Lemax Christmas Village 2014 with Dept 56 Boat & Lighthouse

Free Christmas Bookmarks for Craft Fairs

I made these Christmas bookmarks to give away free at my Christmas Fair together with some mini candy canes

It draws the children to the stall and lets be honest who doesn't love a freebie

So help yourself 

Click the image

Right click 

and save to your computer 

 Print to suit

Lemax Christmas Village Dept 56

I know its only September, but the build has started, the Christmas Village 1st piece is put in place. I need it to be bigger to the left hand side and 2 tiered so the building continues

My OH is not really a DIY person so much planning and drawing has taken place. I know what my village must look like. Theres so many scraps of paper hanging about with ideas and drawings on them. I must organise them better. 

Whats in my head is not necessarily what I can translate for him to build

So watch this space

The first piece

It doesnt look much. But I think this is the third attempt at putting legs on and building a frame

In a previous post, I was going to build a barge scene into the village for a British feel, on reflection, I have decided to forget this idea as I`ve seen a ship for sale in America and am currently waiting for it to be imported, so have decided to go with the sea and harbour idea. 

The reason for this is because I`ve seen some telephone boxes and red post boxes I want which will provide the British feel

Also I want a ski lift / cable car , I have to re-think things a bit

I did purchase some cable cars, but they`re too small. So have them on ebay and will re-think that idea

Cadburys Dairy Milk Minitures - Santa

These are not difficult to make and are a firm favourite with my family

Firstly take some CDM minitures

Cut some red papers 

65 mm x 35 mm

At this point I like to leave the purple wrappers on, but remove them if you with

Wrap the CDM in double sided tape

When wrapped they will look like this

You can still see the gold wrapper inside

Cut a strip of black paper, I have not specified a size here as its personal choice 

Mine is 10mm

Attach to the red paper using double sided tape

 I then cut some buckles to place over the belt

The CDM looks like this finished

I packaged up my Cadburys Dairy Milk as shown with a cello bag and hand written label

Christmas is a coming - Santa Candy Canes

I have found another use for my candy canes. I`ve made them to hang on the tree or just to give as a little treat. 

I started with :-

A candy cane

Some scalloped circles , punched using a punch

A pink circle

A white circle 

Some white petals

A red ribbon

Fold the white scalloped circle down from the top and glue to a red scallop

Cut part of a pink circle to make a `face` (use a stamp pad to go around the edges to make the face pop) then stick to the white scallop 

Glue the white nose and petals to the face as shown

This one below has been `popped` the one above hasn't, which one do you prefer?

Use a red marker to draw a mouth onto Santa

Attach googly eyes

Fasten onto the candy cane, I used double sided tape and glue, the double sided to position on the cane and the glue for longevity

Attach one of the red circles at the back to neaten it up and to make the Santa more sturdy

Finish with a red ribbon

Here`s a twist, making a reindeer and a snowman, using the above technique

Recycled Kraft Card Christmas Reindeer

These are easy to make and they need to be as I produce 400 - 500 Christmas cards every year. I do keep around 50 for myself and then the others go to local charities

They`re simply a recycled craft card

Stamped with a reindeer

I am terrible at stamping and have sold most of my stamps

The nose and holly are coloured simply with pearlidoodles

they give the nose / holly a 3D effect 

The only variation on the cards is the sentiment, I`ve put Happy Christmas on some, Rudolph the red nose reindeer on other and some have no sentiment at all

Very effective I think you`ll agree

This is another `British` theme for the Christmas Village

I can hear you saying Christmas, its July

But I make lots of craft things and have to start now, so that the Christmas Village will be how I want it

These 13 pieces of paper are going to be a lock and barge boat, it will take a while to put together as each sheet has to be glued to cardboard of different weights

Well the cardboard is on and now I`m waiting for it to dry 

I can see this proving to be quite a challenge all those small pieces

Lemax Christmas Village - The Start

To start a village purchases are required

So to kick it off

A train set

This was purchased to give us an idea of the area we would need for the village

i want to make the village with a British twist so the Caledonian Belle was a good choice.

OH soon got it out of the box and has been `trying` it ever since

I then seen a Cable car and I just had to have it as it reminds me of Snow

Snow reminds me of Christmas, lots of logic there I see

Downside, I have to find a transformer as its a working item and will transport my skiers up the mountain , ( the one i haven't got)

If anyone spots a bandstand can they let me know

I`ve wanted a model bandstand for so long

Back again - Decoupaged Coffee table - Travel

First an apology

I have been absent from this blog for a while as I haven't really been thinking of Christmas

I have been making Christmas cards but they were simple ones as I needed a large quantity (500)

So with that in mind, here`s a little inexpensive gift you could make for someone special

I got mine in a skip, it was broken on the top (wish I`d photographed it)

And here it is:- 

A decoupaged coffee table

I used :- 

A coffee table from the skip, 

Backing papers

PVA Glue

Varnish

Travel slogans printed on my printer

I apologize in advance for not photographing it in each stage but I wasn't going to blog it. But I`ve decided to revive the blog to cataloge my diary of building a Christmas Village and other Christmas Craft Fair items

I digress - 

To make the coffee table, take some matching backing papers and tear into pieces.  The bigger the pieces the easier to work with on a big area

Paint a small part of the coffee table with PVA glue and place your first piece of paper on, any angle , any size.

Work a bit at a time or glue will dry before the next piece is applied

On placing the 1st piece of backing paper onto the glued section. Paint all over with the PVA. Continue to work all over the table. If like me you`d like slogans along the side, I found it best to decoupage the whole table sides included, then place the slogans on and paint PVA over the top.

I then applied small pieces of backing paper over the slogan , taking care not to cover the lettering.

These were also covered with PVA Glue, so the whole table was covered. 

I left this to dry overnight, I then applied 3 more thin coats of PVA glue drying between each coat. 

When totally dry, I vanished the table with 2 coats of varnish, drying between each coat

TOP TIPS

Dry thoroughly between each coat

Build layers up using thin coats of PVA then varnish

Now on Etsy for silhouette cameo / craft robo cutting files and Personalised Hand made cards to your requirements

Etsy Shop


Come and join m

On the move...

Hi


Now on Etsy for silhouette cameo / craft robo cutting files and Personalised Hand made cards to your requirements

Etsy Shop


Come and join me

Candy cane Reindeer, friendship teabags and cards

I made 30 cards at the weekend, but a friend was desperate for some to send to family so I had to let them go. I kept 3 as shown below and will have to crack on with mine

I also made a friendship teabag, all od 1 and some candy cane reindeer, these are sweet and are given to the smallies who come to see my christmas decorations every year

Bucilla Kits

One of the girls over on MSE bought one of these kits to make for xmas and I was so taken by it that I bought not 1 but 3

I cannot sew so this could be interesting. I am aiming to make these for Xmas 2014, plenty of time you say but bearing in mind I've just completed a scarf I been knitting for two years

I have purchased them on ebay from sellers in America so they took two weeks to come and there was no import duty tax because they were reasonably priced.

Ladies Beauty Bag

Over on MSE (my favorite forum) One of the girls has come up a challenge for us to get rid of our craft stash, so I joined

I have to make 500 items before I can purchase anything new

Technically these are not crafting but I used up bits I had around the house to make these little beauty bags, I made 6 for the girls in the family

The conditioner was in the £ shop

Shampoo and hot air oil boot sale big bag full for 50p

Tissues HB 5p

Soap was in the above bag

Bathbombs and pearls were collected over the year from gift sets I had given me

The bags I got from a warehouse when they were selling off a pack of 12 for £2

I got the bows at the smae warehouse

Decoupage Frames and boxes

I have some items in my craft room that were having no use whats so ever. So decided to jazz them up a bit

I took some glue and backing papers, which I tore into small pieces

I then coated a small part of the photo frame with some PVA glue 

Attached the small pieces of backing paper onto the glue 

Then painted some more PVA onto the top of the paper  to seal it 

Keep adding pieces until the frame is covered

Do a small section at a time as the glue dries quickly

If required put a final coat of PVA onto the frame to seal it

I did the same with the small boxes and made a matching set

Christmas Cards

I`m really struggling this year to make my Christmas cards, usually by this time I have made 200-400

I`m ashamed to say so far I have made .....2

I`ve shown them below

Christmas cards are easy to make, you can make them out of anything. Use your imagination and you can make them for virtually no cost. People say they are a waste of money, not very environmentally friendly and they are giving the money to Charity.

Remember charity cards in supermarkets sell at £2 a pack and 10p actually goes to the charity

I personally love to receive Christmas cards and keep them every year. When it gets near christmas, I take out my cards from the year before

If the person has passed away, I keep their cards and the rest I make gift tags out of

Christmas Cushions Reindeer

I was at a store this week and they had this lonely cushion that had a clearance price of £1, well |I took pity on it and it fell into my basket

I love the trend of reindeer at the moment but things are so expensive

So I took out my trusty cutting machine and using the iron on vinyl from Creative Transfers

I found a reindeer silhouette and cut it out

I then placed it on to the cushion and covered with a wax paper

And ironed it

I left the item to cool down and removed the protective film

I deliberately placed it as a jaunty angle because I never do anything straight and you only get one chance to iron this on

I think its come out great and will now hut for other cushions to make some more