Sunday 14 December 2014

Free BRUSSEL SPROUT Felt Bunting Tutorial x


Let's face it - there's always the need for some bunting - whatever the occasion. And Christmas is no exception! So, - on with this easy brussel sprout bunting to help decorate your house in a fluffy Christmas way :-)

 

All you'll need are some simple bits and pieces: a large rectangle of red felt, a 38g felting needle and foam to work onto, some green ric-rac trimming, and some wool tops in mid olive, dark olive, and peppermint.

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7328/Ready-Made-Felt

You can use some red ready made felt, (or you can make your own felt with our red merino wool tops and a mini bamboo mat felting kit) and of course you can use any colour you fancy  - not just red! A large rectangle will make you about 1 metre of small bunting, or use more felt and more ric-rac for a longer length.


Start by cutting the felt rectangle in half lengthways, and then cutting the long triangles as above. Doing it this way makes sure there's no wastage and you get as many pennants as possible...


Now for the needle felted brussels! Start by taking a small amount of mid olive wool tops and needle it gently into a circle about the size of a 2p piece in the top part of each pennant.



Next, needle a small stem to each brussel sprout, using the peppermint wool tops. You'll only need tiny amounts!



And finally add some tiny lines of dark olive wool tops, to make each brussel sprout look more realistic.


Once you've finished needle felting all your brussels, pin each pennant to the green ric rac and then sew - either by hand or on a machine if you have one, using some matching green thread.

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7328/Ready-Made-Felt

 And that's all there is to it! Enjoy! 

If you liked this tutorial and you'd like to buy a felt bunting kit as a pressie - take a look at our great value "Scandi Bunting" COMPLETE felting kit (as seen on Channel 4 last week), which includes everything you need including a mat and net inside the packet :-)and costs just £15.95!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/8811/COMPLETE-Scandi-Bunting-%28Limited-Edition%29-Christmas-Felting-Kit
Happy Christmas Fluff-a-tiers! xxx

Thursday 4 December 2014

20% off : Colour in your own Christmas Sack (it's remarkably relaxing for grown ups too I promise!!) :-)

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting

Colouring in is the ideal thing to take your mind off cooking and wrapping - not just for kids :-) but great to keep little hands (and minds and bodies) busy in the run up to Christmas...


...these fab 'Colour Me In' Christmas Sacks measure a whopping 23 x 30 inches - so there's plenty of room inside for a pressie or three once they're finished. And I thoroughly enjoyed 'letting go' and colouring mine in!


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/9191/Colour-Me-In-Christmas-Sack-Santa


They come in two different designs - Santa or Christmas Tree - and there is 20% off the sacks for the next 48 hours with code: SACK20
so instead of £14.95 they are now just £11.96! YIPPEEEE xxx


Then fabric pens come in two options, neon or regular:


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts

Colours can be air-dried for 24 hrs or fixed immediately by ironing. Once fixed colours are permanent and machine washable! And of course you can use them on t-shirts and other fabrics too! The fabric pens are just £6.95

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts

And if you fancy colouring in some other stuff too AFTER Christmas - take a look at these lovely Colour Me In Tote Bags!


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7750/Kids-Crafts

They make great gifts and stocking fillers and are just £6.95 too!
Enjoy x

*Please note discount is ONLY on the santa sacks and is ONLY on NEW WEBSITE ORDERS. Please apply the code at time of ordering - it cannot be applied after you have ordered. Thank you! x




Monday 1 December 2014

I have officially just invented the most fluffy furry WOOLTOP Pompom EVER!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/670/Felting-Wool-Tops-and-Fibres 

Stop what you are doing everyone! I have a very important announcement to make!
Today I figured out that if you use carded Wooltops to make a pompom, it's extremely fast, extremely soft and furry and extremely amazing! Read on to find out how...

Start with just ONE tiny metre of merino wooltops (usually used for felting or spinning.) And a pompom maker! That's all! ANY wool tops will do - but here I used our house blend "Phantasmagorical" (£4.80 for 100g will make about 4 pompoms!) 
Remember - You can get 15% off spends of £20+ till midnight on Tuesday 2nd December with code : FLUFFY15



Split the merino wooltop length in half lengthways and wrap half around the left side of the pompom maker and half around the right side, tucking in the ends. It's so fluffy and bulky - that's all you'll need :-)


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7503/Merino-Wool-Top-Blends

Secure the pompom maker and then start to snip! All the way around. As you do - the pompom will magically come to life!



Next, secure the new furry wooltop pompom with some strong string and tie it REALLY REALLY tightly. I used our candy twist twine here:

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/8988/Nutscene-3-Pack-of-Candy-Twist-Twirly-Twine

Carefully release your new fabulous pompom...



It's the furriest, quickest, most fabulous pompom ever! Ever so soft and really LUSH!


The last thing to do is give it a trim (my favourite bit) - and then it's ready to hang! Imagine a Christmas tree full of these :-)


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7503/Merino-Wool-Top-Blends

(Or adorn your favourite hat! Here I used our Red Merino with Pink Tussah Silk Blend)The possibilities are endless...

 


Remember - You can get 15% off spends of £20+ till midnight on Tuesday 2nd December with code : FLUFFY15
*Valid on new orders only and only at time of ordering xxx 

Thursday 27 November 2014

Free Pompom Christmas Wreath Tutorial for FLUFFY Friday!

Hello all! Let me show you how to make this really simple hanging Christmas Wreath for black FLUFFY Friday! It's brimming over with pompoms and general woolly goodness and is really simple to make :-)


First you're going to need a circular wreath of some sort. I nipped down to the florists and bought this one for £3 (approx 30cm in diameter) - but you could improvise and even make one out of wire if need be...or recycle an old one?

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7350/Pompom-Trim

Next, you can really speed things up by using a couple of metres of our giant pompom trimming here (£3.50 a metre)Each pompom measures a whopping 4cm! I used a metre of red giant pompom trim and a metre of cerise giant pompom trim and then wound them around the wreath, securing and tying them in place with some yarn here and there.

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/9417/Heart-Shaped-Pompom-makerhttp://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/7945/Pompom-Maker-Set-x-4-sizes

Then you're going to have some fun making some pompoms! You can use any method you like - but it's super duper easy with our pompom maker set (4 sizes for £6.50) here and our new heart shaped pompom maker too!


http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting

You can use any yarn in any colour - I used a mixture of reds and pinks. A good yarn to use is something like our Stylecraft Special DK yarn - which is cheap and cheerful at £1.95!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/5125/Stylecraft-Special-DK-Fiesta   http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/5110/Stylecraft-Special-DK-Matador

You'll probably need to make between 10-12 different sized pompoms in different colours and shades if you can. But anything goes!


Pompom making is simple with these fabulous contraptions! They are so clever and make it really easy!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting

Tie or thread each pompom into place on the wreath, - using matching yarn or string.

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/6219/Felting-Corsage-Kit---Plum-Pudding

Next I added a handmade felt rose - you can make one too from our "Plum Pudding Rose Corsage" kit - or you can just cut out your own felt flowers from some of our ready made felt perhaps instead?



I also cut some simple holly leaves from green felt I'd made  - again you could use the ready made felt. Sew the rose and leaves around the wreath to hold in place.

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting

Make sure everything is tied together securely by adding yarn around the wreath here and there. I also added a few felt balls too, to fill in the gaps. I sewed them around the wreath to keep them in place. (Some of the felt balls were needle felted too! I know I know... :-)

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting

You can make your own felt balls REALLY EASILY from wool tops (like our Christmas Cracker wooltops inspiration pack) or you can buy the ready made ones instead!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/6516/Christmas-Cracker-merino-wool-tops---angelina-felting-pack

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/7984/Felt-Balls---Multicolour-x-20

If you fancy needle felting onto the felt balls, you can do that with our needle felting kit too!

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/p/6239/Needle-Felting-Starter-Kit---with-wool-and-instructions


And then you're done! Just add another loop of yarn or matching pompom trim at the top to hang, and admire your work :-)
Easy Peasy! x Happy Christmas Pompom Wreath making everyone! x

http://www.gilliangladrag.co.uk/c/7760/Christmas-Crafting