Handmade Christmas Presents

I know we’re probably all a bit jaded about Christmas by now but I wanted to share some of the presents I made this year. I mainly knitted hats (me and bloody knitting hats!) but I made a handful of other things too.

Lemon Meringue Cupcake Beanie was made for my youngest sister, from the The Knit Guru’s pattern

The Yellow and Blue Striped Beanie was made for my sports mad brother in the Clare colours. I put a pom pom on top but didn’t take a picture of that yet. I winged the pattern using DK yarn.

Blue Chunky Hat for Chelsea supporting brother, made from Super Soft Merino Hats for Everyone by Purl Bee.

Creeper Beanie for youngest brother, made using Minecraft Inspired Hat by Jenna La Due

This hat was made for Sarah from Cashmere and Clouds. She loves space and galaxy stuff and I had this planned for months. It’s probably not the best (it was my first time using multiple colours) but I’m proud of it and love the colours I finally picked! The pattern I used was Siouxsie Stitiches Celestial Fair Isle Hat that I modified slightly.

I made this cowl for my best friend using Aran yarn and reverting to my beloved Seed Stitch pattern. I love the off white creamy colour! It was a pattern I made up myself.

I made two fleece Pusheens, one for my brother and one for his friend. They were both double sided, so happy Pusheen on one side and an angrier Pusheen on the other side. This was the biggest time suck, having to hand stitch on all those facial pieces took hours. I thought I’d fly though the sewing up of the body with my sewing machine but I didn’t have the correct needle! I had to handstitch them closed but overall I’m happy with how they turned out. I shall make one for myself, once I stop hating the sight of Pusheen’s face!

For my baby cousin, I knew she’d get loads of presents, so along with one present I got her I made these postcard frames. ‘Made’ being a close term to be honest! Anyway, I bought some wooden frames, trimmed off a small amout of the Puffin Postcards I had chosen and added them to the frame. They’re going to be hung up in her nursery.

Themed subscription boxes are all the rage (like Loot Crate and My Geek Box) so I decided to put together one for my boyfriend. I got the logo of his podcast printed on a mug, made some Lego chocolates, knitted a Cthulhu hat and bought other bits and pieces like socks, keyrings and t-shirt.

            

Here’s a close up of the hat, made using this Cthulhu’s Unspeakable Hat by Finlay Logan

I was also lucky to receive some handmade gifts!

Sarah knitted me some socks!! I loved them, I always thought knitted socks would feel weird and scratchy but these are lovely.

The friend I made the cowl for not only bought me a much needed bookcase but she decoupaged some of my favourite books along the sides and inside! I love it so much, I finally filled the shelves after having to wait a few days for landlord to do work in the house.

And that’s it! I still have a hat to make for my sister, I just didn’t have the time thanks to getting sick for 2 weeks. I also have another project to finish, would should have been done on time but I didn’t order enough material and then the local shops didn’t have it either.

You can find more of my knitting from my Ravelry page if you’re interesting. I’m hoping in the next day or two to start another project (for myself this time!).

DIY: Cardigan Facelift

So, I have a thing about flamingos, I love them. I have shoes, necklaces, cardigans, scarves, and glasses, all with flamingos on them. I got this cardigan from Primark when I was in Liverpool in March and the only reasons I bought it was because it was marked down and there was flamingos on it.

It’s a lighter colour in person, as you’ll see in the after picture, I took this hasty picture one night before getting stuck in at colouring in the flamingos! I was originally just going to colour one in here and there but once I started I decided to colour them all in. The result!

I did it with Tulip Fabric Paint in. I’m not sure how long it took me to do, as I did it in two stages. Probably about an hour or so. I only did the front part, not the sleeves or back. I LOVE the pop of colour and how much brighter this looks, it’s really helped pep up the cardigan!

DIY: Galaxy Shoes

I fell in love with the idea of having galaxy shoes some time after I did my Galaxy nails. This week I finally got around to actually making some! I’m very happy with how they turned out.

They are really easy to make! Here’s how

Supplies

Tape

Scissors

Paint brush

Sponge

Fabric paint/Acrylic paint in navy, park purple, white and black (and pink too if you want)

Something to mix paint on (old plastic plate, artist palette, paper plate)

Old toothbrush

White canvas shoes (you can use black too though)

Glitter paint (optional)

Newspaper

1. First set up your work area, use old newspaper underneath to protect surfaces. Tape the white rubber parts along the edge of the shoes so paint won’t get on this part. Remove laces.

2. Mix your paint up. You’ll need navy, dark purple, black, white, lighter blue (mix white and navy to get the colour you want) and light purple (mix white and dark purple to get the colour you want).

3. Start by dabbing on navy around the shoe, though do not cover the entire shoe in blue. Dab purple on as well, the sponge is the best for this to help blend in areas of different colours. You’ll want to pretty much cover the entire shoe with navy and purple. Leave to dry for 20 mins or so.

4. Once dry, you’ll apply the lighter colours on top to give some shading. Make sure they’re no harsh lines, that everything blends together. Use the black as well to add some extra dark shading. It’s really up to you what you want it to look like, I kept some of my navy and dark purple paint so I could dab on top of the light blue if I thought I had too much light blue. I didn’t use pink but I’ve seen a lot of pink used and it is very pretty. You can Google images for inspiration, I used this video by stylishteenbeauty on YouTube, there’s other videos to use as well.

5. If you are working with black shoes as the base, I should start with the light colours, leave dry and then add the dark colours as shading. I just think the dark colours will shoe up better over the lighter background rather over the black.

6. Using the old toothbrush, or a paint brush, dip into the white paint and splatter over the shoes to create the stars effect. You can use a small paint brush and paint on random bigger stars here and there if you’d like.

7. If you want to use some glitter paint, you can either splatter a bit on with the white paint or else just dab it here and there. I didn’t use a lot, just a few dabs per shoe as I didn’t want it too glitter.

8. Leave overnight to dry and you’re done! You can finish with an acrylic sealer but I didn’t. I’ve painted on shoes before and not had a problem. Put back in your laces and rock your look!

 

As you can see, I wasn’t very careful with the tape so some paint seeped down. Other than that though I’d say it’s a success! My brother even knew what they were supposed to be which is always a good sign!

DIY: Teacup Candles

Today’s DIY is something I made for Christmas but would be perfect as a Mother’s Day gift, which is this coming Sunday. After I had my tea party fundraiser back in October, I was left with loads of teacups. And while I love them and think they are pretty, I decided I wanted to give them away as gifts and then this idea came about! It’s very simple.

DIY Teacup Candles

Supplies

Wax (mine was part of a candle making kit, you should be able to find it in craft shops. Though I also melted down some wax tarts a friend passed on to me)

Wick

Scented oils

Lollipop stick

Scissors

Clean teacups

Method

1. Melt the wax as specified with the instructions. I melted mine in a heatproof glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Your wax should come in beads or pellets, which make is faster to melt. However when I used the wax tarts (or you could use old bits of candles, probably bees wax too) I had to chop it up before melting so the pieces would be smaller, otherwise I would probably still be there trying to melt it!

2. Once melted, add in a few drops of the essential oil of your choice to give it a nice scent. If you have plain wax and want to colour it, you’re going to need oil based colouring I think, otherwise it won’t work.

3. Measure the amount of wick needed, leaving enough extra attached so that you can tie it around the lollipop stick, then dip the bottom half into the wax, pull out and leave to harden. It will help it stand up better. Tie to the lollipop stick.

4. Pour the wax into the teacup to desired level. Add the bottom part of the wick into the candle and place the lollipop stick across the top of the teacup, so the wick will stay in place will the wax hardens.

5. Once the wax has hardened, cut off the excess wick and voila! You have a lovely new candle!