November Hump Day Blog Hop!!!!

Alison has given us a lovely challenge for November, in keeping with the season:

"Hello! It's time to announce the November Hump Day Hop challenge! I kept this one pretty simple...it's a color challenge! And I chose a palette of beautiful shades of orange with a hint of blue.

Please use at least 3 of the colors shown above. They don't have to be the exact shades, but they need to be close to what's shown here. If you have the koi collections, this palette is perfect for you. But of course, these colors will work with pretty much any Bombshell Stamps that you may have."

Here's my take on Alison's challenge:

 

Supplies:
October Afternoon Patterned Paper
SpellBinders Labels 22
Distress Ink
Copic Ciao and Spectrum Noir pens

Now hop along to Celina's Blog to see what she's created!

Bombshell Blog
Alison
Laura
Mary G.
Torrey
Cheryl
Stempelintje
Kelli
Alaine
GlitteryKatie YOU ARE HERE!!!
Celina Anthony
Paula
Milo
Sparkly Mary (The Birthday Girl!)
Alex
Kathi 

Happy Bombshell Day!!!
love,
GlitteryKatie xXxXx

Crochet Time

It was my turn to post over on It's a Creative World this weekend:
Hi all!
You may remember my post earlier in the month about Quick Knits well I've continued to knit and have even taught myself to crochet to a pattern!

First of all here's my little Gnome I was just starting last time. He knitted up really fast and came out a treat (my Sister is after him!). He was from a free pattern HERE and the only changes I made were to add some stitches tom make a nose and ears and I knitted the beard in garter stitch.

I love tortoises and knitted this teeny Torty:

I then bought a lovely pattern online for a cute piggy who was knitted- love those hooge feet!!
If you search etsy.com there are hundreds of beautiful and varied patterns for you to knit and often less than $5

I then decided that it was about time I taught myself to crochet and follow a pattern as there were so MANY adorable amigurumi patterns free on the net!

I thought I'd look for a REALLY easy pattern and spotted this cute Happy Pill pattern on Ravelry.com
(you need to sign up to use the site but you don't get any annoying emails and it's a HUGE resource!)

I had looked at instructions on how to crachet but it hadn't clicked but luckily I found this awesome tutorial on YouTube AMIGURUMI TUTORIAL and I was off!

I learnt how to decipher a crochet pattern, to increase and decrease in single crochet *beams*

So my next project was to crochet a cookie which I made up myself (get me!), followed by a cupcake from free pattern HERE and a coffee cup from HERE

I've learnt to use Slip Stitch, crochet into the front or the back of the stitch and to use HDC- half, double crochet!

Anytime I've been stuck I've resorted to Googling for the answer or heading to YouTube for a video tutorial- so easy!

As well as crocheting I've discovered 6mm black safety eyes which really give the look of an amigurumi!

So that's what I've been up to lately, I hope you enjoyed my yarn adventures and if you'd like to have a go then why not try some of these sites which have LOTS of free patterns to try!

Free Patterns:

Free Amigurumi Patterns

50 Free Adorable Amigurumi

Amigurumi Patterns.net

Ravelry.com  (requires sign up)

Complete Amigurumi Tutorial


Happy Crafting!

GlitteryKatie xXx

FABULOUS news...

First off all if you LURVE Bombshell Stamps as much as I do then RACE over to the online store because it's black Friday and you can get an awesome 25% OFF all Bombshell Stamps!!
in fact it's even better because it's not just the Deal of the Day - it's the deal until MONDAY 28th of November!!!
All you need to do to get 25% off is:
 
Just use coupon code "CYBR30" at check out

Now my kids have their Advent Calendars (German Style, NO chocolate and loads of silver glitter- my Mum would be proud!) to get them in the mood for Christmas.
Well I have TIM HOLTZ's Holiday tags!!!!! YAY!!!
He's bringing them back for the fifth year!!!
Cannot wait for Dec 1st to come round- see the deets HERE!!!

Just 'finkin'...

....'bout Beagley stuff....

o

Our beautiful Willow just chillin'!

Smoothies and Roundabouts!!!

Spent a lovely afternoon in MK with hubby today!
We had a wander around Marks and Spencers which was LOVELY- so many pretty, pretty Christmas decorations and home enhancing items (homes mind you that don't have us lot and 2 dawgs in them!!!) 
Later we popped into Costas for a berry smoothie each as we were hot, parched and a bit pooped

 ...I tell you that beastie took some slurping but it was delish!!

Lastly we acted like a pair of kids and had a go on the HOOGE roundabout in the shopping centre- it had lovely ginny horses that go up and down (makes photo taking tricky though!!)

So it's Friday (Hooray) and I'm off to do some more knitting, I want to wish you all a lovely weekend!!
Love,
GlitteryKatie xxx

Ms. November's Bombshell Challenge

This month's challenge comes from Celina:

"Hi everyone, Celina, Ms November here with my challenge for this month. On my blog I like to have Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays where I post a card I made out of scraps from my scrap drawer. We all have those pesky little scraps we can't bear to throw away, but they always seem to linger. So my challenge is to create a card using just the scraps you have on hand. It doesn't have to be perfect, in fact I love creating crazy looking cards with little bitty scraps. Bonus kudos if you even stamp on a scrap colored piece of paper instead of a white one!


I really look forward to seeing your creations and don't forget to check the Bombshell blog on November 16th to see what the DT has come up with!"

 Like most crafters I have a HUGE folder full of scraps (oops!) so this challenge was perfect for me!!!

 

OK so here's where all my supplies came from:

Stamps: Ahoy Sailor and Homeward Bound ;
Papers: Background is some Tim Holtz Kraft resist I had left over;
 The blue star paper is left over October Afternoon;
The Postcard (with the Ship stamped on) is an actual old postcard, aged with Distress Inks;
All the stamped images are stamped onto left over scraps;
The blue ribbon has been floating around my desk for months!
The paper lace was cut for another project weeks ago using Tim Holtz vintage lace die by Sizzix;
The muslin fabric was an off cut;
The Baker's Twine was actually the only thing that wasn't a left over!
Coloured using Spectrum Noir and Copics;
Spellbinder;
Distress Inks.

I LOVED this challenge - it was fun rooting through my scraps folder, I hope you 'll give it a try too!!
Happy crafting!

GlitteryKatie xXxXx

Happy??!

...yes! Because I took my Happy Pill!!!

My first attempt at crocheting something other than a granny blanket (25 years ago!)
He's a bit lumpy but I did it!!! *grins*

This cute pattern is from Sarah Hearn- thank you Sarah for getting me through my first crochet project!
Also to YouTube's WireMySoul for the video tutorial- bless you!!!

Knitty Update!

The Traveling Gnome:

He's finished!!! He's really quick to knit up so I think he needs a friend or two!

I added a nose and ears and knitted his beard in garter stitch for some texture!

He's very cute and only 2.75 inches small!

Willow the Beagle took a liking to him and tried to steal him, luckily I rescued him!!

Here's Gomne's Pattern (ever read the Rupert Bear story of the Gomne's?!)

I also finished Taffy Tortoise who's a real cutie- I love tortoises, used to own one as a child!

 

He's only 2" high and 3" long, perfect pocket size!! 

Here's Taffy's Pattern.

I've really enjoyed using the black safety eyes- only ever used felt or embroidery for eyes- it gives the toys a 'proper' amigurumi look I think!

Off to have a go at a little crochet and remind myself how to knit rounds!!!

Happy Crafting!
Glittery Katie
 XxxxxX

Quick Knits

It's my turn over on It's a Creative World Blog:


Well the nights are drawing in now and for me that always seems to herald KNITTING!
I love to get out the knitting needles and some wool and find some cute, quick projects to whip up in an evening!
When I was first crafting my Mum used to collect the Soft Toy patterns from Woman's Own and I FOUND my favourite pattern in the folder:

We used to knit LOADS of these guys and the lil' stockings too for school and Church fetes! They use so little yarn and knit up in no time at all!! Now obviously this is a VINTAGE pattern now *giggles* but I did find an alternative.
Jean Greenhowe has her own website on on there she has some freebie patterns including little Stockings  HERE!!
And here are just two of the MANY stockings I've already produced!! All five of us in our family has their own stocking for the tree because Santa likes to pop choccy coins in them!

So anyway I started to search to see what other cute little knitty patterns I could find online and I was delighted with the results!
Over on a GORGEOUS knitting shop called Twins Knits I found a whole host of freebies as well as her full but reasonably priced patterns which are for sale!
Here is a lovely pencil bookmark,the pattern is HERE

....and these cute little guys: HERE

And over at Mochimochi Land these lil alligators

hee hee aren't they wonderful?! Their pattern is HERE

They have at least 13 free patterns at Mochimochi Land which are the sweetest little Amigarumi (Japanese) style characters.

Then I found my fave site with LOADS of free patterns for knitted cuties Knitted Toy Box.

I am currently knitting, well finishing knitting the Traveling Gnome as it takes SO little time to knit!
Here he is visiting Paris!! His pattern is HERE!
He's so cute and little at only about 2-3" tall!

This is what he looks like tonight:

As you can see he's VERY straightforward to knit in stocking stitch with some increase stitches!
These patterns are mostly from America so the knitting jargon is slightly different however all of the patterns explain what the abbreviations mean and anything you are unsire of can easily be Googled. There are lots of online sites that 'translate' US knitting terms to UK English!
So have a go at some Quick Knits if you have a bit of time on your hands!

Here are those sites to go and pootle around for your freebie patterns:


Jean Greenhowe Patterns
Twins Knits (free Patterns on right hand side, page down)
Mochimochi Land (free knits page down on right hand side)
Knitted Toy Box

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie XxXx