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Waiting for the new year, here is a Christmas 3D album, paper Graphic 45.
Magic instant to remember and share marvellous moments with the children.
I played with the the vintage colors of the papers and the 3D foldings.
I created a pop-up page.
Here is a hidden Christmas tree in the black flap.
It's one of my favourite albums of this year.
Just a few words to wish you good things and above all a very happy New Year 2012. May it fulfill all your hopes and expectances!
Caroline
Hi Guys! Laura here!
If you are like me and have a some excited children waiting for bedtime to finally arrive, then chances are you wont even make it as far as IACW - but we hope you have, and are enjoying the festive fun ahead. I thought I'd share a couple of ideas to speed the day along for the kids and possibly yourselves!!
Tiffin Christmas Puds! Easy to make and possibly all in your cupboards!
You will need approx: 225g of rich tea biscuits, 2 table spoons of sugar, two tablespoons of golden syrup, 4 teaspoons of cocoa powder, a handful of raisins, red fondant icing or m&ms, green holly leaf sprinkles (I picked mine up at John Lewis or you could make some with green icing), white cooking chocolate and an optional couple of chunks of milk choc!
Get your excited child to vent some of their energy smashing up the biscuits to fine crumbs!
Melt the butter, syrup, and sugar in a pan. Add the cocoa and, if you wish, some milk chocolate- this will make the tiffin a stiffer consistency when cool.
add your biscuit. mix and use an ice cream scoop to make some balls( about 12)
Get your little helper to roll little red icing balls- 3 per pudding. Melt the white chocolate and dribble over the puds to make the brandy cream topping and the add your holly leaves and berries before it hardens.
Then stick on the pc and go to http://www.noradsanta.org/en/ where the kids can track Santa's journey across the world while you enjoy the yummy calorific treat! Hope you have a chance to try it!
Like everyone, we IACW girls are looking forward to some time with loved ones so will be taking a few days off from posting over Christmas - but do pop back in a few days when we'll be here to inspire and get your creative urges going!
Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!!
With love from the IACW team xxxxx
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....and I'm still making gifts!
There's nothing like leaving everything till the last minute. It seems to be a regular occurrence in this house. Today I thought I'd show you this festive seasons teachers gifts, I decided to go down the route of handbag charms hence the title.
I've started with with teachers charms, an apple, a book and a ruler and worked around them with a selection of charms and beads. I really enjoy making these as it's a break from paper crafting plus I can sit in front of the fire with the TV on rather than being in my craft room, far more cosy at this time of year. I really must get around to making one for my bag...I only seem to be very good at finishing projects for other folk, LOL.
I also wanted to share with you a card, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a handmade card. In an ever moving techno world it's still lovely to get a handmade card, not all mine were this year but I still managed a few for close friends and family.
For this card I have used;
Spellbinder dies Heirloom Ornament 2011. Fiskers edger punch. Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. Stamp by Waltzing Mouse. Distress ink Red brick. Glitter by Martha Stewart. Ribbon from stash.
I love the red and white scandinavian influence that seems to be really popular this festive season. Do you?
All that remains from me is to wish you all a
"Merry Christmas!"
I hope Santa is good to you all.
Happy crafting, Erika.
Hello Kerry here with a tree made from an old book.
I've been noticing these sort of trees all over blogland and wanted to try and have a go. I found a really easy tutorial from Readers Digest (click the link for the tutorial). Apparently these have been going for a very long time but I've not seen them before this year.
Not being a reader of their magazine I decided to have a go with an old book. I'm saying old but I only bought it last year for the grand sum of 99p from Amazon before anybody gasps at me recycling a very old valuable book.
I started by removing the covers and then made the first folds
After a few folds it looked like this
and then after 200+ pages it looked like this. I have no idea how many pages a Readers Digest magazine has so this might have been a little too many but it worked.
I stuck the first and last pages together and then got to work with my most festive mists.
Left it to dry and then decorated it with some tinsel on the top, some fringing from my ribbon box and some buttons.
I can see me making one of these for each season especially as my local library has a mountain of old books at dirt cheap prices which would be ideal.
Have a lovely Christmas everybody.
It is nearly Christmas and I want to wish everyone a super Christmas and new year. I want to show you a quick tree present idea using a recipe in a jar. There are lots of recipes on the web and mine is based on this one http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cookie-in-a-Jar/Detail.aspx, as it is an American recipe here is my English conversion…plus a few differences.
I used an IKEA jar that holds a pint of liquid (an American quart is 2 pints so I halved the recipe), a narrower jar would be better as you would get more definition to your layers, but the cookies still taste good. I used a ¼ cup measuring spoon (which is approximately 3 level tablespoons). For the layers – try and pack them down as best you can. I found the order that my recipe has them in the best for me, though you can mix it how you like.
The Recipe
3 lots of ¼ cups of self raising flour
¼ cup of chocolate chips
¼ cup of cocoa pops
¼ cup of brown sugar
¼ cup of M and Ms (or smarties)
¼ cup of oats
¼ cup of caster sugar
Once I had layered up the ingredients I made some tags and then made a little scroll on the back which contains the instructions for making the cookies. I attached the tags to the jar with string, you can add fabric to the top too if you use a more jam like jar.
The instructions for the scroll:
Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar
1/4 cup (60g/2oz) of softened butter or margarine
1 egg beaten
1tsp vanilla
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or gasmark 4. Mix the butter, egg and vanilla into a batter, empty the jar of cookie mix into the batter. Mix it well. Put teaspoons of the mixture about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 8-10mins or until lightly browned.
They work really well, I got to try some as I didn’t measure my 1 pint jar so on my 1st go I realised that there was too much to fit in the jar….so we just had to try them! Here is a shot of the creations – it is a really easy recipe and great for doing with the kids, and best of all the cookies are soft in the middle.
Have a super Christmas
Katherine
Hi all...alix here again!
We really should chat more here at Creative Towers, eh...you've gone and ended up with a Christmas wreath 2 days in a row...but i have to say they couldn't be more different...even though the design is essentially the same. That really is one of the fabulous things i love about crafting your own...you can stick to a simple design...in this case a repetition of the same embellishment over and over around a ring, and by changing the colours and the materials you get a totally different feel to the finished piece. Eleanor's wreath is simply stunning in a serene, modern, understated and frosty way...and mine is a cosy, nostalgic and warm one. I love them both!
To create my poinsettia flowers i cut out LOTS of shapes from a paperback book using a Creatables die and my big shot...but you could use a cricut to save time if you are lucky enough to have one! I laid the flowers out on sheets of copy paper and put them in a large cardboard box before spraying them liberally with Dylusions mica mist sprays in red and green. While they were drying, I covered a foam wreath base with buff coloured tissue paper, scrumpling as i went and then coated the whole thing in clear Viva Decor Croco glaze. Then i went to bed...
In the morning...i assembled the poinsettia by layering one large green, two medium sized red and one tiny red flower shape on top of each other and adding them to the wreath base with a selection of beads in the middle, secured with sequin pins. {Sequin pins are just like regular pins but shorter.} The poinsettia on the top of the wreath all have a large crystal bead in the middle, and the ones on the side have 3 tiny seed beads. Trust me...after a few you will want a thimble!! ;0)
I continued adding my poinsettia all the way around, leaving small gaps into which i pushed some large glittery brads that i've had forever and then i tied an oversized bow with some lovely organza ribbon and secured it at the top with another poinsettia flower. Finally, a scrap of ribbon was pinned to the reverse as a hanging loop.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out, its pearly from the mica spray {sorry my photography skills won't allow me to show this!}, twinkly when the lights shine on the crackled base in the evening and rather opulent because of the luxurious ribbon and faceted beads. Best this of all...as its all attached by pins...i can simply unpin all the flowers if i want to make something totally different next year!
Let me know what you think...does my wreath stand up next to Eleanors..?
Finally, a great big HAPPY CHRISTMAS SEASON to you all,
alixxxxx
But the fire is so delightful,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
After our recent blizzards and scary storms I ventured out to a local artisan gift shop and fell in love with a white-painted metal snowflake wreath.
I came home and created my own with the aid of my Cricut, Joys of the Season cartridge, a 50p lace bargain, some white card, mountboard and a few flatback pearls.
First I cut a 14 in ring from mountboard (drawing round my large frying pan lid), and wrapped it with 6in lace stapled on the outer edge:
Once finished, I evened out the gathers:
and cut 64 snowflakes from plain white cardstock, 16 of each of four designs.
I used glue dots to stick them on, and to the uppermost 8 I gave a pearl centre.
Let it snow!
Happy Christmas everyone.
Eleanor
x
Preparing Christmas time, this is a little curiosity : a very little album in a jar.
I wanted to reproduce these items that were admired during the XVIIIth century in Europe.
Through the glass, we can make out the final product laid on a little paper box.
Santa Claus’ picture is emphasized by all the 3D embellishments.
At the back, there’s a little album in order to remember of good moments spent during Christmas time.
Regarding the colours, I enjoyed mixing brown and green papers for a Vintage effect.
I added some glitters on the jar to imitate the frost and capture the light.
I wish you a merry Christmas !
Caroline
Hi
It is Dolly here by the skin of my teeth and so I am sharing a project I made last month but it is such a good idea for a Christmas gift that it seemed a shame not to share.
It's a homemade calendar which is simple but quite effective.
The stand was simply very thick card - more like chipboard. It was folded to make a M or W, depending on which way you view it.
I had to make joins, but you don't see them when it is finished.
You could make it out of one piece if you had larger card, but as the only card I had that was thick enough was A4 then it had to be joined. But you really and truly don't see them.
The whole thing is then bound together - you could use book rings but I used the Bind It All.
I made the calendar template for the right hand side of each page, but there are plenty out there you can buy.
I also made my right hand side entries digitally and then printed them out, but there is no reason why you couldn't make real life pages to use. I would, however, suggest you alternated the side the picture and the calendar were on as if it was very thick and lumpy it would work better if some of the lumpy bits were ont he left and some ont he right.
It's not too late to make a calendar as a Chrsitmas gift and it is such a personal gift to give. I hope some of you will give it a try.
I have a collection of beaded decorations I've made over the years and they really make the Christmas tree sparkle. This year I had an email from one of my favourite bead shops with free instructions to make a decoration using Tila beads. (They are square and have 2 holes in them)
This is what mine looks like
I used silver lined crystal seed beads and Tila light gunmetal.
The instructions are HERE
Several years ago I was given a kit from Spellbound Beads as a present and make some each year to give as presents.
Do have a go at making some decorations using your beads, rather than just looking at them (like I do)
I'd also like to share a new tradition in our family. My close friends daughter came to me to make a Christmas cake for the first time last year and said she'd like to come again this year. She makes it from scratch and really enjoys beating the butter and sugar and the mixing. Like me she likes glitter and now we've discovered edible glitter, have lots of fun decorating.
Here's this years offering:
(This was made and decorated by a 6 year old)
Have a magical Christmas.
Lynne x
