3 more sleeps!

Ok can someone please tell me where December has gone!.  i have been fairly organised all year then suddenly there are 3 days left and i have loads to do!.  it doesn't help that Lili has been ill again!  Every weekend in December so far.  This time was a bad ear infection which got worse when she had a bad allergic reaction to the antibiotics.  All of one side of her face ballooned and was a real mess so a nice trip to A&E on monday night!.  Anyway i am feeling slightly less stressed now as i have finished all my orders so i can now concentrate on finishing presents!.  The picture above  is one of the pump bag and crayon roll sets i have just made.  I did another 2 the same but with different names on for my Auntie.

This Peter Rabbit bag i have made for my friends little boy and have filled it with books - including one autographed by the author who came into Lili's school last month.  I have made him a personalised notepad, crayons and eraser for in the front pockets along with pencils and a sharpener.  Hope he likes them!

Lovely gesture

Well the snow is definately back in lancashire!.  Now i love the snow but why does it always come when you have lots to do and places to go!.  Today is Lili's first dance show so we have to try and make it out to that but to add to the stress she had a sleepover at Rod's aunties last night who lives about 20 miles away so we have to try and get over there and back again and then out to the show!.  I have to praise our Council who are fantastic and making sure the main roads are gritted and cleared - and they even did some of our estate the other week.  lets just hope we can get off the cul de sac and out of the estate.  Anyway before i forget i had a lovely surprise in the post on thursday.  In with a bundle of cards was one from the lovely kandi with a gorgeous heart decoration in.  Thank you hun i know you aren't posting at the moment but thanks for the lovely gesture and i hope you are a coping with your sadness (i'm sending a big hug for you).

Today i have posted all our Christmas Cards.  This year i seem to be way behind so i have had to post them first class!.  Now i would love to send a card to all the lovely people in blog world but unfortunately i only have a handful of your addresses.  So for those i haven't been able to send a card in the post to i have created this....




Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com


You will have to ignore the horrid pic of me but i have struggled trying to find a decent photo (in fact any recent photo) of all 3 of us!!.  I had to settle on using one from lili's birthday last month when i had spent hours organising for her tea party and didn't really have anytime to get myself ready!!.

Anyway Happy Christmas everyone and there a few cards in the post to those who's addresses i have x x

My Birthday

It was my 36th birthday on Friday so i haven't had much chance for crafting this week!.  Every year i complain about it being 2 weeks before Christmas as everyone is always too busy on works do's etc to celebrate with me.  This year as well as most of our friends being busy or saving for Christmas Lili was also really poorly so i spent my birthday cleaning up projectile vomit and had to get up a few times in the night as well!!.  Despite that hubby always spoils me and is such a sweetheart.  This year he bought me a Kenwood chef robot (Kenwoods version of Kitchenaid!)which is amazing and lots of other things.  he also took me to Selfridges for lunch at weekend and when lili was better yesterday took her out so i could have the house to myself to potter round and play with my new gadget. I did get chance to whip up one of the orders i have for a bag.  Excuse the naff light i had to take the photo in the dark!

Easy magnetic peg clips

Well its been another very cold week here in Lancashire.   Now i love snow when i'm wrapped up at home all cosy but don't like having to venture out in it.  I'm luck my little mini is fab in the snow and ice so i do feel quite safe.  Its a shame my legs don't seem to be as good in snow and ice!! Yesterday whilst walking over a cobble bridge near Lili's school i lost my footing and landed both feet in the air!! Oh am i aching today!!.  Anyway to take my mind off it last night i decided to have a go at making some magnetic peg clips.  This is another project that i feared may look like Lili had done but again i was surprised with how cool they turned out.  As with all my projects they were super easy to make!.  I spray painted some pegs used roller glue to stick ribbon down the back and front, popped on cute embellishments and then stuck self adhesive magnetic tape on the back of each one. The verse was one from a lovely lady off MSE and i designed the labels using picnik   

Easy & Quick Calendar gift

Who doesn't like a project thats quick and easy? Well this one was really quick and i'm impressed with how they have turned out.  I did have images of these looking like Lili had made it at school when i decided to make some coaster calendars and bookmarks but fear not they seem to have come out well!.

 All i did was stick roller glue all around a coaster then placed the coaster on a sheet of patterned card glue side down.  Then cut around the card with a craft knife.  Turned over and did the same for the other side.  Then stuck on a few embellishments and a mini calendar.  Popped it in self seal cello bag and made a topper from card.  Wrote on the topper and embellished.  Give it a go they really only take 10 minutes to do.

These bookmarks are also super easy.  Take a wooden lolly stick.  I bought a pack of about 50 coloured ones for £1.99 from the Range.  Stick on your choice of topper with glue.  I used flower cut outs and popped a brad through the centre.  You can buy packs of these flowers (again from the Range) or use pretty much anything you want.  Pop in a cello bag and make a header out of co-ordinated card folded over in half and write on the label.

Experimental makes!

This week i have been having doing a bit of messing about.  For some reason our study has been freezing (even with the heating on and lots of layers!) so i haven't spent much time in there so have only done a few tiny projects. Before i show you those however this is the wooden/fabric advent calendar i made for Lili.  It didn't take long to do.  I used a piece of MDF as the backing and then glued blue and green co-ordinating 12" x 12" card on.  then i cut out triangle's for the trees and rectangles for the stumps.  Decorated with papermania snowflake stickers and then cut out 24 pieces of different size rectangles out of felt.  I then stuck on felt numbers and used a hot glue gun to attach the wooden ho ho ho (which i bought from Home Bargains).

Now on to the experimental makes!I found some teeth  and lip sweet bags in tesco and thought i would do something funny with them.  Not sure why i have decided to give Santa False teeth but it does make me laugh!.

 I designed the header for these doggy treat bags using picnik.  i f anyone wants a copy drop me an e-mail to scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk.

 I made this little treat for Lili's teacher using the free printable from livinglocurto if you haven't visited this

website take a peek they have fantastic free printables 

 A few more stocking fillers that i great for girls!.  To make each set you will need one 12" x 12" scrapbook paper, one A6 notepad, 5 pencil crayons, embellishments and a cello bag.

This and that!

Today my little girl has been off school poorly.  So whilst she has been having a nap on the sofa i have made a couple of bits.  For a while i have been meaning to have a go at decorating a notepad and i have eventually got round to it!

At first it didnt seem to be going well but in the end it has turned out better than i thought!.  It is really easy to do just draw around your pad and score then cut out the card slightly bigger to give a border.  i snipped off the corners and used roller glue tape to stick.  once you have covered the notepad and stuck the edges on the inside of the pad take the first page and glue it on top of the inside cover to hide the border and do the same at the back. I used ribbon and stickers to embellish.  I have also put in coloured pencils in the pack and used co-ordinating card and ribbon to wrap around the pencils. I have put them in a self seal cello bag then made a bag topper from co-ordinating Papermania card and wrote on the label using a white gel pen.

 I used Kinder mini bars for this pack and wrapped in coloured paper then decorated.

 This pack is made using some fab blue ribbon i got from Costco yesterday.  I have wrapped the kinder bar in the ribbon and glued down then used toppers to decorate and then popped them in a cello bag and used some more of the ribbon as a topper.

 This cheeky monkey is Seb and i made him from a pair of socks.  i made him a while back but he was for a swap so didn't want to share earlier.

CUTE OWL BAG

Firstly let me say sorry to everyone for my noted absence!.  i haven't been in blog world for over a week. Life sometimes gets in the way and this past week as been one of the worst i have ever had.  i don't want to go in to the details at th moment so i'll move on and tell you about thius cute bag i have made.  for a while i have had a thing for Owls and there are some lovely owl patterns,papers and accessories around.  I have been promising myself for a while that i will make something owl themed and other than a few cards i haven't got round to it.  Till now......

This is a really easy pattern to follow and didn't take that long to make.  I am going to put it up as a stocking filler for Lili for Christmas.  The pattern wasn't free unfortunately but for £6.95 i got this pattern and a cat one so not bad value at all.  It is the owl and the pussycat set from www.mellyandme.typepad.com if anyone wants to give it a go.  i didn't buy the patternb direct from here but i can't for the life of me think where i did buy it!!

A big Thankyou

A big thank you to everyone for all their lovely comments and feedback about my new shop.  It's really kind of you all to take the trouble to look at it for me.  I am working on all the feedback a got so thank you so much. 

Now back to the Christmas stocking fillers and here's a few more bits i have made...

 Chocolate Christmas tree hanging decorations.  Each circle has a n Elizabeth Shaw chocolate in the middle and ribbon for hanging from the tree.  I used a 2" scalloped punch for the outer circles and 1" circle punch for the inner.  The cute stickers are from accessorize.  the idea came from Helen over at its all fiddlefart

The jar of snowballs came from an idea over on The Moneysaving Expert Forum.

These chocolate snowmen are from Aldi.  they came wrapped in a shocking wrapper and look much nicer wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon tied round.

My New Shop


Remember i said that i has some exciting news well this is it.  Most of you probably don't know that in the real world i am a Civil Engineer and i work as a Senior Manager in Local Government.  What you will know however is the sorry economic state we are currently in and the tough budget cuts that the current Government are imposing.  Now up until recently i have really loved my job and have spent a long time working hard in what really is still a mans world. Don't get me wrong i have always dreamed of spending my days crafting all day but realistically couldn't imagine actually leaving the career that i have worked hard in. With the current crisis it is likely there will be between 400 and 500 job losses in the forthcoming months and my level is likely to be targeted quite hard.  Bearing all this in mind i have decided to start up my own online shop .  Obviously running my own business is a long long term goal but everyone has to start somewhere right?.  Anyway there are a few things i'm still not happy about on it but bear with me as i have done it all myself and know very little about computers or setting up websites so it has been a huge learning curve.  Please feel to have a nosey and let me have your feedback good or bad please as i really want to know if it is ok or just looks pants!!!.  here is the link to my shop.

More milkshakes!!

Just a quick post to show you a few more fairy milkshakes i have made.  See my previous post for what goes inside.

  Ok go on then i'll also show you the chocolate gift sets i made!!

Stocking fillers Part 3

Todays stocking filler is one i have made with my little girl in mind - because its covered in Pink. Anyone with a little girl will know if its not pink then its just not girly!! The idea was taken from a thread on MSE where someone (sorry but i can't remember who but if anyone is reading this and thinks it was them just leave me a comment and i'll edit it) mentioned they made princess shakes. i have recently made loads of snowman soup and thought this would be a nice alternative for young girls.

Heres how i made it.  I designed a label and thought up (ok my fab hubby came up) a suitable poem to put on it.  i used picnik to design the label.  Then i cut it out and stuck it on a sheet of papermania xmas backing card.  I repeated these steps so that i had one for the front and one for the back.  then i put all my ingredients together in a self seal bag.  i also used individual smaller bags inside for each of the items to make sure they stay fresh.  Then i took the sealed bag of goodies and attached it to the wrong side of one of the sheets using roller double sided glue tape.  Then i took the other sheet and attached that on top of the bag of goodies so they were sandwiched between the two sheets.

The contents i used are shown in the pic above:-

• pink milkshake powder i used nestle but there are lots around.
• mini marshmallows
• pink candy sweets
• chocolate biscuit striring sticks

If anyone wants a copy of my lable then drop me an e-mail to scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk and i'll send it you.

Stocking Fillers Part 2

Carrying on with the stocking filler theme i am going to post about a couple of things i made today.  Firstly these very cute christmas tree hanging sweet decorations ...

 The penguins are definately my favourite.  I got them from B&M Bargains and put them into a cello bag and then made a topper from papermania christmas card and used stickers from Accessorize for the middle.  I used a 2" scalloped punch for the outer circle and a 1" scalloped punch for the inner circle.  Finally i used a white gel pen to colour the whit dots around the edge of the 2" circle.

 This is a variation of the Friends mint gift i posted the other day.  i used a small glass jar and added mints to it.  Then i glued on some ribbon around the jar.  I punched a 2" scalloped circle for the top out of patterned card and punched a hole in the friends tag i had made (if you want a copy of this tag drop me an e-mail me at scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk )thread matching ribbon through the tag and glued it to the top of the jar.  then i glued the scalloped circle on top of it.  Finally i put the jar in a large cello bag (i put a piece of thick card in the bottom to widen out the bag) and tied with matching ribbon.

Back soon with some more stocking filler ideas.

Stocking fillers Part 1

                          
I have a few craft fairs coming up so have been making some bit for those and thought i would do a series of posts based around stocking fillers i am making.  Hopefully it will give you some good ideas and you can all give them a go.

So todays stocking filler is the  cheeky christmas cookie cutter gift:-

You will have to excuse the rubbish photo but i had to take it in the dark with the flash.  I got this idea from the very talented helen over at itsallfiddlefart after seeing something she had posted over on the MSE forum.  It is so easy to make.  I designed the label and then printed off onto card.  i have done two types of labels one with the gingerbread man  and hearts around the border and one plain which i have then embellished with stickers.  Punch a hole in the tag and use ribbon to attach to a pastry cutter of whatever shape you like.  i got these ones in home bargains and i think they were in a pack of 6 for £1.  Pop your cutter and tag into a self seal bag and seal up.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!.  If anyone wants a copy of the lables i designed just drop me an e-mail at scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk

Crafting for Christmas officially starts now!

                                    
Ok now that Lili's birthday is out of the way i can start focusing on Christmas.  There is only 44 days till Christmas day and i have a lot of presents to do.  Now not everyone appreciates homemade gifts but personally i do.  I think it shows someone has made a real effort.  I think that people associate homemade with cheap and that certainly isn't the case most of the time.  With all the cheap shops around it is definitely cheaper to pick up bits from those than make things from scratch.  I have decided that as well as buying presents for family and friends this year i am determined to include in each present at least one item that has been handmade. Bearing this in mind i'd better get some serious crafting done!!.  I'll show you the bits i have done today so far.

Friends testube of mints.  These are dead easy to make if you want to make some.  Just buy some plastic test tubes (i got mine of ebay) and fill with tic tacs then tie some ribbon round with a tag on.  its upto you if you want to put them in a clear sealable bag but i have.  i designed the tag myself on picnik and if anyone wants a copy of it just drop me an e-mail to scratchy.cat@hotmail.co.uk and i send you my jpeg file.

Next i decided to make some animal treat bags.  I haven't got a dog but i will give these to my friend who has a dog grooming business and 2 dogs!.  I might make some for the craft fairs i have coming up to!!.  Again i designed the topper on picnik.com then stuck it onto a piece of backing card.  The text was red but i didn't like ti when it printed so i have gone over it with a black gel pen.

I picked up some red giftbags in tesco which are 20p each but on offer at 3 for 2 and thought i would have a play around.  For some reason i keep chuckling when i look at my finished santa bag.

This next gift bag i have made using some organza.  i have sewed it as a drawstring bag then threaded ribbon through and sewed on the label (which i printed onto the fabric using transfer paper).  then i have put patterned tissue paper inside.

Lastly (slightly cheating as i made this a bit back but only got round to adding the motifs today!) i have made this bag for my niece . 

Easy snowman chocolate bars

Just thought i would share some quick and easy christmas chocolate snowmen. I used this on keery's blog as a basis and amended it and also added the topper and bag.  i didn't actually print the snowman paper off from Kerry's blog- the lovely Almond over on the MSE site gave me a copy as she already had it.  They were so easy to do and this is how i made them:-

1) I covered a milkybar in the white snowman print paper that you can find on kerry's blog.
2) Then i cut out a square piece of fleece and stuck it round the top and then gathered it with a piece of silver elastic thread to make the bobble hat.
3)I cut a thin piece of fleece material and stuck onto the paper like a scarf.
4) I used a ready seal plastic card bag to put the snowman in then cut out a piece of navy blue card just slightly wider than the bag.  I then folded the card in half across the width and put it over the top of the bag and stapled in place.
5)Last of all i used Papermania christmas chipboard embellishments to decorate.  You can use pretty much anthing or even write on the topper yourself. 

If you get round to making any let me see how they turn out.