IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE! ITS CHRISTMAS EVE! Can you believe it? I'd thought I'd finish off before Christmas with a Secret Santa Post...
One of the most exciting things about Christmas is the surprises and with that in mind and being a keen crafter I signed up to the #craftblogclub 's Secret Santa 2015. This also makes my final craft of my 12 Crafts of Christmas series! (Yes I only did 10 but ssh)
The challenge was to create a handmade gift for one of the fellow #craftblogclub makers. I got the lovely Gill from The Little Soap Kitchen and I chose to make her a Christmas themed banner.
I had lots of fun creating this festive themed banner, this time using red felt and bakers twine to give a Christmassy feel. For a step by step tutorial on how to make your own banner, check out my tutorial here and here for the video.
Now I'm not sure if this is technically cheating but I also added in some scented wax melts. I didn't make them myself but they are however hand made by LubyLu and they smell insane.
Now as any crafter will know, wrapping is also important and I've been loving rustic wrapping this year which you may have seen in my 5 simple Christmas crafts post along with my hand made Christmas cards which revealed to Gill who I was.
I topped the wrapping off by with some yarn and a pom pom because well... why not?
So that was my #craftblogclub Secret Santa 2015. I really hope you you're all having a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family and I'll be back with you on the 29th or 31st to have a round up of 2015.
How is it nearly Christmas already? This month is flying by at such a rate I'm struggling to keep up! I'm also slightly concerned I won't have all 12 of my 12 Crafts if Christmas complete by the time Christmas comes- sob! Please don't be mad with me if this does turn out to be the case!
Anyhow let's get onto craft number 9 that is this super quick and very simple Christmas star bunting...
After putting up the Christmas decorations, I felt the walls were looking a tad bare. This craft is really cheap but looks very effective too.
To make your bunting you will need:
Card
Twine, string or ribbon
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Star stencils
Miniature pegs
Hole punch
Drawing pins
Step 1 - Draw around your stencil onto your card then cut out your star.
Step 2 - Place your ruler in the centre of the first point on your star and gently score down the middle using your scissors. Repeat this step until you have scored all of the points on the star.
Step 3 - Fold all your star points, with the score lines facing upwards to create your 3D star.
Step 4 - Repeat steps 1 - 3 until you have enough stars to make your bunting.
Step 5 - Cut a length of twine to hang your stars from- attach with drawing pins.
Step 6 - Peg your stars to the twine, leaving two stars for the ends.
Step 7 - With your last two stars, hole punch at the edge of one point and thread through your twine, knotting at the back of your star.
And voila, you have your very own 3D star bunting!
Did you like that tutorial? Let me know if you decide to do this yourself!
Finally today I'm finishing off with a vlog from surprising my lovely friend Pippa from Clashing Time. After the #cambmeetup myself and Emma wanted to thank her for all the hard work she's put in to the group and without her we wouldn't have met so many amazing people!
Click the video below to watch her being surprised at her thank you party:
So that was todays post and I'll see you on Friday for a Christmas party inspired video!
Happy 4th of December everyone! Now that we're officially in the month of Christmas, I thought I'd share a whole load of Christmas crafts with you which you may be pleased to know are all simple and very much user-friendly! I'm carrying on my 12 Crafts of Christmas theme so by the end of this post I'll have shared 7 crafts with you. So without further ado, onto crafts number 3 and 4 which come in the form of craft kits.
We don't always have a vast amount of materials to hand or perhaps we need a bit of guidance when it comes to trying something new which is why craft kits are brilliant.
Craft no 3- Felted Robin Kit
I picked up this cute felting kit from Kirstie Allsopp's Handmade Fair back in September and couldn't wait to give it a try. It comes with everything you need to create this cute Christmas robin, plus there's enough felt left over that you could easily make another one. As a newbie to felting, I was keen to give it a try and found poking and manipulating the felt into a robin-esque shape somewhat therapeutic!
I still feel I could do with a bit a lot more practice as mine doesn't look quite like Kirstie's but I like to think he has a bit of character and will be nestled in the branches of our Christmas tree this year.
Craft no 4- The Retro felted Bauble
Craft number 4 I also picked up at The Handmade fair and is another simple but effective Christmas craft from Mollie Makes magazine and is a great design for any retro lover.
Again the kit comes with everything you need from the felt to the embellishment and is a great introduction into felt crafting- again something I've never tried before! It's also a great way to incorporate your love for handmade into your Christmas décor. There are so many kits on the market, some as little as £1 (like this one) and make for a fun crafternoon with friends and family. I also love this one and at £2 you can't really go wrong!
Now felting and craft kits aside, lets get onto the final 3 simple Christmas crafts.
Craft No 5- DIY Noel
Another quick and easy craft is to simply paint some letters for Christmas. I picked up these MDF letters in Hobbycraft along with some red acrylic paint and set to work painting them red. The acrylic paint dries really quickly and after two coats I was done! You could easily get more creative and add a design or even decoupage the letters- whatever your creativity desires. I opted for plain red letters as there's A LOT going on in our living room this Christmas. Watch this space...
Craft No 6- Super simple Christmas cards
Card making can be quite time consuming so to save yourself some hassle and look like you've gone to a lot of trouble- invest in a stamp.
I picked up this amazing hand carved wooden stamp at The Handmade Christmas Fair in Manchester and instantly fell in love. It was so intricate and beautiful I just had to have it. At £15 it was a little pricey but I knew it would be an investment in my craft kit.
I tried both stamp ink and paint with the stamp, each giving a different type of effect and decided to go with paint as it gives a crisper and clearer image.
Team it with a bit of added sparkle and glitter and you've got yourself a Christmas card! They take minutes to make and your loved ones will, well... love them!
Craft No7- Pine cone baubles
These pine cone Christmas tree decorations are by far the easiest to do and are also a quick make which is perfect for a mid-week make.
You will need:
Pine cones
Twine
Nail polish
Hot glue gun
Step 1- apply nail polish to the edges of the pine cone. You can use paint if you wish but nail polish is quick drying and something every female has around their house!
Once you have painted each edge they should look something like this...
Step 2- Cut a piece of twine to your desired length to create the hanging loop.
Step 3- Apply hot glue to the end of your twine ends before applying to the pine cone.
Step 4- Hold the twine in place until the glue has set.
And voilà! There you have a super quick and easy DIY christmas decoration!
I also did a step by step video tutorial below:
So those are my 5 simple Christmas crafts! I hope you enjoyed them all and and found them useful.
Which one is your favourite and will you be making and yourself this Christmas?
Back at the beginning of April, I signed up to the spring clean gift swap challenge over on Katie Get Crafty's Blog as part of the #craftblogclub. So you're wondering what this #craftblogclub is all about... Well it's a community of craft bloggers who get together on Twitter each Tuesday from 7 pm- 8:30 pm and talk all things crafty, using the hashtag #craftblogclub.
Anyway onto the challenge. I signed up to make a gift for a fellow craft blogger using only materials I already have at home. You email your details over and then you're given the details of the blogger you're crafting for. It's all kept secret and is basically a spring secret Santa for awesome home made crafts and spring cleans your old craft supplies. What's not to love?
I was super excited to get crafting, especially when I found out I was making a gift for Robyn of Simple Little Pieces! She's a new blogging buddy of mine and has quickly become a really great friend too :-).
I was pleasantly surprised/ slightly horrified at the amount of craft materials I've somehow hoarded but knew they would make great gifts, so much so that I may have gone slightly overboard with crafting and made:
Banner
Sundae Candle
Jewellery
Banner
I had lots of material left over from my DIY It's OK banner tutorial (link here if you want to make your own) and thought it'd be nice to make one of Robyn's blog name Simple Little Pieces to go perhaps in her craft room, plus her blog name is so cute!
Sundae Candle
I haven't made candles for a good two and a half years yet I insisted (at my husbands despair) to cart all the materials through two house moves- one being abroad and back...oops... However I'm glad I did because I forgot how fun these are to make! I made one for myself which was originally my back-up candle in case I fudged up the first one and have now used up all of my wax- perfect! I won't be getting supplies now until my next candle making phase and have freed up some much needed space for new projects.
Jewellery
I have lots and lots and lots of pretty beads just begging to be strung and paraded around on wrists or dangling from ears so this was again a perfect opportunity to send some to a new home. They're so simple to make and really quite therapeutic to do too!
I had SO much fun making these gifts, knowing they'd surprise someone in the post. I really enjoyed putting the box together too, with a little envelope inside revealing who I am. I even went to town on the packaging... I know, I'm sad but humour me. I'm a simple soul! Regardless I hope it made the unboxing fun too. The feeling of gift giving is truly lovely, especially when it's something you've made too- something that one crafter to another will really appreciate.
Robyn has a gorgeous little pug called Meg, hence the pug next to her address (which I covered over for obvious reasons!)
I then of course received my own surprise package in the post and it was from Robyn! Haha! It came at the right time too as after a day of crappiness it perked me right up and truly made my day.
How cute is this card!?
Inside my package I received a gorgeous necklace with glass pendant made by Robyn herself. How clever is she!? I was really touched by the cross stitched blog name- the perfect accessory to any craft room! The handmade cards are incredibly dreamy and I love how the colours match in with all the other pieces. I already know when I will be using those :-). The bunting is just perfection. I'd been wanting to make some for a while but now I don't need to and already have the perfect home for it along with my cross stitched blog name :-).
The bunting and the cross stitch have already found the perfect home on my craft shelf, as if they were always destined for it! They're displayed as a wonderful memory of the craft blog club gift swap and make me oh so happy.
I absolutely loved taking part in this challenge It's such a great idea and I'd highly recommend trying it if you're a crafter too. Roll on the next one!
