Keeping the home fires burning

Just a quickie after Monday's mammouth article.

I just wanted to prove to you that all my little sparkly projects do find little sparkly homes and become valued members of my sparkly little life.



As this photograph shows, my gold glittered pine cones now reside in my gold framed fireplace. Splendid.

At this time of year, in my neck of the woods, it's not quite cold enough to have the fire on but I would like to have a Autumnul feel to the living room. I like to think that my glittery pine cones simulate a firey effect and also add a touch of pizzazz (yes, I did just say "pizzazz") to an otherwise plain place.

The little postcard above was from Stowe Craft fair, and although you can't see in this shot, it has a gorgeous crinkle cut round the edge and and almost 'white wash' effect to it. For 50p, it would have been a crime not to snap it up!

I hope you too are finding new places to add a sprinkle of glitter.

Toodlepip! xx

Saturday Sparkle at Stowe Christmas Craft Fair

Firstly, brace yourself. We have a lot of ground to cover and this is set to be a long blogerroo article. So much to tell, so little time!

Secondly, as my late Mother would say, "Let's get this show on the road!".

This Saturday, our craft hunt took us (myself, the fiance, the Issobelle and the Amy) to Stowe Christmas Craft fair. As a keen believer in the magic of Christmas, and of course my luurrvvee of crafts, this kind of event is right up my alley!

As you have probably already guessed, this article will be a combination of the stalls I enjoyed the most, the bits and bobs I bought and a couple of extras to add a sprinkle of glitter.

Pictured above are the business cards of the vendors that I thought had the best stands. My measure of "best" is whether it is appealing to the eye (although they do say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder), the types of products they sold, or the price- a key element for a craft addict myself! All these gorgeous knick-knacks soon add up! Eek! I think if you click on the image above, it will magnify and you might be able to read the business cards. If it doesn't work, I apologise, after many tries at this shot, this was the best. Should you want any further information regarding them, pop a comment at the bottom and I'll happily give you any details :). Golly gosh, that all sounded rather professional!!

As you can see above and below, here are a few of stalls that I thought were fantabbydosey!

The Rebel Rocks stall was a fantastic array of individually designed rings, all at only £35 (NB this might have been a special offer for the day, so don't quote me on it!) and all exquisite. All the rings had a sort of chunkyjewelness to them that I enjoy in a ring (they balance out my chunky fingers haha) and theyoozed quality. If I hadn't had spent all my money, I would have bought the stall up! Comment below if you would like the website details etc because I definitely think these would be well worth considering for gifts or even to reward yourself for a hard days work reading my blog! Woop!

Flowerstalk was another fantastic stall that had a fabulous range of table centre pieces and floral displays. To be frank (ahh that made me think of a super Frank I used to work with. I'm going to pop him on my Micro Happy list because he made me smile everyday, without fail. If you're reading Frank- I miss your Dad jokes and hideous 'music'), so back to the matter at hand, to be frank, I'm not actually a 'flower person', but these were brilliant. All the displays/centre pieces were wonderfully contemporary with glitter and candles and I would be happy to invite these to a dinner party! The chap on the stand was super as well- very happy to let me take pictures so that gets a thumbs up in my book! Thankyou Mr Flowerstalk Man! Again, if you would like details, comment below.

Last but absolutely not least, the stall I spent a small fortune at, was Bloomin'fab. The stall was full of cool plaques and little hangy jobbies (another of my official terms there) and there were quite a few that could be personalised. I have had a little look at the Blooin'fab website and it seems very userfriendly (ideal for people like me- this blog is about as technical as I get). Comment for details.

Okie cokie, on to the fun bit- the treasure I took home! Hurrah Huzzah!

I shall resist commenting on all the pictures, I'll let you gorge on the beauties and feel smug that they are now nestled in my little home, all happy and merry-tehehe :) .

I know I said I wouldn't, but I HAD to! I'm commenting! This bird ornament was from the At Home... stall. At Home... is a shop in Buckingham and their stall was fab too. This bird is metal and very heavy, hence the leather stringy bit- cotton would just snap, and was too gorgeous not to be bought. I think lilac birdie is meant to be a christmas tree decoration but he has already flown into my lounge and I suspect will be staying there. Tweet tweet.

All in all, I would say Stowe Christmas Craft Fair was another fab day. The stalls were super, the setting was spectacular, and as this pictures suggest, Issobelle would rate it 10 out of 10 too! I think the clenched wrists cake picture says "Oooooohh yeeesssss I luuurrrvvee cake", and she was immensely pleased with her face paint, proudly telling me her makeup looked much better than mine! Little gem!

Thanks for reading this epic today, I hope you enjoyed it.

Toodlepip! xx

I Heart Buttons!

Just as the Beads, Buttons and a Sprinkle of Glitter title would suggest, buttons are one of my joys. Never mind making me micro happy, they make me massive happy! So, dear reader, imagine my super duper excitement when I found a little box of buttons my marvellous Grandma gave me a few years back. I had lost them, and then my some mystical buttony force, I found them in my junk room and immediately started thinking about what I could make with my little gems.

After much deliberation, I decided to make this hanging button heart to add a touch of button love to my new home.

In my unprofessional opinion, its the little touches that do it- The large touches make a house, but the little touches make a home :) . By filling my home with handmade goodies, it's like filling my home with care, love and time taken to create. Mmmmm handmadeness.

These are the steps I took to make my hanging button heart, but of course, you can adapt and alter as you please.

1. Like a magpie, search for all the colours you like and group together approximately 20-25 buttons of a similar size. This is the step you can personalise the most- for bigger or smaller hearts use more or less buttons, and for a quirky feel you could try different sized or even different shaped buttons.

2. Cut a length of wire (I used beading wire with a 34 gauge, but that was just because I had it to hand. Next time I will try a slightly more sturdy wire as this was a little too flimsy for my liking) about 30cm long. This will not be the circumference of your heart but it's better to have a little extra and then you can trim the ends.

3. Thread on your first button to the bottom of the wire, leaving a 5-8cm 'tail', as you will use this to secure the strand at the end of your project.

4. Thread the wire through one hole of the first button, threading from behind, bring it through, thread it back out from in front, through the adjacent hole. Did that make any sense? It did to me but reading it back it sounds more tricky than it is. Hmmmm, comment if this causes you any real problems and I'll try and explain it better (chance is a fine thing!).

4. Do this threading technique with all your buttons.

5. When you have threaded all your buttons, twizzle the ends of the wire together, quite tightly, so that you have a wirey buttony circle, and trim off any excess.

6. Shape the wire circle into a heart (or any shape you fancy) and attach ribbon, wire or string for hanging. I used wire again, purely because it was to hand, and attached it to the top of the heart by wrapping the wire round the buttony wire a couple of times.

Taaddaaaaa!! A little touch of button love.

Toodlepip! xx