Hoppy Easter!

Easter is one of my fave times of the year.....

Why??

Well I always tell myself to go easy on the chocolate and then of course do the opposite and gobble it all up! A Lindt rabbit has already met its demise and it's only Easter Saturday.... *sigh*

Anyways today I have been making some last minute little bunny softies for my niece and nepheww. I had the rabbit shapes cut out ages ago to make some beanie bags but I didn't like them so instead I have stuffed three, one for each kiddo. The big orange check is for my eldest nephew and the two smaller ones are for the twinnies. The little bunnies are only about 10-15cm tall.

I tried using some ribbon to tie around their necks but it just didn't suit and I was getting frustrated. So instead I cut up a couple of strips of fabric and used that instead! Gives them that cute shabby chic look and finishes them off too. 

We know all bunnies have cute fluffy white tails and these are no exception! Look at their cute little bums. Last minute gifts are better than nothing!

Below I have done part 2 of the beanie/hat stand tutorial. It turned out pretty good and I am more than happy with it. Click HERE for Part 1.

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Mini Tutorial - Part 2

Hat & Beanie Stand

So the last step that we had was covering the ball with white paper and allowing it to dry fully. I left mine to dry overnight and pretty much up until about 2pm the next day as thats when I got time to start working on it again! However it was completely dry in the morning. 

 I only did one layer of white paper but you can see how once it's dry the newspaper is very hard to see. You could leave your ball like this but I do give it a coat of white paint later on. 

The next step is the make a decent sized hole in the ball to sit on your stand. Now my stand had quite a thick pole which I wasn't anticipating before starting this project but you just adapt this bit to suit what you have. You have a thick pole then make a decent sized hole...you have a thin pole then you have to becareful not to make the hole too big.

I started my hole by finding most dodgy part of my paper mache and pushing an old set of scissors into it and twisting it around. I think I made my hole about 5-6cm deep?? Then I used a couple of paint brush ends, going up in size after each one to make the hole bigger. The paper around the hole will start to crinkle and tear but thats ok as mine got 'sucked in' to the hole when I pushed the ball into the stand. 

So...put some glue into the hole. I just used an all rounder craft glue. Then press the ball onto the stand, working your way slowly down by twisting and pushing. You can see in the picture below how I meant the ripped paper got 'sucked' into the hole when I pushed the ball onto the base.

I gave my ball about two light coast of white paint and let that dry. It didn't really look too different to when I started but it just helped the base and ball blend together. 

Here is my glorious stand in action! Doesn't it look pretty!?! I think the white helps make the items pop and stand out. Obviously if it was a white beanie then it might not be as effective.

Here is a close up of the beanie stand with a clip. I should be able to use this for headbands as well. Yippee!

Hope you all have a great Easter and that the Easter bunny is kind to you.

TTFN xx

Has it really been a week??!??

Hello again!!

I seriously cannot believe that another week has gone by. I swear the days are getting shorter. 

Anyway before I get onto what I've been up to today I will fill you in on some little bunny clips that I made earlier in the week. 

I have seen many machine embroidered felt rabbit clips on the net and they are so cute and adorable. Since Easter is so close I wouldn't have time to get any of them so being the type of person I am..I made my own!! These are all hand drawn, hand cut, hand sewn and embroidered! 

Cute, hey?? I even sneaked one in my hair and it looks cute. I took some progress pics of a plain little bunny turning into having some character. 

So on to today...I went to the Stitches and Craft show at Rosehill!!

There is usually a 'craft show' on during Feb/March and for years and years it was the Stitches and Craft. To my knowledge I think it got sold to some new owners and pretty much went downhill from there including trying to change it's name once or twice. So now it is "back" to Stitches and Craft which used to be an AWESOME craft show but I have to say...today it was average. It was about half the size it usually is and there was only a couple of new and exciting products, most of it was the same old same old. And not that I am bagging "same old" because I like knowing that certain stallholders are going to be there if I need something particular but there were a lot missing that hadn't been replaced. 

Although I still did manage to spend a little bit of moolah on some goodies!

I got some cute lace trim that I can use on my clothing range. I got one in a mushroom/dusty pink colour, a cheerful soft yellow and two different designs in good old white.

I managed to pick up some cool fat 1/4's at Patchwork with Gail B (I love their stall!). I am thinking of using the rabbits and chickens specifically for some button hairties. Maybe even some yoyo clips with button centres. The I just ADORE the cat fabric and kinda bought it 'just because' and I don't really intend on cutting it. 
 

Last but not least....a pattern.

A pattern I fell in love with. 

I walked away from the stallempty handed intially even though I stood there 'ooh'ing and 'ahh'ing over their products. But I ended up going back and buy a pattern. I would have liked to get the kit but it was a tad out of my spendings for the day so I am going to wing it with the pattern. 

Whats the pattern you say? 

It's this cute cute cuuuuteee hot air balloon!!

Ok so maybe the picture doesn't do it justice but they are so damn cute and the stall actually had them made into a mobile which is even more cuteness but I loved the singular balloons as well. 

SO....I am going to attempt one and see how they go and hopefully I can bring something new to BB!

If not...well then I'll just have a whole heap of fabric hot air balloons 'floating' around in my craft room :)

Thats it from me for now!

TTFN xx

The Easter bunny has come early!

Hello Hello!

How is everyone this week?? I have to say that I haven't been overly productive and I am feeling a little 'off'. I have no idea what it is but the last 2 days I have been very light headed, vauge, sick feeling...*sigh* hope I am not getting something!!!

However on to this weeks makings!

I've gotten into the Easter spirit and made some gorgeous little girls tops but they could be worn all year round! Bunnies aren't just for Easter you know. 

I am loving these designs and kinda tempted to make myself one actually. I just need to find the right top to embellish...which is proving harder than I thought!

Apart from those tops I don't have anything else exciting to share with you all! Boring, huh?

Oh.... I have been throwing around the idea of having a market stall!! Thats exciting, right? I am going to the first of these markets tomorrow to scope it all out but so far it looks good and is well organised. The next market date falls on my boyfriend birthday plus we have a family outing to go see the broadway show War Horse....so....I am kinda bummed as if I get accepted into the market I think I will have to knock it back *sad face* BUT the next one after that is in June and I'm sure I could have lots of stock made by then! haha

I have got lots of personal stuff going on over the next couple of months too so productivity may slow down a little bit....even slower than what it is now! ha!

Anywho, hope you all have a great weekend!

TTFN xx

Sew far sew good...

Hey Peeps!

I have been a busy little bee this week working on a multitude of different things! It's safe to say that I have spent most of this week of my holidays at home in my sewing room.

First I'll start it off with one of my new flowers that is being added to BB's range this year. The 'Blossom'. These are totally handmade by moi, apart from the chiffon itself. I cut out each petal (painfully) and then seal the edges of each petal with a candle (can get hot) and then fold and sew each petal to create the pretty little flowers you see below! Each flower consists of 8 petals so you can probably imagine the work that goes into each one. I'll be stopping into the shop I bought the chiffon from in a couple of weeks to expand my colour range...think I might look at peach, buttercup annnndddd turquoise??

Here is a piccie of one of the large blossoms on a skinny headband. I...love...it!! I've also made the blue flower above into a pretty little headband too :)

These are two bubba elastic headbands that I have made for a friend. The white is a medium blossom and the pink/purple are two small blossoms put together. I usually stick with odd numbers but three small blossoms was just too much for this newborns headband.

Too cute!

I can hear you all yelling at me now..."WE'VE ONLY JUST GOT OVER CHRISTMAS'! I know I know! Easter is a little far ahead to be thinking but I saw something like these the other night and just HAD to make them. Since my twinny niece and nephew are lactose intolerant (which I forgot at Christmas time, D'oh!) I thought that these bean bag bunnies could be a good alternative for them to play with at Easter...or anyday!

This is my little bunny below. Now I didn't double stitch my bunny and after chucking him around and squishing him (because I love the feel of bean bags) I noticed he started to pop a hole *insert sad face here*. So I have put some fray check on him and will mend his little hole soon so I can start throwing him around again. I also made him a little bean bag carrot but won't be making anymore of those as they are too fiddly!

However the bunnies you see below are for my niece and I have reinforced certain areas of the bunnies with triple stitching and added some fray check to curves to hopefully stop any threads from tearing. Bean bags get a pretty good workout you know!! Plus this pink gingham fabric is slightly better quality than the purple one above. I can't remember where I got the purple from but I won't buy there again!!

Then you pretty much play toss the bunnies!! I thought by making three different sizes they could be worth different points plus they are different weight so you have to change your throwing style. 

You can see my awesome tossing skills below. I got a goal!!...or...basket!!

Actually I lie. I took a bunch of photos and put a couple together that made it look like the bunny was going in. I didn't get it in once. But you try taking photos with one hand as well as throwing in the bunny bean bags...it's hard work! Anywho.....

I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow and I picked this cute little hat up ages ago and wanted to dress it up. I was putting flowers etc etc but they all looked too 'OTT'...my friend isn't having a drag baby. So I went with these yoyos which add a little bit of prettiness to the hat while still not being too overbearing with the bright colours. 

I told ya I wasn't getting ahead of myself with the Easter stuff. Here are some Valentines inspired yoyo clips with COVERED BUTTONS! I am finally using my buttons and I luuuurve them! I have a couple more heart fabrics that I want to use to make a couple more. 

*starts singing "I've got that loving feeling"*

Last but not least here are my unfinished coasters! When I was cleaning up my bedside tables I wanted something a bit more exciting than my now cork/shell type coasters. So I went to the net and did a little research and came up with these!

They could be a little bit too big or bigger than what I originally wanted but either way they will do their job! I have the a lovely cherry (although it said lollipop on the material) pattern with a medium pink plain fabric on the back. I have a layer of flannel in the middle for extra absorbency as well as giving the coasters some 'body'. I just need to top stitch these babies and they'll be ready to roll!!

Hope everyone has been able to escape the stupid heat we're having!! It's meant to be about 40 outside today but I have been chilling inside in a relaxing 23 degrees. Thumbs up for air con!

TTFN xx

Princesses, Flowers and Chocolate..oh my!

Where does the time go? The weeks are going by so fast I can't seem to keep up sometimes! This week has been rather quiet at work but I have been coming home more tired than usual. Then on Friday (first day of our 5 day long weekend) I woke up with a sore throat and start of stuffy sinuses so I am putting down my tiredness to the beginning of a cold.

Anyway for some Brees Bowtique updates! I got my delivery of Rannies...finally!! They are actually a lot nicer in real life then what I was expecting so I am more then happy! I also got some rhinestone flowers in my order and they are so pretty and sparkly that I will be keeping my eye out for a group buy on these to get some more.

I have also gone a little princess mad this week! I finally got to finish off my princess clippy bows that have been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks now. I've also put to use some of my little sequined crowns on my elastic headbands.

Not sure if I have mentioned it yet...(I probably have) but I am getting Kylie from Daylight Imagery to do some pro photos for me of my products! I was hoping to get everything together by this weekend but I do really want to send her a crochet beanie however my supplier STILL hasn't got back to me yet. While she is a good supplier and decent pricing I am going to have to take my business elsewhere if she doesn't pick up her game.

So anyhow if you want to check out some of Kylies pics then head on over to her website or you can 'like' her page on Facebook.

Then I have a lil bunny in the bottom corner...why? Because of Easter! Hope everyone had a great weekend and didn't overdose on chocolate...too much.

TTFN xx

The start to this week was good...and bad. I had been working on my orders so I was about half way through and content with my progress when on Monday I could feel my ears popping...bit weird. Woke up Tuesday with a fully blown cold, blocked sinuses, dizzy, very tired BUT I had to go to work and have been up and down since then. Yuk!

But I have kept working on my orders as I want to get them finished and start working on some new releases for Brees Bowtique. Postage has been annoying me a little bit but I'm not going into that now.

So my pictures above. The headband is the custom fab bow headband which Pearl won as part of my 300 Giveaway. I actually really like the white band with the swirly blue pattern bow, it seems to be really effective. Still need to starch the bow so I am hoping a few of the little creases come out then. I am so anal that most people probably wouldn't notice it or even care but thats just me. It's a very frustrating trait to have.

The bottom two pics kind of tie in together. As Easter is coming up I thought it would be cute to have a set of clippy bows that people can add to their princesses hunt on easter morning. Spice things up a little maybe? So the clippy bow set was ordered by one of my customers and I am just INLOVE with the pastel colours. I have used them in a little promo that I've made for easter which is in the bottom right corner but you can't see it all. I suppose even my blogsters don't get special previews ;) haha I'll be releasing it tomorrow on my facebook page. Maybe as the title page? Who knows!

Anywho, I need some rest. Goodnight all!

TTFN xoxo