'twas the season!

Well? Did you survive?? Pleased to say I did :) It was a very quiet Christmas this year which gave me time to reflect and catch up on my reading - I got new crafty books as gifts so my nose was buried for the last 2 days coming up only for the turkey and sprout fest lol.  Ok, if you're on my Facebook/Twitter list you'll know that I also had a rant or two about sales adverts on Christmas morning (keep Christmas in December and keep the sales in January!) and the obligatory holiday/diet adverts - but lets not get into that again or I'll be up on my soapbox all day! 

So today is back to 'normality' whatever that may be.  I've got a list of tutorials planned for the next few months to keep both me and you amused plus I'm going to be launching my Adorable Little Extras label (really excited!!) I've also been (still) trying to work out the decor for my living/dining room - the Mr has agreed this needs to start looking more like a home now and I've got my eye on the back wall/window for my new craft space.  I've really GOT to do some crafting today - you know when you wake up at stupid o'clock and try to get back of to sleep and you end up remembering your dream, I was dreaming about soap making!! Go figure!

Anyway, I've got pork to be roasting and Warhammer to be assembling with the kiddies so I shall leave you for now - don't forget my open invite on my last blog post to join my ATC swap, I'd love to have you on board!  

Happy crafting 

xx

Calling all crafters!

I was sat looking through some of the things I've created over the years and remembering how I love to 'potch' with things when I discovered a small box with some of my favourite rubber stamps in that I'd kept back from the cull.  It got me to thinking, maybe its time to start something a bit fun for 2012, so, calling all crafters - would you like to be involved in a 2012 ATC swap?

For those of you not in the know, ATC's are Artists Trading Cards which are miniature works of art or stamping projects, collages, whatever you want them to be. There are only two rules, they must measure 2 ½” x 3 ½” and should not be sold, only exchanged for other cards.

Artists usually make a set of cards on a similar theme, they are called series. The artist records the name of the set on the back of each card, signs and dates it and allocates a number to show how many were made and what number each card is in the sequence, for example 1/6, 2/6 etc. Single unique cards are called originals and sets of identical cards are called editions.

ATC’s can be made from plain cardstock or by altering poker playing cards (standard playing cards are not the right size) or trading cards such as Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh etc. Any media can be used but they need to be sturdy enough to survive the mail and not too thick so that they can be stored easily.  You can see some lovely examples on the internet, unfortunately I was only able to find pictures of 1 I'd previously made (and we are going back years here!)

I am proposing a monthly swap with each month having a theme (maybe bi-monthly if we think that would be better?) so all the crafters involved and up with a lovely set of artwork for 2012 and something to get them creating!

So, what do you think? Interested in taking part? I'd love to hear from you!

Happy crafting!

xx

Pucker up - Mistletoe Tutorial

Oops! Its been a couple of days since my last posting but hey, its silly season so I can be forgiven for being a little on the quiet side.  To be fair, I've been off collecting crafty bits and pieces and getting inspired over the weekend - culminating in yesterdays craft session getting ready for this new tutorial. 


I'm pretty well known for not being able to keep plants alive, its a bit of a running family joke as I even managed to kill and un-killable spider plant!  I do like incorporating traditional things into my holiday crafting so I thought why not make some felt mistletoe.  Now it's taken me a few days to get the template right as every time I'd attempted to draw it, it ended up looking rather on the rude side and I'd end up chuckling to myself at my craft desk (simple things eh!)  I wanted this to be a no sew tutorial but that just wasn't going to happen, the bead 'berries' needed sewing so that ended that idea.  But ok, enough waffle from me, you can find the template for the mistletoe here
You will need:

• Moss green felt
• scissors
• Sharpie marker
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• pearl beads
• needle and thread
• ribbon in a colour of your choosing

Cut out your template and arrange the pieces on the felt, now is a good time to decide how big you want your arrangement to be so you can draw accordingly.

Draw around your template with the Sharpie (I did try with chalk but it just wasn't working!) and cut out your pieces

Once you've cut out all your pieces, layer and arrange them until you are happy with your shape.  Using your hot glue gun,  use small dabs of hot glue to stick the layers together.  (In case you were wondering, another reason I decided to use hot glue was to add a little weight to the felt)

You can now start adding your bead 'berries' - if you're not as fussy as me you can hot glue them in place, its down to personal preference at the end of the day.  Add as many 'berries' as looks pleasing to your eye.

Once you've added all your 'berries' you need to make a hanging loop and decorative bow.  Now I'm sure you all know how to tie bows but if you get stuck you can always give me a shout.  Use whatever colour you like to match your decor.

Position and glue your hanging loop to your mistletoe then add the decorative bow.

Et voila! your very own mistletoe to smooch under!!

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and if you make your own mistletoe I'd love to see it! As usual, feedback always welcome :)  

White Rabbits!!

So December is finally upon us!  I had the smug satisfaction of pinch punching my other half this morning (hey, he's managed to get me the last 2 months in a row!) and I thought I'd crack on with my sewing while waiting for the first of my Christmas gifts to arrive.  The fruits for my Christmas cake are soaking (I'll share the recipe with you if you like when I post about it, I've not made one months in advance in a while now and this one is delish), I'm still pondering whether I've chosen the right colour scheme for my living room and I don't yet have a tree, but, its a little to early for my tastes to be decorating yet, especially as there's still crafting to be done. 


We decided that the boys are a little old for the traditional Christmas stocking treatment now (11.5 and 14 in case you were wondering), so I thought it would be a nice touch to downgrade slightly and hang mini stockings from my fireplace for each of us.  I've made 6 in total, well the 2 cats are family too! I'm not sure what I'm going to put in them yet but I figure the little surprises will be a nice after dinner tradition to start.  I'm sure there's lots of stocking templates floating around the internet, however, I will upload mine as soon as I can get it scanned into the computer.  


And so, here's my little Christmas stockings (just as a side note, the crystal in the middle of the embroidery is a kinda oil slick black in real life, it just looks rather flat here!)

      

As the Coke adverts say, holidays are coming.......

Colours of Christmas

Good morning - I hope this post finds you well.  I was sat pondering last night on what colours my Christmas decorations are going to be, needless to say white is going to be included after creating the Glamour Wreath in my last blog.  However I am midway through redecorating (4 weeks before Christmas, ambitious eh!) and to give my living room a cosy rich feel I have gone with a cream/black/pink/silver theme, so do I match my decorations to my decor?? I may just do that this year, OK so it means my handmade snowmen ornaments and tree skirt won't make an appearance this year but it does give me the opportunity for some holiday crafting!  I am aiming to make some tree decorations, handmade Christmas cards and a few gifts too - heck I may even ice the Christmas cake in pink!  

Wish me luck!