December 2011

Personalised Jar of Treats (gift idea)

by Lesley Oman on 29 December, 2011


Hey everyone
Sorry if you thought that Santa had stolen me away. I decided to take some time to focus on what was important in life- my gorgeous family, and our health. All three of us have taken turns to be ill, and just now we are full of runny noses and sniffles, but thankfully nothing too serious.

I wanted to share a few pre-Crimbo projects with you because I never had a chance to share them last week. First up is a little gift for Rachel, Piper’s ‘teacher’ at nursery.

I bought a preserving jar from a local country Market and also some choccys to go inside. I specifically chose flat circular ones so I cound decorate them to make them more Christmassy. Once I got home I realised that the jar was waaaaay too big and I would need about 5 boxes of choccies to fill it, so instead I washed out a jar which had baby food in it. These are fab if you are looking for a wee jar to hold things like buttons and ribbons, and usually work out really cheap. The added bonus is that with a baby in the house, it wasn’t a waste of the food either!

To decorate the chocolates I punched circles out of patterned paper and matted these onto green circles cut with my cuttlebug and nestibilities die. I just used a teeny bit of sticky tape to stick it down.

I cut a bigger circle to cover the writing on the top of the lid but didn’t bother decorating this because i wanted to cover it with fabric.

Carefully I added the choccys into the jar, arranging them in the best way I could so you could see the Christmassy pictures. I also cut out the ingredients list from the box of chocolates and tucked it into the jar. This way Rachel would know what type they are. This is also a good idea incase of any allergies.

Next stop, screwing on the lid and decorating. I bought a super cute bundle of Christmas fabrics a few weeks back so I chose one to use- I thought the green Xmas trees complimented the orange foil wrappers on the choccys. I folded the fabric square into quarters and rounded it off with the pinking shears to make a circle. Then I tied some twine around the fabric and tweaked it so it was even and pretty. To decorate I added some ribbon and tied a little bow.

Adding the embellishments was my favourite bit. I took a chipboard letter and painted it White with a paint dabber. Next i smothered it in embossing ink and shook over holographic embossing powder- it gave fabulous shine, but you cant really see it very well in the photo. Next I punched a hole with my crop-a-dile and added a jump ring.

To add another touch of Christmas I also added a little snowflake charm and secured it all in place with a mini safety pin.

I set aside a few evenings to do this project but it hardly took any time at all. I really enjoyed making something personal for Rachel, and she can even continue to use the jar as storage even after all the chocolates are gone.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back to tell you all about the crafty presents I received for Christmas.



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MAN-day Monday – Daddy’s Christmas Card

by Lesley Oman on 19 December, 2011

It’s the last Monday before Christmas so it’s only fitting that for todays MANday Monday I share the card which I made for my hubs from Piper. (Sorry for the iPhone photos, the cable that connects my camera to the computer is unwell at the moment, it’s been a bit cooperative for a while, so i think its finally time to buy a new one)

I love making backgrounds with distress inks, and to add a little pazzazz I stamped a flourish backgound first and heat embossed the image using white embossing powder. Then using the ink blending tool i rubbed distress ink over the top. This is sometimes called the resist technique as the embossed image resists the ink. Its pretty cool!

To make the rolling snowy hills, I cut waves into white cardstock and then added a little touch of blue ink using the tumbled glass distress ink and a blending tool. Next I smeared Rock Candy distress stickles all over the card with my fingertip and blasted it with a heat tool. I have had this rock candy stickles for ages but havent really used it a lot, but i have fallen back in love with it! It adds lurverlay texture but its not very glittery and girly – perfect for these mens card.

Mister Snowman is from a Penny Black stamp, and he is so very cute. I embossed him in black and then coloured him in with twinkling H2Os.

The star i hand cut by folding a piece of scratch paper and cutting triangles on the fold, then I used this as a template to cut the shape out of some cardstock which I had embossed and coloured using silver ink. I mounted the whole star onto silver card to make it more robust as I knew I wanted to let it overhang the edge of the card slightly.

Do you see that little North Pole? Cute, huh? Just a strip of white cardstock with some ribbon twisted around it, and sandwiched between two red chucky buttons, stuck together with glue dots.

For the greeting I pulled out my embossing pen and simply hand wrote ‘daddy’ onto some scrap pieces of cardstock and embossed the text using white embossing powder. Once again I went to town with some distress ink and a blending tool, but this time festive berries was my colour of choice.

Thanks for stopping by. x



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Personalised Christmas Tree Decorations (& a winner)

by Lesley Oman on 16 December, 2011

Hey everyone, I’m back, and feeling a little more refreshed and ready for the holidays. Only 9 more days until Christmas, yipppeeeeeee!

Last week was my last Baby Sensory class <sniff>. I have enjoyed this class sooo much, and would really, really recommend it to anyone out there who has a little one. We have learnt lots of songs, had extra interaction with other babies and mommies and learnt lots of sign language. Best of all I love thinking about how much P has developed throughout the term. She can now sit upright unaided, can clap her hands, dances when music plays, can understand basic sign language and can even sign back to me. Its AmAzINg!

As i will be back at work full time next year, we wont be able to attend next terms sensory class, so i wanted to make a little something for the three class leaders to say thank you.

I spotted some wooden hearts on ebay for a great price so i bought 20. My original idea was to make one for every baby in the class, but people came and went and there was no way i could be 100% certain that i hadnt missed someone (that would be awful) – so i stuck to the three class leaders. maybe i’ll make these for Piper’s nursery teachers as well

I used my paint dabbers on the wooden heart and used my heat tool to speed up the drying process. I did two coats on each side, and didn’t bother about the edges. I quite liked the edges showing through. Next I tied a ribbon bow using a bow maker – this way you can get uniform bows which are perfect every time. I find this tool fantastic for making teeny bows that are sometimes hard to secure tightly.

I wanted to personalise the hearts so using a sharpie i wrote the leaders name onto shrink plastic, punched a hole and shrunk it using the heat tool.

Next I threaded some bakers twine through the hole, popped on the name tag and tied a knot on the end. To make sure that the bow was secure i simply added a few stitches using red thread. Simples.

Rather than just hand these over as they were, I made them into a sort of card thingy. I pulled out my corrugated red cardstock, added kraft and decorated the front with stamps and nesties.

They loved them.

Forget about the teachers, I might even make some for myself .

x

p.s the winner of the craft giveaway is Christina Greier. congratulations! Email me with your address —> ( lez {at} hungryheffycrafts.com )

 

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Dont mind me

by Lesley Oman on 12 December, 2011

no manday monday today im afraid. taking a little break so i am all caught up on xmas shopping, eating chocolates and other necessities for the holiday season

x

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