Christmas crafting

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a good one. I did - it was lovely but far far too short. I only had the two days off work and went to see my parents Christmas eve for a couple of nights so it was over far too quickly.

Here is a quick update of what I got up to just before the day and also afterwards as well.

I made quite a few more Christmas cards for people - quite a lot of little quick ones for people that I work with:

Sorry this isn't the best of pictures - I don't think it came out too well. I also finished making some cards with images that I had already coloured last year. I had to improvise with some of the colours and make things fit around what I had already done as they had been coloured with no theme or backing paper in mind - here's how they came out:

Again apologies for the awful photography - especially of the last one. I do love the way that the others came out though. So simple and yet I think they are really effective.

I also made a banner for some of our friends instead of a card this year. I like that this is also a decoration that could be used in future years as well as a card.

I may have also had to make myself one of these...it's now up in my living room - I wanted to keep it here where I have taken the photo of it in my little crafty den but I think it should be shared with other people.

Finally on the theme of Christmas - we didn't think we were going to get all of my niece's presents to her in time to be opened on Christmas day so we packaged them up in this box.

Added tissue paper

 And sealed the whole thing up.

It then got wrapped in brown paper and string and a letter from Santa attached to explain that he forgot to deliver it to her house on Christmas day so it was sent for safekeeping with her grandma instead. I forgot to take a photo of it when it was done and I think it looked really good - really annoyed with myself! I think she really liked opening the big box up to find that she still had loads of other little presents to unwrap. I know I would have anyway - the most fun of Christmas is the unwrapping!

Henlow did a little destructive disappearing act just before Christmas - here's him trying to lift his ramp and just poking his head out from under it:

He did afterwards manage to end up removing the ramp completely from the hut at the top of his house and just about ending up with the whole thing on top of him. We took the ramp out over Christmas to try to stop him from being quite so destructive but will have to re-attach it shortly.

Finally I have also been doing some work on my sweater -I still don't think I will get it all done in time for the next class but I have been doing my best to keep a growing a little each day. Here's it's progress since my last post.

 I had to try to work out the shaping of the armpits yesterday and get all of the sizes right as well as the actual stitches looking good - hence the scribbling all over my pattern! I think I am getting there though with a lot of help from Eleanor.

Crafty weekend - Sunday

The fun continued into Sunday - I love this time of year and it was just the best to have a weekend to do as I pleased and fill it with crafty-ness.

Sunday I attended the first part of my Sweater club course at Knit Nottingham - basically this is a room full of people grabbing a knitting pattern for a sweater that we like the look of and then starting the process of making this together.

We knitted a tension square with our chosen yarn and with the pattern that we had chosen in mind to see how we should work out our pattern to know that the garment is going to fit when it is done. As it turned out I get quite a lot more stitches to an inch than I am supposed to according to my pattern and therefore am going to knit it using the number of stitches required for a jumper 2 sizes too big and hopefully that should come out to the correct size. I could have switched to using bigger needles and made the stitched the same as the pattern said however I loved the way that the material looked and felt so much as it was that me and Eleanor decided that I should work it out this way.

This is the pattern that I am attempting to make:

I haven't got too far yet but it is supposed to be done in about 3 weeks so that we can learn how to sew all of the pieces together in our next lesson. I'm not sure if this will be done but best crack on.

I did a few rows last night when I got back but we also went to our local church to the annual Carol concert which was lovely. It was nice to feel like part of a small community and to meet some of our neighbours. I love to just have a good old sing-along too!

The mince pies, pigs in blankets, gingerbread and mulled wine topped the evening off just lovely.

Crafty Weekend - Saturday (including making gingerbread!)

Saturday was a very productive day for me. I sent my husband out to go clay pigeon shooting with one of our friends giving me a few hours of peace.

This meant that I had time to make (or almost make) about 8 Christmas cards. Here are a few that I finished. They were unbelievably simple as I had the pictures in a big sheet from one of the pads of papers that I have had for a while and even the backgrounds are so simple but I think that they are really effective.

This is the state that my husband found me in when he got home - he couldn't believe the amount of stuff that I had out everywhere - but at least I knew where everything was (honest!)

I found quite a few images that I had stamped and coloured in last year so I have also cut the backgrounds for these - they are almost ready, I just need to stamp or print some words to put on them and then I can stick them all together. I feel so disorganised this year - I know I should have finished all of my Christmas cards weeks ago but at least I am getting some way to being done now. In my defence we have only received about 5 so far this year so we can't be too far behind everyone else!

I made this cracker box for one of my crafty friends and finished the gingerbread card - Woohoo!

I also finished my own copy of the Bake Off recipe book that we made for all of our friends. I added a little pouch to the back of mine to keep the original copies of some of the recipes in as they were so beautifully hand-written I couldn't bear to just bin them.

This neatly led me onto making some gingerbread men - one of the recipes that we made for the bake off - it's really easy but gingerbread is one of my favourite things in the world so it's always a treat. Here's a few photos of the process - if anyone would like the recipe and can't read it very clearly from the photo then please let me know!

Everything goes into the food processor:

Give it a little helping hand every now and again:

Then it's ready to be kneaded - just do this for a few minutes before refridgerating.

Once it's had it's chill out session then you can start rolling and cutting - this is the best bit and this time I even got to use all of my Christmassy shapes!

When they're cooked leave them to cool and then they are good for eating! The recipe makes quite a lot though so may not all in one sitting (last time I made them I do remember them all disappearing in one evening between four of us though!)

Decorate as you wish - my husband did this one as it was slightly burnt on the antlers - he was on oven checking duty at this point so this one is his fault! Still tasty though!

Speedy Birthday card done

I have made a very very speedy Birthday card tonight since I got home from work. Going out to the party shortly so no-one should really see this before the card is delivered - I think it should be safe to post about it.

My friend loves playing airsoft (a bit like paintball) so that's where the theme came from. I thought the decoupage on the front would be very suitable. Easy and basic card but I like to think that this format is always effective:

Crafty goodies arrived today

I was really excited this morning when the post man knocked on the door. 1 - It's a novelty that I am actually at home when the post arrives and not at work and 2 - the only reason the postman ever knocks at the door is because he has some sort of parcel.

It made a fantastic break from my revision for a few minutes today to run downstairs open the door and find a big pink package there for me. It was the Crafty Creatives box that I ordered last month. I was so excited when it arrived I just had to stop all of my work and open the box straight away.

It arrived all packed up in pink - so pretty!

And it just kept getting better as I opened it - please don't scroll down any further if you want your box to be a surprise!

I was really pleased that the first thing I noticed was a ball of white fluffy wool in there (perfect for making snowmen or big snowy pom poms - which could be turned into snowmen!)

There's loads of beads in there and a wire ring to make a choker necklace with. There's snowflake stickers and paper the could be used for card making up when wrapping prezzies the snowflakes could just add a little sparkle.

The thing that I am excited about most of all is the kit - this month it is to make your own bath bomb. One of my favourite things when I can get them is to put a bath bomb in the bath and have a good long soak so I can't wait to try making my own.

This is as far as I've got with opening the box as I have been busy revising all day but I can't wait to get the exam over with tomorrow and start playing with my new toys! I feel like a kid in a sweet shop with all of the sparkly excitedness.

Craft Swap complete and It's Christmas!!!!

Ok so it's been about a week since I last posted. Sorry it has been so long - have had so much to do. I have tried to keep up with my promise to myself and have been doing something fun (not always for very long) every day and normally this means something crafty.

I have been doing a cross-stitch ready for a Christmas card I am going to make. A few stitches every day and it is now done. I love these little projects that are starting to take shape in what seems like no time at all. I have done this gingerbread one and am planning on making a card with this and the ribbon that I bought while I was on holiday too. Not sure what it will look like yet but hopefully that will be a nice one - I think I will be passing that on to one of my crafty friends so hopefully they should appreciate that too.

On Saturday we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations in the living room - we don't have many to go around the rest of the house but I love our cozy Christmas lounge.

 Pudding seems to have made himself at home in our arm chair - my husbands "man chair" may be out of bounds for a few weeks I think!

 We bought this off a lady in Lincoln a few weeks ago - it was a bit heavy to go on the top of the tree so it's ended up on the wall. The golden bear will have to be the topper to our tree again this year until we find a nice star to go up there instead.

I have also always had a little tree that I had up in my room when I was younger so this has gone up in the hallway so people can see the lights from outside. No photos of this at the mo but I'm sure it'll make it's appearance at some point on the blog.

Henlow's still doing well - he posed for me a couple of days ago so I got a few more photos of him. This is the best one I think:

I have also made and handed out the first few Christmas cards of the year. Here are a few that I have made - these one's have been passed on to some of my family already and hopefully I will have chance to make a few more very soon once I have my exam out of the way on Thursday.

Finally and I think most importantly of all - I have finally finished all of the little things that I have been making for the craft swap - I made the final part last night and have wrapped it all up ready to be posted off tomorrow. I can't wait to share with you all of the things that I have been making and more than anything else I hope that the lovely Hannah enjoys them when she gets them too.

I had thought about putting a photo of the wrapped presents in here (and I may well change my mind later) but I don't want to ruin the surprise at all so that's all for now I think - as soon as she receives her gifts I will post all of the photos.

PS. I'm also really excited and intrigued to see what I get back in return. I have loved making my little gifts for this swap and I hope that she has too.