Tree Decorations Made from Bread!

These tree decorations are mega sparkly! And they are made from Bread!

Believe it or not, we haven't got our tree up yet!  I've been waiting for my husband to come back from Germany to get our large artificial tree from the attic - and good news, he came back today!  He took two days to travel using trains and ferry and an overnight stay in Dover, but he finally made it back at lunchtime today.  My boys are ecstatic and are looking forward to going sledging with him tomorrow.

Back to the decorations and the way they were made was this: 

1. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the shape out of a slice of bread and make a hole in one end to thread the ribbon through.
2. Leave them on a baking rack overnight to harden.
3. Mix some PVA glue with some paint and paint the top and sides of the bread shape.  When dry, paint the other side.
4. Paste glue all over one side and sprinkle glitter all over. You could also add small beads and sequins too.  When dry, do the same to the other side.
5. Add ribbon or sparkly pipe cleaners to hang.

Dazzle, dazzle!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

A Thank You

To all my blog followers and to the people that pop in regularly, particularly to those who comment on my makes, I would like to give you this.  A great big, handwritten, hearfelt 



I have really appreciated the support I have had during this last year whilst I have been carrying out what started out as this year's New Year's Resolution to create things every day for a year.  I managed it almost every single day, bar illness and holidays and have thoroughly enjoyed it too.  I hope you have too. 

I'm not stopping crafting as soon as Midnight strikes on December 31st, but I won't be doing it every day, like this year.  I will still do lots, (just try and keep me away!) so I hope you will still stay with me as I scale things down a fraction. 

I would also like to wish all my blog friends, acquaintances and Everyone a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and all the best for a fantastic 2011!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

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

Let It Snow - Photographs

Today my craft is photography.

Colourful umbrellas make great photos in snow!

We had masses of snow today - we woke up to loads and then it kept on coming for most of the day.

Luckily I've done most of my christmas shopping, but I did have to pop out (walking) with my boys to the supermarket.  They loved it of course and were snowball fighting all the way.

This was in our neighbour's garden:

..and this is the robin that my son made at school:

It looks like a giant robin is coming down our path! :-O

The snow is so lovely to look at, but it has its problems.  My husband has been stuck in Germany this weekend because his flight was cancelled :-(  He's hoping to come back on Wednesday now, fingers crossed.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

Keep yourselves warm,

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

Personalised Stocking Filler

Thank you for your kind messages, the anti-biotics have been doing their magic today and I'm feeling quite a bit better today - I even did a 'mini' craft tonight!

It was personalising some pencils with my son's names on.

#

(sorry, nightime photo!)

..using individual letters cut from letter stickers on transparent paper

Think I'll put them in a box with some other personalised items - kids love things with their name on!

* * * * *
Glad to be feeling a bit more human again, but glad in a way that I have had this illness now rather than at Christmas, I've been ill at Christmas before and its not nice.  Loads of children are off school at my sons' school at the moment, possibly passing their illnesses onto their parents too.  We'll all be wearing gas masks next!

It may be this strange weather we have been having that has brought on all the bugs. This Thursday we are due more snow which means for the first time in years we may actually get a White Christmas (Yay!) I have also heard reports that 'it' (the White Christmas), may not happen 'in the central part of the country' - typical, because that is just where we live! (Boo!) I do hope they're wrong...

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

Winter Wonderland

OOh, I could do with some of this type of thing right now, to make me all well again!  (not this particular one though, not is it only ancient, its also for horses! lol)

I've been to the Doctor's today and have a confirmed case of tonsilitus.  It is so painful!  I just want it to go away so I can get on with my Christmas preparations. 

It takes a lot to keep me away from my computer though so even though I'm not up to making things, I can't resist putting fingers to keyboard. I'm still reading my blog list and keeping this blog up to date.  It's easy enough to do from the sofa, unlike the housework, lol.   (Actually that reminds me of a notice I saw at a Christmas fair recently, it said 'A CLEAN HOUSE IS A SIGN OF A BROKEN COMPUTER' )

******

I found this old video on my laptop from when my 10 year old was about 3.  Love it when shopping centres make the effort to put on something extra for the children.  Sadly our local one doesn't seem to do this kind of thing anymore, maybe its for economic reasons. 

(Apologies for the lighting conditions)

Hope all your preparations are going well,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave