Picking your brains!!

Ok fellow bloggers i have a quick question which i'm hoping someone can answer.  When i leave a comment on someone Else's blog i usually get a lovely reply in my e-mails from the blogger which i think is lovely.  How the hell do i do it?  I can't seem to find any link or any way of replying to any ones comments on my posts other than to reply as a comment on the post under the post's comments!  Now i am technically challenged so someone please tell me in simpleton terms how i do it so i can send you an e-mail reply to any comments you leave on my posts??

Christmas Countdown Week 1

Well it is just under 11 weeks till Christmas so I thought I had better start getting organised!. I have about three quarters of my Christmas Shopping done so far so I’m fairly organised on that front but need to get started on all my handmade gifts. I made myself a rule last year that everyone would receive at least one handmade gift from me even if all their presents aren’t handmade. The problem I have this year is that with constantly making things for my unit at Botany Bay, Craft Fairs, a shop in Devon that stocks my items and orders through my folksy shop and work I don’t get much spare time to do any other crafting at the moment . I think I am going to have to draft a plan. Now being the lady of lists this bit will be easy – actually doing what’s on the plan may be more difficult!!. Anyway I am going to give it a whirl and I will post my plan on here next week to try and motivate myself!. I also thought to try an motivate everyone else I will do a countdown to Christmas. Each week I will post atleast one Christmas themed project on my blog. Each project will be easy and might give you some simple idea’s for Christmas gifts/projects.

So lets get the party started with Countdown to Christmas week 1. This project is as easy as it can get!. Wooden reindeer tree decorations. These could also be used as fancy gift tags. All you need is a wooden blank reindeer ( you could cut one out of card instead if you can’t get hold of any wooden ones!). I got mine off EBay. If you do a search for wooden shapes there are lots of sellers who sell them. You also need some paint ( I used white spray paint but acrylic or emulsion works just as well). Finally a gel pen and embellishments and your good to go!. Paint your reindeer and when its dry glue on any embellishments. I used buttons and red pom poms as noses. I used ribbon and craft wire for hanging and I used a gel pen to draw lines around the edge of the reindeer.

Easy Christmas keepsake decoration

Today I thought I would share a cute Christmas Keepsake I have made for a craft fair I am doing next week. As with everything I do its easy peasy and doesn’t take long!.

I used a wooden bauble shape but if you don’t have any you could always cut a bauble shape out of stiff scrapbook card and that will work just as well. I sanded down the blank bauble then painted it pink. Once it had dried I used a gel pen to add the text and then I used a reindeer topper as an embellishment. I tied a cute ribbon round the top for hanging and that’s it – done!.

Shabby Chic Memo board

This weekend i did a 2 day craft fair at Backridge Farm near Clitheroe.  This is the second time i have done this venue and the people are lovely.  This time there were some new cake ladies who had made some amazing cakes and bakes!.  I had taken a mix of items with me but ended up selling out of sock monkeys in the first half an hour. I then spent saturday night finishing off half made ones to take on sunday and those sold out just as fast!!.  Overall it was a good weekend and although it wasn't constantly busy i did rather well overall. 

I have made a number of new things recently but didn't get chance to photograph them before the fair at weekend and most have now sold!.  However i do have a picture of a pin board i have made that i didn't take at weekend as it wasn't quite finished.

It was a trial and error experiment but i love it now its finished.  Underneath the dotty fabric is a cork mat (which was a cheap wood noticeboard from wilkinson's originally until i pulled it apart!)  Just need to make some fabric pins for it now.

IPAD COVER

I have had some dotty upholstery fabric sat in my cupboard for ages. It was an offcut that came in a mixed bundle and i was holding on to it to make a nice sturdy handbag. This weekend i decided to change tact and make some IPAD covers from it.  They were dead easy to do and when i get a min i'll post some instructions...

 I made one with a velcro fastening and one with a button fastening.