A few weeks ago, I tweeted this whilst waiting for the phone guy to turn up at our new place. The brooch display frame was really easy to whip-up and took less than 15 minutes. I added a few more improvements since then and thought I’d share it with you, should you have a love of brooches too :-)

What you’ll need:

1. An empty frame with a stand - it should include the frame itself, glass, a piece of cardboard, and the backing to which the stand is attached.
2. Fabric of your choice
3. A piece of thin batting
4. A strong, hardy stapler
5. A pair of scissors

First step: Take the frame apart. You’ll be using the cardboard for the rest of the steps, so you can put the other pieces of the frame to one side.

Second step: Place the cardboard on the batting and using the cardboard as a template, cut around it so that you have a piece of batting in the exact same size as the cardboard.

Third step: Place the cardboard on the fabric and using the cardboard as a template and leaving a 3cm (or 1 and 1/2 inch) border, cut around it.

Fourth step: Place the fabric you have cut from the Third step with its right-side facing down. Then place the piece of batting in the centre. Then place the cardboard on top.

Fifth step: Start with one of the shorter sides and fold fabric over the cardboard. Staple as close to the edge as you can, down the side, ensuring that all layers are stapled together. This will ensure that the staples won’t show when you put the frame back together.

Sixth step: Repeat the Fifth step on the opposite short side, making sure to pull the fabric taut as you staple down the edge.

Seventh step: Repeat Fifth and Sixth steps for the long sides, making sure to pull the fabric taut as you staple down the edge.

Eighth step: Put frame back together. For my frame, I put fabric-batting-cardboard piece in the frame first, followed by the piece of glass (since I may want to re-use the frame in the future), and then the backing piece.

And that’s it! Now it’s time to pin your brooches on! Make sure that when you do pin them on, the pin goes through both the fabric and batting. You could fancy it up by using antique or more extravagant frames.

I must thank Dear Fii for providing the idea :-)

*My display above holds some of my growing brooch collection (haven’t unpacked them all yet!). Top row: American Eagle Outfitters brooch; Betty Jo owl; Finki brooch. Middle row: Love by Geneine Honey Deer brooch; American Eagle Outfitters brooch; Vintage owl brooch. Bottom row: Diva Cameo brooch; Betty Jo Cuckoo Clock; Malgorzata Bird Brooch.

I know this little pile of fabric doesn’t look like much at the moment:

But it will soon be magically transformed into some fawns :-)

It’s funny that in Sunday’s post I was struggling with inspiration and just getting on with it, and tonight I find myself raring to go.

The spark? I recalled that on the weekend the girls and I made up some plaster magnets. My eldest, who recently turned 6, received one of those cute make-it-yourself kits for her birthday. They had been asking me all week, “When are we gonna make these? When? When? . . . When?!” and we finally broke open the box on Sunday afternoon.

Lots of newspapers strung about, lots of accidentally painted hands (and faces . . . and floorboards, whoops!), lots of mess, and lots of fun. After a few hours, we had some new fridge magnets and two girls who were very happy with what they had made.

The following photos were taken by my 3-year-old (quite the little photographer I will admit!):

And so I was reminded how wonderful and exciting it is to get stuck into something new. I’ve been working on completing half-done projects lately and it was getting stale. Time to work on some softies from scratch again; let’s start from the very beginning (and as Julie Andrews would agree, a very good place to start :-)). So new fawns - from scratch - are on the way. And perhaps next week, a completely new softie design, or two :-)

I adore these girls . . .

. . .  the two little souls who keep me afloat at a time when it would be easier to be consumed by the waves.

Hope you will enjoy this Woodland Girl 2010 Calendar!

I was hoping to post this up since just after Christmas but life got in the way. Thankfully I had a quiet night last night (after a fun but tiring day celebrating Australia Day with the girls!) and finished it up. Sorry for the slight wonkiness :-)

It’s scaled to print on A4-size paper and you can download it for free here: Woodland Girl 2010 Calendar

(Thank you for the continued messages of cheer & support I’ve received. I’m moving on, going strong :-))

EDITED 28/01/2010: Thanks for the lovely comments :-) and welcome if you have stumbled over here from WhipUp! Thank you to Wendy for pointing out that there is a day missing in the month of January!! So sorry!! I have fixed this and the calendar is now correct. Please download again if you downloaded the calendar before today. Sorry for the mess up!

I always look forward to the weekend for the simple reason that I can just hang out with my two little girls. Time is going so fast and I find myself at times amazed at how quickly they are growing (in stature); how their personalities are developing; and how their knowledge and curiosity is flourishing from weekend to weekend.

This weekend I took them to Mikes to see the wonderful window of softies that have been donated for Mirabel. We lingered a long while at the front just taking in the cuteness and detail of each one, though only the Youngest was up for a photo:

Back at home we got stuck into a few hours of painting together. Here’s what emerged on my little canvas:

And we baked up a fresh batch of Kate’s raspberry and white choc muffins for the week ahead.

This morning our church put on the kids’ Christmas Concert and the girls dressed up like angels and sang a few favourite carols. This was at home just before we left for church:

On the plan tonight, probably a kids’ movie to watch together and then I have the evening to work on Christmas gifts.

I’m feeling refreshed and re-energised and so very thankful for these two little girls and the time we get to spend together. Already looking forward to the next weekend :-)

Thanks for the get well wishes from the previous post :-) We’re definitely feeling much better than we did last week.

The girls and I spent yesterday afternoon painting:

I ended up painting a little bear. Not sure what do with it yet:

But it was fun to be playing with paint again. Should do it more often. Now that my nose isn’t running like a tap, hope to get back in to sewing some stuff tonight.

Hope you had restful weekend ♥

I finished up the Ze Bun-buns for the Ze Girl-girls :-) I tried to take some decent photos of the Bun-buns but the girls couldn’t wait to cuddle them. Here’s the one that turned out okay:

They were then quickly scooped up by the girls and given great big bear hugs. They have already been christened with names: Anya and Bella. My intention was to give them to the girls at Easter but they really wanted to cuddle them during their afternoon nap so I caved :-)

The girls picked all the fabric for their bunnies and have been excited seeing them in various states of progress on my craft desk. And a fairly new development (Eye-spy theme thanks to Christina!) is that Ava has started liking pink. Up until this point she would shun anything pink - blue was her favourite colour. But since she started Prep, suddenly everything she has must be pink. I’m wondering how long it will last :-)

A special little mug arrived in the mail today:

I got my Little Mushroom girl pattern printed on to a mug via Cafepress and I am delighted with the way it has turned out. A little bit of colour to add to my desk at work :-)

And finally, the Easter egg consumption has begun over here. I picked up my ultimate favourite kind - candy covered, speckled, solid chocolate eggs. So very good.

Off to polish off the rest of the eggs with some coffee in my new cup before the little ones wake from their nap. Wishing you a week filled with many smile-inducing moments. More Eye-spy players over here.

I ♥ these three amigos:

Thank you Cindy for picking this week’s theme :-) Spy more love over here.

I’ve got two button-jointed dolls in progress and finished off a few cushions using the custom fabric and linen/wool for a bit of texture and contrast (I tried using all my custom fabric together on one cushion and just looking at it gave me a headache!):

And some quick links that will hopefully put a smile on your face too:

>> I mentioned sculptor/artist Liz Lomax recently but you really must check out this clip on how she sculpted Noel Gallagher (from the Brit band Oasis). She is just so darn good.

>> The paintings of Roberto Bernardi completely fooled me - I thought they were photographs!

>> I love the idea of Tinnies being sold by Cathy! She’ll be at the Stitches and Craft show too! (found via Linda)

>> This portrait quilt completely amazes me. I cannot even begin to comprehend how one would go about putting this together (link via Kathy)

>> And finally, did you see that Leslie now has the fleur playmat and pillow pattern available for sale? I’m trying to think of friends who will be having babies so I can make this :-)

I’ve got two lists going at the moment: one called “Need To Make” where items are crossed off quite regularly; and the other is called “Would Like to Make at Some Convenient Time in the Near Future“. Obviously the latter list hardly gets anything crossed of it and instead grows a little bit everyday :-)

But I’m happy that I’ve been able to find a little time in the last week to make some progress on that latter list. The first mini-project was to make a simple apron from my “Folksy Teaparty” fabric printed via Spoonflower (please excuse the marks on the mirror - who knew how hard it would be to photograph yourself wearing an apron!):

And the second mini-project involved cushions using my “Woodland Girl” (teamed with a polka dot print from Amy Butler’s Lotus collection) and “Faux Crocheted Circles” prints (also via Spoonflower):

And now on the couch:

The Cushions were backed with a chocolate linen and snap closures. These were done in no time at all and very satisfying - great projects for the kind of hot weather we are currently experiencing in Melbourne!

And a few quick links:

>> If you like Yoshitomo Nara, you will like pics of his latest exhibition at Blum & Poe

>> My latest fave artist - Carrie Chau.  I am disappointed that I didn’t get to see her show, “Indigo Child” in Hong Kong late last year, which was happening at the same time I was there! Here are photos of her show.

It’s funny how things randomly link up together sometimes. I’ve been reading “The Boss of You” since the beginning of the month and it got me thinking about new things I wanted to try this year. Then Red Chocolate chose the theme “Eye Spy something new to try in 2009” for last Sunday’s round. Then I drew up this postcard. Then with the whole “something new in 2009” buzzing around in my head, I started thinking about turning some of my little illustrations into embroidery patterns. Then Jane and Becky left comments on my postcard post about stitching the girl featured in the postcard! Weird hey?

Anyways, I have followed their suggestion (thanks ladies!) and have turned the little mushroom girl into an embroidery pattern:

Please click this link to download (it’s in PDF format): Little Mushroom Girl & Bunny Stitch Pattern

Just print it out, use transfer paper/pencil to trace the pattern, and iron-on to your chosen fabric.

Here’s what I’ve done with mine:

I cut out a piece of red ‘n’ white polka dot fabric for the mushroom hat and appliquéd it on (used iron-on adhesive); used mainly split stitch; used satin stitch on the frills of the dress; running stitch detail on the apron; and a bit of reverse appliqué for the rain-drops. It sits stretched over a 300mm embroidery hoop.

Here is it hanging above my youngest’s cot (yet to put more artwork on those empty walls!):

Other ideas for this pattern:
>> Make it into a panel for a cushion or a quilt block, or
>> Pretty up a plain canvas tote by embroidering it on one side, or
>> After embroidering, cut around the shape of the girl leaving a 2-3cm space around the whole girl. Cut a matching backing piece from your favourite patterned fabric. Sew together around the edge using a 1cm seam allowance with right-sides facing and leave a small gap for turning out. Turn right-side out and stuff with poly-fill. Ladder-stitch closed the opening. And ta-da! A little softie girl :-)

Hope you have fun with this and please send me pics of your work if you get a chance to stitch her up!

Just quickly dropping in to say thank you for your well wishes before we head off to Hong Kong. A week of frenzied sewing and packaging has yielded a few more things:

Peg Bear Gypsy - made from vintage fabric generously given by Dawn:

Peg Bear Ghazal - also made from fabric from Dawn :-)

Peg Bear Gaikyoku - made from Japanese fabric:

Giant Woodland Girl Mee finally has her apron and mini-Peg Bear buddy:

And this smaller fawn is for Woodland Girl Jin:

And I am almost finished packaging up 120 pieces of the doll-head brooch kits:

Press for the show has begun in Hong Kong and I am starting to get some seriously huge butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. Here is a good summary of what it’s all about on Discover Hong Kong. I also have a press conference to attend early next week to talk about what I make and I am petrified. At least I have a few days to psyche myself up a bit :-)

Not sure if I’ll have a chance to blog when I am there but I will try to post up pics if i get a chance.

Okey dokes, I guess that’s all for now (can you tell I am nervous?!). I’ll be back here just before Christmas. Happy Friday!