Colourful Czech bead creations

It was a boiling hot day yesterday, but we decided to slap on some suncream and a hat and walk most of the way into town, admiring the art nouveau buildings along the way, to visit the new bead shop that just opened in Brno. Koralky is bright and modern inside with a great selection of Czech beads hanging neatly in little bags on wall racks. I personally prefer boxes of beads that you can dip your fingers into, but still, it was a nice shop and also had a great range of beading books and magazines in Czech and English.

Lovely beads and equipment from www.koralky.cz

I treated myself to a bead board and went a bit '90s with a selection of matte rocaille beads. I also picked up some blue nylon and some silvery elements for some earrings.

I got up early this morning to do some crafting (just like last week, as I found it works well to avoid the heat which pours in my craft room window) and in not much time at all, had made myself a nice, colourful, ethnic-looking jewellery set.

I am particularly pleased with my earrings. They are a nice length and not at all heavy.

It's so much nicer making your own jewellery than buying mass-produced stuff from a shop, don't you think? :)

I have shared this post on Handmade Monday. Why not pop over and take a look?

Christmas crafting bonanza

As some of you will know, this year I decided to do an entirely handmade selection of Christmas gifts for friends and family. This was partly because I haven't been working for a while and wanted to cut down on spending, but also because I wanted an excuse to try out lots of new crafts! I didn't blog about them at the time of making as I didn't want to spoil it for the recipients, but now that Christmas is over I thought I would show you some of my makes. I'm annoyed that I didn't get round to photographing all of them or getting pictures of them all wrapped up as I put a lot of effort in to the gift wrapping this year with handmade tags, paper and trimmings, but I was in the middle of an international move, so I think I can forgive myself :)

Let the Christmas present showcase commence!

Fabric covered notebook for my niece.

Fimo covered festive spoon and charms.

A joint effort with my boyf: pear vodka and winter spice liqueur for all the men folk.

Cross stitched card for my parents.

Decorated jar of handmade mincemeat for my French friend.

Handmade bracelet with charms for boyf's sister-in-law

Handmade earrings from recycled beads for boyf's sister.

Ribbon hairband for my niece.

Sewing case for my friend.

I really enjoyed doing all the hand sewing. This Russian doll kit was inspired
by  Flossie Teacakes needlecase tutorial.

Personalised cross stitch space invaders purse for another niece. Made from all recycled materials.

My friend Rob pointed me in the direction of this great idea for keeping track of what's in your freezer, which I made for my Mum. I used pictures of food cut out of French and German supermarket special offer brochures, then laminated them and added a self-adhesive magnet to the back. It was a fairly quick and easy make which I would recommend.

There are so many great tutorials and inspiring posts on the internet. Often my own ideas pop into my head, but it's always nice to know there is a range of practical help and projects that you can refer to or adapt whenever you want.

I really enjoyed making all my presents this year and will definitely do it again if I have the time.