Craft News!

Hey Crafters,

If any of you are going along to the Knitting & Stitching Show in London over the next few days be sure to pop by Quadrille's stand at F26. Quadrille are the wonderful publishers of our Belle & Boo Book of Craft, and on Sunday they will be having an all day Belle & Boo picnic where you can make your own friendship bracelet.  I will be going to the show on Saturday and I cannot wait to be in yarn heaven.
Here's a picture by Quadrille of our Boo packed and ready to go to the show!

(Image Credit: Quadrille Craft)

In other craft news, Belle & Boo have become cover stars of the latest Cross Stitcher magazine. Get your copy now so you can stitch up a beautiful winter scene using an illustration from Mandy's newest Christmas picture book.

Love, Clare x

Be Inspired By... Fabric // Messenger Bag

(All image credit: My Red Wellies)

Oh if there is one thing we love here at Belle & Boo it's attention to detail, and boy has Emma gone to town with that with her homemade messenger bag! This gorgeous brown tweed bag is fully lined in our woodland walk fabric (available in from Spotlight stores), but the bits that really make the bag so special is the gorgeous 'meet me at mikes'  covered button and matching patch on the strap, and the 'found' label on the side.

For more details on the pattern and how Emma made the bag, head over to her blog.

Love, Clare

x

Be Inspired By... Fabric // Arm Chairs

 I was going through some photos on Instagram the other day when in the background of one of the photos I spied something rather amazing. I immediately contacted the photo's owner, Sarah, and she sent us this photo. How amazing is this? Potentially the world's first Belle & Boo chair?

Sarah had the chair upholstered in our Classic Belle & Boo fabric for her daughter Anja's bedroom.

Anja is definitely one little girl I am a bit jealous of! What a perfect spot she has to cosy up and read some Belle & Boo picture books.

(Image Credit: Sarah Kerr)

And here's the gorgeous photo of Anja playing with her Belle & Boo teaset that first caught my eye.

(Image Credit: Sarah Kerr)

If you've used our fabric and you'd like to share your creation with us you can tag us on Instagram with #belleandboo or send us an email to hello@belleandboo.com

Love, Clare

Be Inspired By... Fabric

Clever Jaime made this beautiful party dress for her daughter using our Belle & Boo Tea Party fabric. We think it is so pretty!

(Image Credit: Jaime Russell)
(Fabric available exclusively at Spotlight stores in Australia and New Zealand)

Have you been sewing with our fabric? Show us what you've done! Tag it on Instagram as #belleandboo or send us an email.

Love Clare

Be Inspired By.... Fabric

We adore these patchwork skirts made by Lalalingy of our 'Woodland Walk' fabric combined with pretty florals and spots.  We hope this gorgeous perfectly mismatched approach inspires you as much as it does us.

(Image Credits: Lalalingy)

Have you been sewing with our fabric? Show us what you've done. Tag it on Instagram as #belleandboo or send us an email.

Love, Clare x

Beautiful Cross Stitch

Look at these gorgeous royal cushions! Diane, who test stitched this pattern for us, has gone on to cross stitch another two cushions for her family!
This is a great example of how individual styling can make the design look so different. In contrast to the ones we made up with  navy and red fabric, Diane has piped these cushions in a soft pink and backed it in our classic Belle & Boo fabric.
Just lovely! If you want to stitch your own cushion, you can purchase the pattern from our website.

Love from,
Clare

New Royal Cross Stitch Design!

We cordially invite you to view our latest craft venture - our Royal Announcement Cross Stitch Cushion. Specially designed to commemorate the arrival of the royal baby, this darling cross stitch features a new illustration of a very heraldic little Boo with his trumpet.

It is the perfect way to commemorate your own little princes and princesses too as it comes with an alphabet so you can customise it with whatever name you please.

The cushion is the first in a series of new cross stitch designs from us. We're really looking forward to designing and charting more up for you.

A big thank you must go to our incredibly talented 'test stitchers', Emily and Dianne, who did such a gorgeous job in stitching the design up for us. We are so grateful for the time they gave us and in awe of the amazing job they both did. And can't forget Robin from Belle & Boo HQ (who is our resident sewer!) for making them into the lovely cushions.

The PDF is downloadable from www.belleandboo.com for £3.99, which means you don't have to wait for the postman to arrive, you can start it right now... so what are you waiting for?!

Love, Clare
x

Book of Craft Boo Toy

We had a question over on Twitter about some specifics in making the Boo toy from the Book of Craft. Our lovely friends at Quadrille came to the rescue with answering it so we shall impart the information here for you all too!

They were asked about the thickness of the felt for Boo....
"If using shop-bought felt, go for 4mm. Use nice big over stitches when stitching pieces so stuffing doesn't leak. For Boo in the book, we boil washed a thrift store cashmere sweater to felt it down and make a lovely soft felt. "

(Photography: Laura Edwards)

Hope this helps!
Love, Clare x

Exclusive Launch: The Belle & Boo Book of Craft

We are so delighted to share with you the exciting news of the exclusive launch of our new craft book!

We've all been anxiously waiting it's arrival, here at Belle & Boo HQ, and we're so thrilled with what the team at Quadrille Publishing have produced - it is simply stunning.

The book is full colour and features 25 gorgeous projects for you to make for both the little girls and little boys in your life. The projects range from beginner paper crafts, to knitting, to advanced sewing so really there's something for everyone.  I have to say though, I think my favourite project would have to be the pattern for the Boo plush, he is just too cute for words.

(Photography by Laura Edwards)

To coincide with the book launch, we have also produced a new fabric panel featuring a variety of fat quarter panels, which will go rather nicely with the patchwork quilt pattern featured in the book!

 (Photography by Laura Edwards)

 (click to enlarge to see the pretty patterns on the fabric panel!)

Happy crafting, everyone! 

Love, Clare

x

Be Inspired By... Fabric

Since our fabric launched in Spotlight we've seen an amazing array of home sewn Belle & Boo creations from our friends in Australia and New Zealand.

Be inspired by this 'bff' embroidery on our 'Woodland Walk' fabric created by Sarah for her daughter's birthday. So pretty!

(Image Credit: Saraha on Instagram)

Have you been sewing or creating beautiful things with our fabric? Show us what you've done. Tag it on Instagram as #belleandboo or send us an email.

Love, Clare

x

Be Inspired By.....

Welcome to one of our new regular features on the blog! It's here we plan to inspire you of all the lovely crafty/diy things you can do with Belle and Boo goods. We're hoping to not only offer inspiration but occasionally tutorials too. You'll be able to find all our crafty posts from the new craft menu button above.

First up is tape! 

We spied the gorgeous tape creations below over on our Instagram and all examples use our Parade Tape.

Ikea picture frame with cut out 'Belle and Boo' decorative tape on the edges.  (I always love a bit of Ikea Hacking!)

(Image Credit: Bestowed Collections)

Beautiful birthday parcel wrapping

 (Image Credit: Lalalingy)

Using tape and twine to spruce up noodle boxes to then use as gift boxes!

 (Image Credit: Lalalingy)

Have you done anything creative with our tape? Or do you plan to? Let us know what you're up to by sending us photos or if you're on Instagram then hashtag the picture #belleandboo so we can see it!

Big thanks to the ever creative Lalalingy and Bestowed Collections for sharing their photos with us.

Clare x