Christmas Card Holders

Tonight I revisited a craft I did a little while ago - but I've given it a Christmassy twist:

Peg Card Holders

I've stuck a strip of sparkly silver ribbon on the top with some snowflake stickers and I've added penguin stickers (from Papermania) on the bottom.

A fun, quirky, easy and modern way to display your Christmas cards!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Christmas Ice Sculpture

This was tonight's project:

An ice 'wreath' filled with christmassy toys.

I used an old circular cake mould (not sure what type of cake they are used for) and made it by putting water in the bottom of the mould, partially freezing it and then adding plastic toys and christmas embellishments.  

At one stage it even had a plastic chicken! :D but that floated so didn't work!

After the first layer had frozen a bit (in the freezer) I then added another layer of toys and then a 3rd layer. 
(Incidently, all toys are plastic, no toys were harmed in the making of this craft ;-)  )

It really needs to freeze overnight because after I took this top picture I moved the sculpture to photograph some close-ups and it turned out to be not as frozen as it should have been!  ie It broke up! :-O  (Also, our freezer was a bit high up for me to reach to put this in and some of the toys shifted around, which is why there is an 'empty' bit).  For best results you need to leave them outside on cold nights to freeze - like the type of nights we are having now.

I have made these successfully in the past using pine cones, holly and greenery - it's a bit of a fun decoration for outside.   Previously I have left one on our front garden wall for the children and our postman and milkman to admire before it melts!
 
Thanks for looking and for any comments,
See you tomorrow,
qwiksave

EDIT: PS -  I made another one overnight just by putting all the bits in the bowl (not in layers) and putting it in a lower part of the freezer.  It worked!:

(two pictures bottom right are of last night's sculpture)

Christmas Photos

Today I've been hunting out some of our old Christmas photos and thinking about ways of displaying them:

Love these sticky card holders and they are so easy to change the pictures around.  Its fun to see pictures of past Christmasses and how things (and people!) have changed.

I also found this creative Christmas abstract picture I made a while ago:

This was done by 'painting' PVA glue onto none-bleedproof tissue paper and then onto silver foil. (Apologies for the picture, its very reflective).

Just having a day working out how I can put Christmassy pictures/photos/artwork ALL around the house!

***

Time for a break, a german Cadbury's choccie bar:

Mmmmmn! Thanks, hubby! :D

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

PS - We haven't had a lot of snow yet, its due soon, but my boys were determined to have whatever fun they could!:

Unfortunately those sledges weren't going anywhere! :(

Stamped Christmas Card

With all these other makes going on, I've been neglecting one of the most important crafts of Christmas - making my own cards!  With the weather the way its been, I now have the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and get them done.  That saying, I did make one today!

I've used a scrapbooking paper with swirls already on it and I have Christmassified (do you like that word?) it by adding stamps of holly, snowflakes and baubles.

 In the middle I have done the sentiment.  The wording 'Merry Christmas' was stamped onto plain paper and 3-d dots were placed behind it to bring it out of the worded background.

I think I'd best start on the others that I need to do, post haste!

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

qwiksave

Cadbury's Choccie Snowman

Thanks to Helen of Its All Fiddle Fart for this idea.....

It's a snowman with a Cadbury's Chocolate bar inside.  I have made two, one for each of my boy's for Christmas.

They are quite easy to make but you need to think about what stage the glue or double sided sticky tape goes down (hard on the ol' brain matter at this time of night - Midnight!)

You start off with bars like this:

Long, thin bars of Dairy Milk, these were 20p each from my local newspaper shop.  

First wrap them in white paper and use DST to stick them to the wrappers of the bars on the back.

This is the clever bit, you use a 'Magic Glove' for the hat.  Cut off the fingers!:

No sewing required :D  Just roll up the finger for the brim of the hat and add some holly sequins (mine were £1 a bag from WHSmiths).

To make my face I used a Sharpie for the eyes and cheeks and a thin marker for the mouth. I used a Paperchase circle sticker for the nose and touched up the details with Glossy Accents.

The scarf was stuck on with DST and further dots for the buttons were made with the Black Sharpie and Glossy Accents.

Fun to make, and look great too. Now, where can I hide them so they are not found before the Big Day?

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Tutorial for Paper Christmas Bauble

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and followers in America, hope you are having/have had a great day!

* * * * *

This is my christmas bauble:

..made from half a piece of scrapbooking paper. It can also be made from old christmas cards or paper you decorate yourself.

To make it you cut up your paper into 10 strips:

Mine were 6" by 1" (but they could be slightly narrower)

Make a punched hole in both ends and insert a paper fastener in each (I couldn't find my normal ones so used flower shaped fasteners)

Then 'fan' out the pieces into the bauble shape:

Tie some thread around the paper fastener and hang:

Another simple decoration for your tree that only takes about 5 minutes to make.  I think a collection would look good made with different coloured papers.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Bauble Characters

Nice simple idea for a decoration. Make characters out of baubles using googly eyes and other christmassy bits.

Apologies for my hands in the reflections, but the baubles are so shiny they are difficult to photograph. .

This is another idea that children might like to do, for themselves or for Christmas fairs. 

The idea for these came to me just as I was dropping off to sleep last night, strange how some things just 'pop' into your head!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Christmas Angel Tutorial

Today, I have a tutorial on how to make this:

A Mini fabric Christmas Angel

Materials:

2 pieces of scrap material,
scissors
glue suitable for fabric
button
peg
permanent markers in pink and red
glittery pipe cleaners

To make this decorative angel, first cut two 3.5" circles out of the different materials:

(No need to iron, lol)  Then fold over and stick the two halves together:

Then on one semi-circle create the arms(sleeves) by folding in two of the sides towards the middle, glue and use a peg to hold them in position:

(Red lines show you the edge of the material)

Remove the peg and stick these sleeves onto the other semi-circular piece of material. Stick on a button (holes are eyes) and some glittery stuff (I used pipe cleaners) for the hair and halo:

Finally, add with permanent pen, a smile and two dotty cheeks:

..and you're done! :-)

You could attach a ribbon to the back to hang it up or maybe stick it on a tag.  It is also another Christmas craft that children could do in the holidays or for school fairs.

(Project found on the web a couple of years ago, sorry, can't find source, if you know, please mention in the comments and I will credit them)

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Snowman Scrapbooking Page

I fiinally sorted out the technical problems I encountered earlier and here is the finished 8x8 scrapbook page:

Well, when I say, 'sorted out,' I mean I redid the page. The pages I put on earlier  I couldn't get a nice bright white.  I tried both White Stazon and Flocking Powder but they both were too pale. I discovered that, luckily, I did have enough white embossing powder so used it to do the pattern on this.

It's a boy page on fushia pink paper - my favourite colour - and this is the colour combination (white & pink) that I got married in.

I used White Core Co-ordinations paper and distressed the edges by sanding too.

  The same stamp set (from Bo Bunny) was used on this one that I did in the Autumn:

(which I have to admit I still prefer...)

Thanks for looking and any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Craft Stall Goodies & Xmas Doodle

I've been to the Christmas Lights Switch On in our town this afternoon and evening and they had a wonderful craft stall there with loads of lovely toppers for cards.  I don't normally buy other people's but these were really good and ever so reasonable in cost, how could I refuse?  The stallholder says she doesn't die cut her designs, she gets them printed/made up at a print shop. What a great idea, I'd like to do that. 

The design you see above has paper with 3d spots and stars on it (£1.99 for 10 sheets of different colours) and the angel set with the sentiment and additional stars was 99p.  It's so 3d, it would probably suit being framed, rather than being on a card. 

* * *

As for my craft tonight?  I had a quick go at doodling:

(Oops, not quite finished neckline)

Haven't done any doodling like this in a while...

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Sequins are the New Black!

If you go in any card shop (well, maybe not any), but you will probably find Christmas cards that have been made using sequins.

So, dig out your box that is in the back of your craft cupboard somewhere (you know the one, that has stuff in it that you think you'll never use again), grab some tweezers and start having a play with your sequin collection!

To make these, I have drawn the basic shape with pencil (OK, I used a stencil) and just filled in the space to make the Christmassy shape.

Once you have got your positioning you can then start sticking down.  I got some embellishment glue when I was in Germany, but you can probably find some on 'the' auction site.

You could use them to make decorations, tags or cards.

It is also something that you may like to get your children involved in during the Christmas holidays.

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

qwiksave

Germany in Autumn

My husband has returned from working in Germany for the weekend and has brought back some lovely scenic photos for me to show you.  I thought you might like to see these calm, peaceful, river & mountain scenes that he has been taking, inbetween his working hours.

Also some woodland:

Makes me feel all calm looking at these. 

* * * * *

He came back this morning and took our boys around a very busy, Movie Memorabilia show at the NEC in Birmingham.  There were people dressed up as Star Wars characters:

With whom they had their picture taken:

Me? I went to another exhibition there at the NEC, a Gifts For Christmas show, it was heaving with people and I only got a couple of things, one of which was some washable fabric pens.  Once a crafter, always a crafter!  ;-)

Back later with today's craft,

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Seasonal Tree Late Autumn

Brrrrr! We certainly know its approaching Winter here in the UK.  We've had gales, flooding (in some areas)and icy mornings to wake up to.  I thought it was about time I updated my Seasonal Tree wallhanging as last time I showed it to you it was in its warm coloured Autumn coat. 

Today it looks like this:

It has lost all its leaves (again) and now they have all turned brown and are lying on the ground. (Don't know about you, but I simply can't resist kicking up leaves as I walk through them, even when the kids aren't with me! ;-)  )

I got an extra bonus when I was doing this project today, I was using my cut & dry with an inkpad to change all the paper leaves brown onto a piece of scrap paper and when I lifted the leaf it left a lovely pattern on the paper.  It created another piece of artwork worthy enough to frame!:

Before I took all the leaves off I photographed the stage before this, when a few leaves were still on the tree:

With their cosy warm colours

I've been sitting here writing this whilst getting colder & colder, (central heating gone off)  think I'd  better go and put the gas fire on, Brrrrr!

Thanks for looking and for any comments

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave