Update..

Sorry I haven't done a blog in the last couple of weeks been a busy girl doing my online accounting course and getting orders out to people.

So I thought I'd give you a little update on what has been happening.

KJP Designs is now on facebook. Over the weekend I hope to upload some of my pics of my bows onto facebook so if you want to become a friend of KJP Designs there is a widget on the left hand corner of my blog so you can become a friend. 

Have done a good few orders over the past couple of weeks so been fun, love making bows.

I have attended my first market since Oct last year- so lazy. Munchkin Markets in Burwood was the location. Wasn't very busy but I did get to show some enthusiastic kids who were fascinated by how I made them. They sat next to me the whole day and watched what I did. Fun was had by all.

That's a few things I have been up to so hopefully I can post about some other wonderful things that will be happening in the future.

Lace anyone?

I love lace

I have a bit of a collection, all different colours, widths I just love them. 
I listed just some of them on Craftumi to share around with other people. Brown, pink, vintage cream, green, yellow you name it I think I have it.

so check them out here.

Chocolate to some is ribbon to me..

I love ribbon.. I love it even more than chocolate and that's saying something, I do like my chocolate.

As in most diets I have had to restrict my addiction to this wonderful stuff and I have made a pact that I will only buy ribbon when I have run out of a ribbon or I budget it in (which hardly happens).

I have many a place that I get my fix from but I have found the holy grail that meets my every wish.. All sizes and colours that you can think off. Hip Girl Boutique is the best ribbon source around. When I feel blue or need some inspiration for my hair clip making I just hop on this site and click around and there is definitely some inspiration. There is a forum that has great info and hints & instructions for anyone to use.
If you love ribbon or want to have a look at what other people do out there with ribbon check it out you might get the craving that I have haha. 

Buttons... glorious buttons.

I was inspired by little adelaide kate and her pics of her buttons and I had to share with you all my buttons. I just love buttons I have had to ban myself from buying any more. I have actually made things with them like button flowers and various other things.
When I feel down or need some inspiration I just open my boxes of buttons, they always bring a smile on my face. Do you get the same feeling from buttons or some other fantastic crafty item?
Please share....


Kim :-)

Going to try this recipe on the weekend

Preparation Time

120 - 210 minutes

Cooking Time

5 minutes

Makes

80

Ingredients

• 500g light fruitcake, coarsely chopped
• 100g dark chocolate melts, melted
• 60ml (1/4 cup) brandy
• 2 tbs apricot jam
• 250g dark chocolate melts, extra
• 60g copha, chopped
• 150g white chocolate melts, melted
• Red and green glace cherries, finely chopped, to decorate

Method

1. Place the cake in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the dark chocolate, brandy and jam. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until slightly firm.
2. Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Stir the cake mixture. Roll 2-teaspoonful quantities of cake mixture into balls and place on the lined trays. Place in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm.
3. Place the extra dark chocolate and copha in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Cook on High/800watts/100% for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.
4. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Use a truffle dipper or fork to dip 1 truffle in the chocolate mixture to coat. Remove truffle, tapping the dipper or fork on the side of the bowl to shake off excess chocolate. Place on 1 lined tray. Repeat with remaining truffles and chocolate mixture. Set aside to set.
5. Spoon the white chocolate into a small sealable plastic bag. Cut 1 corner from the bag to make a small hole. Drizzle a little white chocolate over each truffle. Top with glace cherry to decorate. Set aside until set.

Very excited....

Just thought I’d share with you that my pack of 25 scrabble tiles listing was featured in the craftumi weekly newsletter that they send to all subscribers. I’ve never been featured before in any newsletter so I’m very excited.

More listings on craftumi.com.au

Have gone through the craft room and decided to let go of my scrabble tile collection that I have.

Packs of 25 and 50 are now available on www.craftumi.com.au

Don’t you hate having to let go of some of your craft stash, going to miss these one’s I think but had to be done.

Kim :-)

Craftumi.com.au

Decided that I would try out madeit.com.au’s sister site for craft supplies.

www.craftumi.com.au

I like a lot of crafters out there have excess supplies that we would love to share with the rest of the crafting world and so madeit.com.au made this fabulous other site just for us to sell supplies.

I decided I would sell off some of my stash of bling rhinestone trim that I bought way to much of and I am also going to do a massive raid of my craft room and put some more fab stuff up soon.

I’ll let you know what I find.

So come check out the website I can see a few things that I would love but I better stay away from.. need to shrink the supplies not increase them ha-ha :-)

Kim :-)

New listings on madeit.com.au

Have been nice and busy over the weekend taking some photos of my new stock. I have just listed some more on my website come check it out.

Free shipping

Just updated my madeit.com.au site with all free shipping and only 50c there after for each additional product. So come check it out..

Kim :-)

Another useful website

Google ruler and you get heaps of hits but the first website you get is iruler.net this website is the best when you cannot be bothered to find your ruler on your desk.

It checks your screen somehow and gives you a near perfect ruler that you can use straight away.

I have this bookmarked for such occasions when the good old ruler is hiding and doesn't want to be found.

Kim :-)

Right glue for your project

Have you always wondered what glue should be using for your project your working on... I sometimes get it wrong so when I found this website I just had to share it...

www.thistothat.com

Its really easy to use so bookmark it on your computer and when you need to work out what glue to use to put back together the broken vase your lovely dear one has broken just jump on your computer and in 2 clicks you'll be fixed.

Kim :-)

pink with brown ladybug hair clip / bows

Just love the colouring of this ribbon, great for any occasion. I have just added a few pics of new hair clips on flickr come check it out on http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjpdesigns/

regards,

Kim :-)

KJPDesigns on madeit

KJPDesigns on madeit

Please check my store out.

I love this website not just for selling but buying quality home made Australian products. There is just so many wonderful different things you can find and their all home made.

Kim:-)

New dress a day

I can't remember how I got on to this great website but I just had to tell someone about my daily routine of checking this website.

www.newdressaday.com

This great girl called Marisa in America has come up with a great idea of altering a cheap dress that she gets from flea markets or op shops each day and creates a new dress or piece of clothing out of it.

She gave herself a budget of $1 a day and each day she has done something fantastic with some type of dress. Massive dresses, bridal party dresses, vintage pieces all types of dresses she gets and turns them in to something great that she can wear that day.

I'm fasinated in how she does things and how dedicated she is, I would have given up ages ago but she's still sticken to it today is day 227 and she has $137 to go and she is in day 2 of bridesmaid week where she is turning really bad bridesmaid dresses into something way better.

So have to give her a massive shout out and why not check out her website like I do pretty much everyday can't miss it.

Kim :-)

the world of Blythe

For the past couple of months I have gotten into the world of Blythe dolls- freaky kind of doll that has an abnormally big head for a doll.

Flickr is a massive community for blythe collectors and you can easily find info on blythe's out there in the big wide world.

I caught the bug like I said a couple of months ago when I searched for big headed doll as I saw a photo someone had on their blog of a doll with bright blue wicked hair and I just had to find out what it was... type in big headed doll and look in images, you'll get heaps of pics of blythes.

I investigated a little further and I kind of fell in love with the doll, their big eyes and huge heads are what attracted me to them, sounds weird I know.

Collecting has always been in my blood most of my family collects something.

One of the best websites to get info about Blythes is www.weplaywithdolls.net

They have a great forum that you can surf and find info about the dolls including customising your doll and if you have any questions you can put it to the community and someone will probably know the answer.

This group also holds yearly blythe meets, I attended one on the 19th of June in adelaide and it was great fun.

I have collected 3 Blythes so far I just couldn't help myself. I also have a petite blythe which is a really cute small blythe. they really need names though.

Customising my dolls is my next big challenge, I have so far learnt how to get my blythes head open and have matted her face, matting is where you take the shine off their face with a fine sanding pad- it looks more natural I think to have matted skin.

I have also changed her eye colours and also her eye lashes so they are longer. I got most of the help from either weplaywithdolls.net or http://www.puchicollective.com/tutorials this site is also great for how to's of customising your doll.

Blythe collecting is an expensive hobby. The bigger blythes, about 28cms tall, can range from 100USD + freight upwards and the skys the limited on how much, I have seen some on ebay for $1k so yes a very expensive hobby.

Petite blythes- these are the really tiny ones, about 11cm tall can range from 35USD + freight and up.

There is a lot more petite blythes than the bigger blythes but trying to find clothes for Petite Blythes is hard to come by...

Some good places to buy clothes for both the big blythe and the petite blythes it www.etsy.com and also ebay.

I bought 2 of my dolls from ebay, I have one suggestion for buying blythe from ebay, phantom bid. I used www.phantombid.com to bid for me for my second blythe and I set it so that in the last 3 seconds it would bid for me and I got it... so much easier than sitting on the computer in the last stages of bidding wars on ebay for any item. People tend to bid early on blythes so it can be annoying and costly so watch out.

So if you like weird and wacky things I'm sure you'll love blythes they are much more interesting than your average barbie doll so get on out their in the big wide world of blythe.

If you have any comments on great places to find info on blythe or great places to shop for blythe just drop me a comment.

Thanks for reading... Kim :-)