Join in with our online C.O.C.K.club and make Sven the Deer Head for Christmas with us!

What could be better than a relaxing Gilliangladrag crafting session, a cheeky cool cocktail or two in the comfort of your own home, maybe with a group of friends?... and a magnificent outcome with something to cherish for EVER - especially at Christmas!

Meet "Sven" the Deer Head, our 2nd Corporation of Craft Klub project, which, for the first time ever, ANYONE can join in with, ANYWHERE in the whole wide world! You don't have to live near Dorking!

Yes we are going to be making him here at the actual monthly C.O.C.K. session in our studio on Tuesday 1st December at The Gilliangladrag Fluff-a-torium, .....but, you can buy your Sven the Deer Head KIT and craft along with us at home and watch us live on Periscope or later on YouTube...

For just £28 plus P&P you can order your Christmas Deerhead kit HERE online and make your own Sven The Deerhead at home wherever you live in the whole wide world :-) 
He comes with everything you'll need (except glue) and a full set of instructions. BUT, if you tune in to our live Periscope broadcast on Tuesday 1st December, why not craft along with us?

And WHAT ON EARTH is Periscope I hear you ask?
Well it's a truly amazing APP for your phone that's connected with Twitter. Just download it for free and follow us (@gilliangladrag) - Also, set up to be notified when we start to broadcast. It's really easy to understand! 
The very cool thing is, that you can say hello, type messages and ask questions whilst we are broadcasting! And we will answer back!

If you are asleep or busy when we broadcast live, you can go back and watch it at any time for the following 24 hours on Periscope. Plus we will edit it and put it on our Gilliangladrag YouTube channel after the event! So you can catch up with us any time :-)

Don't forget to order your Christmas Sven The Deerhead Kit in plenty of time for our live session on Tuesday December 1st. Hopefully see you at C.O.C.K. club! ;-)

How to Make and Sew (Waterproof!) Oilcloth & Felt Bunting

Make some new bunting like our Gilliangladrag Fluff-a-torium Bunting!

Make yourself some new (waterproof!) bunting to brighten up your garden or home. It's quick, good value, and easy peasy!

What you'll need:

• Some Oilcloth - we sell colourful well priced Oilcloth by the metre here!
• Some Felt pieces - we sell Felt here by the pack or separate colours
• Ribbon for the top edge - check out our gorgeous patterned ribbon sold here
• A Sewing Machine / Needle & Thread / or some strong fabric glue like this
• Pompom Trim / Frilly Trim adds a great finishing touch! (optional)
• Crocheted / Knitted / Felted Flowers / Other Embellishments etc. (optional) 
• Sharp scissors

1)
Before you start work out the length you'd like your bunting to be and roughly how many pennants you'll need! Make a paper template pattern first if you like or go freehand - it's just a triangle where the top edge is slightly shorter than the other two edges :-) There are no rules about the size - cut them as big or as small as you fancy! Mine were about 20cm long.

Cut two triangles for each pennant so they will be double sided and you'll see colour from both sides when they flap in the wind!

2) Either stick the 2 sides of each pennant together with strong fabric glue, or sew them together freehand or with a machine if you have one!

     

3)
Add some Felt pennants into the mix too if you fancy. These obviously won't be quite as waterproof, but a light shower won't hurt them too much!

4)
Trim each pennant from both sides to make sure you don't have any white bits sticking out from behind!

5)
Lay out all your triangles on the floor or table and pin some substantial ribbon on top to hold them together, leaving about 20-30cm of ribbon free at each end for hanging later. Sew along the top and the bottom of the ribbon to hold the pennants in place securely, either using a sewing machine, or needle and thread. You could stick them too if you have some really strong glue.

     

6)
Add some optional finishing touches and embellishments - they make all the difference! Insert a length of frilly trim / pompom trim just underneath the ribbon, and sew into place.

7)
Crochet some pretty flowers to sew onto some of the plain felt flags if you fancy? Attic 24 has a great crochet pattern for daffodils here! We used our cotton Aran yarn for £1.95 a ball!

8)
You could also add in some cute Felt Flowers - like the ones in "Felting Fabulous Flowers" by Gillian here.
This is a Felt Rose, - also available as a kit here.

    

9)Hang your finished bunting inside or out, adding some support in the middle if it's quite long. :-) Et voila! xxxx

10 Minute Easy Easter Crafting : Make Bartholomew Bunny & Cheryl Chickadee!

Spend just 10 minutes each making this cute Easter Bunny and Chick! They really are EASY PEASY to make and the all the family can get involved in a spot of quick and fun Easter crafting!

What do you need?

  

Well basically just some felt (like our mini felt bundle here) and some really good glue (like our Gem-Tac glue here) and some wool tops (here's our selection of wool tops packs!) and a Pompom maker like this. Then some scissors, some googley eyes (here's a link to the googley eyes we sell) and maybe a few offcuts of fabric for the bunny's bandana! :-)

     

First make a medium size and small size white wooltops pompom. If you don't know how to make a wooltops pompom, check out my blog tutorial on how to do that here first! It's fast and easy. Stick the small pompom on top of the large on using the glue. Leave to dry for a few mins....

Next cut a pink heart / feet from some pink felt and glue in place...

Then cut two ears from pink felt. Cover the ends in glue and pinch together. Leave to dry.

I used a bull dog clip to hold them whilst they dried a bit!

Stick the ears in place using more glue. A couple of pins are useful to stop them from falling off before they've dried!

Now stick two "googley eyes" in place and cut and stick a little pink nose. Oh SO CUTE now he's got a face!! :-)

To make Cheryl Chickadee just make one small yellow wool tops pompom. Cut 2 orange feet (3 toes on each please ;-) and a diamond shape folded in half to make the beak. Glue all in place et voila!

That's all there is to it folks :-)

Oh - and before I get asked, - Cheryl Chickadee is wearing a handmade felt 'Cherry Blossom Fascinator' - which is one of the many felt flower projects in my book "Felting Fabulous Flowers" and Bartholomew Bunny has a small bandana made from a scrap of fabric and pinned (or glued) at the back. You've got to ACCESSORISE! ;-)


Happy Easter Crafting!  xxx

A Spring Wreath for Mother's Day or Easter

So  I thought I'd show you all how I made this simple Spring wreath - it might look complicated - but it's really easy once you know how! :-)
First of all - get hold of some sort of wreath - I bought this one for £6 at the local florists, but you could bend an old wire coat hanger, or use anything suitable that you can get hold of. It could be heart shaped like mine, or round - doesn't matter.

Next you're going to need about 1 metre of giant yellow pompom trim

and some other different ribbons and trimmings. Let me emphasize that you can use ANYTHING you have laying around! But... I used a metre each of: giant pink ric rac, yellow and orange flower jacquard ribbon, mint green mini pompom trim, pink & red vintage polka dot ribbon...

and a metre each of the lime and baby blue gathered elastic frilly trim above, (which I ADORE! :-) and some of our new super gorgeous braid trimming in lilac and orange too. 

I also added in some of the new Sajou Rochefort craft thread in yellow and black too. (LOVE this stuff!)

First things first...

start by wrapping the giant yellow pompom trim around the wreath base. If necessary - secure with some thread.

Next start adding some of the ribbons. I won't go into too much detail - you can be random! (But the frilly elasticated stuff looks good wrapped around and around as above - like a ra-ra skirt!!

Keep adding and wrapping ribbon here and there until the wreath starts to get quite covered up. Each time you add a piece, secure at the back with a knot.

I added in some hand spun wool yarns too, wrapping them round and round the wreath. If you don't have any, you could just use tightly wound wool tops. Or any yarn would do, - something like Noro, or a variegated yarn would work well here!

Now your wreath should really be starting to take shape - with most of the wreath covered. Add a few ribbon bows too.

And lastly make some little felt flowers to adorn the wreath. These can easily be made from ready made felt, or handmade felt if you know how!(See my book : Felting Fabulous Flowers)

    

Make a few simple spring-like daisies, by cutting a circle from some felt, cutting 8 evenly spaced slits around it with some small sharp scissors, and 'rounding' each off into a petal. Add flower centres using a felting needle and some yellow wooltops, or use some small buttons. Attach using our great glue called Gem-Tac - or a needle and thread.

If you're feeling adventurous, why not add a felt rose to your wreath too? You can make a Gilliangladrag Felt Rose Corsage Kit, or the process is outlined in my book if you want to use your own colours.

Finally,  add a suitable hanger and you're done! I even added a turquoise glitter ribbon bow on the hanging rope too. xxxx

Happy Mothers Day and Happy Easter, and most importantly (as it's my favourite time of year) Happy Spring! :-)