Mini fruits tart completed and unwrapping cat amigurumi crochet daiso kit

I was reluctant to do the felt mini fruits tart because wanted to do something else and left it for couple of days as I was busy organizing and decluttering my room. Still not finished as need shelves to display my handmade objects well the mini fruits tart is completed.

Each daiso kit does have instructions in both English and Japanese I fell geared towards the American market. Extra equipments are embroidery need I used size 10 and has wide eye, recommend using pva tacky glue as hold fast and does stick properly, dress making scissors plus little small kind used for cutting and fabric markers. The instructions says to make photocopies of pieces I suggest you make 2.

It doesn't look like on cover as I wasn't happy with the pastry base and was messy gluing the pieces together. I have been feeling tired for numbers of days this didn't help.

I can make this again as there some leftovers but the felt available tends to be a lot thicker.

Mean while I started opening this amigurumi cat charm kit. Amigurumi means knitted doll even though it is crochet as knitting involves 2 needles didn't technique all together. I prefer crochet so much easier but won't give up on the knitting.

Comes with wadding which is polyester not cotton as I thought, yarn, thread, eyes without the washer and ball chain. It says will take 6 hours and you need crochet hook-2.30 to 3, I used 2.50, yarn needle, marking pins, scissors, 2 pliers, glue, ruler and tweezers(if you have them).

Started this kit straight away unusual for me to buy amigurumi kit as I get my project recipes from the internet and print them out plus I have Japanese book on making similar mascot charms.

There is daiso needle felting kit on order and waiting for it arrive hopefully this cat with very short tail will be completed if not I'll add to stuff to do pile. Image editing program keeps dying on me so may have to get photoshop elements I use program for other things besides editing photos.

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Unwrapping Felt Sweet Kit- Mini fruit tart

I have completed the bear beadcraft daiso kit and took longer than I thought. There were some parts I found tricky but not impossible you have look closely at where the cord exit, if possible move the diagram so it faces right direction on the bead which crosses over the two cords. The instructions are in Japanese and English. However on Japanese text has metric measurements while the English version has imperial. I suspect it was translated to babelfish or google translate. 'Gut' is nylon monofilament or fishing line included in the pack, I missed out on important note that was able to deciper from other Japanese beading book. The kinks in plastic cord can be removed by dipping on boiling water or steam from boiling kettle. Please be careful and don't scald yourself.

There are plenty of beads leftover to include in your stash or bead soup.

Next kit I picked up is Felt Sweet kit- Mini fruit tart, this isn't ever popular needle felting kit but kind you sew. I have placed an order for Daiso cute animal needle felting kit after watching a youtube video. I never have done needle felting before and decide to give it as not completed as I thought. The finished items takes a long time but so does patchwork, embroidery and crochet. If I use mindfulness approach not as bad and be relaxing.

It comes with coloured stranded cotton, felt pieces and large ball of wadding. Suppose to take 2 to 2.5 hours. Additional materials you need scissor, dressmaking shears, needle, glue and fabric making pencil. I will make a start on this kit tonight. I am still working on patchwork quilt, sewing small pieces whenever I have free moment or while I have the time. About mindfulness you do think of the end result or other things but bring focus on what you can see and do right now by slowing crafting process down. It really helps to improve my concentration. If you want to buy daiso craft kit and like me can't alway reach store which sell daiso products best place so is etsy as has more variety

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Completed projects so far

Not much is happening, I decided to continue with the challenging Blade Liger and try to assemble the rest of the legs. Here are projects I manage to complete.

The felt teddy pattern is from a website and originally scanned from a Japanese book. I can't find the link to site as maybe closed down. I had trouble sewing the head because the parts wouldn't fit together and not happy with the eyes as they are too far apart.

I brought K and Company mini memory book kit to give scrap book a go. I was going to do art journalling but dislike the thought of having my private musing open to the public (doesn't matter because I rant in my blog anyway.) and because haven't done any altered books for a long time.

View of inner pages, I tend to use scraps already in my collect as diecuts and decoupage sheets are of no use to me. Printed images of various photos on the self adhesive paper. Some of the materials in my collection haven't been used for years.

Turns out there wasn't room to add everything in the kit, I had a flap which opens to reveal more imagery. I noticed K and Company scrapbook material tend to be compatible with each other. Over collaging is tend to be a habit of mine the underneath imagery is obliterated by the layer above. 

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Crafting with felt

I'm becoming less interested in Grand Fantasia and using much of my time crafting. Above is one of few cards I created for the year. This was for my cousin's birthday I'm influenced by mandalas and patterns. Would like to create more beaded or paper embroidery cards/artist trading cards (atcs). Now the World cup is on, I'm only watching a few matches, Italy, Spain and England (Even though the first match was dismal). I acquired an another Japanese Crafting book - かわいいフェルトの小物たち (Cure felt goods), ISBN ISBN9784418092192. You can buy from yesasia.

I have worked with felt before and found the material fragile, piles easily. At first glance I noticed the patterns resembles those of stuffed animals. These are my early attempts, a rabbit and chibi panda. Not a good idea to use salvage felt because it splits and pencil is not recommended for drawing around the paper template because it shows up in the sewing. I noticed a lot of other people's felt work the stitching is loose whereas my stitches are tight because this is how I hand sew. Have not yet mastered the sewing machine. Most of felt projects in the craft shops are too simple in design.

Projects become more advance further on through the book, the patterns for the deer are on the cover. The felt deer plush appears on the book cover. It was the reason why I wanted to buy the book in the first place. There was a lot of sewing involved and took me 2 days to complete. I used rose and cream felt because the pink I found in the craft store was very bright. As with all Japanese books I found the diagrams clear if in doubt I check the kanji -Japanese Chinese ideograms for any clues but some part you can make an intelligent guess. I despise people who moan or complain it's no in English. Make some effort to learn Japanese or any other language it's not difficult. Besides there was no body to help me I learnt thorough trial and error. In all I found the felt projects very easy to sew and off to make more.

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