Pretty Stitchy Autumn Leaves

Hello.... Another paper craft post today with a bit of stitchy goodness thrown in, yes Autumn was the inspiration for this card.

Earthy tones, leaves and wooden buttons.

 I used die cut felt leaves and I set too adding some stitchy detail, in orange, green and brown, I've not done any sewing in a while and really enjoyed the relaxing pace of it.

I then founds some pretty spotty paper in my stash that was just perfect and added a border to the bottom of my card.

Before attaching the felt leaves with glue dots.

Then all that was left to do was glue on the buttons and added some ribbon and 

Ta-Dah

My card was done, no sparkle to add this time as the recipient was a male, but boy it hard to resist the lure of the glitter glue!!

Linking up with KCCO

Happy Crafting

Clare xx 

Salt Dough Halloween

Hello....... Yesterday craft club was all about bats hats and cats, oh and pumpkins too.

Oh yes was had some fun with glitter and paint, it made such a fun change, as the lady who runs our craft club also runs a craft group for children once a month and she had some left over salt dough shapes, so we decided it was only right that the grown up should have a go too !!!!

So salt dough shapes, paints, glitter and newspaper were handed out much to the surprise of the other library goers !! and we sure had some fun, my inner child and inner magpie (all that sparkle) sure were happy.

First up was painted them...

Then we decorated them with glitter and glue.

Lookie how cute my little black cat turn out with his lightly sprinkle sparkles in purple and green.

and I just loved how 'B''s glitter bats turned out, 

So Spookytatstic, 

I happily went off home with my shapes, however all the time I was at craft club I was thinking I wish had some glitter glue with me.

So when I got home the fun continued with pink glitter glue and stars

 adding the finishing touches

To my bats, hats and cats.........

Now about that bat, well I added some purple glitter glue to the front, but he has another secret too!!

He also has a glam rock glitter back!!!

Yay for Halloween fun !!!

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Five on a Friday -Hunkering

Hello.......... Today's Five on a Friday post is going to be all about hunkering, outside it's wet and cold, so there is nothing else for it, it's time to hunker.

So here are my essentials for a good hunker........

number one: A comfy place with lots of cushions, blankets and fairy lights and of course some lovely crochet to be getting on with.

Number Two: Blankets are very important in the hunkering process all cosy and warm. This is a blanket I've been meaning to share on the blog for a while, It's a special one, a vintage make and family piece that probably dates back to the 1960's maybe earlier.

Number three: While hunkering you need something to look at, flowers are good, these seasonal anemones are perfect, don't you just love the one at the top of this post, it reminds me so much of raspberry ripple ice cream.

Number four: When hunkering you need something to do, craft magazines are the perfect distraction from the gloomy weather outside.

Number five :Tis the season for hearty food, a essential when hunkering, this was a chicken and butter bean casserole, so yummy on a cold day.  Now do you notice anything missing in the above pic? While eating this for lunch yesterday I said to 'P' 'I'm yet to find a butter bean.' To which the reply was 'Me neither'.  Yep my Foggy brain strikes again they were still sitting in the tin on the side.  They did make it into the pot in the end, oops you see hunkering can be a tricky old business.

Joining in with Amy's Five in a Friday.

Now I have some very sad news, our lovely Dylan passed away over night Tuesday, he had been poorly for a while and it's a comfort to know his suffering is over now, but he will be much missed here at the Summerhouse. He made it to the grand age of 15 and a half and brought so much joy, love and laughter into our lives.  So I am now without my yoga buddy, cuddle chum and crafting assistant, it's all a bit heart breaking really as we only lost our beautiful Merlin in the Spring. 

Spending so much time in bed with my health, they were my constant companions, never too far away from the crafting action, my lovely little crafting assistants, both of them are so very much missed.

Clare xx

Patchwork September and a blog award

Hello........... Each month I seem to run a little bit later with this post, but better late than never !! so here's the summerhouse roundup for September

A month spent hobbling around on crutches, with a broken ankle, while the seasons changed over from Summer to Autumn, (from flip flops to boots in a month) it is amazing to see how the colours change each month in these patchworks as we go through the year.  So a month of resting and lots of hospital appointments, crochet, music, eating clean and hunkering down as the nights started to draw in.

Out in the garden I'm sure there was lots going on, but with my energy levels and ankle it was a bit of a struggle to get out there, so only a few pics, I was skippy happy to see the anemones I planted just a few weeks back, flowering, so very beautiful.  Low energy gardening is all I can manage these days, so it was wonderful to see the corns I planted in a pot on the patio flowering.

Over on 'Instagram' September looked something like this, oh yes the summerhouse now has it's very own instagram page which you can find 'here'

Now to the award.......

Last week I was skippy happy when the lovely Sharon from Creativity and Family left a comment saying she had nominated my little blog for a 'Encouraging Thunder' award, now to be honest with you I didn't really know what the award was all about until I popped over to Sharon wonderful blog to learn a little more...........

'So the Encouraging Thunder Award is meant to recognise blogs that are inspiring and encouraging to their readers'

It is so lovely to think that me crafting away here at the Summerhouse is helping, inspire others.  As to tell the truth the reason I started the blog was in many way to try and help myself, as many of you know I suffer with some chronic health problems and at the time I started this blog things were a bit scary for me.

I was struggling very much with new cognitive symptoms, that were effecting my ability to read, spell and word find, best described I guess as a late onset dyslexia, so worrying to my GP that I was sent off for a urgent brain scan.  In the mean time, I thought well use it or lose it, so I started the blog to try and stop my cognitive symptoms from getting any worse, that's why sometimes you may find errors in my posts.  I read and reread them, check and check again each post before sharing it with the world but I'm sure sometime mistakes are still made.

So it's wonderful that, my blog is maybe helping other too, I do try and make it a positive space, full of colour and creativity.

Here's what Sharon had to say about the Summerhouse.

'You are inspirational, your cheerfulness through your illness is amazing and I love to see what you are making.'

I was really touched by Sharon's kind words which really cheered me on, in what has been a bit of a tough time here at the Summerhouse.

 

So here are the rules for this award...........

When you get this award, you can:

• Post it and the logo on your blog
• Pay it forward by nominating others

You cannot:

• Abuse or misuse the logo
• Claim the logo is your own

If you receive the award you should:

• Give thanks via comments and likes in the blog of the person nominating you
• Mention the person who nominated you in your award blog
• Discuss your purpose in blogging in your award blog

So as for my nomination's I'm going to do them in a separate post, in a few days, because as of late I've not been very good at keeping up to date with my blog reading, so I'm going to do some catching up and then get my nomination on, I hope that's OK

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

 

Indian Summer Card

Hello........... Last week when I made this card the weather was gorgeous here at the summerhouse, you could say we were experiencing a bit of a Indian Summer, not so much now though, it's wet, windy, cold and the central heater is on for the first time.

So the inspiration for this card, just to confuse things further comes from the continent of India not North America which I think is where the term comes from, do correct me if I'm wrong.  With it's lovely warm, rich, earthy tones, this pastels girl has fallen a little bit in love, so much so I thought it would make a perfect Autumnal Birthday card.

So first up I choose a peach coloured card blank, and found a cute little orange doily in my stash, mostly because I needed a round template for the card and I was feeling too poorly at the time to make one, I hope it works well,  but you can make this card just as easily by cutting a ring of cardboard out to attach the flowers too as I did 'here'

Next up it was paper flower assembly time, layering up the flowers adding sparkle and beads,

It really is the fun bit, playing around with the colours, patterns, buttons, beads and sparkles, I do love a paper flower.

 Then using glue dots and foam pads all you have to do it stick them to the card, I spent quite sometime playing around with the layout but when you are happy with it, just get sticking.

 Once all the flowers are on, you just have to add the finishing touches of beads buttons and of course some sparkle. For this make I added a cute glitter butterfly, which I made by sticking a glitter butterfly sticker onto a piece of acetate, that way you can cut around the sticker and then fold the butterfly down the centre, to make it 3d, so it looks like it's just landed on a flower.

Ta-Dah

My Indian Summer bithday card, I do hope the recipient likes it and that the weather cheers up again soon. Linking up with A spirit of simplicity

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Ice Cream Cushion Ta-Dah

 

Hello....... Today this project has finally made it to a Ta-Dah moment.

These lovely little squares have traveled around with me this summer, which you can read more about 'here'  This was one of those makes that started out as something entirely different...

At the end of last year I ordered the yarn to make a baby blanket, the only problem was I just didn't like how it was turning out, that'll teach me for following a pattern and not choosing my own colours, the brights were so much brighter than in the magazine.

So in the end I opted to make a much more summerhouse toned sparkly seascape (mini) cosy blanket for the little one which left  me with some squares that I wasn't all that keen on and some lovely balls of soft Italian Merino and right there the idea for my ice cream cushion was born.

That was back in May, with my limited energy and paced crafting time of 10 minutes a session, it's taken me a while. So even though it quite a little cushion measuring just 12x 12inch, this is quite a big Ta-Dah for me.

At first I hoped I might be able to reused the squares I had already made after removing the outer round but, it was not to be, so I had to make 50 squares from scratch in the scrummy pastel colours.

The yarn is Lana Gatto Super Soft Merino in:

Cream 

Mint

Marshmallow

Lilac

Sky

I used a 3.5mm hook as I wanted my granny squares to be quite compact, despite the yarn recommending  a 5mm hook, but I think they turned out ok

Once they were all made I was pondering about how I could join them together without a visable seam, when I remembered that the lovely Lucy over at Attic24 had shared a tutorial for just that, earlier in the Summer you can find it here Although I didn't used Lucy pattern to make my squares, the joining method worked perfectly for my ice cream grannies.

So the epic stitching of squares and ends began

I can tell you there was quite some celebrating when I finally stitched the last one at the beginning of October.

How I love these colours

So 50 squares made and stitched together, time for a border and a cuppa.........

I edged each square with a cream round of trebles

but then I was a bit uncertain of what to do, as true to form I ran out of cream yarn, I thought maybe I could edge each side in different colour trebles, but after two side were in I wasn't keen I wanted my cushion to have a fresher more contemporary feel. What I needed was some more cream yarn.......

In the end I compromised as the colour match was so very close and used some stylecraft special dk that I had here, that way no waiting around for yarn to arrive.  I simply double crocheted the cushion pieces together, which I crocheted on the reverse side as I didn't want a raise seam visiable.

Then it was onto the fun bit, picking some buttons, nothing like a rummage in the button tin to lift the spirits on a rainy day,  I opted for these pretty little shell ones in the end.

Which I attached to the inside of the cushion no need for a dreaded knitted button hole (how I love crochet) I simply buttoned up the cushion through one of the treble spaces.

Such a simple method that I thinks suits my little cushion well.

I just had to wait for the posties to deliver my cushion pad for my May-October (summer ish) project to be done.  I love how sweet and dreamy the squares look

in comparison to how they were when they had a brighter outer round.

Ta-Dah

 My completed cushion

anyone for ice cream ?

It's a little late in the season for my ice cream cushion to be out in the garden as originally planned. but I couldn't resist taking it outside for a photo shoot

After all our lovely garden chairs were a big part of the original inspiration for this make and I think they go well together.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

I'm sorry I've not been about much lately, on here or visiting your lovely blogs, I've had a flare up with my chronic illness and have been feeling pretty poorly, fingers crossed things ease a bit soon, I don't think the extra strain of the broken ankle helps.