2020 calls for DOUBLE stockings!

Hanging hopefully on Jessica's wardrobe this evening are a pair of stockings that tell one of the many tales of 2020. This is a story of plans made, excitement built and then everything changing at the eleventh hour. 

Jessica and I were supposed to be in Wales with Dad for Christmas this year and so we had prepared for a double Christmas – one with Grandad and then another with Daddy. Two Christmas mornings surely must mean two stockings, right?!

I had made Jessica’s crocheted stocking for her first Christmas. I’m proud of it and I could never replace it but I do wish I’d chosen my wool to be Christmassy and that I’d actually thought about how I wanted it to look. So, one idle evening (yes, I do occasionally get one) I thought I’d break out the Christmas fabric and make a new patchwork stocking especially for this year at Grandad’s.

Fast forward to Christmas movement being restricted and Wales going back into lockdown and we’re back to a single Christmas at home but we’ve still got two stockings! We were also let loose with pompom makers this evening, so each stocking is now fully accessorised and ready for anything that the Christmas of 2020 can stuff inside!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Painting Bauble Fillers

Yesterday was a painting day. After finally finishing painting the kitchen walls (I started in August!) I got out my finest brushes and turned my sights on painting and touching up bauble fillers from Hobbycraft. 

The small wooden cottage and pine cones took a while to paint but I'm so happy with the results. I created a little scene in this unusual fillable bauble with snow and a tiny log pile. Here is it hanging proudly from our tree...

Jessica had chosen a small resin cat to use in a bauble a few weeks ago. We decided to use cotton wool as a snowy base with a few glittery snowballs scattered around. We then glued some snowflake confetti shapes to the inside of the bauble and painted some snow dots on the bauble along with some snow detail on the top and around the edges of the opening but they are difficult to see on the photo below. The cat benefitted from a little touch up with acrylics and I added some snow on the ear and tail tip just because I could!

We've got several other resin figures in my Christmas supplies but I think I'll save them for next year now. It doesn't do to add too many new decorations each year!

 

All About Crackers!

I've made my own crackers for years and years. It was something Mum and I started together. She would buy some lovely little gifts for us and I would make the crackers to put them in. I'll never forget the year that we put a beautiful silk scarf in Nan's cracker - it was not very well received but her response was priceless! 

Anyway, we used to buy cracker making kits that included everything else you needed - precut templates, snaps, jokes and crowns. In the last few years I've just used snaps bought from Hobbycraft and have used cardboard tubes wrapped to form the cracker but I had a bit more time on my hands this year so I decided to try making them properly. I used a template from Mr Printables, which worked really well. I printed one copy, which I have laminated to keep. I then used this template to make a dozen crackers and will keep it to use for years to come. 

All that remains is to see if they actually snap properly on the day itself! Fingers crossed...

 

Encaustic Baubles

We got adventurous over the weekend and tried a new technique for decorating Hobbycraft's ceramic baubles - hot wax painting (encaustic art). We used our encaustic stylus to melt and apply the wax, which seems to have adhered really well to the ceramic surface. Although time-consuming it was very satisfying and we were both pleased with the results. My photos don't really do them justice but here are our chunky wax painted decorations...

 

Miniature Modelling

There are times when Jessica takes advantage of my keeness to craft and I start to question my sanity. Last weekend I found myself modelling all sorts of things from polymer clay and hot glue for her Sylvanian families. It was therapeutic and Jessica was delighted but surely there were better things I could have been doing with my time!

It all began with making bowls of cream for the cats...

These were moulded around small marbles, baked and then filled with hot glue "cream". Jessica then decided that they needed remote controls for their television and a ladder to reach their top bunk in the caravan. Naturally, they also needed a new set of tiaras as well. 

 

Perhaps this weekend Christmas will arrive in the Sylvanian town and I'll find myself making tiny rrees, lights and tinsel!!! I will not be giving these ideas to Jessica; we're going to be far too busy finishing Christmas gifts.

 

A Very Merry Christmas Craft Weekend

We may be out of lockdown but it's December so Jessica and I spent the weekend crafting at home. Some of our crafting was for Christmas gifting so I won't share those bits yet but here's what we've been up to for ourselves...

Our little snowman is made from cork, wire, acrylic paint and embroidery silks. Super simple, aside from the fiddly nose, and so cute - he looks great hanging on the tree.

 

I did some needle felting on Friday evening whilst catching up on "Kirstie's Handmade Christmas". I had a polystyrene base to felt onto but it was quite thin so this was a bit more challenging than usual and I had to be extra careful of my fingers. I also squeezed in a bit of time to make my own little wreath. I opted for a "less is more" approach and kept it simple. I opted to use wire rather than hot glue to attach everything so I can easily make adjustments in future years. 

Finally, Jessica and I have been pottery painitng AGAIN! I can't share her efforts but I was really pleased with my little gnome / nordic santa. I'm now praying to the kiln gods that he comes out how I'd like him to!

Pine Cone Rudolph Decoration

This little fellow is a make from a few years ago that I seem never to have shared although I love him. This under five minute make has felt ears, googly eyes, a ruby red pom-pom nose, twig antlers and the ability to make you smile year after year when he comes out of storage!

 

Jessica's Christmas Wreath

It's certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas this week. I can't remember the last time we saw snow so early in the season and just a short walk around the neighbourhood yielded 65 houses with Christmas lights up last Sunday. Our tree went up on Thursday and out came all of our window ornaments, Christmas pictures and this wreath that Jessica made last year. 

She made candy canes, stars and bells from polymer clay and riffled through my suppliers to find ribbon, skeleton-leaves, ribbon flowers, bells, wire flowers, pine cones and pom-poms. She used a blank rattan wreath from Hobbycraft and carefully designed it before giving me the instructions with the hot glue gun! It would appear to have survived a year in storage and is now hanging in pride of place in the conservatory again for a few weeks.