Amateur Quilling Easter Cards :)

Rolling and folding paper strips with your fingers is all you need to achieve pretty good quilling effects. The arabesque style of this technique makes great egg decoration patterns. Whether coloured or just white over a colorful background, simple circles, hearts and raindrops convert your egg into a very original card decoration.

Aren't they lovely?! (on how to make your toys move arms and legs)

First, I have to admit that I haven't been knitting for a loooooong time and if it wasn't for this pattern, I would possibly never have started again. These are the two toys that I fell in love with the first time I saw this knitting pattern available on By Small Means: https://bysmallmeans.wordpress.com/free-patterns-and-tutorials/ and it was there FOR FREE!!! I just had to try it!

They're also a great example of how our interpretations and executions of patterns can influence the final shape of our work, so I hope these two have at least a little bit of me in them too ;)

The two bigger changes I chose to introduce is using the stockinette stitch for bunny ears and then finishing them off with a flowery fabric. I think it really gave them a nice touch. To do that all you need to do is use the woolen ears as a pattern to cut out the fabric and just sew it by hand with white or beige thread.

I also decided that both my toys will be able to move their arms and legs. In order to do that, I attached transparent buttons to the top or the arms and legs (in the middle of the area you'd normally attach to the body) and pushed them through a hole between two stitches. You'd be surprised how flexible these are and that you can easily do that with a button of 1 cm diameter without leaving any trace. To make sure that the arms stay together, I used the same yarn to attach the first button, pulled it again through one of the button holes and through the part of the body between the two arms. Then I continued by attaching the second button and the second arm and finally pushing the second button through the stitch so that both remain hidden in the body. Finally, I did the same with the legs. This technique not only allows you to attach the body parts, but you can also decide on how close they'd stay to each other by pulling the yarn that joins the two body parts, the same way you'd normally do it with the eyes.

Amigurumi scaling tricks

Found a great pattern for your new project but it's just not quite the size you were looking for?

Wanna create an animal family and need to mark the difference between adults and babies?

The same pattern can be used for a variety of sizes if you apply a few simple tricks.

Rule number one

The magic number

You most likely already noticed that a great majority of patterns starts with a chain of six.

It's not a coincidence. Six is a very comfortable number for both cones (6,9,12,15...) and spheres (6,12,18,24...) and it's easily multiplied (increase) or divided (decrease) by 2.

So if your pattern starts with a sphere or cone, all you need to do is start with a lower number or keep increasing the number of loops to the desirable size.

Rule number two

The maths

You can easily notice that the pattern for cones follows this basic rule: 1 – 1,5 – 2 – 2,5 which in terms of crotchet could be presented as: x*sc, x*(1sc-1ds),x*(2sc-1ds),x*(3sc-1ds),(...); where x is the initial number of loops in your chain, sc a single crotchet and ds is double-stich (increase). Note that the number of single crotchets increases by one in each following row.

For spheres the pattern changes slightly, it goes 1-2-3-4, which is:x*sc,x*ds,x*(1sc-1ds),x*(2sc-1ds),(...); with x being the initial number of loops and the same increase of 1sc in the following rows.

The same rule applies to decrease (dc), however this time we'll be going backwards, i.e. cones (…) x*(3sc-1dc),x*(2sc-1dc),x*(1sc-1dc),x*dc and spheres (…) x*(2sc-1dc),x*(1sc-1dc),x*dc

Rule number three

When it's not about ds or dc anymore

The number of repetitions for each raw should also change, especially in the parts when you need to repeat the row more than twice. Your choice of the number of repetitions may depend on the final effect you want to achieve, but as a rule of a thumb, I suggest you multiply the number of rows by 1,5, rather than 2. It should keep the proportions quite right.

Rule number four

Not everything needs to change

You will soon notice that not all the parts of your final work need to be bigger than in the original pattern. Sometimes keeping one element the same size works perfectly with both well. For example, I chose to keep the original size of eyes, ears and wings for my two owls.

Rule number five

You can always go back and repeat

When changing the original patterns, it's good to take notes of the changes you introduced. This way you can always go back and correct your work and repeat the patterns for elements that come double (ears) or more (legs).

Find here the original patterns for 

SHEEP http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2013/08/crochet-lamb-pattern-and-baby-mobile.html

OWL http://www.craftpassion.com/2013/10/owl-amigurumi-mr-murasaki.html/2

DIY leftovers LOVE frames

shells, buttons, fake flowers, scrapbooking paper … anything you can find in a crafter's drawer can be easily turned into a fun decoration for an empty wall 

What do I need?

4 picture frames

4 sheets of two-sided scrapbook paper

4 mini wooden pegs

drawing pins

hemp cord

glue gun or silicon

fake flowers, buttons, shells, coins or any other small objects you might want to use for your project

What do I do?

First, wrap the frames in scrapbook paper using drawing pins to fix it at the back. This way you spread it like canvas and you can make adjustments or even recycle the materials in the future. I chose to use both sides of the paper, making two checked and two heart-print frames.

Then, use each frame to place the buttons, shells etc. in the forms of letters L O V E.

Take your time to experiment with sizes and colours before you glue your 'leftovers' to the paper with silicon or hot glue. It's a good idea to attach hemp cord to top corners of the frame before you glue your letters, this way you won't damage them when pressing in the drawing pins.

Once your four pictures are ready, hang them using wooden pegs on a spread hemp cord. Enjoy!