Wedding Card Album Pin.013

Me and the hubster will have been married 6 years this July (which feels a little bit mad!). Soon after we got married I decided to make a wedding scrapbook of all our favourite photographs, including things like our order of service, nameplaces and table cards. So off I went to Hobbycraft and splashed out on craft paper, ribbon, decals etc.

5 1/2 years later I am sorry to say that we still don't have a wedding scrapbook, or a photo album! I told myself that it was because I was too busy and didn't have the time to just sit down and get it done. Weekends and holidays came and went and I realised it wasn't that I didn't have the time. I just didn't want to do it! It held no appeal for me at all!

Anyway, while forcing myself to start putting it together, I came across all our wedding cards, which are such a lovely reminder of our day. I realised I wasn't going to be able to put them all in the scrapbook and I didn't want to throw them away either.

Then I remembered something I'd seen on Pinterest a while ago - a wedding card album! Desperate to avoid working on my scrapbook I decided to give it a go.

This is the pin below. Click on it to go to the tutorial:

Here's my version:

A couple of tips if you want to try this:

• Use cardboard for the covers (stronger the better). I didn't have any so I used heavyweight painting paper but it is not as sturdy.
• You don't need to use a 'croc-a-dile' hole punch as described. Instead draw a dot where you want the hole to be, take the bottom cover/tray off of a normal sturdy hole punch. Turn hole punch over and line up the dot so it is in the middle of the hole. However make sure you don't hole punch another piece of your work by accident (like I did!).
• The 'brads' described are paper fasteners. I couldn't be bothered with this so used glue dots instead to fix on the ribbon. It worked fine, though you can see the glue dots through the ribbon, depends how fussy you are!
• Consider using hole re-inforcers (whsmiths or similar)

Verdict: A good tutorial and a nice way to keep all your wedding cards. Because my wedding cards were all different sizes it doesn't 'sit' as nicely as the original but I'm still happy enough with the way it turned out!

I suppose I better get on with that wedding album now...

Ripple Baby Blanket Pin.012

I have finished my second crochet project! Hurrah! And you'll be pleased to hear that it didn't take the 9 months or so that the first one did (although it is a fair bit smaller!).

A rippled baby blanket (sorry not a great picture).

Unfortunately it did take a bit longer than it should have as I hit a few problems along the way, resulting in unpicking hours of work.. sob sob.. I literally was finishing it off in the car on the way to see my friend for her baby shower! It took about a month altogether, though the pattern asked for 55 rows and I was a few short.

You get the ripple effect by using increasing and decreasing stitches that sort of force your crochet into a wave like pattern. It's a very cool effect!

In the end it wasn't really much of a surprise for my friend had seen my half a dozen 'ripple crochet blanket' pins on pinterest!

I used a tutorial from Daisy Cottage Designs (Pin below). However as a beginner crocheter(?) I found it really difficult to make heads or tails of. I'm still not quite sure where I went wrong with interpreting her instructions, as I had lots of chain stitch left over, and an odd amount of stitches. In the end I sort of improvised and fortunately it worked!

If you want to give the ripple blanket a go I would recommend following the pattern from Very Pink Knits. There's a video so you can see how to the stitches and do it along with her. I wish I had found this pattern before I started with the one above, I would have saved myself a lot of stress! Be aware than in any American tutorials they use the term 'double crochet' for what we in the UK would call a 'Treble'. It's also important to maintain the same tension throughout, I tend to crochet quite tightly (something I need to work on) but I got a bit lazy towards the end and was crocheting looser. This resulted in a very wonky blanket, and I had to unpick about 8 rows and redo them all!

For anyone wanting to learn how to crochet, check out Girlybunches tutorials on youtube. It's much easier to get head round it by seeing someone do it than looking at pictures etc. And she goes through all the basics as well as more advanced stitches and projects.

Hmm.. what shall I crochet next? Keep posted for the furniture upcycling me and the hubster are currently working on...

A Message to You Photo Frame! Pin.010

Hello all! Time for another pin post! Clicking on the pin took me to Jill Ruth & Co. This pin (like all the others) is super easy peasy. All you need is:


A fairly large photo frame, the one I used was 15cm x 20cm.
Scrapbook paper
Dry erase marker pen


And that is it!



Take a piece of scrapbook paper and trim as necessary. Plain or lightly patterned paper like this one works best.

Put the scrapbook paper into the frame..

And write your chosen message! You can't get easier than this! Here are some possible uses for the Message Photo Frame:

So there you have it. One Message Photo Frame. Wipe off and change the message as often as you like, use as a reminder, shopping list, message to a loved one etc etc! Also change the background whenever you like, just change the scrapbook paper!

I love it, SO ridiculously easy to do, both cute and practical! What more could you want from a pin?

Origami Paper Stars! Pin.009

Hello all! so I was considering which pin to do this week when I came across this tutorial for origami stars by Minna May. The great thing about this pin is that all you need is a piece of paper! the stars can be used for loads of things... cards, decorations... um.. cards and decorations??

Okay so I'm feeling particularly unimaginative right now but I'm sure you can think of lots of things to use them for... right?

Anyways... They were quite fun to do, quite quick and not too tricky after a bit of practice. I practised with plain white A4 paper then used the pretty patterned paper afterwards.

Got an A4 piece of paper? Then you're ready to rumble!

The tutorial asks for strips of paper 8.5" x 0.5". However, the shorter side of A4 is 8.3" so I used that measurement and it worked fine :)

Make a ribbon shape with the paper, fiddle around with it until it looks like this:

Poke the short tab inside the hole and gently pull through

You then need to flattern the paper a bit and fold over the excess tab:

Then begin folding the long strip of paper over the base of the star:

 And fold it over the back of the star:

And keep going. You will find that the paper sits comfortably in one direction so you don't have to worry too much about folding it in the wrong angle. Eventually you'll get to the end of the strip of paper and have something that looks like this:

You then need to tuck the tab inside the folds so it's hidden. Like this:

And you should have something like this:

The next bit required two hands so I couldn't take a picture, so I have borrowed one from Minna May. Holding the star, push your nail into each side of the star, forcing it into a star shape.

And Ta Da! You are finished!

Like I said before, it takes a bit of patience and practice, but they came out really nice! It's trickier with thicker paper, but I think the trick is to make sure the stars are folded quite tight - though take care not to tear them!

It took a couple of attempts, but I soon got the hang of making these stars. To do it properly it's not super quick but it doesn't take ages either! I think they look best on pretty patterned paper. I have yet to use them for anything but I'm impressed with how well these came out. I am by no means a seasoned origami maker! Please let me know if my instructions need clarifying - it's a hard thing to describe!

Jazzed Up Fairy Lights! Pin.006

Hello and Merry Christmas! Forgive the shortness of this post but hungry husband and I are currently on holiday and have hardly any phone signal/internet!

Anyway onto this short post. Though I decided to do 2 pins this week.. I so far have only been successful in doing one! This is a great way of updating your fairy lights. So here goes:

'Jazzed Up Fairy Lights!'
Another super easy pin. When I clicked on the pin it said 'blog not found'. Boo.

You will need:
Fairy lights (I used 2 sets of battery powered lights from Wilko's and joined them together). You ideally want lights with a clear or white wire, a green or back wire doesn't look so good. Battery powered lights have the benefit of being able to be used anywhere.
Organza Ribbon or 'Tulle' fabric

And that's it!

I tried two different ways of using the lights, I'll put both here and you can decide for yourselves which you like best!

Method 1: Find a nice sized vase and wrap the ribbon around the outside of the vase. You'll find if the ribbon has been stored on a reel it will easily fit into the vase. Secure the ribbon with sellotape and put the lights in, making sure any switches are accessible near the top of the vase.

It will look something like this:

Method 2: Cut roughly small strips of Organza ribbon and tie round the lights at regular intervals. Continue tying ribbon all the way down the lights, the more ties the better. (This was the method I liked best).

Personally I prefer the second way but I think both look nice. 

I like it, it was simple, quick, cheap and effective. The lights I used weren't actually as blue as the picture, they were white lights. Warm white lights and/or cream ribbon may have worked better, but I couldn't find any! It's nothing to write home about but it has a nice effect...

Soon to come....  'Roly Poly Mince Pies!'