Spring Bunny Baskets And Bunting

Hi all, isn't it lovely to be into Spring at last! I couldn't resist buying some cheery tulips to brighten up the house - justified as they came in useful for some product photos too! :)

Bunny rabbits seem to be a running theme at the moment - thank you all for you kind comments about my spring bunny lavender pillows last week, i look forward to hearing what you think of this week's makes.

Spring Bunny Baskets

I had so much fun making these little baskets. I had Easter egg hunts in mind as i made them but they would work just as well as gift baskets for Mother's Day, 

or as mini storage baskets at any time of year.

They are priced £8.99 and are available now from my Etsy shop.

Bunny Rabbit Bunting

When it came to making some spring bunting i couldn't resist putting bunnies centre stage again! This time they are applique.

I've used my spring flowers fabric in three different colourways and the bunnies alternate between facing front and showing their fluffy tails.

I've also given them a variety of ear positions for a bit of fun :)

Again it would be perfect for Easter but it would also be lovely in a nursery or young child's bedroom at any time.

Its priced £10.99 and available now on Etsy.

What have you been up to this week? I look forward to popping over to Happy Friday and Handmade Monday to find out! x

Sailing Craft Papers And Easter Gifts For Handmade Monday

I've made some progress on a few ongoing project this week. I've been having fun with some of my 'Spring Fresh Collection' fabric samples (pics coming up) and i've also developed my 'On The Open Ocean' designs too... more on that in a minute!

Mini Easter Chick Egg Baskets

I decided in the end to make some mini Easter egg baskets with the sample swatches of my Easter chick fabrics.

They are fully lined and have pretty ribbon handles, secured with buttons. They are 6.5cms in height and 6.5cms across - as you can see this is ample room for a fair quantity of mini eggs! (is it bad that i ate a few during the photo shoot? :)) Larger ones like creme eggs would fit too.

I'm selling them as a set of three, available now from my Etsy shop priced £9.00. These are a one off for this year so its first come first served!

Spring Bunnies Lavender Pillows

I used the spring bunny and spring flower swatches to make some little lavender pillow sets.

As with all my lavender pillows they are stuffed with a combination of pure sheep's wool and top quality cotswold lavender. The fabric is a linen/cotton blend which has a lovely texture and feeling of quality.

A set of two of these cute bunny pillows would make a lovely 'non-chocolate' Easter gift i think... they are available now from my Etsy shop priced £9.

I had hoped to get a few more things made up this week but other demands on my time got in the way... i've a few more ideas up my sleeve though, hopefully i'll get the chance to turn them into reality soon!

'On The Open Ocean' Craft Papers and Fabric

Thank you to everyone who left lovely comments about my 'On The Open Ocean' fabric collection last week, i'm really happy that you liked the designs :) This week i've created a coordinating set of printable craft papers.

They are priced £2.50 and available now for instant download in A4 size from my Etsy shop.

I have also added a couple more designs to the fabric collection... one with larger sailing boats,

and a couple more nautical stripe designs to bring the collection together.

And that's it from me for another week! I look forward to finding out what you've all been up to on a pleasant spring evening stroll around Handmade Harbour :)

Thanks for visiting! x

Spring Fresh And Garden Room Fabrics Now For Sale!

Exciting news, sample swatches of my new fabrics have arrived! This of course means that they're also now available for sale from my Spoonflower shop if any take your fancy for your own crafting projects.

I've already got a few ideas of what i want to create with some of these designs but if you have any bright ideas of what you think they would work well, do let me know in the comments! :)

Spring Fresh Fabric Collection

I was so excited when the samples arrived in the post this morning that i wanted to get them photographed straight away... i thought they would look cute hanging on a line but a you can see from the image at the top of the post, the wind was making this very hard work... I managed to get the chicks done though - here's a close up of the turquoise version.

All of the swatches are 8x8 inches... i'm tempted to make some little egg cosies from the chick designs... what do you think?

Here are the bunnies...

... i'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out, for some reason my first thought of what to make with this design is oven mitts! I think they would be really cute :)  I'll need to order some more of the fabric first though... any thoughts on what i could make with these 8x8" swatches?

Here are the flowery designs in colours to compliment the rest...

... i'm thinking either lavender pillows or mini bunting for these swatches or perhaps i'll combine the  yellow and green with the rabbits above for some fun spring bunting on a slightly larger scale.

Last but not least from the Spring Fresh collection is my Birds On A Wire design...

... this is one of my favs (as you can probably tell as its currently gracing the background of my blog!) and i can't wait to make something with it... i'm just not sure what that's going to be yet!

To view details or buy any of these fabrics visit my Spring Fresh collection over on Spoonflower.

Garden Room Fabric Collection

If you're a regular visitor to my blog you might remember me showing you my Garden Room designs recently. I created them with soft furnishings for conservatories and other outdoor/indoor spaces in mind but of course they could work well in lots of other situations too!

Here is the garden tools design...

I'm really pleased with how this design looks in 'real life' and i'm happy with all the colourways although i think this is my favourite... there's something modern about the pastel blue on the olive green which i find refreshing, i hope you like it too!

The other design in my Garden Room collection so far is the garden chairs...

I'm happy with how they turned out too although this is not the best picture... i think i was getting a bit fed up of the wind blowing anything and everything away by the time i took it! Hopefully it still gives you an idea of how the design looks once its printed onto fabric though.

All of these photos show the colours pretty much as the are in real life. I hope they have helped you visualise the designs more clearly than the digital images i've been able to show you in the past. I would love to know what your favourites are if you have any!

Thank you very much to all those who left kind comments about my new mini notebooks last week, as always i enjoyed reading them and of course visiting the other Handmade Monday blogs and reading about everyone else's crafting adventures (which is where i'm off too now btw... have a great week and see you next time!)

Spring Fabrics And Craft Papers For Handmade Monday

Thank you to everyone who left lovely comments about my Easter craft papers last week, i'm really happy that you like them! The set is now available to buy in A4 size from my Print and Paper shop on Etsy, priced £3.50.

This week i've been working on some spring fabric designs...

Spring Fresh Fabric Collection

As i showed you most of these designs last week i've put them together in one image just to give an idea of how they look as a group - do pop along to my Spoonflower shop if you'd like to see them in more detail.

I've called this collection 'Spring Fresh', they're not available to buy quite yet but they will be very soon, i'll let you know!

Garden Room Fabric Collection

I've also started work this week on a new fabric collection i'm calling 'garden room'. My inspiration is to create some patterns that will work well for soft furnishings for 'outdoor/indoor' spaces like conservatories and garden rooms although of course they could be used for lots of other things too!

The first design is a simple print featuring an iron garden chair (as always drew the image by hand before uploading to the computer for colour editing).

Here's how it looks as a fabric print... (this image represents a 21x18inch fat quarter)

Its quite subtle which i think will work well one once its printed onto fabric (although i know a bit of imagination is required when trying to make it out on a computer screen!)

The turquoise colour is also not nearly as glaring once on fabric as it appears here... i've ordered samples so i will get them photographed to give a better idea of how this design looks in 'real life'.

So far i've made it up in pink too...

... although of course i can create a custom version with any colour your heart desires... just let me know if you have something in mind!

The final design i have to show you today is one i've created with some of the components i used for a website background design i did a few months ago for the lovely So Eden tropical gardening blog and shop. Here it is to jog your memory...

... and here's my new design, using just five of the elements for a simplified and universal garden theme, with a fresh injection of colour for a contemporary decor style. I've made it up in turquoise to match the colour i used for the chair design,

and also a modern olive green/pastelblue combination,

and in some fresh gardeny greens too.

I'm really looking forward to getting the samples and seeing how they look in the flesh!

Right now though i'm off over to Handmade Harbour to see what all the lovely crafters over there have been up too...

As always i look forward to reading your comments on this week's offerings... thanks for stopping by! x

Birds On A Wire Fabric And Easter Craft Paper For Handmade Monday

As you may have guessed from the opening image to today's post, this week my mind has turned to all things Spring... I have completed a fun new bird inspired fabric design in lovely fresh colours (coming up in a minute) and made progress on a collection of Easter craft papers too!

Birds On A Wire

From the chaos of Christmas to the seemingly endless January 'Spring clean' its been a busy couple of months with little time for designing. However, this week i've found time to start playing around with a few ideas, one of which is now my newest fabric design, 'Birds On A Wire'.

Its quite a small print size, this image represents a 8x8 swatch. You will find it listed over in my Spoonflower shop - its not available to buy yet but it will be soon!

The idea came from this photograph i took a while ago...

... i love the delicate silhouette of this little chap (or girl?!) and thought it would be fun to use it in a fabric design. It was perfect for creating rows of chattering little birdies. The hardest part of this design was actually getting the wobbly wires to match up to create a repeating pattern... it would have been easy of they were dead straight but i thought wobbly was more fun! :)

Easter Craft Papers

Its also been ages since i've put together a new collection of craft papers and i've really enjoyed working on some Easter themed ones - i'm so ready for fresh pastels after endless red of Christmas and Valentine's Day.

The set isn't quite finished but i thought i'd show you some snippets today and hopefully the completed collection next time. You might remember these eggs from last year...

...the design is still available from my Spoonflower shop and i thought it would be perfect for including in my Easter craft paper bundle (i also have a greetings card featuring this design in the pipeline... expect pics next time!)

The collection will also include a page of little chicks. Here they are on turquoise...

I will include them on traditional pastels too though i think.

I've also created a page of bunnies...

... and a page of these 'Happy Easter' banners...

... here's how they will look.

For some plainer pages i've done a simple flower design with colours picking up on some of the other colours i've used in the collection.

Here's the turquoise one on its own so you can see the design a bit better.

I've tried to make it so that each page coordinates well with a number of other pages to make them a useful and useable set. I've got two more pages still to create to complete it and i'm thinking that i'll focus on tying in the eggs with the other designs as i feel like they stand out a bit at the moment... Do you agree? It would be great to hear what you think would work best for the final pages :)

And that's all from me for this week, as always i look forward to reading your comments which are always so helpful and kind. I'm excited to catch up with the rest of the Handmade Monday bloggers too, time for a glass of something lovely and an evening stroll around Handmade Harbour i think!

Have a wonderful week! x

Baking With Love Tea Towels, Rose Garden Tea Cosy And Easter Egg Butterfly Fabric For Handmade Monday

This week has been a bit of a mixed bag weather wise we've had everything from brilliant sunshine (allowing me to photograph my latest makes - yay!) to icy winds and snow!  I enjoy coming up with names for some of the snow hybrids... a cross between snow and drizzle is 'snizzle' and a new addition this week has been ultra tiny hail stones - a cross between snow and hail which i have christened 'snail' :)

But enough of my silliness... i've got lots to show you!

'Baking With Love' Tea Towels

These tea towels (see all three at the top of the page) were actually one of my very first fabric designs when i discovered the joys of Spoonflower a couple of months ago. I love tea towels, they are one of favourite types of 'functional art' - the perfect way to add a touch of colour, flair, style or philosophy to the domestic environment of the kitchen.

I wanted to create something simple and subtle without being bland... a bit countryish but no so much it wouldn't fit in amongst other styles. I hope i've struck that chord with these... i'm pretty pleased with them which is i good start i think!

The delay in showing them to you was waiting for the labels which i've now stitched in alongside a corner loop for hanging.

The fabric is 50% linen and 50% cotton - super absorbant (i have tested it!) with a gorgeous and hardwearing canvas like texture.

Each towel measures 35x54cms. I'm selling them individually for £12.50,

or as a set of three for £35.

They are available now from my Etsy shop and will be listed in my other outlets over the next couple of days.

This set was inspired by my love of baking , the joy of lovingly preparing some sweet delight and watching family and friends tucking in :)  and tucking in myself of course! :)

I have another collection in this style which i've called the 'Happy Kitchen' collection. I wanted to see how these were received before i got anymore printed onto fabric but here's a peak at the digital versions... 

do let me know what you think!

Rose Garden Tea Cosy

I finally got some shots of the latest addition to my rose garden collection this week... a tea cosy! Pictured here with matching tea cups.

It is 32cm wide and 29cms high (excluding loop) - big enough for an average 6 cup teapot and more than adequate for anything smaller... my little two cup teapot is hiding under it in this picture!

The rose garden fabric is beautifully soft organic cotton...

... and the lining is a durable white linen like cotton which is organic too.

(the insulating wadding is also cotton - not organic but i'm working on that one!)

It is priced £19 and available from my now Etsy shop (and will be listed on my website and other outlets very soon).

Butterfly Fabric

Thank you sooooo much to all the lovelies who commented on my last post about my butterfly fabric designs... as always your thoughtful remarks have been super helpful and your support much appreciated! (If you missed out you will find all my butterfly designs in my Spoonflower Shop - they're not for sale yet but they should be in a week or so)

I've added a couple more designs to the collection which i thought i'd finish up by showing you today. There is this one... (image represents a 22x18 inch piece of fabric)

... and also something a little bit different which came about when i decided to enter the weekly fabric design competition over on Spoonflower! (a brave moment for me :))

The coming week's competition theme is 'painted eggs' and once it occurred to me that i could combine the egg shapes from my 'Birds Of A Feather' fabric with the butterflies and flowers i've just been working on...

 ...i had to give it a go!

Here's what an 8x8 inch swatch of the finished design.

And here it is as a 22x18 inch piece.

Only ten submitted designs are picked to be part of the comp so i've no idea if mine will feature... if it does though, all votes appreciated! (the winner gets $100 to spend at Spoonflower :))

Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this lengthy post... :) i hope i haven't given you information overload!

Without further ado lets hop over to Handmade Harbour see what all the other Handmade Mondayers have been up too :)

Have a great week! x