How was your Christmas?

Hope you all had a good Christmas and are continuing to enjoy the holiday.  I was going to put my Christmas day photos on yesterday but fell asleep!

Mmmmn Choccie!

The homemade chocolate snowman (left) was popular.

Christmas for us was just our family of four at home (my inlaws have gone to the Phillippines) and of course, the concentration was on the boys...

...and their presents..

..the highlight of which was this Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle.

We also went out sledging.  This was the temperature as recorded in our hire car:

But great fun was had on the slopes:

..and yes, even I went down!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We're off to visit my sister and her family in Milton Keynes tomorrow and will be stopping over, so there will be no post tomorrow.

Look forward to seeing all your seasonal pictures!

Thanks for stopping by,

qwiksave

Retro Look Christmas Card

Happy Christmas!

Despite starting my christmas cards way back in April on this blog, :-O  I have still ended up finishing off my cards today - when the last day for posting is tomorow!  Resolution for next year - get more organised!

Loving the retro look of this card made by pressing just a few buttons on Picnik - it really is simple to use, love it. 

It's also simple to add a few fun effects too.  Same pic, different look:

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Frames like this stamp effect are fun too.

Hope all your christmas plans are working out.  I'll feel a bit more comfortable when my husband is safely back home from Germany.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Last Minute Present for Boys

Still looking for presents?  Or extra presents to go with main presents, for little boys?

This is what I think my boys will appreciate:

A transparent box with lots of  fun 'little discoveries.'

The tool box you can get from poundshops and the bits and pieces I collected throughout the year but you can get very cheaply.

Finger puppets, water pistols, spinning tops, little cars, aliens...

You can also fill the compartments with sweets and choccies if you wish - for all ages.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

More Christmas Decorations - B&W

I was in my element tonight - this kind of craft seems to be one of those authentically 'me' type. 

Stencils with additional freestyle doodling.

You start with your black paper/card and use a stencil to draw around to make your basic design with a bold white pen, in this case a white uniball stylo.  You then either shift the stencil a bit and draw again - or you can just draw freely.   

These two are less 'busy'

Add any additional wording using freestyle writing:

They could be used on cards, tags, a hanging mobile or even as framed mini pictures.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Present for a Classmate

What a disasterous day craftwise for me - I've done 3 crafts tonight and they all ended in disaster, so I can't show you those - no, really I can't!

But just so I've got some sort of picture to liven up my post, can I show you the craft I made today with my eldest for his friend Megan?

It's a framed postcard (from Paperchase) mounted on yellow card with some patterned cardboard buttons (from the US, Etsy).

Since this picture was taken we also added glossy accents to the buttons and stuck down some star confetti.

I did suggest he wrote 'with love from Ryan', but there was no way he was going to do that! ;-)

Megan loves pandas and the colour yellow, apparently.  I have been searching everywhere for a yellow panda with no success, so this is why we went for this.

They've actually known each other all their lives (all 10 of them!) as her mother and I met when we played in our local samba band all those years ago.  They went along to the same playgroups and were at the same preschool.  They are now in the same class in their last year at Primary School.  We are not sure if they will end up at the same High School next year but I have dated this (2010) on the back, in case in years to come, Megan has held onto this, and remembers the boy who gave it her that she grew up with.

EDIT:  And here it is packaged up with homemade paper (stamped brown paper see this post here), along with some free postage theme labels from the very generous babalisme here)

I loved babalisme's labels so much I also used them on Megan's mum's pressie too:

(You may also recognise the handmade tag from this post here)

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Christmas Script Tile

This was tonight's craft - a tile written on with permanent pens.

   It makes a nice decoration but I used a tile I found at home which wasn't really suitable.  It was a glazed tile so the ink kept sliding about and I had to be careful about fingerprints.

  Even now its not finished and I still have some more red colouring and cleaning up with a cotton bud to do.

When its done I think it will look good on my dear old mother's dresser (that I inherited) where I love to put all my christmassy bits on display.  It'll go on a top shelf so nobody can reach it.  If it does get picked up though,  it'll be easy enough to repair though, just grab a pen!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Free Digital Christmas Cards

Despite making some christmas cards throughout the year on this blog, I have still got quite a few left to do.  I have found a quick alternative way of making them that makes them personalised too.  It's probably no surprise to my regular followers but I would like to recommend Picnik.  There is  a section there that is completely free, although you can pay for more effects.

Today I have used this year's school photo of my boys as I know some of my relatives would love this type.

I added the snowflake frame effect to the original picture.

I was a bit disappointed in some of the selection because there were a lot that said 'Happy Holidays' on them, here in the UK we don't tend to use that phrase, but it is an american site.

Here was another with a pencil effect:

You can also modify cards you have made using craft materials both before and after they have been printed too.  You may recognise this button tree I made recently:

The same card can look so different.

I'm not sure I'll be on tomorrow, I have come down with something nasty.  My boys have got better and I have caught something.  Today one minute I have been sweating and the next minute freezing, my throat feels like sandpaper and I haven't managed to eat anything.   Fortunately my husband has come back from Germany for the weekend, but he's going back on Monday - I'm  not looking forward to the school week!  

 Thanks for looking and any comments,

May see you tomorrow,

qwiksave



Christmas Room Decoration and Children's Holiday Activity

Another technique I am itching to do more of is stencilling and spraying, I may have mentioned I love the work of Dina Wakeley who does some fantastic journals and altered art with stencils.

I've had a go tonight at spraying through an old Norwegian(?) papercut with Glimmer Mist:

It wasn't as clearly defined as I would have liked, but in the process of doing this I managed to get a lovely glimmer effect on the original papercut.

I also had a go at changing it to green using Picnik photo software:

******

My children were still off sick today, they've both got coughs but inbetween coughs today I got them doing an activity! :-O

Just a simple one that I remember loving when I was a child. 

Altering catalogue pictures! 

(This one is by older son) 

I remember years ago spending hours giggling away with just a pen and some Mothercare catalogues, adding speech bubbles, moustaches and gaps in teeth, it was such great fun! 

(Also by older son)

Today I had some Land's End catalogues and some cartoony face details, along with some cut out speech bubbles.  All we needed were some ideas!

This was mine...

 Spot the (sticker) addition to this photo:

...Lots of fun was being had - until coughing stopped play!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow

qwiksave

Watercoloured Christmas Pictures

I really enjoyed making tonight's craft:

Mini Christmassy pictures using rubber stamps, watercolour pens, a plant sprayer and a white pen.

I just love the blending effect that watercolours create when lots of water is added.

I made a few:

Not so keen on the 'Merry Christmas' one but I love the Father Christmas:

After stamping the image (using Memento Dye Ink) and leaving it to dry, I coloured him & the background normally with some watercolour felt tip pens...

..and then I 'zapped' the paper all over with the water from the plant sprayer.

I mopped up the excess with a kitchen roll and after leaving him to dry for a little while, I went around his outline with a uni-ball Signo White pen.  I love the almost magical, unpredictable results.

I also went on to making this non-christmassy one:

...using a 50p charity shop stamp.   Pretty flowers are not my normal style but I took great pleasure in doing this to them!   Zap! Zap! :-D

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Window Decoration Idea

I was going to recommend this idea as a way of displaying some christmas baubles in your window as I have seen them frequently in shop windows....

..but I can't recommend it because as I was trying to photograph these for this blog, the @&X! star 4th one along kept falling off! 

They look effective, with ribbons hanging down with the bauble attached to the end but the way they are attached to the window is by a hook attached to a sucker.   I think the bauble or decoration needs to be extremely lightweight otherwise the sucker comes away from the window, the ribbon falls down lots of times and that leads to bad language!  lol. 

Think I'll just have to find a better way of attaching them to the window...

Late edit: They (minus star no 4!) look interesting in the daylight with a bit of backlight & a wee touch of Picniky wizzardry:

* * * * *

These baubles (above) are up on our bathroom window.  I mentioned in an earlier post how I like to christmassify (!) lots of rooms in our house, well I also like to change my keyring around too for December:

BEFORE...:

...& AFTER:

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Gift for Fathers

This may be more of a UK type of present than US?  It's on a lot of forums and blogs, its a....

..Pint of Socks!

It consists of a thick pair of thermal black socks on the bottom and a white flannel on the top.  This is it unwrapped:

I've made this for my father-in-law as I think he'll appreciate the joke.

There is a poem to go with this that I'm going to add on a tag:

Our lager,

Which art in barrels,

Hallowed be thy drink.

I will be drunk,

At home as in the tavern.

Give us this day our foamy head,

And forgive us our spillages,

As we forgive those

Who spill against us.

And lead us not to incarceration,

But deliver us from hangovers.

For thine is the beer,

The bitter and The lager.

Forever and ever,

Barmen.

I've also been making some streamers using some old book pages:

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well and you are having fun making things of your own.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Grandparents Gift in a Jar

Today's project was made with my children - a Christmas gift for their grandad and nanny that they (almost) made all by themselves.

It is this Gift in a Jar:

I have one jar for each grandparent and it is a very personalised jar with pictures of them that the boys have drawn and stuck around the sides.

Here are the boys hard at work drawing their pictures:

and the pictures they produced:

Inside the jar?  We have printed some questions off about their nanny and grandad for them to answer with their very own personal responses (this was a great fun exercise! :-)  )

(some of the ones for the Grandad jar - each boy used a different coloured pen)

Then they were folded into the jar with some christmassy confetti and a strip of christmassy paper was stuck around the side, and also some ribbon.  A heart gem was stuck onto the lid:

..and there you have it, two personalised presents for the grandparents that are from the children that I'm sure they will treasure.

(Idea taken from this blog here)


Thanks for looking and for any comments,
See you tomorrow,
qwiksave