Napkin Holders, Christmas Favor Boxes and Centre Piece

This morning I made some napkin holders and favor boxes.

The holders are just a piece of card which I tried to roll up but it didn't go very well, so once I stuck the embellishment on the front I flattened the whole thing and think it looks better like this now.

The idea for the boxes were from  this site  and was passed on to me by Julie (elysia2003).  I have put three chocolate mint squares inside which I placed in a small bag first as they were not wrapped.  Should be fine as we are having our special dinner on Saturday.  I found that the sides of the boxes wouldn't quite go together where they met at the point and left a bit of a gap.  This was probably due to there being three mints in each but I thought two was a bit stingy.  I punched holes in the top and threaded the red ribbon to tie them up so that they are not glued together, it is just the red ribbon holding them together.  On the front I glued a triangle of some patterned glitter card I found in my craft box that I have had for years and then I stuck two small pieces of curling ribbon and a small gift bow on as well.

I made a centre piece for the table by placing a candle in the centre then putting one of those rings you can buy with the holly and pine cones on it around the outside, it is gold coloured.  Then I bought some small LED lights which are run buy two AA batteries, they come from 99p shop and are shaped like stars.  I twisted thenm around the outside of the cones etc and then placed a piece of thick gold tinsel around the outside so I could hide the wires and the pack for the batteries under it.  Here is a picture of what it looks like with and without the lights on.

Fourth Shirt

Well, here is the fourth shirt finished at last.  The buttons took an age to come because of the snow but they came yesterday so I managed to make the buttonholes and sew on the buttons.

The shirt is made out of a small gingham check which only cost me £1 a metre so including buttons and interfacing the whole shirt cost less than £4 to make.

Christmas Tablecloth and Mats

I made a quilted tablecloth for Christmas earlier in the year.  I had some fabric that had square blocks on it with pictures of Santa on them so I used these as the centres for some blocks and did a log cabin like pattern around the edges with some other Christmas fabrics I had.  The blocks came out about 6 inches square.  I also had quite a bit of another fabric that was cream with some hand writing on it which although the words are not Christmassy, it looks nice, so I put some of this round the outsides in a thicker border and then sewed the larger blocks together.

The tablecloth was still a bit short length ways but fitted width ways but I had just about run out of the script fabric so I used some plain cream and made the ends of the cloth slightly different.  You cant see the ends in the photos but they look ok as I had enough script fabric to do the border around the edges so it matches the rest.

Blouse for Daughter

I have finished making a blouse for my daughter for Christmas.  The fabric is a bit sparkly, it is a cotton fabric which is crinkled and has silver glitter on it.  It cost me £2 for the fabric and I already had the buttons in my button tin.  I didn't put any interfacing in it as thought it would be a bit too stiff.  I didn't have a pattern for this but used one of her long checked shirts (you know the kind that are made out of brushed cotton) to cut it out.

I expect she will wear it unbuttoned over a t shirt like a jacket.

Snow in Gillingham

We had quite a bit of snow this week, it has been really cold too.  Other Half has been off work and kids been off school, been quite cosy really as we got out Chrismtas tree up.

This was our front garden, the snow is 3/4 way up our wall which is 2 foot high.

Treasure Hunt

I have made up a treasure hunt for my youngest daughter for Christmas Day this year.  I have bought her lots of presents that are small bits and pieces like I would usually put in a stocking but thought to make the morning last a bit longer I would hide the presents and give her some clues to find them.

I typed out the clues in my word processor and then changed it to an old fashioned looking font and changed the colour to brown.  Then printed them out on normal white paper and cut them out singly with a pair of fancy scissors like you use for card making.  Then I rolled each one around the end of a small paint brush.

I found a lovely box in our loft that we bought a few years ago because it looked nice but had never used it for anything, I think it was from one of the pound shops but you could use any box and decorate it nicely.  Just don't forget to print out a separate list if you are going to wrap up the box as a gift so you remember where you are supposed to be hiding the gifts.

Shirt Number 2

Here's the second shirt.  The fabric looks better made up than it did on the roll.  Definitely had my eyes going funny while cutting it out but it doesn't look too bad now its finished.

I have cut out the next one, think I will cut the other one out as well while the pattern is out of the envelope, then I can just get on with the sewing.