Friendly Snowman

Just a quick post for any of my fellow Papertrey Ink maniacs out there that have the Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers stampset. I may be stating the obvious here, but has anyone else noticed the small snowman stamp is the same size/shape as the large snowman wearing the top hat? I was able to create two different snowmen by masking the large one and stamping the small one on top. Here are the two versions for comparison. I made up my two jars and added them to some pre-printed card bases I bought last year at a craft event. They'd make a nice set of, say, 6 cards all made up a bit differently for variety.

Two Soups! (of the Snowman variety)

Did you ever see that cringe-making sketch from the Victoria Wood show where Julie Walters appears as a rather ancient waitress? Its one of my favourites and of course you can see it on Youtube (there's a link on the picture here).

I've made my two Snowman Soups for the up-coming late night Christmas shopping evening at the charity shop using some "ingredients" from a local supermarket (instant hot chocolate sachet, mini marshmallows and peppermint candy cane), the Papertrey Favor It Box 2 die and some digital stamps from Whimsie Doodles. I'll be interested to see if they sell as Snowman Soup is still not a well-known idea here in the UK. However I think they make a nice little treat for co-workers, teachers or a child (or adult) whose been very well behaved!

Some time to myself today

I've been a bad blogger over the past couple of weeks but I have been keeping my hands busy with lots of Christmas projects. There will be stuff to see soon for those who are interested, including my second idea for those little Christmas cottages (see below). But to prove I have created something recently, I'm showing off a couple of projects here.

I finished this Cedar Leaf Shawlette for my sister's birthday at the end of October. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and will be making one for myself after Christmas. Its a gorgeous pattern I purchased and downloaded from Alana at Never Not Knitting. I love the way she presents her pattern PDFs - they are a pleasure to knit from. I've plans to knit her Shawl Collared Cowl for my nieces for Christmas.

And for any other knitters out there, I'm sharing this sweet image I used for the card at the top of this post. I made it for the birthday of one of the girls in our Knit & Natter group last week. Its another copyright-free image from one of my Dover books. Very suitable for any knitter you might need a card for. I've also used that lovely Hero Arts wreath stamp that everyone seems to have in their stash at the moment, and the knitted stitch background stamp from Claire's (Waltzingmouse Stamps) Faux Fun set - perfect for presenting all my knitting and crochet projects!
Had a few hours to myself this afternoon, so I demanded the car from my son and nipped down the valley to our local seaside town for a couple of things I can't purchase here. Its been a lovely bright day and the high wind we've had over the past few days has disappeared, so I decided to walk on the beach and watch the sunset. I love the beach like this, empty of all but a few dog walkers and the sea birds searching for their suppers.
I'd have stayed longer but it was almost dark and getting cold. I think there will be a frost tonight.

Christmas Tag House

My new Papertrey stamps have arrived from my good blogfriend Yuki in Hawaii - yippee! The first thing I've made is this set of gift tags with the 2010 Holiday Tags set. I love making tags like these and have the two previous Papertrey Christmas tag sets too - you will see some of them in the photograph.

Now, I'm writing this post as I'm a bit undecided on a current project. I've made the tags as a possible filler for these little perspex houses I bought recently on ebay from this great seller. They are really nice quality and were a real bargain at 24 for £4.99 (plus £5.99 p+p). But I am having a bit of trouble deciding what to put in them - they were advertised as containers for potpourri. When I put my tags in the house they just arrange themselves into a pile and don't look very attractive, so another idea is to add in a little hanging tree decoration - this rose-scented house sachet (adapted from here) is my first experiment. But I'm not entirely happy with this either.

My aim is to have the houses finished to sell in my charity shop when we have our local late night Christmas shopping evenings at the beginning of December. Sooooooooo, what I'm really hoping for is some reaction from my faithful blog readers. I know its a bit of a cheek on my part as I've been really lax in commenting myself lately. My only excuse is a new job which is really exhausting me at the moment - I keep falling asleep in the chair in the evenings. What a waste of crafting and blogging time! So please do accept my most sincere apologies if I haven't visited you to comment recently - you can rest assured I've been feeling really bad about it and hope I can buck myself up soon :o(

A Long Walk on a Cold Night!

Along with a couple of thousand other walkers we joined in the Jubilee Tower 200 celebrations here last Sunday night. Music and drumming, laser lights into the sky, a lantern lit procession and fabulous fireworks were enjoyed by all, and the hot drinks and food much appreciated after a long cold walk in the dark. In my photo you can see the tower lit up and the lighted lanterns of the many walkers, young and old, on their way down the mountain.

Moel Famau has been the background to our family lives since we moved here in 1958 and the tower, (or "the fort" as we've always called it) is situated on its highest point. Built to celebrate King George III’s Golden Jubilee, the foundation stone was laid exactly 200 years ago on 25th October 1810 and it was reported that on that occasion too up to 5000 people trekked to the top of Moel Famau to watch. The tower was completed some time after 1815 but a storm in 1862 destroyed the high Egyptian-style tower. It was never rebuilt but the base has remained and those that reach it today are rewarded by fabulous views to the coast, Snowdonia, Liverpool and beyond, and even Blackpool tower can be seen on a clear day.

These three old postcards from my collection show the same scene unchanged over the past 100 years - and probably unchanged since that stormy night in 1862.

This is how you make one.....

One or two people have asked if there is a pattern for my scented sachets and I thought I should write the instructions here - but really they just couldn't be easier!
I start with a knitted or crochet pocket - the knitted ones are 40 stitches and 24 rows garter stitch. Cast off but don't tie off the last stitch and use a crochet hook to elongate it into a chain about 7" long. Slip stitch the end of the chain into that last stitch to form the fastening cord. Join the back seam and close the bottom using the same yarn and a tapestry needle. The crochet pockets are 37 chain for the foundation row, work a treble (double crochet in the US) into the third chain from hook and then one treble (double) crochet into each chain, joining into a round when you get to the end, being careful not to twist the ring - ask me how I know this! Work about 6 rounds double crochet and in the same way work a chain from the last stitch for the fastening cord. Use up all your odd balls of yarn - double knitting (I think its called worsted in the US) works best for me and size 4mm knitting needles or crochet hook.

Make a pocket about 4" square from some pretty fabric. Depending on the size of my fabric scrap I either cut two squares or a strip with the fold at the top of the sachet. Leave the base of the square open for stuffing. I use toy stuffing and a handful of lavender/spices/rose petals. Enclosing the filling in the stuffing keeps the sachets nice and soft with no sharp poky bits coming through. Close the bottom seam - I find hand sewing the easiest and neatest method but machine stitching would be faster I suppose. Finish off by sewing a matching button to the front of the pocket and hooking the chain loop over the button from the back. See - EASY!





I've also had a request for the little girl peeling apples image I used on my autumn bookmark. She's an image from one of my Dover copyright-free books so I think its in order for me to reproduce her here for sharing. Click on the image to open then right click to save to your computer. Enjoy!


PS: Just read my blog friend Yuki's lovely comment! If you can't knit or crochet what about cutting up an old knitted jumper for the pocket and using ribbon or twine for the fastening. Might try it myself to see how it comes out.

Bookmarked

I like making bookmarks with the Papertrey die and lately I've tried using my Copics and old-fashioned copyright-free images as well as stamps to decorate them. Here are two Autumn style versions and as the latest A Passion for Papertrey challenge is Autumn - hooray! The pumpkins are from Take Three Autumn and the sentiment on the back is from All Booked up.











I find a single layer of cardstock isn't really sturdy enough so I always use two bookmarks back to back - and this gives the opportunity to sandwich something between the two layers, which I then stitch together on my machine.

Sorry for showing off my first Butternut Squash from the garden - we might have it for supper.