Christmas Eve Treat Box

This year I'm not working Christmas Eve! Whooohooo! I actually decided to book holiday over Christmas so I'm off for 12 whole days with only taking 3 days holiday due to when Christmas falls and my Wednesday's off. However for my sister it's her first Christmas having for work Christmas Eve AND in retail! Because of this I decided to make her a little treat box for when she gets home but I ended up giving it to her last night.

I purchased some bits from Lush so she can unwind and get all cosy for Christmas. I purchased First Snow glittery powder, Lord of Misrule shower cream (which smells amazing), and soap that smells like marzipan! 

I made a box with my Crafters Companion big score using Snow White Centura Pearl card, wrapped it in a pink ribbon and added a Christmassy penguin and a gift tag.

The penguin was made using the print and cut feature on my Cricut Explore. To make the present tag I cut 2 base shapes ou of Kraft card and one one write my message with the write feature. I think glued the two pieces together sandwiching the ribbon in between. I stuck on the detail later in pink and then filled the sections with two way glue pen and then glittered it up using Stampin Up glitter.  

Merry Christmas  

Button wreath card

I have a lot of buttons and candi so decided to try and make some wreath cards this year. I started by drawing round a celotape roll with pencil as a guide and the stuck the buttons or candi round this. I finished with a bow or two. Simple yet effective 

Welcome home Cricut Mini!

I had such a lovely Christmas Day. The homemade crackers were brilliant as everyone got useable gifts not things that ended up in the bin. The crackers also cracked perfectly! My Dad did the jokes inside each cracker so it was nice not to have the same jokes you have each year and they were suited to each person. 

Inside all the crackers I filled (ie all but mine) I put a Molton Brown minature plus a handmade item. Mum had a keyring with their dog on, Dad got cufflinks with one of his pictures he had taken of a cat woman statue, Lee got cufflinks with his tattoo design on (treble clef and heartbeat) and my sister got earrings I'd made. In my cracker my Mum put a Revlon nail art nail varnish duo.

Also I recieved a Cricut Mini from my parents! I've wanted one for ages but haven't had the room and felt they were too expensive to justify buying one or someone buying one for me but you have to love Amazon Black Friday. I did know I was getting it so purchased a few cartridges I wanted if I could find them at a good price on eBay including Disney Dreams Come True and I made this quickly when I got home on Christmas Day before bed (we were up by 5.45am, at Mother-in-laws by 7.30, then at my parents by 12, home at 8.30pm)

Christmas Crackers

After buying the Tonic cracker die in August and having issues with the paper it came with (it kept tearing while putting the crackers together) I decided to just make my crackers from scratch myself. I used Centura pearl card stock for the main cracker and used the template from Simply Homemade magazine to draw then out the design. I added a wrap of silver adorable scorable plus some DoCraft sticky back fabric. I added cracker snaps from Hobbycraft, personalised the crackers with names and sprayed the whole thing with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle. 

I've not completely done them up yet as my Dad is doing the jokes for them and my Mum is putting a present in my cracker so I don't know what it is. Each cracker has a handmade hat, handmade personalised gift and another little gift. To stop the presents falling out or going missing I've wrapped them in a little parcel paper (I can't say what they are or it will spoil the surprise)

I'm really please with how these have come out and hope everyone enjoys them. 

Merry Christmas

My Saturday Morning

Moma porridge while making the Christmas crackers and listening to Christmas songs on Spotify

My Bauble in Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine

Firstly sorry for the blog silence, I did blog but the posts didn't upload from last week. This post is from Monday (16th December)

You may remember my felt bauble from a few weeks ago. Well I sent a picture of it to Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine as I got the inspiration from an up-cycling feature. Today after a hectic day at work I found my copy of the magazine had arrived and had a quick flick through to see how they used the free gifts when I saw my bauble! It was 'editors favourite'. I'm so surprised and happy

Now I really ought to start preparing dinner (currently leaning against kitchen sink with a half made coffee!)

Final Christmas Cards for this Year

This year I've made around 200 Christmas cards and these are the last 50 which I made for my parents company. 

I used Craft Artist to design the card and printed them onto a variety of different types of photo paper, attached to a card (all of which I scored on my Ultimate Pro) and also added an insert. We weren't sure if the gold would come out very good on the printer but it looked really great on both the glossy and mid gloss paper.

I'm really please on how these came out.

Christmas and Birthday Card in One

My sister asked me earlier today if I could make a birthday and Christmas card in one for her friend whos birthday is a few days before Christmas so I thought I'd have a go. I didn't want it to look too strange but found a great embelishment on the Fizzy Moon Home for Christmas Digikit on Craft Artist. The embellishment has the Fizzy Moon bear hanging a banner while wearing Christmas clothing and I added 'Happy Birthday' to the banner.

Once printed I'm going to be adding some glitter to the santa hat and some glossy accents to the balloons.

I love using Craft Artist to make cards. I didn't really like digi crafting when I began crafting but now find it's great for making quick cards, making cards on behalf of other people so you can show them options, and if you just want to play around without getting messy or wasting your craft stash if your not sure what you want.

Christmas Card - A Different Type Of Card For Me

This is a different type of card for me. I used glossy accents for the first time and used this cheeky image from Kenny K. 

I was having a look at some blogs recently and found some lovely digi stamps including some from Kenny K so had a look and found this image which I really liked and thought it would be perfect for my husbands Christmas card. I coloured it with Spectrum Noirs and added glossy accents to the bow, lips and eyes as well as on the 'to my husband' sentiment, scroll and bow in the bottom right corner.

I was so excited to give this card to my husband and he really liked it (it's the first card up in our flat lol) 

I apologise for the photo of the card on the radiator. My craft room is currently Christmas present central and I cannot get to the desk for all the presents, wrapping things and piles of Christmas cards to send out.

I've entered this card into the Through the Purple Haze Christmas Challenge which you can visit by clicking here

Christmas Wreath Making With Women's Weekly and Hobbycraft

On 20th November I went to a workshop arranged by Woman's Weekly and Hobbycraft to make a Christmas Wreath. I'd seen the workshop on Facebook and booked tickets for my Mum and I.

I already have two wreaths but wanted to make my own and thought this sounded a great idea for £10. 

I arrived at Chelmsford Hobbycraft with my Mum and we found the workshop was going on upstairs so we made our way up. We were joined by two ladies from Woman's Weekly, one being Lifestyle Editor Jayne Marsden, two members of Hobbycraft and another 4 people who had booked onto to workshop. 

We were supplied with tea and biscuits while we crafted and each made our own green wreath, being shown how to add the different elements (lots of wire twisting).

We had a lovely time talking about Woman's Weekly and crafts we like and if we would like somewhere to share our makes online. The ladies at the workshop were into lots of different crafts including one lady who was currently doing a jewellery course. I explained that I liked lots of crafts but didn't really like projects where you can't do anything with them once finished, I like papercrafts where you can use them in someway as I don't have anywhere to store them and never know where to put things.

I really enjoyed making my wreath and it smells lovely with dried orange and cinnamon. My Mums was quite full in depth as she mainly used red berries on hers and I suggested she could use it as a ring for a large candle to make it a centre piece for the Christmas table which she thought was a great idea and maybe adding satsumas pierced with cloves 

The great thing about attacking the elements onto the wreath with wire means that we can change it whenever we want to. 

I've never been to a craft demonstration or workshop before but really enjoyed this one as we could do what we wanted and didn't just have to do what they said. 

Once we finished we all posed for a photo with our wreaths (keep a look out for me on the Woman's Weekly Blog.) I then went off to spend my vouchers we got for taking part. I brought a few bits I'd had my eye on but which weren't in my Christmas list - I brought liquid pearls (in a white, silver and gold), corner rounder punch and decoupatch glue. I did want to get glossy accents but they had run out so my Mums going to look for it when she goes shopping in there for my Christmas presents with the 20% voucher we each got. 

Christmas Decorations Using Felt Flowers

I've got quite a lot of felt and had this idea while laying in bed recovering from a migraine (the part where I think my head feels fine but am scared to move incase my migraine is just pretending it's gone)

I absolutely love cutting fabric and felt on my Sizzix Big Shot using the bigz dies and had a polystyrene ball from the Crafty Creatives birthday box still left over. 

The things I used to make the flower ball were:

Three colours of felt 

Polystyrene ball (mine had been drawn on when I was contemplating another project)

Red satin ribbon (5mm wide)

Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and my BigShot

Silver glitter glue

Silicone glue 

To begin with I used the Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and cut two large flower shapes from red felt (if you dont have a die like this you can cut one by hand, its only to cover the top and bottom of the ball and wont really be seen). I then cut lots of the small flowers from the die. I cut around 100 flowers from the felt in three colours(cutting 5 at a time...got to love Bigz dies) and put these to the side. You dont need 100 but I wanted enough for other projects. 

Take one large flower and cut a slit in the middle as wide as your ribbon then thread the two ends of your ribbon through the slit so you have a loop one side. Glue the two loose ends to the felt.

Next glue the flower with the ribnon to the top of your polystyrene ball (I used silicone glue for a firm hold) and place the other large flower on the bottom. The flower shape easily moulds round the ball due to the petals. 

Next cover the ball with your small flowers again I used silicone glue, and I started on the middle which didnt have any felt on, built this up and then covered the rest of the ball. I found it was best to randomly dot glueon the ball, add the flowers then work on the gaps inbetween. If you also glue just the centre you get a more 3D look to the flowers.

You can stop here but I then added some glitter glue to the centre of each flower (that was showing). To do this I put my flower ball in a small cup so I could glitter one side without touching it, left it to dry, turned the ball round and glittered the other side.

I got so enthusiasic about covering the ball with flowers that I did it to the woodern hearts I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. This would be great on the front of a card and the recipient can then hang it on their tree.

Youcould also use just one colour felt to fit in with your theme or leave off the ribbon, add a wooden stick/rod and put it in a little bucket or pot for a table decoration (which could be used all year round)

Love Robbins...

I made this card using the toppers and background 'Love Robins...' card from Hunkydory and added a bit of texture with an embossed foil lid (see on of my previous posts) with the embossing folder from Crafters Inspiration Christmas 2013 edition.

The camera didn't pick it up well but the sentiment in the bottom right says 'merry Christmas' 

Up cycling Unused Foil Tray Lids

I use foil trays a lot at home as I make meals and freeze them but I always seem to have loads of left over foil lids (as I usually freeze 3 meals and use one or I cook stuffing in them) but I've found a great use for them! They are great to put through a die cutting machine to make a mattish silver embellishment so great for Christmas plus fingerprints done show up as easily as on mirri-board.

They also emboss amazingly and done cracker (unlike some cardstocks)

I used a mix of spellbinders, sizzix sizzlets, Tonic dies and Darice embossing folders (plus one free from Simply Homemade). They cut great in my Big Shot and came out so easily. 

Do you have any novel uses for other household items in crafting?

Hunkydory Christmas Card

Another cards made using Hunkydory toppers using Stylish Season - Pretty Presents.

I used peel offs on an off cut of the boarder to make my own sentiment and glued a bow to the bow on the tree to give it added dimension 

Christmas pudding Christmas card

Thursday I made my first ever 8 x 8 card and love them!!!! 

Here is a card made from Hunkdory toppers and backing card. I used Classic Christmas - A Festive Recipe.

The lattice background was cut by hand and took an hour but I think it's worth it 

Leaving my craft room now after a fight with cracker making - 2 hours and the Tonic cracker card keeps breaking when I go to glue it together so giving up for today and watching a film on the sofa with my husband 

I've made crackers successfully before with the die but the cracker card packs are thinner than the card I used previously 

Christmas Cracker Hat Craft Tutorial

This year I've decided to make my own crackers. I decided this just after Christmas and then it became much easier with the Tonic cracker dies which they started selling in the summer (early I know but you have to be prepared!)

So I have the crackers theirselves sorted but I wanted to make my own hats as a cracker isn't a cracker without a paper hat. Today (27th October 2013) it was really handy as Aldi had a special on lots of Christmas wrapping including tissue paper so I sent my husband off with a list of things to get when he popped round there (it's virtually next door to us) while I slept off my migraine (grrrr). With all this windy weather my husband told me he was nearly run over by the outdoor plant shelving units on wheels! Luckily he ran out the way. 

So my husband came back with a pack of tissue paper, curling ribbon and fabric ribbon. I just said 'get any design' as my migraine had taken hold and he came back with the ones I actually wanted so that was amazing (I wouldn't have minded design as long as I had the actual items)

So now to the tutorial. To make paper hats for crackers you will need:

Scissors

A ball point pen (I used a white ball gel pen)

Double-sided tape

Ruler

Tissue paper (you will need enough to make 2 pieces 31cm x 12.5cm for each hat).

1. Get your tissue paper and measure and cut into two pieces that at 31cm x 12.5cm (if you have tissue paper 61cm long you can just cut this 12.5cm tall)

2. Use double-sided tape and stick this on one end of each piece of tissue paper. (If you are just using one piece 61cm long just put tape at one end) 

3. Stick the two pieces of tissue paper together to make a round piece of tissue paper. NOTE: Make sure if you are using a pattern that as to be up a certain way that you stick the paper together with both pieces up the right way)

4. Fold the hat flat so it looks like the below.

5. Mark every 5cm and then folder that hat in a concertina way.

6. Snip the top of the hat diagonally 

7. Ta-da you now have a paper cracker hat!

Just fold and put it in your cracker ready for Christmas (don't forget to put a present and joke in your cracker too!)

I made my hats in a few different patterns. You could also print on white tissue paper and make your own personalised hats (I've not been brave enough to print on tissue paper yet)

You can also make smaller hats for children or make a curvy line instead of a zig-zag. I did try to punch shapes out of tissue paper but found as it was so delicate it tore the paper but worked if I put paper in the punch with the tissue paper. 

With my tissue paper due to the size I had off cuts so I used them to decorate some tags for my gift wrap so very little wastage.

Pet Advent Calendar Jar

While doing my food shopping I saw they had a chicken Dreamies advent calendars which would be perfect for my Pygmy hedgehog Spike but as he loves chicken Dreamies however as Dreamies are for cats the packaging was cat based and it came with a cat toy.....so I set about making my own advent calendar for Spike and came up with this which can be re-used each year!

An advent calendar jar for Spikes treats!

I brought the car in Hobbycraft for under £3 then used the embossing folder from the latest Crafters Inspirations magazine. For the count down I used a tag as the base and then printed out a countdown 

I printed the count down (along with the date in the corner) on Centura Pearl paper (so it's got a gold sheen). I cut them to shape on the guillotine then I used a perforating blade on my paper trimmer to perforate the top of each dated paper square so that I can easily tear off each date (then I'll know if he has already had his advent treat). I then stacked the pieces in date order and stuck them to each other along the top seam (although next time I would use tacky glue as it's far quicker and easier to line up)

I then decorated the jar with glitter snowflake stickers, Merry Christmas stickers and attached some bells onto the jar handle (all from the DoCrafts Christmas craft goody bag).

Now all that's left to do is fill the jar with Dreamies or some hedgehog friendly biscuits (if I can find a recipe)

I'm going to be making another similar jar for my parents dog and fill it with dog treats or homemade dog biscuits.

I loved making this and in the end it's cost me around the same as the Dreamies ready made advent calendar but I can re-use this each year (obviously I'll have to stick a new count down on or he'll think it's Christmas every day!)