Books and Butterflies

I can't believe it is Monday already. The weekend seems to have gone by without me really experiencing it! I am now officially a lady of leisure, for the next 9 or 10 months at least, although I very much doubt that there will be much time for leisure! But there is time, of course, to have a look at what other crafters have been up to this week, thanks to Wendy over at 1st Unique Gifts and Handmade Monday I will be having a look myself very shortly!

Last week was a relatively quiet one craft wise, I didn't seem to get going until Thursday afternoon when I had a child-free couple of hours. My intention had been to sort out my two yarn boxes which are overflowing with bits and bobs of wool, patterns, unfinished projects (of which, I am ashamed to say, there are several) In fact it rather overflows into a fair few bags stuffed down the side of the armchair and even on the shelf under the telly! We are trying to make room for the baby and the inevitable increase in the number of toys and other paraphernalia, so my yarn stash is going to be accommodated in the blanket box upstairs instead. As you can guess, I got distracted, and it is still waiting to be done! Instead, thanks to my friend Sharon (and you should visit her blog : Chasing Art ) I spent those child free hours making a mini book instead. My paper craft contribution usually extends only to card making really so I thoroughly enjoyed my wee dip into paper. So much so I spent most of Sunday morning making one for my mum too!

It's not easy to see on these pictures but there are lots of pockets inside the pages for stashing small mementos. I also added the frames for mum to put little pictures in. I followed the instructions for maze books, and a quick google will direct you to some good tutorials. I think that these are a potential gift idea and I can see me making lots more in the future. Very addictive and very satisfying!

I spent most of Saturday making a butterfly puppet for Caoimhe. I made it from a book I got for Christmas from my sister in law, Crocheted Finger Puppets by Gina Alton

I optimistically thought it would be a couple of hours work at the most, even with my crochet skills being on the novice side of amateur if I am honest. But I did not really take into account how fiddly it was to make, or the fact that, although on first skim through, the instructions looked simple enough to follow, they are written slightly differently than other crochet patterns I have followed. As a result I had to redo the wings several times before actually understanding what I was doing! Moral of that tale is that I really should take more notice of the pattern I am following and make sure I concentrate!

No big crafty plans for this week as yet. We made Father's Day cards last week (although I have mine still yet to make) but I'm sure this weather will keep us in so Messy Play will probably feature at some point!

Off to see what my fellow crafters have been up to now! Til next time :)