Handmade cards and other crafts, templates & tips

The days are getting shorter and colder too, a sign that Summer is definitely over and Autumn is settling in. Some shops have even started displaying things for Christmas!!

Although there are still 3 months to go I've began working on some Christmas projects, the reason being that I can't devote many hours to crafting and only do so for short periods of time in the evening  and as there are a few things I want to have ready by December this is a good time to start!

This is what I'm working on at the moment: an Advent Calendar for my lovely niece who is 17 months old. I think they look very pretty all piled up .

As you can see this Advent Calendar is made of felt tags that I cut with my Sizzix Big Shot and my big tags die cut. I still have a few to make but cutting them with the Big Shot is a breeze.

These can also be used to make a garland or as Christmas ornaments to hang on your tree.

If you don't have a die cutting machine you can cut your tags by hand using either templates that you can download for free from the Internet (just click on the links below) or you can draw your own. Instead of felt you can also use paper.

http://www.scrapbookscrapbook.com/tags-templates.html

http://tigrisdesigns.net/creativity/templatestags.htm

Made these for a commission so the lady can choose one or the other. Which one would you choose?

I've been wanting to make a bunting for sometime and Alex's birthday (he was 9 yesterday) was the perfect "excuse".

Depending on the level of detail you want your bunting or banner to have, it can be very quick and easy to make. For this one I used a template a drew myself in the shape of a triangle but you can use any shape you like. A bunting is also perfect to use up any scraps of fabric you might have leftover from your previous projects.

I enjoyed making this one so much that I'm thinking of making one for Christmas and one for my little niece's birthday in February.

Here are some very cool buntings/banners you can find on Flickr:

Bella Dia made one with crochet flowers, and this one with crochet hearts, they are so pretty.

Cupcake bunting by Jellybelly*Jellybrain, isn't it just adorable?

A few months ago I posted a tutorial on how to make headbands. To me the problem with the type of headbands that have an elastic at the back is that you have to measure the head of the person you're making the headband for. This is all very well if you're only making them for personal use  but if you're making them for sale what will happen is that you'll need to have an assortment of different sizes. Not pratical at all, in my opinion.

This is a design I came up with when making the headband below to give as a birthday present to a little girl. I didn't know how long the headband had to be and therefore what I needed was a one size fits all kind of thing.

Here's the headband I made as a birthday gift for an adorable 2-year old.

And here's how you can make one yourself:

1 - Cut a strip of felt, mine was 40,5 cm long and 6 cm wide. Determine how much ribbon you need and cut the necessary lentgh. Choose any embellishments you want to add (crochet flowers, buttons, felt appliques, etc.).

2 - Fold the felt in half widthwise and sew all the way around. Trim with your pinking shears.

3 - Place the ribbon centrally on the felt and sew all the way around and as close to the edges of the ribbon as possible. 

4 - Embellish as desired and your headband is ready to be used.

Hope you like this tutorial.

I got this book on Cupcakes from my local library, and simply had to try one of the recipes. I baked the ones below following the basic recipe and they are delicious.

Basic cupcake recipe

115 g butter, at room temperature
115 g caster sugar
2 eggs
115 g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, grated zest of 1 lemon or 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

a 12-hole muffin tin

Preheat oven to 180ºC (Gas 4). Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Sift over the flour, then fold by hand. Stir in the milk and flavouring if desired.

Spoon the mixture into each paper acse and bake until risen and golden.

Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.

The 2 cards below are going all the way up north to Aberdeen to my Internet friend Susie, we've been commenting on each other's cards on Flickr for some time and we're both on the Kool Crafts and Arts Forum.

She liked this embroidered sheep card so much I decided to make one for her with a few changes in the design. I'm sending it blank so she can keep it or to send it to someone. The collage card has a little personal message. Hope she likes them.

Meanwhile, my son has started school again and I'm slowly catching up on several projects that were put on hold over Summer (not that we had much of a Summer, it rained almost all the time and the Sun has been playing hide and seek, more hiding actually ).

This is my list of projects to finish as soon as possible:

- Birthday bunting for Alex
- Wall hanging for Jen
- Head band for Isabella
- Advent calendar for my niece
- Christmas stocking for Alex
- Make Christmas ornaments

I'd better go and do something then if I'm to finish any of these in time

I made the 2 cards above for a Halloween card swap at the Kool Crafts and Arts Forum. I've never made Halloween cards before so I had great fun making these and I hope my swap partners like them. They are both flying across the Atlantic to the U.S.A.

These also gave me the chance to put some of my paper punches to good use, they don't really get to see much action . For the spider I used a circle and 8 swirls for the legs, add the wiggly eyes and you've got a scary creepy crawly. The pumpkins were made using 3 circles and some swirls. Slightly overlap two of the circles and glue them, glue the third one on top. Position and glue the swirls as you see in the picture, you can also use a leaf punch if you want. I drew some black lines all around my pumpkins to make them look a little more realistic.

Can you see the bats on the purple envelope? To make one bat all you need is a small star, a heart and a larger star. To assemble the bat, glue the small star on the back of the heart (the heart is the bat's body) in such a way that only 2 pointy ends will show (these will be the ears). Cut the larger star in half and glue each of these halves behind the heart to make the wings.