting, Patchwrok fabric, Quirky, Red table runner, Sketch ideas, Sketch pad, Strawberries, Table runner, Table set, Unique piece

Table Runner and Mats

Having bought a beautiful piece of cotton fabric with little strawberries printed all over, I wondered what to do with it!? (Most patchworkers will know that impulse – buy now – then wonder what to do with it) Eventually after much doodling in a sketch pad, I decided it would make a perfect quirky little table runner and mats – Just right for those cream teas!

Not wanting it to be just rectangular I decided on a elongated hexagon shape and so set about creating a little table set. The centre panels are made from cotton canvas with a cotton strawberry appliquéd by hand. Once I had trimmed to shape I hand quilted through the layers of fabric, wadding and backing, creating another unique piece of patchwork!

Creative Patchwork and Applique -Craft utensil storers

Tags

Applique, Buttons, Coordinating fabrics, Cotton fabric, Cottons, Craft ideas, Craft utensil storage, Crayons, Creative, Creative craft, Creative craft ideas, Fabric trims, Felt, Felt characters, five pockets, Hand appliques, Handmade, Individually unique, Internal pockets, Lace, Multi pocket storage, Multi pockets, Old buttons, Patchwork, Patchwork and quilted, Patchwork bag, Patchwork cotton, Pencils, Quilted, Red cottons, Scissors, Storage, Tidy, Trimmings, Unique

Crafty bags

These little craft utensil storage bags, with a fabric handle, are made from patchwork and quilted. Each panel has an appliquéd felt character hand sewn to the front whilst inside behind each panel there is also a storage pocket. Coordinating cotton fabrics were used along with lace and trimming, as a finishing touch I added old buttons for decoration. Each one handmade and individually unique.

They are perfect for storing little things like scissors, cottons, tape measures, pencils/crayons etc, Each bag has five pockets as well as the centre for keeping things separated and tidy!

Cushion Cover – Handmade Woven Ribbon panel, Patchwork and Quilted Cushion Cover

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Art and craft, Blue handmade cushion cover, Blue ribbons, Cotton fabric, Creative, Creative craft, Green Handmade cushion cover, Green ribbons, Hand quilted, Handmade craft, Handmade crafty cushion cover, Handmade cushion covers, Patchwork cotton, Patchwork cushion, Pink Handmade Cushion cover, Pink ribbons, Ribbon cushion, Ribbon Weaving, Woven ribbon

Weaving away the day!

I seemed to have an astonishing amount of ribbon ‘fling’ itself out of my ribbon draw one day. As I was winding it back up I thought about doing ribbon weaving as a centre panel for a cushion – so instead of tidying it away  I pulled the rest out and started sorting it into colour ways. When I thought I had enough, I set to work weaving. When the centre panel was done I surrounded it with coordinating cotton patchwork, did some hand quilting and finished it off with a simple cushion back. I was so pleased with it I carried on and made more in different colours – See below!

‘Doorstop Dumpy’ – Handmade and designed Piggy Doorstop

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'Dumpy', Brass ring, Button eyes, Buttons, Colourful doorstop, Colourful pig, Craft, Crafty pig, Creative, Creative Art, Creative craft, Cute pig, Decorative doorstop, Decorative pig, Doorstop, Doorstop Dumpy, Flat cap, Green, Green tartan, Handmade, Handmade and designed, Handmade doorstop, Handmade pig, Old button, Original, Original pig, Pig, Pig 'Doorstop Dumpy', Pig craft, Pig creation, Pig Doorstop, Pig in a cap, piggy, Piggy doorstop, Recycling, Recycling buttons, Ribbon, Style, Stylish doorstop, Stylish pig, Tartan, Tartan pig, Unique craft pig

‘Doorstop Dumpy’ – Can I Have a Hug?

This is another of My ‘Doorstop Dumpies’ I designed the pattern for. This little tartan pig will certainly hold back any standard door. For interest I made him  a flat cap, and added some coordinating ribbon around his tummy and as a tie. The final touches were adding old buttons for a snout, eyes and colourful decoration and a brass ring on his nose!

As ever no two doorstops are ever the same making them unique!