Mini Christmas cards

Christmas card making in early November, that's strange and just so not me right? Well don't panic I'm not that organised with my own Christmas preparations.
You would of seen many posts if your a regular reader about my work with Sewing for Charity Australia, these cards are all part of our current project.
We are putting together gifts for two different organisations this year and it was decided to add a handmade card to each of them.

I put my hand up to make some, I'm not much help with the sewing of bags and such my card making is perfect for me.
These are mini cards, just a little something we can write a short message in to let them know someone is thinking of them.
I had a handful of Christmas embellishments that  I used on some of the cards, the rest I used my Christmas stamps and some watercolours. Nice and simple yet look great.

Keep checking back there will be more Christmas themed projects coming soon.


Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Get organised for Christmas

How early do you start planning and getting organised for Christmas ? I was chatting with a friend last week and mentioned that I should start to get myself organised, her reply was "but its months away".
Yes, it is months away just over 4, but if your the creative time then now (or earlier for some) is the time to start getting your lists made and making gifts.
We have a family birthday on the last day of this month so normally I wait until we celebrate that then I move onto getting everything planned and my lists in order. This has worked for me in the past so am sticking with it until it doesn't. With my charity work this year I'm going to have to be on the ball and very organised, so my lists will start to get made next week.

I try to get as many handmade gifts made as possible, but there are some on my list that I cant make for. I also make all my own cards as well as tags, so will get some designs for these drawn out too.

How early are you planning for Christmas? Please share your ideas for keeping organised with us in the comments below.


Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Christmas - Cross stitch cards

Merry Christmas, I hope that everyone had a lovely day however you chose to spend it.
This year I wanted to make a few special Christmas cards and was inspired by the cross stitch ornaments turn some into cards.

I wanted to keep them fairly simple, I learnt that it might pay to use a cloth with a wider weave next time. My designs were quite small and as the cloth had a small weave it looked a little empty.
As much as I liked them, they were time consuming and I think if I did them again I would rethink the design of the card.

Have a couple more Christmas posts to share over  the next few days including a special gift I made a special little man.


Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Christmas - Weaving a little different

Awhile ago now I found this rather large embroidery hoop whilst thrifting and thought hmm I need that. It then sat in my cupboard for months forgotten. Whilst sorting after our move I cam across it again and decided it was going to get used.
What to use it for wasn't the easiest decision, I really didn't relish the idea of doing such a large cross stitch. I though about a mixed media style stitching but that didn't really excite me either. I had just finished doing a weaving for a customer when I had the idea that a round weaving would be really cool.

It took quite a few goes at working out how to go about it but I worked it out then has so much fun with it. It did get a little tricky the closer I got to the outside, which is why I left a bit of a gap.
It has now been gifted and the new owner loves it so that makes me happy. Another successful handmade Christmas gift crossed of my list.




Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Christmas - Gift tags

You have spent many hours making gifts for family and friends or roamed the shops looking for the perfect gift and its all wrapped nicely. All it needs now is a tag so when its retrieved from under the tree who ever is handing out gifts knows who to give it to.
You could always buy the many different christmas tags available at the shops, but if your a crafter like me then you may decide to make your own tags.

I had a stockpile of Kraft tags in my stash and with a quick browse through pinterest and motivated by my cross stitch ornaments I came up with a few ideas.
Some crochet stars, some red and white buttons, and a little more cross stitch, attach some twine to the tops  and I had a nice pile of tags all ready to add to gifts.

How are you going with your gifts are you all done ? I have all my gifts brought and made, I just have to wrap them all now.


Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Christmas - Crochet ornaments

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas around here, the tree is up and the house is decorated. Each year even though you painstakingly wrap and store them the year before you will get breakages - or is that just me?
One way to make sure that nothing breaks is to crochet some ornaments for your tree. This year I have done a few for friends, you saw in my last post the cross stitch ones I did, today i'm sharing some crochet ornaments.

Some cute little baubles, which were simple to make, circles with a little bit of silver for the top. Wreaths are cute you just need a small circle, I used a vintage curtain ring.
Lastly the glittery shapes made just adding some fine silver to my crochet cotton.

There are so many ideas around, you could do Christmas trees, Santa hats, stockings or even Santas. have you made any decorations this year? Would love to see, please share a link below.



Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Christmas - Cross stitch ornaments

Hands up if you love receiving handmade gifts ? I do, and I love making them and giving to family and friends. Ornaments are always a nice small thing to create and give at this time of this year and there are so many you can hand make.

I made a few of these Embroidery hoop ornaments last year and they were popular so I decided to make more this year. You can pick up the tiny embroidery hoops quite cheap as well as some Aida cloth or you could just use calico.
I picked a few designs from my Christmas cross stitch collection and got busy.

As they are only tiny and I didn't pick designs that were too complicated, they didn't take that long to make, one night in front of the TV sometimes two for each hoop.

I have a few more posts to come in my  handmade Christmas so keep a watch out for the next one!

Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

December Creative goals

With a blink of an eye the silly season has arrived, anyone feel like they are still trying to get over last years Christmas?
As a new month starts its time to set some new goals, but first how did I go last month?
Well I didn't get everything ticked of the list, but in my defence it was a super hot November so crocheting took a backseat.
I did get a start on the Christmas gifts though and got a bit more done than I had hoped, still so much to do and I haven't even started on cards yet!

So this months goals.....
I'm going to be totally realistic knowing that I have my birthday as well this month and the kids coming down for a weekend.
The only goals I'm setting this month:
Finish all handmade Christmas gifts!!!
I think I'm going to be flat out getting that done so if I manage anything else then its a bonus.
What goals are you setting this month?

Thanks for visiting
Lis :)

Handmade Gift giving - Christmas ornaments

Merry Christmas to you all, I hope that you all had a magical Christmas Day!
Earlier in the year I talked alot about handmade gifts, and now that Christmas has come and gone and everyone has received their gifts I can finally share some of the things I made.
Mostly I made things that could be used around the home or hung on the wall (shares to come soon) but I had two special ladies to make something small for and having made lots of things for them in the past I decided to make them their own ornament for the Christmas tree.

I found a couple of little frames in my stash and luckily had some suitable cloth and got busy stitching some cute Christmas designs.
It has been a long long time since I last cross stitched and after a couple of false starts I got the hang of it again.
The cutest Christmas Elf and Owl all ready to hang on the tree.
Thank you to my instagram crafty ladies for help with how to finish the back off  neatly!

I will be back over the next week or so to share more of the handmade gifts that I made this year!

Did your receive any handmade gifts this year ? Would love for you to share, leave me a link below.

Thanks for stopping by
Lis :)

Christmas mail art

So you have your gifts all wrapped up and the tags attached, you have Christmas cards written up and ready to send, you stick them in a boring white envelope.
Let's help make the postman and the recipients day a little nicer by decorating the envelope! Yes I know this takes up more time that you might not have but wouldn't you like to receive something pretty in the mail.

You could use christmas tape and stickers or even cut outs from last years cards or you could get creative like I have and use a black felt pen and water colour paints. You dont have to go all Van Gough, just keep it simple with Christmas lights, trees or presents.

The bottom envelope I used a cut out from a magazine, your options to make an envelope look festive are endless.


Thanks for stopping by.
Lis :)

Creative Christmas wrapping

 It's that time of year again when we have a ton of presents to wrap, tags to add and cards to write. I do try each year to wrap up my gifts creatively and mostly I succeed.
I do have to admit that its only some of the gifts that I take the time to be creative though. The boys and hubby's gifts which just get ripped apart Christmas morning, just get Christmas paper and sometimes curling ribbon.
This year I decided to us plain brown paper and pretty it up with some Christmas themed bits and bobs I already had. Some Christmas serviettes, fancy toilet paper - sssh its pretty no one will ever know  - and lots of ribbons, add some cute buttons and some Ikea tags and I was pretty happy with it all.
 

 Tags have to be the simplest yet most frustrating thing for me to make. I always struggle to work out what to do each year, so I went searching on Pinterest for some inspiration and created some simple but workable tags.

 

I mentioned in my previous post about Christmas cards how I wasn't going to make them this year  but caved and made a handful. Well after wrapping up some zentangle gifts i decided to try out some cards and see how they went. I ended up making a whole heap and didn't have to buy any cards at all.
So simple to make, a good black felt pen and some watercolours.

Do you get creative with your Christmas wrapping ? Please share links to what you have done or anything you are inspired by.

Thanks for stopping by
Lis :)

Sending a little bit of Christmas

Do you still send out Christmas cards ? My list is getting smaller and smaller every year but I still like to send out a handmade card to family and dear friends.

We get so many bills in the mail that at this time of the year it brings a little bit of joy to find something Christmas in the mail box. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way, which is part of the reason why I keep sending out cards rather than emails.

I nearly didn't make any cards this year, I was struggling to find the motivation, but at the last minute before I went out and brought some I got the inspiration needed and made up some simple cards.

I have created some doodled Christmas cards and some tags and will be back to show you those later in the week,

Thanks for stopping by
Lis :)