Vote for me and my taxidermy and you could win too!

I am very excited to announce that I have been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in The Clever Creations Project. Here I am on page 33 of the latest issue of the NZ Your Home & Garden magazine.

This is the front cover.....

.....I have to say there is nothing more exciting than seeing yourself in one of your favourite magazines. My 3 year old daughter and I were in the book store on the floor madly flipping through until we found the picture of 'Mummy'!

This is a bit of background from the Clever Creations website outlining what it is all about...


"The Market NZ and Your Home and Garden have been searching for new creative talent in need of a helping hand to grow commercially – and look who we found! We had so many exciting entries, which the judges have pared down to the 12 talented finalists below. The winner of each category will create an exclusive collaboration with The Market NZ, all costs covered, and be featured in the September issue of Your Home & Garden."

AND HOW YOU CAN WIN.....

"The People’s Choice award is selected by you! Get voting to be in to win one of 10 x $100 vouchers for The Market NZ or one of 10 x 1 year subscriptions to Your Home & Garden. One lucky voter will also win the entire Clever Creations Project collection. That’s a product from every category winner. Voting closes July 15th"

So if you could please take the time to vote for me and my menagerie HERE then we both have a chance to be WINNERS!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I have all fingers, toes, legs and everything crossed so wish me luck.

Kim
xxx

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Dolls house makeover: The Bathroom

Next up in the Dolls House Makeover reveal is the Bathroom....

First up I started with this amazing Pink Flamingo wallpaper which I downloaded for free from Jennifers Printables. If you have the time and patience to wade through all the advertising and navigate yourself around there are so many wonderful patterns to choose from on this site.

The pink polka dot curtains are actually strips of washi tapes that I overlapped on slight angles onto light card and then cut out to look like curtain shapes. The pink and white checkered floor is from Alice Apple on Etsy. The donut detail on the floor is a free decorative paper that came from a Mollie Makes magazine.

The toilet and vanity are from Lundby. The flamingo picture is a vintage paint by number which I found on Pinterest and I made a hama bead frame for it. The tiny pink toilet roll holder which you can just see is from Tiny Things are Cute which is one of my favourite shops as it is full of tiny gorgeous things that you never knew you needed. The wee vase and flowers on the vanity is a vintage op shop find.

The wardrobe and wee blue seat are a vintage find from the local market. The shower and the bath (with rubber ducky) and little bottles are from Lundby. My daugther has broken 2 pieces of the bath already which I have taped back on with sellotape!

Don't you just love the light switches you can see through the window!!!

The felt zebra and donut cushions I made as well as the enormous Zebra rug which is an adaption of my Zebra faux taxidermy pattern.

Next up on the dolls house tour is the cloud room...

Playhouse Makeover

A bit of playhouse inspiration for you. Nothing like an injection of bright colours to lure the kids back in and get them interested in playing in it again.

This is before where it is all boring brown and very uninviting. The kids had a great time slapping on the white undercoat.

And then the fun began....the candy coloured stripes. I just chose any bright colour that appealed to me and only needed 2 large test pots of each colour.

It's like a giant licorice allsort in the back yard! And I got so excited about colour that I decided to paint the whole back fence bright orange too. Luckily my hubby likes any excuse to go to the hardware store and as long as I did all the painting he didn't mind what colour I chose.

I had already painted the mural on the inside previously but decided to splash some yellow paint on one wall...

...and a bit of blue and pink on the other walls....the type of place where you need to wear your sunglasses inside!

It is a tiny playhouse but we have it jam packed with goodies...a little stove with flashing and beeping elements, lots of plastic cups and plates and all the felt food I made a few years ago (you can find the tutorials for the felt food on my blog). The black doily rug on the floor and framed square on the wall are painted with chalk paint so we can do lots of list making and drawing.....

...and a wee table and chairs for serious tea drinking (with at least 6 teapots to choose from!) while admiring the view of the bright orange fence out the window.

Now we just have to wait for Spring again so it is warm enough to go outside and play in it.

P.S It never looks this tidy. If I took a reality shot of it right now it would be carnage with the floor covered and the place basically trashed but hey that's how kids play!

How to cross stitch on a chair

I love stitching on furniture and when I found this chair at The Warehouse (in NZ) I knew it was crying out to be stitched.

I dived into my wool stash and picked out a few bright colours and chose a large tapestry needle.

I decided it would probably look best with some kind of geometric pattern so I whipped up a cross pattern using cross stitch software and started stitching...

The wool I had was only 8 ply so I doubled it to get a nice chunky stitch. This was a bit fiddly as I had to make sure the 2 lengths didn't get tangled but it was really fast to stitch and so much fun to do.

I think it only took about 2 hours to finish stitching the whole thing. It was one of those projects I was desperate to see finished so no procrastinating on this one!

And the finished chair which matches my little sewing desk perfectly.

HUGE discontinued pattern SALE!

I have been busy in the last month or two organising our house trying to find a permanent home for everything once and for all. I have been ruthless with all items and if I don't love or use it, it has gone to either the charity shop or the recycle centre.

So now it is time to apply the same ruthlessness to the patterns in my Etsy store so I am having a huge DISCONTINUED PATTERN SALE.

I have created a special section in my etsy store called DISC PATTERN SALE and for one month only all the patterns in there will be 60% off. Yip that's right 60%!!!!

They are mainly cross stitch patterns and some sewing ones. Here is a preview of some of the iems on sale...

The prices shown are before the 60% discount so many patterns won't be much more than $1!

The sale offically starts on 22 Feb (US central time) and runs until 22 March. After this date all these patterns will be gone forever.....boo hoo. But that's OK becuase it makes room for new patterns to come.

I am still on track to release 1 new faux taxidermy a month during 2015.
Gladys the Giraffe is now available in both my Etsy and Payhip stores.

I have also created a fabulous PATTERN DEAL. Buy 2 get 1 FREE on all faux taxidermy patterns available exclusively in my etsy store.

And even more exciting news is that I will be releasing the SEWING MACHINE versions of all the faux taxidermy patterns as soon as I can. Gladys will be first because she is fresh in my mind.

Coming soon are the Bear/Polar Bear patterns, the Zebra and the Unicorn. I am very excited about all of them and can't wait to make them available to you.

As always if you have made any fabulous creatures from my patterns I would love to see photos if you feel like sharing. You can either tag me on Instagram or facebook or just email a photo if you like. I am happy to link/tag back to your original photo even if you are selling your finished creations.

So I am off to add more to the DISCONTINUED PATTERN SALE. Remember it starts on 22 Feb (US central time) so don't start shopping until you see the discounted price in red.

Happy shopping

Kim
xxx

Creative plans for 2015

It's 2015 the year I get more organized with my crafting!

Yeah right you say that will last about 2 minutes, I know, I know but I am going to give it a good try.

I thought if I wrote about my plans you could help keep me to my schedule (pretty please!)

My main focus this year is to write and release all my faux taxidermy patterns, I am going to aim for one per month which leaves me time for other craft projects which will inevitably crop up!

First up is the long awaited deer pattern.....

....which has a release date of February 1st (if my kids are kind to me!!)

Following that is the release of a Brown Bear/Polar Bear faux taxidermy which is a bonus two patterns in one. This is due for release on March 1st. Here is a sneak peak...

Also on the agenda during this time is my month (or two) of Mollie Makes projects where I am going to make time to delve into all these unopened projects and get crafting on something other than my own designs...

...I think I will start with the Jane Foster sausage dog.

And not forgetting the teeny tiny taxidermy...

.....which are framed in these gorgeous wee hoops...

....I am going to try and get a few of each in my Etsy store as soon as I can including a bunny one in time for Easter.

I also MUST finish the dolls house makeover before my 3 year old daughter disowns me, she is always telling me off saying 'Mummy why haven't you finished it yet, its taking so long' and then she folds her arms and stomps off (she is 3 going on 13!)

I will also get organised and put together some tutorials about the dolls house furniture that I made too.

So that is the plan for the first few months of the year and knowing me I will be off on some crafting tangents also.

Thanks for taking the time stopping by and for all the lovely feedback I receive on instagram and facebook I really appreciate it.

Kim

xxx

P.S I will also be opening up some custom listing spots for the large style faux taxidermy in the near future.