The Toy Soldier

As I mentioned yesterday this is my current favourite

Sizzix/Alterations Bigz Die called

'Toy Soldier'.

I think I like it so much because it reminds me of

the fairytale 'The Tinder Box' by Hans Christian Anderson.

Not that the soldier in the story was a toy one, and having

just re-read the story as an adult it's a little bit unsavoury - lol.

I thought the soldier was a good guy, but he cut off the witch's

head when she wouldn't tell him why the tinder box was so special -

oh well, never mind, I still love this Bigz Die.

I decided to make some bunting with it and it

became advent present number 19 for my swap partner Victoria.

I cut the soldiers from felt and card,

 painted their legs, boots and faces

and grunged them up with some pencil.

I stitched them with military looking buttons onto some navy ribbon.

Following the tutorial on YouTube

'How to make a box from a single sheet of card'

I did just that and decorated it with some

old sheet music and another of the soldiers.

This is probably my favourite of all the gifts I made

and I think I'll be using the die over and over again.

.... shame I'm now dis-illusioned about that soldier in

The Tinder Box story though -

 next I'll find out that Father Christmas doesn't really exist!!!!

Thanks for looking :)

 

Christmas Cards

I used inspiration from Tim Holtz blog

12 tags of 2012 - December

to create these two Christmas cards.

For the snowman I used the stamp from

Stampers Anonymous 'Christmas Blueprint' set.

For the poinsettia I used the Sizzix/Alterations

Bigz Die 'Tattered Poinsettia' and

Sizzix 'Corners, Flourish #2'

I also made this one in a similar style.

I first die cut from mountboard the 

'Toy Soldier'

Sizzix/Alterations Bigz Die,

then stamped the toy soldier onto it from

the Stampers Anonymous 

'Christmas Blueprint' set.

The rubber stamp is slightly smaller than

the die cut shape, but it was much easier doing it

that way than having to cut around the rubber stamped image.

I think the Toy Soldier is my (latest) favourite

and I'll do another posting using it shortly.

Thanks for looking in at this very busy time :)

More Advent Presents

 

Here are the pressies from days 8 to 15

I received from Victoria.

The photograph isn't very good, but all the

gifts are wonderful - look at the mini pink and green

bunting, it's so delightful as are the handmade

rose stud earrings and the crocheted jar cover. 

 

Thanks again Victoria!

 

Some of the gifts I handmade for Victoria are below.

 

 

 A fabric heart pocket.

 

 

 A Post-It note holder, fabric covered

and the square is a little tile.

The inside looks like this.

 

 

A Shamballa style bracelet.

This is actually the first one I ever made

and I chose two of Victoria's favourite colours - pink and green.

 

 

Finally, one of Victoria's likes is bunting so I made her

some with her name on it - the fabric letters are from

the 'Word Play Alphabet' Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bigz die.

.. also made a pretty box for it to go in.

 

 

I must take this opportunity of showing a wonderful gift

I received from a lovely Blogging friend

Sherry of Createology

It's a felt envelope embellished with some

gorgeous postcard fabric.

Here's the front, and you can see some

postcards Sherry enclosed from her home town.

 

 

I've just realised I didn't photograph it closed

so you can't see the cute little buttons sewn on the flap.

Thanks again Sherry (SSD!), and as you already know,

I absolutely love it!

 

 I hope all your Christmas preparations

are going to plan - I've wrapped most of my presents, although

still several to buy - and I haven't posted my UK cards yet!

Sorry, I haven't visited many blogs recently, but I'll try

to come and see you soon.

 

Thanks for looking x

Christmas is Coming .....

These are the 25 parcels (and Christmas card)

I prepared for my partner

Victoria 

for the Christmas Advent Swap.

I hand made 12, shop bought 10 and found 3

from my craft stash.

I'll only blog about the ones I made.

 

So far, Victoria will have opened from me

an Emery Board Holder

 

 

Details of how I made this are shown here.

A mobile phone charm which I didn't photograph - doh!

A festive bird cage decoration.

 For this I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix 

Caged Bird Bigz die.

 

I covered the bird with music paper, coloured with

some distress inks and added a layer of Sparkle Mod Podge.

The Poinsettia flowers along the bottom

I made some time ago and found the

 blog post describing how I made them here.

 

Now onto the pressies I received from Victoria -

how exciting!!

 

This is the box I received

 

 

and here's the presents for days 1 to 7

 

 

Victoria is a keen crocheter and I love in particular

 the crocheted mug holder

(not to mention the sachets of hot chocolate!).

The heart shaped cookie cutter came with a recipe

for 'Gorgeous Gingerbread' - sounds yummy!

Today's gift was the bar of SeaSalt / Fresh Linen soap -

which smells divine.

 

Thank you Victoria!

Curious Corrin - hanging and card

 

I made this hanger for the lovely Cindy's birthday.

As you can probably see it's made of three mini

canvases linked together with ribbon.

As I decided to use one of Dyan's fun 'dylusions' stamps

'Curious Corrin' I thought I'd try out one of her

wonderful background techniques too - using an

assortment of ink sprays and getting generally messy!

I must admit I didn't find it as easy as Dyan made it look

but liked the results anyway.

I also made a card, which I got a bit carried away with

I got so carried away with it that I thought I'd overdone it

completely and it was heading for the bin.

However, once I held Corrin against it (stamped onto card

and attached with 3D sticky pads) I quite liked it ...

in fact, I liked it better than the hanging - how funny!

The main thing though, is that Cindy liked it,

so all's well that end's well!