Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all. I promise 2014 will see a return to regular blog posts, but I just wanted to say a big thank you for coming to view my blog.

Here's a few things I have been making this Christmas. I was going to share some of the presents I have made, but did want to spoil the surprise, in case they saw my blog. 

I love these crafts, as they are super simple and very cheap! 

DIY: Gingerbread house gift tags

These tags were made from brown luggage tags from WH Smith and a white pen. I saw these on pinterest from the site Casi en serio, where they made gingerbread house tree decorations. I loved doing lots of  different doodles, so everyone's tag was unique. Who doesn't love brown paper packages tied up with string?

DIY: Gingerbread man garland

These were made using some red felt, some gingerbread man shaped felt (available on numerous ebay stores), thread and some garden twine. These are super simple, as you just need to blanket stitch around the edge. I love their little cheeky faces. Last year I made felt gingerbread men and women complete with skirts and dickie bows. 

DIY: Felt heart filled with winter spices

First I dried some orange slices in the oven. These are great for decoration. I basically cut them quite thin and put them in the oven on a low heat until the segments had gone like stained glass. I then chopped one of these up. I broke up some cinnamon sticks and some cloves. I drew a heart and cut out of felt. I then drew a simple snowflake design. I back stitched the snowflake design then blanket stitched around one side. I then wrapped up my winter spices in a piece of material (I used one of my son's old babygrows) I then stuff it inside. I attached a ribbon to hang the heart and then blanket stitched the other side. I love smelling the little heart, and have put it in the drawer where I keep all my pyjamas, so I feel all cosy and wintery whilst sipping my hot chocolate on an evening. 

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and a happy New year. 

I had to share our gingerbread house, as my husband was so impressed that we made this from scratch, complete with boiled sweet stained glass windows! 

Snowy walks and Father-to-be gifts

We managed to have a little walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park over the Easter weekend. It was really pretty, as there was still a dusting of snow about. The latest exhibitions look amazing. We had a quick walk through the Fabric-ation exhibit. I'm planning lots of nice picnics in the Sculpture Park this summer, so I'll take lots of pictures of the artwork when we next visit.

I have been creating a couple of Father-To-Be gifts for my husband, as I know that the Mummy tends to get more attention. I got a big basket from Matalan for £5 (similar ones here) and filled it with all things to remind him of his childhood. (I asked his family and friends for some ideas) These included Wrestling and Thundercats figures, his favourite books as a child, some DVDs of programmes he used to watch, his favourite childhood movies, some Tizer (He used to have Tizer nights with his best friend, where they would pretend this was alcohol - Bless!) etc. I also decided to create some T-shirts and Baby vest sets.

These were really simple to make. 

I bought two cheap T-shirts and baby vests, and some fabric pens from Ebay. I had bought the fabric pens for people to decorate baby grows at my baby shower

Fabric pens bought for £3.39 from here

On a piece of paper I wrote out what I wanted on the T-shirt. You could print this out for it to look more accurate and professional.

I then placed this under the top layer of the T-shirt, and placed a piece of cardboard underneath this. To be honest, the pens did not actually go through as far as the cardboard, but I still think that it is worth taking precautions. Once I had traced over my design, I left this to dry for half an hour and then ironed on the reverse to lock the colour, so it is machine washable. My husband's unfortunate nickname is 'The Big Dog', so I thought it would be cute to do a play on this too. 

These fabric pens were so easy to use and didn't bleed into the fabric. I'm looking forward to doing some different T-shirt and baby grows for Halloween and Christmas this year.  I think I'm better dressing my child up before they can answer back and I'm sure my husband will be thrilled to wear them! I have got some fabric paints, so I may make some stencils and be a bit more creative next time.

Painted Pottery and Egg Shell Surprise

I thought that I would make a little Easter gift for my sister today. My sister has the food blog Bilberry Tart, and is obsessed with buying kitchenware and crockery. I thought I would utilise a couple of bowls that I already owned and use some paints that I had bought. I first used these paints to decorate some tea cups and saucers for my baby shower's favours. Unfortunately, my baby shower was cancelled due to my ill health, but I'll post some photos when we have the rearranged shower. 

I used Pebeo Porcelaine 150 paints and mixed together some Ivory and Opaline Blue.

I decided to paint a simple flower design on to the bowls. These paints are really easy to use and mix well together. If you make a mistake, and the paint is still wet, it will wipe off with a bit of toilet roll or a cotton bud. If the paint is dry then I used a sponge with a bit of soapy water to remove the mistake. I painted the two bowls and left them to dry for 24 hours. Once they have dried for 24 hours to seal the paint you need to bake them in a domestic oven for 35 mins at 150°C. 

As I had some paint left over, I decided to do a little secret message in a painted egg shell. First you need to get an egg and a needle and pierce both ends of the egg. Wiggle the needle around in the hole to widen it a little. You then need to break the yolk inside by piercing it several times with the needle. Once you have done this you should be able to blow into one of the holes and the egg should drip out of the other end. If this does not happen then you may need to widen the hole or wiggle the needle around some more to break up the yolk inside. When all of the egg has been removed, run water into one of the holes and blow through to make sure all remnants have been eliminated. To dry out the egg, I give them 30 seconds in a microwave.

I then painted the egg in a couple of coats of paint. Once this had dried, I used a cotton bud to make spots on the egg.

Whilst this was drying, I wrote out my message on a small piece of paper. As the message will need to fit through the hole in the egg, your message cannot be very long. 

Your message needs to then be rolled up as tight as possible and when your paint has dried and stuck through one of the holes you made initially. I then made a little label saying 'Crack me open.'

I'm sure I'll be posting some more painted crockery in the future, as I think you can make some really beautiful personalised, and inexpensive gifts.