Present Wrapping

e Finally I have wrapped all my presents!  It does not help that some people have December birthdays! e

A few from the mountain I wrapped today


And the birthday presents...

SO impressed with my brown paper roll that has still not run out.  I always run out of wrapping paper!  I can't even remember where I bought it or how long it was but probably Amazon - when in doubt I always order from Amazon :) 

 This time I hot glued the button on - no need to waste time sewing that was crazy!!

Little green flower button 

Slightly boring - pushed for time!


And my Christmas presents this year followed the same brown  paper theme...

                                                             Stenciling - not over that yet!             

So my presents this year have a red and white thin ribbon I found on an ebay shop and a Merry Christmas ribbon I cut and made into a bow ( I got this Merry Christmas ribbon free from my favourite gift shop Cox and Cox just for placing an order!) 

Some of the presents have a bow made out of the same red and white ribbon instead

And some have red and white twine instead of ribbon because that did run out :( 

Very simple and the stenciling saved me lots of gift tags!  Scrimping and saving so I can craft more next year :) I used my gold sharpie pen I showed you last time

If I had sent Christmas cards this year I would have written them in these...:D Merry Christmas

Birthday Presents

Some present wrapping to show you today.  It was my friend Jody's birthday last week so I wrapped up her present in my new style of ribbon with a sewn on button.  This time I used a gold pen for my stenciling and outlined it in black.  I really like it :) Who knew stenciling could look so effective - well someone probably already knew this but not me!!  I love brown paper.  I would love to receive a present that looked like this.  I was so "wrapped" up in the present I forgot to give a card - maybe I will need to start making cards too!  New craft...I don't have enough time for the things I have on the go right now never mind a new craft to learn/pin/buy all the utensils for :D

Next it was my sister's birthday.  More brown paper...

 With a tiny knot detail.  (So small I don't actually think anyone noticed before I pointed it out to them :( ) I followed the same instructions as this headband tutorial, which I made Eliza's Jubilee headband from.  So simple but probably much more effective in thicker ribbon.  This was very fine silky wool and it was very stretchy so the knot got tighter and tighter as I transported the presents around.

This time for the label I used gold craft paper and a black biro with my stencils.  I also used a flower cutter which you can't see in these photos to hold the label on with a bow made out of the same white wool.  

 Here is my attempt at a ruffle cake for Gillian's birthday - I know I know the ruffles are totally wrong!  I could not fiigure out what I was supposed to be doing despite having a guide in front of me!  I think I know now how to make this - for my birthday Gillian made me an attempt at a ruffle cake and it also did not work so third time lucky we can perfect this cake :)

 I decided to do some canvas art for her birthday too - I had a canvas sitting about I had not used and I have the cricut so why not? - Looks like a child made it!  I didn't let them near it though - they were painting their own masterpieces for their aunty.  So I cut out Happy Birthday using the cricut and painted a small bit of the canvas in light blue.  I stuck the letters onto the wet paint then painted over the whole thing with dark blue paint.

 I bought these beautiful adhesive tapes the other day and HAD to use them - look how lovely they all are!

So I peeled off the Happy Birthday letters to reveal the light blue underneath and started on my taping - I thought a weave pattern would look good in the corner - and possibly it would have had I been able to keep them in a straight line!  Not altogether my fault - Eliza was hanging off my leg with her paintbrush in her mouth by this point - all at 7am by the way!!  - so the taping doesn't look great I know...

The paintwork near the lettering is also very dodgy and the whole things could probably have done with another coat but other than that if I had told you all I made this WITH my children maybe it wouldn't seem so bad :)  Haha.

Happy Birthday to you Gillian!

And here is Gillian's present for Jody - she likes brown paper too!

I can't wait to show you my Christmas decorations next time :) Hope you all have your trees up.  My house is looking very festive and I now have tons of lentils and split peas that no longer have a home...

Baby present

This week my friend from work had her teeny tiny little baby boy.  He was born really quickly almost in the car park of the hospital 3 weeks early and he is tiny!!!  I made the new baby a little taggie I found here.

His name is Charlie and I did aim for a letter C but as usual me and sewing don't always do well.

I cut out my letter C from a pillowcase I found on sale in the summer and knew I could do something with the funky fabric.   The guide I pinned above was brilliant but I just can't seem to follow instructions - my first attempt I had the ribbons pinned the wrong way and when I sewed it all together only the ends of the ribbons were on show and they were all frayed! :o What a dork.  I picked out all the ribbons and started again with two new pieces of fabric....  This time I pinned the ribbon on the right way and then used my sewing machine to sew the right sides together before turning inside out.  I had a huge selection of ribbon to choose from - I think I have a ribbon obsession!!!  This isn't even all of it and I ordered more today!!  What is wrong with me??? :D

This time my letter C was squint...but I was much happier with it.  It didn't seem very thick - the first time I stitched it I made the back with thicker fabric but I didn't have enough the second time round so I just stuck with the same pillowcase fabric for the back.  It was really floppy once I sewed it so I decided it needed some stuffing.  I did this then attempted to top-stitch   with my sewing machine.  Yet again my sewing machine failed me in my time of need - or was it my lack of knowledge of sewing once again???  Either way I could not get my machine to sew this together and some of the ribbons were slightly loose as well as the hole I had left for turning it inside out being open still so I had to hand sew round the edges as neatly as I could.  I don't think it is too bad and I made sure each ribbon was secure for giving to a little baby.  I love the soft white and red ribbons the best because they feel like velour.  Finlay loves labels even now and he would have loved something like this when he was little.  It may be more moon shaped than C shaped but who needs to know? :)

I also gave Charlie a decorative  letter C for his room 

    And wrapped them both together in brown paper.

    And sewed on a little blue teddy button on the ribbon

    And of course his big brother needed a letter too

                                    B for Brendan

Which I also wrapped up in brown paper with a book for big bro to read when his mummy and daddy are busy with their new arrival

      For Brendan I attached a little fudge sweety for him - I didn't think he would appreciate a button :)


Then I made some labels for the boys from luggage labels and I stenciled their names on

                                           So simple but I loved how their presents turned out :)

I got to go and see baby Charlie and give his mummy his gift and I got a lovely cuddle from him.  He is so small - my babies were never that small and my nephews certainly weren't!  We have big babies in our family so 6lb 3oz was positively minute.  My girl was 9lb for goodness sake!!  And record breaker Roman was 10lb 10oz!!  Jeez-oh...He was ginormous compared to all the other little babies - what a star my sister is pushing that hunk of chunk out all by herself!   A natural birth for such a big boy - she should surely be in a record book somewhere?!?!  I love a good birth story and natural births are my favourite kind of story - do any of you have any good birth stories for me??

Like this?  More decorating with brown paper here :)