It's a Creative World

In the TV ad breaks ...

Hello! Alexa here ...

When my children were little, I had an inner rule for myself about devising activities and games to do or play. As long as it took them longer to do than it took me to prepare and help clear up, that was fine. If it didn't, then it didn't happen. I feel the same about preparing things for Christmas; however, there is also a part of me that likes to add little personal touches, so sometimes that conflicts with my rule! However, here is one which you might like to have a go at, and takes no more time to make than the average TV ad break. It also provides a little bit of added (excuse the pun!) value to a gift. Just sit down with eight items:

• some pretty card or cards
• some plain or lined paper
• a coordinating ink pad
• a trimmer
• a mat
• a hole-puncher
• some ribbon. (Add a corner-rounder if you've got two add breaks to work in.)

I'm not a great fan of Christmassy tags, with holly and Santas and candles, and I'm not a huge lover of the red/green colour combination. This thrifty idea provides me with something a little bit different to tie on a present, uses up accumulated scraps, and is a nice extra little something. Take a piece of pretty card or a greetings/letter card - I love the colours and pattern on these, and there's enough red and green to be traditionally seasonal:



Trim into rectangles: as my cards were 14 cm square, I cut them vertically to get a 7x14 cm strip, then horizontally to get two which were 7x7 cms.



The remaining front strip, which was a single piece of  7x14cms, was folded into a 7x7 cm square also, and the plain back reserved for later.

Ink the edges. (You'll notice that at some point my orange ink-lid got swopped for the crimson one - didn't spot this till I uploaded the photo!)

Now fold each card cover out flat, and hole-punch twice in the fold for the ribbon to go through - eyeball it, don't bother measuring.

Take your plain or lined paper, and make some 'pages' for inside - these need to be rectangular (e.g. 7x14 cms) so that when you fold them in two, you have a square. Four or five are plenty - keep it slim. Slip your folded pages inside each other to make a little booklet, and then trim the right-hand edge a little - if you don't, they will stick out beyond the edge of the card cover. Pop them inside your card cover to make a little book, and open it out from the middle, place it flat on your mat, and hole-punch through the holes already made in the card cover. Don't bother marking them a pencil first - keep it quick and simple!

Next, thread your ribbon through from the outside and tie in a bow.

Cut the plain back of the greetings card which was left over, or use some scraps of white card, to make a smaller square or rectangle - just big enough to write a brief message. Hole-punch it, slip it through the ribbon and tie:

Don't go to lots of trouble making the additional tags - put the energy into the little notebook which will have a use beyond the day of receiving the present. The completed booklet/tag can be tied onto the string or ribbon of a parcel, and the tag can easily be torn off by the recipient when the gift is opened. Instead of a tag (perhaps carefully crafted and beautifully made) which is then usually binned, the person receiving the gift also gets a tiny and pretty notebook for popping into a purse, handbag, pocket or filofax, for shopping lists, to-do lists, reminders, thoughts, inspirational quotes they hear or read, a phone-number they are given ...

Other twists?

• inside, use left-over bits of those scrapbooking papers which are prettily lined, or stamp a journalling block partially onto the little 'pages'.
• use a variety of papers inside in white/cream or other colours.
• use a little white tag on the front - the sort you can buy in stationers in a bags of 50 or so. Or if you have some lying around from a Sissix or Cuttlebug die, use those instead.
• round the corners of the cover and the pages.

These are also great slipped into stockings, or tied to napkin holders if you are having a party and want your guests to have a little something to go away with ... Oh, and make sure you have kept one for youself! Happy crafting!

Christmas Crackers

Firstly - apologies for my late post today everyone. With the girls on half term I'm getting my days all muddled up.

Last year I participated in a Christmas Cracker swap on the UKScrappers forum. The idea was you were assigned a person in secret who you then made a cracker for and then filled it with goodies that you made and bought based on a list of their likes and dislikes... and don't forget the dodgy joke and a Christmas hat.

I was very surprised at how much you can cram into a cracker. I have ransacked my PC and can't find the one I actually made but this is the one I received back from my secret sender.

Yes all that was INSIDE the cracker. It made such a fun and different present to recieve and to make as well.

I think there is talk of another swap this year so if you like the idea why not keep an eye on the UKS swap forum or make one for one of your loved ones.

I used this easy to use template for my cracker but if you google "Christmas cracker template" you will come up with many more.Then all you need is an A4 piece of lovely paper, lay the template over the top and cut it out, wrap it around a toilet roll and add some decorative ribbon and embellishments. So easy, so simple, so effective.

I'm not taking part in the swap this year as am already signed up to a couple of other Christmassy swaps but I'm definitely making my girls a cracker each for the tree ;) Sshhhh.

Thank you as always for stopping by.

Carmen x

 

Crochet Nativity Figures

Hi, Mandy here with more crochet.  I've been working on a Nativity set recently and so far have designed Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. They stand up on their own...

 

My eldest son kindly made the manger out of balsa wood and helped pose the figures...

 

Here's a close-up...

 

Before I stuffed Joseph and sewed on the base I wanted to show that the figures could be finger puppets too.  The model below was my 15 yo daughter, so Joseph fitted her pinky finger, but the puppets would be about right on a younger child...

 

Mary measures 6cm or about 2.5" tall and Joseph is a bit taller.  The photo below shows the scale...

 

I will be checking the patterns and putting them free on my blog.  I plan to make some shepherds and wise men too and an Angel.  I'll add the patterns to the blog as I finish them. 

I hope you are getting geared up for some Christmas 'makes' inspired by our posts here at IACW.

Bye,

Mandy

 

Christmas Countdown Cubes

Hi Lynne here

 I love to add glitter to my projects and I have a huge collection of glittery papers and cardstock, particularly Christmas ones.

I am trying to use the stash I already have so I can save for some new stamps I have my eye on.

 

 

 

 

I used some off cuts of 4"x4" timber, which I sanded and painted with white acrylic.

While the paint was still wet I sprinkled on white irridescent glitter.

Cut 12 3 and three quarter inch squares of plain cardstock or paper, I used a pearlescent silver.

Cut 12 3 and a half inch squares from patterned paper, they can all be different but one square must be non directional. 

You need to choose a font where the 6 and 9 are interchangable for it to work.

For Cube A you need 0,1,2,3,4 and 5.

For Cube B you need 0,1,2,6(9),7 and 8.

For the top I used a card strengthened with chipboard.

It doesn't actually count down from 56 days , (I hadn't realised until I'd taken the photo) it works from 32 days.

You could adapt it for other celebrations.

This isn't a new idea, but one I wanted to use again. I now have a few more sets to make to send off so they're received before the first of December.

 

Have fun Lynne x 

 

 

 

 

The 12 Lists of Christmas

Hiya Claireliz here

Now, I'm afraid I don't have anything to show you today, I wanted to show you two A4 ringbinders that have been altered to hold knitting patterns, they are going to be Christmas presents for my mum & my nan, but the parcel containing the goodies I want to use has not arrived yet, it appears to be missing :( so I haven't been able to alter them yet, so please accept my apologies for lack of photos & altered ringbinders, so I needed to come up with a different Christmas idea for today, so I started looking at how I prepare for Christmas.

Now despite the fact that I have 364 days each year to prepare for Christmas, it still sneaks up on me every year, leaving me feeling flustered & stressed out & usually spending more than I'd like, so this year, I have a few plans... I'm a compulsive list maker, so I have started making lists of various things... Gifts to make (& who they are for), a Gift list (ones I need to buy), the dreaded Christmas Card list, I say dreaded because,for some reason, I really don't enjoy writing Christmas cards, I don't know why, but this list also tells me how many cards I need to make. I also have lists of food to buy & things to cook, decorations to make & jobs to do, in reality the handmade gifts & decorations tend to never get done because I always seem to run out of time, so this year, I'm starting with the decorations & cards & Christmas cakes, & will do my present shopping mainly online, although I will go late night shopping into town with mum for a Gingerbread Latte (Its tradition)

Another thing I want to do this Christmas is make my own wrapping paper & Gift tags. To make the wrapping paper I just buy a roll of brown paper & stamp it all over with any of my Christmas stamps, I think it will work nicely with my largely handmade christmas this year.

So I've made my lists, I've checked them twice & now I'd better get busy & start crossing items off them.

Thanks for stopping by today & once again apologies for being unable to share the project I wanted to with you.

 

C

xx

 

Advent Bunting

Hi all, it's Kel here again.

Thank you so much for your kind comments last time, it really meant a lot. I'm feeling a lot better now, and thought I would share something I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace earlier this month.

These balls of wool (lime green, cream, ecru, blue, red and purple) will become 24 little wooly Christmas stockings to hang as decoration and fill with chocolates for advent bunting. I bought them as a kit from The Little Knitting Company and you can see a good picture at the top of the page I've linked. In my opinion, her website doesn't do justice to the product or the lovely feeling of her stall at the K&S Show. Don't those little stockings look sweet hung over the fire? 

The rosewood needles came with the kit and are really smooth and comfortable to work with. The pattern needs a little bit of prior knowledge to work with and the confidence to make your own decisions with finishing off for example. She let me choose any colours that I wanted, but I couldn't decide, so I just went with what was in the bag I chose. I may well buy more wool as I work through them. She includes charts for stars, trees, a pudding, a snowflake, and all the necessary numbers if you wanted numbered advent stocking. I found it easy to follow once I got into it.

 

So that's one down and only 23 to go (or 24 depending how you like to do advent calendars)! I'm very pleased with it. I think it might be a stripy one next.

Although actually, I won't be knitting more until it is the holidays, as I like to have something to be doing with my hands during all the Christmas telly.

xx

Simple snowflakes

Hi there, for my Christmas themed post today I have been playing with bits and pieces I have had lying around in my stash (and my children's) for a while. Both projects could be made by children, with varying degrees of help depending on their ages.

The strung garland used three sheets of A4 glitter card, some cheap silver cord and lots of little crystals (which I think were from sort of kiddies crafting kit).

I die cut lots of the snowflakes, using an older Sizzix die and stuck three together to make each complete 3d snowflake. I dug out my old (and very rarely used) Xyron 510 machine to apply adhesive to the back of all the snowflakes. A spray glue would work well too. I found it best to fold two snowflakes in half, glue them together, hold them flat against my desk to drape the cord across and then stick a third (unfolded) snowflake onto the top, aligning the snowflakes, adding in the fold to the final one after they were glued together. Spacing isn't critical as the snowflakes will move along the cord, with a little pressure, once they are all strung together. I find that stick on gems don't tend to stick on to glitter card very well, so I used a fine tipped glue bottle to add dots of glue to stick the gems on with.

 

I think it looks great hanging over the mirror - getting double the effect!

 

The larger snowflake is made up of three large foam snowflakes which were bought from Hobbycraft. They come with a plain finish so I sprayed some Crafter's Companion Spray and Sparkle to glitz them up a bit. I used the liquid adhesive to glue the three snowflakes together into the 3d shape and let it dry before decorating it. I punched holes through the top and bottom of the snowflake and threaded beading wire through, adding beads both above and below the snowflake, looping the wire back through and securing with a crimp bead. I made a small tassle with some silver metallic thread and attached it to the bottom using a jump ring. The smaller gems were attached using the fine tipped glue bottle and the larger gems in the centre of each side using dimensional glue dots, as these go over the folded portion of the snowflakes and don't lie flat.

 
 

I like this larger snowflake as an ornament in it's own right, but it could also be added to the centre of the strung snowflake garland if you want to.

xxx's

Suzanne

Simply stunning cards

Hi Everyone – Dolly here but with someone else too.

For a long time I have been an admirer of Tina Fitch’s work on UK Scrappers. (silverst170) I am in awe of the cards she makes using the Craft Robo in ways I can only begin to imagine. Her work is stunning and so intricate and so I asked her if she would like to share some of her work and her thoughts on the blog here.

Let these few whet your appetite.

 

 

So I hand you over to Tina.

My name is Tina I am married and have two children, both girls. I also have twin granddaughters that presently take up most of my time.

 
I worked full time till about 6 year's ago as a Manager for Greggs plc, I organised and conducted training and opened the new shops for the company as well as managing my own unit..One day I went to work and decided it just wasn't for me anymore, so left there and then. Don't know what came over me, but decided enough was enough I wanted my life back...

 I was then brought a card kit from QVC which I used and started to make handmade cards.  I was never any good at art or making cards hahaha until I discovered the Craft Robo in Birmingham at a craft show..

My hubby brought one for me and from there I struggled to get to grips with my Robo for approx 6 months.  I then started to churn out some of the most awful card templates you ever did see and sold them as templates on ebay. I never looked back from that day. I just love pretty girly things and always have done.

So I started out trying to make card templates that you can't buy in the shops and my cards are unique.  I have never seen anything like it in the stores anywhere I have been and believe me I do look...

 

Now I can look at something from picture and near as not replicate it as to how I would like it to look. I now have my own website selling templates for the Robo, silhouette and wishblade digital cutting machines, I  now have nearly all the templates I originally created in GSD converted for all other machines to use.

 

 

You can see Tina’s work on her own website here
www.forevermemoriesforyou.co.uk   All Design templates are for personal use only...please read her Terms Of Use with all orders.

You can also keep up with her on her blog here http://forevermemoriesforyou.blogspot.com/  

 

 

And in keeping with our Christmassy theme this month - how about these for stunning Christmas cards.

  
 

 
 

I think you will all agree - her work is stunning. I know I keep using that word but .... well it just is.

Thank you, Tina, for allowing us to share your work here. x

SIMPLE THINGS OCTOBER - MEMORY

 
Welcome to Simple Things this month, where we have been looking at our memories and ways of recording them.

It's Eleanor here, and I must confess, I have been having serious second thoughts about the format I chose for this project. I have never made a full size quilt before, and whilst I am loving the process of creating the eight inch squares, I am beginning to wonder how I will ever make them into a quilt. It would be awful if I couldn't manage it and the squares languished in a drawer forever more.

I don't always get things right first time, and often redesign a project halfway through the process, SO - 

I have made a big decision, to abandon the quilt and make all of my squares into wall hangings, or framed pictures, canvases, or even bags. Being made of fabric, they will adapt easily to any of these.

I am a new grandmother, and every moment I spend with my grandson is making precious memories for me, and for him, so this month I tried out my revised idea, and made this:

I turned the photo to sepia, printed it onto cotton (which in its former life was a cot sheet belonging to my firstborn son, the father of this sweet baby) raided my boxes for lace, ribbon, velvet ricrac, beads, fibres, and buttons, and this is the result.

Being creative can be all about choices, and changing direction when something isn't working as originally planned, and here's to that!

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 Hi Debbie here with my take on memory.

I have found a quote for memory I really liked. "Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are and the things you never want to lose.

I have really got into Art Journalling so decided to use some of the techniques I have learnt on this page.

I painted the background with yellow water colour smooshed around with a baby wipe, and stamped the background with pale blue text and a crackle background stamp. The birdcage is cut from cardstock and the photo inside is a downloaded image from the internet of Marilyn Monroe.

 

I stamped bird cages over the background and then gessoed over them as they were too dark.

I then added a checkered stamp in blue over the top of the gesso.

I stamped around the edges of the page with versamark and then used a posca poster pen to draw around the border and add detail to it.

I added my quote with the posca marker and added a few more tiny flower stamps as I felt the background was a little. dull. I highlighted the image using a gold marker on the hair and a red one on the lips.

I thought the page looked a bit gloomy so I added pink glitter glue to the cage.

Debbie x

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 Dolly here with another word page for my album.

Memory (bearing in mind my album focuses on flower photos) made me think of Autumn and the passing of the summer and the beauty of the autumn colours all around.

So I went with an autumnal theme this week.

 
The photo was of some fallen leaves that just looked pretty.

 

I included a definition ,as I have done with every page for this project. This one was quite hard as there were so many sections in the dictionary. I went for a shortened simplified version.

 

I also used a word art which I will put on my blog for download as well

 

I love autumn and I am so glad I have a page that refelects that in the album.

 

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Hiya Claireliz here with my take on Memory

Now I admit I haven't done the journaling on this yet... why? I hear you ask, well I'll be honest,I thought of something really cool that I wanted to say on the journaling & found a great quote too, but, I didn't write it down & now I can't for the life of me remember what it was I was going to say. Really, I think that says a lot about the state of my memory, but this is why I scrapbook. I may inadvertently put the salt & pepper in the fridge & occasionally leave the house in my slippers (seriously, its happened more than once) but at least I can look back & remember the stories behind photos & events.

So here is my memory page...

 

My little pizza box book is looking very chunky right now. I have stuck with making pockets to hold journaling throughout the project. To decorate this page I used a bit of left over Grungepaper film strip, sprayed with Dylusions ink (granite) Then used a variety of ScrapaGoGo & Banana Frog stamps to decorate, the title is made using Jenni Bowlin bingo card alphas. I found a 7gypies fabric tab that says remember this & some acrylic & kraft Maya Road journaling cards that relate to memories. I also used a dictionary definition of memory which reads.... Memory: Process of retaining & reproducing past thoughts & sensations, sum of things remebered.

Well thats all from me, I'm going to try & remember what my journaling was & write it up... this is the reason I have countless lists & notebooks.

Thanks for stopping by & see you soon

Claireliz

xx

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Hi all, Michelle here with my offering for the Simple Things project this month. While thinking about the word Memory, I went through a whole range of thoughts and ideas and to be honest my little offering mutated quite a lot on its journey. It has ended up, however, being my favourite addition to my simple things treasure chest.

I made one of these

 
I cannot remember what we used to call them so I have called this my memory snapper! I started working on the word with a heritage feel, making a memory book but none of that felt right and when I thought about my memories I was transported to the late seventies/eighties where a lot of my memories are rooted ... an all together more colourful time than vintage/heritage. I then remembered these origami games we used to make and thought what a great way to hide memories to pluck out of the air when I need a smile!

For those of you that can’t remember how to make them and for those of you wondering what on earth I am whittering about here’s a quick folding step by step

 

The piece of paper for folding has to be square. I’ve used a 12 x 12. Fold the diagonals of the square corner to corner and lay out flat again.

 
Fold in all 4 corners to the centre point you have now created with the initial folds.

 
Flip the now smaller square over and fold in all the corners to the centre again.

 
Fold the piece in half both ways.

 
Slip your thumb and forefinger under the outside flaps and now you can make it move .... ah the memories heh!

I then marked each piece I would see with what I wanted on it, and the right way, so that when I unfolded the piece I could see what would go in each section. Originally the outside would be coloured sections and you would spell out the colour revealing the inner sections that would hold numbers which were counted out to then lift the inner flap where it stopped to reveal a message like ‘I love you’ or ‘you smell’ LOL. This time I made my outside spell Memories, the inner to read Remember and under the flaps I have recorded a main word with all the memories that conjures up.

 

I decided to doodle all my sections, in itself a memory, reminding me of my school books and pencil case!

 
And then I went to town colouring it in, a favourite childhood past time with memories of me and mum sat colouring in together! I used pro markers however, slightly better pens than my old favourite felt tips (of which I used to have hundreds as a kid!)

 
And that’s it, I have to say it’s the most fun I’ve had creating for a long time, back to basics and re living some wonderful memories along the way! Why not re live some memories yourself and maybe pass on our silly little origami game to some little ones....after all that’s how memories live on! See you next month when I’ll be full of GRATITUDE!

Love MJM x

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Next month we are thinking about GRATITUDE; we would love you to join us.

 

Christmas Craft Club

Hi Everyone

It has been busy at school and we have Christmas fast approaching. We have not yet started singing carols, but, it is only a matter of time. The Nativity costumes will be dusted down after half term.

I have been running a Christmas Craft Club. It has started early because there was so much interest I am running it twice. The group are 5-7 year olds so the ideas are quite simple. I have decided to share some of our projects so that you can get busy with your children.

Week 1 - Angels

 

This was made from a dolly peg and a silver doilly.  We actually used a kit, from Baker Ross, which came with a rub-on face and a little stand.

Week 2 - Baubles

 

This was made from lots of cardboard circles. I had my Cricut on overdrive. The children's eyes nearly popped out of their heads watching the Cricut in action. They have told everyone about the magic cutting machine!  You fold the edges over an equilateral triangle and then glue or staple the edges together. You can use varying amounts of circles to make different shapes. This is a great way to use up old Christmas cards.

Week 3 - Bunting

 

This was my favourite!  Each child had a length off hairy string and lots of triangles of wrapping paper. They punched out varying circles, and other shapes, and stuck them back to back onto the string. We also added buttons and bells. They have told me they will be hanging them over their beds.

We have had lots of sticky fun and we still have a few weeks to go.

Happy crafting Joy xxxxxx