Wednesday 22 February 2012

Country Living Spring Fair 21-25 March and Gala evening and Daytime tickets give-away

As you may know by know, I will be attending the Country Living Spring Fair in London,in the Business Design Centre in Islington,  with my shop My Aunt Agatha from Wednesday 21st march till Sunday the 25 March ( as you can see from the button at the top right on the blog.)
 The link to the Country Living Spring Fair Website is here.
There is a whole range of My Aunt Agatha Products and also eight ( 8 ! ) approved press releases which are now on the site, about Modern Country Lady and My Aunt Agatha.

In order for you to visit this lovely Spring Fair for free ,there are 5 tickets available for the Gala evening on Wednesday the 21st of March from 6.30-9 pm, and 5 tickets available for a daytime visit.
 In order to qualify for a ticket , please leave a comment and become a follower of Modern Country Lady blog, then pop over to my  Facebook page and become a " liker".You will find the link to Facebook on the right handside of the blog. I will put all your names in a hat and will draw the winning names on Wednesday the 29th of February.
Good luck- and I am sooo looking forward to seeing you all at the show - it would be great to say hello!!!
XOXO
Bea

 

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Embroidered Valentine's Heart instead of Valentine's Card


Happy Valentine's Day to all your lovely people out there, whether you are all loved up or not  !!
The main thing is to love yourself, allways remember that!!
Instead of a card to give to your Valentine- and if you have a minute to spare and some needle and thread- you could make a quick heart that you embroider instead, which will be so  much more personal.
You will need some natural linen and some white embroidery thread for this, and some filling for the heart, plus a pretty ribbon, and you're done.Super easy!
An embroidered heart is really simple to make. Get a heart shape from the internet ( Google->Google Images -> Heart )  and enlarge it to a required size, then print off and use as template.

If you go on this link  you will find the font I used, Baroque Script.

You can download this but then you have to pay ( which I did not want to do ) , but you can also do a "custom font preview", which basically means you can try out a few words for free.
There is a little  box in which you type the word or words you would like in the Baroque Script Font.
You can put in "Happy Valentine's Day" or whatever you want.You can only do a few words at a time, so for my letters, " You're perfect", I had to do the below procedure twice, once for " You're" and once for " perfect".But then it's absolutely for free!
Then do a screenprint of the whole page ,
paste that on Paint, cut out the letters and paste that on a  Word Document, you then have a document  you can print off to use as a template for the words for your embroidery.
How you can transfer your design can be found here or here.

I used a simple embroidery stitch, a tiny satin stitch.
If you want to know how to do this you can find it here.

Have fun and have a great Valentine's day, and love the ones you're with! And if you are not loved up, do not stress! You never know what's round the corner!!
XOXO
Bea


Saturday 11 February 2012

A cute Spring Wreath for your front door



If you are even a tiny bit handy with a needle and thread, and you  have a discarded Christmas wreath at hand, now is the time to craft yourself a super simple Spring wreath to brighten up your front door.
I used these old  Christmas wreaths which I had made myself from willow branches in December.


I stripped the pine and apples and pine cones off, then started to play around with some dried flowers I still had to give the wreath some body.

I then added some fabric roses which I made from purple and white check.
I simply cut of a lenght of fabric..

Then twirled it around in my fingers...

and wound some thin wire at the bottom of the " flower" to keep it all together.

..then attached it to the wreath.Think symmetrical when you build up your design.

Then add an embroidered heart for some extra oomph and you have got yourself a super sweet door wreath.

An embroidered heart is super easy to make.
Get a heart shape from the internet  and enlarge it to a required size, then print off and use as template.
Now for the embroidery.
I was thinking "Spring" so did a quick hand drawn design of snowdrops,



but if you do not feel confident you can pull this off, then go on Google , then on Google Images, then put in " snowdrops".
It will come up with a whole host of images for you to use.
Choose the one you want, then print off, and transfer the design on a fabric of your choice.
( In my case a natural rustic linen).
How you can transfer your design can be found here or here.
Then embroider with a simple embroidery stitch.
This is a detail of the embroidery.

I have used a super simple backstitch for the outline for this, and if you want to know how to do this, you can find instructions here.
To fill in the petals and stems, I have used a satin stitch, and if you want to know how to do this you can find it here.

Have fun!
With the weather as it is here today, you may as well keep warm and cosy and stay indoors !!
Have a great weekend!
XOXO
Bea