Rainbow Chunky Knit Lace Scarf

My young daughter keeps wearing my scarves whenever she sees them, including when there is one around my neck. She usually wears them and puts them somewhere in her room instead of putting them back away so I never know where they are. So I thought I would make her a new one of her own, hopefully one that she would want to wear instead of mine. I mean, it would be lovely to be able to wear my own scarf on those chilly mornings when I leave early for university.

I went to my local Lincraft store and seen a rainbow yarn that I loved straight away, I knew my daughter would too. It was a chunky yarn and so I thought about knitting in a plain pattern, but I have been wanting to knit a lace pattern for a little while. So I did an internet search and came up with an easy and cute pattern. I tried it out and it looked great.

You can find the "Old Shale" pattern that I used for this project HERE. (Keep scrolling down the page to find it).
NOTE that you will need to know how to knit for this project, if you do not know how then you can always ask someone to teach you (my wonderful mother taught me years ago) or teach yourself by watching videos from the net. Youtube has a lot of video tutorials but so do some of the other great knitting sites.

I followed the pattern exactly and loved it so much, it was so easy. I bought 2 x 100g balls of "Veronica" wool but only used about one and a half balls. I am planning on making another item with this wool for her so will use this and buy some more shortly. I used size 7 needles (as the label of the wool suggested) but I am a very tight knitter so I probably should have used a size or 2 bigger. It would have made the lace pattern a bit more visible as well I guess. I didn't block this piece as I have read that acrylic wool doesn't always need it and it wasn't a piece that needs to be an exact size. Plus my daughter just would not have been very patient for that sort of thing to take place.

And here is the finished scarf. The pattern is slightly different on both sides which I think is unique, I like both the right and wrong side look of this pattern. The finished length was ... and the width was.....
It was a simple pattern to follow and it took me only a few hours, my favourite kind of project.

I really wanted to add a fringe but my daughter was not so patient, she wanted me to finish it up and give it to her quick smart. She loved it and I think it turned out wonderfully. My daughter loved the curved pattern, she thought it was fitting in rainbow yarn as the curved lines looked like rainbows all over the scarf  :)

Here is a quick tip for stopping your ball of wool from rolling all around on the floor as you knit. Place a small box or container (a shoe box is ideal) either next to you or on the floor by your feet. Place your ball of wool inside and knit as normal. The ball will roll around in the box instead of on the floor, keeps your wool clean and in reach at all times (I know that  I absolutely hate it when my ball of wool travels across the room all of a sudden).

Let me know what you think, especially if you try it out for yourself  :)
Don't forget to check back often to see what I will knit next. Thanks for reading  :)

Personalised Jewellery Gift Box Tutorial

Hello everyone. This post is a little late, I have had a bunch of uni assessments due all at once so it took over my life for a short period of time. I am trying to organise my time better so I can craft and blog more often, those assessment just sneak up on you sometimes though, not to mention the many adventures that life throws your way, especially with 2 kiddies at home.

Today I am going to show you how I made a personalised jewellery gift box. I used it to hold some gorgeous little earrings that a friend of mine made that I gave to my mum for mother's day. In my next post I will show you how I made a simple insert to hold the earrings inside the box nicely. The friend I was talking about is the designer at Janey Jewels, they specialise in handmade jewellery featuring one-off and custom designs. I highly recommend that you go and check out the gorgeous designs while you wait for my next post. Personally I love the Lauren earrings so much, I'm sure you'll love them too!!! Here is the Facebook page for Janey Jewels and here is the etsy shop link. Let me know what you think  :)

You can use a variety of different materials to make this box and change the design however you like, just think about what coordinating colours you want to use and either hit your local craft store, jump on ebay or search through your stash. My partner accompanied me to the craft shop to buy the items for this project and he actually picked out the bling sticker and paper flowers, he has a good eye that's for sure, I love the way they all look together.


Materials

• Small box
• Acrylic paint 
• Thin ribbon
• Bling letter sticker
• Paper flower
• Craft glue
• Scissors
• Paint brush

Directions
1. Paint the box with acrylic paint in your choice of colour. You will need to use 2 coats all over and make sure the paint dries between each coat.
TIP: Use a plastic covering to put over the surface you are working on, if you put your painted items down to dry on newspaper they will stick and be difficult to remove. If this does happen try using sandpaper to remove the bits stuck in the dried paint, you may need to repaint that side or area.

2. When completely dry, glue some ribbon around the rim of the lid. Use glue sparingly and spread it lightly across the ribbon with a paddle pop stick, spare paint brush or your finger to prevent the glue from seeping out once you stick it on and smooth it down. Put aside to let the glue set.

3. Arrange the decorative items on the top of the lid to get an idea of where you want them all to sit. Next, peel the backing off the bling sticker and carefully stick it in place. Smooth down to ensure it is stuck on properly.

4. Place a small dab of craft glue in the centre of the back of the paper flower. Wait about 30 seconds to a minute then place it on the lid of the box next to the letter. Put aside to let the glue set.

This part is all done now. If you want you can use it to put a small gift in, but please remember to check in soon for my tutorial on the earring insert to go inside this box. It is super simple and quick.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below  :)

This post was featured HERE.

Tutorial: How To Make Bookmarks From Cards - Upcycling

Since it's only a few days away from Mother's day here in Australia I thought I would post a few quick and easy projects over the next few days that you could complete in a short time. So if you are pressed for ideas or time (or both) these simple ideas are great and handmade gifts really are that much more special than some store bought gifts. These are also fabulous to make and sell at Mother's Day stalls at schools.

This project is a great way to use up any beautiful cards that you have kept but don't have any room for anymore. This is the reason I threw alot of my cards out, I wish now that I didn't but never thought before to reuse them in this way.
I came across a pin on Pinterest on making bookmarks with Christmas cards which is from the blog belonging to the frugal girls .com. It had me thinking instantly that the same thing can be done with any type of card, for any occasion, providing it has a design you want to work with and it is a suitable size.
So here is my version of bookmarks for mother's day.

Materials

• Card/s (new or used)
• Ribbon (6mm wide, about 52cms in length for each bookmark)
• Hole punch
• Ruler
• Lead pencil
• Eraser

Directions
1. Select a card that has a suitable design (one that you have at home or one that you have bought). I bought mine for about a dollar each from my local discount store as I didn't really have any at home that I could use. The size of my cards were 21 x 8 cms.

Firstly cut the back of your card off neatly along the crease/fold. If you are only using a select area of your card for one bookmark create a template the size that you want your bookmark to be using the back of the card. Trace around the template onto the area you wish to use for your bookmark.
If your card has a patterned design all over like mine then you can probably create 2 out of each card. Mark out the area of the design that you want to use with lead pencil, using a ruler to make sure that the lines are straight. I like to use the back of the card to mark on so that there are no marks or dents on the front of the card.
I made a line directly under the happy birthday header on both of my cards and then drew a dividing line down through the middle of the cards, creating two of the same sized bookmarks from each card.
The size of each bookmark was 14 x 4 cms. You can create yours wider or longer if you wish and if your card/s permit.

2. Now cut out your bookmarks or bookmarks.
If you have unsightly pencil marks around the edges of your bookmark/s you can now gently rub them out with an eraser (only if you want to).

3. Using a hole punch, punch a hole at the top centre of each bookmark.

4. Cut 2 pieces of ribbon in a complimenting colour for each bookmark. The length I used for each piece was about 26 cms in length. You can make these shorter or longer as you wish.
Thread all of the ends (from two pieces of ribbon) into the hole in the back of a bookmark and pull through until you have a small loop sticking out at the front. Thread the end of the ribbons through the loop and gently pull making sure that you adjust the ribbons as you go to ensure that they look like the picture below.

And there you go, bookmarks from cards that took you minutes to make but look so lovely and functional. This is a great activity that you can do with kids, ask them to draw a picture or write a quick message on the back to personalise the gift and make it that much more special for the recipient.
I love these and will be making more for myself, I am in the middle of a few books and am always needing a few bookmarks to keep my place on the various textbooks I am reading for university all the time.

If you are looking for more simple but quick ideas you can check out my Mother's Day board on Pinterest, follow me while you are there as I love to pin projects that are fun and easy enough to do.

Thanks for reading, let me know if you attempt these, I would love to know how they turn out.