Merry Christmas
Monday, December 24, 2012
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Hope you all are having a lovely Christmas time.
See you soon.
Christmas Crafts for kids
Friday, December 21, 2012
Hollie has just over 2 weeks off school and although she will be getting presents, she also loves to craft, so I have some Christmas crafts from Pinterest that I am hoping to be able to complete.
Hollie really likes to make bracelets out of pipe cleaners and beads, so making candy canes would be good for Christmas.
I have some plain lolly sticks that I thought we could make a snowflake out of.
Hollie also likes to make things out of paper plates, so she will have fun with
making a tree out of a paper plate.
I have saved some egg cartons for Hollie to paint and decorate and make trees.
Hollie loves to use my craft punches and will love to punch out lots of stars and I can machine sew them in to a garland.
Last year we made a gingerbread house and when I sew this I thought Hollie would like to make this too.
Hollie also like to play snap, so this would be good to print out and use when she is bored.
And lastly these would be simple to make and Hollie can glue them too.
Well as you can see we will be busy if we get round to doing most of these crafts and hope it gave you some inspiration if you need some thing to do with or without kids.
Hollie really likes to make bracelets out of pipe cleaners and beads, so making candy canes would be good for Christmas.
making a tree out of a paper plate.
Happy Birthday Mum - Mojo Monday sketch 272
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Today is my mums birthday, 5 days before Christmas. We are very close, both in our relationship and in distance and I would say that we have grown a lot closer since I had my daughter nearly 5 years ago.
I decided that I would use the sketch from this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch 272. I thought it would be perfect as the sketch had 3 hearts on it and I wanted to add some hearts to the card and add the the letters for mum, so it worked out great.
I Love the butterfly embossing folder on the background and the glitter on the letters and she told me she loved the card.
Paper - Dovecraft Tea Party | Stamps - My Pink Stamper Fabulous Phrases and Banana Frog Teen Lower | Embossing folder - Craft Concepts Wings | Ribbon - Hobbycraft | Glitter - Stickles.
Christmas is nearly here and I have lots still to make, so I will see you soon.
Linking up to Polkadot Pretties.
Family Chore Chart
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Although I moved out of the family home almost 9 years ago, my brother and sister still live there. My mum said recently that she was getting fed up of doing all the chores especially as my brother is 26 years old and my sister 18 years old, both perfectly capable of doing there own washing and helping around the house.
So I decided to make a chore chart for my mum so she could write down the names and then on the days, write the chores.
I am going to laminate the chart and then my mum can just pop it on the wall and use a white board pen.
I decided to make it available for anyone to download, so if you would it, then click here or on the picture above and I have also put on the printables page at the top of the blog.
Hope you are having a good week. See you soon.
Linking up to Today's Creative Blog, Yesterday on Tuesday, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Chic on a shoestring decorating, Polkadot Pretties.
Pretty Christmas Packaging Inspiration
Monday, December 17, 2012
When it comes to wrapping presents at Christmas, there are so many ways to wrap up presents and decorate them too.
I thought that I would show you a few ideas to wrap up items for Christmas that I have found via Pinterest or pinned to Pinterest and as you will see there is theme running through the pictures.
Packaging up baked goods can be tricky if you would like to present them nicely. This way of using brown paper bag, twine and a tag is great and using a decorative napkin and stamping what is in the bag adds a special touch.
I am loving the red polkadot and the kraft wrapping paper from Polkadot Pretties. I bought some red polkadot wrapping paper from Wilkinsons this year as it can be used for Christmas and the rest of the year and always have brown paper wrap on hand. Love it.
Although the next picture is for an advent gift, this simple wrap from Bizzydayz is great with the doily and washi tape with a tag and can be used for any type of gift.
I really love glassine bags, doilies and red polkadots, so the next packaging really makes me happy!
I really love the washi tape bunting and the washi tapes and bakers twine on the kraft paper in the next picture.
Sonia at Life, Love and Hiccups made these packages for teachers gifts. She made the labels to look like chalkboards. Love the little pegs, doilies and brown paper bags too.
If you have some small items to wrap, these pillow boxes can be printed off and make some cute little boxes. Love the colours and patterns.
I love to have a stash of glassine bags, brown paper wrap, brown paper bags, doilies and bakers twine on hand for when I need to wrap up a present and give it an extra touch.
I thought that I would show you a few ideas to wrap up items for Christmas that I have found via Pinterest or pinned to Pinterest and as you will see there is theme running through the pictures.
Packaging up baked goods can be tricky if you would like to present them nicely. This way of using brown paper bag, twine and a tag is great and using a decorative napkin and stamping what is in the bag adds a special touch.
Sonia at Life, Love and Hiccups made these packages for teachers gifts. She made the labels to look like chalkboards. Love the little pegs, doilies and brown paper bags too.
If you have some small items to wrap, these pillow boxes can be printed off and make some cute little boxes. Love the colours and patterns.
Hope this has given you some extra ideas for wrapping presents if you are a bit stuck or just like me and love to look at the pretty ways to package things.
Christmas cards
Friday, December 14, 2012
After over 5 years crafting, I finally got around to making my own Christmas cards. To me it always seem like a big chore to make my own cards but when I saw the Christmas stamps on the market, I realised that I ought to try and make some. Last year I made a few but printed them off the computer which obviously isn't quite the same.
The first card I used the Clearly Besotted Signature Christmas stamps. Love the stamps, they are so easy to use and mix and match the stamps. On the bow I use glossy accents to add some dimension and added some glitter to some of the dots on the bauble. I also used some bakers twine for the string on the bauble.
On the next two cards I used the same stamp set for the sentiment and added some image pictures I got last year but never used. They are such pretty images. I added some bakers to the background of the card as well to add some dimension.
On the last card design, I decided to use some bakers twine and used the Christmas tree image and sentiment from the stamp set mentioned before. All the patterned papers are from Dovecrafts Back to basic vintage Christmas papers. Lovely more traditional papers than I normally buy but love the red, green and cream combo of colours.
I am really pleased that I made the effort to make them and felt that as someone who loves to make cards, it was a bit silly not to make Christmas cards.
These day people send less and less cards but there are definitely people who love to receive them. Are you one of them or do you think they are a waste of time? Let me know what you think.
Linking up to Polkadot Pretties, Tip Me Junkie.
Handmade Christmas Decorations
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Yesterday I showed you my little Christmas tree in my craft space and the decorations that I have made. They were really simple to make and today I thought I would show you how I made them.
For the felt hearts I used an cookie cutter to trace around the felt, sewed 2 hearts together using red bakers twine and then stuff them with cotton wool as I didn't have any stuffing so used what I had on hand. I used the left over twine to create a loop at the top.
The little stockings were made simply by using a template and sewing 2 stockings together with embroidery thread and then creating a loop at the top. Then I added a piece of ribbon to the top to add some colour to them.
The little starburst baubles were made using the Martha stewart starburst punch and folding the circle in half and then gluing 7 circles together and attaching some thread to hang them.
These decorations were made with items I had on hand and would be great for a small tree or you could make them on a bigger scale for a bigger tree. Also they are great for a child's tree as there isn't nothing that could break or hurt them and they can help make them too.
Have you made any Christmas decorations this year or maybe you have some decorations made in previous years you add to your tree year after year? I would love you to let me know in the comments.
Hope you are having a good week.
Linking up to Chic on a shoestring decorating, The Shabby Nest, Diana Rambles, Polkadot Pretties, Tip Me Junkie, Lil Luna.
Little Christmas Tree - WOYWW 184
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
I still have a few things to finish on my little Christmas tree but I thought that I would show you it today for What's on your work desk Wednesday as there isn't much on my desk apart from some Christmas cards to post.
This is a little table that I have by my desk and decided to put this little tree there. It is actually the top half of a 5 foot tree but I just stuck it in some florist foam in a plastic pot and added some lights from Tescos for £1.95. The magazines are mainly old Christmas editions of home magazine that I like to dig out and have a look at, at Christmas.
The poinsettia flower was from Poundland and came with 5 stems and I just took the flowers off. The other decorations are ones I made and have showed in previous WOYWW posts.
The basket has some things that I thought that I might use for Christmas presents or making more decorations.
I really love the combination of the red and kraft with the green of the tree. The parcels I made using Tesco's 14p wrapping paper and the tin came from poundland.
The tree is missing a star and I would like to cover the top of the pot and maybe add some washi tape to the pot but I might get to that before Christmas!
So the tree and decorations didn't cost me much at all as most was things I had, re purposed or were cheap, so loved it even more.
Thanks for visiting my (desk) today and have fun looking at others at Stamping Ground.
Linking up with Julia at Stamping Ground.
3D Origami Stars
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
This afternoon I went to see Hollies nativity play at school and Hollie was the star. She looked so cute. They all did very well for 3,4 and 5 year old and sang very well. I will include a photo tomorrow.
Today I wanted to show the origami stars that I have made, as I made a few things for Halloween using origami so decided to make a origami star for Christmas.
This is my inspiration from What Suzette makes. Love the colours.
I started with the template from What Makes Suzette Now template and added the flaps to the template. Then just draw them onto some Christmas patterned paper and cut them out, scored them and stuck them together.
The best way is to do it in cones of 2 and then build up the star but the first one I made I didn't do this and it was slightly more tricky.
Before adding the last cone, I added some string through it so it could be hung up.
I used glossy accents to stick the stars together as it allows you to move it slightly before it sets and does stick well but pva glue would work too.
I have a florist frog that I use for my cards but this works well to hold the string for the stars as it is a heavy weight and the string just slots into the grooves.
I found them quite easy to make and once you start, they don't take too long and look great.
I am loving making lots of crafty things for Christmas and there will be more coming up soon.
Have you been making items for Christmas? Leave a comment and let me know.
See you soon.
Linked up to A Bowlful of Lemons, Sew Much Ado, Clean and Scentsible, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Yesterday on Tuesday, Chic on a shoestring decorating, Diana Rambles, Polkadot Pretties, Tip Me Junkie, Lil Luna, Chic on a shoestring decorating, Little Inspration.
Masculine cards
Monday, December 10, 2012
Recently I have been making more masculine cards than female cards so today I thought I would show you the ones I have made.
The first one was for my brother in law. I decided to use the cuttlebug seeing spots embossing folder on the kraft card and use some circles and stars of patterned paper.
Papers - My Minds Eye out of the blue and fly a kite | Stamp - Amy R It's your birthday | Twine - Donna Flower | Star - Fiskars punch | circles - Nestabilities Spellbinders classic circles | Button - Papermania | Cuttlebug Seeing spots embossing folder .
The next card was for my step-dad. I thought I would use 3 stars going down the card and then use the smallest Nestabilities Spellbinders label one die to put the sentiments on to and balance the stars.
Papers - Making Memories Just Chillin' | Stamp - Amy R It's your birthday | Brads - Making Memories | Buttons and Ribbon - Hobbycraft | Button twine - The Ribbon Girl.
I made the next card for my sister in law and again used circles and stars. This time I used the Tri-boss chequered embossing folder and added the name.
Papers - My Minds Eye out of the blue and fly a kite | Stamps - My Pink Stamper Fabulous Phrases and Stampendous Tiny Alphabet | Twine - Donna Flower | Stars and circles punches | Tri-boss Chequered embossing folder | Tag - Staples.
The last card was for our nephew. I decided to use the Skipping Stones Design Uplifting stamps and use the balloon and the My Minds Eye Out of the blue papers which have some lovely papers with balloons on for the background.
Papers - My Minds Eye out of the blue and fly a kite | Stamps - Amy R It's Your Birthday and Skipping Stones Design Uplifting | Spellbinders Nestabilities classic circle die | Brads - Making Memories | button - Hobbycraft | Button twine - The Ribbon Girl | Ribbon - American Crafts.
Most of the cards don't have too much embellishments or detail as, I might be wrong but, men don't really mind whether a card is detailed or not.
What do you think? When you make or buy cards for men, does it matter whether they are embellished or detailed or is it when they get to a particular age, do they appreciate them more? Let me know your thoughts.
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