Mix up in Posts - New Years Eve

I thought I would be so clever and schedule my "Happy New Year" post early so that I would not forget.  I scheduled it early alright, a day early, he he. 

A quick and easy fun gift for your guests this evening are these Tic Tac labels.  A free printable from Infarrantly Creative - see link here.  Just cut out and glue to top of Tic Tac packet, easy.

 

I think they look great, and they even have the year printed on the top

 

 

OK - I am ready for that "mint-nite kiss"

 

Infarrantly Creative have free Tic Tac labels for most of the celebrated holidays, and I will certainly be using them as a quick, inexpensive gift for family and friends

 

 

Enjoy

Judy

Happy New Year

 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and I hope that 2014 keeps you safe, happy and healthy.  Not to mention crafting!

 

I am looking forward to the challenges in the New Year

 

I hope you will not celebrate too much tonight?

 

Judy

Christmas Present Enjoyed

 

 

My sisters dog, Stella, really enjoyed her new Christmas toy!  This is what is left of it!  She is certainly looking very pleased with herself.

 

 

 

 

Let me see, how can I destroy this?

 

 

But you gave it to me ...

 

My sister said that when Stella received this new toy, she raced around the back yard with it in her mouth.  It only took an afternoon for her to chew a big hole in it and get the bottle out.

Good fun!

 

They have already ordered another one for Christmas next year.  Stella is only about 9 months old, imagine how little time it will take for her to destroy it when she is 12 months older.

 

Judy

Merry Christmas

 

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Enjoy the day

 

Judy

Getting Ready

While it was so hot yesterday, I finished off some preparations for Christmas as well as some doggy gifts.

 

Selina from Selina Quilts made some for Christmas last year, and I gave myself a reminder to make some this year for all my family and friends dogs.  I used some thicker fabric, and used a "old" Debbie Mumm panel print for the graphics.  I think they turned out rather cute?

 

The sizing I used for the 600 ml Mt Franklin water bottles were 12" x 5 1/2", just in case you want to make some.  I should explain they only have the empty water bottle inside, which makes a lovely crunchy noise when chewed on.  Great inexpensive toy for your dog.

 

 

I still have four more to finish, I just ran out of empty water bottles, however in this heat, I should have them finished very soon

 

 

Of course, I gave my old dog Brandy one to take for a test drive.

 

  

 

OK, I think I will keep it, thanks.

 

 

This year our Christmas, is called the "off" year, when it is the partners turn to have Christmas with their family.  That means NO kids, boo hoo - I love having the kids home for Christmas, the excitement is contagious.  So we will only have 18 adults for Christmas day.  As you can imagine seating that many is difficult, so we go with the casual seating.  All the cutlery is bundled up for easy access.  This year, I have wrapped them in a serviette, secured them with a Christmas hair band, and tucked a mini candy cane through.  Festive enough?

 

 

These stationary containers make a ideal container for the cutlery.

 

 

Last little task was to try and make some fans.  These turned out OK but I would not claim them as one of my greatest achievements.  I just used corrugated cardboard, glued together for strength, sewed across the top for the green ones and then decorated with Christmas stickers.  The brown ones I kept plain and just used the red cotton as the accent. As they will probably end up a throw away item, I did not spend much time on them.  Although I must admit they are very effective.  They will keep us cool as well as keep the flies away.

 

 

I have not ventured into the craft studio today, lazy day in the air conditioning. 

This may be the last project I do until after the Christmas - New Year holiday, but it has certainly been a fun year.

 

To you and your family, have a wonderful Christmas

 

Judy

Candy Cane Wreath

My niece Renee made this Candy Cane Wreath for me.  I came home from work yesterday and it was hanging on my back door, now it is hanging nicely in my lounge room

 

I love the simplicity of it, and also the use of the coloured candy canes.  Thank you Renee.

 

Today, while it was 42 degree Celsius (really HOT) - I stayed inside and sorted the cutlery for Christmas, made some little hand fans, and also found time to make some dog toys.  I will take photos tomorrow, as it was too hot outside to take any photos today, although tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.  The poor garden is suffering from the second day of immense heat and it is forecast to continue until Sunday.  At least at the moment Christmas Day's temperature is supposed to drop to 33 degrees.  Fingers crossed.

 

Until tomorrow

Judy

 

 

Christmas Countdown

I love these Christmas Countdown banners, and was wondering if they would work/update within my blog.

 

Christmas Countdown

Yahoo - looks OK, I will need to keep an eye on it and see if it keeps counting down.
I wonder what will happen to the blog post when it reaches 0?
Judy

Reindeer Craft

I managed to get a little craft making into the day, especially with my nephew.

Firstly we made some "Twig Reindeers" - as my brother lives on a property there was no shortage of branches / twigs to choose from.

Just choose some that are a "Y" shape and this is the result after adding a couple of google eyes and a pom pom nose.

Next we gathered up some more twigs and toilets rolls and made these two reindeers - they look so good!

 

Both the above ideas were sourced from Pinterest.

All the children participated in  making the Christmas Tree decorations, however I was too busy to take photos.  By far the favourite was the "bird in the wreath" - see here for the original post.

I am not sure if I will have time for any more craft before Christmas, although I should of taken photos yesterday of the inventive ways we were wrapping gift vouchers - I can tell you, that not one of the finished gifts looked like a gift voucher. Maybe it is better that I did not take photos, as family members read my blog.

Hope you are all organised for Christmas? For the first time in many years, I am not at all organised, so I had better get a wiggle on ...

Until next time, Take care

Judy

Rudolph Candy Cane Holders

Red Brolly had the template and tutorial for these Rudolph Candy Cane Holders - click here to download.

These ones are going to my family this weekend.  I sewed the eyes and mouth on rather than gluing and I also added a little piece of fake fur between his ears for that little bit of character and originality.

Minimal supplies required, felt (brown & white), red bead for nose and googly eyes.

Each one was unique so that the children will know which one is theirs, I just changed the colour of the ear inserts.

I think this pattern would be great, enlarged to be used as a utensil holder.  That may have to wait for another day/year.

I'm Looking At You!

Now, what is next?  Cath over at Bits 'n Bobs made a beautiful Button Christmas Tree in a frame yesterday - I loved how it turned out.  I may need to scrimmage through my junk supplies to find a unused picture frame.

Although first on my list for tomorrow is to make up some Christmas Decoration kits for the children.  I will definitely be adding, the beaded elves, the beaded candy canes, maybe the dolly peg angels, and lots of extras ... if it is a hot day it will be nice to do some craft indoors.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Judy

Dolly Peg Angels

I discovered a new blog this week - Sweet Tidings - she had made some sweet little dolly peg angels.  Minimal supplies required, so of course I had to try them immediately.

 

Using supplies I had on hand, dolly pegs, cupcake liners, washi tape - I started.  How simple and sweet do these look?  Of course I had to add a little extra, I gave them some hair or head dressing and painted some eyes and blushed their cheeks.  I did not have any ornament hangers, but some thin 22 gauge rusty wire, did the job just as well.

 

 

 

So sweet - thank you Sweet Tidings

I have nearly finished the Rudolph Candy Cane Holders, so hope to show you the finished items later on today

Till then

Judy

Dear Santa - I Can Explain

Have you seen this saying around at Christmas time - "Dear Santa - I Can Explain"?  Well I am going to use the same type of phrase - "Dear Blogging Friends - I Can Explain"

I fell short on my Christmas decorations every day for two weeks right at the finishing line, with only 2 days to go - I had a hiccup. We had a couple of extremely hot days and my poor old dog ( he is 13 years old) did not handle it very well ... at one stage there I thought I was going to lose him ... very scary.  However we have had a couple of cooler days, and he is back on his feet again and I have been able to get back to my craft and blogging.

The second last Christmas tree decoration that I made were these cute sandpaper gingerbread men - they were based on a idea I saw on the Sew Many Ways blog.  I used a gingerbread cookie cutter to trace the shape onto sandpaper, cut them out and decorated.   I only had fabric dimensional paint for the icing, but it worked really well, and then on this next one, I kept the white theme with a fluffy scarf made wool and tiny snowflake buttons

 

The next gingerbread man , just had tiny buttons glued down his front with a felt bowtie .. I think it is just the angle of the photo showing him a little distorted (?)

 

 

The third gingerbread man was given a bakers twine bow, and then some scrapbooking crystals stuck down the front.

 

 

The last little snowman was kept very natural with a raffia bow and laser cut wooden star buttons

 

 

If you have children this would be a very easy and inexpensive project to do with them.

 

The final decoration for my challenge were these little snowman ornaments - all I used were two different sized polystyrene balls held together with a toothpick. 

 

 

I had made some clay snowman noses, all shapes and sizes, so grabbed one of those with small black button eyes, a flannel scarf, a felt hat and star buttons, he looks quite aloof from this angle.

 

The second snowman turned out entirely different.  I gave him grapevine twig arms, with a little Christmas bulb decoration,  The star button on his tummy is a scrapbooking brad, easy to poke into the polystyrene ball.

 

 

Check out the side of view of his nose

 

 

These were the two projects I was supposed to post at the end of November, but better late than never, right?

 

I did finish off a couple of little beaded elves yesterday, and I must admit I want to make more.. I found this idea on another blog, but I did not mark it, and just had the basic idea of how to make them, I think they turned out OK, however I am still searching for the originator to give credit to.

 

 

How cute is he?  All that is needed are pipe cleaners, beads, felt and a small jingle bell.

 

The next photo shows one in the making stage, I was interrupted, so I took a photo. He doesn't look cute here, does he?

 

 

Here he is all finished

 

 

He looks better now.  I will be spending time with my nieces and nephews next weekend, so I hope to be able to make more of these decorations with them.

 

Have you seen the Rudolph Candy Cane Holder pattern over on "Red Brolly" blog, that is on my list of projects to make this weekend, although I am supposed to be laying mulch in the garden.  Let me think, Garden or Craft, tough choice!

 

Until next time

Judy

Pinterest Save - Away In A Manger Ornament

Gosh. I thought that I was going to fail at the last moment, and not continue with my one Christmas Decoration a day challenge that I set myself. But thankfully Pinterest saved me with this quick little ornament

 

This ornament was based on a post from "Tales of a Trophy Wife" which I saw on Pinterest.  Lucky I had everything I needed to make these sweet ornaments.

 

As you can see from the above photo I tried three different versions of the wreath.  The first wrapped in hessian on a bed of wood filling, with a wire hanger.

 

 

The second, wrapped in felt on a bed of Spanish moss with a fishing line hanger.

 

 

The third and final one I wrapped the baby in wool on a greenery bed, and then placed a larger rusty star on the outside of the wreath.  This one has a jute hanger.

 

 

Three little ornaments, that took only about 5 minutes each to make.  Thank you Pinterest!

 

 

 

I do have excuses why I was running late with this post though, do you want to hear?

Firstly my computer was dismantled so that I could have new windows installed yesterday - so I had to reconnect it all AND then today I have spend the entire day packing up online orders from the store.  It was a huge day for me, and I still have to go and water the garden as the temperature reached 36 degrees today.  Just the beginning of the summer heat.

 

Until tomorrow, take care

Judy

Paper Christmas Trees

My sister Sue and I played with some really old vintage newspapers today - we each created three paper Christmas trees.

 

The first tree, from the left, was a paper ribbon tree.  We based this on the ribbon Christmas tree hanging ornament.  A wooden skewer was used for the upright which we then glued into a bark chip, stolen from the garden.  I placed a chipboard star on the top of mine, while Sue used a rusty star button, threaded through with jute.

 

 

Next, came the layered paper Christmas tree.  This one gave us the most trouble.  We cut out five different sized circles.  Folded them in half four times, and then concertina the folds ... OK on the large circle but by the time you got to the tiny circle (approx. 4cm) it was a little difficult. They are then threaded onto a wooden skewer in descending order.  Sue used a star spray on the top, while I used a angel bottle cap decoration

 

 

 

The final paper tree was a 3D one which we used to make when we were children.  I think we used heavier cardstock for these trees, but today we were playing with newspaper.  Cut out three paper trees, the same size.  Fold two in half, then layer them, one folded on the bottom, making sure you even up the sides, the full tree on top, and then the other folded on top again, but on the opposite side from the bottom folded tree ... I hope this makes sense, as I did not take any photos of the actual processes.  (if you need photos, just leave a comment)

 

Once you have the three layers together, carefully take them across to your sewing machine and sew down the centre, ensuring all pieces are stitched.  Open out and there is your tree.

 

 

 

You could play with the sizing of each of these trees to make a great mantle display.. I like the idea of adding some rusty miniatures around the trees.

Still 4 days to go on my challenge, what next?

Judy