Shabby chic delight!

Over the past couple of months I have been busy creating a stock of shabby chic styled wall art.

Inspired by my daughters love of all things shabby chic and the wallpaper canvas art I created last year (see here) I decided to set about making some canvases using pretty shabby chic fabric.

Over the past few months I have built up a stock of pretty fabrics, ribbons and embellishments. Some I have bought new but I love hunting out interesting pieces in charity shops.

As I work full time it has been quite slow going. Although it doesn’t take too long for me to create each piece, I rarely have spare time to dedicate to doing crafty things! This bank holiday weekend has been a blessing and I have worked hard to get the items finished and ready for sale.

I have managed to create six pieces so far and today I decided to list them for sale on ebay. I’m very nervous as I’ve not tried to sell anything like this before. I normally just make pieces for myself. The feedback I have received from friends/family/colleagues has been really positive (but would they dare say anything different?!!)

Shabby Chic art

These can be bought via my ebay listings [click here]

I have also created a magnetic memo board in a similar style. I only finished it this morning so it wasn’t quite ready to be photographed/listed today. I’ll be adding it soon. Photos to follow……

Pop art skirt

Look what I found!

The design on this skirt is absolutely freakin’ awesome! I’m not so keen on the skirts shape though. It’s been created by a very talented craftster member. The pop art design is really similar to my style of drawing. I would never have thought to do my designs onto fabric. The creator has used Scribble and Polymark fabric paints on this project. I think I’d be too scared to wear this skirt though!

Currently my designs are confined to my sketch book or card. I can see a future project of mine involving a white t-shirt and some fabric pens/paints!

Details on this sewing craft project and more photos are available on the craftster forums.

Another recycled item craft project.

Here is another fantastic and ever so easy recycled craft project. Turn a t-shirt into a reusable shopping bag.

Click for instructions on the Martha Stewart website.

Recycled crafts and projects

I stumbled across an interesting site tonight with details on craft project ideas for recycling old household objects.

A few examples are a bag made from ties and a mini greenhouse made from cd cases.

See more for yourself at Acorn studios

Another interesting site of a similar nature is ‘RePlayGround‘. They also list a few easy DIY craft projects including a CD Suncatcher, carton catchers and umbrella skirt!

They also have an Etsy shop too where you’ll find some very unique and interest items including reconstructed t-shirts:

If you’re looking to do some recycled craft projects with the kids then I can highly recommend All Free Crafts- Recycling crafts ideas. They have a variety of craft projects and you’re bound to find something that you can do with items that you would normally just throw out.

My children had quite a collection of unused and broken wax crayons so rather than bin them (or for them to be crushed into the carpet) I was delighted when I discovered this wonderful recycling idea for Crayon Nibbles on Crafty Daisies Blog.

Making our rainbow crayon chunks
First we had to set about “stripping” the crayons of all the paper. This is actually quite tedious and we discovered that certain colours peel easier than others!

Warning, cover your eyes….. Naked wax crayons!

We then broke up the crayons (this was the fun bit and a great stress relief) and placed them into the cake tin, trying to create some good rainbow colour combinations.

Then we put them in the oven to cook. And “Ta da!” our very own recycled chunky rainbow crayons!

I have found that some crayons (possibly cheaper ones) didn’t seem to melt as well as others so you can still see whole bits of crayons in some of them. Also if you bake them too long you don’t get as good a ‘marble’ effect.

Now if only I could find a craft project for the milk carton caps that I’ve been saving for no apparent reason…