Creative sparks 2015

 The ATC on the left was made for an ATC swap at Very Berry handmade entitled Home. I got my inspiration from the picture of this beautiful door on the right ( I cannot remember where I found it, so if this is your photo please contact me so that I can acknowledge it).

I have a kitchen full of random plastic bags and they seem to get everywhere. I decided to make a pretty bag to keep them in. I used a piece of material I had and sewed up the side. I then added a seam on the top and the bottom and threaded some elastic though the seams to close them up a bit and prevent the bags from falling out. Finally I crocheted a short chain and sewed it to the top of the bag. Voila! One plastic bag holder.

 I know that strictly speaking I did not make this. I have wanted to try to plant bulbs in a vase for quite a while and this spring decided to give it a try. It worked really well but unfortunately I was bedridden shortly after this for a couple of weeks and no-one watered the plants so they died. I will give it a try again this year.

A bookmark I made for a swap

 My daughter is crazy about Frozen and I got the instruction to make her a Frozen cake for her birthday. I found the decorations at a party store. The cake itself is covered with condensed milk icing and pretty sugar crystals.

 A pretty bead necklace my daughter and I made using a mixture o plastic and glass beads. It was more a fun exercise in beading for her but we really enjoyed making this and I think it turned out quite well.

The pattern for this  lovely flower cushion comes form one of my favourite blogger, Lucy, over at Attic24. I was bedridden for two months after surgery to my Achilles tendon last year and spent about 6 weeks working on the cushion. Lucy's patterns are very easy to follow and I really love how my cushion turned out

This rather sinister looking shack was made for my son after he received some pirate Lego for Christmas and had nowhere to land his ship.I found this over at Papermau, a website with dozens of free paper diorama's to download and build.

I made this Christmas advent garland this year from a pattern I found at Ravelry  by Frankie Brown. It is the first successful knitted project I have completed.  It was quite a difficult project but one that I am quite proud of.

The cake above was for my son's birthday. He is crazy about dinosaurs, so I decided to make him a cake with a whole lot of different dinosaurs.

I made this snake for my daughter after her having seen a similar toy at a friends house. It is made strips of material sewn together and then stuffed. She loves the snake and it sleeps on her bed every night. It was such a hit that her brother persuaded my mom to make him one as well.

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Finally this crocheted strawberry hat was made by knitting rounds similar to the flower cushion above. When it was large enough I stopped adding stitches. The edging was crocheted in a matching green and I added a flower and leaves to the crown.

All in all I have had a busy creative year. I cannot wait to see what this year holds and have already started on my new project, a granny stripe crochet queen size bed blanket.