Create & Grow

Square Bear

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:07:59 +0000

May I introduce you to square bear. I have some level 2 children sewing this while the lower group catch up. He is so sweet with his little shirt and buttons. I got the instructions from Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan. When the children have finished I will upload pics of their square bears, it will be like a whole family of square bears.

Square Bear

You might recognise the type of photo this is. I am now taking daily (nearly) photos with the iphone hipstamatic app.

I am moving.

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:07:30 +0000

… to a WordPress website. For any sewing class information please e-mail me at mandy@createandgrow.co.uk.

This is amazing!!

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:07:00 +0000

Some of you know that our son Jeff is deaf. He was diagnosed just before he was three. He was tested regularly and his hearing was deteriorating fast. Luckily it just came to a stop and he was left with a moderate to severe sensorineural bilateral hearing loss. By 3 he was wearing 2 hearing aids and learning to speak.

For some babies and children they don’t have any hearing, they are profoundly deaf, they can’t hear anything at all. There is hope for these children, it is called a cochlear implant and with lots of learning and input it will allow them to hear and learn to speak. It is absolutely amazing. Get a tissue and watch this 2 minute video.

Isn’t that incredible?

The Carel Du Toit Centre is in South Africa, where they teach these children who have been lucky enough to have cochlear implants, which is where my friend’s son went.

I learnt about cochlear implants from my friend Sue, her son Hughan has a cochlear implant. They arrived from South Africa about the same time we arrived from Portsmouth and our boys both ended up in the same class. It is wonderful to see how well Hughan has done since I have known him, he is now working full time, I can ring and speak to him on the phone, which is just great.

Sue is publishing Hughan’s Diary from the first days onwards, they had videos and pictures of his learning. You can find Hughan’s Diary here. She hopes it will help other parents with children with cochlear implants, to help them work with their children and give encouragement and hope to the parents.

In South Africa there is no National Health Service so each operation has to be paid for. I think she said it cost £50,000 for the operation, £45,000 is provided via the university hospital and £5,000 by parents. It is a very expensive business. If you wish to make a donation you can through www.hughansdiary.com.

After 2 years studying Countryside Management, he changed tack and has just finished his degree in Architectural Technology and the Environment at Plymouth Uni with a 2:1. He is now back home and job hunting.

I felt quite moved by this little video and just wanted to pass it on.

admin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:45:00 +0000

My mother has been crafting. She liked a couple of patterns in my magazines.

This one is a bunny decorated and blanket stitched round the edges. Look at that cute pink, pom, pom tail. I think this one was destined for a friend’s new granddaughter to hang in the baby’s bedroom.

The hanging heart was from July Crafts Beautiful magazine. I think it is gorgeous, it looks so appealing and would look lovely hanging in my one day decorated as a beach hut cloakroom. My Mum is an inspiration as she gets things done.

Just thought I would pass this offer on to you, offered by Jaycotts. Patterns are so expensive now that any help is very welcome.

The whole thing

admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:53:00 +0000

Here is the full image of the card I put together for Thornbury Craft Club. I found the template on Splitcoast Stampers.

Hello world!

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:36:16 +0000

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Sneak Peak for Card Class

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:03:00 +0000

I am demonstrating making a tri-shutter card for Thornbury Craft Club on Thur 12th May. They very kindly invited me along. I have been a couple of times and they cover all sorts of crafts throughout the year.

I have got all the kits together, I hope there won’t be more than 30 people, otherwise I will be stuck. I have some spares in case bits get lost or damaged as they work. I just need to refine the instruction sheet, which they can take home with their finished card, to make similar cards.

Here is a sneak peak of the card I am demonstrating.

Do you think they will like it?

CHICKS

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:19:00 +0000

“CHICKS (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids) is a children’s charity that aims to provide life enhancing respite breaks to as many disadvantaged children as possible at one of our retreats in Devon or Cornwall.”

I came across CHICKS in a sewing magazine. They have a kite as part of their logo so I was instantly drawn to find out more. I loved what they were doing for children who may be living in poverty, children that are being neglected or abused, who have lost parents and those children who are full time young carers.

Something they do for the children is to gather together a bag of memories for them to take home as reminders of their holidays. The advert was asking for people to sponsor a bag maker to provide a memory bag. So I got my friends and family to sponsor me £10 (the cost to cover contents) and made the required bag with their logo on. I used calico and hand embroidered the logo with their bright, primary colours.

One of the CHICKS retreats is based in Brentor, near Tavistock, a coincidence as Brentor was somewhere my husband has fond family holiday memories himself. We have also been to visit Brentor and the old church on the top of the hill. The other is based in Tywardreath, near Par in Cornwall.

The photos on the website show them having a really special time, the website also describes some of the home lives these children cope with. I want to help CHICKS further than just making a bag, I wonder what I can do next?

You can help by donating. This is on their website: To donate £5 now text CHICKS to 70777. (Texts cost £5 + your standard network rate).

Or you can become a CHICKS Memory Maker, see the Memory Maker page. Their website is www.chicks.org.uk.

Vintage Jumble Sale

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Saturday 5th March, Vintage Jumble Sale, Rangeworthy, S Glos.

This is where my DH and I went to have a browse and see if I could find any bits and pieces for sewing.

This is what I bought.

A mixed bag of fabrics, including, gingham, patchwork fabrics, flowers etc.

This whole pile was in 1 mixed bag that cost £8.

It even had some vintage strawberry fabric.

I have plans, I fancy having a go at sewing pictures using little scraps of printed fabrics. I also bought a box of buttons too. A girl can never have too many buttons.

The same people that ran the Jumble Sale run a Vintage and Handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury. The next one is on 9th April. Unfortunately I can’t go but for a very good reason, I will be running a children’s sewing party for a soon to be 10yr old and her friends.

Here you can find some lovely photos from the Jumble Sale on The Washerwomen blog.

Cuttlebug Sandwich Recipes

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:32:00 +0000

I have a Cuttlebug, which is a little manual die cutting machine. I have several makes of die I can use in my Cuttlebug and I decided it was time to see what these dies could cut and to record the sandwich required for a clean cut. A sandwich in this case is the layering of plates, shims, dies and material to be cut, not one made from bread and butter!

I tested:

Paper

Bazzil cardstock

Felt

Cotton material

Shrink plastic

Grunge paper

I used combinations of different plates, A, B or C, a piece of thickish card, ordinary printer paper with a die and the material being tested. The paper might be in 1, 2, 3 or 4 thicknesses. The figure in brackets is the suggested number of runs through the Cuttlebug. The first plate down is first in the list.

Quickutz Die

Sandwiches for Quickutz die

Paper – A, C, die, paper, B

Bazzil – A, C, die, bazzil, B

Felt – A, C, die, felt, B

Cotton – A, C, card, die, cotton, 2 paper, B

Shrink plastic – A, C, die, plastic, B (4x)

Grunge paper – A, 2 paper, C, die, grunge, B (4x)

Cuttlebug Die

Sandwiches for Cuttlebug die

Paper - A, B, die, paper, B

Bazzil - A, B, die, bazzil, B

Felt - A, B, die, felt, B

Cotton - A, B, card, die, cotton, B paper on cotton may protect B

Shrink plastic – A, B, die, plastic, B

Grunge paper - A, B, die, grunge, B

Marianne Die

Sandwiches for Marianne die

Paper - A, C, die, paper, B

Bazzil - A, C, die, bazzil, B (2x)

Felt - A, C, die, felt, B Thin bits are fragile

Cotton - A, C, card, die, cotton, 4 paper, B (2/3x) May need a snip

Shrink plastic – A, C, die, plastic, 4 paper, B (4x) Tricky to get out, needed a snip

Grunge paper - A, C, die, grunge, B

Spellbinders Die

Sandwiches for Spellbinders die

Paper - A, C, die, paper, B

Bazzil - A, C, die, bazzil, B

Felt - A, C, die, felt, 2 paper, B

Cotton - A, C, card, die, cotton, 2 paper, B (2x)

Shrink plastic – A, C, die, plastic, B

Grunge paper - A, C, die, grunge, B (2/3x)

BIGZ Die

Sandwiches for BIGZ die

Paper - B, die, paper, B

Bazzil - B, die, bazzil, B

Felt - B, die, felt, B

Cotton - B, die, cotton, B (2x) May need 2 paper on cotton

Shrink plastic – B, die, plastic, B

Grunge paper - B, die, grunge, B

These were the setting that worked for my particular Cuttlebug, be aware that other Cuttlebugs may be different and require slight alterations to the sandwich. I don’t know about sandwich but it is definitely time for cake.