Lazy couple of days...

Well, not entirely lazy, but certainly less crocheting than usual. I've been trying to figure out why my sewing machine is making strange noises, plus making Christmas cards to donate to the troops through Stampin' Up's yearly drive.

I've also been taking a couple of photos to show how to make my spider web bunting. That takes a while seeing the non-zoom lens for my camera is dead and I can only use the zoom lens! Crocheting certainly takes longer when every few seconds you're getting up from the work and moving half way across the room to take a photo!

Getting into the swing of Halloween and Christmas

Welcome to another week! Here in New South Wales, Australia, it's a long weekend. So with my hubby home for the extra day we decided to head off and see The Smurfs. It's offered in the movies as a 3D or a 2D movie, and we chose to do the 2D version. In the past we've gone and seen 3D movies, but back then I was the only on in the family inconvenienced by having to wear 2 pairs of glasses - my prescription ones and the 3D ones. Now that my 3 year old son has glasses too, we figured 2D was just SO much easier! I find the 2 glasses thing irritating, I can only imagine what it would be like for my son!

This past week I got busy with my crochet hooks and created some new Halloween offerings. A couple are already available in my Etsy shop, with a couple more to come!

I think my favourite so far is my spiderweb bunting. It was inspired by an image I saw on google images when I went searching for Halloween crocheted items. The one I saw had a bit bigger spiderwebs and was a bit more "random" looking. For someone who's crocheting has been compared to a dot-matrix printer, "random" just isn't me! So I sat and made this little pattern (and ripped out the 4 I attemped before this one!).



When I get a chance I'll write up the pattern for the half-webs and share it on here. They're a little bit fiddly until you get used to it, but they look so great!

I also got an order for one of these from a friend on Facebook:


This exact one was offered up on my Facebook page as a prize, but she saw it and liked it and asked me to make her one of her own. I just haven't taken a photo of Santa number 2 yet! :D

What kinds of things would you like to see in the Yillup Designs shop for Christmas? Decorations? Presents? Hair accessories? Any new suggestions? Feel free to comment on this post and let me know...

Sunday Wrap-Up...

Well, I didn't end up getting the dwarves for Snow White finished! Mostly because I've had a busy busy week in my Etsy shop...

This week I've crocheted:

an amigurumi santa

2 spider web buntings

a spider web hat

an orange and black Halloween hat

did 1 more row of my yo-yo afghan

Plus I've had a few sales in the Etsy shop, which is very exciting! It's been a bit quiet for a little while...

So, even though I'm missing Snow White's dwarves, I've been pretty busy!

What did you get up to this week?

Halloween is coming

We don't really celebrate Halloween here in Australia. In this family we don't mark the occasion particularly, but I like any excuse to be crafty, and Halloween crafts can be just so cute! I know, it doesn't really make sense that something based on the spirit world being closest to the natural world is cute, but anyways...

I designed this little orange hat to fit in with a Halloween theme. Orange and black, so halloween-y... And with Elizabeth as my model - SO cute! :D



This hat is available in my Etsy shop in a few different sizes to suit most kids (and if you've got a small head - lucky you - the 19"-21" size might even fit you!). Pick it up HERE!

Today I am...

Today I am...

Blocking crocheted spider webs...

Yo yo afghan progress

I took this photo of my bed/workspace the other day...



I've added a few more rows to it, so it's looking a little more like a blanket now.

Nice and bright and colourful, and when I'm finally finished it (maybe in about 5 years! LOL), I'm hoping it will be big enough to cover our queen sized bed. If I don't get that far, it'll be a nice afghan to snuggle with on the lounge! :D

Cushion-y goodness...

Busy busy busy here... In the last couple of days I've completed a project I've been wanting to do for about 6 months now!

6 months ago I bought some large cushion inserts from our local Big W planning on making some covers for them. And then they sat in the cupboard for months, getting in the way of everything. About 2 weeks ago I got into a cleaning mood and cleared out the cupboard and decided I really SHOULD do something with the inserts!

So these cushion covers were born. They're the same dark blue as the lounge on the back, with different granny-inspired designs on the front. I think my house is going to start looking like it's a reject from the 60s and 70s soon! LOL

And here's my daughter enjoying their squishiness (and an apple!)...

A bit of an obsession with old books

I'm loving the look of yellowed book pages at the moment. I don't know what exactly it is, but I seem to be using it on just about everything. I love text triangles as the flags on bunting, and this 3D butterfly I think is my favourite...



To create this butterfly I used the Sullivans 2" butterfly punch. I absolutely love this punch. It's just that little bit different to the more common butterfly punches out there. Very pretty and gently detailed without being fiddly.

To make them you punch 4 butterflies from pages of old books. Layer the butterflies together with a tiny bit of glue along the middle of the body. I used glossy accents, but almost any glue would work. Then fold up the wings to create that 3D effect.

I'm considering making a few of these layered butterflies to sell in my ETSY SHOP. What do you think? Would you buy these? If so, would you like them individually or in packs?

Sunday Wrap-Up...

Well, I'm aiming to have a Sunday Wrap-Up every week, making a list of stuff I've actually done in the last week (and maybe starting the list for the next week... LOL).

This week I got it into my head to make Snow White and the 7 dwarves. I got Snow White done, and I'll be trying to get the 7 dwarves done this week. I'm planning on donating them to the local preschool's trivia night for their silent auction...

A couple of weeks ago I found THIS tutorial on how to join small scraps of yarn into a blanket. I've now completed 9 rows with 20 yo-yos in each row and I have about 200-300 yo-yos waiting to have their ends sewn in. Boy it's a whole lot of ends to sew in, and still plenty to go! This photos' the example from the tutorial - MUCH smaller than what I'm doing! :D


I also sold my first lot of digital paper on my Yillup Design Digital Etsy shop. And of course found out that SkyDrive through Hotmail is a dismal failure for sending large files through Hotmail email. I have to figure out a different way to send the digital files to those who purchase them...

See you again soon!

Welcome

Welcome to the newest blog on the internet (although I guess by the time I've typed this about 50 new blogs will have been started and that comment will be false...).

Yillup Designs has been around for a while now, but I've been mostly using my personal blog, Etsy and Facebook for people to find me. So I thought, why not put all my "stuff" into one place!

I'm hoping to keep you all updated regularly with what I'm up to.

Please excuse the dust as I continue my renovations around here and add all the bits and pieces we all need here on this blog.

Thanks for starting the journey with me!