About Me!

Update August 2016:


Life is busy but I still love making special pieces for special people. If there is something you'd like please do send an e-mail to me at tanja.pearce@gmail.com and we can chat

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Baby Blanket

I've basically spent the last couple months traveling between the couch and the bathroom.
With a great part of my time being horizontal on the couch I was getting a bit bored and decided to use the time to knit a blanket for our new baby.
Well the blanket is finally finished so I'm showing it off here :D

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and it's a very simple pattern to follow.

If anyone would like to make their own I used a pattern from Pickles which you can find here
I didn't use their wool because it's not available locally but I popped into Arthur Bales and found so many gorgeous wools I would have left with half the shop if I could have afforded it!

I think my next knitting/crochet project will be for my Blythe doll. I'm just waiting for her to arrive so I have to work out the correct sizing...hoepfuly the wait won't be too much longer, I'll keep you posted!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Freezer Paper Tutorial

Since seeing various freezer paper crafts on the internet I've been dying to try my hand at it, but it's not as easy a thing to come by in sunny South Africa as it seems to be in the USA.

The other day I was in luck though and found some in my local quilting store, so I just had to buy a couple meters to try it out!

As it happens it all turned out quite well so I decided to post my own tutorial.

So here's the list of stuff you'll need:
  • Freezer paper if you're not sure where to get it in SA follow this link
  • Your design/stencil
  • An art knife (I love my olfa one)
  • A surface to cut onto like a healing mat
  • Seloptape
  • Iron
  • Fabric paint
  • Paint brush
  • Something to put your design onto like a t-shirt, piece of fabric, canvas bag etc.

You can find lots of pictures/stencils online, or you can create your own. I used some images and photoshop to design mine and then printed them out. You can print directly onto your freezer paper if you trim it to the right size and make sure it prints onto the paper side NOT the plastic side. That seemed like to much effort to me though so normal paper it was.

Once you have your design drawn/printed out secure it to your cutting surface with seloptape. Place your freezer paper over the design with the shiny/plastic side down and again secure it in place. This is just so nothing moves while you're cutting out your design.

Then you are good to go, put on some music, pick up your art knife and get cutting!

Here's the start of mine, I wanted some text
With a picture to go with it

Once you've finished cutting out your whole design, lift the tape carefully from your cutting board and discard all the bits of paper & freezer paper you don't need.

Place your stencil onto the piece of clothing/fabric you're using making sure the shiny/plastic side is face down and carefully iron into place

Now it's time to get out your fabric paint & paintbrush. But before painting make sure you've put something behind your piece of clothing/fabric to prevent the paint bleeding through. I just used some magazines that were laying close to hand.


Soon you should have your whole stencil painted in!
Once it's had time to dry you can carefully start pulling off the freezer paper

And voila, you're done!!!
All that's left to do is follow the instructions of your fabric paint to seal it, in my case using heat (the iron) on the reverse side does the trick!

And now you can go on and make your own baby grows, bags, t-shirts etc!
I've got some great ideas for some baby showers I have coming up :D

And just cause I can here's a little top I did for my little girl!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Heart & Tiny Tag Pendant

Some pendants and dangle ready to slip onto a chain!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Blythe be mine!

I'm so excited and I have no one to share this with so I thought I'd share it with my blog & readers :)

I've always loved the Blythe dolls, and wanted one for my very own. Well this past week I found a seller in SA, and *gasp* he could get hold of the very one I was pining over, Vinter Arden. And then my gorgeous husband said I could have it as my Christmas and birthday gift...eeeeek!

So my order has been placed and I have to wait out the painful 2-4 week delivery time.
But she will soon be here and be all mine!

Isn't she beautiful?

Here's a few which have been customized by their owners...so gorgeous!!!

Teacher pendant

A necklace, pendant & dangle for a teacher, which incorparates some of their school logo.
I hope she likes her gift.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Getting organised

Slowly but surely...
Now I can actually see all the pretty ribbons I have :)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Charmed

A bunch of charms for a perfectly charming bracelet

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Personal Craft - Pregnancy Journal

I thought I'd share a personal "craft" for a change!

When I found out I was pregnant I knew I would need a notebook to keep track of appointments, notes and to do lists, notes from my midwife appointments and ante natal classes. I also thought it would be nice to keep a sort of journal/scrap book. So I went shopping for a nice notebook/journal...and found nothing I particularly liked.
So instead I grabbed a plain notebook and some scrapbooking paper...
...and with a little help from my modge podge and my much loved olfa cutter I re-covered it to look like this!
Some snaps from inside:

Looking a pictures of our baby :D

Friday, September 2, 2011