Handmade winter wreath

Hello my belles,

Today is Saturday December 13 th 2014, and I went for a winter walk as it is so sunny and bright though it was minus 1 Celsius when I woke up.

Real ivy and some red berries

Today was the day for collecting foliage and pretty berries for making my door wreath. This traditionally has been my dad's job. This year we done it together.

Berries and pine cones

glitter twigs

The walk was fresh and the grass was still frozen in places even at two in the afternoon. In other places I was so scared of falling over as it was so muddy, the splotchy mud was up to my ankles! But thankfully I remained up right with the help for trees and a fence to hold on to.
So I collected wild ivy and red berries which will compliment the faux holly and silver glitter twigs I have.


I have faux holly as I know birds eat the berries so I didn't want to take wild holly away from the lovely birds I have around here. I have florists wire and a round straw base for making my wreath.

supplies: straw base, florists wire and collected ivy

To start I wrapped and tied on the ivy with the wire hiding the straw as best I could.

First layer of ivy

 I then filled in the gaps with the faux holly and stuffed again with the glitter twigs and pine cones I added a few jingle bells and voilà! This took about 20 minutes to make and remember imperfection is better than shop bought! Have you made you own wreath or Christmas decorations? Please share photos in the comments or tag me on instagram or twitter if you have I would love to see them.

getting there in my making

adding in the glitter twigs

almost done

c'est fini!

finshed article on my door!

Take care
Love Clara x

Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade
Instagram: http://instagram.com/clarashandmade

Just a quick post to show off my latest creation!
I have seen these style of pillows a lot on Pinterest and I love them, I just had to make some for the shop. This one is the first I have made, I am really happy with how it came out. It is made from soft unbleached cotton and a bright white doily. What do you think? Do you like it?

Shabby Chic round pillow

 I will be making more in different colours and listing them on Etsy as and when they are complete and I can get good photos. All these dull cloudy days mean I can not take good clear photos in natural light and I do not like to use the lights I have as they get very hot. Any ways I better run I have lots of sewing to do today.


Love Clara x

                               Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade

Shopping for supplies

So I have been to London and I have been supply shopping, I bought some lovely white washed linen, it is so soft and drapes wonderfully it is the backbone item in my shop, so many items have this wonderful material as the foundation. It is strong yet beautiful and eco-friendly compared to cotton. I also got some more ribbon and cotton lace as I can not resist having more, but this time I also came across some wonder roses as ribbon, pink and dark pink with  green it is wonderfully romantic and gorgeous! Last but not least I bought some wonderful romantic white ruffle fabric, this I just adore to hold it up and shake it and watch all the ruffles quiver and shake. I have no plans for these at the moment, one day soon I should be able to show you what I have come up with though.

roses ribbon

white ruffles

I moved in the last quarter of 2012 and the area I have moved to while lovely and quiet it is not equipped for a shop-a-holic like me. There is is only one haberdashery about three miles away and she does not sell anything out of the ordinary so I am still relying on trips to London to get my supplies this is a long round trip for me approximately two hours each way so it is not something I do frequently. Do you have problems getting supplies for your crafts? How do you get around this? Do you buy online? I struggle with online buying as I am self taught and so I do not know the terms for the fabrics I want, so shopping can be fraught with expletives and nothing purchased. Oh well I will now be saving my pennies for my next shopping trip in London town.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade

Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

Love Clara x

Day off?

So I work four days a week to make sure the bills are paid each month. But my passion is sewing and making! Sadly my passion does not make enough money for me to do it full time and pay the bills, hopefully one day it will. Today was my second day off in a row and I had the desire to sew after resting yesterday. I find if I am tired or rushed I can not be creative at all. But more of this in a later blog post. On the days when I am too tired to create I just gather ideas on my boards on Pinterest. (http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade)  My gosh how I love that site. All the pretty images collected together. I find them so appealing that sometimes I forget to blink for ages staring at the screen I have boards for Shabby Chic, white shabby chic (my favourite board), for linens and lace (ooo this is also my favourite board) for baskets and colourful objects, for pretty buildings and for industrial pieces I am in love with, plus more, so take a peek via the link above. I also read lots of blogs and I will look through www.etsy.com for hours adding favourites and making lists of items I want to buy.
I always have scraps of paper laying around with lists on. The lists include: Supplies I need to buy, things I want, things I NEED, ha ha ha my needs are never ever anything practical this list is in fact the pretty objects I must must must own as soon as I can afford them or find them if they are vintage/ antique. My biggest list, and the one that gets made and remade several times and never ever get completed is my things to make list! I find writing down what I want to make, with a quick sketch really helps when I have time away from the day job. It focus' my mind and steers me in the right direction. Otherwise I can waste a whole day trying to make a decision on which piece of lace I love the least so I can bare to cut it up to make something else from it. Or which piece of linen/ cotton I should use. The lists help me keep that clarity. Today was such a day where I actually crossed some things off my lists. In short it was a great day!
I made a new pocket pillow for my Etsy shop and I took the photos for another piece and I listed a vintage display case. So not really a day off as I was still working of sorts. But I was working on my passion and that is never a wasted day or a day spent in vain. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do something I adore, and I squeal with delight when someone purchases one of my items as I know nothing is promised or forever. But that is another story for another day. Thank you for reading.

Love Clara


Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/166199375/remote-holder-pillow-pocket-pillow-doily?ref=shop_home_active_21

Handmaking and selling

Today I made a new pillow for sale in my Etsy shop, but once it was completed I was struggling to list it for sale, not because I physically couldn't do it or because of a bad Internet connection but because I loved it so much!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/175269562/white-decorative-pillow-appliqued-doily?ref=shop_home_active_1

Sometimes as a maker of one off items and when I purchase vintage items for sale this is what happens. I love unique one offs and I struggle to let them go. I have to convince my self about the new happy home they are going to!
What a silly billy I am. I hope you like my new item here a few photos of the making of it.

Love Clara x



Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade/
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

Valentines the handmade way

Sick of sickly satin hearts and fake flowers for Valentines Day decoration? Make your own sweet little candles with a tea light candle and some Washi tape! These can be made to fit any occasion with the right tape but I had red tape left over from Christmas so decided to do something for the day of love with it.

all you need is some washi tape, tea lights and scissors!

sick tape around the metal part, so easy!

 an instant simple table or mantel centre piece.

Here comes the safety stuff: never leave a candle burning in a room unattended or near an open window, make sure you fully extinguish them.



Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade/
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade


Love Clara x

A little glitter and sparkle

Today is Saturday, it is beautifully sunny and bright, we are between winter storms in the South East of England at the moment. I wanted to capture the sun for the not so bright days ahead. I picked up all my sparkly things I have been meaning to do something with for literally years. This included: beads; pieces of chandeliers; mother of pearl buttons; a broken necklace and some silver coloured netting. I grabbed my wire and cutters too. 

tools and some sparkly bits

I wanted to make some kind of dream catcher but for light instead of dreams!

sparkles!

This is the top and it has a mirrored button and mother of pearl and that lovely netting in sparkly silver threads so delicate and beautiful.

tear drop glass pendant from a chandelier

At the bottom I added this large glass drop from a chandelier, look how it captures the light for me for on the grey days of winter. In today's sun light it is making rainbows all over my room. So pretty. It is if fairies are dancing about.

Light catcher

It is not long only about 50 cm. I will not hang it in front of my window like I would love too but on the side of my wardrobe as my daddy dearest has always frightened me of fire caused by glass magnifying the light and burning houses down. I have used an old broken chain to make another with another tear drop pendant. 

light catchers. dec 2013.

What do you think of these? Wouldn't they be magical hanging from a tree in the garden? Maybe with with my lace heart from Etsy: 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/170633851/valentines-heart-white-heart-lace-heart?ref=shop_home_active 

If you to have an old chain like the one I used or if you bought one from a thrift store or charity shop you too could make your own magical light catcher very cheaply.

Thank you for reading please tell me what you think in the comments.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade/
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade

Love Clara x

New Years resolutions/ goals

Hmm. Well this year I have to admit I am kinda stumped on what to do personally. Maybe this will be the year when I stop talking about doing regular yoga classes and actually start doing it. I have made several goals for ClarasHandMade, which include making this blog and more lovely things for the shop. I have already been making next years Christmas advent Calendars as I figured I would not fancy making those in the middle of summer! This is a little sneak peak of one of my designs. What do you think? It is made of white linen and I have hand applied the motifs and hand stamped it with last years Christmas rubber stamp gift set.

sneak peak of Christmas 2014

I am going for a Swedish theme with these and I will also make some Christmas stockings to go with them. I found some gorgeous ribbon on my travels the other week. I think these have quite a folk/Swedish feel about them don't you? The red will definitely go on another advent design I have in my head.

ribbons

As usual these will be in limited supply due to their handmade status! My current stock can be found on my Etsy shop: http://www.clarashandmade.etsy.com

Have you made any goals or resolutions for 2014 yet? I would love to hear about them in the comments below. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade/
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade


Love Clara x

My First Blog!

Firstly hello and welcome,
I have decided to start a blog as I find myself wanting to talk about my handmade pieces and influences more and more. My Facebook friends do not want to hear it as they do not have the same passions as I do, Twitter doesn't give you enough space and so here I am talking to myself! I plan to show you my work in progress plus finished pieces and all about my influences. 

I love the white shabby chic/cottage chic look of soft furnishing and white chippy paint on furniture pieces. My favourite fabrics are ivory cottons and cream linens and doilies and vintage lace. The distressed look of wood painted in white, beige and gold leaf, hmm heaven! I look to the Shabby Chic, French Châteaux, Swedish Gust avian and American Shaker styles for influences in my work. I also love industrial pieces and buildings, modern is not a style you will find here. I hope you like what I will show you. 

clarashandmade

Love Clara x

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarasHandMade
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarashandmade/
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/clarashandmade