Birds and cat collar bells

My spirits definitely lift when the sun makes an appearance, even if it's a bright but distinctly chilly day as it was this morning.  I've been finishing these notebooks, meant as Christmas gifts.  I'm not the world's best at accurate cutting when it comes to the pages inside, but I'm improving as I make more of these little books. 

They contain blank copier paper, and I've used a corner-cutting device to make the pages look a wee bit more professional.  The card used as covers has itself been covered by my gell prints, and I've used different prints outside and inside to add extra interest.  Hopefully these books will be well received when they turn up in various Christmas stockings.  

I managed to get a hefty wedge of cardstock for a bargain price of a fiver yesterday.  I don't bother much with Facebook - and certainly don't post any highly personal info on it - but occasionally I browse the marketplace section, and found someone local selling a box of assorted card for a fraction of its retail price. 

There were also several sheets of rather schmaltzy sentimental decoupage images, but I'll bundle them up and drop them off at the charity shop.  I'm sure an enthusiastic cardmaker or scrapbooker will snap them up.  

After I finished messing about with making notebooks I reluctantly pushed the hoover around and washed dishes, then it was on to a sewing project that's hung around way, way too long.  Ages ago I made these decorative birds that hang in my front room.

I wanted to make a few more strings of these, but that intention stalled, so today I dug out the birds I'd started making and resumed my efforts.  

I'd made several in mainly blue fabrics and slightly more in pinks.  I worked on five of the pink birds, and got them 'stuffed' and sewn up, and strung on a length of beads too.

I'll write a blog post, probably tomorrow, about how I've put all this together, but for now I'll finish this string of birds off with added sequins for a little extra sparkle and a few bells for extra jingle!  The bells are ones that once adorned cats collars.  The collars are long gone, as sadly are the cats, but I kept the bells as - isn't this what we crafty minded folk always say? - I knew they'd come in useful one day.  

This plastic tub is the less-than-glamorous home to various jars and tins containing seed beads, sequins, bugle beads and small pieces of costume jewellery like single earrings or brooches with broken fastenings.  On the left is a Dairy Box tin, from the days when an assortment of chocolates was something special and came in a metal container instead of a disposable cardboard box.  I think this particular tin's from the 1950s, and it's very battered and worn  It's impractical to imagine we could return to a time when confectionery was sold in tins, but modern packaging is so wasteful, there's got to be a better way.  

Oh well, I need to get on with sewing bells on to birds tails - like that's a perfectly normal thing to write! - have a good evening, and maybe wander back this way in a day or two if you want a rundown of how to make these decorative birds.  Bye for now.