Paper & needle crafts among other handmade things

To all my readers, subscribers, followers or anyone who happens to stop by I wish a

Merry Christmas
and a
Happy and Crafty New Year

 

First off I just want to say you may find the title of this post a little misleading, I'm not going to show you how to create beautiful Christmassy flower arrangements because I don't know how to, unfortunately that's a talent I've not inherited from my mum.

Despite that I decided to have a go at creating something using a few of the "flowers" me and Alex picked on our walk yesterday. This is the result and it's nothing like what I imagined. However I have to admit that although I didn't like them at first they're growing on me. I like the wooly sleeves covering the glass jar and the plastic container, the little bells (a pair of earrings bought from the charity shop a couple of years ago) and the twigs with the beads for a bit of colour.

So you've made or bought all your Christmas presents and it's now time to start thinking about wrapping them.

Personally I like to use plain paper because I can then add any embellishments I want. Over the last couple of years I've been using the golden paper you see in some of the photos below because I have lots of it, my husband "rescued" several rolls from the bin as he knew I'd make good use of them .

I keep my gift wrapping very simple as most of it has a long way to travel. Below are a few suggestions using a wide variety of materials: paper, fabric pouches, granny squares, etc. and you can use anything as embellishments from ribbons, buttons, crochet flowers, punched out shapes, stickers, the possibilities are endless. To make the gift tags I use old greeting cards.

For more ideas and inspiration you can also check out The Gifted Blog which is all about gift wrapping.

 

I hope you're not tired of all this talk about slippers yet but if you are please look away now .

I loved making these slippers and really like how they look. They're made in 4 easy steps and the photos below show you how, to see the photos in a larger size just click on them.

To start with crochet 2 rectangles long and wide enough to form the soles and heel for your slippers. Mark where you'll need to fold it up to make the heel later.

Starting in the space after the marker, work single or double crochet rows. You won't need to make any increases or decreases. Just make sure the sides of your slippers have the same height as the heel bit (please see photo above).

Make 2 granny squares for each slipper. Join them by whichever method you prefer, I joined mine on-the-go.

This is what you should have after sewing the heel and joining the granny squares to the top of your slippers.

Now for the knitted cuff, you can make it as high as you want. I used the thinnest knitting needles I have to make sure the cuffs fit as snuggly as possible. I turned at the end of each row and then sewed the cuff up at the back.

And here are the finished slippers. I'm wearing them righ now and they're very warm and comfy.

After the blankets, the scarves and the shawls I'm now in slippers making mode. I love wearing them, they're comfortable and, most importantly, they keep my feet nice and warm.

The slippers you see below are my own design and they combine crochet and knitting.

 

I'm preparing a tutorial for these and hopefully I'll be able to post it in the next few days so don't forget to check back here if you'd like to make some slippers for yourself.

I think I'm done making Christmas cards this year, I made about 20 and am also using a few I have leftover from previous years.

These are the handmade cards I'll be sending to family and friends this Christmas.

I was just preparing December's time capsule when I realised I hadn't even posted the one for November, so here they both are with links to a couple of the tutorials I posted then.

Time capsule for November

Pretty & practical bag for pegs

Time capsule for December

Bunting made from old Christmas cards

Also, I wanted to show you some of the things I finished recently. Most of them will be given away to friends and family but the hat is mine . I made it using leftover wool and combined crochet with knitting.

Now here's a great idea for your children's Advent Calendar even if I say so myself  .

Cut out or buy a few large tags, embellish and use them as "vouchers", you can write or stamp what the voucher is for on the reverse of the tag.

This year I struggled getting things for Alex's Advent Calendar, it's not easy to get 24 small gifts and I didn't want to go for an all sweet calendar. I'd already gotten him a few books from the charity shop and a few sweets but then I got stuck until I thought of vouchers. These will allow him to buy certain things he's only allowed on special occasions such as fizzy drinks, honey roasted peanuts, etc. and by putting a cap on how much he can spend I make sure he doesn't go over the top.