and one more thing....

I WON!

I am very excited to have won the Birdie Know-it-all contest with my Paper Christmas Wreath Tutorial. I just had an email from the lovely Gisele with the news. What a great Christmas present! Click here to see the announcement and the long list of wonderful prizes.

Thanks Gis!

I really am siging off now... at least until next week. Happy Holidays.

Lisa : )
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And Another Lovely Paper Wreath

I'm back! I did say I'd post before New Year if I had something that I just had to share with you... and this is just the thing. Katie emailed me these pictures of her lovely paper Christmas wreath. As always, I'm thrilled to receive emails about the wreaths you've made from my tutorial.

Katie said (shared with her permission):
Your tutorial was perfect, I had much success with the paper wreath project. And best of all, all of the supplies were lying around my house. My head is swimming with color and paper ideas for more, and recipients who would LOVE this!!! Can't thank you enough.

Thanks for sharing the photos Katie. I love the colours you used - your wreath looks great.


Goodbye again 'til 09.

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Another Paper Christmas Wreath from my Tutorial

I'm excited to have another beautiful Christmas Wreath to share with you... this one was made by Amy. She emailed me saying (shared with Amy's permission):

I wanted to write and thank you for the paper wreath tutorial and show you a photo of my finished wreath!
I found the tutorial easy to follow and appreciated all the photos. I didn't have a red ribbon on hand so just made binding from some red Ikea material I had at home. I used one piece of wrapping paper from Kikki K (about $4) which has the red design on one side and the white on the other, so as I went I just flipped the paper over according to which side I though should come next. I made the leaves about 10cm long and was able to cut about 64 from the one sheet of wrapping paper. I didn't need to use them all.
I'm really pleased with the finished product, so many thanks again!

Thanks Amy for sharing the photo and your resourceful tips. Your wreath looks fantastic and I'm glad to hear you found the tutorial easy to follow.

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Beautiful Paper Christmas Wreaths

I was thrilled last night to receive an email from Joelle, showing me photos of the gorgeous paper Christmas wreaths and advent calendar she'd made from my tutorials. Thanks so much for sharing these photos Joelle - you did and amazing job! Your email made my day.

You can see my paper wreath tutorial here and the advent calendar tutorial here.

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One Pretty Thing

Thanks to Rachel of One Pretty Thing for featuring my advent calendar, my paper Christmas wreath and Christmas bauble tutorials. And hello to Rachel's readers who have found their way here.

If you don't know One Pretty Thing be sure to check it out - it's a fabulous resource for tutorials on all things handmade. Rachel features dozens of new things every day from all over the blogosphere... a huge amount of work to collate, I don't know how she does it.

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Crafting With Kids: Christmas Decoration Tutorial

Hello! I have moved my blog to a new home. You can find this tutorial at the red thread blog's new address. Just click here.

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Advent Calendar Treats

Tomorrow is the first of December and Roxy can't wait to wake up in the morning to start the advent calendar. I've assembled most of the treats, and will add the few remaining ones as the month goes on. This is what I have so far:
• Lots of written treats. Things like fish and chips picnic dinner on the beach, going to the craft supply shop to get some new supplies, face painting with mummy (Roxy loves having her face painted), Roxy's choice of what we'll do for a day, a day at the 'flying fox' park, a ferry ride, etc.
• Some alphabet stamps and a stamp pad.
• A silver unicorn ring
• A lollypop
• A butterfly necklace
• A flower craft punch
• A couple of lollies
• A butterfly ring
• Some little post-it notes with hearts on them
• A bottle of pink nail polish (Roxy went ga ga over this in a shop recently)
• A sparkly hair clip

Have you got an advent calendar organised?

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Paper Christmas Wreath Tutorial

Hello! I have moved my blog to a new home. You can find this tutorial at the red thread blog's new address. Just click here.
Thanks,
Lisa
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Advent Calendar Tuesday... On Friday

It's getting so close to December that I wanted to show you my advent calendar finds before Tuesday.

I love this one, in fact I wanted to buy it last year but they sold out before I had a chance. It's made from timber and has sweet little draws with ribbon pulls. Available here from Papier D'Amour.

A few weeks ago I did a scout around etsy and surprisingly there wasn't much choice, but now there is a lot more - have a look here. These are my etsy picks. (click on the photo captions below to go directly to the item on etsy)

Matryoshka advent calendar from Thymbyl designs.
Timber advent calendar from Scrapcolour.
Fabric slipper advent calendar from The Great Craft Disaster.

White burlap advent calendar from Tiny Nest Creations.
Advent calendar pouches from Nuvonova.

Paper advent calendar from Nouveau Designs.
And if you're making your own advent calendar these fab number tags from Shabby Chic Crafts would look great.

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Advent Calendar Tuesday... Tah Dah!

Hello! I have moved my blog to a new home. You can find this tutorial at the red thread blog's new address. 

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Advent Calendar Tuesday

It's Tuesday - time for the next installment of my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants advent calendar tutorial.

You can see my previous posts in this series here.

This week I designed the numbers. I looked at various fonts and decided on the old classic: Times New Roman. You'll see on the left of the photo I played around with various colour combinations until I was happy. I chose one colour combo to use on the red cones and another for the white ones. Then I printed them out and cut around the edge of each circle.

I created my number tags in Adobe Illustrator, but you don't need fancy software to make something similar. Just create the numbers in any software program, making sure you leave enough space around them for the circle background. Print your page out, place a coin or round object of the right size over each number, trace around it and cut the circles out. Or easier still a craft punch would do a perfect job. Then cut larger circles out of a different coloured paper and glue them behind the small ones to form a coloured edge. An easy alternative is to check out the huge variety of rub-down or stick-on numbers, papers and tags at a scrapbooking supply shop. Of course your tags can be any shape or size so experiment until you find something you like.

Next I punched holes in the top of each cone with a standard office hole punch. Then I cut lengths of twine, tied a knot in the end and threaded the loop through the hole in the cone. You could use plain string or a coloured ribbon to hang your cones. I found the perfect coloured twine for my project in the Christmas decoration section of Ikea.


The number tags were then attached to the cones with double sided tape.

I hung the cones on the branches so I could show you how they look, but before you do that the next step would be to secure your birds to the branches. You'll probably have to take the branches out of your vase to do this. Sew through the underside of the bird and wrap the thread around the branch several times. Do this in two places under each bird, so it looks like it's the bird's feet hanging on to the branch. Use either an embroidery thread that matches the colour of the branch or you might prefer something that contrasts.

Once you've attached the birds arrange the branches in your vase, using scrunched up newspaper to secure them in place. Then hang the cones at various heights from the branches, making sure your numbers are sequential.


I haven't had a chance to cover my vase yet, but that will be next week's installment. You'll need a piece of wrapping paper or fabric, double sided tape and some ribbon or twine.

After that all that's left to do is gather the treats.

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Advent Calendar Tuesday

OK, so I think I was getting a bit ahead of myself offering a weekly tutorial for my advent calendar! In my usual style I am winging it, no pun intended (the pun reference will become apparent in a minute). I have a vision of the finished piece and I have started to make various components, but how it will come together in the end is still negotiable. Having said that, I have provided a tutorial below of what I've done so far, and I will continue to update you every Tuesday.

My idea is based around wanting to make these gorgeous birds from a pattern I downloaded from Spool earlier this year.

Image Source: Spool

Click here to go to Spool, and you'll see the free pattern download in the left sidebar.

I showed you my materials and colour palette last week - here. And here are my little Christmas birdies:


My birds are made out of wool felt, which I embroidered, and pieces of Florence Broadhurst fabric. I will have to make some more, because I think they might be a bit lonely on the big branches.

At the moment I am thinking that the birds will sit on found branches (from around my neighbourhood) which are placed in a vase. The vase is cylindrical and I'll cover the outside with wrapping paper. You can see from the photo above that I have stuffed the inside with newspaper to hold the branches in place.

I've used Laikonik wrapping paper to make little cones which will hang from the branches and house the treats. I cut squares which measure 16 x 16cm and attached double sided tape to one edge on the back of the paper. Then I rolled up the cones and secured them with the tape. It wasn't difficult, but if you have trouble making the cones you could use something like the metal end of a piping bag to help with the shape.

A few things to note if you are going to make an advent calendar like mine:
1. I think the cones are too big - with 24 of them I'm going to need a lot of branch space! And they are a bit big in comparison to the birds. The size will depend on what you intend to put inside, and how big you want the whole advent calendar to be. 10 x 10cm might be a good size, but just experiment with some scrap paper first (like I didn't!)
2. The wrapping paper I used is very stiff and quite heavy. It won't work if your paper is too flimsy. You could always use a double layer if necessary - perhaps a contrasting colour or complimentary pattern for inside the cones.
My intention is to punch a hole in the top point of each cone and thread string or ribbon through to secure it to a branch. Then I need to decide how I'll add the numbers. I'll work that out by next Tuesday!

So far my materials are:
- heavy wrapping paper (or light weight card)
- double sided tape
- wool felt
- embroidery thread
- fabric
- stuffing
- found braches
- newspaper
- vase

Additional materials will include:
- ribbon or string
- numbers (perhaps little tags, or number stickers that scrapbookers use)

And treats of course.

Before I wrap up Advent Calendar Tuesday I thought I'd show you another idea I had. I bought a stack of Chinese take away containers to package my hand painted goose eggs in, and when I spied them in the cupboard this week I thought they would make a stylish and simple advent calendar. They could be hung in a row from a string, or sit on a tray or directly on a mantle, shelf or side table.

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How many days?

I must check in with my friend who is counting down the days til Christmas. By my calculation it's about four and a half weeks until the beginning of December - I can't bring myself to count the days - which is when I will have to have my advent calendar completed. I am finally getting around to making one for Roxy. I've been meaning to do it for a couple of years and figure if I get started on it now I might just be able to cross it off my list this year.

I love the idea of the advent calendar and can't wait to see the anticipation and excitement on Roxy's face each morning when she gets to open a little package. I might even take a photo each day to record it for her. Sometimes there will be sweet treats, but there will also be notes saying something like Today Mummy and Daddy will take you for a swim and a watermelon picnic, or Today we'll go to the craft shop and you can choose some things, or Tonight we will eat at your favourite restaurant. Of course I will do some swapping of treats the night before so things fit in with our schedule the following day!

At the moment I have chosen materials and have a rough idea of what form I want the advent calendar to take. I'll keep you posted on the progress and will include a progressive tutorial each Tuesday for the next 4 weeks.You'll see from the photo below my colour palette and material selection: wrapping paper, cotton fabric scraps, wool felt (or you may prefer to use more fabric) and embroidery thread (optional). There will be more materials required, which I will list next week, but these are the ones to start thinking about as they will provide the pattern and colour. Next Tuesday I'll show you my idea and outline the project. It would be fun if we could do it together. Your advent calendar needn't follow my tutorial - you could create something original. I'll find some examples to inspire you and post them later this week. I'd love it if you were to email me photos of your finished advent calendar creations and I'll share them here. Are you in?

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