Handmade Creations: There Is A War On You Know...

An ode (not A node) to Mr Doris - a birthday gift from Clever Doris with input from offspring (and praise be to thanks to a good friend with a Mac and Indesign skills).

I like to make prezzies for people and am usually met with gasps of 'Oh you really shouldn't have (no really, you shouldn't have)'. Even the young Clevers haven't escaped the gifting-clutches of their doting mother Clever Doris, particularly last christmas when CD had more time on her hands due to being in the throes of an intented work sabbatical. It's a big risk; trying to avoid falling into the dangerous category of being the provider of dodgy handknitted gifts from a well-meaning, short sighted octogenarian who smells of cabbage and boiled eggs.

Rest assured I bought them stuff as well; I'm not a complete nutter...

A Supermario patchwork quilt made for Clever Norris, nervously presented to him on Christmas day. Idea completely nicked from Pinterest (don't look too closely at the joins...!)

Clever Maurice handpainted in acrylic on canvas. I produced it from a photo he'd taken of himself. Luckily he loved it. I rather think it appealed to the vanity of a 12 year boy...

Another CD handpainted canvas taken from the front cover of a well-thumbed Peter Pan book which both Clever offspring once adored.

A pencil roll: an essential (and perhaps completely flippant) piece of kit for any young budding crafter. Admittedly I did have rather a lot of time on my hands...

Not a particularly original idea but thought it would be a perfect project for the festering bedroom of a pre-teen. I've made a number of items from vinyl records including coasters and bowls. Young folk usually respond with "what are these black round things?"... a response which always makes a Doris feel ancient!

I can't actually take credit for these. These 3 bean tin robots are the creations of Clever Norris and Mr Doris. Mr Doris has an enviable plethora of junk in his domain - the garage. Let me introduce you to Bean Tin Bob, Bean Tin Bert and Bean Tin Bill. Aside from bean tins they were built from bicycle reflectors, vitamin bottle lids, spanners, springs, nuts and bolts, a venetian blind bracket and goggly eyes. Killed an afternoon anyway...

We all have drawers full of lovely little scribbles from our young Clevers don't we? I particularly loved this one as it was one of the first legible drawings young CN produced. So I wanted to honour it rather than just saying "yeah how lovely" before stuffing it into a drawer in readiness for it to be brought out in about 15 years time to sob uncontrollably over after he'd fled the nest... Anyway I transferred this little masterpiece onto calico fabric via the medium of an overhead projector and pencil. Each line was then backstitched in embroidery thread.