Whatever Wednesday ~ Knowlton Church and Earthworks

I have set myself a little challenge.... not sure how long it would last! I often have something totally random and not necessarily crafty related so my crafty friend and I came up with 'Whatever Wednesday!'  A post that will be about whatever happens to come to mind on the day!

I live in such a beautiful part of the world, I love the mixture of countryside and stunning sea views.

This week I want to share with you some photos of a mini adventure we had at the weekend.  Near the little village of Cranbourne in East Dorset is the wonderful location of Knowlton Church.

Here are what remains of the Norman Knowlton Church.  The 14th century church was built inside a late Neolithic Henge monument which was constructed c2500 BC.  The earthworks are a wonderful set of ramparts surrounding the church.  

 We started by walking around the ramparts, the views were stunning as the monument is so high up.

Here is a close up of the ruins.  We spent ages playing hide and seek around the ruin.

This tower is very high, especially to a little person! 

If you visit this monument then there is easy parking for a few cars and if you are after some refreshments then we found the local garden centre in  Cranbourne was a wonderful rest with a fantastic little cafe!

The garden centre itself has just found itself in new hands and is is so charming.  With plenty of parking, good toilets (always a must) and lets not forget the plants and gifts!  A great finish to the day.

I wonder whether to add a linky to my Whatever Wednesdays, would anyone else like to share their blogs?  It doesn't have to be a Wednesday post, but it does have to be whatever you fancy!

xxx

Crafty round up and Whatever boxes!

Only a quickie from me today I'm afraid! I thought I would just share some of this weeks crafty creations before popping off to finish next months Crafty What Nots boxes

I couldn't show you this little duck earlier as it was for a friend, It's not perfect but my first ever attempt at 3D felting.  There is a little bit of wirework in there, just for the legs, but after the felting it isn't at all noticeable.  I made the beak and wings separately and then attached them afterwards.  I bought more felt last week so will be trying out something else soon!!!

I was really pleased to actually finish a creation I had in mind for my youngest.  A little mouse house tin of magnets.  The idea being, I could pop it in my bag so that if we have five minutes which I need to keep her busy it would be there and ready.... Well that was the theory!  

 She has loved it and taken it everywhere and as a result there are little magnets all over the place!  I have learned from this that 2 is too young for something so little unless you keep a beady eye on the contents!! 

Lastly, on the Crafty What Nots front I have just launched my 'Whatever' Box!  It isn't the same as the regular monthly boxes, it doesn't contain tutorials, personalised gift etc but it just full of craft supplies and goodies, a total lucky dip box!  And what is more you don't have to wait for the box to be sent out on the 1st of each month!  You can get these boxes whenever you like!  I make them up to order and dispatch within a couple of working days!!

I can also colour theme your box if you wish!  

If you would like to find out more about Crafty What Nots and the Whatever box then do pop over to my website here.

Hope your week starts off creatively!  I'm off to check out what other Handmade Mondayers have been up to.

xxx

Happy Friday 7

I have been sorting through photos this week... My aren't there so many nowadays!  My drop box is full of crafty makes and weekend adventures!  I read somewhere this week that we will take more photos every two minutes than all humanity took as a whole in the 1800's!!  Isn't that a lot! either that or they didn't snap much in the 1800's! (I guess there was a lot of priming the camera, long exposure not to mention processing time).  I remember when I was younger I savoured every photo opportunity, taking my time to make sure it was in shot and in focus and even then it was totally pot luck how it would turn out once developed!  Nowadays, I take several pics of the same thing so I can choose the best!  Sometimes technology really is amazing!

Anyhow as I was sorting through my pictures I found this one which really did make me happy!

This little fish was a creation of a lovely friends son.  He spent hours designing and then cutting out all the little fish scales.  

He was so excited to share his creation and justly so, Don't you just love it when a child gets so engrossed in something creative!!  I love it even more when they are thrilled with their creations!

So please send a big crafty wave to Joe and his fantastic fish!!!

Hope you have had a happy week and if you have had the kids at home for half term.... it is nearly time for them to go back to school!  *I'm sure I can hear lots of big cheers*!

I'm going to pop over to Planet Penny to see what has made other bloggers happy this week.

xx

Fantastic felting tutorial

As promised here is a felting tutorial.  I have created 2 items, a mini piece of art and a 3d heart.  The mini art (of course that totally depends on your idea of art! lol) uses a piece of felt as a background.  the mini heart is a stand alone piece.

Felting on felt!

This is a little freehand creation I made.  It's great to practise techniques and quite quick to create too!

You will need a sponge (I used a cheap one for car cleaning (needs to be totally clean)) a piece of felt, a pen, a felting needle and of course lovely wools!

Step 1 - I drew a very basic design on my felt.  You could stamp an image on it if you would rather or just draw lines depending on how desperate you are to start and your artistic confidence.

Step 2 - take a small piece of your wool (you can easily add to it after) and lay it over the section you are going to start felting on.

Step 3 - grab your needle and start stabbing it!  Make sure each time you push the needle through that you are also going into the sponge!  Also make sure you are stabbing the area you wish to and most importantly don't stab your fingers!!!  The reason behind felting on a sponge is that you can then pull your piece away.  The wool doesn't attach itself in the same way that it does to the felt so once you have finished you can reuse the sponge again and again!

Here you can just about see how I am using the needle to trace around the line I drew earlier.  I decided at this point that I wasn't going to fill this wave section, instead I wanted to just trace around the edge.  If you run out of wool, just add more until you have filled the area you wish.

Here I have lifted up the felt so you can see what it is like behind!  It is all tufty but comes away from the sponge easily enough.

Step 5 - add your next colour.  Here you can just see that I have added a white to my wave section.  Make sure you stab all the wool!  

Step 6 - keep adding your colours.  You may notice that on my original drawing I had triangles going around one edge and a dot.  I decided that the best thing to do was to fill in the colours first and then add details on top.

Step 7 - add details.  Here I have curled up a tiny bit of wool and then plan to stab it until it is flat.

Here you can see I have also put in the triangles.  (these were a little ambitious if I'm honest! It's harder to create small straight lines like that but I am pleased with how they turned out.

3d heart

(Sorry the photos are a bit dark for this one.)

You will need a felting needle, wool, a sponge and a cookie cutter.  This cutter is a mini heart for cake decorating.

Step 1 - Fill your cutter with wool.

Step 2 - stab repeatendly (I realise all this stabbing sounds a bit out of place on a non-murder related post!  I couldn't think of a different word)

Step 3 - Once you think your piece has flattened well take out of the cutter and see how the back is.

The back of mine was very tufty so I put it back in, this time the wrong way round and repeated the stabbing process.

Eventually I was happy with both sides!  Here it is all finished and removed.  I could then give it to my valentine!

I have created another little felty project but can't show you that one yet so will save that for another day!  

In other news this week, I have been making quilling papers for a One-off Crafty What Nots box!  Aren't the colours just so wonderful!!!

Hope you have been having a wonderfully creative week and if you fancy winning a Crafty What Nots box why not pop over to my facebook page  to enter my giveaway. 

Well I'm off now to explore other crafty blogs at Handmade Monday!

xxx

Happy Friday 6

Friday again I hear you shout!  I know, where has this week gone?? 

What have you all been up to?  answers on a post card please! (it's been years since I actually heard that phrase on the telly, it's all emails, tweets, tags and facebook now isn't it!)  This week has been quite a creative one, getting ready for the next Crafty What Nots box, and preparing a tutorial for my Handmade Monday blog post.  But first I wanted to share some pics of our weekend activities at our local Sealife Center.  Normally I avoid places which cost a fortune but they were running a fab offer so we just had to go!  

There are such a lot of lovely creatures but these sea dragons fascinated us and was clearly our favourite of the day!

Here is my youngest enjoying the seals, they kept swimming up to the window and swooshing past her!  Was so sweet! 

The other happy thing I have been up to is preparing a tutorial to make this felted piece.  After my last post so many of you seemed interested in felting or just wanted the motivation to get going so I thought I would so a little tutorial.  I will post over the weekend ready for Handmade Monday so do pop back!

I do hope you have all had a lovely week and you have a super weekend. I'm popping over to Planet Penny to link up with other Happy Friday bloggers, Do pop by to see what has made everyones week this week. xx

February's Crafty What Nots ~ J'adore

It has been a week of hiding under the duvet for me! Bugs everywhere and yes I caught them!!!
It is that time of the month yet again to show you what was in the latest Crafty What Nots mystery postal craft box! This months theme was J'Adore!  Love was oozing out of each box!!

(as you can see I have how to make collages!)  This shows the contents as well as some of the inspirational ideas that could be created!

As you can see there were lots of lovely crafty goodies included this month.

This month tutorial was to make this really cute quilled heart and to help each box came with a handmade personalised quilling tool!  I love making these.

I have also created a new website, just dedicated to Crafty What Nots, this is the new home to reviews, questions and news as well as where people will be able to buy boxes.

In other crafty news, I had a go at felting this week.  I had felted a few polystyrene eggs before but never felted freehand (no pic of this one I'm afraid) or tried directly on felt!  I was pretty chuffed with the results!  What do you think? I need a lot of practise but stabbing something for a couple of hours was surprisingly satisfying!!

I thought I would leave you with my Happy Friday moment (as I had missed last weeks as well as Handmade Monday)

Here is my youngest milking a pretend cow at our local animal farm.  We visit regularly and love the variety of animals.  The things she enjoys the most however, is the fake cow and the little vardo that she can hide in!

Well that's it from me.  Hopefully normal blogging will resume next week! I'm off now to visit these lovely linky parties and see what other fab bloggers have been up to.  

xx