christobel

I collect lots of interesting things.  For a while I collected old cotton reels and bakelite knitting needles, but now they are getting hard to find.

I have used some of them to make little message flags.

And this is how you make them:

Step 1 – get hold of some old wooden cotton reels.

Step 2 - get some colourful ribbon and felt.

Step 3 - cover the cotton reels with ribbon or felt, using craft glue to stick it in place.

Step 4 - get some old coloured knitting needles and cut them into different lengths before inserting them into the centre of the cotton reels.  I popped a piece of cork in the end of the cotton reel so that the knitting needle would stay snugly in place.

Step 5 - fold a page of craft paper in half lengthwise and cover the inside with glue or paste. Then gently press the paper together but leave about half a centimetre along the fold so that you will be able to slip it over the knitting needle.

Step 6 - cut your folded craft paper into flag shapes and slip the flags over the knitting needles.

Step 7 - get out  your old typewriter or your letter stamps and write a little message to stick on the flags.

And there are your finished message flags.

This was my stall at Perth Upmarket.

Thank you to Ebony and the team at Unwrapped for a wonderfully organised day and thank you to everyone who stopped by my stall for a browse and a chat.

If you have a collection of small things and nowhere to put them, then you need a tiny cabinet like the ones I have just made.

They will be available at my stall at Perth Upmarket on Sunday 4 March 2012.  Come and have a look!

The March Upmarket is less than 2 weeks away!

Here are some more new things I will be bringing along:

Soon it will be the March Perth Upmarket and people will be starting to think about Easter, so I have come up with a few more Easter ideas.

A different take on an egg in a cup

and

A french milled soap egg in a nest

I am hoping to participate in a couple of markets in March so it occurred to me that focussing on an Easter theme would be a good plan.

This is one of my ideas.

To celebrate a new year I am making some new felt bunting.  It looks big in the picture, but in fact each little flag is only 3 cms long so it is actually quite tiny.

Thank you to Tess at Paper Fusion for stocking my paper angels and Christmas baubles with paper boats inside, and thank you to the editor of the West Australian’s Habitat liftout for choosing one of the paper boat baubles to include in the Christmas special!

It is time to get serious about Christmas wrapping!  A fun way to organise it is to pick a colour theme and then get all your paper, tags and other bits and pieces that you will need.  That way you can mix and match.

If ever you have time to spare (lots of time) you can make tiny things out of paper and put them inside clear glass baubles.  This is a task that requires a lot of patience and gentle hands, but the result is worth the trouble.