• profileABOUT US

    My name is Jody Matthams and I am a 20 something year old self confessed geek and crafter from Portsmouth, UK, this is my blog where I will post ideas, projects and interesting things I find.

    I hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

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The end of CADS!

So September has officially ended and therefore it means that CADS has ended, Thank you to everyone who got involved, it really meant a lot to me to see other people getting enthusiastic about a project I started:)

I have seen some amazing crafts and got into contact with some lovely people through this, I wish you all well on your crafty journeys and will still be seeing what your up to every now and then and I hope that you will still follow me too.

I’m a little disapointed in myself that I didn’t manage to do a craft every single day but not to end this on a sad note I am impressed that I got what I could get done in the month and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Here is my crafty round up of all my crafts I did for CADS, it would be lovely to see your own roundups on your blogs too.

Tape Bday card Dalmation skirt

shirt Papercrafts Make up bag

gifttag cows green dress

Viola!




Cads at last – Autumnal gift tag

I have managed to find the time to create something!! :D Only somthing small but it’s really cute, the video tutorial I followed is on A Little Hut’s blog and is very easy to follow, so easy infact that I didn’t have the sound on and I still managed to do it.

In case you think I’m mad for doing this, the reason for no sound is because my other halfs regular monday radio show is on so I can’t hear anything, will be better in my new house as his DJing space will be upstairs in the office as opposed to all in the lounge like it is atm. Although saying that my office space will be in there too so maybe I can make a silent followed tutorial post every monday. That’t not a bad idea actually, Silent Monday I will call it:) hehe.

Anyway on with the crafts, here is my autumnal gift tag, I made it with origami paper so it’s wafer thin and can’t really be used as a gift tag (plus I have no gifts to give) but that was all I had and it looked so quick, easy and cute I decided to make it regardless. The original is the first picture and mine is the second one, it’s backwards because I copyed the tree drawing from the finished piece and since it’s flipped over it is the exact opposite.

alittlehut-treegifttag my gift tag




Hectic!

Well I am back from my rents and things have just been so hectic! I have had minimal time since I got back to do any blogging let alone crafting! I had a viewing for a prospective new house the morn of the day after I came back, I then later started my new job and then I had my counseling session and then another viewing. Today I have had to sort out the stupid Tesco card issue I had and then book some more viewings followed by work and now I am back and can finally sit and relax, which is annoying because I want to craft but I don’t think I have the energy right now, 2 days of hectic-ness!

Anyway I’m sorry to let all my Cadette’s down:( Feel really bad but I will take this opertunity to have a look around all your blogs to see what you’ve done in my absense:) Hope everyone is craft happy!




Happy Birthday!

Today is my step dad’s birthday;

Happy Birthday Russell!!

I am off to London to meet him, my bro and sis and my mum for dinner then I am going back to the family home in Essex to stay til Tuesday. Below is the birthday card I made him (let’s hope he doesn’t view this before I give it to him!) I found the pic online and thought it was perfect for him, he is a keen cyclist and loves his Ipod touch.

I printed out 2 copies and cut out just the bike from one and stuck a piece of cardboard in between the cut out and the original image to create a raised affect. I then cut out a bunch of letters from magazines to create the message inside and drew around with a marker pen and to finish it off I wrote my Tink Shui logo on the back! What do you think?

Ipedal Happy Birthday!

DSC_0564 Made by Tink Shui

Since i’m going home this means that although I have major slacked off in uploading here for CADS and I will be taking my Macbook with me I may not be able to create and make as I can here. BUT since my mum is an artist she does have supplies around the house and will probably be encouraging me more anyway, I may do some computer crafts. ie photoshop, scrapbooking stuff instead too.

I will leave you with my mums website to have a browse around, if you like anything then comment below this post as she reads this from time to time and i’m sure she would appreciate it:)




Day 14 of CADS – Make up pouch

Right, getting back into it now!

While listening to my wonderful other half Udy and his friend Kai (aka vortechtral) play live on the online radio station brap.fm I have been creating a make up pouch from this tutorial very very easy to follow but since I was getting a bit into the music being played in my front lounge (it’s very good motivation!) I forgot to leave a gap to turn it around in:/ So had to improvise the edges a bit but I think it turned out quite well:)

Make up pouch

I even made a little fabric button using the outside fabric too because I couldn’t find a button that went with it. I would of preferred to use a closure like the one in the tutorial but I didn’t have one so just a plain metal snap one that is a bit too small for the pouch and will probably snap off at some point:( The material is different sections left over from the My Little Pony bed sheet fabric I used for one of my skirts a few days back.

Make up pouch




Desicions desicions…

Apologies for the absence, have had a lot of personal issues to deal with and also been doing some soul searching, but first, I have been doing a bit of re-purposing for CADS in between this.

A couple of months ago me and my friend had a clothes swap to get rid of stuff we didn’t wear anymore. I got some nice pieces and also some things I liked but didn’t quite fit or I wanted to change a bit.

repurposing re-purposed

The first was a shirt dress that was a size too big and I wanted to use the tutorial on My Mama Made it to re-purpose a western style shirt so I shortned it and took it in using the tutorial, I tried to do the ruffles on the shirt but when I sewed it on silly me didn’t check the seams and I had actually sewed it on backwards so when I cut it off to re sew there wasnt enough fabric to ruffle with:( The bottom of the shirt is also too tight as I didn’t take into account my hips! But it’s all learning right? haha. I wore it today with a strappy top underneath and left it open and that works fine:)

original dress half way through finished

The second was a dress that had some extra bit of fabric on the sides of the skirt, as you can see in the first picture I have streched it out and the second picture without it and then I didn’t like the colour too much so decided to use the emerald green dye I had as you can see in the last pic, not sure I like it so much though, looks a little bit like alien blotches. I may bleach it to get out the pattern too and then use a purple colour on it. Not sure yet but for now it is alien green!




Papercraft fun

For the last couple of days I have been doing some paper type crafts for CADS. Some worked, some didn’t but it’s all trial and error right! Here is my favourite 3 for you:

Paper crafts

Traditional origami crane

Paper crafts

  Circle dot box pattern from here – loads more on the blog go check it out!

Paper crafts

What I would call a ‘x-mas bow’, useful for making your own present decorations on the cheap, I actually used a sudent loans leaflet and a Tesco mag to cut the strips out of, heh. You can find the tutorial here.

A couple of other notes for you, I forgot to add Heather or Craft Fail, Doller Store Crafts and CROQ Zine (does she ever stop?!) has been adding her CADS projects on flickr which you can find here, loads of awesome projects which she includes her adorable kids in too:)

Also I found out that this month is National Sewing Month! How convenient:) Have a look at the official National Sewing Month website you can also use one of your projects from CADS to Enter the 2009 Reuse, Remake, Restyle National Sewing Month contest.

I also am going to try and post everyday again, I have been a bit slack on posting but I promise a post a day if i’m not too busy.




Week 1 CAD roundup

So we have reached the end of the first week of CADS, only 3 more to go:) I have seen some wonderful things already, here is a little sneaky peek at some of those in case you have missed them:

burp clothes placenta purse travel journel

harrypotterbag hairbow organiser doiley

1. Personlised burp clothes from Annette’s Creative Endeavors

2. Purple purse in construction from Rabid

3. Travel Journal from File under Misc

4. Harry Potter Bag from Amy Lou

5. Hairbow Organiser from My first year as a Wallace

6. Doiley from Devablogger

Keep up the good work!:) I hope your liking the CADS project, if there’s something you’d like to see here or something you think is missing then please let me know and I will be sure to add it in.




Day 4, 5 and 6 of CADS – Cartoon skirts

Apologies for the dealy in posting, I have been working on a few skirts which makes up for the 3 day absense and there is 3 skirts:) I had a a whole stash of cartoon fabric from chairty shops stashed, mostly old bedcovers and curtains. I have been meaning to make them into these skirts for ages. They were the first item of clothing I taught myself how to make freehand by just looking at some similar skirts I had.

Have made a few before too and sold one also, I may put these on Etsy but not sure on the finishing if there good enough as I don’t have a serger to make the edges neat. SO without further ado, here are the pics:

Cartoon skirts

Cartoon skirts

Cartoon skirts




Day 3 of CADS – Cross stitch Moo’s

This may be a little bit of cheat since I have already posted in day 1 my cross stitch but I have completed it now and it’s sooo cute:) Here are some pics:

Scottish Hieland Coos Cross Stitch Bookmark

Front full view of the 3 Coo’s.

Scottish Hieland Coos Cross Stitch Bookmark

Back of bookmark with a blue felt backing I sewed on.

Scottish Hieland Coos Cross Stitch Bookmark

Top cow

Scottish Hieland Coos Cross Stitch Bookmark

Middle Cow

Scottish Hieland Coos Cross Stitch Bookmark

Bottom cow

I can’t decide which Coo I like best! heh.

I am off to my friends for a chocolate fondue night now, woop! I will leave you with a little random fact:

Did you know…

According to folklore, the name of denim brand C.R.A.F.T stands for ‘can’t remember a f**king thing’

Found this bit of info from Glamour mag I ‘got’ from my local laundry land, hehe. Thought it was appropiate and interesting, I wonder if anyone can think of a different acronym for CRAFT?