Decorating with triangles

Last weekend, I had the stressful pleasure of throwing my own engagement party. My amazing partner of 5 year asked me to marry him on New Years Eve while we were holidaying in Port Douglas, so a celebration back home with our friends and family was absolutely necessary.

Given we had just spent all our money on a holiday we thought a party at home was the best option. Many hours were spent planning, preparing, cooking, cleaning, and for me - making decorations! Given my love of all things 3-sided, I decided to make some paper triangle garlands. 

I picked up some super discounted scrapbooking paper at Spotlight, and set about cutting them into dozens of strips of varying width, then folding and cutting hundreds of triangles with a trusty box cutter.












Then came my chance to test my sewing skills - feeding each triangle in one by one, trying to line them up as best I could - which was often challenging with the myriad different sizes and patterns. I don't think my beginners sewing skills really showed that badly in the end as I got plenty of compliments from my friends and family.

Finally, the morning of the party I realised we needed some kind of gift and card area. I had a mini chest-style woven box in my bedroom, so I quickly cut up and lettered some decorative paper and strung it along some leftover lace ribbon to attach to the box. We cleared off a spare desk and found ourselves with a little gift table.

The party itself was fantastic, despite incessant rain all day which prevented some guests making it. The generosity of our friends and family was incredible. For now, I get to plan a wedding where I can celebrate all over again with all of them!

Triangle Necklaces

I love triangles! For my first attempt at some wooden jewellery I thought I'd play it safe and stick to the basics and triangles are about as basic as it gets when it comes to shapes. Circles are near impossible. Squares have to be too perfect. Triangles, however - take any three sided shape and it will still look awesome (according to me anyway).

I made two different styles, the first was a three triangle dual colour double sided piece. The two colours are reversed in layout on the back.

The next was a bigger solitary triangle and some more experimentation. The border of this is coated with flocking powder, so it has a textured suede like finish. It really added something extra, though in hindsight white was not the best colour to team with tiny clingy black fibres. Lesson learned!

Starting simple means you can really go crazy with colour/size/texture combinations, and I had so much fun making these that I will probably end up with one to match everything I own!

Crafty Sunday

Jewelry hanger + Stamped tote

I love Spring! Sunshine, colour everywhere, cool (not cold) mornings and beautiful warm days. After taking my dog for a walk to make the most of the morning sun I hopped on the net for some quick inspiration and came up with these two colourful and handy items. I was so motivated to get stuck into making I was at the shops for supplies before they had even opened. 

This jewelry hanger I've had in my head for a while but have been waiting for the right time to put together. I seem to have lengths of balsa wood in every corner of my house - every time I think I've used the last, another turns up. Today my absolute last piece was turned into a bright necklace/jewelry hanger. The shapes are hand cut Fimo clay shapes glued to some flat head nails.

The inspiration for the tote came via JustB - so many great DIY fabric prints! I purchased a bunch of plain totes online forever ago and had this last one stashed away among my piles of handbags. I love triangles and chevron patterns so tried for something based around that idea in primary colours. I'm pretty happy with the outcome and am already thinking of the possibilities for more stamped fabric printing.

Triforce mani

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before now, I've be trying to think of an easy(ish) geometric style mani all week. Once the idea of a triforce mani came to me there was no stopping me. Who doesn't want their nails to scream 'Attention! I am a massive dork!'?
I had considered doing a nude base to speed things up but I'm glad I changed my mind - the blue looks amazing as the base colour.

Pixel cushion

More completed projects, this one a little different. Inspiration was courtesy of 3Sheets - I swear this cushion was made to appeal to me. After my amigurumi binge I wanted to try something a little easier that I could just do in front of the TV, and having started this new crafty life cross stitching video game pixel images, a pixel cushion made so much sense.

The cushion is backed with some scrap black fabric, all hand sewn with a 35mm cushion insert. I love the result, but am still far more in awe of the gorgeous colours from my source of inspiration - click that link up there if you haven't already!