Advent filler ideas and mugs

Still on Advent train of thought this evening. Of course, I didn't think to take photos of the contents until after I had packaged them up, that would have been way to easy to show you lol. Thought I would share a little list of things I thought could work well in an advent calendar like this or as stocking stuffers even.  The girls I made these for are 5 and 8. What might be age-appropriate for them may not be for other children though?

The first thing that came to mind is a little sweet element for each day/ I started with an assortment of mini candy canes, largish chocolate coins and wrapped chocolate balls that look like brussels sprouts. It's a big joke with the girls threatening to give them sprouts for dinner as they say they don't like them so had to get them in somewhere over Christmas.

Other things that went in were

lip balm

pom pom key chain to put on their bags

puzzle pies

stickers

small candy cane-shaped glow stick

erasers

hair bobbles

other things that would work are

handwritten seasonal jokes

an IOU for an activity that day

small pens

warm socks 

Once you start thinking the sky is the limit. You are only limited by the size of your chosen container for these things.  Use envelopes and have an activity every day instead of little gifts.  My son's favourite advents were the ones where we had an activity every day.  Things like write cards, bake for Christmas, hot chocolate and a film. It was a lovely way to build up towards the season.

This evening I sublimated 3 mugs.  This design was one of them.  Isn't the robin so handsome?

Love the sentiment that goes with it too. Always love watching the robins in the garden.  We look after my daughter's pup while she is at work and even he sits at the window watching the birds now.  Not sure he is watching with the same intents we are mind!

All in all, it's been a pretty good day today.  Tomorrow looks busy but OK.  If I can fit some crafting in I will be happy

Advent in the works

A few months ago I had this simple advent calendar idea. Simple pouches or packages made and filled with little bits and pieces for people.  Decided to get organised for once and started on my granddaughters today. They are still 4 days short as need just a couple of more bits for the last few days. I am really happy how they are working out so far 

First of all, I envisioned just little sweets and girly bits and bobs I thought the girls would like. Then I came across sublimation and sublimated jigsaw puzzles and decided in each day each girl would receive a few pieces of a jigsaw of their puppy. The idea is that on Christmas eve they would have this puzzle to put together.

Earlier today I took the time to sort out my 6-inch square paper packs and stuck 48 edges of the paper to form a tube to use as these pouches.  Then I used a little sellotape or craft tape to stick down the bottom edge flat. Filled with the bits and pieces I felt they needed and then pinched the top edge flat and sellotaped it to the top flat edge was the opposite way to the bottom edge given an elongated triangle pouch.

I hope this picture helps show what I am trying to describe shape-wise. Apart from figuring out how to display them and trimming the edges off, these are nearly completed. Can't wait to hear if the girls get as much as a kick opening all these as I did with the planning and putting together of them.

Crafting crackers

A few things are an absolute must for Christmas day in our house. Trifle for dessert and crackers to pull around the table. 

Usually, I end up leaving the crackers until the last moment and end up rushing around looking for some. However, they always disappoint me a little with the contents as most the plastic trinkets get left behind by their winners and end up being thrown away. The solution was to drag out my Cricut machine and look up a template for my own. No plastic will be used for the 'prize' inside saving the need to throw out things that can cause damage to wildlife or clog up landfills.

I used Hobbycraft glitter ombre care in silver and gold. I have snaps for the 'bang' inner from eBay.

Lucky 13 was the number I cut out this evening.

The hardest part was having the patience peeling off the diamonds left on the mat when everything else got peeled off.

Number 13 was used to see how easily they will go together and they have worked well.  Will use some bold dark ribbon I think.  My idea is to fill with the usual tissue paper hats, a handwritten joke and a little personal gift.  So each cracker will be labelled with the recipient's name. Not sure how I want to do that yet but I am already so excited to put these together and use them.

Here's a simple side view. at around 11 inches long I am happy with the size it has come out at. 

Always my favourite way of ending my crafting session, admiring the craft confetti.  Be it card, paper, glitter, fabric or yarn I always enjoy playing with the scraps and thinking of a use for them.  My urge for this pile is to see if the pieces will glue into star formations.  Only one way to tell.

Crochet hair scrunchy

I sneezed and my world went out, ok maybe just my back did. With not being able to move much and being under the influence of painkillers I only took on a small project today. 

Crochet hair scrunchy. 

The pale silver gray wool certainly brings out my silver highlights doesn’t it *coughs* 

I have a few balls of this gray sparkly yarn and didn’t know what to do with it as it feels scratchy against the skin and I didn’t want to make anything that would have anyone scratching a lot when they used it. 

It’s big and bulky so I grabbed a 6 mm crochet hook and a hair elastic and did 2 rounds. 

Round 1, create a slip knot then single crochet around the hair elastic until it’s fully encased and full enough that the elastic doesn’t show through to much when you stretch it. Slip stitch into first stitch. 

Round 2, chain 3 and put 2 double crochets in first stitch then 3 double crochet in rest of stitches. Slip stitch into top of chain 3 and sew in ends

And tada 

You could probably use any yarn for this adjusting the hook size to suit the yarn of course. In a thinner yarn maybe do another round or two. 

It may not be much but I did at least achieve this today.

Tic Tac Toe, Noughts and Crosses and buttons DIY

One of the things I always remember as a child was my Nans then my Mums button tin.  Such a source of amazement and wonder sorting through and playing with the buttons. Plus they came in handy for when you needed buttons of course. Over the past years I have slowly built up my own tin and it still feels like a wonder going through and discovering the right button for what you need or imagining what they belong on.

Today though, I was on the search for buttons for a game of noughts and crosses as we tend to call Tic Tac Toe here in England.


The idea came about knowing I had a few of these little cotton drawstring bags left over from another project a while ago. Having seen little games in similar bags I set out to make a set of my own for something the granddaughters could possibly play with on a rainy day or when bored.

Went for a rummage through my bag of vinyl and heat transfer vinyl scraps and found a perfect size of silver holographic HTV. It was fairly quick and easy to make up the grid in Cricut design space by manipulating squares into long lines and welding them together when in the right layout.

Pressed the HTV onto the drawstring bag and filled with7 buttons each of 2 colour flower buttons. I know you don't need 7 for a game but a few are probably at some point going to get lost.  If they all do then the girls will just have to discover the delights of a button tin themselves and come and find some new ones.

All in all a quick and easy satisfying project. All things were on hand just laying around my craft area somewhere. I'm really embracing this use what you have challenge I have myself doing.  It's making me look at things a little differently and thinking up new ways to use older supplies.

Thinking about it if you didn't have or can't use HTV you could used fabric paint or markers to make up the grid, It really is quite adaptable. All sorts of things could be used for the counters to.  Obviously needing to be age appropriate due to choking hazard etc.

Music on t-shirt and crochet

My youngest is obsessed with music.  Like most teens, a lot of music resonates with him. He also uses it as an escape when the world around him becomes too much and he needs to control the noise around him.  Often in stressful situations, his headphones will appear and he will use his music to relax and cope with the situation. 

So when I saw this design on Designbundles.com by Caty Catherine I had to make it up for my 16-year-old on a t-shirt for him. He loves it and said it was perfect for him. Hopefully, this will get a lot of wear out of it.

The red vinyl is a true red and not orange like the picture shows, it seems that despite having the darkest and coldest few days the sun decided it had to come and appear in this picture skewing up my colours. Such as life, was good to see some sunshine through the clouds at least

Keeping up with the using what I have on hand to craft with I came across a few hair elastics and decided to crochet around it with a small amount of cotton yarn. It's simply made with closely double crocheting all around the elastic. I have an urge to get hold of some velvety soft yarn now to do this in.  For the amount I need it's not worth buying a ball for it though. 

Wearing this one today and so far it's holding my air better than the elastic alone would and isn't pulling on my hair so I'm happy with it and may make a few more.  Having very thick and full hair it can take quite a bit to find something to hold it back or up and out the way. 

Having not been feeling to brilliant the past couple of days I've spent a little time doing a little crafting and resting.  Seems to be working, I've enjoyed the downtime but think I am ready to rejoin the land of the living and venture outside tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have to decide if unicorns or a flamingo is to keep me busy tonight!

glitter dog and tote bag

While surfing the internet for SVG cutting files the other night I came across this beauty from Wispy Willow designs. It is apparently a dachshund dog.  Which I have no problem with whatsoever. It does, however, strike an amazing resemblance to my DIL dog who is not a dachshund. 

I cut this out on the Cricut and thanked my lucky stars I hadn't decided to go old school with a scalpel and do it by hand like when I used to do papercuts. It took a fair while to cut and as I did I patiently did something else while checking once or twice all was well with the cut.  Then came the fun part the weeding.  Dreading this part as was convinced weeding, or removing the unneeded pieces, was going to take me all day.  It didn't however. Listening to a Terry Pratchett audiobook and a break to chat with my son I had it finished in around 80 minutes.  What I thought was going to be a stressful undertaking turned out to be very calming.  It came out just fine and despite being glitter iron-on by Cricut it behaved remarkably well.

The pile of leftover and weeded pieces give a better idea of how it sparkles.  my DIL got me into glittery things a while back so this particular make had to be glittery and sparkle.

Once pressed onto a tote bag I knew I would be making at least one more at some point soon as love how this came out. 

I really thought this Zentangle style or mandala style of file would be a pain the neck to weed and use but I'm already looking at what else I could do in a similar style soon. 

Using what I have

Been a bit of a theme around here at the moment is using more of what is on hand rather than dashing out and buying more things to make things with.  While looking for bookmark ideas I came across Doodlecrafts foam bookmarks made with the Cricut maker. Given the simplicity of the shape, I don't think you need a Cricut for cutting out the foam but it did make things quicker and more simple.

I got 4 bookmarks out of one A4 sheet of craft foam and probably could have managed another 2 on what was left over.

 

The metallic vinyl was a rose gold colour from Teckwrap. There have been some hit and miss reviews on this product on Amazon. It has a very thin plastic covering on the protect the finish and a lot of people miss taking it off and it causes the machine to not cut it properly.  Again you don't necessarily need to use a Cricut, you could use a die cutting machine or even hand cut out some design. 

Going to hunt out some ribbon or twine for these and start putting them to use. 

All in all, it's a fairly quick project that could be used for a gift for someone or a way of treating yourself with a new bookmark and a way to maybe use up a half sheet of foam or scraps if it is big enough to fit one of these on. The finished measurements at 6 inches tall by 2 inches wide. 

Crochet and cricut

 Well two shower puff thingys made. I swear I have more of this cotton yarn somewhere in a blue colour, and black, but no idea where it’s been safely stashed. When I find it though I think wash cloths or some more of these will be made up. I’ve made a grand total of 3 of these altogether having made the first one a while ago. It’s a very easy addictive make. Very forgivable to if you lose count now and then.  

One was made on a 4 Mm hook and the other on a 5.5mm hook. Obviously the 4 Mm one is more condensed but until they’ve been used I’m not sure which one I will prefer. 

T-shirt wise I pressed the htv onto a black shirt for kiddo today. Am still chuckling over it. After knocking up my own Mercury symbol a lovely person let me know there are periodic symbols within Cricut Design Space! Could of grabbed one free as I’m on a months free access to there at the moment. Lesson learned though. Check the resources to hand to make life a little easier maybe. 

Kiddo is happy with this and I’m pretty sure he will be wearing this tomorrow for me to get a better picture in the daytime and on. 

Lovely daytime spent with my granddaughters today. They are off on holiday next week so this is the last day I get to spend in person with them for a bit. We ended up gluing sparkles, drawing and painting things today. A truly crafty day was had by all. 

Half term has flown by so fast, not sure how it’s got to Friday already but there you go. Relaxing weekend needed before Monday rolls around I think. 

Bubbles, yarn and vinyl

The plan of working from my list of eight things is falling by the wayside a little. However, I am still using what I have and am being productive. 

Last night I started watching things on Netflix and decided to look through my yarn as fancied crocheting something. Came across this lovely dark pink cotton. Yet again another one of my shower poufs/loofah/scrubby things has fallen to bits leaving me with a long length of net so I decided to crochet up a cotton one that won’t unravel and won’t end up clogging up a landfill or being harmful to wildlife 

It’s coming along well. I’m a slow crocheter so I will carry on and finish this one tonight hopefully and if there’s enough yarn I will make another one up for someone else maybe. 

My younger son has a few jokey periodic table t shirts. So when I saw something similar to this on a mug I decided a shirt must be made and he was up for it. So this evening I designed this in Cricut design space and cut out the HTV vinyl, with my Cricut, ready to press onto the shirt tomorrow. I hope Freddie Mercury would approve ;-) 

Spent some time in the garden with kids and bubbles earlier on. Loving the colours in the garden and the enthusiasm everyone has for bubbles whatever age they are. 

Really has been a fairly busy fun day. Looking forward to seeing what fun tomorrow holds being the half term but might need a rest on Saturday. 

Etching the afternoon away

After having a go at glass etching last week my daughter showed interest in learning how. Always being up for crafting we arranged an afternoon and settled for today and I even offered to light the bbq to cook dinner tonight. 

It rained and was cold enough to put even me off bbq so we ate indoors. It didn’t however put us off spending time crafting. We cut our stencils out of oracle 651 vinyl on the Cricut. Even had the granddaughters pressing buttons as needing and watching the machine cut. 

It must of all gone well as my daughter wants to come back and do more coasters or something another day. 

She made the fairy one and I made the butterfly one. Both went home with my daughter as she loved them. 

What is also cool about these is the shadow effect the etching causes in the light. 

Discussed a lot of ideas on what we could etch and what to do next so I think it’s safe to say I have gained a new crafting partner :-) 

Sometimes it goes wrong

Not horribly wrong but when it does go wrong you learn from it. I was talking about using what I had. Well I have 2 small A4 sized blackboards and decided to use them with a svg I have. It’s by the maker Digital Gems and was in a bundle from design bundles.com 

As it’s a split Monogram I added our family name and then when our family was established and was happy with it until I added the cut vinyl to the board with transfer tape. The tape took off patches of the blackboard coating. My thought was to reapply and take a few more areas off and to maybe distress the frame slightly. 

All in all I think it will be ok as it makes me smile. Not perfect but done at least. Needs a little something else but I’m not sure what yet. 

For the next board if I use vinyl on it I think I will seal the board first so the paint doesn’t peel off and make sure I rub the transfer over a t shirt or something similar a few times to make it less sticky. 

The project I did before went slightly wrong to. Deciding on a layered HTV project I chose 2 different makes of vinyl and with the heat they both shrunk a little unfortunately the red more than the white. It’s obviously my week of learning from my mistakes. Hubby however is still wearing his England flag proudly so cannot complain it’s not liked. 

So there’s 2 things completed in 2 days. Tomorrow I’m crafting with my daughter in the afternoon so something will get made even if it’s not for me. 

Using what you have

Last week I had a lovely day spent with friends where we shopped, drank coffee and crafted. We used to craft together a lot and it sort of stopped. Anyhow, we made a point of doing something and while we did my friend made a comment about the amount you can buy when starting a craft. I am guilty of this as my craft room would reveal. To be honest I would have more room if I didn’t have bookcases full of books. 

While unloading yesterdays buys, paper clips and feathers, I realised half the supplies I have I’ve probably forgotten what I originally bought them for. Time to make a list of things I had in my mind to do now and see if I can find the things to do them with on hand. Turns out with the eight things I listed I think I can do them no problem and more importantly not having to buy anything to complete them. 

My off cuts for today are these. So far so good. Faux metallic gold leather that came free with a magazine and red and white Heat Transfer Vinyl. 

Hopefully I won’t run out of steam and can complete all of the eight things. All are different makes and a variety of crafts so I think I will be ok and not get to bored. 

Rolled paper flowers

It's been a strange day, started normally then I got hit by a bug.  Feeling not well but still feeling the need to do things I ended up pottering around slowly and doing a few crafty bits. 

Something that has had me interested for a while is the rolled paper flowers I have seen so many people do.  Basically, you cut out the template then roll with a quilling tool.  Then you arrange it until it looks pleasing and then glue the base of the flower to the tab on the end of the template. Let me tell you this is an art which is fiddly for my fingers and although I have to admit they don't look as bad as I thought they might do I doubt I will throw myself into making a whole bouquet or a shadow frame full.

Cut them both out at 8 inches wide and being the petals were different sizes it made a big difference in the finished size.

Didn't get this glued correctly so it is a bit lopsided.  Still pretty though. I guess it's supposed to be rose like maybe?

These almost lost a few petals but I managed to keep them all together in the end. This one was my favourite one.

As well as doing these flowers. I have glass etched a coaster. Which reminds me, the turtle from my last post was white because I hadn't cleaned the cream off fully and now looks a lot more like etched glass not white.  I also designed and applied htv ( heat transfer vinyl) to socks today. Also, put some rainbow HTV split letter names onto caps for my granddaughters.  Even though I haven't been able to go out as planned I have been productive at least.  

Early night needed but first Pinterest calls as have an idea I need to look up. Hopefully, it won't swallow up a large cun of time again or I might be found asleep at my desk! 

Glass etching adventures

I’ve been on a crafting kick recently as was fortunate enough to get a Cricut Maker recently, which opened up a whole new way of crafting to me. 

While in Flying Tiger on Saturday we came across these glass candle mats/trays? And I thought they were the perfect size to try out a small first project with the small tub of Armour Etch I bought a while ago. And at only £1 each it wasn’t anything to expensive if I messed it up. On top of that if it’s used for candles no ones actually going to see it. Smart thinking there I thought. 

Cutting out a turtle in vinyl I reversed what I would normally take away and used it as a stencil. Sticking tape around the edges to make sure there was no overspill. 

Armour etch is a thick gloopy consistency and I’ll be honest I was surprised it didn’t get everywhere or smell bad. To often if there’s a mess to make its me that will make it! 

I simply brushed this over for a few minutes then left it liberally and evenly coated for around 10 minutes before cleaning it off and removing the stencil. Being very careful not to get any one myself of course. 

This was the outcome after I cleaned it off. Since drying it’s become a lot whiter and etched looking. 

So pleased with the outcome and how simple it was. I have plans for more glass etching involving fairies, lights and also some themed glasses maybe? 

Quick and easy project. The Armour etch was around £5 for an 80gram tub but a little goes a long way and the excess can be put back in the tub afterwards for reuse.