Craft presents... for me!

I've found a way to blog about handmade gifts without spoiling gifts -yep I've still not given all the gifts out. For the record I'm not a social recluse it's just my nearest and dearest live far away. Anyway, these blogs are going to be about gifts I've received and although I'm in danger of upsetting a few people I'm going to put my neck on the line and say this is my favourite.
This is the friend that gets cross at me for making her stuff, she claims she can't make stuff. Clearly she has been lying.
You may be asking why I would stay friends with such an obvious liar, however she knows too much about me and we have too much in common for me to ever consider not treasuring this friend.
One thing we have is Grey's Anatomy. After I had a really rough week about 18 months ago my friend bought and had delivered the entire 1-8 season boxset. She claimed the reason I needed to watch it was one of the main characters reminded her so strongly of me she was sure I would love it. She was right. As my husband and I watched the programme even my other half saw the resemblance to Christina Yang - clearly the best character. When I told other Grey's addicts of the links to the character they were shocked my bestie could think something so mean of me. See Christina Yang is a harsh character. She has an insane work ethic and is prepared to sacrifice friends for the benefit. She says what she thinks even when it's not socially acceptable. She is completely unable to control her facial expressions and lastly she is an ugly crier. Beautiful the rest of the time but when she rarely cries - it ain't pretty perhaps a reason she doesn't do it very often. She also only lets a select few in.
Maybe now you're wondering why my friend is still invested in a friendship with me. Seeing all these things makes me happy that my friend is my person. A concept from the show. Your person is someone who you can rely on. They know how ugly you can be and happily take a selfie with you. They are the person that if you rob a bank they drive the getaway car. Or as my person wrote on my gift: 'if I murdered someone she is the person I would call to help me drag the corpse across the floor'.
I'm not advocating murder. For the record I'm against murder. But I'm glad I have my person.
This gift is my favourite because I love the type written quotation, I love the scrabble tiles and the black chunky frame. It's already up on the wall. But mostly I love what the gift will remind me of. By the rules of written work I should now systematically round up all the things I love about my friend. That wouldn't be very Christina of me though would it.

Still no spoilers

It's Thursday. On Thursdays I write my blog. Unfortunately I still haven't seen all of my friends to give them their gifts so there are somethings I just can't talk about yet. However, my husband has opened all his gifts and as he isn't immune to the odd handmade gift I can safely share with you one gift he received.
Along with having the unusual name, unusual hobbies and an unusually accepting nature - comes in handy when I want yet another craft machine- my other half is unusually difficult to buy for. I know men can be difficult to buy for but this guy tops the charts.
He treats himself as and when he likes, he doesn't covet things of others', except the PS4 pretty sure he covets that and he prefers to buy his own clothes. He has expensive taste: he fell for me after all and his collections require detailed research.
That leaves me with buying him the obligatory socks, dvds that he hasn't already bought and the necessary onesie or I break into a bank and get the money for the PS4.
I went for a more original idea. Toiletries. Boring I know. However, this set had a special coupon inside. It was a kind of voucher/I.O.U that he is allowed to redeem throughout the next year. I've done him a book of vouchers before and as they were so successful I decided to keep up the tradition as it allows him to get a present he wants, me to spread the cost and Christmas to last all year. That's a hat trick folks.

Last minute makes

I shamefully rely upon the gift bags I receive for the next year's gift receptacles, to be fair it's worked very well for the past 10 years even if it has meant remembering who gave me which bag so I don't give them their bag back.
Far too much effort.
Along with wanting to add a personal yet professional touch to my presents, this, was my motivation for a new gift bag idea. That and my desire not to resort to 'posh carrier bags' as we discussed previously.
Wrapping presents in parcel paper has been popular for a while so I thought a little brown paper bag would suit the current trends. What makes these bags even better is that they use up even more of that leftover wrapping paper that you don't have anything small enough to wrap up.
The following are my take on this year's gift bags. If there is anything I've learned this festive season it is that double sided tape is my best friend. It's worked for the rosettes, for my gift tags, for my gift boxes and is now the staple ingredient for my gift bags.
Just another tip for recycling wrapping odds and ends if you find yourself outnumbered and tempted to wrap the family hamster just to use them up.

Posh Pooches

I don't usually post on a Saturday but I don't usually get asked to make a bow tie for a pug.
My friend sent me a picture of a bow tie she wanted to get for her pug but as you may know pugs have unusually large necks so to get one from the Internet wouldn't have fit. Upon seeing the picture I was infected by the 'icandothat' disease that many crafters suffer from. It's incurable so make sure you support your relatives that suffer from this sickness by supplying them with patterned paper, ribbon and offcuts of fabric on a regular basis.
Anyways, I went in search of fabric from my supplier aka bag of scrap bag. Within an hour the bow tie was completed and I was mega chuffed with it as was thankfully my friend. Hope you like it too. It wasn't without its challenges but I don't like finishing on a negative so I'm just going to remind you that challenges merely make you stronger/better or some other cliché. Oh and leave you with perhaps the cutest, poshest pug on the planet.

Recycled Rosettes

I love craft magazines, one of my favourites is Crafts Beautiful because the projects are always so straightforward and the freebies are brilliant making it really good value. Now I'm not on commission for the magazine so I had better move on.
Today is my day off and as such as a treat, after jobs around the house are done, is to indulge in a cuppa and my favourite magazine. Before I even got past page 19 I had to stop and trial an idea.
Now as my avid readers will know I'm a hoarder and as such although the recipe called for card I had a piece of wrapping paper left, too small for a present but too big just to throw away so rather than cut into my treasured pretty Christmas card I decided to use this as an alternative. A mock-up if you will. I'm also lazy, so seeing as I didn't have a button to hand but I did have a bunch of card making bits I used card and transfers to make a Christmas Rosette.
You might not agree with me but I think it worked a treat. I did however make the booboo of using the wrong colour for my tree decorations so I decided instead to decorate a rather plain gift bag in order to make it more festive.
I hope my favourite magazine won't mind having their recipe played with and I'm sure one of my favourite people won't mind the addition to her gift bag.

The answer to all questions

I've had a pretty rough week; my little car gave up on second, fourth and reverse gear meaning I could only go forwards at either a very slow or fast pace, I've had the mammoth of all colds - my other half has caught it and gotten over it and I'm still clinging onto mine, and although I'm a fan of a Philip Larkin I think he would have been more on the mark to say 'they p*ss you off your mum and dad' rather than 'f*ck you up'. In my mum's defence she made my week better by sending me a pair of owl earrings (owls are my favourites) as a surprise without even knowing I was having a matathon week. My dad on the other hand just doesn't think sometimes - love him to bits but he is a numpty.
So yesterday feeling pretty glum I sat at my machine to make the next batch of bunting. After an hour of straight stitch sewing my stresshead seemed to be mellowing. My self directed tips of square bottoms of the triangles was working. I didn't need to go out so my car didn't matter, my nose was plugged with tissue bungs - don't judge me you know you do it - and my dad is just my dad, you chose your friends not your family and I have an awesome set of those.
After the said hour of sewing the shuttle needed changing. I then had to attach my bunting to the ribbon. As the ribbon was 10 metres and you have to sew down it twice I discovered there is 15m worth of thread on a shuttle. I don't know why it fascinated me but it did, I've always wondered how much you can get from that little piece of kit and now I know.
So there's the answers to life's questions - bunting will solve all world anger issues and there is 15m of cotton on a shuttle. You're welcome!

Handmade cards

I'm full of cold, my lips are chapped and my nose could compete in a rudolph lookalike competition with really good odds but today arrived at my door two envelopes to make me smile.
Most crafters love Christmas because of the endless opportunities for creations, one reason I love Christmas is seeing the work of other crafters appear to brighten my day. The first two cards I received for Christmas have been handmade and I love them both! Mine haven't been made let alone sent so clearly I'm late to the party.
What makes these cards so special is not just the thoughtful nature of the cards but that they have been addressed to my whole family: me, my hubby and our very grumpy pooch. Why does this make them so special? Because it reveals just how precious these friends are, they know I'm bonkers about my dog, I very much treat him as my baby and have not only taken the time to make me a card but embrace my bonkerdness - again not a real word and I won't use it again I promise.
To these lovely ladies - love ya!
To others - follow their lead with the Christmas assault: make cards and embrace the crazy.

Christmas Bunting

This is just a quick blog to share with you my afternoon's efforts.
I was really touched to be asked to make some festive bunting for my church and thrilled that bunting has found its place in the festivities. Originally accepted as a decoration for summer bunting has become so popular that it's springing up all over the place. My next challenge is to make bunting appropriate for all seasons. I can't think of a season where it isn't appropriate so I should be onto a winner.
Here's hoping my friends like the addition to our walls, I've even snook in a couple of wool wraps for good measure.

Alternative wreaths

This is the newest addition to the list of PIF gifts I have given to my good friend and has won my favourite spot.
I saw this in a magazine but unlike most crafts, I haven't seen it made and sold on craft stalls so I was a little suspicious of what the back is supposed to look like. It wasn't easy. I attacked the back with my glue gun and folded the fabric over the edge. I had cut out a small circle of fabric to cover the back but it didn't look neat enough. I cut out a slightly larger circle and put this over the back so that it glued to the sewing ring rather than the fabric and this really worked.
The sewing on button part was easy. The beads and bow took a little longer but then God is in the detail so I don't mind spending more time on the little parts.
The annoying part was that I don't always know when to stop. Less is definitely more so when I embroidered 'Happy Christmas' I realised - a little belatedly- that I had gone too far so quickly undid it. I'm pretty pleased with this unusual Christmas decoration and hope you guys like it too.

Does size matter?

I've been playing with wire a lot just recently and as this blog started with wire words it's something you're probably familiar with me talking about.
I set myself the challenge of joining two wire words together but as the perpetual procrastinator this obviously didn't turn out until being the serial stubborn individual that I am I needed to prove a point - see previous post.
With that challenge under my belt I started to think about what else I could do with the wire and it would seem that I ran my race backwards. The stockings you see in the pictures were incredibly easy to make and part of me wishes I had tried these first. The trickiest part was getting two wool colours but even that was manageable. As such if you like the wool words perhaps a play at festive shapes would prepare you for the task. But onto my dilemma...
Does size, for the craft in question, matter? I love miniature things, the best things come in small packages- silver leaf shaped earrings, beautiful broaches, diamond rings - as such the small Christmas ornament measuring in at 8cm makes my heart skip a beat but I am not blind to the imperfections. The larger one has smoother edges, the twist at the top looks really good and the shape looks stronger. As such the perpetual query of women nationwide remains to be a crafting conundrum - does size matter?