Kid's Craft Wreaths

Monday 23 December 2013

By now most children have broken up from school for the holidays. So what can they make whilst you run about finalising Christmas that is fun, festive and to make you very proud?

Try one of these wreaths...

These wreaths made from papier mache (leave 24 hrs to dry before decorating) and rice /pva and pom-poms. The creations are perfect for pre-Christmas crafts and extra decs too.

My two year old made the papier mache version with feathers and golden stars. A very proud Mummy.

The rice and pom-poms version was made using a paper plate with a hole cut out as the base. We wrapped ribbon around it and glued on the pom-poms.


Easy and so, so much fun. You may keep them for next year!

With love to all those busy Mummies,


The Best Panettone Recipe - Ever!

Try making an Italian Christmas Cake this year and make it tomorrow. It's amazing...believe me.
 
The best panettone recipe!

Enjoy, I'm making more today...

Samantha

Handmade Bath Bombes

Sunday 22 December 2013
Last year I made these... 

Bath Bombes, I gave them as presents last Christmas and my friends loved them. I was really touched! I wrapped them in little acetate bags and tied the tops with raffia.
They started with these...
Here are a few pictures from the post...
bath bombe hearts

Devonshire lavender I picked on holiday



 I was so flattered when Canny Crafty made these...
                               
They are gorgeous little mince pie bath bombes. How pretty?

I would love to make more bath bombes, if you have a recipe please share...

Happy Crafting,
 
 

Chocolate & Orange Christmas Cookies

Wednesday 18 December 2013
I wanted to share this recipe I created last night but first here's a photo as I'm busy wrapping and stitching...

Back again, I created these after seeing all the amazing cookies made for National Cookie Day in the US a few week ago. I was inspired by a Nigella recipe but wanted to use white chocolate and lots of Christmas flavours. These have a real Christmassy taste to them with orange essence and a little cinnamon.

Here's the recipe...

125 grams white chocolate
150 grams flour
30 grams cocoa
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
125 grams butter
1 pinch of salt
50 grams caster sugar
80 grams of brown sugar
1 teaspoon o orange essence
1 pinch of cinnamon

Makes 12

Heat the oven to 175C 
1. Melt the chocolate in a pan on a low heat.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the orange essence.
3. Add the melted chocolate.
4. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together and sieve in.
5. Mix the mixture and then spoon in dessert spoon size chunks onto a greaseproof lined tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool on a rack.

They are great warmed with ice cream ...mmmm!

Happy baking! Share your Christmas bakes at #createitsamantha.

Sage & Orange Christmas Wreath

Saturday 14 December 2013

This eco friendly wreath was a delight to make, inexpensive and gorgeous colours.

Hobbycraft Festive Review

Thursday 12 December 2013
Happy  mail from Hobbycraft
I was delighted when Hobbycraft approached me to review some of their Christmas products.

Hobbycraft is a crafters dream, ailse after ailse of all things to creative! Many of you know that already, but I'm a bit of a fan... At Christmas time you can get all your crafts under one roof from dressing the table to homemade gifts, it's perfect for busy people.

Hobbycraft sent me a selection of Christmas cards toppers, stickers and gorgeous festive gold crafting cards plus a cracker kit to review. Homemade crackers, how amazing!!

The first thing that I noticed about the range was the quality. The card toppers are really great with a rubber easy grip backing which not only means they don't warp and bend, simply they are easy to work with and the glitter is fine so doesn't come off on your hands in big flakey chunks! I'm not going to be wearing craft glitter on my face this Christmas time.

As many of you have already made and sent your Christmas cards, now is the time to make the cards for new years parties, place settings and luxury keepsake cards. If you are like me, you have been card crafting away for months and now is the time for some really exciting bespoke ones! Many lines are on 3 for 2 as well, check out Hobbycraft's Christmas pages and start planning.


So for those posh cards that you want to make in super quick speed (as it's Christmas nearly and we're busy), why not try out these two luxury tutorials?
  


Stars Are Golden Card

The gold foil cards have a cut out and no backing like a traditional gated card so not wastage cutting off the inner card flap. They are great to make lace effect cards with as you can see the message through the stars which is a lovely touch.

  • Simply glue the stars together point to point on the backs on a acetate surface (this is because the glue will peel off). 
  • Leave to dry and then glue to the card point to point.
  • Then take one of the stars and stick this on the corner with a flower insert. (Remember odd numbers look better!)
  • Leave a few minutes to dry and hey presto...you're done!
  This card looks amazing for a place setting or New Year's party.
                          

Stars and sparkle this Christmas!

 Christmas Lacey Floral Card

The flower toppers are great to work with too, try the same principle of sticking the petals together instead of the star points! I'm inspired by the fresh flower cards you can delivered from your local florists.

How pretty are these floral toppers?





Pretty floral toppers

I finished the card with a vintage typed message 'Christmas 2013' on fabric I put into my vintage typewriter!

I hope I've inspired you to make some great handmade cards this weekend? Love as always to see pictures, tweet or post them at #createitsamantha.

Thank-you to Hobbycraft for this great opportunity! I'm off to try the handmade crackers now so another post so stay tuned...

Bye for now,


Creative & Crafty Blogger Meet Up #ccbloggers

Monday 9 December 2013
Exciting News from Midlands Bloggers

I'm teaming up with KraftyKat (@aKraftyKat) to bring you our first...



**Note change of date 11th Jan 14**


A chance for creative & crafty bloggers to meet up in Nottingham. We're having a craft swap, goodie bags and great topics to improve your blog for 2014, all in a new cafe based in the city centre. Space for babies too!


For more information contact Samantha - samanthaschofield@hotmail.co.uk. Or follow on twitter #ccbloggers

Venue: Wired Cafe Bar, Nottingham

Time: TBC (afternoon)

Cost: free (just buy a coffee and cake)

Date: January 4, 2014 Venue: Cabot Circus Address:
Bristol, BS2 9AB, United Kingdom
Cost: Free - See more at: http://bloggingedge.com/blogger-events/#sthash.h6378d84.dpuf

Limited space, booking essential


We are super excited and there will be more announcements about the meet up here on the blog so stay tuned!

Bye, bye for now,

Fizzy Bunting Guest Blogger - it's me!

Well hello Monday!

This morning was a dark December morning here in Derbyshire. Then the sun broke through the clouds and Fig Tree Road posted my happy DIY Christmas wreath tutorial!

Hooray for Mondays. Thank-you to Charlotte for inviting me to guest blog for her. 

 Christmas make using ribbons and bows

  

DIY Christmas wreath tutorial! If you love DIY Christmas projects have a go at this eco-friendly wreath.

I love Charlotte's online gift shop, full of lovely eco-friendy loveliness. Check out her Mr and Mrs Ring Dish, a perfect little Wedding gift.

I've got some more wreath ideas coming up, so I'm off to rummage in the ribbons and bow stash again. 


Bye for now,


Derbyshire Art Gifts for Small Business Saturday...

Saturday 7 December 2013
Some little gems from Derbyshire for your stockings this Christmas...

Today is Small Business Saturday in the UK, support the smaller guys on the busiest shopping day of the year. 

So, here are some of my fellow Banks Mill Studios members, whose work I had to share today!

I love being part of Banks Mill Studios as I'm around so many talented artists and makers, two weekends ago we had our Open Studios, see more in this post .If you missed it, wait, there is still time to buy online...

Ruth Grey's charming art prints of Derbyshire really depict our county from the peak to the town centres. Mr.S (my very patient husband) spends every a lot of time in Derbyshire on his bike and say's Ruth really captures the scenery he sees on the bike throughout the seasons. Take a look at her website.

.
Derwent River, Belper


Anne Wassle creates bespoke pet portraits here in Derbyshire. For any pet owner a personalised portrait of your pet is such a bespoke gift. Check out Anne's website for the pet owner in your family! How beautiful are these dogs?

Welcome
Anne Wassle Art






Sarah Copson's personalised illustrations are perfect for the someone in your life who is looking for that unique artwork. I was lucky enough to have a stand next to Sarah's ,so got a good look at her portfolio of work. Sarah, like myself is new to Banks Mill, so her talent and style is fresh to the Mill this year. 

Check out her website for more inspiring work. I love this quotation poster. 

Personal Work - Typography 

And don't forget the that I'm selling Crafternoon tea gift vouchers for the January and February. Only £20 per person. Contact me for more details...

If you have any other Derbyshire arty gifts, drop me a comment and I'll take a look.

Bye for now,




All Things Stampy and me!

Friday 6 December 2013



Hello Friday Evening!

It's been a busy week of all things paper...And I'm on Helen's blog All Things Stampy too.. 


All Things Stampy
I'm off for a hot chocolate before lots of crafting tomorrow,


Stampin' Up Christmas Review

Sunday 1 December 2013
Happy Mail from Stampin'Up ...

and two crafty festive tutorials...

I was super excited when the lovely Helen at Stampin' Up sent me this very happy mail to review. Helen writes a great blog about her stampy journey, check it out!

I love Stampin' Up stamps and papers as the quality is fantastic and the colours all match! So it's easy to be creative (in a hour of so) and produce so great paper crafts.

I had a practice with the vintage style Christmas stamp that Helen sent me and the detail is pretty amazing. Plus the quote is awesome on it to, my husband is a Bruce Springsteen fan so I'll be using it on his Christmas gift tags!

So, after having a think, I decided to make a matching no sew Christmas pouch and Christmas card...



First of all I flipped out the Santa stamp and used my crafty date stamp from this post to stamp Christmas day's date on the design. 

The Stampin' Up stamp comes in a DVD style case, so it's suitable for stacking. You need to use a acetate block to attach the stamp so you can just 'kiss' the paper or fabric and ta-da the image is there. 

I used an ink pad to transfer the image onto paper and fabric paint painted on the stamp to transfer to fabric.

On paper...
Check out the detail from this stamp...
 and on fabric...

and the details great on fabric too!
 Once I had my fabric stamped I got to work on making my no-sew pouch.

Cut out two pieces of fabric and with hemming fabric (the type you by in the supermarket I used Korbond's version) place the pieces face down and cut enough fabric to edge the side and bottom of the fabric. 

OK,then I placed the other pouch piece on top face up to make a sandwich.

I then took a piece of greaseproof (freezer) paper on placed on top of the fabric sandwich and pressed. This will glue your fabrics together. 

I then used the same process to add the trims and glued on a cute holly leaf and button. 

Perfect for your Christmas table.


...then onto a...


After cutting out the stamped design, I added gold pen to the edging and attached it to a card.

Now for the bow...
take two pieces of card, wrap one and fold the other over. Then add two small bow tails to the back with crafting squares and attach.

Happy Christmas!

Helen is running classes here in sunny Derbyshire on -

(this)Friday 6th December: 
Crafty Friday - back-to-basics class for a small friendly group. Only three places remaining. 9.30am-11.30am  To register, email Helen.

Saturday, 14th December: Christmas: 
All Wrapped Up -  Gift packaging and decor, including a festive banner. For more info here:click here

I'm off to craft with some more of the Stampin' Up goodies for another post. It's addictive,

Happy Monday,






Crafty DIY Advent Calendar

Happy Advent, first of December and first of the month!

Today we put up our Advent Calendar, I wanted to make a crafty DIY version, so with a few craft bits; ribbons, pegs and envelopes I made this garland to hang on our stairs out of reach of little hands.

I hope it will be great for Little L"s development too as she can share, count, wait and most of all enjoy!

Advent Garland - simple and perfect for little hands!
Happy Advent,