Recent Makes

Hello!

I thought I'd share some of my recent makes with you to inject a little colour into this grey, damp Autumnal Wednesday.

There has been some inking, painting and stitching going on in these parts...and a lot of it with a very specific seasonal theme!

My mum has been recovering from a hip replacement, and has also been feeling the effects of her illness - so October was given over to visiting her in hospital, and having her stay with us for three weeks. Not a lot of time was free for Ditsying, but we've had some fab quality time with Mum! She's now having some excellent care and rehabilitation at our local Sue Ryder hospice, so I've been lucky enough to be able to spend the past two days painting...just for the fun of it. Oh what a much needed joy that has been!!! I'm feeling much less twitchy and twisty (I needed my fix) and something I wanted to try is working out just dandy. 

Eventually, Mum will come back here again to stay, until she is fully fit to go back home, so I'm cramming as much creative time as I can, into my days...though the late nights are already taking their toll zzzzzz ;)

This is just a quick little post, before I head back into My Room and get messy again, but I hope to be back soon. In the meantime, my Christmas shop is now open on the website (click here), and to celebrate I am offering 20% off all purchases until midnight 8th Nov, with the code HOHOHO20...just enter this when checking out!

Cheerio for now,
Sarah
x

a little love filled commission

and the finished result

tiny Autumn leaf brooches

a pretty collection of hand drawn, jewel coloured rings

from sketch to reality - a gift for a friend

trying my hand at lino cutting again

cheery decorations in progress

a bit of upcycling fun

starting to take shape!

And now a selection of new Christmas products now in the shop, don't forget to use HOHOHO20 when you check out ❄︎

a natural progression

morning!

Having signed up for a Valentine's themed mail circle swap type affair on Instagram, I was probing my brain the other day for ideas. I'd seen a wonderful photo on IG of two framed hearts ~ one filled with badges and I think the other with buttons. This then reminded me of the wonderful stamped heart project in Geninne Zlatkis' book Making An Impression and prompted the following series of ideas...

I initially sketched out my rough plan on the Paper by 53 app on Paul's iPad ~

I then raided my stash with the intention of using up some of it along with some bits of w-i-p that having been loitering for a while ~

In all honesty, this wasn't really doing it for me and then I realised it was because there wasn't really any sign of me or my style in it. A quick faff and play and then this ~

Ahh much better! A bit of doodling and an actual theme to the composition and my heart was happy again! Then it was on with my favourite bit - the inking of the design...oh, the calm contemplation this brings me is priceless.

Inked up and now for a sit back and look...a few tweaks later and it is almost done~

...though I'm still undecided about the wording (let love bloom).

That hasn't stopped me ploughing on with Heart Garden II though ~

inking up the design

close up of the detail

and here is the second finished Heart Garden ~

I'd love to know what you think!

One of them is ear-marked as a gift, but I was thinking about doing a few more and putting them in my shop. I'd probably leave them on the full sheet of paper and then it's up to the recipient to decide whether to cut it to frame it, or to simply tack it to their wall with a bit of washi tape :)

Plotting and planning, and working through an idea can be so rewarding.

Sarah

x

handmade Christmas: part 1

good morning lovely folks!

I've been busying beavering away for the past few months, stock piling handmade gifts, working on new design ideas and generally having a blast making things!

I plan to share a few of my makes with you over the next week or so, but I thought I'd kick it off with our window decorations.

I couldn't sleep in on Saturday morning (head buzzing with preparations for the family party we were hosting that evening [it was wonderful!]) so I got up and painted some of our windows! hahaha ;)

Since we got a new door, we've had nowhere to hang a Christmas wreath so I thought it would be a mighty fine idea to paint one on the window at the bottom of the path...so it would great any visitors over the Christmas season.
I'd heard about using acrylic paint so, I had a quick Google and read a tip about mixing a little washing up liquid in with the paint, to make it really easy to remove*. And off I went!

It started with a wreath and then progressed to snowflakes on the kitchen windows. I love them even though it's all a bit freehand a wibbly - next year I may draw up some templates and tape them to the outside of the window to follow.

*I can confirm that it did come off easily as I botched a bit

I hope you like them...

Oh, and the best part of it - George's face when he came downstairs to find Mummy painting the windows...priceless!

cheerio for now

x