Tweed bow necklace

Super excited about this latest project for Gathered by Mollie Makes (out 21/12 - what a good date!). I've always wanted to do a tweed bow necklace but a combination of not having enough confidence (and not getting my Singer skills on) meant it had been sitting in my head for a while, crying like a puppy left outside a shop. Nice image…

Anyway, it's (again) an easy make. Took me all of ten minutes more or less. You can sew it if you like, but I made mine from hemming tape. Check it out coming to an iPad near you this Friday

Christmas wreaths chez Monty

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…


After I made my first (trad) wreath (this red velvet and gold one, in fact), the bug bit, and I just had to make more. I knew I'd be making an obligatory yarn wreath before I tried the trad one, and was pretty chuffed with how it turned out. I made sure I cut the felt flowers on the wonk – no, rilly I meant for it to be like this – as I thought it would make them look more real (altho quite how real a felt flower can get, I have no idea).

Next up, my third and final one. Wasn't sure what to do for it, until I found a left-over book in the office (it was an old covermount from a magazine we'd got in). Loath to stick it in the recycling, one of the team suggested I use it for my final wreath. And **ding** an idea struck. Ripped into strips and dunked in a bit of PVA/water mix, it looks pretty awesome (even if it was uber messy). I was going to do some book flowers (like the felt ones above) but decided it needed a pop of colour. And so, a good-old pom-pom or two!

Zip accessories

So… by now you'll know that I'm a tad slapdash when it comes to crafting – and that is how I like it, thank you very much. I also really really like crafting with bits and bobs you can get from the hardware shop, or doing things you wouldn't normally do to bits and bobs.

Zips, spikes and hardware in general are big this winter, and so I wanted to have a play with zips and see what I could do. Check out these earrings, and if you ant to know how to make them – or a ring version (or indeed,a brooch version), then check out this week's Gathered on sale today!

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zippy zippy earring[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Zip earring[/caption]

Yarn-wrapped letter

When we featured Cranny + B's yarn-wrapped letter M in issue 20's Trends, I knew just had to have a go.

But before I got started, I had to purchase the Best Craft Gadget Ever So Far™ - a hot glue gun. I hadn't used one since year 6 design and tech but, screw that, I have yarn to wrap dagnammit!

Quite proud of how my first one turned out - Cranny's instructions are really clear and she made me feel rather confident (dare I say gung ho?) about tackling something that did seem a teeny bit daunting initially.

Yes, I think there might be a few of these personalised pressies given this year - look out our F&F! The fact that the Monty household is now a cobweb of strange stringy glue stuff, and the TV remote is attached to the cushion, is mere coincidence. Ahem.

Appliqué hearts

As I've said before, my style of crafting has never been neat. Which is why I kick ass at applique – well, this a-seven-year-old-did-it-so-lets-pretend-it's-good style of applique anyway. Framed up, they'll work as nice little Christmas pressies (can you tell we're having a thrifty Christmas in the Monty household this year?) and obviously they work wonders for using up your scraps.

I am rather addicted to this sort of thing right now… and can see here and here and here