Don't just embellish your life...

... embellish your pages too.

For those who know my family well, you'll know that my mother is a talented scrapbooker, and when it calls for it, card maker. For over half a decade, I have watched her transform lifeless pieces of paper into works of art, depicting our lives right from an early age; giving my brother and I the chance to have memories of our youth to pass down to our children.



A couple of examples of my mother's scrapbooking pages! (Ignore my ugly mug :P)


Now, like any good scrapbooker, she embellishes her pages to give them extra detail and to make them look even more beautiful. However, these embellishments do have a drawback; cost. Even though they are gorgeous, my favourite are the flowers she uses, they cost a fortune and well, you can't exactly reuse them! When looking at a few of my amigurumi animals she noticed my use of roses, giving us a thought; crocheted scrapbook embellishments.
I decided to give roses a try, and have created them in varying sizes and colours.




Examples of my rose brooch




Small, medium tiered and medium embellishments



Personally, I think they look gorgeous and will adorn any page beautifully, however, I did decide that my larger layer rose was far too big for a scrapboking page, but not to big to be a brooch. and, voila, a new product; crocheted rose brooches in the customers choice of colour arrangements.

Over the next few weeks I will be working on a variety of flowers to add to scrapbooking pages and cards, and those of you who are handy with a hook; why don't you give it a go too? And those of you who aren't handy with a hook, just go to my etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheHookHut?ref=search_shop_redirect) there you will find all of my products!!

Goodbye for now, and remember to whip that wool out!!!

p.s. If anyone decides to crochet any flowers, please send me pics of your pages! I'd love to see them!!

Cute Cuter Cutest

Is there anything cuter than a small stuffed crocheted animal? Of course there isn't! Especially when they have bows, hats, rosettes and felt patches. Amigurumi is one good way to go about creating this cuteness, a Japanese craft that works in rounds with increases and decreases, enables you to form unproportioned, extra adorable items; animals, dolls, you name it, you can create it.

I came across my first amigurumi pattern in a Simply Crochet magazine, and not having delt with circular patterns before, I ignored it (but still admired the the pretty pictures), however after a few looks at the pattern I thought this cant be as hard as it looks can it? So off I went to Pinterest to find tutorials and other patterns, and boy was I inundated with patterns!
After a sift through I found this great little bunny on All About Ami and adjusted the pattern slightly to give the bunny a smaller head making it all the more gorgeous.
                                              

 

After mastering this pattern I started looking at others, but decided to design my own! And voila I 
have already created pigs, elephants, chicks and octopuses! Truth be told, they are even easier 
than they seem!

                                                            

I highly recommend you find and try an amigurumi pattern as soon as possible! Or find one on my Etsy shop TheHookHut (up and running in a few days) 

Ahoy There!

Hello all, firstly I would like to apologise for such a long leave of absence, however I have been creating a huge amount of cuteness, softness and general yumminess. Over the next few weeks I'll be showing you the range of scarves, snoods, garlands etc that I've been constructing since Christmas.

As some of you may know I've been big on reading since a very young age and can be known to not surface for hours when I have a great book in hand, however, apart from the occasional Vogue, I do not enjoy my magazines in the slightest. But as chance had it, as I was walking past the magazine rack a cover caught my eye, after a quick flick through I knew this was a magazine for me.
Simply Crochet, from the creators of Mollie Makes, is a sophisticated, modern and jam packed magazine; better and more varied than most books, and frankly a whole lot cheaper. With ideas for quick projects for beginners or longer, more intricate patterns for advanced crocheters; it is the perfect magazine for all. Safe to say I have made a few small items from the magazine, created a variety on a beautiful snood and been inspired to make amigurumi animals! This is one magazine I WOULD recommend to anyone with an interest in crochet.

Love heart brooch from issue 1

 

A piece from this issue that really caught my eye was the chunky cowl, created in a chunky wool with a mock cable knit it is intriguing to look at and works up beautifully. Now I have chosen to do this cowl in a slightly smaller wool with a 9mm hook instead of a 12mm; partially due to impatience at waiting for my new hook to arrive and partially due to the love I felt when I found Sidar Denim Ultra wool. Having made one for myself and one for a family friend, it is easy to say these will be loved by all, and are frankly, very cosy!

Me wearing the cowl

Next time: Amigurumi, easier than it looks and just as cute.