Thrifty Wrapping Paper

I made some wrapping paper to wrap the present up for Pea's Mum, I had some brown paper knocking around and already had some stamps and ink I got for Christmas last year.

I just cut out a sheet of paper and stamped Happy Birthday all over it in different colours, easy and cheap!

Hand Made Gifts

I love giving and receiving handmade gifts, a lot of thought and love goes into them which makes them that extra bit special.

I always try to make something small for everyone I give gifts to as a compliment to their store bought gift, this week was Mr. Pea's Mums turn, in the past I have made her amigurumi bunnies, she loves bunnies so it's a win. This year I figured I should present her with something different.

I had a look through Pinterest for some inspiration and kept coming across jam jars with tea light candles in or potted with flowers, each style adorned with cute crocheted jackets. 

How could I resist such a fun project? I couldn't of course!

All I had to get from the shops was a large Kilner jar and a house plant, I managed to get both items in Wilkinson (or Wilko, not sure what to call it these days). The plant I got was a Bromeliead, makes for a good house plant apparently, it's big pretty flower was the main selling point for me.

For the jar jacket I already had some balls of Rico essential cotton from my last Deramores splurge, I chose pink and red, I originally made one in green but found out Pea's mum hates green with a burning passion, so I had to decide again, I figured pink and red would be a good choice as the Bromeliead had a red flower! I made it just the right size to fit into the lines on the jar where I guessed a jam label could go, Pea's mum makes jam, a crochet jam label jacket seemed a fitting choice.

It's so easy to make, there are loads of different stitches which can be used to make the jacket, I decided to use the shell stitch as I love how it looks when 2 colours are used, the stitch is pretty basic so it was a nice easy make!

Crochet Jar Cover

Shell stitch for anyone who landed here in the hopes of finding the pattern:

Chain desired amount, shell stitch is worked in multiples of  6 + 1

1st Row: 1sc in 2nd chain from hook, *skip 2 chains, dc 5 times in next chain, skip 2 chains, 1sc in next chain* Repeat from * to * if you are changing colour for the next row do this in the last part of the last sc in the chain.

2nd Row: Chain 3 and turn, dc 2 times in the stitch in the chain 3, *skip 2 stitches, sc in next stitch (which will be in the middle of your shell beneath), skip 2 stitches, dc 5 times in next stitch* Repeat from * to * when you get to the end dc 3 into last stitch instead of 6.

3rd Row: Chain, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat 1st row from * to * continue to alternate between rows 1 and 2 to desired length.

Hyper Japan 2014

Oh my, we haven't had a new post for a long time!

Had to post about Christmas coming early for us this year, Mr. Pea and I went to Hyper Japan on

Sunday at Earls Court Exhibition Center in London and it was amazing!

Hyper Japan is a exhibition of Japanese culture, food and kawaii awesomeness all in one

massive location, Earls Court One.

The place is massive so there was loads to look at, the most prominent place was the Nintendo zone right in the middle so we made a beeline for the Ninty banners hanging from the ceiling, we watched a bit of the new Super Smash Bros game due out this winter, had a photo with Mario and Luigi and we did some shopping in the Nintendo store!

Super Smash Bros at Hyper Japan

Pea with his heroes! Luigi kept stroking his hair.

On our search for food we came across the Hyper Fringe stage where Yanakiku were performing,

they are so cute, their outfits were amazing, especially when they dressed up as Mt. Fuji! We saw a bit of karaoke on the fringe stage too but we were too hungry to stay.

The food stalls were just across from the stage and it smelt so good! We had a look about what was on offer, there was so many delicious options, sushi, takoyaki, fried chicken, fish and chips and yakisoba, we went for plain yakisoba which is fried noodles in sauce, there was some grated pickled ginger on the side with those which I wasn't very fond of! Mr. Pea however mixed his in with the noodles and said it was tasty, maybe I was eating it wrong. Pea decided tried out some frozen beer, the froth was a bit like a Slush Puppy made of beer, it was actually quite nice, I don't drink beer but I found it quite refreshing.

Tasty Yakisoba

After we filled up on noodles and cleared our street passes on our 3DS's we headed for the shopping stalls and boy did we shop! Tofu cute had 2 mini shops, one just for food and the other was for all the accessories they stock, I got 2 bottles of Ramune, Hello Kitty strawberry pretzel sticks, some pudding chocolates in the cutest packaging and a tote bag with alpacas on, Pea got some Sakura Matcha flavour KitKats, which are cherry blossom and green tea flavour! 

Tofu Cute food shop

Tofu Cute with frozen beer!

At the other Tofu Cute shop they had large alpaca plushes that I really wanted but they only had pink and white ones, I really wanted a light brown one, I ended up getting a lemon coloured one from another stall,

I can't remember the stall holders shop name but they had lots of cool stuff! Pea bought 3 lucky cats from different stalls, we got a few other bits too including a Japanese felt craft book!

There was so much to see and so much we wanted to buy but we had to be good and not bankrupt ourselves for lots of cute things! 

Artbox display

Alpaca army

Alpacas were pretty much everywhere in all colours, sizes and in forms of purses and bags, I got a purse and a mini one for my mum, they're just too cute to resist! I got a few odd looks on the tube back with a massive yellow Alpaca under my arm! 

My haul

We spent the afternoon checking out the traditional Japanese fringe market section, watched some martial arts display and then headed over to SIRO-A on the main stage, they were amazing, we especially loved the video game aspect of one of their routines. 

We had such a great time, we will definitely be going back again next year, there is another one in November which would be awesome before Christmas but work gets in the way, gah!

Gift making is keeping me busy

Gift making and Animal Crossing have consumed my entire life the last couple of months, animal crossing more possibly...Mr.Pea is still waiting for his anniversary pressie I started making in September, eeek.
We've been hanging out a lot on Tumblr recently as well, sharing a few pictures of past crafts but mostly Lee's Animal Crossing outfit creations!
I haven't actually made anything recently that I've finished and been able to photograph, I did make myself an anime canvas a few weeks ago.

I picked up a wallpaper sample in B&Q and stuck it to a canvas, super cheap wall art! I was going to colour bits in with my ever growing sharpie collection, I was worried I would ruin it though so I left it as it is!

Come see us on Tumblr for more updates and super cool pictures of Soap!

Darth Soap

Marvel Decoupaged Acoustic Guitar

We went to a boot sale last week on the hunt for something to decoupage, I had a stool in mind, Mr. Pea suggested mini nest tables, which would also be fun to do, sadly we found nothing suitable.
We decided that a decoupaged guitar would be pretty cool so we went on a hunt for one, suddenly everyone had guitars, so it wasn't so hard, they were pretty pricey though £40-£45 for something I could possibly ruin was a bit steep. We hit the jackpot at one of the last rows of stalls, a man selling a guitar with no strings and a little bit of cosmetic damage for £5! winner! I snapped up that bad boy and covered it with Wolverine pages from Avengers Assemble!

I just need to buy some strings for it now...and learn to play guitar.

Wolverine Guitar

Crafty Presents And Photo Prop Fun For Jen's Birthday

Last week was the birthday of my awesome friend Jen from p.s...it's vegan, I always make her a little something to go with her pressie, this time I made her some coasters in the shape of apples and pears.

I saw the pattern for the apple coaster in Simply Crochet magazine and thought straight away it was very Jen. I got creative for the pear and made up a version myself, I'm not very good at making flat items so it was quite a challenge for something that looks so simple.

The pears are a little wonky but I think that gives them character.

We went out into town on Saturday evening to celebrate her birthday, Jen had mentioned she wanted to have a themed night where we all bring props but I think somewhere down the line we forgot and nothing happened.
Crafty me kicked in on Saturday at 4pm and I decided to make everybody some photo booth props. Amusing shenanigans ensued.

I had some A4 sheets of foam left over from mustache photo props Mr. Pea and I made for my birthday last year and a pack of 75 bamboo skewers Jen picked me up from Sainsburys for 10p (10p!!)

Me and Jen having fun with the photo props

I made 4 pairs of lips, 3 mustaches and 2 bow ties. Foam is really good for making up photo props, it's easy to cut up and doesn't flop around like felt or bend and tear like paper/card.

Sand Kirby On The Beach

Mr. Pea and I popped to the beach last week, as it was such a hot day we figured we should make the most of the nice weather while it's here, luckily we live near a few seaside towns.
We opted for Walton, it's slightly further away but quieter during term time.

The part of beach we went on was pretty good for sand castle building, still being damp from the tide coming in earlier. We took advantage of the awesome sand and made a sand Kirby, I made the body and stuck his little arms on, Mr. Pea sorted out the feet and his face.

Sand Kirby Chilling On The Beach

I popped a Crafty Geeks business card in his hand and we left him there, went we went past back to the car a couple of hours later the tide had come in and washed him away but we have our photos to remember him by.