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!

A Couple Of Charity Shop Finds

I am always on the look out for necklaces that are made up of triangle shapes  because I immediately think “Christmas Trees” …….

….. so buying this necklace for £1.25 was a no brainer.  In my head I could see a simple small square card with just one triangle in the middle with perhaps a small square of gold card as the base, unless I can find some square gold beads to use instead. We shall see……

This bracelet weighs an absolute ton and is soooooo not me, but for just 99p it would have been rude not to have bought it.  It was the many pearl beads  with a loop that I was after for all sorts of projects, I am such a lazy crafter and though Marc has shown me the technique so many times I am still a cack handed jeweller and making even the simplest  loop evades me!

I am not sure about the shell beads, also with loops yet,  but I have been looking at pendants made using old buckles on Pinterest so when I have five minutes (?????) I might have a play …… but I am pretty sure Marc would snatch my arm off for them if I don’t.

Advent Drawer Tuesday.

I think I have said before that I can go back to an Advent drawer several times before I am 100% happy with it.

The calendar is sat sitting on the window sill directly in front of my work table so that I can look at it and then fiddle fart some more when inspiration finally strikes.

It’s also good to step away from a drawer for a while, working up close on such a small object sometimes makes the tiniest space seem like a yawning chasm desperate to be filled. There is, I think, something missing from between the penguins (above), I just don’t know what yet …… a fish, a cracker, some snowballs? Hmmmmm

I also think that the numbers on both drawers need another coat or two of white Posca pen followed by a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents to add extra texture and dimension.

Jewelled Snowflake Door Wreath

Sometimes I need saving from myself ……..

….. and this idea was one of those times!  I knew I wanted something spectacular for my front door this Christmas, but I got a little carried away and in the end I had to say enough is enough, there is only so much encrustment of jewels this poor snowflake can take!

I knew I wanted a snowflake theme and had saved ideas from Pinterest but it wasn’t until I spotted this large, silver glitter snowflake for just £1.49 in B M Bargains that the light bulb finally went on.

But, as I was walking home carrying it I started to kick myself for going for the silver option (white, red and gold also available) as I had already previously purchased a box of smaller gold snowflakes above …….. however by the time I got back to The Towers I had convinced myself that an all silver decoration might be a little bland ….. if terribly tasteful.

 

To truly put my mind at rest I needed to play and that’s when I got possessed by all that sparkles! 

The gold snowflakes indeed looked good against the silver, as did the crystal one in the centre, all glued with E6000 as this was a project that really needed to be well stuck together ……..

…… but  I then remembered the plastic iridescent and glittered snowflakes I have had forever, cut from an old garland found in a charity shop that have so nearly been binned for lack of inspiration. 

At this stage I knew I needed to stop and come back to the project a little later because I was fast becoming overtaken by the thought of looking at my broken jewellery box and realising just how over the top this snowflake become.

On returning to the wreath I only added pieces from a clear glass bracelet, I had enough to keep the design symetrical and even but with that I added more pearls and clear flat back gems and a smattering of smaller green and turquoise gems too.

If I were to do it again I think the coloured gems could have been a little larger.

The pictures don’t really do the twinkle and sparkle the wreath gives off justice.I think the wreath is finished, but, if I could just find that elusive little gold embellishment that could possibly add something extra  to reflect the gold in the snowflakes  hmmmmmmmnmnm who knows, I could be working on it again before it eventually goes up.

Sharpie Pen Revamped Lamp

Someone please save me from my Sharpie pens ……….

After “tarting up” the chandelier in my spare room with said pens and a few extra drops the beads in two lamps in there looked a bit insipid …….. 

……. so I recoloured them as well!  I don’t think the picture does the new colours much justice and I daresay no one else will notice, but I am suitably chuffed. If I had the balls, if you’ll pardon the expression I would love to recolour the lamp bases from antique copper to silver to go with the other silver touches in the room  …… but at the moment I am just not that brave!

Advent Drawer Tuesday

Two more Advent drawers today, but to be honest I very much doubt, time wise, that whole Advent calendar will be finished before December 1st, but we shall see…….

……. and if it isn’t, well, at least I’ll have a real head start finishing it for next Christmas!

Please excuse any odd glue strands or unseemly blobs and smudges, I promise they will be removed in the final push to get it all done.

Christmas Sampler Picture Frames

Aghhhhhhhh and bum, bum, bum, bum, bum  …… I was so chuffed with the Christmas picture frame sampler I posted a couple of weeks ago that I decided to trek back to the Worcester Poundland where I had got it from in order to make some more ….. lesson learned yet again, buy something when you see it in such shops as it probably won’t be there again when you go back!

Yes, they had gone, but had been replaced by frames that  appeared quite similar, but were not, in my opinion, as versatile as the original ones, having no circles or small squares and the “new” larger rectangles required a scene created in them and/or a different set of embellishments and arrangement …….

…… however, I still bought another seven of the white frames and persevered,  finding that the printed sheet inside the frame made it a lot easier to glue my own papers to instead of the precarious patchwork mess I created in the original.

The now completed frames vary from one another slightly to accommodate the different colours of the embellishments and seasonal papers I had.

They took a lot longer to complete than the original because as I said  I felt that the larger inserts needed more than just a single holly leaf etc. to look right and so there was a lot of jiggling about with the embellishments to get them to fit and fill.

These frames will be given instead of a Christmas card to special friends and relations, but I have set myself a challenge to complete a black frame I also bought, this will be for my upstairs neighbour who’s whole flat is decorated almost entirely in black, white and grey and one of these will just not fit in to such a decor …………

………. doing it will probably drive me up the blooming wall, but sometimes it’s good to leave you comfort zone just now and again!

Heads Up – A Bit Of Crafty Festive Mooching in Wilko

I saw these mini jars in Wilko – 20 mini jars for £3 …………

……. now, to be honest (at the moment) I don’t have a clue what I would use them for ……. mini snow globes for children to make or jars for reindeer food????  However, I am sure that there is someone out there who will have a festively ingenius idea which will have me wishing that I’d bought some!

I did however buy some chocolate coins, there are 12 in a net for just 50p and come with either reindeer, Santa or snowman foil wrappers. I want to make some little favours for all the staff at Bertie’s nursery and a net of these coins fit perfectly into the mini acetate boxes (The Works 10 for £1.50) I already have. I just need to add a ribbon, with an embellishment and tag and Santa’s coming for Christmas! Post to follow when I get them done!

Wilko also had these little chocolate tablets  – 12 for £1, which I thought were irresistible too. Could this possibly be my first Christmas without  an Elizabeth Shaw Mint?  They might fit in the mini boxes too or I think I might just carefully tie six up together with a narrow red or green ribbon with a tag attached.  Again watch this space.