Keeping busy...

....having done all the normal daily things today - you know, mowed the lawn, hacked back some bushes, cleaned the kitchen, couple of loads of washing and ironing, cooked the dinner.  I also managed today to knit the back of a cardigan for one of the littlies and at long last decided to do something with a couple of cotton bags that had been in the back of the cupboard for years.  Here's the first one ....

I stamped the centre flower using a Stampin' Up stamp I've had for ages and never got round to using.  I inked it in Memento Black Tuzedo and then coloured it using my ProMarkers.  I dithered over what to add to finish it off, did it need lace, or some buttons???? No, neither of them finished off the look I wanted to achieve.  So I rummaged through some boxes of stamps and came across this set of butterflies and dragonflies, stamped and coloured them in the same way as the central flower, just scattering them randomly across the bag.  Added a few words from the same set of flower stamps and voila - one bag, completed.  Now have to decide what style I want to use on the second bag, decisions, decisions.

and finally for this year.....

a smaller version of the hessian bags for Grace and Mya.  This is Grace's bag and the Little Red Riding Hood fabric came from Japan.  The red velvet ric rac and the heart ribbon both came from Crafty Ribbons.

The applique Princess coach was from eBay.

to make sure there was no confusion over which bag belongs to who I added the Lil' Sister ribbon (again from Crafty Ribbons) to Grace's bag and a large black and white button which I won over at Crafty Ribbons.

For Mya's bag I used some guipure lace I had in my stash and the ballet dancer ribbon again came from Crafty Ribbons.  The applique ballet dancer was from eBay and the French ballerina fabric again from Japan.

  to the back I added Big Sister ribbon and a large pink and white button both from Crafty Ribbons.

I think all little girls love a bag so hopefully these will be loved.

and some more bags - this time for me....

this one holds my current cross stitch project and has it's own mini bag to hold the silks I am using.

and one for popping to the shops with  -  nobody said I was sane did they.

It's a cold winter's afternoon...

...and you are bored so what do you get up to?  Well I decided to clear out a couple of my stash drawers that hadn't seen the light of day in yonks and came across a cushion panel that I couldn't even remember buying so I raided my 'to alter' drawer and found a hessian bag waiting to be changed and set to work.

The result is this....

I added some guipure daisy lace that I had been sent from Turkey and a bead trim that I love.  I decided the dogs were called Princess and Cupcake hence the silver charms on their collars and then made the charm hanging from left over pieces of fabric from the original cushion square and some chain and charms. 

A close-up of the charm hanging....

Well by now I was on a roll and knew there was another hessian bag in the drawer and another piece of Westie fabric I could utilise.  I mixed these with two of my current favourite things - Maya Road rose ribbon and guipure lace - and made another bag, this time adding a couple of flowers I made from netting just to finish it off.  Here's the completed bag...

and a close-up of the flowers...

I love both bags and will use them a lot.  The next bag project will be fairy bags for the little ones but for those I need to do some shopping.