Just One More.

My very last post for 2011.
Back in November Sherry of Sherry's Simple Blog and I decided to do a swap with each other. Sherry chose the theme (Christmas Altered Altoids tin) and I chose the colours of red, white,
green, Gold and crystal for the buttons to go inside. We both shot off to ebay and managed to get our altoids tins and then were ready to go.
Here is my tin for Sherry. Painted green and covered in green felt on the lid with mica gold rubbed over the edges of the tin base. I covered the inside with cream satin. The berries are made from a strip of empty acorn casings painted white dipped in white snowflakes glitter and then small pieces of material fashioned into tiny balls and glued into the acorn shells. The flower was cut from red plush (non fray) material and blanket stitched in white around the petals with glass beads threaded together to make the stamen in the centre. The ivy leaves were stamped onto white sheeting, cut out, glossy accents applied and silver glitter sprinkled over.


Close up of the tin and below the selection of buttons.




I also made a selection of buttons up in shrink plastic but photos I took were no good. Der!!
Would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Tip Top Tuesday: Anything Goes.

Rainbows Lady's: Your choice.

Gingerloft: Christmas & Winter.

Secret Crafter: Anything Goes.

Here is the tin that Sherry sent to me. You can see further photos on her blog above.

I think Sherry may have been watching 101 Dalmations as that was how many buttons had been packed into the tin!!! Didn't I do well.

Just leaves me now to wish all of my followers a Very Happy, Healthy and Crafty 2012 and to thank you for stopping by and leaving me comments during the past year. Hugs Mrs A.

Bookmark Swap and The Pud wot I made!

Just a couple of pictures showing my last few makes of 2011.

The Bookmark was made for the Art 'n' Soul Christmas swap where we made a bookmark and a Christmas tag (already shown) to go with it . The Stamp is from Crafty Individuals which I stamped onto cream calico attached to the apricot ribbon and lace and them embroidered around the edges by hand.

And here's something I made earlier when all the family came for the day. Christmas pudding with a difference. Cooked in the microwave (my kinda cooking) and left in a dark place for 2 days. You can find the link to the recipe here on Elizabeth's Blog Silverscrapper. Mine only took 18 Min's to cook but Elizabeth said hers needed 40Min's so if you follow the recipe just be aware that each microwave will vary in cooking time.

I didn't have any flaked almonds so used chopped mixed nuts and I replaced the dried apricots with dried Mango pieces. Delicious. Especially with Cold custard!

Christmas? No! When?

As Fluff seems to still be under the impression that the 'C' word dosen't happen in any Yr with a 2 in it let alone it's in 2 days time and no Mince Pies have been made, I have had to put my own adversions to the 'C' word (in my case CARDS) to one side and bite the bullet. Mind you , you won't find a promarker or watercolour pencil in sight just glue, glitter, shrink plastic, embossing powder, glossy accents, inka gold, embossing folders, beads,design papers , distressed inks and a heat gun. (Well if I'm gonna do it might as well go the whole hog!)
I had a pile of plain cards in my stash from a frebbie gift in an order sent to me so for the
1st card I used an embossing folder and design paper die cut to fit the panel. The flower and ivy leaf were made using plain white copy paper coloured with distressed inks. The flower layers were diped in Embossing powder whilst still wet and then dried with the heat gun. Beads were threaded onto red cord and the Merry Christmas stamped and cut out.


Entering this into the following challenges.
Do You stack Up: Stripes.
Divas By Design: Merry Christmas.
Creative Belli: Must have Christmas on your Card.



2nd , 3rd and 4th cards I went to town on flourishes, glitter and Inka Gold. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!





Card 5 pre printed christmas cut out and wording with a shrink plastic button covered in glue and glitter for the top of the tree and and twirly corners (which Fluff didn't know I had).

Card 6 using design papers, another flourish and a christmas bauble made from good old shrink plastic.

It took me the rest of the day to clear up but perhaps my 'C' word isn't so bad after all!!!

Snowflakes.

The last card of the eight. The one that was the most trouble but the one I liked making the most.
I inked the snowflake die over a sheet of plain white copy paper in a random pattern using distress ink in 'Stormy Sky' & 'Chipped Sapphire' and whilst still wet sprinkled with a very fine dusting of blue glitter.Once dry I cut to size and matted to the card front. Happy Christmas was stamped onto an oval die tag edged with distress ink and dipped in the same blue glitter.
The snowflakes were die cut from thin card and then coated in crackle paint. Two were painted with white and two painted in blue acrylic paint and whilst wet sprinkled with a fine dusting of the blue glitter. I then coated each one in a liberal coating of Glossy Accents and left to dry overnight and that's when the fun began.
You know when you see a sign on a newly painted park bench/railings saying WET PAINT don't you just have to test it to see? Well the blue ones were fine , dry as a bone and the white ones looked ok so just to test and be doubly sure I turned them over onto a sheet of news print and the rest is history (yesterdays news item to be precise.) Ok, so scrap those and start again.
Two white snowflakes later and for some reason the Glossy Accents dried with a distinct yellow tinge so scrap those and start again.
Third time lucky and it worked. Adhered them to the front of card with sticky pads and typed a verse in word to go inside.

After all that effort am entering into the following challenges:

By The Cute & Girly: Let it Snow.

The ABC Challenge: Frosty.

Alphabet Challenge: W = White for Christmas.

Rainbow Lady's: White Christmas & Happy Christmas.

Papertake Weekly: Last Christmas .....Card of the Year.

Shrink Plastic Star.

Card 7. Couldn't possibly make a Christmas Card without using my beloved Shrink Plastic.

A really easy one. A star stamp used randomly over a sheet of white copy paper using distress inks in 3 christmasy colours. Cut to size and matted onto front of card. Over stamped with Happy

Christmas. I drew a large star free hand and covered in Yellow distress ink. When dry simply shrunk down . Applied Glossy Accents and dipped the edges of star into gold glitter, then stuck to card using sticky pads. Verse was typed in word and added inside.
I'm getting the hang of these cards now!!!

Entering into the following challenges:

Tuesday Taggers: Anything Goes.

Creative Inspirations: Anything Goes.

My Mums Craft Shop: Anything Goes.

Paper Play Challenges: Christmas.

Charisma Cardz: Anything Goes.

Is he here Yet!

The boys have spreadeagled on the floor as Norm said he needed plenty of room so that he could concentrate on colouring his picture for Father Christmss.

They asked me to make them stockings which of course had to be hung straight away.

They couldn't resist a quick peek up the chimney though!

It's not the 24th yet boys.

Last Three Gifts & WOYWW 133.

I have had to clear my desk as I'm working on a swap which is due to go out to my partner next week so it is top secret and under wraps.
But I can show you this!
'The Doc' knows now to pass everything by the 'Craft Pod' before throwing it in the bin. His casual remark this morning was "Do you want this cork top for anything?" My eyes lit up and as he was trying to back out of the room a flash of inspiration hit me and when I told him what I wanted it for he said "Well you had better have the bottle too as it's the right shape"!


Intrigued? Come back in the New year to see what it has become. Answers on a postcard please!!

These are the last three gifts that I sent my partner in the Christmas Gift Swap.

Shrink plastic (my beloved crafting tool) Star tree ornament.

Felt Dove to peg on the tree.

And a wall hanging using up another curtain pole ring. (2 down 48 more to go)

Latest update on my wrist is that the plaster is off but I'm now in a steel splint waiting for an MRI scan to be taken after Christmas. They still can't see from x-rays what I have done but think I may have chipped a bone and a fragment has become detached. Time will tell. (Become very adapt at using crafting tweezers, my teeth for tying bows and my elbow for holding things in place.)

As usual here is the link for Julia's blog where you can go and see what the rest of the crafting community has been up to on their desks this week.

Post it Note.

This was the 3rd gift item thst I made for my partner in the Christmas Decoration swap.

I had this green checked paper in my stash and it just seemed to go so well with the yellow star paper that I decided to put the two together. A green post it note pad and the empty cardboard carton from a box of Whiskers meat pouches and 'bobs your uncle' a post it note holder was born!!

(Well seems logical to me!!!!)

The buttons and beads were from my stash and the flower/leaves were made from white paper using distress ink in Wild Honey and Forest Moss. Does not show up very well in the picture but the flower has glossy accents on the petals.

Show casing on

Made it myself Mondays:

Make it Monday Party:

Entering into the following challenges.

Charisma Cardz: Last minute Xmas Makes.

One stitch at a Time: Anything Goes.

Delightful challenges : Anything Goes.

Buttoned Up.

These are the other two makes that I did for the recent Button Floozies Christmas Ornament Swap.

Both made from Felt and a ribbon loop attached so they can be hung from the Christmas tree.
The bell is reversable with buttons front and back.

And these are the gorgeous button ornaments that I received back from my swap partners.

My adorable button angel from Sherry of Sherry's Simpleblog.

My cute red and white Candy Cane from Zoe who dosen't at present have a blog.

My lovely vintage button Heart Wire hanger from Barbara of Vintagebunty.

Thankyou so much girls. I love each one.

Show casing on 1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Mondays.

Christmas Tag.

The latest challenge on the Art 'n' Soul Flickr group was to make a bookmark and to create a Christmas themed tag to go with it. My partner was Maureen and this is the tag that I enclosed with her package which has now been received.


I covered a #8 Tag with cream canvas front and back and attached lace around the edge. The flowers are made from red plush fabric, tiny gold beads , green felt and all hand stitched (albeit one hand as this was completed after my accident.) I attached a name label but left it blank so that Maureen could use the tag on a present if she wanted to.

Entering into the following challenges

Anything Goes: Anything but a card (optional tag)
Tuesday Taggers: Tagtastic . Gift tags galore.
For Fun challenges: Christmas anything goes.

Sparkle & Glitter WOYWW 132

No change on my desk again this week as I haven't crafted except for the hats that the boys asked me to make for them (see post below).
So I thought I would show you the results of my desk from a few weeks back.
Remember the baubles I was going to try an experiment on!

I was going to chuck them out last year but hung onto them. Here are just three of them ready to be covered with sheets of kitchen towel that I had carefully peeled apart to make them really thin.
Lots of gluing, layering and shredding the towels into tiny scraps later and then when dry coating in acrylic paint they looked like this.

Looking better but not quite finished. So I coated them in more PVA glue and rolled in silver glitter and left to hang for a day.


These were the 2nd gift item for my partner in the Christmas Decoration Swap and as they have now been received I can show. One of the things my partner said she liked was contemporary silver and pastel Xmas items so hope they fitted the bill.
Here they are sparkling in the daylight.


If you pop over to Julia's blog here you will find loads of other desks to snoop about, well over 100 each week!!

Going to enter them into the following challenges.

Creatalicious: For Christmas and make sure it sparkles.

Delightful Challenges: Blue Christmas.

Crafty Catz: Anything Goes.

Pile it On: Bling it Up.

Cupcake Crafts: Sparkles, shines, gleams or glitters.

Dear Santa.

The boys asked if I would take a photo of them in their festive hats. They are very excited because we had a leaflet put through the door that Santa is coming to our villiage in his sleigh and real reindeer. Our road is due to be visited on Dec 23rd. Enclosed was a colouring competition with all entries to be handed to Santa on the night of his visit. The boys thought they ought to make a wish list each as well . I was a bit puzzled why Norm would ask for ear muffs until I read Monkey's list!!!

You can just see behind Monkey's shoulder the christmas card that Norm received in the post from his pals Darrell, Monkey & Nigel.

Mini Christmas Wreath.

I recently entered a Homemade Christmas Decoration Swap where you had to make your partner 1 handmade decoration + 5 other christmassy gifts to be included. My partner said that she liked contemporary silver and pastel xmas themes, but also adored vintage, didn't mind paper or fabric and would leave the choice to me. This is one of the items that I made.


I was really just spud ling (well it came up on my spell checker) with some christmas material and a wooden curtain ring and wondered if I could turn it into a christmas wreath (as you do)!
So I tore a selection of christmas material off cuts into very thin 6" strips and tied them onto the ring until it was filled up. I then trimmed the strips back nearly to the knots to get the right perspective and added the little wooden birdie. A piece of the selvedge from one material and

1/2 hour later one little Mini Christmas Wreath( using vintage style materials) to hang on the tree!

Show casing on:

1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Mondays.

Made it Myself Mondays:

Entering into the following challenges:

My Mums Craft Shop: Traditional Christmas.

Charisma Cardz: No Cards.

Crafty Ribbons: Traditional Colours for Christmas.

2 Sisters Challenge: Christmas.

Dream Valley: Christmas.

Come & Get It Challenges: Red, green and your choice.

Before & After..

No WOYWW to show you as my desk hasn't changed from last week.

Cough medicine and pills is about all thats on there.

Thought I would show you instead the two advent calendars I made from the christmas squares swap that I did. We had to send 1 metre of modern christmas fabric cut into 56 5" charm squares and received back 28 different prints with 2 squares of each. I used 24 on each for the pockets so still have 8 squares left to make into something else.

This is the first one I did prior to breaking my wrist.

and the second one that I was determined to make come what may which I managed by stitching the pockets on in a continous row and using my elbow to feed material through my sewing machine!

The boys haven't done a post this week as they say they have been busy up and down the stairs all day long looking after 'The Doc' (who has just had an operation and is all 'Stitched Up') and me.

Why not pop on over to Julias blog to see what everyone else has been up too.

Button Annie.

I like making Raggedy Annies and my blogging friend Sherry likes making sculptured face dolls so when I found that Sherry was to be one of my partners (we had 3 each to make for) in the recent Button Floozies Christmas swap I just knew I had to make this for her.
The Criteria was to make a Christmas ornament to hang on a tree or to be a small shelf or table accent that is decorated with buttons. The buttons did not need to be the only decoration but should be a main or special element of the design.
I had seen a button doll on the Floozies blog and decided to adapt it to be one of my ornaments.




Her face is made from one large white button which has been sanded to give a rough finnish in order to draw her face. I incorporated the two button holes to make her eyes by cutting out small circles of felt, embroidering the pupils and then pushing through from the back to make her googly eyes. I have also given her red hair in plaits. Her legs are made from black cord and I added felt boots. Her dress is adorned with lace and trimmed with small red and green buttons to match the material. Last but not least her shrink plastic wand!! (Just had to get the plastic in somewhere).



Entering into the following.
1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Mondays.
The Crazy Challenge: Anything Goes.
Fab 'N' Funky: Anything Goes.
The Poodles Parlour: Christmas.
The Stamp Man Challenge: Create an ornament.
Craft your Days Away: Buttons or Bows.

Where there's a will there's a way!!

The Grande Finale over at the Craft Barn is to take a picture of your finished project i.e all 12
Calendar ages and post about it on your blog.
Well I tried making a mosaic up using flickr and my favourites folder but soon realised that it wouldn't work having your own pictures saved in there.
What to do?
Okay go to plan B. (always have a plan B. up your sleeve or in my case up my plaster cast).
I spent all yesterday evening copying and posting each calendar picture into word and re sizing onto the same page. Took absolutely ages as they kept jumping out of sequence on the page as I added each new month. Got there in the end though. Next print off sheet and re photograph,
upload to my pictures and post here. (Where there's a will there's a way).
I have'nt bound my pages into one claendar as each page is mounted on cardboard and has a cord attached for hanging. I want to be able to use the pages each month on my desk instead of having loads of post it notes and papers stuck on a clip board reminding me of challenges to enter and each swap (that I enter ) last posting dates.

So here are my twelve calendar pages for 2012.

Many thanks to Anne for suggesting Photoshop and Suze for Picasa. I will keep those in mind for next time.

And here's one I prepared earlier.

The final calendar challenge over at the Craft Barn is for the December page and they are asking for red/green plus pine trees and sparkle. I literately threw this one together single handed before I got plastered at the hospital this morning! (see previous post).
The tree stamps are both from Crafty Individuals and the glitter from my stash (Don't try this one at home yourself. Glue, glitter and one hand do not make for good team work).


Now if I can just work out how to do one of those nice little mosaic thingies to show all my 12 pages I will be laughing!!!!!

Normal services will be resumed asap. Good job all my Christmas makes have been finished and photographed..

Have a great weekend and don't break anything.

In The Pink!

Not been blogging this week due to unforseen circumstances. Iv'e got well and truly plastered!!

Slipped over in the wet weather on Tuesday afternoon and then spent yesterday at A &b E having x-rays taken , rings cut off and a splint put on to counteract the swelling.Went back this morning to have a temporary plaster cast put on (for 2 weeks) as the fracture/break they think I have does not show up properly on the x-ray till that time. If I'm lucky just the splint needs to go back on but if not it will be a hard plaster cast for 10-12 weeks. Eek!

Wanna see?

Well !!!!! What other colour could I possibly have had!
Thank goodness I'm left handed is all I have to say.

London fog.

The challenge this week over at the Craft Barn is to do a November foggy bare tree look with a touch of pale yellow peeping through. This one nearly had me beat as I don't have any bare tree/branch stamps. Then I remembered that there was a tree sticker left over from Halloween night so we were in business!
The page has been colour washed using Memento 'London fog' ink pad and the hint of yellow is made up of a wash of T.H. distressed ink 'Antique Linen ' and 'Wild Honey' Blanking days are the London fog ink. I did try using black owl cut outs for the days of the week but it looked naff so have kept the page plain and simple apart from the cat sticker. He was the only one to venture out on such a dreary foggy day!!

WOYWW.no 129

Not posted a WOYWW for a while due to ill health. Now on the mend but still sound like a honking swan when I talk.

This picture of my desk is actually taken Tuesday morning but I wanted to include it for a reason.

I recently entered the Button floozies Altered Autumn button tin swap. But sadly my partner did not acknowledge receipt of her tin or send her swap to me. When Laurie the host for the swap found this out she very kindly (unbeknown to me) made and sent at her own cost from USA this super decorated tin and buttons. I love all the buttons that are in the tin but the five I have selected in front are my favourites. Hope you can zoom in on those as I couldn't get in any closer with the camera lens without it going blurry. When Laurie told her friend about it she also wanted to make me a a tin( before knowing that Laurie was going to ) to send to me so Jeanelle thank you so much for your sweet thought and lots of hugs to Laurie for making my day for me.

So whats on my desk today. I'm really behind with getting one project started and finished. The squares have been hanging around for about 2 weeks now though I have sorted them out into the layout I want to use . They all need hemming and there are 48 in total to do. The knitting is in conjunction with the same project. There are 6 finger puppets on the pattern. So far I have managed to make the duck. Very fiddly as there are only 16sts altogther and you knit it in the round. Started on the elephant but have now realised in order to increase for his ears I need to be working with 5 needles in stead of 4 so need to do a quick change over.

The two blue and one white bauble are an experiment. I was going to throw a load of tacky baubles out last year but hung onto them instead . These are some that I have covered with small pieces of kitchen towel and pva glue and dried overnight in the airing cupboard. Iv'e painted two blue and waiting for them to dry out again before I go onto the next step. (To be honest I'm making it up as a go along!!)

Pop on over to Julia's blog for some more desks to have a good nose and poke around. Thats where I'll be later on today. Might even see you there.

Nasty bugs and We are not amused.

As soon as the boys found out I wasn't well they said they needed to look something up on the web and then disappeared off to their room for the rest of the week. They said not to take it personally they were just taking adequate precautions!

They decided the coast was clear this morning and ventured out to have some of their favourite cookies from the biscuit barrel but this is what they found instead!!

Catch me if you can!

A wail went up last week from the Derby area which went soemthing like "Mumeeeeeeee can you make me an Elf please for Sweet Cheeks".( Not just any old elf mind , this had to be a Christmas Shelf Elf.)

Erm yes can you be more specific?

"Well he needs to be small enough to hide behind a cushion say but big enough to sit on a shelf and be seen"

Ok. about 12" then?

"Yes Please"

Where to start with no pattern to work from. I decided that" Tractor Boy" being 24" tall his head would scale down from 8" to 4" so after working the measurements out on grid paper and devising a neck to hold the head in place we were in business. A quick trip into town to 'Fabric Land to look for some red material and I found this soft dressing gown fabric. Perfect.

Nearly finished. He seems to have put a growth spurt on as he now measures 14.5 ". Had to make his legs a bit longer as he was begining to look more like a dwarf than an elf!! Something not quite right with him though. He dosen't look very comfortable sitting up like that.

Thats much better. A waist line and an identity. And thats when the trouble started. Catch me if you can he said and he was off round the house.

Can you see Me!

Under the spot light . Getting warm now.

Getting very warm.

Wee! That was fun.

While the cats away the mice and elf will play.

He is now safely in his new home but watch out Fluff he is full of mischief!!!

Show casing him on

1st Unique Gifts: Handmade Monday

The Felt Fairy: November monthly make.

Crafty Ribbons: Anything but a card.

Dream Valley: Stitching.

Ginger Loft: Use lace,fabric or felt.

One Stitch at a Time: Anything Goes.

Polly Craft Challenge: Christmas Fun.