I cut tag shapes (with the scan n cut) from scraps of card and tried to use up embellishments as part of a ‘Use What You Have’ drive. This was so successful that I have batched and bagged sets to give away.
Tag it Tuesday
Christmas
‘It’s the season – to be making cards
I have been recycling an old Lesley Anne Ivory perpetual diary into cat cards and decided to put the Christmas cats into one bundle.
These images just need matting onto card before adding to the A6 card front. I cut the ‘Merry Christmas’ and bow, using papercraft society November kit dies, from the mat card before sticking the image on to it.
Finished with some sequins or gem stones these now make a cat lover’s Christmas kit. Think I like the non traditional colours best.
Christmas card get ahead
Stashbusting Christmas paper means gathering all potential festive supplies together. This encourages me to use new combinations. Here I have used residual A5 card bases with dies that from past magazine purchases and I even recycled elements from cards we received over previous years. Embellishments of adhesive gems that seem to accumulate complete a batch of cards. Inside I have heat embossed a simple greeting so they are ready for boxing and gifting.
A ‘partridge’ in a tree?
I love these little birdies given a tree gifts this year. Made from acrylic felt and a crafters companion Scandi bird die set they have been fun to make.
Santa napkins
A fun felt and glue project …
Many years ago my mother in law made us some Santa napkins. Hers were rolled hem red sheeting and Santa was sewn from fun fur with felt and google eyes. We use them every year and I wanted to spread with joy without making napkins, so a version using paper serviettes and felt was born.
her version has a triangular beard and straight top head but I preferred a combination of outlines I found on pinterest so drew this stencil with a 7 inch band. Felt is forgiving so have a go and scribble out your own version, but keep it simple enough to cut out cleanly.
To make…
trace your stencil onto white felt (thicker is better if you can find a roll of quality felt), I reversed my stencil to get some variation in beard direction
cut it out inside your trace lines so they don’t show on the finished version
cut a piece of flesh tone felt and hot glue it behind the face gap – I suggest you hold the felt with tweezers to avoid glue burns and help be precise-ish, tweezers also pull off any glue strands
hot glue on a red mini Pom Pom for the nose and googly eyes in a characterful position, tweezers again most useful
I added pinking shear cut felt strips as a moustache and tiny pieces for eyebrows then glued the band into a loop with about a one inch overlap
some people embroider on names or add other embellishments… I like this clean and simple version
If gifting a set of these include spare red serviettes to encourage reuse.
jeans to oven mitts …
A quick sew which turned out more rustic than planned so will be used for picking up logs and coal.
I cut around the pockets of some old jeans making four pads from one pair and trimmed batting and a fabric remnant to match.
Making a sandwich with the pockets and fabric right sides out around the batting. I then sewed the raw edge of a strip of denim binding made from the same jeans (see previous post) to one side of the sandwich then flipped it over and sewed the folded edge to the other side.
The bulk made this a bumpy sew, so next time I will cut a bigger square around pockets and use traditional binding for a neater finish that can grace the kitchen.
Top tip: Although I have run out of insulbright I have worked out that old ironing board covers do just as good a job with less bulk…
Clean and simple Christmas cards
I love making clean and simple cards, these use scraps from the seemingly everlasting Docrafts Folk Christmas kit.
I am trying to use it up before I let myself buy anymore paper but there is still lots still to work with.
I used an image from my scan n cut inbuilt library to cut 11 trees, each cut 2 cm high and mounted on small foam pads, so easy – 10 for the front and one for the insert.
I reckon this would work as well with a punch maybe in star or holly shapes if you didn’t have trees …
Here is a quick video on how to diy an insert for a basic card blank. Let me know what you think of my video efforts …
Wine glass tags
I ve made sets of wine glass tags today, using up Christmas paper and ribbon scraps. Feels good to have some mini gifts made ready.
I cut bauble shapes 65mm wide on the scan n cut and welded a central circle 17mm in the middle to create the gap for the stem.
To fit the tag around the Stem, I cut a slash from edge to centre (by hand as it was quicker than going to the software to set it up) and threaded scraps of ribbon through the bauble tops.
I added stickles to some of the less decorative papers but for a disposable mini gift, they really weren’t necessary.
In some sets I added napkin holders, (from scan n cut canvas projects , just a strip of paper with angled slashes at either end to loop round a serviette) with Christmas elements added to make a little Christmas buffet kit.
Presented in vellum envelopes, these would make a great craft fair goody. How much would one charge for a dozen tags in a set though? though
Cutlery pouches
a little something for the Christmas table
I need to use some of my lovely Christmas papers so made up the set of cutlery pouches as a gift for someone I know likes the concept.
I used the docrafts folk Christmas kit. This included sheets of stick on initials.
Method: a 12 x 12 sheet is cut into three strips, each 4 inches wide. Each strip is folded at 8 inches to create a front flap half the height of the back. The sides of the pouch are stuck down with thin double sided tape
A belly band is created by cutting a 1 inch strip from some contrast paper, the strip wrapped round the pouch and fixed with double sided tape
A square (with corners rounded) of scrap paper is stuck over the join in the belly band and an initial stuck on the square
I used border patterns from my scan n cut to give top and bottom of each sheet a scallop edge but a border punch or pinking scissors would also work.
Four sheets of paper made nine pouches including belly bands and trim and a set of spare initials was included to cater for a range of guests.
Cutting fabric on the scan n cut
I have struggled to get the settings right, but may finally have sorted fabric cutting on the scan n cutcut speed four, blade four, pressure four on light cotton that has had heat n bond or bondaweb fused on the back and the paper peeled off i.e. stuck wrong side down directly on the mat
the fabric peeled easily off from the mat and was just ironed on to the suedette drawstring bag: hot iron- no steam and with an ironing cloth for protection
so here I have decorated some glasses bags in a festive style so they can be given another life as gift bags later this year
janecrafts 