Etched Wine Glasses

I recently went  to my cousins wedding and decided to make them some etched wine glasses.
I made customised stencils of their first initials using contact paper which I cut out using my craft knife.
This  is a really easy craft to do yourself - the hardest part is making the customised stencils! I use the etching cream and at first was a bit worried about burning my skin with the chemicals but I have never had any on my skin. You can buy it on eBay and it lasts for ages as it is reusable so you just scrape it back into the jar after the 2 minutes is up.

Stencilled T-shirt

I decided I wanted to try out fabric painting for my nephews Christmas present. My sister just got a boxer puppy so I chose a boxer silhouette for his shirt.
All I did was take a photo of a boxer and using photoshop made it into a silhouette. I then printed it off,  traced it onto clear contact paper and carefully cut with a craft knife.
You could easily print off the original photo and hand draw a silhouette if you don't use photoshop.
After lining up my stencil and carefully checking  all the edges were properly stuck down, I used one of those sponge stencil brushes to apply the paint. I actually left the stencil on the t-shirt overnight so I didn't accidentally get paint anywhere. It came off easily the next morning without peeling any paint off the shirt.
And here it is! It turned out great so after Christmas is over I am going to paint a shirt for myself.

Applique Tie Shirt

I have been trying to make as many Christmas presents as I could this year. For my little brother in law I decided to try out applique. Eventually it turned out ok, but getting there was an ordeal. I think my problem was the t-shirt I used was very thin. I ended up putting a large piece of interfacing on the inside of the shirt so I could do the satin stitch on that. It stopped the sewing machine gathering up the t-shirt fabric and I just trimmed it after I finished.
It looks very cute and I hope my mother in law likes it!

Holly Collar Tutorial

Here is the tutorial to make your own felt holly collar for your pet, as modelled by Trixie!

1. Cut a piece of the red felt long enough to fit around your dogs neck – remember to take into account the overlap for the Velcro – and 4cm wide (choose the width based on what you think will look best on your dog).
   Trixie’s neck is 33cm and my piece of Velcro is 3cm = 36cm long x 4cm wide piece of felt.
   Cut 1 piece of interfacing slightly smaller than your red piece of felt and iron on. For your holly leaves, draw the design onto your interfacing then iron the interfacing to your green felt. This will make it easier to cut out your holly leaves
2.  For this step I chose to sew along the long edges of the red felt and down the centre of my holly leaves. I didn’t sew down the centre of the holly leaves on the cats collars so take a look at their photos to see what you prefer.
3.  Attach your Velcro to the collar – making sure you attach one end to the front on the collar and the other end to the back of the collar. I just used tacky glue but you could sew it if you prefer.
4. Next you need to sew your holly leave onto the collar – you could glue this part as well if you prefer.
5.  For this collar I used some 2cm baubles as I didn’t have enough of my big bells. Just sew a couple of loops of thread through the hanging holes of each bauble (or bell).
6. All finished – a very cute and quick Christmas craft project!

Christmas Collars

Well I have been busy making all my Christmas gifts for this year. I have also made collars for the cats and the puppy!
For Trixie I made the Holly Ascot Collar tutorial that I found on the Martha Stewart site.
Link here.
Trixie looks very cute in her Christmas collar and it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

As for the cats I used some felt scraps to make theirs and some tiny little red bells. I plan on making one of these for Trixie as well as I think it looks much cuter and at the same time I will make a tutorial so everyone can make a simple collar for their pets.
I think the little holly leaves and bells would look cute as a hair piece as well!