Challenge: Handmade 2010 xmas

mary-op

Brilliant tea cozy :T Have you got a template for the basic shape ? I wouldn't be able to manage the little coat but might be able to do the snowman and scarf................my son always used a teapot and he'd love one for next year

My effort today a bit minimal...........made a heart shape from some black and white buttons.......don't have many of the red ones left but I can make it christmassy with a bit of silver ribbon.
Also made a sort of gift bag for my Weather Wally
and thats been my lot !

PootleFlump_3

mary-op wrote: »

Brilliant tea cozy :T Have you got a template for the basic shape ? I wouldn't be able to manage the little coat but might be able to do the snowman and scarf................my son always used a teapot and he'd love one for next year

My effort today a bit minimal...........made a heart shape from some black and white buttons.......don't have many of the red ones left but I can make it christmassy with a bit of silver ribbon.
Also made a sort of gift bag for my Weather Wally
and thats been my lot !

Hi Mary-op. Its from the Tilda Crafting for Xmas book but you would really need to make the coat as well as the arms are sewn onto the coat rather than the snowman itself. x

chasingsunshine_2

Hi everyone
Just need some help with cakes. I'm making mine (bit late eeek!) and wanted to do some mini ones in bean tins as mentioned here before, just wondering how long those little ones need in the oven and when you put them on? Can you get tiny cake boards?

pinktreefairy

hi everyone!! im new here but just wanted to say thanks for all the fantastic ideas and inspiration. im going to try and hand make as much as possible this year starting with a sock monkey later on today.

she_grinch

I made this for my kitchen to hold my tea towel and aprons! It's my pressie to myself

she_grinch

oops here it is

she_grinch

I am going to make shopping list boards in a similar way for my girls and of course, for myself
from this

and I will arrange the boards to look like this

just got to decorate them now

Rosanna79

RedCarBlonde
I made 'Merry Berry's Christmas Chutney' (BBC Good Food recipe) last year and it advised to wait for at least a month for flavour to develop but also the recipe said to use within 6 months so that was how I labelled it. We've just had an email from friends in Essex to say they've just opened it almost a year later and apparently it was fine, really tasty.

Hope it's Ok to post- haven't learned how to put photos onto my post yet. I'm an old bat and learn these technical things slowly!

So far this year I've made 25 jars of the Christmas chutney and having 1Kg of green tomatoes that wouldn't ripen whatever method we used at the rate of more than 1 per week! I turned that lot into 6 1/2 jars of green tomato chutney. Always seem to get a bit left over so that's for our use.

Friends keep asking if I'm making the Christmas Chutney again this year so it seems like an easy if unsurprising gift to make again.

I must confess I'm not as OS as some of the others here re jars. I love those small kilner TYPE jars from The Range and this year have acquired an awful lot. It's only my first year of being retired from a well paid job and the frugal lifestyle is something I'm still learning. I'm hoping to learn a lot more from this forum as time goes on. I love all your ideas.

Since I retired from an extremely busy job and not been one to sit idle I've doing all sorts of activities and courses.

Of everything I've done the thing that has most impressed me was a 5 week course I took last term in making bags from jeans etc. I have what I consider to be basic sewing /embroidery/ knitting skills.

Most women my age had to do all that at school but almost everyone speaks of their needlework / cookery teachers as dragons.. I hated those lessons at school.

My present tutor, however, is fabulous with a love of her subject and an inspiring way of teaching, especially how to use recycled materials as well as where to buy any new things at the best prices. I'm making a Christmas wall hanging at present in her embroidery class using entirely recycled materials.

From the bag class I've been inspired to make a lined denim tote bag for a family member who's a teacher . We all need a useful bag I think that will take something the size of an A4 folder but not a big shopping bag. It's meant to be one of those useful bags for the many occasions when we either want to carry or buy just a few bits. I've a freebie I got like that and that's where I got the idea.

Cutting out the outerbag from an old denim skirt, I'm lining it with an unpicked cotton apron in with a pocket. I've used part of the apron's waistband to trim an outer denin pocket for the bag.

It's still a work in progress ...

Troble is now I've lost a load of weight all my old denim stuff has become potential bags so rather than take it all down to the charity shops the house has become rather crowded with boxes of my potential craft materials. I need a bigger house!!!

Does anyone else have this problem?

she_grinch

Yes I am sure we all have this problem haha. I finally have been given the spare room for crafting but it is full of baby stuff DD3 is storing until she moves and now is rapidly becoming a dumping ground!!
I have all kinds of 'useful yet still rubbish' as my hubby calls it and would love a whole floor of the house for my beautiful things (my description this time!!!!)

Emzy81

Rosanna Im hoping to have that problem when ive lost weight

she grinch how do you make those lovely plaques? I especially love the one you've done for your kitchen its gorgeous