Tea cup candles

We feel like Christmas elves in our house and have been slaving away at making candles for everyone. Rik managed to search out some amazing vintage teacups from a couple of the many charity shops in Chorley and apart from not writing down the colour / scent combinations (and then not been able to remember what was what!) it has been a fairly problem free process.

To make the candles I used Kirsties,  Channel 4 beauty and  Design sponge instructions, which all made sense, but I just pinched bits from them all to do it the way that seemed best. I would recommend doing a trial run, just to get the hang of it. Oven gloves are a must, as is an old plastic jug and a pan - we used a set of old camping billy cans.

The results are very satisfying, and once you get going there's no stopping. Might be a bit late for Christmas, but great for birthdays, Mother's day, etc. Enjoy! SS

Deliver us not into Fred Aldous temptation...

It is very hard working in Fred Aldous at least two days a week. There is always something that jumps out at you that needs crafting or will make any room/ handbag / birthday gift look far better than it already is. These are my current favourites - Laser cut Festive acrylic birds, although the doily coasters are too gorgeous for words, but they I think they are out of stock (I am not just saying that!).Definitely worth a look...

Book page wreath

After a long, but inspiring few days at the Clothes Show Live I am itching to get creative and have started the countdown to finish all those Christmas presents I am making. (I'll post my tea cup candles when they are finished).

In my search I found this site, which has simple and effective makes. The book page wreath is right up my street (follow the link through to see how it's done) so that's another one to add to the list, but it will hopefully look great as I am aiming to go vintage this year. We've still got a couple of spaces on Saturday's Have yourself a crafty little Christmas course if you fancy making some gifts. There is still time yet, I'm living proof...

The joys of Janome!

We'll it's been a busy week working on the Janome stand at the Clothes Show Live, sewing up mini 'Make and Take' projects. By the end of yesterday we'd already helped over a 150 customers make mini tote bags , buckle and buttonhole cuffs, rose and bow brooches and fingerless gloves and although we dreamt of sewing machines (and good ones at that!) we've loved every minute.

We had one girl, aged 9, who could just reach the pedal and the machine at the same time, sucessfully made a cute polka dot drawstring bag and was very proud. Below is Jess and aspiring fashion designer and her fingerless gloves.

It's been great fun very creative and two Ministry of Craft tutors, Holly and Nico are still making ans taking....

Clothes show live here we come....

The Ministry of Craft office is overflowing with rose corsages as we prepare for working with Janome sewing machines on their stand at the Clothes show live next week.  We're going to be teaching people how to sew short 'Make and take projects such as a very nifty mini tote bag, fingerless arm warmers (much needed over a jumper, even indoors this week) and various other accessories.  Have a look at the clothes show's clever take on make do and mend with their Sknitch area.

New use for fabric scraps?

Having a relaxing Sunday afternoon ready the Sunday Times Style magazine and I spotted this, which is a really great way of using up all those fabric scraps you might have lying around. I suppose it's a kind of fabric decoupage. Patience required but a great end result. www.designsbyviva.co.uk

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It's finally here the Ministry of Craft blog and we'll be bringing you the best craft Manchester has to offer as well as featuring national events, crafters, websites that will inspire and hopefully get you craftting more....