Macrame hanging planters

After a few long months studying, then a couple more painting the house of a friend, I'm finally free for a while. Yesterday was my first day off and today I was ready to get a project done.

I had bought these tea light candle holders a few years ago thinking I would do something to them to make them more interesting. But I looked at them today and started thinking how cute they would look with succulents in them and how I had seen stacked macrame pot holders on Pinterest a while back. I couldn't find the pin I remembered but found some simple tutorials and came up with a design I thought would look good with such small containers.

     

So, here's what I did. The string was just something I had picked up cheap and was sitting on my craft table. I think there's nothing more satisfying than working with what you've got; taking what may seem to be totally unconnected, unspectacular resources, and making something worthwhile out of them. This project took me around 3 hours.

Now of course you can put anything you want in your containers - paper, plastic, or real flowers; plants; even pens/knick-knacks.

But I wanted to put succulents in. They are so easy to grow from cuttings, simply break off a piece from an already growing plant, chuck it in some soil, and water it little and not too often. This also means they are low maintenance, which is good for someone like me who tends to kill plants.

I can't wait until my cute succulents are more established! 

Happy crafting :) 

Knitted Owl Cushion Cover

The knitting side of this project has been finished for a long time, and I have just recently found the inclination to finish it, which was to sew and stuff an inner, and sew the knitted cover around it. I have found that the addition of an inner lining made out of a non-stretchy material (rather than simply stuffing the knitted cover directly) is essential, or the pillow stretches and refuses to stay "cushion-shaped".

I used the following pattern for my cushion cover which is simply a drawing I did on plain grid paper, and then used the grid to create the pattern. Each square on the paper corresponds to 4 stitches, as can be seen fron the way the pattern is staggered. I then only had to choose my colours and pay close attention to the pattern as I went.

 So here is the completed project from the front. I chose colours that I hoped would suit the seating area I planned to put it. I also went over it afterwards with a darning needle and some black wool, giving it an outline.

I decided to do a striped back in the same colours. I rather like it.

And this is the side. I sewed it up by hand, and the stitches were really handy in making sure I was sewing in a neat, straight line, I only needed to follow the knitting.

Here is the cushion in its new home. I think it suits the curtains and vases, but I may have to do something about that other cushion, it's cramping my new cushion's style ;)

Paper Cherry Blossoms

 This is another craft that requires a bunch of patience but I think it really paid off. I think cherry blossoms are just so beautiful and have that sort of oriental zen factor that gives them simplicity even though they're so detailed and dainty.

Click here to see the tutorial I used to make the flowers. I used plain printing paper that I swirled pink watercolour paint onto, this way none of my blossoms are quite the same as one another.

Before I began this craft I had found this square black vase for cheap and it gave me the inspiration to put something contrasting into it, I decided on the pretty intricacy of cherry blossoms. I was lucky in finding some branches I thought were perfect that were dead on a tree in my backyard. I tied them together (with yarn, my handy tool that I use for everything) so they sat just how I wanted them to and slid them into the vase. I stuffed around them with newspaper to hide my very messy blue yarn tying.

With them arranged I glued my flowers on, with some general craft glue. I guess you can arrange the flowers on the branches however cherry blossom look in your head, but I had an idea that they look great grouped together and towards the ends of the branches.

The finished product. I feel a little bit proud each time I walk past it.