2023 Elizabeth Shaw Mint Favours

It’s a bit of a tradition that I make Marc a box of Elizabeth Shaw Mint favours for Christmas ……. and 2023 is no exception.

I’ve featured them almost every year now, since seeing them demonstrated on a Stampin Up stand at a craft show at the NEC, Birmingham, many, many moons ago …….. and there’s no great shakes to them.

My ancient Stampin-Up punches, after all these years, owe me nothing,  but when I started to punch with them this year, they were very creaky and the cuts weren’t as sharp as they could have been, so I thought that they’d finally given up the ghost, but after a quick spray with WD40, they were soon cutting like young ‘uns again.

I decided to use plain red and green papers this year and as many of the small, leftover stickers I’ve gathered over the years, that really needed using up.

I stuck the plain circles in the middle of the scalloped ones, these would then go either side of the mint, using double sided tape to keep them all together, once decorated.  On one side I put one inch, transparent, gold sentiment stickers from Temu, that cost just £2.98 for 500, so should last me for flipping years …….

…… and on the other side, I used all manner of stickers, including puffy, 3D, and flat ones, adding dots and faux stitches using a white, fine tipped, chalk paint pen on the scallops and plain edges of the centre circle.

Et voila, 44 mint favours duly made …….. and not a single one nibbled, which must be some sort of record!

Sorry, about the darkness of the pictures, I was trying to save electricity re: the lighting,  but the results are terrible, so lesson learned, put the lights on when taking photos!

Temu Game Changer

I need to uninstall the Temu app from my phone because when I get a bit bored of an evening I get scrolling and then it becomes dangerous  ……….  

However, these little darlings may turn out to be quite the game changer for my Christmas tree ornaments and other hanging bits and pieces. They are listed as, among other things “Christmas ornaments hanger string ornament hook ropes pre-cut ribbon with snap locking”, you get the idea.

They are all the same length and simply click together once you’ve threaded them onto your ornament/bauble, so no fiddly cutting and knotting!  They come in packs of 100 in metallic green, red, silver or gold.  This set of silver ones cost me £1.79, but it’s worth shopping around as I also got a set of gold ones for £1.07.  Happy days!

Small Christmas Pin Badges

This year I have bought a variety of snowman and Christmas tree brooches from either Temu or Ali Express for the lady members of staff at I & B’s school to wear throughout the month of December, but what to do for the gentlemen?

It took me a little while, but then it hit me to make some small pin badges to stick on their lanyards ……..

…… then it was a doddle!  Marc sent me the small, plastic embellishments a couple of years ago. The reindeer  measure around 3cm tall and the tree and snowman just a little bit smaller.

I’ve also had the butterfly(?) clips for ages too, so all I really had to do was marry them together a little E7000 glue.

To present them in a more professional looking manner, I then made a simple card to put them on.

A small, no great shakes present, with most of the time spent waiting for the glue to set.

I’m well chuffed with how they turned out and now have more ideas as to how I can and will repeat the idea with all manner of other seasonal embellishments throughout next year. Happy days!

Toy Wreath

I’ve promised to make a toy wreath for Rick (Marc’s partner) for ages ………

……… but I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous, despite making quite a few jewellery mirrors and wreaths in my time, I knew that this would be a different kettle of fish, toys don’t usually have flat backs, sizes vary and filling the gaps between them might be difficult …….. but I have finally bitten the bullet!

As I didn’t have a large enough solid, wooden frame amongst my stash,  I decided to cover a 12in diameter, metal, wreath frame from Hobbycraft wrapping cotton binding round it, to give something on which to glue an assortment of toys. 

I secured the binding with a glue gun at intervals of about an inch or two, all the way round the frame.

I was nervous about my choice of glue, going for a glue gun in the end, despite having mixed results when sticking plastic on plastic, so I hoped that the first layer of toys would adhere more securely to the binding, before also using E6000 as good measure, to glue toy on toy as I added layers.

The toys came from various 10p baskets and oddment bags from local charity shops. I started by gluing down the four biggest toys to give a very rough symmetry to the wreath ………

…… however, as gaps began to fill, I found that a large area of these toys disappeared under all the layers, but I think it still worked and the glue seems to be holding up, but I did use a lot!

When the wreath was more or less filled, I left it to settle and then had another go, filling even smaller gaps with increasingly smaller toys.

Once happy and reasonably stable, I was able to turn the whole thing over and sew a thread through the binding on the back to hang the wreath by.

I “think” I am happy with the finished item, however, I’m keeping it out, so that I can keep an eye on the glue and will continue to carefully fill in spaces with the glue gun and E6000 until I am ready to hand it over …….

….. though I think it will always be on the fragile side. Would I make another?  Let’s just say, not in a hurry!  Now to remove all those annoying threads of glue, I swear they breed!

Thank You Paula …… Halloween Just Got Even Better

Oh my goodness …….

…….. there was me thinking that I’d got everything all  ready for a wonderful Halloween half term with Iris and Bertie ………

……. but, on the first morning of our celebrations…….

…… Rob our lovely Postman, said he’d got a large package in his van for me  and proceeded to bring over a mahooooosive and totally unexpected parcel ……..

……. containing the most magical Halloween door wreath I have ever seen, from Paula, one of my lovely blogger friends from Plymouth, I was speechless.

The colours really seem to glow and as for the witch!  Let’s just say, what I already had on my front door was unceremoniously removed and swiftly and suitably replaced.  It’s so gorgeous I think it will probably remain where it is now until on 1st December, my old Christmas toy one, in turn, takes it’s place.

Also in the parcel were three, paint it yourself Halloween squishies for Iris, Bertie and myself (or, the Monkeys, perhaps) to decorate over the holidays, of them more later, once adorned!

It was such a lovely surprise and a real treasure to be enjoyed for many, many years to come.  Thank you so much Paula, you really did make our Halloween special!

4ins x 4ins School Christmas Cards

I thought I would get an early start on my school Christmas cards, as I need at least 60 to send myself, one each for all the children I listen to read each week and then the same again for Iris and Bertie to give to their friends for Christmas too.

The cards all measure 4ins square, made using packs of card blanks bought from The Range (I think, but don’t quote me) last year as the base ……….

…… and embellished with adhesive, foam based, card stickers from Home Bargains, again last year, for something silly like 79p for a pack of at least 40/50 stickers, that I was keen to get used up.

The centre panels measure approximately 2.75ins square, made using scraps of small print, Christmas scrapbook paper with a white glitter card along the bottom to create a basic background scene to then add the stickers to. I  mat and layered these squares on silver or gold mirror card.

It seems like an age since my craft table was this laden with so many bits and pieces, however, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too precious about the scenes, I just wanted them to look balanced and the characters and other objects in them to appear in some way connected.  The floor, as you can see, was my drying area!

This batch turned out pretty OK, all were slightly different to accommodate the mix and match of the slightly proud stickers.

Then came all the fiddle fart ………

……. the faux stitching and clusters of three black dots made using a fine tipped pen, plus the odd white spot too  …….

…….. followed by tiny, fimo, nail art, peppermint sweets, red flat back pearls for holly berries …….

….. flat back red noses and black eyes, buttons, candy canes, stars and tiny fimo snowflakes, you name it, they are all there ……… and more.

There are so many cards, done over a couple of  few weeks, there will be a couple more posts to follow, to show all the combinations. It felt so satisfying to have them under my belt so early on in the run up to Christmas …… now, I guess, I need to get them all written, but perhaps not just yet, I need time to recover!