Looking forward to Sunday

Hello all, just a quick post today. On Sunday the Sincerely Yours Papercraft show is coming to Gateshead Stadium and I'm really looking forward to it! It's my first paper craft show so I'm not sure what to expect but I'm calling in for a couple of hours before my brother jumps off the a bridge for charity! It's not a normal Sunday lol but it's sure to be a memorable one :)

If you can't beat them...

Royal wedding fever has gripped the UK and it is now getting ridiculous. There is nothing that the shops won't try to sell connected to the wedding from knockoffs of Kate's wedding ring, momento mugs and plates and even patio doors and the "official wedding phone" decorated with the british flag (I kid you not). I give up, as the saying goes if you can't beat them, join them. So I've decided to join in with A spoonful of sugar's challenge: A right royal knees up! I'm afraid it's not a great picture, I haven't got the hang of taking photos of my creations yet.

I enjoyed making this card and everything I used in from either Wilkinsons, The Works or my local market, I'm cardmaking on a budget unfortunately. I'm entering the card for the following challenges:

• As mentioned, A spoonful of sugar- Royal theme
• Cute card Thursday- No text
• Polka Doodles- Three patterned papers

I hope everyone has a great 4 day weekend! Party on =)

Flutterby Wednesday entry

So I've decided to just go for it and enter a challenge. I made two fairy cards but the second one was much better so I won't upload the first one.

I got the fairy stamp from Ebay and coloured it in with colouring pencils, I know most people use promarkers or copics but I havent got any yet, I think it turned out ok anyway. The poppy paper and ribbon was from my stash. So I'm entering this card for the Flutterby Wednesday challenge, looking at some of the other entries mine suddenly looks very plain but never mind, I had a lot of fun making it!

Cards for the cousins

My cousins live 200+ miles away and every Easter we send an "update" card, telling them what we are up to and money wallets with cheques so they can buy themselves an Easter treat. This year I decided to make the card and wallets myself. I don't really have any fancy stamps, embellishments or cutters yet, I'm currently building my creative stash but I used whatever I could get my hands on and I'm quite pleased with the result. I apologise in advance for the terrible pictures.

To make the card I took some various blue, yellow and pink papers I had tucked away, cut them into strips and wove them together. I cut an egg shaped hole in the front of the card with my craft knife and stuck the ribbon then the woven paper to the inside with double sided tape. I tied the ribbon into a bow, added a cross shaped brad and stamped a "Happy Easter stamp underneath. on the inside I attached a leaf to cover the woven paper. Not too bad for a first attempt!

The money wallets are simply pealescent card cut into the envelope shape, with my cousins' names in gold or silver stickers. The slip is linen card with Happy Easter in stickers and a pastle card easter egg decorated with glitter glue.

I had a second go at making the woven easter egg card for my neighbor and the second attempt looks so much better:

I used some floral papers I had lying in my craft box and pink ribbon that I couldn't use for my three male cousins' cards. I think second time around it went much smoother and I hope my neighbor likes it. I guess practise really does make perfect =)

First attempt at card making

Well in my earlier post I explained about my slight change of plan, switching over from sewing to card making. So my 1st real attempt at making a card was for Mothers Day. I made one for my Mam and one for my nanna. Unfortunately I didn't take a pic of my nanna's card before I gave it to her but heres my Mam's card.

The letters are a little wonky, I need to get some craft tweezers, but my Mam loved it and thats the main thing! I'm having a crafty day today so I'll see what else I can come up with =)

A change of plan...

Sorry it's been over a month since my last post, life took over a bit! In all honestly very little sewing has gone on but I have been doing a lot of thinking. Over the last 3/4 months I have established that:

*Sewing is a fun hobby
*Although I enjoy it I am completely useless at it
*I seriously lack the patience and time to do it
*I end up more stressed after sewing as opposed to before

And I guess the biggest realisation is that I am ok at refashioning but sewing clothes from scratch is really not for me. I will definitely continue to alter and refashion clothing now and again but I'm afraid the plans of sewing as a major pastime and making my own clothing have now flown out of the window. Might as well be realistic.

However all is not lost! Weirdly, when I tried to make a hot water bottle cover for my mam's birthday (and only succeeded in ripping a large hole in my old jumper that I was attempting to make it out of) I stumbled across a hobby that I enjoy, am relatively good at, find relaxing and therapeutic, can take as little or as much time as I like and most importantly, let's me unleash my creative/crafty side. Card making. See when my hot water bottle cover idea failed I decided to make a birthday card instead. Then I got a little hooked and made two mothers day cards (one for my mam, one for nanna) and yesterday I made three Easter cards/money wallets for my cousins that live down south. Pics will be up in the next couple of days. Tomorrow I plan to make a card to go with the money wallets so we can write in all of our recent news for my auntie and uncle to read (they always send a card with their news in too). Also in the pipeline are "Good Luck" cards for my friends who are taking their exams at college and uni very soon.

So basically I'm moving over from sewing to card making. I'll still blog here at Hayley goes Handmade, (card making is handmade after all), I'll still alter and refashion clothing and go thrifting but my main focus for now is cards. Sorry for the sudden change, if this isn't your kind of thing feel free to stop following. My New Years resolution was to try being crafty and creative and make things myself, I'm still doing that just from a different angle

Ok, long winded post over. I'll add pictures of the cards I've already made soon and let's see where this hobby takes me :D