It's a Creative World

A little ornament

Here we are into the last week of the Christmas countdown.  I am still decorating my tree and I decided to make some new decorations. I came across these wire frames in my local craft shop.

and I decided to decorate them with beads from my massive stash.

You carefully thread the beads onto the individual legs. Creating your own patterns as you go.

Turn the end of the wire over with a pair of long nose pliers to secure the beads.   Add beads to the other 7 legs.

Add a thread to hang the ornament from the tree.

 
 I mentioned www.picnik.com last time. I have used another effect from them on this picture - focal black and white.  Merry Christmas from my home to yours.

Joy

Festive cheese nibbles

These are sooooo easy to make and taste delicious

Ingredients you'll need are

8oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Margarine
4oz Cheese (I used mature chedder)
3 tbsps cold water (more if the mixture requires it)
flour for dusting

Now lets get to it

rub the margarine into the self raising flour until you get a crumb mixture

 add the cheese and mix in well

 add the 3 tbsps of water and mix well, at this point you may need to add more water if required
put some flour on your worksurface so the mixture doesnt stick
using a rolling pin roll out to about a 1inch thickness

 using your festive cutters cut out your shapes and place on a backing sheet

 bake at 180 degrees for about 15 mins or until the tops brown and then cool on a wire rack

 For further indulgence spread on some yummy branston red onion and cranberry pickle

yum yum yum

Thanks for popping by and I'd like to take this oppurtunity to say Happy Christmas to all the crafters that visit us and to all my fellow design team girls :)

Deanne x

Calendar Gifts

Stocking Filler Calendars

Hi Dolly here.

I am always on the look out for quick and simple little gifts to pop in with Christmas cards and these handbag calendars fit the bill perfectly.

 

They are really simple to make, use up scraps of card, paper and ribbon, and make a lovely surprise when someone opens up their Christmas card.

The calendar tabs come in packs of 10 and are a perfect handbag size.

Cut the card slightly wider that the tab and slightly more than twice the length.

Make two score marks to form the spine of the little calendar book.

 

Cover the card in patterned paper and embellish the front as you wish.

The ribbon that ties the little books together is hidden. Use double sided tape to stick the ribbon to the inside of the back and front covers. This will be covered with the calendar tab and with the patterned paper used for the inside.

 

Voila – quick simple and a lovely little surprise for people.

 

 

Run, run as fast as you can...

You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man.

Hello, Eleanor here, with not one but 3 gingerbread men. One to send in the post, one to hang on the tree, and one to munch.

First, a card:

Then a softie tree deco, to perch on a branch of the Christmas tree, but before I could stop him, he ran out into the garden to the holly tree:

He's about 5 inches tall, and made with the fleece I had left over from making hoodies for Richard last Christmas, plus a few buttons and some ricrac.

And lastly, a sweet chappie... head first, or an arm, or maybe a leg?

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

75g butter

50g caster sugar

30ml millk

2 Tbsp treacle

Put flour, baking powder and ginger in bowl, add butter and rub in until resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Mix in sugar, milk and warmed treacle. I didn't have any treacle left so I used maple syrup! Knead until smooth and roll out to 6mm or so thick.

Cut out men and transfer to lined baking sheet.

Into fridge for 30 mins.

Bake at 180C for 15 mins or until pale golden (yours will be darker if you use treacle, so, dark golden).

Cool on rack and ice as liked.

Wishing you sweetness and joy this festive season.

Quick and Simple Gift Bags

Like many of you I have quite a few presents to give this year that are quite small so I decided to make little gift bags for them.

I bought myself a plastic Papermania template but there are many different templates you can buy or you can find patterns online to download. Some of my favourite links are:

Mirkwood Designs

Packaging Templates

Package Tech

 

So far I have made one bag using a cardstock-weight patterned paper and decorated it with some ribbon and bling.

The other bag was made using cardstock and then adding panels of patterned paper and tying on a tag with co-ordinating ribbon.

I also have plans to make a few rubber-stamped bags and some "shabby chic" style ones using downloaded images.

Thanks for visiting IACW!!

Jo x

Store Cupboard Presents.

I've seen blogs featuring presents in jars for a couple of years now, but the ingredients are usually given in American cups,so i've filed the idea away for future use,but thanks to Ideal-home magazine i have finally found a pounds and ounces version to try.

Glass jars are readily available on the high street, i found mine at TK MAXX. the jars need to be washed thoroughly in hot soapy water,and rinsed and dried well,as any moisture will cause the dry ingredients to spoil.

for Choc chip cookies you will need

1ltr (13/4 pt) preserving jar.

6 oz dark brown sugar

3 1/2 oz granulated sugar

6 oz chocolate chips

8 oz plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt.

in the preserving jar layer the ingredients,making sure that each layer is packed down tightly,this ensures that the layers remain separate.

you will then need to include the following,

just add.

5 oz softened butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

to make the cookies.

preheat oven to 180 c/350 f/gas mark 4

grease a baking sheet

empty jar into a large bowl  and mix well.

add in butter,egg and vanilla mix well.

place walnut sized balls of dough on the baking sheet, leaving room to spread.

bake for 15-20 minutes.

cool-if you can wait that long.

Enjoy!!!

put this information in a booklet or on tags attach it to the jar,and decorate your jar-you can even tie on a wooden spoon if you wish!

Season's Greetings

love

Ali

x.x.x.

Upcycling: jumpers to felted stockings

I've been meaning to do this since last year at least, and possibly the Christmas before that. It depends a little on good luck for the opportunity. This week though, I scored! I scored two pure wool sweaters in the charity shop, in Christmas colours no less. 

 

 If you fancy trying it out though, I recommend you be flexible in your colour choices. Perhaps you have a different Christmas palette at your house, or try gift bags instead of stockings. I suspect that this is addictive once you start - I have a little collection of stuffed animals made out of felted sweaters (not by me, I must add!)

The sweaters that you use absolutely must be 100% wool. That is non-negotiable. Only 100% wool will felt well - and there are some sorts of machine washable wool that won't (updated to say that the red sweater here didn't felt well at all, and there is no obvious reason why.) 

 

  Next comes the fun bit. We've all seen sitcoms and movies in which someone shrinks a sweater in the laundry, with inevitably hilarious results. Some of us have been unfortunate enough to do this ourselves, or had someone else shrink something of ours - not so hilarious, somehow. Today you get to do it on purpose. Use soap flakes, or your regular laundry soup. Set your machine to the hottest wash (save water by choosing half-load or putting something hardy in at the same time to make a full load) and wash your wool sweaters. You can even tumble dry them for a bit if you fancy, or you're in a hurry.

When they come out, they will be entertainingly small, and considerably stiffer. (Even after two washes, the red one hadn't felted as much as the green, enough not to fray however.) You can now cut them up and the fabric will not fray. Choose which sweater will be the background and which will be an accent. I have a great cardigan saved, but it shrank up small and the panels are too small for big pieces.

 

Cut out a stocking shape that you like and fits the sweater that you're using. (No, I'm not giving you a template, I promise you that you can draw a stocking shape). Cut out accents from your second sweater. I'm going for a simple tree, and a contrasting top band. I'm also trying to remember to add a ribbon loop for hanging. Blanket stitch the whole thing together. Ta-da!

(Sorry folks - don't believe I forgot to upload this one!) 

Inspired by Tim Holtz!

For the last 2 years the marvellous Tim Holtz has produced 12 Christmas themes tags for the first 12 days of December. It's been so inspiring to see his use of inks and tools and learn new techniques. However I've only WATCHED for the last 2 years!!

Tim's Tags 2007

Tim's Tags 2008

So this year I have been laying along, using Tim's techniques and design but using my favourite stamps!

So here are Tim's Tags day by day with my version alongside. 

(Go to Tim's blog for instructions and supply lists)

 

 

Day 2:

 

 

Day 3:

  

Day 4:

 

 

Day 5:

 

Day 6: 

 

I used a mix of Stampotique ,Bombshell, Stamper's Anonymous and Hero Art stamps.

I am storing my tags on a book ring for now but I intent to turn some of them into Christmas cards!

Have fun crafting and I hope you enjoy playing along with Tim and his tags!

love

GlitteryKatie 

XxxX
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Cute Christmas Cards

Are we all ready for Christmas yet! I'm nearly there, still a few more presents to buy. Before I finish those off though I really must finish off my Christmas Cards, I made some special cards for a craft fair recently.

I love the Magnolia images (I believe they are alot like marmite, you either love or hate them) I watercoloured them with my aqua pencils, used scraps from my paper and ribbon box and came up with these beauties.

 

 

Have you kept to a plain and simple style this year or have you made extra special ones for those really special people in your life?

 

I'll be back again soon with a recipe to share :)
Deanne xxx

A simple Christmas wreath using guess what ???...

PAPER!!!

Hi all from Di

You know I just love Christmas wreaths and this years is a paper wreath. LOL I do love paper.

Its really quick to make and does not require too much paper - scraps will do. Its a great project to get the children crafting

Start by cutting your circle in heavy cardboard. I used a dinner plate, cut my circle then cut out the centre.

I attached a thin strip of double sided tape all the way round my circle as shown above so I could attach my ribbon to hang it up before I stuck on the paper..

I then cut 4 strips of 2 patterned papers (8 strips in all) each measuring 1 & 1/2 inches by 12 inches. Then cut these into 3 inch strips rounded the corners and inked.

Then it's just place and stick, raise some and embellish some. Use ribbon bows, buttons, brads, bling, diamond glaze and all those bits and pieces you have stored away. I used some really cheap and small Xmas decorations. 

 

Mine is double sided so I can hang it in the window and it will look pretty from inside and outside.

Just so simple!!! Make loads of these and hang them in every window!!! LOL.
 

Have fun, Live just for today,Thanks for visiting IACW and love always from Di X