Swedish Woven Heart Decoration

These felt woven hearts were made, after watching a video by the Missouri Star Quilt Co.   They used wool, but for my first attempt I just used some felt pieces.

Very simple to make, with good instructions.  I put a little eyelet in the top of each side so that a ribbon could be threaded through for ease of opening.  

They are very roomy inside and you can make them whatever size you like

Not sure what I will be filling them with, but I like the idea of using this red and white one as a bag on a Santa.  Filled with greenery, pipberry and a couple of toys.  Slung over his shoulder, I think it would work?

They could be hung on the Christmas Tree, filled with Candy Canes etc, or even just given as a gift with a gift card inside, many ideas for uses

Another one in a soft green and cream

While I have the felt out, I will be trying another Pinterest idea, stay tuned

Judy

Gumnut elves

Another little handmade ornament for the Christmas tree, my little gumnut elves.

Gumnuts from the garden, with a little wooden ball glued on top for the face.  Felt cap, and that is it!

I hope to get my Christmas tree out of storage next weekend, and display all these new little ornaments.

When do you put up your Christmas tree?

Judy

Crafty Afternoon

It has been awhile, since I have posted anything on my blog, apologies.

My nieces and nephew are home for a quick visit this weekend, so of course we had to do some craft.  My craft studio is an absolute shambles, so we sat outside to make some little items.

First on the list was a beaded dragonfly, using the instructions from "I heart crafty things" - then we made some little Christmas tree ornaments.

The photos are not great, but you can see what the kids made.

Dragonfly and then a cute little Christmas tree ornament with a piece of left over chenille stick.

Two dragonflies, a couple of jingle bell reindeers, and a bottle cap reindeer.  We also tried writing our name on a piece of bark with the glue gun.  I think once painted this will look great.

Dragonfly, jingle bell reindeer, bottle cap reindeer and a stick reindeer.  All very cute.

Quick and easy fun

Until next time

Judy

Hanging Soldier Ornaments

After stripping some fabric together, these soldier ornaments were quickly completed.

 

Something different to hang on the tree this year

 

The idea for these little soldier ornaments were found on the Creativ Company website.

Agh, I wonder what next?

Judy

A Little Start

I have spent most of the weekend in the craft studio, but unfortunately not much time "crafting".  With the clearance sale and stock-take for my online store it was taking up most of my time, until this afternoon.

I downed tools and decided to make a little felt gingerbread girl for my first 2014 Christmas decoration.
I had seen a photo of something similar on Pinterest however no link to site or pattern, but that doesn't mean I cannot design my own version.

She turned out lovely, so I have another two cutout and ready to finish.

The one on the left just needs to be sewn together, and the one on the right, has just been started.

I could get these three little gingerbread girls from just two felt squares, "light brown" available in store.  I also used Tilda CandyCane brads for the sweet cheeks on two of the gingers and on the last one, I used Darice 10mm peppermints.  I think it gives them a unique look?

Have you started anything for Christmas yet?, it is July next week and before you know it, Christmas will be here.

I really should finish off the owl and little card holder keyring that was cut out last week, I may do that right now!

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

I'm in LUV .....

With this little fellow -

 

Remember the curtain rings that I purchased for 50 cents  - I have made three more little wreaths, and this birdie is my absolute favourite. 

For this birdie wreath, I just wound green glitter chenille sticks around the curtain ring and then hot glued the little birdie inside

 

The next variation used the same principle however I used just the common green chenille sticks (no glitter) and then glued a snowman button to the wreath.  A white chiffon ribbon was threaded through the loop at the top for the hanger.

 

 

Finally, for the third wreath, I wrapped the outside with white/cream wool and then glued on a bright candy  cane button - threaded through some red/white bakers twine for the hanger.

 

 

With the many Christmas buttons available (especially in my online store, check out the link to see just how many different packs of buttons are available, and this does not include the snowmen buttons), the possibilities are endless.

 

The three wreaths all together so you can see the difference.  They do not look quite the same, when they are lying flat!

 

 

I could not resist showing you this next photo, it was the first one I took of the little birdie wreath, with my garden in the background... he nearly got lost in all the greenery.

 

 

After playing with my buttons and curtain rings, it has given me an idea for another project using this pack of buttons.  It is a cute pack of buttons from Dress It Up, reflecting the nativity scene which I have just added to the store.

 

 

Wish me luck

Judy

Three More Button Tree Ornaments

As I had the buttons out yesterday to make the button ornament tags, I decided to make some more button tree hanging ornaments using different coloured buttons.

 

I changed the trunk style, instead of using brown buttons, I used:

 

1.  a small wooden spool

 

 

2.  a gold jingle bell

 

 

3.  a small silver liberty bell

 

 

This next photo shows the liberty bell base better

 

 

Each tree ended up a different size, and this just depends on the number of buttons you use - I really like the variety. 

 

The only difficulty is finding the right piece to place on top of the tree, the star beads work well although I would have like to have had something different on each.  I had many star and angel buttons, but I could not attach them to the top securely.  I had different coloured stars, so that ensured they are a little different from each other.

 

I have to warn you once you start making these little button trees, they are addicting, I loved making them

 

Because I had not set up a tree, I was having a problem trying to take photos of my new ornaments, Today I grabbed a small branch from the yard, and put it in a rusty bucket - just so that I can take these photos ... what do you think?  Nice and rustic!

 

 

I hope you have started making your Christmas tree decorations for this year?

 

Judy

 

 

 

 

 

Curtain Ring Wreaths

These little Christmas wreaths were made from curtain rings. 

 

I picked up a pack of curtain rings from the second hand store for only fifty cents

 

 

The size and colour were ideal to turn them into little wreaths.  I just wrapped some strips of fabric around them.  You can now decorate them any way you like, add ribbon, bells etc

 

 

These will look great on my Christmas tree.  Any suggestions of what I can do with the rest of the curtain rings?

 

Judy

 

Chenille Candy Canes

Do you want a easy Christmas project to do with your children?  This project would be ideal - Chenille Candy Canes.

 

All you need to do it thread alternative red and white pony beads onto a chenille stick (pipe cleaner) and make the hook at the top by bending gently.  Just ensure you double up each end, so that the beads do not slide off.  It is that simple!

 

 

 

I have the pony beads in store - for only fifty cents ($0.50) for a pack of 100 - so a very inexpensive project to make and it also only uses 1/2 chenille stick for each candy cane.

 

Use these candy canes on your Christmas tree, just loop them over the branches, or as a decoration on your gifts. 

 

Judy

Button Tree

I have only made one of these button trees (so far), but I want to make more - they were so easy, and look fantastic.  I certainly should have plenty of buttons to make more ...

 

All you require to make these are brown buttons (for tree trunk) and then a number of green buttons in diminishing sizes for the actual tree.  I used a star pony bead for the decoration on top.

 

I followed the basic instructions from this site Modern Minerals however I used jewellery wire for threading the buttons on, this made it very simple and was easy to thread through, and also gave a lovely sturdy hook for hanging.

 

 

 

I wonder what they would look like with different coloured buttons, worth a try?

 

Judy

Ribbon Tree

I know I have been remiss in updating my blog lately, however I have been spending all my free time in the garden.  It is a lovely time of year to renew garden beads, cut back overgrown shrubs etc before the hot summer days.

I have a number of small Christmas Tree decorations to show you, the first is these cute little ribbon trees.

 

I first saw these on Pinterest, and then I found a site which gave a tutorial with all the measurements.

See link here for Sunshine Yellow blog.

 

One word of advice if you are making these, is to try and use double-sided ribbon.  Because of the way that they are folded, you see the reverse side ... notice my white ribbon tree.  This was the first one I made and thought it would very cute with the green xmas trees on the ribbon, however on one side of the tree the pretty little trees are on the inside!

 

 

The plain green one is much better

 

 

But my favourite is the red one - I used the pony beads on this one.

 

 

Nice and bright.  I will have to get my small Christmas tree setup, so that I can photograph them actually on a tree, I am sure they would look much better, than just lying flat on the table.

 

Are you making handmade decorations this Christmas?

 

Judy

Finished Guessing?

Well it took me over three hours to get this Christmas ornament finished. 



Front view




Back view

 It was very time consuming, but the end result was worth it.  I think if I am going to make more of these, I will get all the components ready before hand.  Cut out all the 2" squares in one session, fold and glue them in another session, then glue to CD in the last session.  I cut, folded and glued as I went along for this one.  I also found the Premium Bond glue better than the Tacky glue.

This is not an original idea, or even my idea, I have seen it before, but not sure if it has been tried on a old CD before.   I have used fabric for this sample, but I imagine it would work just as well with paper.  Imagine it with glossy magazine pages, newspaper or the beautiful scrapbook papers that are available now.  I think I will give it a go, it may give quicker results and you can fold the paper while watching TV in the evening.

Till next time,
Judy