Sauce bottle lid to Embroidered Pincushion

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I've been heard to witter on about the awesome Craftster (crafting community) around these here parts, if you aren't aware of it , you probably should be, in fact go look me up (mink_bikini) then perhaps excuse my completely ridiculous user name!

This little slice of crafty goodness I've been working on is for a Pincusion swap on Craftster . My partner was looking for a bottle cap pincusion to add to her collection, and she likes Paisley so instead of the usual teeny tiny pincushions I've made before, I upped the ante and used the lid from a squirty sauce bottle. It gave me a decent sized surface to add some swirly loveliness, sequins and well, who does not love Rick Rack!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am definitely no expert in Embroidery, but I threw a few stitches at it from my limited skill set, Chain stitch, Blanket stitch, Lazy Daisy, French Knots somehow the Blanket stitch came out in two different versions (totally by chance!)

 

 

Not a bad transformation wouldn't you say! another otherwise discarded piece of waste turned into something useable and cute.

 

 

 

Hmmm swirly!

 

Still fits in the palm of your hand, perfect size!

 

This one will soon be winging its way to the USA but if you're hankering for some more Bottle cap goodness you should definitely check out HERE, you see it turns out, that Bottle caps are my thing.

Milk Bottle Top Mini Embroidery Hoop

 

I love me some Milk Bottle tops, I seriously collect every single one of those badboys and have an embarassingly huge stash. Well this cute little sucker started out as a Milk Bottle top, yeah seriously it did.

 

I took part in a Craftster Tiny House swap recently, and could not decide on what to make for my partner, in the end I made two different houses one decorative and one a functional useable bonafide (fill in the blanks, sorry swap pard'ner so spoilers, not on my watch!)

 

This was just a see how it goes cross stitch no pattern deal and I think it turned out so cute, what isn't there to love about something teeny tiny, pink and with a bow on top. 

 

 

Fancy making one of your own? Check out my tutorials page for your step by step instructions. They work up quickly as you can imagine and are a great way to use up the scraps of Aida after framing a larger cross stitch piece.

 

Coming up? Those amazing ribbons? finally a teeny tiny taster of a larger project that's in the works.

Tutorial: Milk Bottle Top Cheese & Wine Flags

 

I have a great group of crafty buddies that are, in a word fabulous.

 

Since we are all Mums and needed a legitimate reason to get our wine on mid afternoon, we organised a Cheese and wine afternoon.

 

The venue was a beautiful old hunting lodge that is Canadas second oldest shooting club and dates back to pre 1900's, it had log fires, amazing views, a stone bar and a huge kitchen, it was an amazing venue, even with the Taxidermy specimens on the walls, even a tree hugging, anti-Gun, Wheezy Asthmatic Vegetarian like my good self had fun there.

 

Being the recycling nut I am, I rustled up these Cheese flags using tooth picks, Milk Bottle tops and an old Atlas.

 

Pretty self explanatory to reproduce these at home:

 

 

Using a Sharpie (permanent marker) write the name of the Country on the Milk Bottle Top

 

Cut out the flag with one cm additional space to the left, glue and roll up on the toothpick.

 

Poke toothpick into the Milk Jug lid.

 

my favourite all important step: Get your Cheese and wine on.

 

 

Even improvised a Blackboard, with some cheapy Dollar Store paint and some post Christmas toy packaging, who knew recycling could be this sophisticated ;)

 

What's up next? Two tutorials, one for a baby friendly kid craft and one as requested for the Crochet edged Moleskin-alikes. Birthday craziness is upon us in Ruby Murray heights so stay tuned.

 

Tutorial Kids Halloween Crafts - Milk Bottle Top Spiders

Nothing gives away your age like being obsessed with pipe cleaners and pompoms. Yup 70's child front and centre! Except when I was little they actually were for cleaning pipes and only came in Yellow from the smoke shop. Hard to believe I'm only mid 30's right?

Moving swiftly on, just made these for the little guy and had to share, tons of fun, Pompoms, Googly eyes, Pipe Cleaners, Ribbon, and ... Milk Bottle Tops, heaven.

Milk Bottle Top

Glue on your pompoms

Glue on two more for eyes and 2 Googly eyes

Wrap base of lid in ribbon/bias tape just to hide the ugly plastic. If you have plenty of pompoms you could use those instead

Cut a small piece of Pipe cleaners for fangs and 8 Z shaped pieces for legs

Glue on fangs

Flip him/her over and glue the legs in place, hold on to each one for 5-10 secs to make sure it's glued properly or it will come off when you start rearranging the legs.

Flip it back over and play around with the legs until it either sits or stands.

 

It's ok they're tame, just don't feed them after midnight! (Ancient movie reference ahoy!)

More Bottle Cap Cuteness - Pin Cushion

I have mentioned before about my Penpals and love of writing letters, well my good friend Spidermom and my latest Aussie penpal Becky are both interested in learning to sew. The crafting world is pretty addictive and before you know it the humble art of Cross Stitch leads to Embroidery and before you know it, you're staring at a sewing machine it's 3 am, you've got blood shot eyes and you're thinking how did this happen, yep be very wary of Cross Stitch, it's a gateway drug ;) Back on topic though, a great newbie sewing project is a pincushion, you need one so make it cute right?

Now these ones I made from a great tutorial using Bottle caps, they are hand stitched and dare I say embroidered (still no closer to Embroidery Mastery), I wanted a decent size so I used Juice Bottle caps. Making these is a great way to use up Felt scraps and small pieces of embroidery floss you may also have a problem throwing away. Oh and did I mention that since my last foray into Milk Bottle top crafting I now cannot ditch any sized bottle tops. My poor hubby must groan everytime he sees I've made something from an otherwise unrecyclable item, he expects to come home one day and find me buried under a mountain of bottle caps... still what a way to go, bound to make it into my beloved Ripleys believe it or not Annual!

If you want to make one or a whole team of these, then check out this easy peasy tute Felt and Bottle top pincushion tutorial

Another cute project is this adorable similarly made pincushion but without the felt, great for using up fabric and ribbon scraps.

Fabric & Ribbon bottle top pincushion

I have some amazing embroiderers that read my blog, Spidermom and Lime Riot to name two that I'm sure would make some amazing versions of these.

Felt Pin cushion and Needle Book

The above are all hand stitched but below is a machine sewn Tutorial for an unbelievably cute pin cushion, could not resist one with a London theme.

Pin cushion Pouffe Tutorial

Check out this amazing list of 22  Free Pin cushion patterns mostly machine sewn, these are my two faves.

  

The Little house by the sea - Toadstool pincushion

P.s Last day before due date, Quilt top sewn together, still no curtains in the nursery and it's -43 with the windchill, here's hoping baby can hold on til warmer days :) extreme weather warnings in effect eeeeeeek.

Goodygoody - Ladybird pincushion