Craft magazines - February - review and inspiration

I did promise a craft magazine round up of a couple of mags I bought recently and what I like about them. The first one I have is Cross Stitch Crazy. Of all the cross stitching mags this is usually one that has the most for me as there is a lovely selection of projects that are short and ones that take longer. This month - the March issue 252 cost £4.99 has a free gift which I have stitched.

The cross stitch kit is on the front of the magazine and has the chart and a framed card blank, threads, a needle, some little felt flowers and even an envelope. Mine was posted this morning to my Stampin' Up up-line Sam who has just bought me a lovely bundle of Stampin Up goodies for passing a particular milestone and so it is a thank you card to her.

The card took me a whole weekend to cross stitch in between lifeboat duty sunday morning and the usual mealtimes etc. So it was relatively quick! I then spent some time deliberating about the card. Although the card blank in the kit was very pretty as well as 3 little felt flowers that were to be sewn to the front I thought the card colours were richer and this wasn't showing so I tried some card I have in my stash called Blackberry Bliss - which is a really dark purple. See the pictures below for the difference it makes to the cross stitch.

I used my stampin' trimmer to cut a new cover for this, I also added some calypso coral as an additional window to the card. The photo above shows the placement of double sided tape. I put the cross stitch in the aperture first and then folded over the piece of card to cover the back where all the knots are.

Ta Da! This is it finished. I put some stampin up buttons on it instead of the felt flowers, this did cost me additional postage but I think it was worth it.

As well as the free gift there are some lovely other things in the magazine including a nice bright alphabet this month (there is an alphabet every month I like this feature) and lots of quick small images particularly featuring weddings and some fabulous bright butterflies. Lots of ideas for Mothers day cards.
My second magazine is Simply knitting and there are a couple of jumpers I really liked in this issue and some colour ways I like to - see pictures below. Some of these I am going to try on my cards.

- This is issue 182 and costs £5.99 and it included some sort knitting needles in wood on the front which I have given to a friend whose granddaughter is learning to knit. 

I really like this jumper and think the white lines on the pattern look very interesting. I also liked a toy giraffe pattern. 

I am definitely making this jumper for my I-pad. It is made with two different balls of wool but I am going to use a verigated wool that is already in my starting to grow stash! It is on double pointed needles or a circular so that will make it more interesting. I am going to try and make this in between some very BIG knitting projects I am working on at the moment. I am not sure why I am buying knitting magazines - I really need to get those projects finished first!

Love this cushion with paws!!

Really love these colours - am restraining myself from checking out the wool and patterns!

And this is the February issue of Burda with lots of patterns inside. It costs £5.49 and is my favourite magazine that I get every month, however I have not made anything for a while, I really feel I need to lose some weight before I start making clothes again. I love this skirt on the cover in a pic arc style pattern and the colours  are lush!

Inside are some fashions with a real classy of patterns which was echoed by Vogue as really on trend at the moment. I might have a go at trying this in my crafting as sometimes the double sided papers have each side of the paper that the colours blend together so that might be a starting point. The February issue features some toddler clothes, some nice basics that can be smart of casual and colour blocking brought up to date as well as some very feminine work styles with spotted and unshamefully patterned fabrics.

I haven't got anything to show as a make from this magazine ....yet but you never know! I caught up on the Great British Sewing Bee which is starting series 5 and I am definitely tying into this one on BBC Tuesday evenings. I already have next months magazines ready to review in a couple of weeks so look out for an article on that in early March. I am also going to the Farnborough Make It show and the Knitting and Stitching show in Olympia in March so I am sure I will be absolutely bursting with new ideas for projects and pick up on the current trends as well as some old favourites.

JoPx