Japan on Folksy!

To celebrate the first of my new range of Japanese stab-stitched books, I thought I would showcase some wonderful Japanese-inspired items from the talented world of Folksy.

I've been fascinated by Japanese culture since I was 14. I remember borrowing a book and a tape (yes, it was a while ago...) from the library and attempting to learn the language. I'm not usually one to give up on things, but Japanese isn't the easiest language to learn. I thought I'd be better off concentrating on my German and French at school. Then when I was at university I was really pleased to be able to study a unit called the 'Japanese Business Environment'. It was so interesting to see how Japan's history and culture influence today's business world.

Anyway, I'm really happy to now combine my love of Japanese culture, books and photography into notebooks like these:

So here we go. First up, cook in style with this Geisha print apron from Sugarsnap:

Wonderful origami crane earrings made by Satoko's Origami:

A gorgeous way to wrap a present using this red and green floral furoshiki by Myfuroshiki:

Pandas are my favourite animal, so I just had to include this cute mirror by lilidrawspictures:

I love visiting Japanese gardens. This gorgeous mosaic piece represents an abstract garden, made by La Parisienne:

MochiPan's handmade and handpainted Ginger Bun Doll would make a great gift for doll lovers:

And last but certainly not least is this gorgeous 'Friendship' pendant from Wyrley Bird Studios:

Click on any of the images to go straight to the seller's Folksy shop. Hope you enjoyed looking!

PS Does anyone else have trouble with paragraph spacing on their blog??

Frozen Lake

Happy New Year! Sorry, bit late with the greetings. Just a quick pic of Little W and me at the weekend. The lake was completely frozen and Little W was fascinated when the stones he threw in bounced and skidded!

My Christmassy Weekend

Well, I've had a lovely festive weekend. Started on Friday with the snow I guess. We had loads here in Hertfordshire. I attempted to build a snowman with my son, but it kind of ended up like a pyramid and I just couldn't get the head right at all! Mr W came home from work and wasn't impressed. However, he realised yesterday when he had a go at building one that the snow was 'the wrong sort' and his was also pyramid-like. Ha! Here's Little W in the garden...

Saturday we went to a friend's wedding. The church looked lovely in the snow, although I did feel for the bridesmaids in their dresses. I turned up in my wellies and had a quiet chuckle at women in stilettoes! I did change into more suitable wedding footwear once in church though.

Yesterday we went to see Father Christmas. We'd been practising what Little W was going to say to him and of course, when the time came, not a word came out! He's usually such a chatterbox. He was probably overwhelmed; his face when he walked in the grotto and saw the Big Man himself was delightful! Then afterwards we went to the toddlergroup carol service. Hardly anyone turned up which was a shame. Things didn't look good during 'Little Donkey' when Little W started shouting "Donkey, no!". So Mr W and Little W went to another room and I was left by myself. Still enjoyed it though. Nothing like singing carols when there's snow outside!

As for crafty stuff, I'm really excited about some new projects I'm working on. I've got some photo gift ideas I'm planning and one in particular I can't wait to get made. It combines 3 things I've loved for a long time and is also more 'handmade' than just photos. I've nearly finished researching suppliers and hope to make a start early in the New Year.

Anyway, for now,

Merry Christmas!

Interview with Red Bird Jewellery

Serena from The Copper Swallow over at Folksy came up with the idea of doing an interview swap on our blogs. I paired up with Becky from RedBirdJewellery. I had lots of fun thinking of questions to ask her and enjoyed talking about myself too!!

After trying a number of crafts, Becky decided that jewellery making is for her. Becky designs and makes beautiful jewellery, which can be seen and bought here at her Folksy shop.

So here's Becky's interview:

1) OK, first things first, please tell me about yourself.

I’m Becky Pearce, I live in a teeny village by the North Downs, (although I’m originally a Derbyshire lass) and I live with my hubbie Richard, and 2 little girls, (5 and 2 and a half). I’m just about to finish working to become self employed to spend more time with the girls, and doing Red Bird Jewellery. Phew – can’t wait.





2) How long have you been making jewellery for and have you ever tried any other crafts?

I’ve tried every craft known to man, and stumbled upon jewellery making a year or so ago and absolutely love it. I think (and hope) I’ve finally found “my thing” but saying that I still love learning about, and trying other crafts.

3) What crafty thing would you like to try next?

I’d like to try decoupage, and pottery, but I can’t think when I’ll have the time to do something new.

4) Something all creative people like to know – where do you get your inspiration from?

I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but I am a real country girl, and I do find most of my inspiration from nature. Colours, shapes and form. I also focus on people’s jewellery when I’m talking to them which is possibly just a little unsettling!




5) Apart from making beautiful jewellery, what else do you do in your spare time?

I don’t have spare time, I work 3 days at the moment in a pretty demanding job, and have 2 young kids, so most of my time is spoken for. I make jewellery and do all the business stuff in the evenings when the kids are in bed. So that’s my spare time pretty much gone.

6) On to non-crafty things... Where is your favourite place in the world and where would you love to visit?

I’ve NEVER been out of Europe, and would love to visit New Zealand, and Thailand. Closer to home I also quite fancy going to see the northern lights one day. My favourite place in the world is probably Alport Heights, back in Derbyshire, lovely and peaceful with great views.

7) What’s your favourite season and why?

Definitely Autumn – because of the colours, the warmth, the leaves, the start of the “new term” and new projects and the long countdown to Christmas, the new boots, and tights. I love it all!





8) Is there anything that you’re secretly expert at?

Nope. ‘Fraid not. Wish there was.

9) If you could live a day in someone else’s shoes, who would it be and why?

Difficult one – no-one I can think of. Life’s pretty good.

10) One of my favourite things... food. What do you love? What do you hate?

Yum good question. But really hard to say as it depends on how I feel. I love a good curry, sausage casserole or even Japanese….I also neither love nor hate marmite – it’s just ok - which I think must make me a bit odd? (Maybe, but I'm in the middle with Marmite too!)


11) Is there anything else you would like people to know about you or your jewellery?

I love what I do, I get a real kick out of making jewellery and love trying out new things. At the moment I’m experimenting with brass and copper – gorgeous and affordable. I’m hoping to start on another design course in the new year so expect lots of new things from me!



Thanks Becky! It's been fun being nosy... erm, I mean swapping with you.

Some Christmas Decorations

I've been pretty pleased with these Fimo decorations I made. I was going to list them on Folksy, but I think it may be a little too late, so if you'd like to buy any of these, just send me an e-mail: victoria@carefordcreations.co.uk and I'll add them to my website for you.

These three are magnets:


A robin (can you tell I'm worried you may not be able to recognise what they are?!):

An angel:

And these cute snowmen faces are magnets too:

If you're interested in buying them, the magnets are £4 each including p&p and the decorations are £5 each including p&p.

I won't post pictures of the ones I made for the Folksy swap until the recipients have received them, which will hopefully be today...

Advent Tree Calendar

Yippee! It's that wonderful time of year again - Christmas! Once the 1st December arrives, I feel I can officially talk about the festive season, so here we go.

I made this Advent calendar last year for my son:

As you can no doubt see, it's made from glittery green felt, some burnt orange fabric, some tartan ribbon, deep red felt, white felt for the numbers, bits of sparkly gold thread and some white buttons.

I'm certainly no sewing expert and have to say, I was quite pleased with the finished result. The decorations are made from Fimo. You can just see Father Christmas hanging at the bottom. I'll do another post when the tree's fully decorated in a few weeks!

Vintage Photographs

I blogged a few weeks ago about the Kodak Duaflex camera I won on ebay. I've now managed to make a 'contraption' and take some TtV photos. A 'contraption' is the black tube you need to put between the two cameras - the Duaflex and my usual Canon macro lens - to block out the light.

There's four shots I'm pleased with. Here's two of them:

You can buy them through my website and there's another one on Folksy.

I love the grainy effect of these images, although they're really not easy to set up. It took me a whole afternoon just to take these shots. That meant a whole afternoon of rearranging the furniture and getting into all sorts of odd positions - not easy when you're pregnant! Hope no-one was looking through the window!

I hope to get around to experimenting more with this technique and producing some more vintage images. Need to get thinking about some interesting subjects...