Supermoon Monday

Okay! We've had all our September family birthdays; we've had Halloween, and Bonfire Night; and this last week has seen Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday passing in their turn. Every year I get the feeling this is the right time to turn thoughts to the festive season and gift ideas. And tonight there was a supermoon which, apparently, was the largest since 1948, which just happens to be the year I was born!  I think its an omen! Tomorrow let the stitching begin!

I have made a start - I took some inspiration from Minki and Kristin's fabulous book Sew Illustrated and stitched a couple of coaster sets using patterns in the book.  Seeing photos on my Instagram account my sister ordered her Christmas gift and now I have a suspicion "coasters" will be written against quite a few names on my gift list this year! And they look so nice tied up with a matching gift tag don't you think!.

I chose some suitable images from my stamp collection and a piece of lovely red gingham for the Christmas coaster set. Its easy to transfer designs to the fabric by stamping them with a light neutral colour ink like grey or brown and machine stitching over the inked lines. However my preferred way to transfer the patterns is to use the images printed on the stamps' acetate holding sheet and trace them with an erasable pen. Use a light box if you have one or, in the traditional way, tape to a window. Outline stamps work best.

I've also made some bookmarks using stamps.  They are perfect little personal extras to slip in with a gift book - and who doesn't enjoy a new book at Christmas. Now, I need a little Pinterest browsing to fill up some of those other empty spaces on my 'to-make' gift list. Time is slipping past so quickly.... I thought I was writing this post at the beginning of the month but suddenly find its already half way through!!! Agh!!

More Origami

Still got the paperfolding bug..... I think its going to be my thing in 2016! Really love these stars I learnt how to fold here on the Homemade Gifts Made Easy blog. There are video and photo tutorials. They are so nice I'll probably leave them up after Christmas.

There is one other star I want to learn and haven't worked out very well yet. Its the German paper star made by folding long strips of paper. My sister moved to a new job in Berlin this year so I'm hoping to decorate her Christmas gift with one tonight. I'll show you later if it works out. This is what they are supposed to look like!


Here's the source:  http://www.craftideas.info/html/german_paper_star.html

Finally I'd like to send all my lovely followers (and especially you fantastic few who regularly send me such kind comments) this wonderful old Christmas card (I think its 1950s) I found on ebay a few years ago. LOVE IT!

Jingle all the way....

I've been rather obsessed by bells this Christmas season - almost everything I've made has had a jingle added! There are lots of bells on these snowflakes I've made to hang in the window.

I saw these Pierced Snowflake dies from MFT (My Favorite Things) on the Make the Day Special Blog and really liked what Jenny had done with them. There are lots of snowflake dies on the market, and I do have a few, but these are really pretty and even though I often have difficulty with larger dies on my ancient cuttlebug, these cut perfectly and even the tiny dots around the edges are well defined.

As usual I've used cereal box card. Yes, all these really are cut from just cereal boxes - there is no top layer of fancy paper. As snowflakes are, of course, symmetrical I cut two for each and glued them back to back. As soon as I've glued each shape I quickly put it under something heavy to keep it flat and well stuck - a pile of magazines is perfect as you can put two or three between each magazine with a big pile on the top.

The white card comes from a rather expensive cereal I always buy when its on offer, but I really like the natural card too. You'd probably pay quite a lot for "Kraft" cardstock in a shop or on line so before you assign your empty grocery packets and boxes to the recycling bin I'd advise you to take a second look - you never know what you'll find inside!

I've joined the snowflakes together with jumprings and added the bells with jumprings too so that they stay loose and jingle nicely. The one with red bells has a couple of beads added too. A bit of wire or twine would do just as good a job if you don't have jumprings in your stash.

They don't have to be joined together though, they are just as pretty on their own. But of course I still couldn't stop myself adding a bell or two! :o)

Just realised the background in that photo looks a bit strange! No, I haven't shut the cat in the cupboard - its a bottlebrush fox waiting to be released and put on the Christmas tree! However I have to admit Titch is finding it difficult to get a comfortable spot for her naps amongst all the chaos that is my Christmas crafting space!!!

Christmas papercrafting remembered.....

Christmas always brings back memories of happy childhood cutting and sticking for me. Remember egg box bells for the tree, cut paper snowflakes for the window, gummed paper strip chains hung from the corners of the room to the lampshade in the middle of the ceiling and paper lanterns? Happy days!

I still like making decorations but nowadays they are rather more sophisticated versions made with the aid of papercrafting dies. This year I've fallen for the Take a Bough set from a new company Concord & 9th. I have to admit these little trees are rather time consuming to make - I'd envisaged a whole forest but so far have only managed three!

These music trees are usually popular on my craft fair stall - folks like to give them as teacher gifts (especially music teachers) and this year one lady said her son was a music director and thought them perfect for his tree. I was very flattered!

I rather fell for the black and white version myself - quite sophisticated considering they are created from that old favourite, cereal packet cardboard! The dies are past releases from Wplus9 and Papertrey Ink.

And as always I can't resist a bit of pretty packaging. It doesn't take long and always makes for a more professional presentation - I think so anyway. Cut a square of card to fit the width of your cello bag, stamp with appropriate festive images (these are from Waltzing Mouse Stamps), fold in half and staple over the top of the bag. I put a piece of clear acetate in with the trees too to stop them moving about in the packet.

Finally here's a reminder of those iconic Christmas makes - I'm sure you remember them all. There are links back to all these creations on my Christmas ideas Pinterest board. You'll find lots of other fabulous craftiness there too.  Don't you just LOVE Pinterest!!

I know... its been WEEKS!!!

Where does the time go! As usual November has been a busy time for crafters and mine has been manic what with work, volunteering, caring, hospital visiting and crafting to fit in. I've attended three craft fairs in the last three weeks so please do accept my apologies for my long silence.  But now they're done I've a bit more time to get back to my own Christmas preparations and last night I did something I've wanted to do for ages - I learnt how to weave those pretty Danish paper hearts.

And as they say, practise makes perfect, so I make a lot! I bought a die from here a couple of years ago and did try to master the technique at the time but failed for some reason. But I hate to let anything beat me so I watched Eline's video again, pausing it on every move to keep up, and eventually, as with everything, it clicked.

I think where I went wrong last time was I tried to use cardstock instead of paper, but you can't manipulate card, even thin card.  However I did use the card cuts - I snipped them in half, did the weaving and glued the two halves back to back. You don't get the pocket of course but they make pretty  decorations to hang on the tree or in a window.

But of course the idea of the heart pockets it to put little treats in them. I had the old Christmas favourite Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps in mind but didn't find any locally. Do they still exist? However I found these Whitaker Mint Crisps at B&Ms - the company has been in existence in Skipton, Yorkshire since 1889 and I love an old family business that manages to keep on going in these times of the giant faceless multinational conglomerate - especially a company founded by a woman! That's her on the box - Ida Whitaker. They smell gorgeous and are packaged beautifully with lovely old photos of the Whitakers and staff on the boxes. I haven't eaten any yet but that dark chocolate and mint smell just oozes Christmas to me!

And the mint creams come in my favourite flavors of coffee and mint too. Well..... it is nearly Christmas!

I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging in the run up to the Big Day as I've got lots of other festive projects to share. Hope your preparations are all going to plan. Now back to mine!

World Card Making Day.............just!!!

Didn't realise it was so late in the day! However as a cardmaker I thought I really must post today.  I don't think I'm going to make it by midnight UK time, but as its an American celebration there's still time, right? And I have been cardmaking this week using some of my old favourite Christmas stamps and a fab new set from Clare at Waltzing Mouse stamps.

Clare comes up with a design I can't resist every year and this year its Scandi Doodle Christmas. I'm a real admirer of Scandinavian design, especially at Christmas. You can probably guess which are Waltzing Mouse stamps in this picture! There are some other brands though. The two little elves are Hero Arts Stamps by Lia and the All is Calm set is from Neat & Tangled's 2014 release. The other designs (Father Christmas, Christmas Pud and Reindeer) are so old I can't remember where they came from but are real favourites I use every year.

Well its now half past midnight here in the UK so I have missed the boat big style, but I'm going with US time - its still 3rd October there! As you can see its been stamping in the sunshine here - not very Christmassy but glorious just the same.

More like midsummer than Christmas, but with the added bonus of Autumn colour! Just fabulous!

Au Naturele!

I ordered these simple plywood shapes with the intention of painting them but when they arrived found they were very pretty already.  They've been laser cut so the edges are burnt a lovely rustic brown and on one side the edges are slightly "distressed".  So I decided to keep them 'au naturale' and have decorated them using just my pyrography pen and a bit of red ink for the robin.  On the hearts I've stamped images in a light colour and then burned over them. 

You might remember I used the same technique last year on cut wooden slices.  I've bought some more this year to sell at my next craft fair on 6th!  Yikes - better get burning!

Dala Horses everywhere!

Where does the time go?  Only a month till Christmas so I think I need to get into present creating mode!  I've always loved the Scandinavian style Christmas and Dala horses are a favourite image at this time of year.  My sister is a horsey person and loves adding to her Christmas decorations each year so I think she will like a set of these felt horses. I used the new papercraft dies from Eline Pellinkhof at Cuddly Buddly.  I simplified the patterned decoration a bit and didn't use all the tiny dies.

And there's more......  I found these wooden shapes on ebay from Wiff of the Woods - perfect for painting.  I used the same dies to cut the decoration pieces and used some of that horrible felt they give away with craft magazine free kits.  I can't make myself throw it away even though I never make any of those kits up.  I knitted a few of the little horse sachets for a recent craft fair and filled them with Christmas spices.  They sold out but I found this one left behind under a chair the other day - absolutely love that spicy scent.  And finally I've stamped some simple cards using a small stamp set also from Eline at Cuddly Buddly.

There's a nice history and video on the making of Dala horses on The Swedish Wooden Horse Company's website.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas.....

I'm almost done making - just a few bits and bobs to finish off.  So today I'm posting these cute little fairies that will be wrapped up with a few other Christmas goodies in the little houses I showed you yesterday.  They are made by a Fairtrade project in India and I bought them at a Christmas Fair earlier in December held at a National Trust property.  The red one is, of course, a Christmas Fairy and the pink one a Princess Fairy. 

(source)

The business is the brain child of a beautiful girl called Louise from Brighton and here she is with some of her sewing ladies.  Its called Believe You Can and I really wish I'd looked it up before as I could have bought more goodies for the fairy-loving members of the family.  But then there's always next year, and birthdays.  I would love it if you'd visit Louise's wonderful project too and perhaps buy a thing or two.  I know the recipients of my fairies won't appreciate the story behind them, but as I said to the stall holder at the fair, I certainly do.

On the Eleventh day..... we're nearly there!

I bought a job lot of these little acrylic cottages some time ago so I think its about time one or two saw the light of day.  I filled these two with nail polish and other nail related bits and pieces I hope will please two gorgeous young girls in the family.  They are finished off with stuffed crochet hearts attached to clips I thought could be key rings, bag charms or to tag something else that needs quick identification, such as a suitcase.

I can't put my hand on the heart pattern at the moment but I think its probably this one from Le monde de Sucrette. 

One more day to go and I hope you are all more on schedule with what you want to do than I am!  I expect my friend Baukje is - she seems to get so much done in a short time.  Take a look at her Twelve Days of Christmas for more inspiration.

On the Tenth day its time to Wrap!

Heck I've nearly missed my tenth day post - its been a busy day with work and then family arrivals for the holiday, but there was just time to wrap a couple of parcels before midnight.

To be honest I don't really go to town with wrapping, it seems a bit of a waste to me, and I certainly hate to see all those recycling bins overflowing with the detritus of Christmas on the first collection day after the festivities.  So every year I like to reuse paper I've collected from parcels and packing.  There was a long length of crumpled brown paper in one parcel I received sometime in the last 12 months and I remember smoothing it out and rolling it up for just this moment.  It was easy to turn it into Christmas wrap with a small reindeer stamped randomly all over in chocolate brown.  And garden raffia to tie it up just seemed right.  My simple office stationery tags finished off the the home made look I think.  I even reused one of those board backed envelopes in the same way for one gift - can't say what it was but it was flat and had 12 pages!!! ;o)

Stamps:  Folk Art Christmas Additions and Twas the Night Before Christmas from Waltzingmouse Stamps

On the ninth day of Christmas..... crocheted stars

I was hoping to give hyacinths in bloom as Christmas gifts this year........... err, no!  Late as usual!  But they'll be something to look forward to after the festivities are over and will bring a hint of Springtime on its way.  Anyway I thought the bulbs needed a bit of adornment (though I think they are beautiful in their own right) so I'm crocheting last minute stars to match the pots they are growing in.

My good friend Baukje sent me a beautiful star last Christmas and I managed to track down the pattern in ATERGcrochet's shop on Etsy to make some for myself. 

Here's the lovely softly coloured star Baukje made for me and here's the link to the pattern shop if you'd like to make some too. 

Remember Baukje is crafting away till Christmas too so do visit her for some more last minute inspiration.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas.....

Thought you might like to see the fabulous sunset we had yesterday - the colours were so strong they reflected onto the clouds on the other side of the vale.  There was a sprinkling of snow on the hills too.  Beautiful!

Its time to get out the decorations from their long hibernation under the stairs.  I've been collecting old decorations for years and I'm very fond of these 50s transparent plastic ones I remember we had on our tree when I was a child.  I got these pictures the other day in that short window of sunlight I'm treated to around midday in my front room. 

The reindeer is my favourite design but I love them all even if others think they are a bit naff!

I'm still collecting - mostly on ebay, but they are becoming quite difficult to find. 

I remember these plastic swallows too....... 

and the tinsel stars.  The human brain is a strange thing - I wonder why these decorations from long ago invoke such strong memories of my childhood.

And who would have thought old bits of plastic could look so beautiful!