Beaded birds

Here are the first critters from the book "Animaux miniatures en perles 2". They are a bit challenging, I think I made the chick's wings the wrong way around.... But mom love them, so I have at least one person to make my little beaded animals for ;)

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Voici les premiers oiseaux faits à partir de mon nouveau bouquin. Ce n'est pas évident, je crois que les ailes du poussin sont à l'envers ! Mais ma maman les aime bien, cela me donne une raison d'en faire d'autres !

Coming soon: beaded animals

When you stitch a big project, frog a bit of it, don't stitch much anyway, there isn't much to show or tell. Remember how enthousiastic I was about stitching at the beginning of the month, with so many projects to make, etc.... That was until I looked at the file where I archived the stitched pieces I didn't hang on the walls or gave away. So many stitched fabrics just put in an album... for nothing ! And if you count the 288 something stitched things I made in my life, you understand my discouragement : why bother?

The mini Pluto charm is always on my phone, so it's no problem for it, but a big project that can only be framed (I already havetoo many cushions)... I don't think I need to stitch it as fast as a sewing machine ;)

I wonder what are you thoughs about it, especially the long time stitchers out there with walls filled with framed stitches....

Needless to say I spent more time reading and playing video games (Farmville 2 Country Escape, Hungry cat picross on Android, and Fantasy Life on 3DS)

Then yesterday I came across this great book about making beaded animals. If you follow my blog you know I made quite a few already. I had the first book a few years ago, and this one is even better !!!
I hesitated between buying it straight away or buying on Amazon, and ended up buying in the shop at the editor's price of 10 euros. After all, it couldn't be much cheaper on the web, and I didn't want to wait for the delivery. I had to check afterwards, and I realised how lucky my move was : only second hand available at 23 euros minimum !

Now I have to start beading....

Winter Fairy progress 3

I had to dig deep into the blog to find when I last posted about this project. February 2010. Looks like I worked hard on it for about a week, then left it 5 years. Now that's what I would call an UFO !!!

Of course I'm in a white/very light grey/ very light blue zone, not ideal  to start stitching again after years of absolutely no stitching ! How, well....

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J'ai du creuser loin pour retrouver quand j'ai commencé ce projet. Février 2010. On dirait que j'ai travaillé dur dessus pendant 1 semaine, puis plus rien pendant 5 ans ! En prime, je suis dans une zone riche en blanc, gris presque blanc et bleu presque blanc... une joie pour recommencer le point de croix !

Sapin biscornu

Ah, the first finish of the year ! Of course it was started last year ;)

And yes, I start the new year with stitching a winter biscornu. I counted the fabric a bit short (only2 aida squares extra in some places, but sewing the 2 pieces wasn't so complicated. In my memory biscornus were harder than that ;)

I also took a picture of it flat, so you can see the pattern bet;ter. I used this pattern, but added stars.

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Premier truc fini de l'année, un biscornu d'hiver.... J"ai aussi pris la photo à plat pour voir le dessin. Le modèle est ici.

Totoro pendouillette

After mini Pluto, I made a Totoro, this time on aida fabric, to try and stitch a front and back, and turn it into a charm.

The result isn't quite as good as I expected, actually i don't know really what I expected, I suppose it's a bit bulky or something.... But I still love it ;)

You can see the flat version prior to the finnishing down here.

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Après Pluto, j'ai fait un Totoro, cette fois-ci sur toile aida, avant et arrière, mais le résultat me semble un peu bizarre, trop gros ou je ne sais pas quoi, mais je l'aime bien quand même...

Christmas in beads

Before we dive into the new year.... here is a picture of the Christmas scene I made with hama beads. I made the gingerbread house a few years ago, but the little characters were made on Christmas eve.

I don't craft much at the moment, I'm playing with "Fantasy Life" 3DS that Father Chistmas brought me, it's quite addictive.

Scene de neige en perles à repasser hama. Sinon j'ai beaucoup joué à fantasy Life 3DS

Back to cross stitch?

It's been nearly 5 years since I've done any stitching. My last project was the little Margaret Sherry cats in coffee mugs. In 5 years I crocheted, knitted, tatted, etc.... but no stitching. Recently I made things out of Hama beads, then out of seed beads. It's all the same principle : make a picture using dots. Pixels on the computer.

And this is how I found this cute baby Pluto via Pinterest (I love it this website so much, I spend a lot of time on it, don't hesitate to follow me !). It's actually from Kandi Patterns, a great site with loads of beads pattern, for fuse beads, peyote, square stitch etc....

I intend to use this baby Pluto as a charm for my phone. So it's on plastic canvas size 14. Luckily the pattern is small, because this reminded me how much I hate stitching on plastic canvas. Not the best "back to stitching" ;) But I succeeded in the end.

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Ca fait 5 ans que je n'ai plus brodé, la dernière chose était des chats de Margaret Sherry. Mais récemment j'ai fait des trucs en perles Hama, et en perles de rocaille tissées, et c'est toujours le même principe : faire une image avec des points, ou pixels.

C'est ainsi que j'ai trouvé ce modèle de bébé Pluto très mignon via Pinterest (je suis toujours sur ce site, n'hésitez pas à me rejoindre et à vous abonner à mes tableaux !) sur le site Kandi patterns. Je ne peux que recommander ce site qui est bourré de modèles pour les perles à repasser, ou le tissage peyote ou carré.

Ce bébé Pluto va devenir un gris gris pour mon téléphone. C'est brodé sur du canvas 14 en plastique, et cela m'a rappelé combien je déteste broder là dessus. Ce n'était pas le meilleur redépart pour le point de croix, mais bon, le modèle est petit, j'y suis arrivée à la fin.

Christmas origami

This might look like a new craft on this blog, but I've been folding paper for ages. Just imagine, my books still have their price in francs, not euros ! And that also makes me have quite a collection of squared papers coming from the states, the UK, Japan....

It all came back last week when I saw this paper tree via Pinterest. The first ones were a bit dodgy, and I prefered cutting the branches rather than folding them. But then I spent most of my time folding many of these Christmas trees during the week end at the Christmas fair, so now I have a little forest.

Then I tried to put one in a transparent ball. Isn't it lovely?

Then I made some paper santas, and thought I could make little scenes. And then in pots, but those I will show later....

Ceux qui suivent ce blog pourraient trouver que je me mets à un nouveau bricolage, mais en fait je fais de l'origami depuis très très longtemps, pour vous donner une idée mes livres ont leur prix en francs plutôt qu'en euros !!! Et aussi j'ai une jolie collection de papier venant des states, d'Angleterre, Japon....

La semaine dernière je suis tombée sur ces sapins sur Pinterest. Les premiers n'étaient pas fameux, mais j'ai passé le week end au marché de Noel à en faire, et j'en ai déjà une petite forêt.

Puis j'en ai mis un dans une boule, puis mis en scène avec un père Noel, un pingouin, etc.... Prochaine étape : dans un bocal, mais ce sera pour une prochaine fois....

Christmas time, Market time

First market of the year in Lomme (North of France). I usually do the market, but sales are plumetting year after year, I think this is the last one. On Saturday I only sold a paper Christmas tree I made on the day, and that I only put as decoration on my stand ! Yesterday was not really better. Apparently here they don't appreciate craft works. They prefer to buy laser guns and candy they could buy in the shops (not even the special artisanal ones). I think I will try selling online. So if you see something you would like, give me a sign.

Next week end I will be at the fair across my street, I hope I'll have more fun ;)

Otherwise I spent yesterday afternoon teaching crochet to a very talented 14 years old girl whose mom kept a cross stitch stand. She was already a knitter, but she learned fast, after a couple of rows she made a granny christmas tree !We weren't equiped, otherwise we might have tried amigurumis....

I made a little video of my stand so you can see the details as if you were walking by....

Premier marché de Noel de l'année à Lomme. Ce fut une déception. Les ventes sont de pire en pire chaque année, je crois que je n'irai plus. La seule vente de samedi a été un sapin en origami que j'avais fait le jour même et mis en déco ! Hier n'a pas été beaucoup mieux. Les gens n'ont pas l'air intéressés, ils préfèrent acheter des pistolets laser et des chocolats disponibles en grande surface (même pas artisanaux !) Du coup je crois que je vais essayer de vendre en ligne. D'ailleurs, si vous voyez quelque chose qui vous tente, faites moi signe.

J'espère que ça ira mieux la semaine prochaine au marché en bas de chez moi.

Hier après midi j'ai appris le crochet à une jeune fille de 14 ans qui s'est très bien débrouillée. Apès quelques rangs elle a carrément fait un sapin en granny squares ! On aurait bien essayé les amigurumis, mais je n'avais pas ce qu'il fallait !

N'hésitez pas à regarder la video pour voir le stand comme si vous étiez sur place....

Polymer clay for Christmas

I finally started making little Christmas stuff out of Fimo for the Christmas fairs that start next week end. EEk !
I made 10 little red elves. Very little, they are only 3cm high ! But they are supposed to be charms, or key ring things, so they can't be bulky.

And I made micro snowmen. 2 on the little pot decorations (about 2cm high), one as charm, and one as earplug cosy for mobile phone. And yes, they are tiny !!!!