Wishing You All ..

Hello my dear friends,

I would like to wish all of you, where ever you are ...

... a very Merry Christmas.

Many hugs,

Just Can't Stop Being Busy ..

Hello my dear friends,

not only have I just decluttered and reorganized our garage and basement storage room once again this past week but I have also given our basement stairs the first sanding as well. Remember last year I painted my living, dining room and kitchen I think it was 10 days before Christmas. I have taken a lot of things and donated them to our local Goodwill store and a still have two bags of winter clothes for one of the town's woman's shelters that I still need to take there. I have finally mailed my last Christmas mail and I hope I haven't forgotten anyone this year. And to top everything off I am busy with being creative and of course I am working on more than one thing ~ nothing new there really. It is basically non stop for me right now but I enjoying it so much.

First I made many little crochet snowflakes for a very dear friend and now I am working on a few other things.

 A lot of you have seen my poinsettia Christmas stockings that I had made from vintage woolen blankets which I had felted. This is my cream colored one. A few days ago, whilst tidying my studio I found some left over pieces of the cream blanket and was wondering what I could do with them. I do love the way my poinsettias look so I am going to go with that thought and I am working on a few more of them. I am hoping that I will be able to share what I used them for in the next few days.

I am also working with these ...

... vintage little wooden Monopoly houses. They are they cutest!

This little nativity set it also on my worktable.
 It is one of my church sale findings and so lovely.

And last but not least ...

... I am busy creating more of my little pearl snowmen. Right now I am making them in two sizes and can't wait to use them in my creations.

I know Christmas is almost here and will then quickly gone again but it doesn't mean that you can't be creative for it right until the last minute and even afterwards. Don't forget there is always next year. So don't stop being creative for Christmas just yet my dear friends, I won't for sure.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Little Drop Cloth Christmas Trees ~ A New How~To ..

Hello my dear friends,

whilst working on some little gifts for this Christmas, I thought it would be nice to show you how I made them. I am not claiming the actual design of this creation, I am just sharing how I made mine.

I had found a photograph of a fabric Christmas tree it on the Internet. It was made from festive and bright fabric but since I am a DCL (drop cloth lover) I decided to make mine from some grayish drop cloth that I had leftover from a different project. These so so easy to make and you can really use anything you have to decorate them with. I found everything I used in my studio and didn't by anything for this project.

And these are my little drop cloth Christmas trees.
My first one didn't turn out the way I hoped it would but that was OK. It gave me a reason to make a few more.

The tassel and glitter didn't give me the look I wanted it too, so I needed to try something else.

I do like this little tree much better now.

And this one too!

I love the little birds visiting it.

And here is the how to on little lovely little tree, the don't take long and are quite eaty to make, so why not make a few for your tree or as little gifts ~ you will have them done in no time.

You will need the following ...

~ some drop cloth a little bigger than 8 by 8 inches
~ strong sewing thread
~ needle
~ a few pins
~ scissors
~ quilter's marking pen
~  Fabri Tac glue
~ something about 8 inches in diameter
 (I used a old children's plate of my daughter Caylagh)
~ iron

And this is how I made my little drop cloth tree ...

Trace around your 'template' using your pen and cut the circle then out.

Fold the circle in half ...

... and then iron the fold.

Now thread you needle and using double thread sew a running stitch all the way around your piece approx. 1/4 inch from the edge. Secure the thread and cut off the excess.

Lay your half circle in front of you and ...

... mark the following two placed with a pin ...
... approx. 3.5 inches on the curved side and 5 inches on the straight side.

Now you can start to fold you tree.

 With the straight side to the left, fold the fabric over to the left so that there is a crease between the two pins.

Fold over two more times, once to one side and then to the other and secure with a pin. It might need a little adjusting here or there but it will work out in the end.

Remove the pin and give your tree a good iron.

One last thing before you can start embellishing you tree.

Using you fabric glue, glue down each section of the tree to the one underneath it so everything is connected to each other and stays in place. It makes the little tree a little sturdier. Apply the glue but not too much, to the inside of the stitching ( above photo), this was you won't have any glue showing.

Time for the real fun begins ... time to decorate!

There is no end to how you could decorate your little trees. Buttons, pearls or glass beads would look lovely and so would little crochet flowers and lace. Instead of ornament hooks you could use ribbon, string or lace to hang them with. These can also be used as gift tags if you wanted,  it is really entirely up to you.

I prefer to sew my lace to the tree but you can use glue if you wish. Make sure you when using glue that you don't use too much so that it won't become visible.

Tuck the end of the lace towards the back, between the layers of the tree. I also use a tiny dot of glue to secure it.

When you get to the end of a section just fold the lace over and continue on the next section. Finish off the lace by folding it over a little and tucking it under the previous piece of lace. Sew to the edge and secure they thread before cutting the excess off.

Now you can sew or glue your little embellishments to your tree.

 Again when using glue, don't use too much. 

You wouldn't want it to 'ooze' out and spoil your creation. 

And finally attach your hook by sewing it to the top of your tree with a few slip stitches. Secure the thread before cutting the excess off. You of course can use ribbon or string instead.

And now you are done!

I hope you have enjoyed my newest little how~to. 

Why not try and make these from paper/card?  You could write a little message hidden away in each section and it would give your gift that little something special.

Thank you for stopping by again here at Todolwen. I hope you have enjoyed your visit.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

A New Little Christmas Music Box ..

Hello my dear friends,

the creation I am sharing with all of you Lovelies today took me longer than I thought it would and then a little longer for me to take some photographs of it. I had actually started to work on it several weekends ago. My daughters, one of their friends and I had a Christmas crafting evening at our house that went on until after 2 am in the morning and was so much fun.

 I already had the bottom part that I used leftover from a year or so ago, when I made my first music boxes. All it needed was the 'pretty part' which was the display. It unfortunately didn't get finished on our craft evening because the glue needed to dry much longer than I thought it would. In a way it worked out though because it was the perfect thing for me to take my mind off things on the first day of the cutting on our willow tree. At one point I wasn't very happy with my little frosty man but then I added one thing and that was it ~ I now loved him!

And here it is, my newest Christmas creation and just like many times before, I couldn't decide which photos to share, so I am sharing them all.

I have named this creation simply ...

'Merry Christmas'.

My little snowman has just put the first star onto the tree and is now thinking of where the second one should go.

I am so happy with my decision of giving my little frosty man a scarf made from crinkled seam binding ~ it made him beyond perfect in my eyes. And so you are able to not only see my creation but also hear my little music box, I even made a short video. It is not the best but I am sure you won't mind that at all.

Thank you for visiting me today here at Todolwen. I hope you have enjoyed your stay. Be sure to stop by from time to time again, you never know what I might just have to share.

I hope your are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My Christmas Mail ..

Hello my dear friends,

it has been a busy weekend for me.
 I finally got some things done and I am so happy about it.

I spent a lot of time getting my little gifts ready for mailing. My 'Christmas To Come' giveaway gift is also all wrapped up for it's journey. It is a little later than I would have liked it to have been but unfortunately sometimes things happen and others therefore don't always work out the way we plan them and this was one of them.

All my little gifts were wrapped up nicely in old music sheets with seam binding bows. I created some neat Christmassy tags from manila shipping tags that I coffee stained and then embellished with a lovely sparkly snowflake.

 My `Christmas To Come` gift too is all fancied up and it is now on it's way to Betty-Jean. I hope the mailman can get it to her in time for Christmas.

I wrapped this the gift in parcel paper which I had stamped with a pine cone in champagne colored ink. It is so sublte and lovely. Seam binding all tied up into a bow and a snowflake tag were also a must for this gift. And as I am writting this, all my gifts are in the postoffice waiting to start their journey.

I am hoping that all my gifts will arrive where they are meant to be on Christmas Day so they will bring a little smile to someone's face. Not saying who because then the surprise would be spoilt.  Hopefully a lesson learnt for me ... next year I am starting in September.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.