Finally Finished - My Tesco Advent Calendar House

I’ve never done anything big like this before ….and I am so chuffed, once I had sorted out which papers to use it all sort of came together.

I reckon in all I have spent about 30 hours on it.

As you know I am very much a less is more crafter, but on this, it was more, more, more and then some more!

I ought to run a competition to guess how many clear gems I’ve used.

I hope, when I snuff it, this is what my children fight and testify my will over!!!

I can’t believe it, but I even lined the bottom of the drawers!
 
All I need to do now is find a tiny little “something” to put in each drawer!

I think this has got to be my favourite make ever!

Boo Brew and Witches Warts Halloween Favors (Cadbury Drinking Chocolate)

I’ve used a download called Boo Brew from ScrappinDoodles for this Halloween Hot Chocolate http://www.scrappindoodles.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=1746 it cost $1.00 which is about 63p English money.

I fiddled about with the images in the set until I came up with a design/backing sheet that fitted my 145mm x 145mm self sealing cello bag.

I’ve put in a sachet of hot chocolate, some mini marshmallows (from Home Bargains 89p, I think), which I have sealed with my Elitech bag sealer to keep them really fresh, a Marks & Spencer lolly from a pack of four (99p) for a stirrer and a couple of spider rings taken from a Poundworld Halloween Bumper bag of bits.

…… And, is it me or do Rainbow Drops look like Witches Warts????

I need to get a hobby!!!!!

Anitas's 3D Laser Stickers - Snowman Sweetie Bags

 
After my disappointment yesterday over this years Accessorize stickers, I thought I would show my favourite Christmas stickers of this year (so far)......., they are from Anita’s and cost about £1.50ish. I wasn't sure about them at first, but once I started using them I loved them more and more

They come in snowmen, penguins and Santa designs and are all equally lovely! As soon as I saw them I thought sweetie bags! I’ve used Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps and my Stampin Up scalloped and plain circle punches to make them.

 

I’ve used a bit more detail on the toppers than usual, adding white glitter paper to the bottom of each plain circle and then adding faux stitching and snowflakes using a white gel pen.

On the reverse side of each sweet I have handwritten “Happy Christmas” on a plain white circle and then finished off exactly the same as the front.

I am going to make some more sweetie bags using the penguins and Santa's which I will post as soon as they are done.

Decorated Cadbury Miniatures using Accessorize Christmas Stickers

I made these quickly last night (before The Apprentice!!!!) just to see how the snowmen stickers would look on Cadbury Dairy Milk Miniatures.

Everyone knows how much I love Accessorize stickers ….. and after their brilliant Halloween range I was anticipating very great things ……. Well, yesterday I heard that the Christmas ones had hit the shops, so my lovely sister was hastily sent on “a mission” ………….. but I am so disappointed ………… and hoping that there has been a huge mix up at the distribution centre and that the “real” stickers will soon appear in the shops!

The snowmen are the same as last year! And, I wasn’t that keen on them then.  As for the laser effect stickers – I’m not impressed, the gingerbread man is especially awful as is the snowman. My heart sank when I saw them ….. my sister got me two packs of each, and I will use them all, but I don’t think I will buying anymore. (£1.75 per pack)

Next port of call for my sister was Paperchase, where she got me one pack each of their two Christmas designs ….. (£1)

 

Hmmmmm, quite cute, but every single sticker has a face on it, now that’s ok for the Santa and penguins, etc. but I don’t really like my holly or Yule log to have one too, a bit odd.

I must sound really grouchy, I’m sorry …..  The other set of stickers from Paperchase are “OK”…. quite cartoony, with a modern feel and I think I will be able to make some quite quirky cards with them

My Desk At Work

Just in case you didn’t believe me yesterday … I thought I would show you my little shelf next to my desk at work ….

With Lord Sugar in the middle!!!

And this is the top of my computer ….. with my lovely Poundland USB lava lamp!

And now something really silly ……. My eyesight is terrible, I wear strong contact lenses but need readers over the top of them to see my computer screen and to read etc.  These readers were from the 99p shop, I love them, but then I got to wondering what they would look like with flat backed gems stuck on  ……

My pictures are rubbish, but these are some of my most expensive gems in a pale olive green …… and they really twinkle! All the glasses need now is a bit of faux stitching!!!!! I really shouldn’t be left alone!!!!

No Crafting Wednesday!

I tend to keep my blog a pretty tight ship, keeping strictly to crafting and shopping ……and only share a little of myself now and again….. well, I today I thought I would reveal my secret crush passion ….. which will explain why I won’t be doing any crafting on Wednesday nights for at least the next 13 weeks …….

I LOVE SIR ALAN SUGAR …….. he makes me go all goose bumpy.  I have three framed pictures on the small shelf by my desk at work,  they are of Mr FiddleFart, Jose Mourinho (my other crush)  and Sir Alan …. so on a Wednesday when I am usually fiddle farting ….. the only thing that will be glued, will be me, to my tele!!!

Keep scrolling down as there are another two posts below this today!

Tesco Advent House Update 5

I hope that the next time I show you what I have done to my Advent House it will be finished and that all I’ll have to think about is where to put it during Advent and what to put in it.

You know my motto is "Less is More" ...... well, that's gone right out of the window ...... but I am only going to give you a sneak peak .....

The roof is now longer flat and lacking ……it's embellished with hundreds of flat backed gems!!!!!  I just need to add a bit of PVA to the ends of the braid to stop it from fraying.

And I found the perfect snowmen in Hobbycrafts (£1.99 for 6)

I’ve also found the right glittery numbers too, but they caused me more work than I first intended.

Initially I stuck them straight on to the drawers, but from a distance they were barely distinguishable. So I made a small background panel for each number, aghhhh, more fiddle fart! Sorry, about the wet glue, I am just too eager to get the photos taken.

I love my drawer knobs, but I have found that I cannot add any more small gems, as I had planned, to the drawer front as it doesn’t look right. I’ve used gold stars which mirror the stars held by the snowmen.

So almost there, except that I have decided I need to put something on the sides of the house now…..  so more Blitzen paper, snow and snowmen …… then I’m done …. I think!

What’s In My Shopping Bag Wednesday

It seems ages since I did a shopping post …. and to be honest there isn’t any crafty shopping here ….. I’ve just indulged myself with a few lovely things ……. on Saturday we nipped over to one of our fairly local garden centres, where they were just setting out their Christmas displays.

And as I have a BIG thing for birds at the moment  I just couldn’t resist this tree decoration ….. it will hang in my craftroom all year round …. it cost £3.99 and I LOVE it.

Another thing I collect is flying pigs, (it’s my user name in various forums), but they are few and far between, so I only have a very small collection. I’m a bit fussy because they have to have “nice” faces ….. and this one has a beautiful face! It cost £2.99, and again it will have a special place found for it in my craftroom.

This set of vintage 1950’s child's suitcases cost me £6.50 (plus P&P) from e-bay.  I just love them!  The handles are metal and remind me of my childhood so much.  They were not in pristine condition, but I knew that when I bid, but with a little bit of cleaning they are just what I wanted.

One side of the largest case was a little scuffed, but I already had these Making Memories travel stickers, which have covered the marks perfectly.

I have looked at new sets of similar mini suitcases, but they aren’t a patch on these and are SO expensive!

Decorated Cadbury Dairy Milk Miniature Box

I’ve been using a lot of Cadbury Dairy Milk Miniatures (from Home Bargains £1.09 – 20 chocolates in a box) for Halloween and Christmas projects, but until last night, had never thought of decorating a full box ……

I took off the box sleeve and carefully undid it, then drew round it onto a piece of patterned paper and cut it out.  Next, I carefully stuck the paper onto the sleeve with double sided tape, using my stylus to go over the creases.  After that it was plain sailing as I put the sleeve together again

To decorate, I’ve used a band of contrasting paper and brown ribbon to go round the box and a chipboard flower I got from The Range a while back (a pack of five for 99p), plus a bit of my signature faux stitching!!!!

 

As my sister would say, “You have too much time on your hands”

Boo – Halloween Cadbury Chocolate Bar

Not suitable for children under three because of the eyes, but a fun chocolate bar for Trick and Treating!

Flip Over Advent Calendar

I found this Advent Calendar below and thought I’d like to have a go at making something similar:-http://www.fiskarettes.co.uk/index.php/date/2009/11

But, when I started making it I didn’t actually save the site or picture (which I have since found again)  so I was working on a vaguish memory of what I thought it looked like, in my head.

Putting it together was a fiddle as I have only ever made small books using my Bind It All before, in fact I very nearly gave up! Please bear with me as the instructions may not be too detailed as I was making this very much on the hoof and was concentrating more on the making rather than remembering to take a picture at each stage.

Each square measured 4 1/4in x 4.1/4ins and I used the width of a ruler to make the bottom of the calendar.  I then cut it out and scored the middle lines, followed by punching both ends using my Bind It All.

The pages measure 4ins x 4ins, and were punched and then very carefully cut in two.

 
For my first attempt  (above) I used 3 coils for each side of the calendar, but it looked wonky, as you can see, so I did it again, this time using just one length of 6 coils.

I created a set of numbers using Publisher on the same colour card as the calendar base and then added a K & Co. Christmas paper as a background. The rest is all the fiddly twiddly bits…….. which included lots of faux stitching using a white gel pen, large holly leaves made with a punch, and red foil holly berries. I tried to  use red flat backed gems for the berries originally, but it made the right hand side of the calendar far too bulky.

I am not 100% happy with what I have made, if I were to do it again, I would make the number panels shorter to give me more space to vary the decoration at the bottom of each page, at the moment they are all pretty much the same. Having said that, it’ll look very nice on my festive desk at work.