Something a bit different for “On the Desk” this week, as the only thing currently on my desk is the computer!
I’m going to be having a little fun throughout July, sharing some of my historic content, and maybe even something new, and it’s going to be all things Christmas!!
Continue reading “On The Desk – Christmas in July”
Way back when I planned the Halloween Cat Cushion, I also planned this project! (How’s that for organised?!) So when I picked up the plain black cotton cushion cover in Ikea, I also picked up a red one!
When I say I planned this project, I knew I wanted to make a Christmas cushion. It was choosing the design that took a little more time!
Continue reading “12 Days Of Christmas 2019 – 10 – Movie Inspired Christmas Cushion”It’s quite nice at Christmas in our area, almost all of the houses put up lights, and it’s something quite special to come home to after work at this time of year.
Because of where our house is, it’s one of those that everyone walks past, so I like to put some sort of window vinyls or stickers up every year.
This year, I thought I’d use my Cricut Maker to see if I could create my own!
Continue reading “12 Days of Christmas 2019 – 6 – Christmas Window Vinyls With My Cricut Maker”
So, apparently I have something of an addiction! I made a bauble wreath a couple of years ago, which you can find in last years Blogmas posts…
The first wreath lives in the hallway, which is decorated in blue white and silver. Our living room however is all traditional green red and gold! And so, I decided to make a second wreath for in there too!
Continue reading “12 Days Of Christmas 2019 – 3 – I Made Another Bauble Wreath!”
Though I arrange #CraftBlogClub now, I have been a part of it for so much longer, and the annual Secret Santa is one of my favourite of the regular challenges and events throughout the #CraftBlogClub year. 
I really like giving and receiving handmade gifts, and the wide range of crafts, and talents in #CraftBlogClub means it’s always a varied and fun activity at Christmas!
Do you craft and make handmade gifts? We’re always open to new people coming to join in the chats on Tuesday evenings! You can find out more over on Twitter.
This post contains items which I have kindly been gifted * All opinions are my own.
No matter how old you are, there really is nothing better on Christmas morning to find a beautiful stocking waiting for you filled with lovely gifts! The only thing that can be better is a beautiful handmade stocking, which is a gift in itself, and one that you can enjoy year after year. 
I was kindly gifted both the Jolly Santa stocking panel fabric, and the coordinating star print fabric (below) for lining from the lovely people at Truro Fabrics, to show everyone just how easy it is to make a gorgeous handmade stocking for yourself! 
(You could also do this by hand of course!)
Not going to lie, I had help, we’ve seen my sewing here on the blog, and though I could do it myself, I was nervous about messing it up so I called Stu’s mum, and we made it together! It was quite a fun hour and a bit, but genuinely didn’t take long from start to finish. After cutting all the pieces out, it was no more than an hour.
Here is the finished stocking – my sewing needs to be improved a little, I’m still not brilliant at sewing a curve and it is a tiny bit creased, because the cats took a liking to sleeping on the bag it was in! 
This would also be great quilted, as the design is gorgeous and it would really make it stand out. Or you could embellish the stocking with buttons, sequins or ribbon for example to really make it unique.
I also stitched the baubles and fabric tags (adding some ribbon) which came on the panel, as I thought they were fun! I like the idea of just writing on them with washable pens and then I can just throw them in the wash and re use them, alternatively you could sew names onto them for someone special! 
The baubles, I did something a little different with, as you will see in a post coming in the next week!
This was a really fun project and was so much easier than I thought it would be! This stocking would make a great handmade gift, (either as a project to make, or made up), or even a little something for yourself.
Thank you so much to all of the friendly staff and management at Truro Fabrics, who were so helpful, offering advice and tips and of course very kindly gifted me the fabrics for this project. As a local family run business, selling all manner of fabrics, buttons, ribbons and lots more, it is a company close to my heart, and somewhere I love to visit for so many of my sewing and craft needs. 
This panel and fabric come from the Jolly Santa collection by Makower, the panel is priced at £7.80 and the coordinating star print fabric is £12.99 per metre. Both are available to purchase, along with a wide range of Christmas fabrics and many other haberdashery items, from Truro Fabrics, it is not currently available to order online, but you can call the store to make a telephone order. You can find contact information as well as other festive choices in the Truro Fabrics online store.
This post contains items which I have kindly been gifted * All opinions are my own.
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For the first post in my Blogmas series I will be sharing this gorgeous bauble wreath! 
This was a really fun piece to make, and so simple too. They are versatile and it is possible to make them using all kinds of Christmas decorations, though I used simple spherical baubles in to make the one in this post.
What you will need:
BEWARE a plastic coated ring can’t be used with hot glue, because the glue will melt the plastic.
To begin remove the plastic hanging bits from the baubles (this is a great project to re-use some old or broken decorations too!)
I created layers, the three sizes I used I will just call Smallest (approx 40), Medium (approx 40) and Largest (approx 12), I went around the centre of the polystyrene ring and glued in M sized baubles facing the “loop end” to the back. I then layered the M baubles, glueing onto the ring and the baubles in the centre to make sure they were especially fixed. I then added another ring of M baubles, out from the centre, do not worry too much about the gaps as these are filled in later with the smallest baubles. Use the larger baubles to fill in the outside edge, securely glue them in place alternating with the middle sized baubles as you can see in the image above. 
To finish I added the smallest baubles, filling in the spaces where the wreath ring could be seen, and used the bead strand to fill in the few remaining gaps. I cut the strand to make things easier. I felt that the bead strand added a much-needed extra depth to the wreaths final look. 
On the reverse, to hang, I glued and pinned (using normal sewing pins) a piece of ribbon to the reverse side of the ring. I added a wire ribbon bow to finish the final look of the wreath.
I hope you liked this post!
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As Blogmas begins tomorrow, I thought I’d share some Christmas stuff, some of which is already on the blog, so I will add a link to the post where relevant!
I will say, I don’t usually decorate until December, but I’m working quite a bit leading up to Christmas, and of course will have Blogmas stuff to keep up with, so I thought, why not, just do it a bit early! So I started last night, though I won’t put the tree up for a week. because Loki is determined to live up to his name, and that cat does love to destroy the tree.
Continue reading “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 2018”
If you follow me on social media – and if you don’t, I’d appreciate it(!) you will have probably seen mention of Blogmas.
So what is Blogmas?
Ok, so, I held off until November! This month is of course the lead up to Christmas, or at least advent, so for those of you planning and plotting, or simply looking for some ideas, I will be sharing some festive content, including crafts for gifts and decorating, as well as gift ideas (with the help of some friends in a couple of guest posts) throughout November.
To begin, I thought I’d start with something that could take a little more time.
Continue reading “Christmas Crafting – Cross-Stitched Cards”
