Does making things in Photoshop count as being creative? If so, here's what I've made this week =p

Beading Techniques

I didn't want to post these pictures until I actually had something to decent to post but it looks like that's not going to happen so I'll just have to post my mediocre efforts =p Mediocre efforts made to look better with fancy photoshop editing! lol

Ella showing off her new headband. Made with pipe cleaners, beads, and a fabric covered button in the centre. She looks like a little hippy child =p

DISCLAIMER: The pictures below are pretty much just me practising and trying out new things. With the exception of maybe one or two things I'll probably just end up unthreading them all.

Not sure what this is lol. I just kept stringing and stringing until I had a really long string!

Trying out the netting stitch.

And from a different angle...

The beads in the background were done using the peyote stitch. All was going well until I pulled on the thread to tighten it all and the knot came undone and beads went flying everywhere. It took me 2 hours to do it too! I don't know how people manage to do 6 or 7 rows. I did 3 rows and then gave up because it was doing my head in.

Just a simple single strand bracelet on elastic to make it nice and stretchy. I really like this one and have been wearing it ever since I made it. The beads are not that dark in real life, the pink is a nice pale colour and it matches my watch =p

Another pair of earrings. A month ago I had no pairs of earrings. Now I have about 20.

This one is a really awkward length. Too short for a necklace, too big for my wrist (even when doubled over as shown in the pic) and too small for my ankle (when doubled). Not that I'd wear it anyway, not really my style.

Happy Birthday!

My little cousin Lily is turning 6 on Tuesday and for the first time ever I'm giving a completely handmade gift. I'm very nervous about this!!

I chose to give her this bag because it's my favourite and I know she will love it. It's pink and flowery and perfect for a little girl :) My original plan was to just give her the bag and buy some little things to put inside it, ie some hair clips, lip gloss, beaded bracelet etc. Then I thought "Why not make those too!" (except the lip gloss obviously, I don't know how to do that yet =p)

Then while searching through my stash I found this dress that's made from the same fabric as the flowers and the lining on the bag. For some reason this dress doesn't photograph very well, it's much prettier and has a much nicer shape in real life.

And a little bracelet to go inside her bag. Ella made this one! :) I'm also going to make some hair clips to go with the bracelet and I might buy some little "Lipsmacker" lip glosses to go with it too. Her wrapping paper and card are going to be handmade too! I'm using some of Ella's paintings to wrap up the gift and Ella has already made her a cute little birthday card. So apart from the lip gloss it will all be handmade. I hope she loves it!

Origami Butterflies

I should rename this "Ella's Craft Blog" since a lot of my posts seem to be about what she's been doing rather than what I've been doing =p Anyways, here's what we've both been doing in the last few days...

Origami butterflies. We made these using the tutorial that's posted a few posts down. The tutorial is for money but we discovered it works just as well (if not better) with construction paper. The ones pictured above weren't quite finished when I took that picture because we didn't have any pipe cleaners but they're all done now :)

Ella doing some painting. When I was planning what her 'arts and craft corner' was going to look like I always envisioned some sort of wall plaque saying something clever and I was planning on buying some wooden letters to spell something out, then one day while looking for something completely different I stumbled upon this wooden cutout with the word already spelt. Perfect!

All pretty and painted!

And this is her arts and crafts corner! The origami butterflies have been finished with pipe cleaners and her "Create" letters are up on the wall, along with a few other bits and pieces of her artwork.

Printable Fabric

Ren - I don't know whether to thank you or curse you =p I've installed the Stumble Upon toolbar and I've been having loads of fun/wasting loads of time haha.

Anyways, I've just stumbled upon this awesome website that sells printable fabrics. They come in handy A4 size pieces and you just put them through your printer the same way as you would a piece of paper and then afterwards you just cut out your picture and either sew or iron it onto whatever you want. So many possibilities!!

I would LOVE to do something like this! What an awesome gift it would make.