Some more sock monsters that I’ve made of late…very friendly monsters but not to be underestimated.

Stu - with a new family in Scotland (soon to be Australia!)

Pink Froggle - can be stroppy if not fed sweets on a regular basis

Munkay - suave, sophisticated, full of his own importance - with a new family in Scotland

Froggle - just wants to be loved

Beadle - also getting ready for his new life down under

All hand sewn brand new socks and stuffed with recycled polyester stuffing and a great big dollop of love.

Cake pops are little balls of cake stuck onto lolly pop sticks and covered in chocolate and sprinkles, like so…

The kids and I spent a few hours this afternoon coating our cake balls in chocolate.  A somewhat onerous task but the result is well worth it.

You need:

• Cake – any sort, ready made, packet, from scratch, bought…it really doesn’t matter.
• Cake Frosting – you can buy this in tubs from the cake aisle in the supermarket
• Cake Covering – I’ve read not to use chocolate as it doesn’t get runny enough
• Sprinkles
• Lolly Pop Sticks

So, once your cake’s made or taken out of the packet crumble it into fine crumbs.  Mix with spoonfuls of the frosting at a time until it’s a doughy texture.  Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes.  Melt a small amount of cake covering.  Roll cake mix into balls (about an inch big), dip the stick ends into the melted cake covering and stick them into the balls.  Put them in the fridge again for another 15 minutes.  Melt the rest of the cake covering.  Take the balls out of the fridge and dip each ball into the cake covering.  Turn them to the side and tap the excess covering off the ball on the side of the bowl (there’s a bit of a knack to this and the video below shows how to do it).  Stick the lolly stick into a piece of foam or old egg box and place in the fridge to set.  That’s it!  If you want sprinkles put them on when the covering is wet but not dripping.

It’s easy, it’s fun and it uses loads of dishes.

Just to prove how easy it is, the kids made these ones for their dad who is grafting away at a Craft Fair at Penicuik High School today….note our use of the egg box because we couldn’t get the sticks to stand up properly in the foam!  The ones on the right were made by a four year old and the ones on the left by a seven year old….like I said…easy!

And here’s how from an expert…

Those readers who know me personally or pay attention to the small details will know that I spend time away from home on a fairly regular basis.  This has seen me occupying almost every room on some floors of the Holiday Inn Express in Bridge of Don over the past year or so.  There’s clearly only so much of this I can take before I start going slightly mad, so on my most recent visit I bought a needlefelting book and the requisite tools for the job, thinking it would be an easy way to while away the evening in front of the TV.

This fellow is not the result of that night’s work, nay the result of that night’s work was an hour spent on a conference call and a few hours of frustration and sore fingers as I tried to figure out how to attach a head to a body with my needle.  This fellow is the result of me doing some proper research into the techniques.  There are many videos on You Tube for those of you who wonder how to use the tools that look so easy yet cause so much pain and frustration.

Once you master the technique it’s really easy and creating the shape is just a matter of folding and stabbing the felt so it sticks together, adding bits to make more defined shapes or to hide the bits where I stabbed too much!

The book I bought that night, Little Felted Animals: Create 16 Irresistible Creatures with Simple Needle-felting Techniques, doesn’t go into a great deal of detail about how to make the shapes but once you’ve done some reading it’s fairly self explanatory.  What this book does allow you to do is match up your shapes with those on the page so you have a shape that is similar to the one you’re aiming for.  The rest really is open to your imagination.

So, next time I set off for the night I’ll certainly be packing my felting needles and felt.  It pleases me that I need such few materials for a productive evening, because the worst bit about those nights spent away from home is the feeling I’ve wasted another evening in another nondescript hotel room…sorry Holiday Inn.

If you fancy a go yourself, you could do worse than to follow the instructions on this video to make an owl.  I did make the owl but because it’s red, it’s not photographing well.  My top tip would be to keep stabbing even if you think nothing is happening…it takes ages.

I sewed a small hoop to the top of mine for the Christmas Tree…I know too much Christmas round here these days but it won’t be long you know.

I know, another Christmas post, but really it’s not that long until the big red cheery chap comes again!  I’ve made quite a few of these hanging birds but they don’t photograph well.  I think they’re shy!

They’re a simpler take on the fabric finches regular readers will be familiar with, which makes them quicker to make and therefore more likely to hold my interest…did I mention I have a very short attention span?

As with the Matryoshka dolls, these will be adorning our tables at our upcoming craft fairs.  If you fancy making your own birds (not exactly like this one, but very pretty nonetheless) check out the free stuff where you’ll find a couple of variations on the hanging bird.

The idea of printing on fabric has been something I’ve been wanting to try for some time now.  I’ve neither had the time nor the inclination until this weekend, when the urge suddenly took me to get my finger out and make something for a change.

In my head this was going to be a quick craft that would satisfy the need to have some cheap Christmas ornaments for sale at our upcoming craft fairs.  In reality it took me all day to find a suitable image and even longer messing around with different techniques of colouring the image and transferring it to the fabric.  As they say patience is a virtue and in the end I was rewarded with some pretty special hanging dolls.  The most recent ones such as the one second from the left have a watercolour appearance.

Here they are all printed up and waiting to be sewn.  I think I’m in love – is that a bit narcissistic?

In spite of the fact that it should be summer and we are being teased with rays of sunshine trying to break the clouds, the small furry one decided to make a snowman today.  OK, so it’s a red snowman and it doesn’t actually resemble a snowman but she says it is a snowman so a snowman it will be…in the middle of summer!

This was really easy and quite enjoyable once I got around my anally retentive everything must be perfect way of thinking.

First we drew our shape on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Then we pinned the paper pattern to an old felted jumper and cut round it, leaving a seam allowance.  We then chose buttons and sewed them on…that took forever; if you have kids you’ll be aware of the thrills of the button jars and just how long they can occupy them for.  I held it and showed the small furry one where to put the needle, which was fortunately a blunt tapestry needle.  Of course I had to finish sewing it up when she got bored.  She stuffed it all by herself though before I sewed up his bottom.

I think this is a huge achievement for someone who only just turned 4 last week.  He’s sturdy and she is over the moon with him.  He’s been exploring caves already today and I think, by the sound of it, he’s about to learn how to draw!

BTW…she’s known affectionately as ‘The Small Furry One’ because she is indeed small and has a very hairy back!  And, I’m sure she’d hate me forever if she was old enough to know I’d told the world that.

A few weeks ago we had a spring clean of our supplies and I came across some really nice pieces of denim fabric that I was going to use for pocket pillow backs (and I still might) but I had an overwhelming urge to make denim fabric finches.

The first was sewn up before I decided they would look cool with embroidery:

So, I embroidered the wings on another one prior to sewing it up:

They naturally fray at the edges, which I quite like.

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As promised – the sock creatures I was working on last weekend…I was very busy, although I must admit that the sock monkey took the best part of two weeks (between real work, you know, the one that pays the mortgage!)

First up, that sock monkey.  A real labour of love.  They are very easy to make but take what seems like forever.

This very scary looking rabbit was supposed to be cute but turned out a bit Donnie Darko.  I blame my disturbed mind!

This is Red Wetty from the book Make Your Own Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy, the one I talked about in my previous post.  He’s the easiest of the creatures in the book and mine would have looked like the one in the book had I not decided to use a really small child’s sock as opposed to the recommended adult sock.  I also wasn’t brave enough to add teeth, which he has in the book.  Still, he’s got a certain charm.

Finally Owlsley, again from the book and, again it’s not the same as the one in the book.  John Murphy recommends a sort of hanging tag type thing made with an offcut of a tie, but we don’t have any ties and I thought it looked a bit too silly so I forewent it.

So, there you have it…all four sock creatures, all different and all very enjoyable to make.  You can make these from any sock although I tend to use knee high socks…just let your imagination run wild or go buy the book and follow the instructions.

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I took delivery of the book, Make Your Own Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy this week and was inspired to make some more sock creatures.  I started, and finished, two of them yesterday but the light is so poor here again it’ll be later in the week before I can show you the finished articles.  In the meantime here’s a flavour of a sock monkey I finished that isn’t included in the book but is made of socks and is a creature nonetheless.

The book comes with instructions for basic sock creature creation as well as very detailed instructions for 5 of John Murphy’s stupid sock creatures and enough materials (socks and stuffing) to make the character, Zarzak the Silent Terror, who is pictured on the front cover.

I would say this book is good for those with experience and beginners alike.  I’ve made a few sock creatures in my time now and I found a few tips in the book to help speed up the process.  Since I hand sew all of my creations this was very welcome.

One thing I would caution is that. no matter how hard you try, your creatures won’t look exactly like John’s, and why would you want them too really?  The joy of making sock creatures is definitely seeing the character come to life and never quite knowing what it’ll look like until the final stitch is stitched.

You can see more of John’s creatures on his website, enough to keep anyone busy for a very long time.

I made some more little owls for a commission (actually for an old school friend of mine).

These are made from ecospun felt.  I found that wool felt is too thick and it made them a funny shape – it’s probably just me, but it does feel good to make something nice from all those nasty plastic bottles.

Anyway, these are destined for a group of nursery children and I really do hope that they enjoy playing with them as much as I enjoyed seeing their little characters emerging.  Looks like the start of a beautiful owl relationship to me.

I am more than happy to make more of these to order…you can buy them through the shop.