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.

Tesco Advent House Update 4

I thought I would have two updates today and just hope you aren’t too tired of reading about my house. 

Before I finally glued the roof panel in place I decided it still needed something, so after a bit of rummaging in my drawers (oooooower), I found treasures that had been long forgotten but which seemed to be waiting for this project. I am pretty plain and simple in my crafting, a less is more girl, but I am really going for broke on this one – if you can’t be over the top at Christmas, when can you? I am just worried now that I won’t find the “perfect” snowmen to finish it off!

When I started the roof I added a peel off border to each tile, but it looked very flat and decidedly lacking …… so bring on the rik rac braid!!!

The ribbon and braid are HobbyCrafts own make, bought in a recent sale and the Paper Cellar self adhesive paper lace border which was 89p from a Dunelm Mill sale. I need to Modge Podge the top of the house, then I can go mad with all the embellishments I have been dying to use.

Tesco Advent House Update 3

Work is progressing well, be it in a very fiddly sort of way …

I realised that the top part of the house looked very stark and bare and decided to continue the snowy theme there too.

But being a triangle shape with a drawer in the middle I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, so I made a template first, this was such new territory for me!

And I sort of scribbled on the template outlining what I thought I would do …..

I then used the template to cut out the “Blitzen” paper, I don’t know how it fit but it did, perfectly, first time!

More fiddle farting followed to add the snow………

And it worked too!!! Now it just needs gluing in place and three layers of Modge Podge applied to the papered area.  Modge Podge dries incredibly quickly, so it shouldn’t take too long.

Ghostly Halloween Lollies

Oh my life, this seemed such a simple but effective idea when I found it on Google http://blog.makezine.com/ghost-lollies.jpg. But making cute ghost lollies is definitely NOT my forte!!! I seem to have turned them into the stuff of nightmares!!!!! These are just too spooky and would probably traumatise any little Trick or Treaters, who may happen upon my doorstep, for life ......

A ghost without a mouth isn’t quite right….. I think the eyes are too big. But add a mouth, and it takes on a terrifying persona.

 

I’ve used little Chupa Chups lollies ….. they are so cute, well ……. they were cute until I got hold of them! If I give these out at Halloween I’ll be branded as "The streets’ resident lady of evil” and given a wide berth in the Post Office and Chip Shop!  Back to the drawing board........

This was the look I was going for!

Hubble Bubble Halloween Sweetie Bag - Haribo Frogs

WHOOPS!!!!!!  Just noticed that I have spelt “cauldron” wrong !!!!!  I was trying to get the project finished to post in too much of a hurry ………… a perfect excuse to open the pack and feast upon frogs of a jelly nature!!!

 

I love these jelly frogs but they are not the easiest sweet to work with as they are a tad sticky, but I thought that they were ideal for Halloween and witches spells etc.

The witch is a 3D sticker from a Poundland pack from last year, but I am sure they will have them in again this year.

Dracula Halloween Cadbury Chocolate Bar

Another Halloween chocolate bar ….. I am afraid they are getting more fiddly as I go along …… sorry!

And, I know that I am terrible for not taking photos as I work …. but I remembered as I did this due to its fiddle fartyness. I hope you can get the gist of what I have done from the above picture.

The fastener on Dracula’s cloak is a small piece of peel off with a sequin at either end.  I just love the effect that a few simple doodles using a white gel pen can bring a project alive, if you’ll pardon the pun!

Halloween Test Tube Favours

I love test tubes!

I got the taller plastic test tube from a site in the US ages ago, http://www.silvercrowcreations.com/ and must see if I can get some more. The smaller tube was from a crafty resource centre I visit now and again, but they are both perfect for Halloween trick or treat favours.

The tags are made using my Stampin Up scalloped and plain circle punches which I have decorated on both sides with Accessorize stickers and handwritten messages using  black and white gel pens.

The tags are on a thread, kept in place by a piece of black and white gingham ribbon (now deleted from Stampin Up range) at the top of the test tube.

The tube is finished off with a large purple flat backed gem stuck on the cap.

The jelly beans are from the Original Jelly Bean Factory, they cost a bit more than ordinary jelly beans, but they are smaller and I can buy just the colours I need in their pick and mix section which gives this idea a lot of its charm.