Upcycle for Christmas!

Well it's that time of year again already, so many functions and nothing to wear again!

How's this for a last minute make just in time for a works evening out?

Up cycled 'steampunk' shoes and brooch!

Step 1.

Take a boring pair of shoes to work your magic on!

Step 2.

Apply glue (Uhu works well) to the area you want to glam up, and sprinkle beads, cabochons, bits of broken jewellery etc over the area. If you miss a spot carefully fill in with more glue then apply more bits!

Allow to dry et voila! Funky shoes for an evening out!

The finished shoes!

Now for the dress:

I dont have time for any sewing today so I made a sweet little brooch to glam up a plain dress I already have.

Step 1. 

Cut a rectangle of funky foam and cover with glue; using the same technique as before apply your chosen bits and pieces.

Step 2.

Allow to dry!

Step 3.

Glue a brooch back onto the reverse with superglue and allow to dry.

Pin onto the dress in an appropriate place and You're done! All ready for a night out - have fun!

The finished dress all ready for a night out on the town 😄

Degree learning log

As part of my degree I have to have a learning log. I have chosen to have it in blog form and I plan to add everything that I am working on, looking at, visiting etc. to this blog to keep a good record of where I am at, where I am heading and where I have been within the course. I will have to update it very regularly as there is a lot of work to get through and it will have to contain a lot of varied content.

If you would like to follow it to see how I am doing you will find it at: http://textilepiphany.wordpress.com

I am now officially a student again! I have just started BA(Hons) Degree in Textiles with the OCA!

I am so excited about starting this journey, it has been one I have been waiting to take since I decided not to go to university when I was 18.

I have never regretted not going at that time as I have achieved so many other things in my life including running my own business, but the main achievement will always be my now 15 year old daughter who is so wonderful I would never be without her. I am now 37 and at last have the chance to follow my dream of academic fulfillment so here goes.

I am spending this week getting everything together so I can make a start on the first project at the weekend – wish me luck!

Julie

Out and about at Blackmoor monthly market

I will be attending the Blackmoor monthly market, held on the 1st Sunday of the month from August onwards. I will be selling some of my textile pieces at the fair and taking along some of the July Textiles range of craft supplies for you to buy. I will also be demonstrating a craft technique each month.


The Blackmoor Village Hall, originally the school, was designed 1872 by Alfred Waterhouse (architect of the Natural History Museum in London) as part of a Victorian estate village. The Village Hall is next to St Matthew's Church in the centre of the village. The village is now a conservation area located within the South Down National Park. http://www.blackmoorvillagehall.btck.co.uk/News


Nearby is the famous Blackmoor apple shop open from September to April for more info please see: http://www.blackmoorestate.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=7

40th project completed - A 'filigree brooch'

40th Project completed - A' filigree brooch'

Well another busy day over and done with. I spent the morning replacing numerous bolts in the Locomotive - Jerry M that we are overhauling at Hollycombe. A bit of an unusual way to spend a Saturday morning I'll admit but there you go!


Well what am I making with the bottle tops I found?

39th project completed - A zip flower

39th Project completed - a zip flower

What a warm day! It has been about 28 degrees out today -  really warm especially for October! They do say that it will break all the records for an October day in the UK today, I wouldn't be at all surprised!!!!


It has been far too warm this week to do much heated craft work but this one is nice and simple and should appeal to most of you, as you can use them however you like whether it be as a topping for cards, as embellishments for sewing projects such as bags or as I have, as hair accessories.


So what are they?

Zip flowers!!!

38th project completed - a floral gift box

38th Project completed - a gift box

Welcome to the 38th completed project in the challenge. Firstly I must apologise for being a few hours late with this one, I had completed 3/4 of the project and had put it to one side when the pup decided she required a snack and decided that it looked good enough to eat! So I had to begin all over again!!!!!

Anyway here it is, a paper mache gift box.

37th project completed - a metalwork pendant

37th Project completed - A metal work pendant

Hello again!


Wow this week has past quickly, last time I looked it was Sunday evening and now it is Saturday already. As you will know from the previous post, I decided to play about with an old metal paste tube. 


I knew that as the metal was nice and soft it could be easily embroidered on a machine but I must admit to never having tried it myself. I have discovered that I love it. It was so much fun to do! So here it is a metal work pendant made from a purée tube! 

36th project completed - A felted mobile phone shop

36th project completed! A felted mobile phone sock

Last week's project started me thinking about the stuffing left over from the pillow. A saw no reason why the filling couldn't be used as a backing for needle-felting and with embellishing machines as a ground to work on. I have been meaning to use one of my favourite photos of my daughter when she was little in a project, so I had a play and came up with this. A felted mobile phone sock for her to keep her phone safe.


it is a reasonably quick project and one for those of you who are looking for an excuse to experiment.

35th projectcompleted - a quilted penguin bag

35th project completed - A Quilted Penguin bag

Well what do you make with an old pillow?

A quilted Penguin bag of course!

Some of you may be wondering how I come up with the ideas and the process I go through to decide what to make each week. This weeks challenge is a prime example.

The first step is to work out what the item to be recycled is actually made of. In this case the pillow was made up of some poly cotton fabric and some polyester hollow fibre filling. Quilting obviously came to mind as a way of turning the raw materials I had into something new. 

A very similar process happens every week for example; a plastic bottle is just a thin sheet of plastic. We all know that plastic melts when exposed to heat, it is easy to cut and does not fray. Equally, a tomato purée tube is really just a thin piece of metal once opened out, and can be cut and embossed easily. It is a very soft metal so it can also be sewn through with care. 

So why not take a look around the house for things to use rather than using something new?

34th Project completed - a shiny embroidered gift bx

34th Project Completed - A shiny embroidered gift box

Hi!


Well I guess it's that time again, so here is this weeks completed project. A Little gift box made with the sweetie wrappers from last week, as I love chocolate so much I just had to top it off with an interlocking heart closure!

33rd project completed - A fizzy drinks can oil burner!

33rd project completed - A fizzy drinks can oil burner!

Hi, well this one has been great fun so simple and very effective 

not to mention useful!

An essential oil burner made from two Diet Coke cans! 
I think these would make great little gifts with some practice 
or prove very useful used with Citronella essence for those 
late summer outdoor parties to keep the bugs at bay!

32nd project completed - A beautiful garden light

32nd project completed - A beautiful garden light

The weather has been so warm here for the last few weeks we have been eating a few meals outside. What we don't have are any night lights to light up the garden. So I thought I would try making some. This one was based on a Tiffany style lampshade that I own, covered in dragonflies it is colourful and so on trend at the moment and is designed to hang outside.


Here it is....

A dragonfly night light

31st project completed - A plastic bottle necklet

I say 'Happy' as we are all supposed to be statistically the happiest this year between the hours of 6pm and 7pm this evening. Were you? I'm not entirely convinced about all that but I am certainly happy to show you this week's project!

A neck-let made from recycled plastic bottles!

30th project completed - a pair of simple flower earrings

Good evening all,


I think you will like this project, it is so simple yet very 'cool'. this week I have made a pair of cute flower earrings from the leaflets, some craft foam and some earring backs I had in my jewellery making kit!


Modelled here by my beautiful daughter!

29th project completed - a couple of revamped lamp shades

Well number 29 was really quite fun! As promised I have recycled two lampshades using simple decorative techniques,

one to fit the lamp-base I made last week ....

and one for the top of my stairs which was originally looking really grotty and about to go to the bin....

28th Project completed - A pleated Cardboard Lamp base

This week I made a lampbase from the folded cardboard organ book!

27th project completed - Polystyrene printing blocks

Hi all, well I have had a great time playing with the polystyrene block and made a lovely mess in the studio! What did I make?

Some polystyrene printing blocks of course! Polystyrene is so easy to cut and shape with just ordinary knives etc. It doesn't absorb paint and has a lovely smooth surface with a slight texture so is ideal for this kind of project.

recycle4real: 26th Project Completed - A bubble wrap cosmetics bag!

recycle4real: 26th Project Completed - A bubble wrap cosmetics bag!

I have now completed the 26th project in the challenge and here it is - a cosmetics bag made from the large bubbled bubble wrap I saved from the bin last weekend.

25th project completed - a scary dragon sock puppet!

25th project completed - a scary dragon sock puppet!

posted by Julie Williams at recycle4real - 1 day ago

I love making puppets, it really is something I should do more often. So here he is my latest creation in the recycle4real challenge. I think I shall call him Ignatius - don't know why but it seems to suit him...