Xmas

Hey there! :)

How was your Xmas? Mine was lovely!

Look at some of the things I got...




<3<3<3

I'm still technically not done, but...

If you can't tell by this post, I'm a procrastinator. Thought I'd recap what I was able to give out (and technically finish) these past couple days, though I'm still needing to finish a couple more gifts. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and that everyone enjoyed your amazing crafty gift goodness!

Another pleated clutch, with layered fabric

Ginger schnapps, in single size jars

Shortbread

Cockroach ornaments, based off of Very Purple Person's tutorial

Poorly self-drafted capes

Felt-applique t-shirt

Diaper clutch, again poorly self-drafted

Earthworm ornaments

Merry Moustachmas!

Here's a last minute Christmas gift that always makes me smile!  Chocolate moustaches! 

Chocolate moustache on a lollipop stick

Just melt some milk chocolate in a microwave/ban marie/chocolate fondue melter whatever your melting procedure of choice and once melted add a few drops of orange flavouring and then pour into a mould of your choice (I got this mould online posted to me by a friend in America as they wouldn't deliver to the UK, but think there are now sellers of this mould over here), set aside to cool and then transfer to the fridge for a few hours or overnight and then wrap prettily!  No one who receives something like this can resist pulling funny poses before devouring them!  Here's the proof!

Got to keep those moustache ends twirled!

Sneaky looks

Big smile!  Well, Moustache!

Merry Christmas!

What I ended up making for Christmas

Hi everyone,

I've seen some lovely homemade gifts on this site, and have been so inspired!  Sadly my Christmas gift planning was a complete fail.  I didn’t make any of the things I planned to make, but did end up making something I wasn’t really planning to make at all.  Thanks to a comment from Marie I decided to make a pair of boxers for my boyfriend.  I used Kwik Sew pattern 1672 and am totally chuffed about how well they have turned out. 

Not least the amazing fluke pattern matching at the centre front, it’s (almost perfect).

I also made some embroidered gift tags, partially inspired by this purl bee tutorial, although I made the tags bigger and embroidered the names on instead of using card.

I hope everyone elses Christmas making plans went well.  Happy holidays everyone!!!

Last Minute Christmas Knits

Hello Festive Crafters!

It's Kerry from Kestrel Finds and Makes. By now I'm sure that most of you have your handmade pressies wrapped up and ready to be gifted. I wanted to share my two Christmas knitting projects with you - one which has already been sent and opened and the other which is for my sister-in-law to open tomorrow.

First up, Owl & Pussycat Mittens for Sian Lile Makes as part of a Christmas Blog Swap which was to include handmade and thrifted items.

I used the pattern for Owl Mittens which can be on for free on Ravelry, and made one owl into a cat.

As Sian is vegan and was concerned about the potential of wool farming to be harmful, I used organic wool which had been dyed using natural dyes.

My Blue Leaves Scarf was made using the Saroyan pattern (also free - don't you love Ravelry?!) and Sirdar Sublime aran yarn which is a mix of cashmere, extra fine merino and silk. It is beautifully soft. My sister in law wanted a blue scarf and I loved the lace leaf edging and tapered ends of this scarf. It's a straightforward knit too, perfect for beginner lace knitters.

I hope you all managed to get your handmade gifts finished up this year. I didn't make as many as I had intended, but I bought some handmade things, which is nearly as good in my opinion, and definitely better than just buying something from Amazon! Maybe next year I'll be a bit more productive!

Now I just need to wrap the last of my presents. A very Merry Christmas everyone!

K x

Extreme last minute crafting

Hello again, Aleah from no time to sew with my last (last minute) crafty gifts. First up, made the night before it was gifted, a couple things for a work friend:

The first is a purse organizer and a small zipper pouch. She always wants to change her purses to match her outfits, but complains about what a pain it is to transfer all her purse contents all the time, so I thought this might help. It's basically a strip of pockets that she can fill with purse stuff, roll up and stick in one purse, then pull it out and move it to another purse easily. I just winged the construction, more details here. The zipper pouch is from this tutorial.

The second item is this super simple jersey circle scarf. This has got to be the easiest gift of all time to make. I bought a third of a yard of jersey from the bulk bin at my local fabric shop. I trimmed off the selvages, then used a ruler and rotary cutter to make the long edges nice and straight, and sewed the short ends together. Done. So if it happens to be Christmas Eve and you're one gift short, might I suggest a jersey circle scarf? I think it took me longer to buy the fabric than to make the scarf, seriously.

I also made my mom a case for the Kindle Fire my dad is getting her:

It's basically from this tutorial, resized for a Kindle (luckily, it turns out that the dimensions of the Fire are the same as my regular old Kindle, so I made this case the same size as one I made earlier in the year for myself). I lined the case with a scrap of black corduroy left over from a skirt I made last year. The lining is visible around all the edges, of course, because my lining always seems to end up bigger than my outside fabric for some reason, but I'm just going to pretend it was intentional since it kind of looks like trim. Here it is open, with my Kindle in it. The bird screen saver seemed appropriate for the fabric (it's Alexander Henry's Bird Seed, which my mom actually gave me last year because she liked it but couldn't think of anything to make with it!)

So woo-hoo, Christmas Crafting complete! Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. May it be filled with family, friends, food, and plenty of crafty gifts too!

Edible Christmas Goodies

Kat from KraftyKat here again....Over the last week i have been a busy bee in the kitchen, making a selection of goodies both as presents, as well as for me and my family to devour! Here i would like to share with you a selection of my yummy makes (i can confirm they are yummy, even if i do say so myself, because my boyfriend and i had to shoulder the arduous task of taste testing everything before they could be given as presents...it's only right after all....!)


Orange and Pistachio Stollen Bars

A fun twist on traditional Stollen, the recipe for these can be found here (you have to scroll down a bit). These were very easy to make and turned out pretty well i think...these pictures do not show them in bar form as these are intended as gifts and therefore to preserve as best as possible i have wrapped uncut...but the recipe suggests to dust with icing sugar and chop up before serving. Yum! It is promised that if well wrapped these will keep very well for up to 2 weeks...mine are tightly wrapped in foil so fingers crossed!


Cherry and Ginger Fudge

This was my first venture into the land of fudge and i was very apprehensive! I choose to use this recipe. I used a sugar thermometer but I'm not sure it was working properly...consequently the fudge did not set as well as i would have liked. I initially planned to chop it up into squares but it is too soft for this...therefore i wrapped it as tablets and am warning the recipients to keep it refrigerated! It still tastes good though, so not a total loss.

Lebkuchen



I have always loved Lebkuchen, and this year i decided to try my hand at baking some. I used this recipe, which was recommended by Tilly last year. It was so quick and easy to whip up, i ended up making too batches. A definite winner. The only changes i made were to use a bit of lemon juice in the icing to add flavour, and i omitted the egg whites from the icing as well. I also made a small batch of these gluten free for a celiac friend, this worked really well, i just used gluten free flour in place of the plain flour.


Petite Fours

Marzipan Fruits...guess the fruits! I am especially proud of the grapes.

Rum Truffles

Every year my Nana and i make some Petite Fours. Our favourites are marzipan fruits and rum truffles, shown above. For the marzipan fruits we make the shapes out of marzipan, colour them with food colourings and add cloves as stalks where required! The rum truffles are made by mixing melted chocolate, icing sugar and butter together with a few tablespoons of rum. These are rolled into balls and covered with chocolate sprinkles, and then left in the fridge to set. Both of these treats are great fun to make and are the kind of thing that kids can easily join in with...that's how i first made them!

Well, that's about it from me in terms of Christmas makes this year! I have very much enjoyed reading about everyones gift ideas, and i can wait to be involved again next year (i am already planning to be much more organised next time as i did have to forfeit some plans for the sake of time sadly!).

Have a great Christmas everyone!

K xx