Sally's Craft Blog

I always have a long list of things I want to make. I also have a lot of things half started. I liked this photo I took of a bee and wanted to create something with it.  I thought I would embroider on top of a painted yellow background but I still haven’t got round to creating the design. It is sitting in my “started pile” or should I say “to be continued pile”.   This is another project I started with my partner. Who knew how long it would take to completely sand a cabinet? Well we didn’t, and it has taken umpteen shifts and we still need to put it back together again and varnish it!  (Also it may just be Steven in the photos but I did my fair share as well!!)  Something that I would really like to try is upcycling a side table. I purchased this wallpaper to try it sometime, but I will need to research how to do it properly and watch a few YouTube videos I think, before tackling it!  A lady known as “Little Bird Upcycling” does this brilliantly. She does re...

During lockdown I was looking for different projects to keep myself motivated. I found myself scrolling on various social media pages thinking that looks good, I should try that, but not actually starting anything. I think sometimes it is better to just experiment rather than endlessly scrolling for the perfect project to start. The first thing I started was my Japan album.  Way back in 2018 I had printed photos, kept all my receipts and held on to different bits and bobs, with the intention of creating an album and 2 years later, I finally got round to actually making it!! It was fantastic to look through all the pictures again and remember what an exciting holiday it had been.  One of my favourite projects that I did was for my 3 friends for Christmas. I was inspired by Embroidery by Nat. First of all I sketched out the image of all of us, then painted it and outlined it with a single line stitch and finished it by adding beaded detail. Each one took approximately...

When I left school my Mum said to me "What job do you want to pursue?" and my reply was "not a clue, I just don't want to be a French teacher!". So I had a lot of options! So if you are like me in any way, it took me quite a while to work out what I wanted to do. I attended a lot of evening courses to see if I could find something that I was passionate about and something I wanted to take further. I attended an evening class in photography in 2017 and a Jewellery making class in 2018. I think, what I can take from these experiences is that even though I didn’t pursue either of these fields, it was not a total waste of time, having this knowledge has become very useful in projects I have had to do at University. If either of these classes would be of interest to you, I would highly recommend attending these courses at the City of Glasgow College. They have a limited selection of evening courses at the moment, but do consider this when it is possible to attend i...

I wanted to start with a bit about me. My name is Sally Howard and I am 27 years old. I have been crafting since I was around 8 years old and it has always been an enjoyable hobby of mine. I attended an embroidery class with a friend from 2003-2008 which was called the Y.E.G. (Young Embroiderers Guild). We would attend once every month and I got the chance to make something new every time. They had enthusiastic instructors that had a fantastic knowledge of all things relating to embroidery and encouraged us to be creative. I stopped going around the age of 15 because I didn’t have the time and exams were coming up and the ‘adult world' took over. However, during lockdown, I felt I had time to get back to it and really enjoying creating new things. Below are a few pictures of projects I completed while at Y.E.G and my following blogs will have other projects that I have completed more recently. Link to The Embroidery guild https://embroiderersguild.com/index.php?page_no=245 T...