Alternative Christmas Pressie Wrapping

And a big hello from a few of us today! Wonder if you too get tired of normal Xmas wrapping paper and ribbons. Today we have a few ideas to make your gift a little more special by doing something different.

Caz has used Felt:

I was inspired by the cute little felt bag Andrea made back in June :) and the Christmas bunting I made in October.

The bag is made up of two sheets of red felt sewn together by hand with embroidery thread.

I had great fun making these and I can't wait to fill them with gifts :)

and a close up.....

Di has used fabric:

All of my gift bags are made from calico and left over fabric. They are easy peasy and quick to make!!! They are RAG bags and were inspired by Trish's lovely rag wreath and Caz's Christmas bunting.

This bag is made to look like a parcel and has draw strings.

Again I have frayed ends and something that hopefully looks like a Xmas tree on the front.

These little bags made from calico with a little lace and tied with ribbon. I thought they might be nice for my great neighbours to hold some special soap or smellies.

This is my favourite. A smallish draw string bag with a little Xmas rag wreath just pinned on.

Finally one last bag with a xmas stocking theme:

Trish has also used fabric and felt. Trish's drawstring bag is just GORGEOUS. The shapes are so simple yet effective. Trish used heavy cotton, felt and bondaweb to attach the felt to the cotton. She used white acrylic paint to 'frost' the tree and gold to highlight the bird .

And just a few more ideas. How about using: Normal brown paper and stamping it using potato stamps with red paint and glitter glue?String , garden twine and sisal instead of ribbon?

OK now all you have to do is finish that Christmas shopping and get Cracking with the Wrapping!!!

Love from us at IACW xx

Christmas Tree Decorations.

Today Caz and I are doing fabric Christmas tree decorations, I love Christmas and find bits and bobs to do all year round so its not a last minute rush. These birds I made back in July for my tree, I love felt as it is so versatile and doesn’t fray, I used red felt, gold thread, gold sequins, green thread and polyester toy stuffing. The candy canes are for hanging in my kitchen, which is having a Christmas foodie theme. They are very easy and quick to make, all you need is two pipe cleaners, I used red and white, twist them together and bend the top round to form the hook. Caz has made these gorgeous lavender filled tartan hearts for her tree; she used pinking shears to help stop the edges from fraying. These will smell and look gorgeous on her beautifully decorated and lit tree. I hope you have enjoyed today’s post; don’t forget to email us with any pictures of the items we have featured here. Today we are also doing a prize drawer to win a fab kit from Kirsty Wiseman just leave us a comment on today’s post and we will draw a winner on Sunday. We have exceeded the target for donations that we had set ourselves and are really grateful to all of you that have donated on our just giving page, Thank you, and a HUGE thank you too to all you lovely brave ladies that have scrapped your boobs and sent us the pictures. Trish xxx

Christmas bunting

Very warm Sunday greetings to you all from Caz and Angela!!

Today we are bring you a little more Christmas inspiration to get those creative juices flowing :)

Buntings have been around for years, but i've noticed this year that they seem to have been a very popular decoration!

So we are bringing buntings indoors and using up those bits of Christmas fabric to make great decorations for the home :)

Caz

For my bunting I have cut triangle shapes from fat quarters using pinking shears, this meant I didn't have to stitch around each one {lol}.

I folded the tops of each triangle over a length of twine and hand stitched using thick green thread. I didn't want my triangles moving around on the twine so I popped a couple of stitches through the top to hold them in place.

I cut green felt in the shape of holly and stiched it to a couple of the triangles using red buttons and ribbons for the berries.

And on a couple more I again cut green felt into strips {3 different lengths} and attached in the shape of a Christmas tree. Brown velvet ribbon did the trick for the trunk and these gorgeous little yellow star buttons were perfect for the tree tops!

Angela

I have made some Christmas bunting that I would like to share with you.

I made it from 3 different fabrics, 2 Christmas decorative fabrics and gold satin to finish off the back. I cut the fabrics into triangles, using a template I had cut out of paper. I also cut out some Pelmet Vilene triangles to use as a support for the bunting. I sewed 14 triangles, 7 in white and 7 in green to the Pelmet Vilene and then I covered a large piece of cream felt with Versamark ink, and sprinkled gold embossing powder on it. I then heated this with a heat gun and let the embossing powder melt. I repeated this process twice. This left a beautiful gold felt :)

I then drew around some Heidi Swapp Ghost Letters onto the embossed felt to read "Merry Christmas" and cut these out. I then cut some gold fibre paper out in squares the same size as the letters and sewed the letters to the bunting.

I used gold cord to join the flags together and sewed these in place, attaching gold satin fabric to the back of the flags. Finally, I embossed some cream buttons with matching embossing powder and attached these to the cord using ribbon.

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to SCRAP YOUR BOOBIES for a great cause! All entries received at acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk will be entered into a prize draw at the end of October. The lucky winner will receive a gorgeous collection of PINK embellishments.

There are also spot prizes through the month for anyone who donates through our JUST GIVING page!! Don't forget every penny counts.

haPPy creATing

Caz and Angela

xx

Quick and Easy Card

Hello Everybody! Joanne here! This is my first post and I'm a bit nervous! From now on I'll be sharing the Thursday card slot with Andrea and today it's my turn. Here's the card I've got for you, super quick and easy and even better - it only takes one sheet of patterned paper!

The secret to one sheet of paper is to use the wonderful Scenic Route Scrap Strips. The one I have used for this card is Sumner Scrap Strip 1. So, here goes:

Here are all the elements you need. One sheet of cardstock to make your card (or you could use a blank ready made card), one sheet of Scrap Strips, a few American Crafts felt flowers, small chipboard frame or similar and two buttons.

Step 1

Cut your cardstock to 15cm x 22 cm and fold in half for a landscape card. Cut two strips of the patterned paper 5 1/2cm x 15cm and cut a smaller strip to go across the middle. Ink the edge of the smaller, middle strip for a little definition. Arrange on your card like so:

Step 2

Arrange flowers and stitch together with a button. Stamp a sentiment onto a scrap of the cream cardstock and attach to chipboad frame as shown. Ink the edges for a little definition:

Step 3

Arrange the flowers and sentiment on the card and stick down. There you have it! Super quick and easy card!

I hope you liked this card and have fun making it.

See you soon! Joanne x

Not just an ordinary pin cushion!

How about a little buddy to sit on your desk and keep your pins safe?

These sweet little pin cushion are a doddle to make and you DON'T have to be good at sewing!! They started out life as a pattern for a strawberry!!!!!!!! on the Martha Stewart website and I adapted them into mice.

Use the pattern for the main part of the strawberry to cut your body and sew up the edges to make a 'cone'. Use a small running stitch to gather the end of the cone. Stuff with toy filling and cover with a circle of felt about the size of a 2pence coin. Use small stitches to secure this and then add a tail from wool or paper string like mine and then cut two small ear pieces and stitch to the top of the face. Use embroidery thread for his features and don't forget to give him whiskers!! They look lovely on their own but they look even better as a little mouse family.

Felt bags...

I'm so excited! It is my turn to inspire your Saturday morning and I'm going to show you how to make my felt Bitty Bags, hope you have fun love from Andrea xx

These little felt bags are very easy to make and only need 1 square of felt for the main bag and scraps of felt for decoration. They could be used as gift bags for presents or you could make a mini album and tuck it inside the bag to give as a special gift or you could just use it to pop your pennies in when you go to the shop!

1) Cut the felt square into 3 pieces roughly 14cms, 4 cms, 4cms wide.

2) Make a template of a scalloped edge and trace round it onto a contrasting colour of felt. I used my EK Success corner rounder punch to cut the scallops to make my template.

3) Cut out the scalloped edge and cut two strips of the contrasting felt about 4cms deep.

4) To make the handles, fold one of the narrow pieces of felt in half lengthways and stitch along both long sides, repeat for the second handle.

5) Place the scalloped edge on top of the wide piece of felt along one of the short edges. Stitch along the top catching in the handles as you go. Trim the scalloped edge to fit your bag.

6) Repeat the prcocess for the other short edge and you will end up with an almost finished bag.

7) Fold your bag in half and stitch down both edges and along the bottom.

8) Decorate your bag with running stitches along the scalloped edge using embroidery cotton and add a felt flower and button for decoration.

I'd love to see your felt bag creations so please leave a link in the comments section if you make one.