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!)

Hedgehog Christmas Hat

I only took up knitting two weeks ago and today finished two snowballs and started off on a Christmas hat.

I'm loving 'We Knit You A Merry Christmas' with its beautiful knitting patterns and easy to follow guides.

The hat I made was actually amended from the pattern in the book as the original pattern was too small. I'm so happy it turned out and it only took two hours while watching the Girls Aloud programme on ITV.

The hat is for Spike our Pygmy hedgehog. I'll try it on him tomorrow night if he is in a good mood (he had a bath tonight so is in a grumpy mood). It will then go on top of our Christmas tree (as ours isn't strong enough for a angel or star grr).

I may make another hat for Festive Mark (my old Mark Owen I found a few years ago in a box of of Christmas decorations, he was naked apart from some tinsel....I must have done that to him but can't remember ever doing it!) Mark resides in the study most of the year watching over me crafting and gets brought out at Chrismas!

My Two Loves In One - Hedgehogs and Crafting!

I keep looking for Hedgehog craft items which look sweet and while watching Create and Craft I saw Peerless Designs Hedgehog Garden Adventures and fell in love with it as some of the hedgehogs look like my hedgehog Spike.

It finally arrived yesterday after waiting just over a week for it and I can't wait to print out some designs to make cards and bookmarks...I just need to sort my printer set up so I don't have to run my laptop from the living room into the study/craft room each time I need to print (it's a wireless printer but for some reason my laptop decided it didn't like to talk to it wirelessly anymore)

I've never used CD crafting before and recently with Quick Cards magazine got a copy of 'My Craft Studio Elite' and found that I can import the images into the programme. The CD is also great, as if you are lucky enough to have a circut or similar cutting machine, the CD has cutting files to print out some lovely hedgehog boarders. I would really like the new Circut mini but I just don't have the room, my parents even offered to get me one for Christmas!

I can't wait to make some amazing cards with this CD.

Mine was purchased from Create and Craft but is now no longer available from them (I only got it last week) but can be purchased from Peerless Designs.

I will leave you now with a little snap of our little hedgehog Spike