Handmade cards and other crafts, templates & tips

 

This is my last post before Christmas and most probably before the New Year :-)

 

Anyway, today I decided to use some pine cones I gathered a few months ago on a walk to the nearby deer park to make these very simple and pretty decorations.

 

You'll need:

 

Pine cones
Green wire
Ribbon
Spray paint (optional)

 

Instructions:

 

Spray the pines cones with the colour of your choice, I went for gold. This step is optional as you might prefer to use the pine cones as they are.

 

Cut some green wire, enough to go around the top of each pine cone and twist so it doesn't come undone, as you can see below.

 

 

 

Gather your pine cones in bunches and twist the wires so they stay together.

 

Tie a ribbon around the wire and hang your pine cones wherever you like.

 

Hope you like this very easy and quick to make project.

 

Merry Christmas everyone and thank you for your visit.

 

 

 

 

I finished these this morning and I want to show them to you before I send them off to the US. These coasters are for a swap on the Kool Crafts and Arts forum and they very easy to make. Mine are a little wonky but I don't mind that, I think a little wonkiness is OK and to me it's synonym with character . I hope my swap partner won't mind it either.

To make these I followed the brilliant tutorial by Allsorts

This is a card my son Alex,9, made at school...

and this is the one he made at home for Santa and the Reindeers

If you like to give handmade cards but still haven't gotten around to making any this year, gather the children and make these, they are easy and fun to make and look great.

To make a card like the ones above you'll need:

* 1 card blank with window
* Adhesive clear film
* Christmas confetti
* Glue or double-sided tape

1 - Measure the window on the card and cut 2 pieces of adhesive clear film slightly larger than the window.

2 - Take the backing of one of the pieces of adhesive clear film and scatter some confetti. Press lightly so it sticks to the film.

3 - Take the backing of the other piece of clear film and stick on top of the confetti.

4 - Apply some glue or double-sided tape around the reverse side of the window to hold the confetti sandwich in place.

5 - Add a Christmas message and your card is done.

Last week I received a few commissions for handmade cards, 2 for a lady who is retiring from the local primary school and 2 18th birthday cards. These are the cards I made.

The card below is A4 size, the crochet flowers were made by me and the stitching was also done by hand. I made the envelope too.

The cards below were commissioned for the 18th birthday of twins, a boy and a girl.

As much as I love the Internet as it allows me to see what wonderful work other people make, sometimes there's nothing like a good craft book with simple, easy projects and clear instructions to get your creativity going.

Today I want to tell you about two books I bought recently through the School Link catalogue. The first one is from the Usborne Activities series and the title is "Christmas things to stitch and sew" [ISBN 978074608688-9]. I love this book, it's full of great Christmas projects with very easy to follow instructions. I also bought "Make!" by Cath Kidston [ISBN 978-1-84400-360-0], some great projects there too but my favourite has got to be the one from Usborne.

I also found 4 fantastic books at my local public library:

- "Crochet handmade style" from Murdoch Books [ISBN 978-1-74045-891-7]
- "200 Crochet blocks for blankets, throws and afghans" by Jan Eaton [ISN 0-7153-2141-2]
- "Crochet stitch motifs, 250 to crochet" from The Harmony Guides [ISBN 978-1-84340-426-2]
- "Sew fabulous fabric" by Alice Butcher and Ginny Farquhar [ISBN 978-0-7153-2858-3]

Of the 4 books above, I love the 2 last ones. The "Crochet stitch motifs" is a great book with great crochet motifs and it includes both the written instructions to the patterns as well as charts. The "Sew fabulous fabric" has 20 beautiful projects that will make you want to sew non stop :-)

I love decorating the house for Christmas but this can be time consuming specially when there's so much to do: cards to write and post, gifts to buy, wrap and hide until Christmas Day plus a million other things.

I wanted to make something for a little window in the entry hall and this is what I came up with.

It took me only a few minutes to make it and I love to see it up on the window.

To make something like this you'll need:

- Acrylic pomp-poms (as you can see mine are different sizes and colours)
- Cotton thread (I used some of my white crochet thread)
- A sewing needle

Thread the needle with the crochet cotton and then go through several pom-poms. Cut the thread to measure, tie a knot or two at the end and fix to the wall or window with adhesive tape.