Junk Journaling

Above is the front cover of a wee book I made at a Junk Journaling workshop at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. You can read more about it in the latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack. 

I've been making more postcards!

 A few posts back, I shared some of the postcards I've been making to share through Postcrossing. Here are some more, all made using craft supplies from second hand shops and paper scraps.  

I only send handmade cards to Postcrossing members who specifically say they're happy to receive handmade cards and have a stash of unused vintage postcards that I'm sending to other members. Wondering what to do with the stash of vintage cards is what prompted me to join Postcrossing in the first place! 

I've been making postcards

Last year I had the unenviable task of clearing out a friend's flat after she died (you can read my post about house clearances over on my Substack here). In amongst all her stuff, were loads of unused postcards. I wondered what to do with these until I recently discovered Postcrossing. This website basically links people up to send postcards around the world. It's fun, it keeps alive the old fashioned habit of sending real mail and I also find it a good way of practising my languages (I've written and received a few postcards in German, a couple in French but none so far in Italian and don't expect to ever write any in Scottish Gaelic.) I've got lots of card making supplies and have taken out the card that's the right size, shape and thickness and made some postcards to send, with more on the way no doubt. I may use some of the postcards to send to people outwith Postcrossing. Here are a selection, all made from paper scraps and craft supplies purchased from second hand shops: 

 

A Customised T-shirt

This plain black t-shirt was still in perfect condition, except for a hole! So, I chose some nice fabric from my stash and covered the hole and made the repair into a feature.

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Meanwhile, over on my Crafty Green Poet Substack, today's post shares a collage and a poem on the theme of disappearing animals. 
 

Latest Collages

 I had a flurry of making collages over the winter break. Here are some of my favourites, all made with vintage papers and the occasional extra item - there's a postage stamp in one of them for example. They're all posted into a book that I'm gradually filling with collages, so some of the photos may not perfectly show the finished collage, but you get the idea! 

For the first one here, I was wanting to give an impression of how motoring was seen in the 1930s, which is very different to the way that I (as a non-driver) see it in the current day.  

  The collage below brings together some ideas for Spring fashion, there seemed to be a strange fashion for tweed for Spring in the 1930s, to me it seems far too heavy a fabric for Spring. 

Next up is a collage for summer, again the 1930s woman seems to be obsessed with the right clothes for Spring (though this time she does seem to be more appropriately dressed!)

 

 

And finally, this is my favourite! The wee bit of text says 'it is human nature to put things off' and the pictures come from a variety of sources including a postage stamp (though again two portraits from the same 1930s magazine - it's proving to be a great collage resource!)

 

 

 

 

Customised Apron

This apron was in a bit of a state, the straps were worn and there were holes in it. So I decided to repair and upgrade it. I sewed brightly coloured patches over the holes, made new straps from the handles of a tote bag that I'd repurposed as a cushion cover and added a flowery pocket for good measure. 

 So now it looks better than ever and is even more practical, as I can store things in the pockets! 

Time to leave Etsy?

My Crafty Green Magpie Shop has been open on Etsy for nine years now. I also for a while had a separate Crafty Green Poet shop (for handmade items only) at which time the Crafty Green Magpie sold only vintage and craft supplies. More recently I amalgamated the two shops. Over the years I've sold a fair amount of things, though it's never been hugely busy. Now though, the listing fees barely make it worthwhile, given that sales are becoming rarer. (I haven't helped this by recently limiting my sales to the UK, due to various customs issues with various overseas markets, but then the UK was always my largest market). 

So, at the moment I'm thinking of only keeping the shop open until the current listings have all run their natural course. I may change my mind but it's looking likely that this is the end. You can have a final look around here.  

Nature inspired Collage

I've been working on a few collages recently, most of them are still in progress! I've been adding items gradually over several weeks to the collage above, and I think it is now finished, though I may change my mind! It's made up of: a piece of wrapping paper, a cutting of a Wood Warbler from a nature magazine, and a number of stickers and paper ornaments from my stash, mostly acquired from second hand shops. 

I've Finished Customising my Jacket!

Away back in September last year, I shared that I wanted to customise this black denim jacket: 

 I was getting bored of it and it was looking a little shabby. I had already added in a couple of different buttons a while back, but it was definitely time for a more complete overhaul. So I gathered together some lace and ribbon, most of which were given to me by friends and family, and started designing. I didn't actually start sewing until earlier this year and it's been a slow, but enjoyable process. This is what the jacket looks like now: 

I'm quite happy with how it looks and hope to wear it a fair amount once the weather warms up! 

I've now started my next clothes customisation project, which is less ambitious and should soon be ready. I'll share photos of that once I've finished it.

Handmade Greetings Cards

 I like making greetings cards, using a range of materials mostly sourced from second hand shops. The designs in the photo below are all for Easter (I like to prepare early!). The ribbon and rabbit faces are all self-stick while I needed to glue the butterflies on. All the materials were from second hand shops. 

My Next Craft Project

 I've been bored with this t-shirt for a while now

 but today I was given some lace ribbon which will work perfectly in brightening it up and giving it a new look

I should of course, first finish customising the jacket I'm working on. This is the jacket as it was originally, when all I'd done was replace a couple of buttons.

It now looks significantly different, but I've not quite finished it yet. So I should get round to doing the fiddly finishing touches.

I'll share photos of both items of clothing once I've finished customising them.  

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It's Seachdain na Gaidhlig (International Scottish Gaelic Week)! The Highland Countryside Rangers shared an excellent post on their Nature Unveiled Substack blog about the connections between the Scottish Gaelic language and nature and landscape. You can read it here. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

A couple of days ago, we collected our Christmas tree from Crafty Green Boyfriend's mother's garden. It's in a pot and will be returned to the garden after 12th Night. Today I decorated the tree with my usual eccentric collection of odd earrings, gifted, thrifted and handmade decorations and necklaces that I would never wear, but that look pretty draped over a tree. 

 

Here's an interesting article about real vs artificial Christmas trees.

Making the First Christmas Cards for the Year

As long term readers of this blog will know, I make most of my own Christmas cards, though often I forget to post photos of them here. This year, I've chosen mostly simple designs, made, as ever, from upcycled materials - card stock and embellishments bought from second hand shops. Crafting like this, while not, strictly speaking, recycling, does use materials that otherwise might end up in landfill. So, I'm using these cards as an example of rescuing materials from landfill to fit in with the 'Rescue Me' theme of this year's Recycle Week. So, here are a selection of the cards I've made so far for this year's Christmas. 

This week's post on my Crafty Green Substack is also about Recycle Week, focussing on house clearances.

Rescue Me! Recycle Week 2024

For 21 years, Recycle Week has been celebrating recycling and encouraging people to recycle as much as they can. This year's theme is 'Rescue Me' which aims to rescue recyclable items from ending up in landfill. 

If you have any items that you don't want, think first, can you re-use it? Could you:

* sell it on line? 

* donate it to a charity that would directly use the item in its work? 

* give the item to someone you know?

* donate the item to a second hand shop?

If you can't use the item in any way, and it couldn't be sold in a charity shop, then find out how it can be recycled in your local area. (Different places recycle different things in different ways, contact your local council to find out what happens in your area).

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am committed to re-using materials in the crafts I make. I buy craft supplies from second hand shops, my particular favourite being bags of unsellable jewellery, which include broken items that can be taken apart, and the pieces used to make new items. 

I'm currently clearing out the house of a close friend who died recently. It's a sad task, but I'm trying to make sure as much of her belongings get re-used as possible. I'll be writing about that in tomorrow's post on the Crafty Green Poet Substack. 

Customising Clothes

It's Second Hand September, which is a call to “shop second hand to take a stance against fast fashion and dress for a fairer world.” (You can read my Substack post on the topic here). However, as well as buying second hand clothes, there are other ways to dress more ethically, such as repairing or customising worn out clothing.

I've been looking at this jacket recently

and thinking that, although it's still a lovely jacket, it's become a little bit shabby. So I've been collecting lace and ribbons to add to it. I now have the design ready and if all goes well, I'll share the result here once I've finished! 

In the meantime, to get myself into the right frame of mind, I added this ribbon to the cuffs of a long sleeved t-shirt:

It's actually been a while since I customised clothing (as opposed to repairing). Here are some of my previous projects: 

I added lace to the cuffs of these gloves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added beads to the neckline of this dress: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I removed the worn out cuffs of this blouse and replaced them with satin cuffs that I repurposed from an old robe that had fallen apart:

My latest craft project

It's been a while, but here's my latest fabric owl! Made entirely from scrap fabric and spare buttons. I've enjoyed making a series of similar owls over the past year or so, but have slowed down as I've run out of people to gift them to! I'm not sure these owls are good enough to sell (in the handmade section of my Crafty Green Magpie Etsy shop). What do you think?

Easter Cards

I always make Easter cards for a few friends and family members, though I often forget to post photos of them anywhere. So here are some of this year's design. All are made using card (mostly second hand from friends or charity shops), old greetings cards and Easter embellishments which I was delighted to recently find in a local second hand shop.

A humorous card

two Easter chick cards

an egg themed card

and a sweet card featuring a hare in heather  

I'm very pleased with all these designs!

Valentine's Day Gift Wrap

I entirely forgot to post photos of any of the Christmas cards that I made last year! More recently I remembered that I used to share photos of examples of eco-friendly gift wrap (see this Christmas box idea, these two examples of Christmas gift-wrap, this green and white gift-wrap and this Spring themed gift-wrap).

So here is the gift wrap for Crafty Green Boyfriend's Valentine's gift, which re-uses a brown paper bag and card from the back of a kitten themed calendar and hearts from second-hand craft supplies. The gold thread is reused from a previous gift tag, and the parcel tape is paper based.

 I'll try to remember to post more of the greetings cards I make in the future, though not all of them.

Two Hand crafted Owls

 I've been continuing to make owls, using the craft kit I bought a while ago from a second hand shop and scrap fabric from my stash. These two most recent owls have felt eyes instead of buttons. 

To see my previous owls, visit this earlier blogpost.

Homemade Bookmark

 I made this bookmark yesterday from leftover pink wool - there was almost exactly the right amount of wool to weave through the plastic mesh that is the base of the bookmark. The piece of mesh had been sitting around for ages, with me wondering what to do with it, then I realised it's exactly the right size for a bookmark and this is the result.