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New found op shop love

Today we had a quick op shop visit and I grabbed a couple of plates which I’m taking along to an Etsy Australia event this week. I’m very excited to be going to a crafty plate painting event. Plate painting has been one of those things I’ve admired and considered doing for a while (because I really need another hobby and all!).

I’m actually just going to paint on the medium saucer size plates, the smaller ones are tiny… for sauces etc, I just couldn’t help but buy them because they are so cheap and we actually truly do need little plates for sauce.

Plates for the painting

Painting, processes & other fun

Since opening my Etsy store last week, I have received a lot of lovely and helpful feedback as well as a whole lot of new found inspiration and encouragement, much of it from the Etsy community.

I’m very happy with some of the products which at first, I was not planning to paint. While experimenting with painting a few brooches, I found that I totally love the painting process and kind of want to paint everything now… I’m holding back on the more simplistic designs though.

Products are turning out different and mostly better than I had planned… which is a nice reminder that you just can’t plan everything… and that it’s a lot of fun to experiment and take a few risks. Not all of my experiments worked out wonderfully but here are a few that I’m quite happy with.

New brooch designs

Red bear suit, Little yellow bunny suit, Little ice-cream and Orange bear suit are all now available in my Etsy store.

Fun designs with shapes & lines

Over the last month or so I’ve been working on quite a few “basic” designs which I’m planning on using for multiple projects such as wrapping paper and laser cut brooches.

Although these designs come across as smooth and basic, I have spent a lot of time in illustrator just playing with the shapes and lines to come up with balanced, cute and original designs.

Here’s a sneak peak of a few of the things I’ve come up with so far.

Boat, Nessy & Mr Cloud… just a few of the designs I've been working on

Back to basics knitting fun

Scaft project is go!

Knitting is one of those things I’ve dabbled with on and off (mostly off), every time I have started a knitting project since being a kid, I have tried to get to complicated and ended up with a big mess and quit my project. I’m quite proud to say that this time I went back to basics and am going quite well… I did restart this scarf project about 5 times in the first day… but hey, I am a creature of perfection and it had been quite a while since I had done any knitting.

If you are thinking about starting some knitting I completely recommend grabbing yourself some really fat wool, fat sparkly knitting needles (glitter keeps me motivated) and learning the most basic knitting stitch there is “knit stitch”. This combination makes a beautiful soft and slightly bold texture, I also think it has a nice kind of crafty lady/home made look to it.

There are some lovely video links from this Meet me at Mikes blog post which inspired me and reminded me know to knit!