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?

If I can do it anybody can

I'm a Christian and as we've established this means a few things, Jesus is God, the Bible is His word, and the Godhead is lord and creator of all things. Being a crafter it's easy to admire a creator. It does not mean I will hit you with my Bible on your way out.
Another awesome thing about being a Christian is that I get to celebrate Christmas with unbridled joy. This doesn't mean I spend millions on the people in my life (I wish I had millions to spend on them but let's face it I would just buy craft instead) it means I celebrate the birth of my saviour and jump with both feet into caroling, tinsel and yule log.
On the other hand a few pet hates of mine include Bah Humbugs, argumentative relatives and most of all the term 'Xmas'. First of all it doesn't work phonetically - you'd be forced to say crossmas or exmas and what has that got to do with anything. Secondly if you need to remove Christ from the Christmas forget celebrating it. Thirdly Xmas features in no Christmas carols. Fourthly X just means no, bad or wrong to me as a symbol so why celebrate that?
For all those people out there that use Xmas as a shorter version of Christmas I have a message - don't! The attached picture is a wool wrapped word which I will be selling this year to all Xmas to Christmas converts at a reduced price but prooves if you can wrap and bend wire to make 'Christmas', a pen should be able to draw holly and tinsel and snowflakes and candy canes and rudolph with no bother at all and the full word not a shorter apology for it.
Take that Bah Humbugs!