Another Present Made

Wowsa!! Where is the time going, nearly the end of November and still scratching the surface of my 'To Make List'.  Well I have managed to finish another Christmas Present, a girly organiser, and I really hope the gift is well received.  The recipient is my friends 12 year old daughter who is mad about Rihanna.  My idea for this came when I saw in a magazine a wall tidy with various shapes of boxes, plain white and a ridiculaous price tag of £193.00 EEEEK!  I thought I'm sure I could make something similar and then I thought of my friends daughter liking Rihanna and put the two together.

I started with a canvas, which we have had for ages, and dug out a couple of different shaped boxes from our recycling box and started to cover the boxes in lovely paper (free form a magazine).  I painted the canvas with a delicious glitter paint and the inside of the boxes plain and printed some images onto the paper.  The silver bracelet thingys in the picture are off Lottie's worn shoes and the one and only thing I actually purchased for this project was the pack of badges for £4.00.

I then attached all the decorated boxes onto the canvas and continued to embellish the whole piece with the left over scraps of paper and added a couple of pegs at the bottom. 

Just have to coat in PVA and voila a unique organiser for a 12 year old Rihanna fan! Hope she likes it :)

Live, Learn, Laugh and Be HAPPY x x

Children in Need & Hiding from Lottie

That time of the year again - Children in Need.  Me and Lottie are attending a fundraising event tomorrow with members of our home education group, so we thought she could decorate one of her old t-shirts with fabric pens. We used a stencil for the spots and then I hand-wrote a poem, which Lottie wrote by herself, on the back.  We will put this away in her memory box afterwards so she can look at it always.

Also in this post I wanted to share with you a couple of Christmas gifts I have made in secret for Lottie (so she wont be viewing this post!).  The first gift is something I've seen all over the place this year and that is a 'Like' picture.  So I sat in front of the PC and wrote Lottie's favourite things in life, printed it off, added a bit of glitter, painted a pine frame and then made a bead embellishment and added that to the front of the frame.

And added a label on the back.

This little cutie I saw in one of my magazines and decided to give it a go.  It's the first time I've worked with felt and stitching, and I'm really pleased with it.  I'm going to glue a little magnet on the back so she can put it on a magnet surface in her bedroom.

I just hope she likes them as much as me!!

Live, Learn, Laugh and Be HAPPY x x

It's a wrap

A selection of my Christmas stamps that I have had for about 8 years and have never used them, until now....

I have come to the conclusion that I really am starting to dislike waste and Christmas cards and wrap are two of my feared products at this time of the year as I can't bear the thought of them going straight into the bin afterwards, unless everyone is like me and recycles it!  So I was looking around my hobby room this week and I found some rolls of unused brown packaging paper (from my Ebay days) and have decided, with Lottie's help, to make our own wrap.  Brown paper I don't mind going into the bin as it is still a cheaper alternative.  So we dug out the stamps and rolled out the paper and stamped away and this is what our finished wrap looks like - Lottie even asked for some of her presents to be wrapped in it!!!

I am looking forward to covering my presents in this, adding some lovely ribbon and tag - I would love to receive a gift wrapped like that.

I thought I would share a picture of the new addition to our family, his name is Archie and he is a cross Jack Russell / Shiatsu. He is approx. 11 months and we rescued him from our local stray dogs home.  We are looking forward to our first Christmas with him - I can't imagine the chaos on Christmas Day!

Live, Learn, Laugh and Be Happy x x

Good to be back!!!

Hello everyone, well it seems like ages since I have posted anything.  Myself and Lottie have managed to get back into the swing of things and have started to enjoy our hobby room again, just in time for Christmas makes to adorn our home over this festive period.

I have made a few Christmassy things for my own home and my inspiration for this is to make inexpensive things that I have seen overpriced in the shops.  I am increasingly becoming bored with overpriced items when I can try and tackle it myself and have something more personalised.  I have an ever-increasing 'To Make' list and it gives me so much satisfaction to produce my own product.

The first thing myself and Lottie made was a few simple heart decorations for the tree - I saw this idea in one of my magazines and we gave it a go.  All we used was scraps of paper and ribbon.

Then we went on to air-clay again - after seeing so many 'keys' as decorations in the shops with prices ranging from £1.99 - £7.50 each, we made a selection out of clay, painted them and adorned them with embellishments/ribbon ready to hang on our tree.

Then I saw a really lovely tartan wreath at M&S for £17.50 and thought I would make my own.  I had some tartan ribbon and a red Christmas ribbon packed away from the sales in January, which I paid 20p each for and a plain red ribbon in my scrap ribbon box.  I already had a some thick wire and the red buttons.  In less than 30 minutes and for considerably less than £17.50 I had made my own Christmas wreath and I can't wait to put it up on our front door.

Live, Learn, Laugh and Be HAPPY x x