Easy Christmas Gifts that kids can make for their friends

Every year my kids love to write Christmas Cards to all the friends in their class. Most kids also include a candy cane or chocolate santa in with their cards. This year with two boys at school we need 52 gifts to make sure every child in each class got one.

So I decided to do something a bit different. My son had learnt at school how to make his own sherbet. So we set about making green and red sherbet. If you need a sherbet recipe click here.

We then packaged the sherbet into tiny clip seal plastic bags and included a green or red lollipop for dipping! We tied the whole lot together in a plastic bag with ribbon and attached a mailing label to each one.

On the mailing labels we decorated one side with washi tape and the other side I print out little messages to stick on each one. The message read:

 

Here’s some Yummy Elf Dust,

To spread the Christmas Cheer,

And say thank you for being my friend,

Throughout our first Prep year.

(or other variation “throughout our Year 2 year”)

 

Love from Charlie.

This was a really simple gift, but was much more personal than store bought cards and candy canes.

Next time I’ll show you an easy Secret Santa gift.

Let the Gift Giving Begin!

December is usually my busiest craft month. I try and give as many Handmade Gifts as possible. So this month I thought I would just share with you my Christmas Gift Crafts as I won’t be doing much blog specific crafting.Most of them won’t be Burlap. However, I hope they inspire you just as much as my Burlap gifts and give you some ideas to create your own Handmade Gifts.

Luckily my Husband never reads my Blog – so let’s start with him.

Recently we went to Hamilton Island in Queensland for a holiday. Whilst we were there I was able to do a painting class. It was so lovely to spend 2 hours re-visiting a medium I haven’t used in years. Inspired by the class and the beautiful Hamilton Island scenery, I came home and created this painting for my Husband.

He loves sailing and Hamilton Island is famous for it’s race week. So I downloaded some photos of the Hamilton Island Race week for inspiration and crated this acrylic on canvas. Once dried I then applied a resin glaze to give it some extra shine and make it really pop. I framed it in a frame from IKEA.

One down, about 20 more to go!

Heart Shaped Pocket Warmers Tutorial

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my heart shaped pocket warmers which I made for Mary for the last Handmade Swap I participated in. Even though Spring has sprung here in Australia, I thought these might come in handy for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who are just about to embark on your cool season.

So here is the tutorial of how I made them:

1. Cut two heart shapes out of felt. I used a printed felt for the front and a solid yellow for the back.

2. Place hearts wrong sides together and stitch around the edge leaving a 2 cm opening.

3. Insert a funnel into the opening and pour in enough rice to fill the pouch.

4. Pinch opening closed and stitch opening closed.

5. When you are ready to use the pocket warmers, simply place in the microwave for 30 seconds on  high and insert into pockets.

These are a lovely gift for Christmas tied together with ribbon and a small gift tag explaining how to use them.

If you are looking for other easy to make gifts, I am running a free 30 minute workshop at the Brisbane Craft Fair 16th – 20th October 2013 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. It runs daily at the fair at 1.30pm in Workshop 4. I will be showing you 3 easy Christmas Gifts to make in 10 minutes or less. So if you are coming to the Fair be sure to stop by and say hi!

Presents in the Post! The Handmade Swap

Last week I received the best present in the mail. It was my gift for The Handmade Swap. I was so excited to open it. Chris made me the most gorgeous apron, which will match perfectly with my new kitchen. Thankyou so much Chris!

If your not a member of The Handmade Swap and you would like to join and send and receive Handmade Gifts 5 times a year, you can join here.

My Swap Goodies! Ready to go for The Handmade Swap!

It’s been a busy few weeks with the Ekka and getting ready for my first swap in The Handmade Swap. The Handmade Swap is an organised craft swap in Australia where members send each other Handmade Gifts 5 times a year. It’s really cool and lots of fun.So this swap I had to send something to Mary who lives on farm and loves bright colours. So made her all these goodies and sent them off.

I made a document wallet out of Burlap, lined with a printed cotton with little chickens on it – perfect for farm business files! I love this document wallet so I am going to make the pattern available in my online store soon.

I also sent her two heart shaped felt pocket warmers. You just pop them in the microwave 30 seconds and then put them in your pockets to keep you hands warm, perfect for this time of year.

And then finally I made her a modern take on the old crochet tea towels. The hanging crochet tea towels are so practical (especially with a 1 year old in my house who pulls down the tea towel at least 6 times a day!), but I don’t know how to crochet. So this was my fabric interpretation of the crocheted tea towel. I think it turned out quite well, so I will also add the pattern for this soon.

I sent the items off about 2 weeks ago and yesterday received a lovely letter in the mail from Mary telling me how much she loved them all! Now I can’t wait for the next swap!

So with lots of patterns to get ready, it’s back to the studio for me!

Entries for the Royal Show

Tis that time of year again in Brisbane when the Ekka comes to town. The Ekka is the Agricultural Show when ‘country comes to the city’. It’s also the most competitive show in the State for Crafters. This year I’ve opted to enter three categories:

• Funky Fabrics and Wearable Art
• Christmas Decorations
• Childrens Toy

And for once, I’m actually somewhat organised.

So I thought I would share with you what I am making. The first is the Christmas decorations. Given many people celebrate ‘Christmas in July’ now is a good time to share with you my Burlap Christmas Trees.

Here’s the final product:

If I were displaying them around the home, I would probably sit them on top of wine or champagne glasses at varying heights, but for now, they are just sitting on the table.

To make, they are really simple. Take a large sheet of cardboard (I used old manilla folders) and roll them around using one corner as the point to form a cone shape.

Sticky tape the cone shape to hold in place, and trim the bottom with scissors so it is level.

Paint the cone with PVA glue. Lay on a corner of Burlap and roll to cover. Overlap the end about 1 cm then trim the burlap. You will need to apply more PVA to the Burlap where it overlaps so it sticks together.

Trim the Burlap at the top and then the bottom leaving a 2cm edge at the bottom. Then apply more PVA glue around the inside bottom edge and fold in the Burlap and glue down.

Once dry, you can then embellish with ribbons, sequins and beads using a hot glue gun to apply them.

As Burlap comes in so many great colours, you can make trees to suit any colour scheme. And the best part is how affordable they are. So if your celebrating Christmas in July, get busy with these Burlap Trees for your centrepiece, or you may like to get an early start on some fresh decorations for this Christmas.

Next week I’ll show you my funky fashion, wearable art entry.

Australian craft swap

Don’t you just love receiving handmade gifts? I do. That’s why I’m thinking of starting an Australian craft swap. Basically If you join, 5 times a year I will send you the name and address of another member and you make them something fabulous, then post it off to them. At the same time you will receive a beautiful handmade gift in post from someone else! Cool huh?You can bake, sew, photograph, craft, make cards, sculpture whatever you like as long as its handmade.I’m trying to get an idea of whether there is enough interest in Australia, so if this sounds like something you’d like to do simply leave a comment ‘I’m in’ and I will post more details shortly if we get enough interest. Be sure to ask any of your crafty friends and family to.

It will only be open to Australian members to minimise postage costs.

So lets share the handmade love!