Made With Love by Kat

It's Mollie Makes ! The website to accompany the UK's most gorgeous craft magazine is a treasure trove of projects, ideas and inspiration. I particularly love their recent feature on "10 ways to use t-shirt yarn" . All the images are fabulously pinnable, and they're very generous with the freebies - from how-tos to desktop wallpaper. All in all, a craft lover's dream!

Lia Griffith is a "designer, maker and handcrafted design expert". She's also a goshdarn genius when it comes to running a DIY blog - hers is lushly photographed, inventive, original and easy to understand. Her wedding printables are so gorgeous they actually make me want to get married! head over for inspiration on how to put some luxury into your crafting. And next Christmas I am definitely making a bunch of these gorgeous felt fox present toppers!

Poppytalk must be one of the longest running craft blogs on the internet - in fact, they've just celebrated their 10th anniversary with a special online magazine . Their "101 Awesome Weekend Projects to Bookmark" feature should keep you busy from now until Christmas...

PS I Made This is perfect for dipping into when you fancy creating something but you're feeling short of inspiration. There are literally hundreds of projects on the site of varying levels of complexity and across a huge range of skills. Brilliant for passing the time during this horrendous so-called Summer weather. I also love the little mood/inspiration board images with each project.

First up in my daily countdown of my five favourite crafty blogs is the sister act blog A Beautiful Mess . Elsie and Emma share everything from craft ideas and recipes to their amazing room redesigns. They make me want to redecorate sooooooooo bad. Their craft ideas range from the simple ( these gorgeous marbled clay pendants ) to the slightly more labour intensive (I love this macrame yarn garland ) but everything is within the abilities of your average crafty gal (or guy). I definitely also need to buy their photo idea book to get some fresh inspiration.

We went to Norfolk on our holibobs this year, and I got so much inspiration at the Holkham Hall walled gardens, both for my own garden and for my jewellery: I can't wait to start making things this weekend! Keep an eye on the blog from tomorrow for my rundown of my five favourite crafty blogs for inspiration!

It's a bit geeky, I know, but some of the product photography on Folksy just blows me away. So I though rather than picking my favourite items according to a theme I would pick the ones which I think have had most love put into the pictures. Inspirational for us all, I think you'll agree! William Wordswoof sock dog from Hotdog And Me. I love all of Hotdog's pics and creations, but this one is particularly cute - love they way she's used the snow to create a cool background, and William Wordswoof is at the edge of the frame, almost like a holiday pic. Ceramic cupcake candleholders by Lauren Cermics. The composition of this picture is so simple - it really suits Lauren's elegant ceramics. Plus they're a bargain. Shakesperian Valentine hearts by Bookity. I can't imagine how long it took to get everything hanging just right, but it was well worth it. Set of four owl notecards by Gooseberrymoon. There must have been some contortions to photograph these fro...

Someone on the messageboards at Folksy was discussing inspiration and people's plans for 2009, which reminded me that a couple of weeks ago I promised to post some pictures from the notebooks which I keep pictures in I like and which I think might give me ideas for new pieces of jewellery. So here's a sneak peek... Because a lot of my jewellery is made from vintage brooches, earrings, keys etc, what I make depends very much on what catches my eye when I'm rummaging through car boots, flea markets and eBay. As you can probably see from the notebooks and my previous posts, I love the idea of old carnivals, so I couldn't resist buying these multi-coloured cloisonne earrings: They reminded me of the merry-go-rounds in Victorian fairs, or of candy canes. I was also lucky enough to stumble on these gorgeous Coro enamel earrings: I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but hopefully it will be very special. I also found this tiny sparkling bow brooch,. It ne...

On Tuesday I published some images and thoughts about Frances Hodgson Burnett's book The Secret Garden and Englishness. I keep meaning to post some photographs of the notebooks that I keep all my ideas and inspiration in, but it occured to me that I also save a lot of pictures that I find onto my computer. Here's just a selection that I think illustrate what's going on in my head at the moment and might give you some hints what the new jewellery's going to look like... Clockwise from top left: swallow and flower sillhouettes, Victorian carnival poster, black and white photograph of Tom Waits by Anton Corbijn, Brian Dettmer book autopsy, image from The Wizard Of Oz, Image from Opera North's production of Mercy and Grand, a Venetian masked ball, image from Alice In Wonderland, promotional image for The Lowry's production of Something Wicked This Way Comes. On another note, I had my fastest sale ever this week - I completed a matching necklace and bracelet based ar...

As well as fairytales (see the entry "You shall go to the ball!"), when I was little I loved books with secret worlds like The Sceret Garden and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by nature - there were woods on my school property, we had a lovely garden and my best friend had huge sprawls of lawns, bushes and woods. "The Secret Garden" was a favourite game. Now I'm making jewellery, images from those books keep popping back into my head. The colour combinations, the tiny brass swallows (which I get from New York - I can't for the life of me find any in England) and the use of antique keys all spring from my own idea of "the secret garden". I think part of the appeal of these stories is that they tie in with my own romanticised idea of England - if I could ever find a tea shop in Lancashire where the fondant fancies are served on three-tier cake stands I'd be a happy girl indeed. I hope that my neckla...