Christmas Challenge #47 : Joy Ornament

 Ive been playing a lot with my die cutting machine, its probably the thing that has changed my crafting the most this year! It's so much fun to play with and I just can get enough of playing with paper and felt in it! Just look how nicely it cuts felt!!!

Ive just used a circle die to create this bauble shape, I think I hand cut the green bit at the top of the bauble and then I used an Ali Edwards die that says joy to pop on the front . The joy word has a heat adhesive on the back of it which just peeled off and then ironed onto the bauble, so easy and didnt even need stitching!

A flower, a bell and a bit of ribbon finish of this little gift ornament!

Oh felt I love you!

Christmas Challenge # 46: December Daily first pages

My first December Daily page is a page that is actulally the last day of November so I have kind of added it in before the beginning of the rest of the album. My son had his christmas party a little early thiis year and it would normally fall in december and I have documented it in past December albums so I really wanted to still include it!

 I also used this amazing set of stamps called slim jim by Kellie Stamps. I love these stamps so so much, I think they are set to become a staple in my stamp collection. I love that they are so versitle. I am wanting to play with colouring them in and embossing with them!!

I kept the opposite page just really simple and just stuck down the hello twinkle onto some of the paper that cam in the kit!

Christmas Challenge #45: December Daily Cover and Intentions

 Phew I am finally getting this up here! So this is my December Daily Album. This year I went with a traditional look and I got the main kit and two other kits, you can find out all about December Daily here from its creator Ali Edwards!

I'm only just finishing up on my December Daily from last year, I still have Christmas day and boxing day to go but other than that I mostly did it during December last year, isn't it amazing how the year can get away from us! eeek!

I added some glitter felt on the front cover and added the word twinkle because our theme for this year is 'The sound of Stars'. 

I have kept the inside cover page very simple and then I have added my intentions to the front cover so that I can see them there all December. I'm hoping that helps to keep them in the front of my mind.

I'm so glad to be doing December Daily again this year, it really does help to focus your attention on the joy that is the December season. I hope that I always find the joy this season!

Christmas Challenge #44 : Tea Pot Cosy

 Recently I was inspired by Meet Me at Mikes Tea Cosy its a super simple make and thats why I have added into my Christmas challenge, because I think this would be a super simple gift to make and you could totally have this made in just a couple of hours!

it is really just made up of two granny squares! May be you already have some granny squares from an unfinished project that you could use!

 I added a flower on top but you could add pom poms too just like Pip has! 

Oh i just love this one, such a happy make!

Christmas Challenge #43: Merry Present

I'm having fun playing with different decorations for my gifts this year. 

Have you started wrapping yet?

 This merry word is an Ali Edwards die cut and I've simply attached it on top of some tinsel.

Be warned, Im doing a giant catch up and am hoping to post a pile of blog posts today, I'm past most of my secret squirrel time and I can now share all of my Christmas fun with you! woohoo!!

Christmas Challenge #42: Mini Postcard

So now that I've made a  mini letter box and a mini envelope....What else goes inside a mini letter box? 

A mini Post card of course!

 Although this one did get a little bashed up between making him and photographing him, that's cool cos life's not perfect, right? I'm still loving this cute little car with cute little love heart puffs coming out of its exhaust!

Oh Boy my boys are going to be excited when I post this one!!

Christmas Challenge #41 : Kellie Stamps Digital Christmas TShirt!

At this point in time I believe that there are only a few of the awesome 'Merry Joy" set from Kellie Stamps left but never fear if you cant get you hands on them, her digital stamps are just as awesome!

 I used them with my silhouette and some heat transfer material to crate this fun christmas tee shirt! And I have to say that I think I will be making one for myself as soon as I can get my hands on a new tee shirt!

 I love this black heat transfer material, it is glittery but not over the top glittery. Just perfect for christmas here in Australia. Although how cool would this design look on a hoodie!!!!!

This one is going to be sent off before christmas so that its able to get some wear during advent! So fun! There is also a boy design and I may make some for my boys but I MUST make one for ME!!!!!

Christmas Challenge #41: Christmas Envelope

In my last post I made a little Christmas Letter box and of course no Letter box is complete with out letters in it!

  Since this letter box is quite small I thought some mini envelopes would be so cute inside!  I have a really cute little envelope die from Lawn Fawn and so I went ahead and die cut a few of them and then added the label and die cut words to the front of them. This one has a little lawn fawn deer stamp, isn't he cute! These envelopes fit so well inside the Letter box!

I love the little stitched detail on the envelope and I simply added a star and a die cut heart to close the envelope, now to write  a little letter to go into the mail box!

Christmas Challenge #40: Kellie Stamps Christmas Letter Box

I've been playing with lots of paper products lately and this time I thought it would be fun to make a little letter box for my boys and I to exchange letters in over christmas. I also thought this would be an awesome idea for Elf on the Shelf if you have one, your kids could receive letters from your elf in this little letter box and may be even send some letter in it.

I found the cut file for this box in the silhouette store, I simply cut it with white card stock and then covered it with the red polka dot paper.  I did make one adjustment to the letter box and that was that the door was seperate and I didn't want my boys to loose the door so I cut a diagonal in the side of the door and then glued the bottom part to the main part of the letterbox so that the door just folds down. 

With the door and the flag it has two moving parts. I then stamped a Kellie Stamp from the Merry Joy release, I was originally going to stamp another sentiment like "lets get merry and send letters" but I ended up leaving it. I liked it how it is ;) I then added a flower that I had coloured with some dylusions ink and then fussy cut some leaves to add to it as well.

I just had to add another Kellie Stamp to the flag that says joy, because when isn't it a joy to receive some mail! We don't have a mail/letter box where we live so this is going to be such a treat!

I'm loving that this could be a fun little thing to display in my home over christmas. It could be used for lots of things....you could put an advent treat in it each day for your kids or loved ones. I'm pretty sure that my boys are going to have a lot of fun with this one!

In fact I'm pretty sure that they are going to have a lot of joy joy joy whenever there is mail in there!

You can find this Christmas stamp HERE!

Christmas Challenge #39: Deer Card

Somehow this year I went from having one set of christmas stamps to now a pile of them. How did I only have one christmas stamp set all of these years??! My hubby randomly bought this one for me and I gotta say when your hubby surprises you with a  new christmas stamp set  you know you got a good one ;)

So I am playing with making lots of cards with all these stamp sets and usually I would just make a giant batch of cards and let that be our card for the year, but this year I'm still undecided. I may give these away for others to use or give random cards or, well Im not exactly sure!

So anyway this was a Hero Arts stamp set you can find it here. I love that the tree can be layered and I also love the detail of the reindeer.

There will probably be a whole lot of cards in this christmas series because I have all of a sudden become a little obsessed with them and watching a tonne of card making you tube videos!

Christmas Challenge #38: Kellie Stamps Shaker Ornaments

This month I am a guest creative team member for Kellie Stamps, which of course I am super excited about. This months set Merry Joy is such a perfect set for Christmas crafting, you could do so much with this set and I am especially looking forward to using them in my December Daily album!

It was kind of a perfect match with all the christmas things I am making ;)

 My first project with these stamps was some shaker ornaments! I'm in love with how these turned out! 

What I really love about this stamp set is that I don't have to skate around the winter themed stamps because there aren't any and although it does not have any winter themed stamps it also doesn't have summer ones either which means EVERYONE can use it!

I'm especially fond of the magical stamp, I think it could be quickly becoming one of my favourite stamps!

  So how did I make this shaker ornament..... I used a star shaped nesting die to cut the edges of my star- I had to cut about 10 of them to make the star nice and thick. I cut one of the larger stars and used that as the back. I didn't have any acetate so I completely cheated and laminated a laminate sheet, it has a little bit of a speckled look but it is clear enough and is definitely a more convenient option!

I then stamped the word on the lamented sheet with embossing ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Then adhered it all together putting some sequins and glitter inside! I then added a ribbon to the back. Easy Peasy!

Excuse my gluey hands, that what happens when you are christmas crafting all the time ! ;) 

 Oh, I totally love both merry's, I cant decide between them!

I made them in a few sizes an I think they would make a lovely gift!

You can check out Kellie Stamps Here!

Christmas Challenge #37: Bon Bons/ Christmas Crackers

So of course I had to make some bon bons for those christmas crowns to go in! Ive kept them colourful to go with the theme in the room where we will be eating christmas day lunch.

I tend to keep the contents of our bon bons fairly simple, really we have christmas morning with all of its gifts so by the time it comes to christmas cracker time I don't think it needs to be elaborate.

I simply added: a small chocolate, a christmas joke that I found on the internet, a balloon and the crowns I made!

Christmas Challenge #36: Christmas Crowns

This year, well actually I end up making bon bons every year but last year was the first year that I made crowns for inside the bonbons. Last year we made them very similar out of tissue paper and they worked out really well. I was a little hesitant about making them out of tissue paper but they ended up lasting better than the ones you get inside of bought bon bons.

 I simply cut a bunch of stars and some zig zaggy white tissue paper and then measured my kids. Then just sticky taped them together and glued on the star.

These are super dooper cheap to make, you could even uses some recycled tissue paper from a gift, what a fun way to use things up!

 And seriously who wears the crowns in bon bons for more than one Christmas meal, my kids do especially love seeing grown ups wear them though!

Monster Puppet Making!

 Yesterday was my sons birthday and one of his biggest requests mostly because he is a huge fan of Mister Maker was that he wanted to make something at his party.

 He really didn't care what he made he just wanted to make something. So I decided that we would make monster puppets.

 I bought a 10 pack of felt and sewed up a bunch of puppets ready to go and then with the left over felt I cut circles, triangles, stars, and other shapes and popped them in my tupperware container with some pom poms, stickers and googly eyes. I also popped some decent fast drying glue and scissors on the table.

Some of the little ones needed a little help putting the glue on but other than that they all had fun coming up with their own creations!

I cant decide which one is my favourite, but a tummy full of eyes does seem pretty great ;)

A Pocket Letter!

I recently sent off this pocket letter all the way to Italy and now that it has arrived I can share it here!

 I used all Cocoa Vanilla papers in each pocket, these papers all had black and white patterns on the back so I left them to shine by themselves. I used cut files from coco vanilla and cut two of each and slipped them into the pockets so that they could be taken out and used.

 I added tassels and ribbon to the top hole in the protector, I love how this turned out.

 I added a few things on top of the protector including some colourful enamel dots and gold tiny words and white tiny words also from cocoa vanilla.

I added a flower, wood veneer, heart stickers, bamboo label stickers and a little package of punched gold shapes. Pocket letters are such fun to make!

Spring Wreath.

I've been a little absent here in September, I had a lot of changes going on in our little home including my husband working from home quite a bit and my boys being sick. Its been quite an adjustment for me and though I love having them all here it has made my normal routines a bit of a mess.

Anyway there has still been crafting happening here! There is always crafting happening here!

I have this white wreath hanging on my door since christmas and I had thought that it would be a lovely wreath to be able to change up with the seasons. Since it is spring here I wanted to add some colourful flowers and make it look happy and bright.

I simply bought a couple of cheap bunches of flowers from the cheap store and  pulled them apart by twisting the wire until I broke the stems apart. I have my pretty scissors here but I didn't end up using them because I didn't want to ruin them, some snippy pliers (very technical term, ha haa) would be much better but as I said I ended up just twisting them until the wire broke off.

Then I simply wound the flowers into the wreath. I guess I could have hot glued them but I want to be able to change this up for christmas so winding them in means that I will be able to pull them out and it has been enough to keep them put.

 This was a fun project and was finished in about 10 minutes and then hung straight back up on my front door.

 For just a few dollars I have a pretty colourful wreath, springy and happy. Especially nice since it hasn't stopped bucketing down here and we have had storms and flooding in little old south Australia ;)

Christmas Challenge #35: Felt Angel

I have a long list of christmassy things that I want to make and one of the hardest parts is deciding which one next. So I decided to make some little felt angels. I've been waiting to make felt things with faces (instead of more stars or hearts) for a while now but whenever I try to make them I struggle with their faces- they always end up looking silly so I bought some little black eyes online hoping that this would help me be able to create some little people.

I think these eyes may have turned out to be a little big though, but since I have a little pile of them now I guess I will just have to go with it!

I'd really love to make some Santa's and Elves and reindeer but I think I will see how I go!