Tag Archives: Christmas

Christmas is coming…..

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There’s no escaping it now, Christmas is definitely on the way!  I’ve so far managed to escape Black Friday, which appears to have become a whole week this year, other than being bombarded with e-mails, and I have tried to avoid Cyber Monday with being a little bit more organized and ordering things over the last few weeks.  Now I’m just waiting for everything to arrive.

This weekend we have gone head-long into Christmas crafting mode in the house, as Alice brought home her letter detailing all the Christmas activities on at school in December, and her plastic cup for the pot goody stall!  It’s the Christmas Fair on Friday, so we’ve been thinking about what to turn the pot into this year.  We’ve already had a snowman and 2 Christmas trees, so it’s time to think of something else.

We did the traditional list of Christmas or Winter ideas, and had  browse around Pinterest and Google images for ideas.  We eventually settled on an ambitious design or Santa stuck in a chimney pot, complete with reindeer, snow and a robin!

We raided the box of model-making items for a tissue box, teabag box and two toilet roll tubes, then attacked my crafty stash for some dark paper, found some brown paper with the wrapping paper and some bits from old Christmas cards for embellishments.  There was pva glue, double-sided tape and felt everywhere!!  Wax crayons are great for drawing brickwork, and you just can’t make anything for Christmas without using some cotton wool for snow!

We had great fun messing up the kitchen, and here’s the finished result.

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I had to make the hat and I sewed the face to it.  We then filled the pot with little goodies – mainly glitters, glitter glue, crayons, pens and some sweeties.

I think it’s our best one yet, what do you reckon?

Happy Christmas crafting
x

Advent Calendar

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A few months back I started out with a mission to make an advent calendar for my daughter. I love the look of the little crochet stockings that I’ve been making for tree decorations, so thought they would make a great garland to fill with little treats. It would certainly make a change from a cheap bought calendar and could be re-used for years to come.

Making 24 little stockings proved more difficult that I had imagined. I originally planned for all the stockings to be a deep red with white tops, however, I fairly quickly ran out of the red! So the plan changed to include some dark green stockings with white tops. Here are a few of the first ones I made.

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I had to make sure I kept enough of the red and green to be able to add numbers on to the stockings, so I adapted my plan again to include some white stockings, with red / green tops.

Well after a few weeks thinking there was no way I would get it finished in time for Christmas, I am pleased to say I have finally finished it and we all love it.

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We’ve filled it with celebrations this year, and Alice is thrilled. It’s up in the hall, our first Christmas decoration and it looks lovely. The colours have worked well together and the stockings should fit in small gifts too, so there’s room for different gifts next year!

Well, it’s back to the Christmas makes for me,

Happy crafting
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Hunkydory Prize Winner!

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I’ve been a member of the Talkies craft group on facebook for about 18 months or so now, and while I take part as much as I can I haven’t really entered any of the competitions or swaps. However, in October they announced a little competition to make a card from any Hunkydory craft kit. It could be anything, the only rules being you couldn’t use any dies or any other kits, only basic essentials could be used for embellishments, so it was let your imagination run wild with any kit you liked. I thought about entering for a while, but wasn’t sure my simple approach to card making would be up to the intricacies of some of the very seasoned crafters.

In the end I decided to enter one of my cracker Christmas cards made from one of the Christmas kits. It met the brief and I was pleased with the finished card.

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I did leave entering until the very last minute, so later the same day I was astounded to find that I had been judged as the winner! The judge really liked the simplicity of the design and how I used the features of the cardstock to enhance the cracker!

My prize was £30 of Hunkydory products, which I am delighted to say have arrived this morning in the post!  What a lovely bundle it is too.  I haven’t shown it to Alice yet as I’m sure she will want to get her hands on it as it is a full set of toppers, decoupage, concept cards, envelopes, cardstock, and inserts from the ‘Smudge and Mitten’ collection.  So cute, watch out for these cards in the future.

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Thank you to everyone involved in the competition and to Hunkydory for such a lovely prize.

Happy crafting
x

New Christmas Cards

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I feel like I’ve been in full-scale Christmas production forever! It’s amazing how quickly the festive period sneaks up on you, and with my craft stall being only a couple of weeks away, I am pretty much in Christmas card mode exclusively. I made a few Christmas cards from this contemporary Hunkydory kit a few years ago, and I love the colours, so I thought I’d make some more.

These are all different concepts for me, very 3d in their design. I started with some little snowglobe style cards. These are so cute and have a little stand at the back.

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Next is the little row of houses. These have lovely glittered roofs.

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This is a square card where the decoupage stands out on a zigzag to give the dimension. They give a great perspective effect and these might be something I explore further at a later date (I have added it to my ever growing list of things to try further).

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Finally I was left with loads of fabulous designer cardstock and images to use. So I put together a few individual cards. I love this stylised Christmas fairy – as does my daughter.  She’s a definite winner with the girls.

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Time to get back to the Christmas makes.

Happy crafting
x

Christmas Cracker Cards

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This year I have decided to get going with my Christmas cards a little earlier than usual. I made some poinsettia cracker cards from kraft card a couple of years ago and really loved the idea, so I thought I’d expand on it for my cards this year.

So I’ve been delving into my Christmas crafting box to see what I have in there. It’s amazing how much stuff I have accumulated and completely forgotten I have! It was nice to have a plan for a change though, so I was looking for ideas for making and decorating crackers.

I found some kraft card DL card blanks so started with those and decided to use up some of the craftwork cards kits I have purchased over the last few years.  The paper and card quality is fabulous and I loved the more muted colours in these kits. I also used some of the paper bows to add detail on the sides of the toppers, it was great to make some of them up and mix them with the papers.

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It was nice to make different cards for change, using sentiments as the main focal point of the card instead of images. Having made this I was eager to make some more in a slightly different style, so I made some little owls again. This time using some papermania Christmas papers and mixing the designs up has given some interesting effects. The colours here are a little more contemporary than the first set, but equally as stunning I think. I toyed with some options for the bows, using bakers twine or ribbon, but as I wanted to co-ordinate I decided to make the bows myself using the leftovers of the matching papers.

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This has now started a bit of a production line of different styles of cracker cards and really got my imagination going, out came the stamps, dies and papercrafting kits. I have a fairly large paper and card collection which have been saved for a ‘special occasion’, but I thought it’s time to start using some and I made some of my own card blanks as well. The patterned card makes a great backing for some handcut toppers too. I really love poinsettias at Christmas and making them up in different colours is great fun.

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I’ve been a fan of the Hunkdory cardkits for some time and have loads of them. The cardstock is so gorgeous though that I’ve always wondered what to do with it to make the most of the images. Now I’ve found a way of using some of the cardstock. So I’ve gone for some traditional images and as a compromise, there are some cute animals and some contemporary images too. There is such a great choice of colours too, ranging from very cool and crisp to the warm and cosy. I could just snuggle up by the fire with the little cat on the cushion!

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Finally I found this gorgeous Christmas kit. I have no idea where it came from but the colours are just gorgeous.

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The joy of making my own Christmas cards is that although the overall design is very similar, each one is individual. Once I’ve used up each paper design that’s it!

I will be taking all of these cards along to the Ramsbottom Pre-Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday 31st October, so they will be for sale. If you are in the area, it would be great to se you.

Happy crafting
x

Craft Fair

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It’s always difficult to find the time to craft during the school holidays, with my little one running around and needing entertaining, I hardly have a minute to myself. This summer holiday has been no exception, organising playdays with friends visiting us and going to visit others, as well as looking for low cost activities not too far from home.

However, in amongst the hive of activity that is our home and a sneaky few days away in Menorca, I have managed to book myself a stall at a new local craft fair. It’s being held at Ramsbottom Library on October 31st, so just the right time for people starting their Christmas shopping, or for the more organised, the ones looking for some unique gifts. So I am trying to find some time to work on my stock.

It’s looking like a great fair, and it’s on for three days. I’m just doing the Saturday. It’s being held in the adult learning centre attached to the library and will be full of local crafters with all types of products. I’m really looking forward to meeting some more local makers and to see what fantastic wares they bring. There will be locally produced refreshments available too!

I hope to post more information as soon as I have it, but in the meantime, get the date in your diary as I would love to see you there.

Happy crafting
x

Working on my PHD

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Yes you did read that correctly, I am working on my PHD – Projects Half Done that is!

I was looking in my living room at the steadily growing pile of patterns, yarn and project bits and thought enough is enough, I need to finish some of these before I start anything new.

So first up is my little crochet unicorn. I had already completed the head, body and horn, so it’s time to make the legs and mane.

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This is a pattern from LGC Knitting and Crochet magazine that I started several months ago. My daughter is mad about horses, ponies and unicorns, so it seemed like a great gift for her. With her real love of Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony, the colours were almost perfect too. We had an afternoon watching ‘The Cat Returns’ and I made all the legs, but the mane took ages! Who would have thought that cutting 80 20cm lengths of yarn and then tassling them into a 21ch length would take almost 2 hours!!! Maybe it’s just me being really slow….

Anyway I now have all the pieces ready to stuff and sew together.

Next up is a crochet snowman I started last year.

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Again it’s a pattern from Knitting and Crochet magazine and it uses up some of my larger left over yarn balls. I’ve made the head and body using baby yarn, so it was time to make the nose, scarf and earmuffs. This called for a watch of ‘Frozen’, something we haven’t actually sat down to watch for a few months. This was a bit fiddly as it meant using a 2.5mm hook, which is very delicate. Fingers crossed I have enough yarn to finish the headband, or I might be making it in a co-ordinating colour! Watch this space..

My next projects to finish are to start off my Christmas collection. I know I didn’t start in June, but I need to get cracking on some of the little stockings as they are always in demand for stocking fillers, teacher gifts, table presents and tree decorations. I have 6 rainbow stockings ready to sew up now, and I have finished my first two winter coloured ones, complete with fluffy tops!

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Finally I have the knitted and crochet blanket I started for Bury Show that I didn’t get chance to finish in time. I love the sampler feel of this and all the bright colours. I now need to finish off the connecting of the squares and decide how to edge it. Any suggestions are gratefully received.

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This will really clear up my living room and give me a chance to make something new for Christmas. I am newly enthused for these projects now and can’t wait to see them finished.

Happy crafting
x

Wood craft

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Over Christmas I have visited my in-laws and discovered how my Father-in-law has been preparing for the Christmas period.  He is a fellow crafter (having taken early retirement a number of years ago) and his current craft of choice is wood turning.

This year he made a little Christmas tree for my daughter, which I loved too, so I ordered another from him for our Christmas dinner table.  These little trees are so quirky and gorgeous.

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The larger tree is made of lime wood (I think) which is very appropriate for us as we live in a lime tree prevalent area.  It looks lovely as a focal point on the table too and has prompted a number of comments from visitors.  I love it so much that I haven’t been able to put it away with the rest of the decorations and it is taking pride of place on my kitchen window ledge for use on my table throughout the year.

I was also surprised with a lovely gift for our Christmas tree.  This beautiful bauble.  It has been polished but this is the natural colour of the wood.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

Wooden Christmas tree bauble

He’s made some beautiful pieces for us over the years and has just recently set up an on-line store. So if you’re in the market for some beautiful wooden gifts or home accessories, give his stall a visit – Paul Brooks you won’t be disappointed.

Let me know what you think.

Happy Crafting
x

Our Handmade Tree

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This year I’ve let my daughter have a tree in the hall, and given her a huge box of decorations.  The box was full of handmade decorations, some made by her through the few years of her life in nursery and school.   It’s been a real journey of remembering watching her decorate the tree. She made one of the decorations at playgroup when she was only just 1!  It’s great to see how she’s grown as some of the decorations she’s made at school have her photo on.

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Once she had reminisced with me over all her decorations, she got out some of the decorations I’ve made over the last twenty years or so. I love the little snowballs at the bottom of the tree. They were some of the first decorations I made over twenty years ago. So there’s a real mix of little stockings, snowflakes, hearts and some Jean Greenhowe decorations (including the snowballs). We love our little handmade tree and long may we keep adding new decorations to it.

Merry Christmas
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