Creative Budget - Easter Egg decorations

It's Creative Budget time again and here is the little bundle of goodies I received from Abakhan for my latest challenge.
 

• 5 balls of Hayfield Bonus DK acrylic yarn in lovely pastel colours
• 5 squares of felt in same lovey pastel colours
• pack of stranded embroidery cotton in gorgeous spring brights!

 
Today I am going to show you what I did with all that lovely felt...


Easter Egg Decorations

These cute little embroidered felt Easter Eggs are just the thing for bringing a little Easter cheer into your home and they are so easy to make.

Draw yourself an egg shape template onto card (I used an empty cereal box) You can make you eggs whatever size you like - a display with a mix of sizes would be cool - mine measure approx 6.5cm x 4.5cm.









Fold your felt square in half and draw around your template. Pin through the two layers of felt before cutting out your egg shapes.





Cut a small piece of ribbon to match (or clash beautifully) and pin it between the layers to make a loop at the top of your egg.

Now take a length of embroidery floss in a coordinating colour and stitch around the edge of your egg with small running stitches or, if you refer you could use a blanket stitch. (I used 2 strands doubled for both the outer seam and the embroidered detail) Stuff lightly for a padded effect before finishing the seam.

Now you can decorate your egg - I used different colours of embroidery floss and decorative stitches but you could do anything you want - let the littlies join in and glue feathers, sequins and googly eyes on the the eggs or go for something a little more sophisticated and use tiny seed beads to embellish your stitching.

Hang your pretty Easter Egg decorations around the place to bring a little eggy cheer to your home!

How about making a whole stack of hanging eggs and hiding them around the house or garden for an Easter Egg hunt? 

I still have a little pile of these to decorate - as the Little Man has finished school for the Easter hols I may even let him have a go too! I promise to show you the results later in the week...

But what about all that lovely pastel coloured yarn? Well, I'll save that for next week but if you want a clue just visit my inspiration pinboard here  ;-)

So many projects, so little time...

I have so many little projects stacking up at the moment, when I get a little time to myself I hardly know which one to work on!

Here's a beaded necklace I am working on for my mum...

It's in lovely spring colours - fresh greens, blues and yellows. It is supposed to be a gift for her wedding anniversary next week. I hope I can finish it in time but beading work is so time consuming and the kitten always wants to join in...

Then there is little dragon softie...  I made one of these for a newborn nephew of a friend and it proved very popular amongst my Forest Flower facebook page likers!  This one, also commissioned by a friend ( I have some fab friends!) is unashamedly girlie with green leafy patterns and gorgeous Tilda roses fabric.

I've used a selection of matching stitched and polka dot ribbons from my Jane Means stash to make the 'spikes' down this dragon's back - don't they look lovely?  

Another 'new baby' gift commission is this personalised star... for a little Star!

Made with the reverse applique technique I use for my popular heart decorations using felt with a pretty fabric insert embroidered with baby's name. I am really pleased with how this one turned out - I think it may be coming to my Folksy shop very soon!!

Finally I have a very cute Easter make as part of my Abakhan Creative Budget challenge. I am currently putting a little tutorial together for this make that will go live by the end of the week giving you just enough time to source some supplies and make for Easter weekend. I hope you like them!

phew...  now I just need a few extra hours - preferably while everyone else is asleep!!!

Easter Market Cake Stall

If you follow me on Twitter you'll know that I have been a busy bunny this week making lots of lovely scrummy things for a cake stall at The Shambles Easter Market in Newent. Indeed, at 10pm last night I was still decorating gingerbread men and printing off little price cards...

The weather was not promising - last time I checked the forecast it looked like a hat,scarf and fingerless mitten kinda day. When we woke up this morning it looked more like it was gonna be a wellies and umbrella kinda day.

Actually, if I'm really honest, it looked like a 'forget about the market and spend the day under the duvet' kinda day...

But all those muffins, gingerbread men, bags of  fudge and coconut ice were all packed up and ready to go. So go we did...

Easter with Nick Jr

I love surprises, don't you?

This morning our chirpy postie delivered a lovely surprise parcel from our friends at Nick Jr...

Included was a DVD preview of brand new episodes of Dora the Explorer - Dora's Easter Adventure and the Little Man's favourite Nick Jr show, Team Umizoomi - The Umi City Egg Hunt plus two episodes of a brand new show, Tickety Toc, coming to Nick Jr in April. A cute CGI animation featuring twins Tommy and Tallulah Tockety and their friends who live 'on the other side' of the Tickety Toc Clock. Fast-paced and funny and appealing to both boys and girls I can see this show becoming a firm favourite in this house!

Wanna see what was in the beautiful box?

Of course you do....

I know it's here...somewhere...

I have a problem. I am not the world's tidiest person. I'm a lot better than I used to be - my mum doesn't shudder when walking through my front door anymore - but that is due to the fact that a: I am actually at home a lot more these days so I have TIME to tidy and b: I have a toddler and if I want to keep anything whole and usable I need to put it away before he tries to eat it. Or bury it in the garden.
To make matters worse I also have a memory like a sieve (I have a theory about that, but I'll save that for another time).

I lose my phone on a regular basis - it usually turns up down the side of the sofa although on one occasion I found it in the watering can in the garden... (Riley....?!). The OH suggested that I give it a designated spot on the book shelf so I know where to find it at all times, which is fine, until someones phones me or sends me a text and I take the phone into the kitchen, whilst I am making tea, and then the LM needs some attention and I put it down wherever I am etc etc...You see what's happening here?

Anyway my latest loss is quite a biggie. I have managed to lose a small piece of plastic about the size of a credit card that holds my camera's li-ion battery in the charger. It popped out when I fetched the battery to put it back in my camera the other day and I put it down, to sort said battery/camera, with the intention of popping it back in the charger when I was done. But the phone rang. Riley spilt water all over the kitchen floor, the post arrived, the load of washing in the machine finished so I hung it on the line... I completely forgot about that little bit of plastic. And now I can't find it!

It's here somewhere - I know it is. It really can't have gone far. I have to find it; the li-ion batteries last well but not THAT well and we have an Easter Egg Hunt to chronicle, a couple of new shops at the Old Shambles Village that need photographing and one of our biggest local events - The Coleford Carnival of Transport on Easter Monday.

The OH often tells me to slow down, do one job at a time, finish it before moving on to the next and then maybe things like this wouldn't happen. I wish it were that easy...