More buttons, more gnomes and a winner

Hi.

The gnome production is chugging along in preparation for (I'll whisper it) *Christmas*. I saw a sign the other day saying 'only 36 shopping days until Christmas'. Well that was enough to send me into a panic. Here is the teeny tomte, he measures just 9 inches from his boots to the tip of his outstretched hat.

I've also made some more Christmassy buttons, yep there's no stopping me now I'm on a roll.

The ones in the middle have tiny holly leaves stamped and coloured on them.

I was very excited last week to receive the Moo minicards cards I ordered. I uploaded images of journal pages and cards I've made. You might even spot the paper dahlia wall decoration I made. I was pleased with how they turned out and should anyone actually buy anything from me they will be going into the packages that I send. They make great labels too.

And before I forget completely the winner of my button giveaway is Kirsti Your chosen Cath Kidston buttons will soon be on their way to you and I'll pop one of my button flowers in too, you can use them on layouts or cards or even to decorate a gift.

Bye for now - Happy crafting

Swedish Jultomar

Meet my Swedish Jultomar otherwise known as a Yuletide Gnome.

 I just love knitting these gnomes (pattern by Alan Dart) they have such character.

He has a bit of weight in that plump behind so that he perches perfectly.

I'm liking the hat so much that I'm considering upsizing it for adult wear :-)

If the popularity of last years Teeny Tomte (mini gnomes) is anthing to go by he is going to be one popular little fella. I have one of those knitted but I have yet to make him up so when I do I'll show you the comparision in size.

Don't forget that if you would like to win a set of my papercrafted buttons enter my giveaway and leave me a comment here by midnight Saturday 20th

The Button Effect

I love making these buttons and once I'd started the ideas just kept coming. What to make them out of ? What to use them for? I'm a big fan of fabric designers such as Orla Kiely, Cath Kidston and Amy Butler so it seemed the natural thing to create some papercrafting embellishments using some well loved prints.

Cath Kidston

Amy Butler

Orla Kiely

I've made these to sell in my soon to be open Etsy shop but I thought I'd give you a chance to own a set for free. Just leave me a comment by midnight Saturday 20th November telling me which is your favourite  and I'll announce a winner next Monday.

Happy Crafting

Christmas is coming

Now don't worry I'm not going to go on and on about Christmas for weeks to come although I know some of you just love Christmas. I always think I've got plenty of time to prepare and somehow time just slips away but I can tick something off the list today as I've made my Christmas pudding. However if my Nan is looking down on me she won't be a bit impressed as she would have prepared hers way before now and in fact she always had a steady stock that would mature in time for a family get together at Christmas and for some reason we always had one at Easter too. I have plans to make chutney like I did last year.......I'll just add it to the list.

After being inspired by an article in Craft Stamper this month I tried my hand at making some buttons. I've made some before with fimo so I had all the equipment that was needed but this time I tried using some air drying clay. I have to say it was great to work with and I produced some in the form of leaves, footballs and plain old round ones. Some I added a bit of texture to with stamping. I like the dove it's the perfect size.

I found my tiny holly cutter and made some leaves which I painted a shimmery green and also made some paper buttons. Take some circles punched from cardstock glued together in layers and sandwich between some  patterned paper. Then punch holes in the middle. Some I gave a bit of vintage grungy look with inked edges and some I gave a crackled distress finish to.

I liked the holly leaves so much I thought I'd make some without the holes to make some cards with. What do you think?

How is your Christmas crafting coming along are you any better planned than me? Happy crafting.

Something Old, Something New

This week I've enjoyed a couple of little shopping fixes and boy did I find some bargains.

First the something old. Where I live there are quite a few charity shops and recently you may have seen that some charities are refitting their shops and becoming more mainstream. To be honest I prefer the good old rummage type shop much more of a chance of coming away with a bargain. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to do charities out of their much needed fund raising it's just sometimes it's hard not to get too excited when you spot something at a bargain price. 

Take these doilies........10p each. I also picked up some lovely wool fabric, a length of wide cotton lace trimming and a thimble rack. Look out for some projects featuring these soon. I can feel the inspiration already.

The detail on this one is amazing. Just how do you get those interlocking circles? I did come a bit of a cropper though after washing them all in readiness for creating they were put in my not so tidy craft room where they got splashed with blue ink from my printer. It was having a funny five minutes and I requested help from the fixer who now has two blue inky fingers. He wasn't impressed and the printer still isn't working.

Do you think I got them too cheap and this is payback?

Now for something new..........

I visited TK Maxx  where I picked up this little lot for just over £12. An all essential to do list pad and clipboard. I'll definitely be making use of that! A Making Memories blank calendar, a  book called Knitting Pretty, two sets of American Crafts stamps and a magenta jersey and satin top. I normally visit TK Maxx by myself as I like a good look around without the pressure of someone else getting bored and as you can see it's normally time well worth spending.

Have you picked up any bargains lately? Happy hunting

It had to happen some time

Yes, another month down and I'm still hanging in there with the 365 Challenge.....

This month I made a bit of a boo boo it had to happen. I managed to mount each little square 8 across on the page and as you know there are only 7 days in a week!! Ooooooops No real harm done though it just means I couldn't have the days of the week listed on my page as I normally do.

This month had a bit of leafy theme going on with a bit of stamping which wasn't that successful due to the bulk of the previous pages and some leftover leafy scrapbook paper. The distress inked background is rusty hinge.

The book I'm using for this project is beginning to fall apart it may well be tied up with string by the end of year.

......onto November