Merry Christmas and Ta Daaaaaah!!

December 23rd

December 22nd

December 21

December 20th

December 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19!!

Ok a bit of an advent catch-up!! Some of these are keepers others will get a revamp next year.

15

16

17

18

19

An exciting Parcel

I love getting things in the post….especially surprise things…and especially when they are all wrapped up as nicely as this!

Yes the New Crafter on the Block has sent me something!!! I was SO excited!!!…

Do you want to see?

Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh……….

A bib for my son’s first Christmas! How thoughtful is that! and Look at all the little felt letters! I can’t wait for Christmas day now I just have to remember to take photos before it gets covered in food! Have a closer look at the gingerbread man….I’m loving the button detailing. If you want to see a bit more from Mylittlemancreations then visit her blog.

and Kerasssssshhhhhh…..Advent by the wayside!

I knew it was too good to be true and the blog advent has finally run off the rails due to sheer lack of time!!

I have not been idle and there are now 10 decorations drying ready for it to resume…albeit a bit behind.

What have I been busy with? Its hard to share as many are Christmas presents….

I can show you a sneaky peak at one project…….

The blog advent will resume tomorrow

December 14th

Another simple pattern from attic24 – Teeny Tiny Hearts
I grabbed the nearest available yarn which happened to be multicoloured – I think this will look amazing in a solid colour with a little button….hopefully when I have more time!

December 13th

Just a quicky…..Pom Pom!

December 12th

This took me a grand total of ten minutes…including the darning in and sewing the button. the wool is actually a bright purple but photographs of purple wool always comes up blue for some reason. I grabbed the nearest wool to me and although I’m happy with it I think ideally I would have used a thinner wool. The pattern is Attic 24 – Teeny Tiny Stars. It is a simple well written pattern and I can really see how these can become addictive! I just used dc for the centre instead of trebles to try and get a smaller tighter star (different wool and hook  choices would also help here!). I also started it off using a magic circle as it gives me a tighter centre than what I can achieve using a chained ring…..so……December 12th!

December 11th

A little late in the day but there was crafting to be done….and it had to be fitted in between feeding, burping, shushing, reading, truck brwmming and wriggly bum changes….

I started off with these……..Can you guess what I am going to make?

So I have, some paper, orange stickers, googly eyes and a foot impression I made as a tree decoration from sculpey (more on that later).

Are you ready??? my 11th decoration is……….

…….

A PENGUIN!

I made it by placing the paper on top of my sculpey foot mark and doing a rubbing with a black crayon to get the outline. I then used the orange sticker for a beak and added the eyes. I doubt this one will be on the advent calendar next year as its too flimsy to be stashed in the pocket and bashed about so it will be upgraded to the real tree next year. The eyes had adhesive backing so it will be interesting to see how long they last! I might also stiffen the base more with another layer of card.

 

Don’t those Toes look huge!!

December 10th

December 9th

December 8th

Initials! (Yes I know I need to add the ribbon on!

How to make a simple felt bauble

I am on a deadline I need enough decorations for my advent tree to fill the days before Christmas. I have the next three days lined up and ready to go. I thought I would share how I was putting together the simple baubles from the last three days. One thing thing to remember about these decorations is for me they are not final….I’m hoping this will be a tradition where the decorations get better and better. I can add to the ones I feel are lacking a little I can completely replace some and in the future I hope my son will make some. My time this year is tight….not much give in it at all so these are very much make do decorations and next year will be bigger and better

 

The baubles are simple 2-d decorations.

Step 1: Cut out two bauble shapes…If you want them to match exactly cut out two at a time.

Step2: I’m continuing with the purple one….

Plan your decorations. This one has just two silver stripes so I cut my silver ribbon to size and place them where I want them

Step 3: I fold my hanging ribbon in half and sandwich it between the two layers. I use this point to begin sewing as then the thread from the machine anchors the ribbon and I don’t have to use any pins.

See how the starting point is right at the top?

Step 4: I then add in the ribbon as I go round. I started off sandwiching in the ends between the two layers but as I was lazy with the pins it wasn’t as tight as I liked so I opted for just sewing the ribbon down then trimming to shape afterwards

Step 5: Ta Dah! One bauble – Can you see how the folding into the two layers didn’t quite work for the silver ribbon? I just trimmed round the edges to neaten it up. After all these just need to look good not withstand heavy play!

 

With the blue bauble I layered up felt stripes and the pink I sewed on a link from a broken bracelet and blanket-stitched round the edges.

 

Here they are in a row. I’m not 100% happy with them as I feel they need a bit more pizazz.

Any suggestions for the next batch are most welcome – Just leave a comment!

December 7th

December 6th

December 5th

December 4th

A gingerbread man!

Countdown to Christmas!

Yay! the first of December has officially arrived (and gone as I am a little late in writing about it!). This year will be my son’s first Christmas and I decided I wanted to start a few Christmas traditions. As we usually travel and Christmas I wanted something that we could enjoy in the run up to Christmas. The decorations are officially allowed out of the box on December the first and it is when everybody cracks open their advent calendars! So as a new addition to our home I decided to make an advent calendar! I wanted it to be one the family can take turns using and wasn’t all about chocolate so taking some inspiration from simply homemade magazine – issue 8 I think (they have a blog here) I decided to make a tree to decorate.

The crafting ahs been hectic and fitted between naps so it’s only just done so forgive the ends as they will be my own personal advent  - hide a thread a day!!

Told you there were a lot of ends to sew in!!!

I made a start on the decorations which are going to be hidden lucky dip style in the pot pocket. The front green pocket with the star will hold the star for the top of the tree. I knew I would want to add things to this so the back includes and envelope opening in the lining. This means I can conceal the coat hanger (a trouser hanger gives much better corners than a curved one) and also add things later without wrecking the back. The first decoration off the machine was this little robin. really quick and easy to whip up in felt!

The heart is for the Second of December….and the third today is this jolly xmas pud!

This is how the tree currently looks…..I still need to find it a place in the home to hang and make another 21 decorations!! So this is the start of the Deryndu advent!! Keep checking back to see the latest decoration and I shall try to keep up to date