Heads Up – Festive Smarties

I am always on the look out for sweets that can be put in small bags at Christmas time for favours, re-bagged and popped in a stocking and/or sold at Christmas Fayres etc.

I found these tubes of Rudolph Noses in Asda for £1. I reckon you could get two, possibly three little bags from one tube or simply fill one small jar with a matching Rudolph tag with the whole lot.  I always wear gloves when transferring sweets from one container to another and make sure the sweets are handled as little as possible.  I still have my trusty vacuum sealer too if I need to put sweets in a new cello bag to maintain their hygiene and freshness.

I don’t get unicorns and neither does Marc ……. but we get mermaids, so each to their own ……..  when I saw these Unicorn Smarties I thought of Marc straight away as a wind up sort of  present.

There are a million ideas out there for favours you could use these for  ……. unicorn poop anyone?

Advent Drawer Tuesday

Yes ……. I am still going …….

…… making the snowman drawer brought back so many happy memories, because I bought the snowmen from Michael’s in New York back in March. 

I can remember every single second of that visit, it’s ingrained in my mind as if it was yesterday and probably always will be ………

……. especially memories of the lovely lady on the till who made sure I had every sort of discount she could give me, bless her

Mistle-Toes Sock Pack Band

Socks can, admittedly, be a bit boring as a festive gift, but as plain, black ones are on both my nieces Christmas present lists this year, I felt it was my duty to find a way to tart them up for the big day.

The Mistle-Toe idea isn’t mine, I found it on Pinterest, but I am not sure if anyone else has come up with the idea of putting the sentiment on the band of a multi pack of socks.

I started by taking the original band off the socks to use as a template, cutting out new strips of white  card and then matching the score marks up on my box score board.

Then I measured the front panel and used the measurements to create a text box in Publisher 2003, using  alternate red and green letters in CandystripeFont (size 20) to make the sentiment.  I then printed off a whole sheet of them, as I wanted to put one on the front and the back and have a few spares just in case.

I cut out two of the boxes and glued them to one of the bands.

A little faux stitching never goes amiss ………

…… and neither does the odd flat back star or two.

I used double sided tape down the side to secure the band together.  I’m dead chuffed, at least these socks don’t look quite so functional just this once.

Heads Up - Flying Tiger Christmas Stickers

I love Flying Tiger shops, Marc and I were once followed all round the Hammersmith branch by a “undercover” member of staff, it was in the days of my huge “shop lifting bag” as Marc used to call it.  It was the best bag I have ever had, I still miss it,  but it was sooooooo big, I suppose it did look a bit suspicious!

However, I digress.  This year Flying Tiger have had some really lovely foiled, foam based card stickers for just £1 a pack.  I was very restrained and only bought three packs but I think I may regret it as I am already thinking “Advent Calendar” using one of the blank set of drawers (from The Works)  I have squirrelled away.  I don’t usually do polar bears but the bear pack is my definite favourite, even more than the gingerbread men, and that’s saying something.

These gem stickers were also £1. not sure what I am going to do with them yet, other than a very simple bauble on a white card.

Sleeps ‘Til Christmas Decoration

I saw this painted, wooden sign in Poundland and thought I might be able to do something with it …….

…….. and it really didn’t take much work at all to just tart it up a little.

To start with over the original painted snowflakes I simply glued a wooden one and then a smaller plastic one on top to add some extra dimension.

I then glittered over all the wording with translucent micro glitter.

Followed by using a white Posca pen to add groups of three dots here and there and in the middle of the dashes that edged the board.

The final touch was adding a tartan bow and a jingle bell to either side of the board.  Done and dusted …… now to start counting!

Black & Grey Sampler Frame

This frame wasn’t as easy as I had first anticipated. It’s for my neighbours upstairs and I had set myself the challenge of making a Christmas sampler frame to “go” with their almost entirely black, grey and white decor .

I started by removing and throwing away the glass in the frame and then covering the design sheet that was inside with a variety of grey patterned paper scraps and white glitter card.

The first four spaces were pretty quick and easy to put together using the previous samplers I have made as a guide ………..

…….. but the last two, the reindeers and Santa, were the hardest, as I have almost run out of my collection of embellishments that were in the right proportion to the frame and as a result I had to more or less come up with something new. 

All I can say is thank goodness this was the last frame of the nine (from Poundland) that I’d got!

The sampler definitely needed a touch of red and one or two other hints of colour otherwise it would have disappeared upstairs.  It was an interesting challenge, something outside my comfort zone and to perhaps explore some more when I have more time to play after Christmas.

Snowflake Wreath Update

I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop “worrying” my snowflake wreath after it was supposed to be finished. 

I tried adding some extra gold bits and pieces but that didn’t work, it became too much ……..
…….but I did find and stick a cheap set of battery operated lights on the back, weaving the 20 lights evenly through the snowflake.

THAT’S IT NOW ………. FINISHED …..  not to be fiddle farted with again!

Advent Drawer Tuesday

One old drawer and four more new ones today.
I told you I would come back to the angel advent drawer below …….

Nothing too dramatic, I just glittered the number, added Ranger Glossy Accents to the frame with a few dots and silver stars and a smattering of more small stars on the body of the drawer, however I think it’s made quite a difference.

It’s surprising but after all this work my box of Christmassy bits and pieces doesn’t seem to have gone down any …… in fact I think it’s breeding!

I was talking to Marc the other day and I said I didn’t think I will do anything with these calendars this year, I’ll just wrap them up and keep them, but as I have another two sets in the cupboard to do I will continue working on the idea during the coming year, buy a few more when there are any good offers on and then in October, November open an Etsy shop. Well that’s the idea at this early stage.

Marc knows me well, especially the fact that I don’t have the patience to repeat an idea too many times, however if the above is going to be a goer I have already found that it is much quicker and easier to copy an already made drawer rather than spend an awful long time coming up a whole new design.

So that is what I am also going to do, but when I have more time will come up with a few new ideas in different colours ways so I don’t go too cross eyed.

If anyone sees any small wooden frames similar to the ones I have used could you give me a heads up.  I think the original ones came from The Works.  I did find and order some frames from e-bay that I have used but they are a little too big to put more than one on each row of drawers.

Wooooo Hoooooo Hoooooo Marc’s Coming To Stay ……..

Exciting, exciting news ……. Marc is coming to stay for a loooooooong state visit type weekend,  flouncing in just before Christmas when The Towers will be in full festive mode ……. I have already put up the fairy lights up in both our bedroom windows!  It’s so exciting I think we are both counting off the days.

The freezer is full of vegetarian delicacies and cola purchased by the gallon. I do have a little vodka, but we are both being very good so that may remain unopened and that’s no bad thing, but the Malteser boxes are stacked up high imploring to be eaten!

No doubt we will visit the antique centres and charity shops of Evesham, we may even take a trip to Crafters Companion at The Valley if Marc is up for it. If we don’t actually have time to do any crafting we will certainly be bouncing ideas off each other like world champion ping pong players.  I need to tidy up my craft drawers, as Marc has already indicated that he plans to through rifle them. He hasn’t seen my new cupboards so he’ll be like a kid in a sweet shop.  And, in the evenings we will be watching as much crap as we can …… including a lot of YouTube Poundshop shopping reviews and crafts ……… what are we like.

As you know Marc is the master of camera avoidance, but whatever we get up to I promise to take pictures, if only of Marc’s hands!  Christmas is coming early this year …… Happy Days!

Merry And Bright Christmas Cards

These cards measure 7ins x 5ins and are made using a white linen effect, hand cut blank.

Well, that’s the majority of my Christmas cards made in one fell swoop, usually I do a whole pile of one offs to help keep the posts going on the blog, but this year I decided to sit down and make a concerted effort to get a job lot done in one day.

I can now take my time making a few extra more individual cards happy in the knowledge that if life with those delicious babies gets in the way there is no panic, everything is already taken care of.

I started off by making a centre panel for the card blanks by simply sticking four strips of festive patterned paper along it.

I don’t think any card is the same, using almost all of the 15cmx 15cms paper pads I had from The Works. There are a few strips left over which can be cut into squares to make a few patchwork cards …… if I have the time.

Each centre was then matted on silver mirror card and then a thick red paper.

My intention all along was to die cut the Merry and Bright sentiment using dies I already had, but aghhhhhhh, they were just too small and fiddly and you know how impatient I am, I was finding that I was having to extradite the paper from the die with a pin to get it out ……. I don’t blooming think so!

In the end it was quicker to print them off in Publisher using Script MT Bold font in size 36. I printed them out in a dark grey colour which looked less harsh than black.  The sentiments were then cut out and matted in exactly the same way as the centre panels.

Clear flat back stars and tiny gems finish each card.  The compulsion to faux stitch the cards to an inch of their lives was so mahoooooooosive you wouldn’t believe, but so far I have resisted.  I may try doing one, just to get it out of my system while telling myself less is more!