handmade – CraftyGuider

Fiskars Simple 3-in-1 Tag Maker

I have been looking for a tag maker for some time but haven’t been able to find one I trusted with the dimensions I wanted. Watching the new series of Crafty Beggars in the House! on the Community Channel, I saw them use some Fiskars tag punches to upcycle some cards – exactly what I needed!I bought mine from Amazon and chose the Simple design as I like the shape. The tag punch is substantial and sturdy – what I expect from Fiskars – and comes with 20 metal eyelets. I have a large stash of last year’s Christmas cards and set to work on them to make some tags for this Christmas.Having selected the area of the design to use, I trimmed the card so that I could get the punch in the right place.With punches, I always find that turning the whole thing upside down and viewing the design through the aperture gets it cut out accurately. The punch cut through really easily, even on cards with glitter or cards with textured finishes.Once the card is cut, there is another slot to put the tag into to get the hole cut accurately.Right on the pompom! The tags can be left like this with ribbon or string threaded through the hole (as a good Guide leader, I use a cow hitch or lark’s head knot). The pack also comes with metal eyelets which can be used to reinforce the hole and make a really professional finish.Simply feed the hole in the tag over the post under the handle, add an eyelet and squeeze. It doesn’t feel like you are doing much and that you need to press harder, but the eyelet attaches really easily.I am never throwing away a card again. I had some cards that I’ve used to make birthday tags, as well as the Christmas tags. I also have my eye on youngest Craftyguidelet’s birthday cards at the moment, and they will be going through the punch as soon as they come off the mantelpiece.I think this lot will get me though next Christmas, and all for just the price of the punch and a bit of twine. I also have plenty of card in my stash to get me through every possible occasion outside of Christmas so if you need me, I’ll be punching tags out of whatever will fit in the machine!

Disclaimer: I own this punch and I haven’t been asked to review it, or been paid to review it. All opinions are my own, and I have added some links to the normal Amazon site where I bought mine. They are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.

Here’s to 2016

At the beginning of 2015, I resolved not to have any resolutions, not to sign up to any social media obligations like photo-a-day or blog-a-week, not to join in with quilt a month, crochet along etc. and not to heap too much pressure on myself to join in and fit in with the crowd.

To some extent I’ve succeeded in this (especially the not blogging regularly part – oops!) but I’m not quite there.

My aim for 2016 is to get organised. I want to declutter and put systems in place to get my life, head and home in order. I want to complete ‘to do lists’ rather than keep putting things off. I want a crafting area that is inspirational, rather than a pile of work in progress. I want to minimise food waste by planning meals better and shopping smarter. I want to put my health higher up in my priorities.

But for now, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year and I hope 2016 is everything you want it to be.

Great British Bake Off – Bread

Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the Bake Off live this week so I don’t know how the bakers got on with the challenges. Looking at an episode write up, the 3 rounds were quick breads, baguettes and 3D bread sculptures.

I tend to try gluten free bakes so that Mr CG can help share the calorie load. However I am yet to find a decent gluten free bread recipe that the gluten eating members of the family could enjoy, so on this occasion, the gluten stays. I chose baguettes which was the technical challenge, and consulted Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book for his recipe.The dough came together well. It was quite wet but that’s what Paul said it should be like so I didn’t argue. I proved it in a square container as suggested, but then it came time to turn it out and form the baguettes. The dough was still very sticky and I ended up with 4 slug shapes rather than baguette shapes. After proving, it was difficult to score the dough, but I managed to ooze the loaves onto baking trays.They may not be perfectly formed, but they were lovely and crusty and great with some butter. Big thumbs up from the Craftyguidelets!

National Volunteer’s Week 1-7 June 2015

It’s the NCVO Volunteer’s Week which wants to celebrate the contribution of the 23 million community volunteers in the UK.

If you know a volunteer, say thank you to them. Parent helpers at school, your son’s cub leader, the President of your WI, the person behind the counter of the local charity shop. There are 23 million of them to thank!

And if you want to volunteer with GirlGuiding, just click here and tell them Craftyguider sent you!

Tutorial: How to mount an unmounted rubber stamp

There are lots of different type of stamp available on the market. When I started crafting *eh-herm* a few years ago, wood mounted blocks were the thing. They are the ones with typically a red or grey rubber stamp stuck on a wooden handle. They are easy to use but difficult to position on the page accurately as you cannot see the image when you stamp. They are also bulky to store.

Clear stamps are great. They cling to acrylic blocks so that you can use them, you can see where they are going to stamp and they are easy to store.

Sometimes though, you get lovely images on unmounted rubber stamps like the one above from one of my favourite stamp suppliers, Lili of the Valley. They do have the storage benefits of clear stamps, but they need mounting before they can be used.

You need to buy some mounting foam which has a permanent adhesive on one side, and a cling surface on the other. I had an offcut (the light grey in the picture) which fitted my stamp, and I fixed the stamp to the permanent adhesive side.To ensure a clean stamped image, carefully trim the excess foam and rubber leaving a small border around the edge. Non stick scissors are good for this. It helps avoid those annoying smudges at the edges of stamped images where the ink pad has caught the background as well as the raised image.This is my trimmed stamp. The foam backing gives an even image transfer as you can really squish it down when you stamp.I use Memento ink pads when I stamp an image I want to colour in with my Promarkers so the ink doesn’t bleed.

Isn’t it a gorgeous image? It was chosen by youngest Craftyguidelet when she came to a craft show with me. She’s got good taste!

Disclaimer: Any links contained in this blog are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.

My battle with an Elsa dress

Do you ever find that there is something that is stopping you doing something? I don’t mean something physical like a broken arm or your sewing machine being away for a service for a few days. I mean something in your head that is usually completely trivial. A mental blockage.Like lots of people, I’ve been enjoying the Great British Sewing Bee on TV and getting inspired to sew. I have lots of dress patterns that I want to try, and some of them have gone as far as being packed in project bags with fabric and all the notions to complete them.However, I am being thwarted by an Elsa dress. Eldest Craftyguidelet wanted an Elsa dress last year, and we couldn’t get one. Now they are everywhere, but I have all the fabric cut out to make her one. Youngest Craftyguidelet has hers made already as she went to a Frozen party last year, but eldest is still waiting. No deadline so no dress.I have the fabric and pattern. It’s all cut out ready and sitting in my craft room. I’ve already made one so I know what I’m doing. I’ve even got the basics sorted for my overlocker. I’m just not making the dress.

This procrastination over the dress is stopping me making other things. It’s fixed in my brain that I have to finish this dress for my little girl before I can start on something else. All sorts of thoughts are going round my head about prioritising something for my girls over all the other stuff for me, about getting it completed and ticked off the WIP list. It is totally illogical and is annoying me and I’ve only got myself to blame.

So readers, I’m going for it. This Elsa dress won’t beat me. And then I have some Liberty fabric waiting to be made into a blouse…

Guides do : Chinese Year of the Sheep

On the 22nd February every year, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are encouraged to think about all their fellow Guides and Scouts around the world. The day is named World Thinking Day and was chosen because it was the shared birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting, and his wife Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the first World Chief Guide.Another Guiding tradition is the donation of the Thinking Day Penny. It was suggested that as it was the Founder’s birthday, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts could send gifts in the form of a voluntary contribution. Olave Baden-Powell suggested a penny, and the money has gone to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) ever since to support girls and young women around the world. Even though a penny could have got you much more in those days than now, we still collect pennies to donate to the World Thinking Day Fund. We don’t get the Brasso out and shine them any more like I used to in the 80’s though!For the international element of our meeting, the adult leaders had already chosen China as a theme due to the Chinese new year being next week. We then handed over to the two Young Leaders to choose some extra activities with the Guides, and then I was despatched to Hobbycraft with a list for the following week.As it is going to be the Chinese Year of the Sheep, I’d already decided to contribute this decorated cupcake idea that I’d spotted on Pinterest. See – all that procrastinating does pay off!I’m not sure how many sheep made it home in one piece, so I made sure I emailed pictures to the parents to show them that the Guides had actually done something!Another idea was making lanterns which turned out really well, especially with the battery powered tea lights in the bottom.Not so successful were the fortune cookies. I was a bit dubious when I was asked to provide ingredients, but one Guide told me she’d made them at Brownie Pack Holiday once. If a Brownie can make it, it must be easy. They’d obviously had more experience, or not used the recipe I found online. They tasted nice though and the Guides all swapped fortunes which they’d written inside.Our finale was our Chinese dragon. The Young Leaders asked for boxes and bottles, and I think the Guide parents took the opportunity to lighten their recycling bins this week. Not many were used in construction, but it had a head, body and tail, and every Guide managed to get underneath so a success!

If you think that you would enjoy being surrounded by icing, despairing over cracking fortune cookies and helping to engineer lantern bases, come and join the fun! Click here for more details.

Messers Valentine and Valentine (and Valentine…)

February 14th is on it’s way and millions of people will be exchanging cards, men will be raiding garage forecourts for flowers and fretting over what size their other half takes in uncomfortable lingerie, all in the name of St Valentine.

However, did you know there is more than one St Valentine’s Day and more than one St Valentine?

Here in the West we celebrate on February 14th, but the Eastern churches celebrate twice in July, and Brazil chooses June 12th. Furthermore, there are two Saint Valentines celebrated on 14th February. A whole lotta love!

Over the centuries, St Valentine’s Day has moved towards a celebration of romantic love through traditions and literature. The tradition of giving cards and gifts started in the UK and then spread worldwide.

This year, perhaps look out for something handmade rather than a mass printed card from the supermarket, or have a browse online for ideas to make yourself. I’ve pinned some ideas on my Pinterest board, and I’m sure there is plenty more “research” to be done!

Follow Louise Craftyguider’s board Valentines Day on Pinterest.

#SBSevent2015 – Meeting Theo Paphitis

On January 30th, Mr CG, the monkey and I headed to the ICC in Birmingham for the #SBSevent2015. For those not in the know, #SBS is the twitter hashtag for Small Business Sunday, an initiative set up by Theo Paphitis. Small business owners tweet to @theopaphitis on Sundays between 5pm and 7.30pm. He personally chooses 6 winners and retweets them to his 462,199 followers (at time of writing). I won on 6th January 2014 and for a week my twitter feed went mad, I wrote press releases for the local paper and the national Guiding magazine and tried to put Craftyguider out there.About every 12 months or so, all winners of the #SBS awards get to go to a big event for networking, Q&A and meeting the man himself. I felt a bit out of my depth as I’m not a career woman any more. Craftyguider is a fundraising venture and I take no money from the business other than material costs. It’s lovely when people do buy from me as it means a lot that someone has appreciated something I’ve created, and it means a lot to my Guides who benefit from the money that I invest in the unit.

After the networking session, Kypros Kyprianou, Group CEO of Ryman Stationery (and fellow Spurs fan!), took to the stage to introduce the next part of the day, and then his boss, Theo Paphitis.Theo talked through some of the great things that were happening with SBS, including the newly updated SBS website. I’ve been on and updated my profile page already.

After lunch, there was a Q&A session with Julien Callede, co-founder of Made.com, Judy Naake who introduced St Tropez tans to the UK, and Rob Forkan, co-founder of Gandy’s flip flops.

Towards the end of the questions (which overran their time slot), some people started queuing for their photo with Theo. I didn’t as I thought it would be a bit rude to walk out on the session, and I was interested in what people were saying. Some people had long journeys ahead of them though, and with the cold weather, they probably needed to get away as quickly as possible.And this is me with my certificate and Theo. By this time, I managed to squeak to him that I was Craftyguider, a Guide leader who made things, before my voice gave out completely! Mr CG has had the benefit of me being almost silent for more than 48 hours now. We collected our goody bags and fortunately had a clear journey home to relieve my parents from their 24 hour babysitting stint.

And when I got home, I found I’d been nominated to receive a Certificate of Good Service from Girlguiding Hertfordshire “for being totally devoted to Girlguiding and for helping in many and varied roles”. Whilst my #SBS is fantastic, this Guiding award is more special to me. It means that 2 people have taken the trouble to write nomination letters for me, my commissioner has agreed the nomination, and that the awards committee have approved it.

I’ll be back at #SBS next year. Mr CG has said he might want me to try and get an #SBS for his company, and eldest Craftyguidelet will shortly launch her polymer clay jewellery. #SBS winner at 8 years old?

Review – Cath Kidston Sewing Book

Father Christmas was very generous this year and got me the latest Cath Kidston Sewing Book. I have other Cath Kidston books in the bookcase already, and this one is a similar format. The book comes with a kit using Cath Kidston fabric, and a variety of projects with patterns to photocopy at the back.There are more than 30 simple patterns in the book for a wide range of projects, together with basic techniques explained at the beginning. I started with the kit supplied with the book which was for a pocket sewing kit.The fabric was pre-cut so I didn’t need the pattern which I photocopied from the back. However the fabric was cut incorrectly. As the very lovely bird fabric is directional, the outside panel needed to be cut a certain way so that the bottom pocket was the right way up. This is clearly explained in the instructions, however the manufacturer obviously didn’t read them! It meant that there was a curved edge where there should’ve been a straight edge, and so there was a gap at the edges.I did find some of the instructions a bit vague, but the finished product is nice. It has one zipped pocket, one open pocket and one buttoned pocket. The instructions tell you how to make buttonhole loops but I put in machined buttonholes for speed. The book seems aimed at beginners, but I found I needed some experience to make sense of some of the stages.

What crafty presents did Father Christmas bring you?

Disclaimer: I own this book and I haven’t been asked to review it, or been paid to review it. All opinions are my own, and I have added some links to the normal Amazon site where I bought my copy. They are not affiliate links and I don’t get any money if you click on them.