Another easy Christmas Craft...

Cinnamon Christmas Tree

You will need:

Scraps of felt, buttons/embellishments, ribbon, cinnamon stick, scissors, glue.

Cut two triangle Tree shapes from the felt and put one to one side.

Play around with some embellishments for your tree. I used vintage buttons and ribbons – they also look great with broken jewellery and a sparkly ribbon.

If you are using ribbons – make them slightly wider than the tree so that they can tuck around the back of the tree and be stitched or glued down.

When you are happy with your design stitch or glue the items in place.

Add a thin ribbon folded in half to act as a hanger for your decoration.

Place the cinnamon stick on the plain tree shape and add some hot glue to it and to the edges of the tree. Place the decorated tree shape on top and press firmly down.

I normally give these a squirt of Christmas room spray to bring out the cinnamon smell – they make great festive air fresheners!

 

Hankerchief to bed quilt!

I'm having a sort through of all my vintage scraves and hankerchiefs today.

I have been collecting the hankies all year and wanted to make something out of them.

 

All so pretty and all so different,  from the Victorian era right through to the 1960's.

I've decided that I am going to stitch them together, crazy patchwork style and make either a duvet cover for the spring or a tablecloth for all those al fresco meals next summer.

I've seen this done with the blue and white stripy mens hankerchiefs and it looks fab!

It will depend how impatient I get - if patience runs out, it will be the tablecloth.

Until then, I shall carry on thrifting for them,
lovingly wash them, press them and squirell them away...
until I have enough of them to create something wonderful.

The art of thrifting...

Thought I might start to write a book...

 on the art and joys of thrifting!

 

After a serious morning's thrifting...this is what I've found today...

 

 

• A boxful of vintage glass Christmas decorations. I went into one shop and saw a similar box but they wanted £19.99 for them! This box cost me just £1.49
• Mother of pearl and assorted buttons :-) (You know how I LOVE my buttons!!)
• and a pure silk spotty and striped silk scarf 

 

So many people say to me "I never see anything like that when I go in there". So perhaps there is the need for a book devoted to the secrets of good and fruitful foraging/thrifting and squirrelling!

Watch this space!

 

Shabby Chic pressie to myself...

I wanted a nice shabby chic looking, floral chair for my sewing room and rather than spend a fortune on one, I decided to make one as a gift for myself, for all my hard work over the last year!!

 

 

 

I took one of our old Bentwood chairs that had some water damage on it and was in desperate need of a revamp... I covered it in napkin decoupage.

 Then I coated it in several layers of matt varnish...

 

I got the napkins from Tescos, although I think they look quite Kidstonesque!

Anyway, this is my homemade Christmas pressie from me, to me.

A chair for my sewing room :-)

What do you think of it?

Blogs are like buses...

I don't know about you - but for me blogs are like buses,

You don't get one for ages and then

three come along all at once...

 

Thought I'd share with you my latest paper and vintage button flower bouquets that I made today... -

 

Red and Gold hearts

 Making some more Christmas decorations. These are made from Fimo clay which air dries, so no need to bother with heating it/cooking it etc.

I rolled out the fimo clay onto a piece of greaseproof paper and then cut out the heart shapes with a cookie cutter.

I made a hole in the top of each one to thread my hanging ribbon/wire through and left them to dry. On two of them I made a small indenation (not going all the way through) so that I can add a pretty button (and shank) later.

 

When they had dried I painted them with some left over sample paint I had in a deep red colour.

I painted both sides and when dry, lay some odd scraps of lace ontop of them

 

I then sprayed the surface with gold paint and lifted off the lace. Some lace works better than others. I experiemented until i found a particular pattern that i liked and then used this "Fan" piece of lace to do most of them.

 

 

then I added some buttons and thin ribbon to hang.

 

I'm going to add these to some of my parcels this year, but they look equally as good as a tree/home decoration.

Thinking they would look great for a wedding gold or silver on white/ivory background??

Go share the love!

For a Nordic looking theme with this idea,

leave the hearts white and spray the lace red :-)

 

Easy Recyclng Christmas Craft ...

 

This cute little Christmas Wreath is soooooooo easy to make - just had to share it with you!

Use an old curtain ring and glue around its edge.

Then tightly wrap some ribbon or fabric around it.

Cut out some holly shapes from some felt scraps and add these with

a red button or two for the berries.

Make a matching set or all different!

Try decoupaging the ring, or gluing buttons all around!

So many ways to use this simple idea!

Watch this space for more recyling christmas crafts!

So much sparkle!

Waiting for some inspiration...

I'm drowning under "pretties".

I have way too many buttons, beads, lace and silks

Need to use up some of what I have before I buy anymore!

 

Made this Christmas/Wedding decoration from some of my gold buttons...

 

This one's sold :-)

 

so am looking forward to making something out of this lot...

 

I feel a real vintage sparkler of a bridal bouquet coming on...

Watch this space!

 

FREE Training for Small Businesses!!!

Hi Everyone!

Those of you who know me, know that I wear several caps in my working life... So with my trainer/tutor cap on...

 

Several of you have taken advantage of the free courses I've been organising. If you missed the first round of funding to train small businesses, you can now reapply for this lot.
Must be a small business (sole trader up to 250 employees)

in the North Kesteven Area, over 19 years of age.

Fully funded training available in the following: 

 HABC Level II Award in Safe Moving and Handling (QCF)
HABC Level II Award in Health and Safety in the Workplace (QCF)
HABC Level II Award in Food Safety in Catering (QCF)
EDI Level II Award in Conflict management and personal Safety in the workplace.

 

All of them are FREE (funded by European Social Fund and Lincolnshire County Council). All are one day courses. Once you have completed any of the above courses you will also be entitled to a FREE First Aid Course and certificate. 

 

Please email me on anniefloribunda@yahoo.com (or comment on here)your name, name of business and course you are interested in - I will then send you more information and check you are eligible for funding.

Any questions - just ask.

Many thanks Annie

Beautiful Buttons...

Just wanted to share these beaut's with you which I gleaned from a tin of old buttons - I especially love the navy glass snowdrop ones - FAB!

 

 

Also in this "find" were some unusual carved wooden head ones. I would think these are probably from the 1930's when people were obsessed with the Eygptian tombs and other ancient worlds...

 

 

Love my buttons!!