Send Happy Snail Mail With Vintage Stamps & DIY Envelopes!

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2019 is to make time to send more snail mail to my friends and penpals. Maybe that's something you'd like to do more of, too? In this post you'll find two fun and easy ways of making the snail mail you send extra special...

Did you know you can use old-but-not-used Royal Mail postage stamps for sending your post here in the UK? I recently bought a big bundle of old mint stamps for my letters, and using them is proving to be an absolute joy!

I bought a big bundle of stamps, giving me lots of different designs and values to choose from when making up the correct postage value and saving me money, too (always a good thing when you send a lot of post - snail mail is wonderful but stamps are rather pricey these days!). I bought my stamps from here.

Sorting through the bundle when it arrived was a huge amount of nerdy fun. So many lovely old stamps! And so many possibilities for getting creative with my letters!

Even if you just selected any old stamps to make up the correct postage the result would be pretty cool: a handful of quirky old stamps (some with ha'penny values!) are always going to be more exciting than just a single modern one. But of course (OF COURSE) I've been playing with colour and themes when putting together the stamp selections for my mail.

Carefully selecting the stamps can be rather a time suck but totally worth it, I think! I described this as "a bit of a waste of time" to a friend recently but, as he immediately pointed out, actually it's not a waste of time at all: I've been enjoying it as a relaxing task while watching TV in the evenings, and the end results can be rather wonderful.

This week I've been playing with colour, matching stamps to a set of fabulous notecards I got for Christmas.

 

In case you're admiring the notecards (and why wouldn't you be?), they're the "Pen to Paper Notecards" set by Present & Correct for Chronicle Books. Mine were bought from Waterstones here in the UK, but those of you in the US can buy them direct from Chronicle Books.

Here's a closer look at the cards and the stamps I've used:

All that lovely colour makes me very happy indeed.

The second thing I've been doing recently to jazz up my post is making my own handmade envelopes. I've made some from coloured paper, but I've also been making lots from a book of maps and a gorgeous book of British wildflowers.

When you use book pages to make envelopes the end results are so pretty, and totally unique! Oh, and the books only cost me about a quid each at my local charity shop so they're a bargain, too.

If you've never made an envelope before, don't worry: they're so easy to make that you'll wonder why you never tried it before.

Just unfold an envelope that's the size you need (or download and print a free template from the internet - there are loads available), stick it to a bit of card and trace the shape onto the back of whatever nice paper you want to use. Then cut, fold and stick (with glue or double-sided tape) the envelope together and add a plain label for the address when you're ready to send it. Remember to position your template so the paper will be the right way up on the front of the envelope!

Cheap second hand books are perfect for making envelopes, though you may need to use different size envelope templates depending on the size of the pages. If you need to make envelopes of a specific size, simply take the template with you when you go browsing for books to use.

I also love making envelopes from leftover gift wrap and colourful magazine pages. Sometimes my stamps used to fall off my letters en route when I sent "magelopes" as a teen, but with modern postage stamps being like stickers it's much easier to use shiny paper for making your envelopes without worrying about the stamps going AWOL.

I won't be combining these two happy post ideas and using a selection of vintage stamps with my book envelopes - I think the effect would be a little visually cluttered and I'd hate to cover up those lovely flowers and maps! Instead I'll be keeping my eye out for some suitably lovely Special Stamps, or using some of the pictorial definitives, either of which are much prettier options than standard 1st/2nd class stamps, if you care about that sort of thing (which, as you've probably gathered by now, I totally do). 

Book Review: Craft a Life You Love

My Book Week continues today with a look at Craft a Life You Love: infusing creativity, fun & intention into your everyday by Amy Tan, aka Amy Tangerine.

Amy self-published Craft a Life You Love last year, and this revised and expanded edition has now been published by Abrams Books. This isn't a "how to" craft book or a "grow your creative business!" book, but is instead essentially a self-help book for people with creative hobbies.

It's about how to find the time and motivation to fit more creative projects into your schedule, and how crafting and creativity can enrich our lives and make us happier. Beyond this, Amy (who seems like an incredibly upbeat, positive person) explores ways in which we can take control of our lives to create "a life you love": being more positive, learning to love ourselves (with all our quirks), and focusing on our priorities and goals.

 

The book is divided into six themed chapters with titles like "Crafting the Soul" and "Crafting Happiness through Habits", then sub-divided into 28 smaller sections. Each section begins with a memoir-like story from Amy's life showing something she's learned, or how she makes use of a certain habit or attitude in her everyday life, and ends with an exercise for you to follow to put the ideas from that section into action.

Most of the exercises involve written prompts for you to think about and respond to, with space for you to write down your responses. For example, there are pages to fill out tracking your daily tasks and how happy they make you, an exercise in rewriting negative thoughts into positive ones, and a list of prompts like "who is someone who gives me tremendous energy and why?" and "what does a perfect day look like?" to get you started on a daily journalling habit.

 

Early on in the book there's also a "permission slip" to sign (to give yourself permission to take time for your hobby to feed your soul) - Amy really believes in the power of writing stuff down!

Because of the workbook-like nature of this book, I'm not sure if this book would be great value if you're not the sort of person who is actually going to sit down and do the exercises suggested. Reading the book from cover-to-cover (which I did, for this review) without following any of the prompts doesn't take that long and you, naturally, skip a lot of blank pages along the way.

 

There's some good, practical advice in here, but some of the stuff about "synchronicity" between Amy and the "naturally benevolent" Universe made me raise my eyebrows and make little frowny faces while reading, and there are a few all-caps comments in my notes like "THIS IS NOT A SIGN FROM THE UNIVERSE, IT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE!!!". I am honestly not sure that I have ever read a self-help book in my entire life that didn't cause me to have a few raised-eyebrow moments, though! I am quite cynical at heart (or maybe just British???) and I think I just reach a tipping point where the self-help speak gets a bit much and my internal commentary goes a bit shouty.

At the end of the day, this stuff doesn't make the good advice less good, or the practical tips less useful. Craft a Life You Love might have given me a few shouty all-caps moments, but I also wrote a whole bunch of positive notes while reading and have been thinking a lot about some of the advice in the book.

Overall, I think this would be a great book to work through if you have trouble with confidence (not just creative confidence) and struggle to carve out time for your creative hobbies or other things in your life that bring you joy. I'd also recommend it to people who are feeling a bit "stuck" in their lives and daily routines: you don't have to keep feeling that way, and Craft a Life You Love has a lot of simple but useful tips for making small changes in your thinking and your habits to help you live your best life.

Craft a Life You Love: infusing creativity, fun & intention into your everyday is published by Abrams books. It's available from Amazon UK, Amazon USA, The Book Depository and many other websites and bookshops.

I received a free review copy of this book from the publishers. Please note that the Amazon and Book Depository links in this blog post are affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase I get a tiny percentage for the referral. It doesn't cost you anything and it helps support my blog.

P.S. Make sure you check out this week's giveaway - click here to read my review of Mandalas to Embroider, and for your chance to win a copy!

Visit my book reviews archive for a look at lots more crafty books! 

50 Small Ideas for Cultivating Kindness, Happiness and Positivity

With the sort of news we've had this week it can be all too easy to think "everything is terrible!", to become overwhelmed with sadness or feel lost at your inability to fix these huge problems.

But there are lots of small, everyday things you can do to be kind to yourself and to others and quietly cultivate goodness and happiness. We can't all go out and save the world, but we can make it a nicer place to live in dozens of tiny ways. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!

1. Go outside - gaze at the vastness of the stars, or walk through the grass and appreciate the simple goodness of daisies and ladybirds and leaves and other tiny wonders.

2. Donate something. You don't have to have a huge clear-out and take big bags to the charity shop, you can give away a single CD you never listen to or a dress that's no longer your style. You can even donate your tatty old clothes to H&M for recycling (and for each bag you donate, they give you a £5 voucher).

3. Gift or lend something to a friend - a DVD box set you've finished that you know they'd love, a book you've read that you think would be just their cup of tea. (Bonus: if they do love it, you can get together for a cuppa and chat about how great it was!).

4. Wait and hold a door open for someone.

5. Buy something extra at the supermarket and add it to the box for the local food bank or animal shelter (or whatever other organisation is collecting donated items in store). "3 for the price of 2" offers are especially great for this when they're on non-perishable items - buy two for yourself and give away the third.

6. Do some colouring in. There are so many great colouring books available nowadays, you're sure to find something that appeals to you and there's something incredibly relaxing about getting absorbed in a nice bit of colouring in! You'll also find loads of fabulous free printable colouring pages online, shared by bloggers or posted as freebies to promote new colouring books.

7. Hug your loved ones. I often tell my mum "Oh no! I've just realised! You haven't had a hug for days! It's a hug emergency!" and give her a comically exaggerated bear hug.

8. Cuddle your pets (well... as much as your pets like to be cuddled!).

9. Watch animal videos on YouTube. I highly recommend videos of dogs having pool parties.

10. Read some of those cheesy lists on sites like Buzzfeed called things like "These 24 Stories Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity!" that make you (well, me, anyway) happy cry at how wonderful people can be.

11. Plant something and watch it grow.

12. Support a local or independent business. The Just a Card campaign points out how even small purchases really matter to indie businesses and how you don't need a huge budget to be able to support them. Buy just a card from that lovely gallery or craft fair, one small treat from the farmers market, one item off your grocery list from a local shop instead of the supermarket, etc. You can also support the makers and writers and artists whose work you love by recommending them to friends or re-tweeting (or otherwise sharing) their posts about new products or special sale offers.

13. Give up your seat on the Tube (or the rush hour train home) for someone who needs it.

14. Re-read a beloved book or your favourite poetry. You could also watch your favourite film or a lovely cosy TV show (my top tip: Due South, funny and sweet and filled with kindness and friendship). When you've worked your way through your faves, ask your friends what their favourites are.

15. Volunteer your time. Regular voluntary work is amazing, but if you can't manage that there are always one-off events like fairs and other fundraisers that people are looking for extra help with. Keep an eye out in your local paper for charities and other groups looking for volunteers, or check the websites of organisations like Oxfam for upcoming events.

16. Be understanding, forgiving and kind when dealing with other people. "When we see someone else kick a vending machine for no visible reason, we assume they are "an angry person".  But when you yourself kick the vending machine, it's because the bus was late, the train was early, your report is overdue, and now the damned vending machine has eaten your lunch money for the second day in a row."

17. Bake a cake or some biscuits and surprise your friends, neighbours or coworkers. Write a list of the ingredients so people with allergies or other dietary restrictions will know if they can eat what you've made.

18. Put some music on and do some housework - cleaning up your living space can be a great mood-booster. I like challenging myself to see how much I can get done in a certain amount of time (half an hour, one side of a record, etc).

19. Tick a task off your To Do list that you've been putting off for ages. Finally getting it done will make you feel great!

20. Bite your tongue when you want to say something bitchy or snarky, in person or online. Let the moment pass.

21. Make a home for nature in your garden (or on your balcony) and help birds, bees, butterflies and more.

22. Put your small change in the charity box at the till when you shop, or save it up for the next time you visit your local free museum.

23. When you're travelling, offer to help someone up or down stairs with a pram or heavy suitcase.  

24. Tell someone you appreciate them, send a thank you card or just say "hey, I don't say this enough but you make me laugh! I'm so glad we're friends!"

25. Turn off your ad-blocker for your favourite websites. If you can afford to, subscribe to your favourite publications instead of just enjoying all their free content.

26. Sign a petition for a cause you care about, or write a letter to support a campaign - check the websites of groups like Amnesty International, Water Aid, Oxfam, etc for ways you can get involved in their campaigning.

27.Get some exercise! You can start small: get up out of your chair and stretch, go for a walk, take the stairs instead of the escalator, etc. 

28. Give directions. I am really bad at directions (I can never remember where anything is or what the names of roads are, even when I walk down them every other day) but I keep a small map of central London in my bag so I can help lost tourists who want directions to Harrods or to know which Tube to get to Buckingham Palace - they're always so happy you helped them.

29. Expand your horizons by learning about people, places and things outside of your experience. Go to the library and borrow a book on something interesting, or go to a museum and fill your brain with fascinating new facts and stories. My skill set is definitely located firmly in the arts, but I love visiting museums about science and technology or watching documentaries about things like space exploration. "My goodness, science is amazing! All these brilliant people discovering all these amazing things! So amazing!!", I find it overwhelmingly impressive in the best possible way.

30. Offer to help friends when you know they're ill or going through a busy or stressful time. Something simple like popping to the shops for someone is easy to do (especially if you're doing your own shopping at the same time) but can make a big difference to someone housebound or with a zillion things on their To Do list.

31. Turn off the news, log out of your social media - take a break from the constant flow of news (good and bad) and anything that makes you stressed, inspires FOMO or encourages feelings of inadequacy. Nothing bad is going to happen if you're out of the loop for a little while.

32. Don't compare your inside to someone else's outside, and remember that everyone - everyone - no matter how "perfect" their life appears to be on the outside has worries and stress and problems that you never get to hear about. Remembering this is a great way to be kind to yourself (and not set yourself impossibly high standards that "everyone else" seems to be meeting) but also to be kind to other people (because you never know what someone else is going through behind the scenes).

33. Choose a goal you want to work towards, and dedicate 15-30 minutes a day to making it happen. Daily challenges are great for this - maybe try a daily drawing if you want to make more room in your schedule for art, or improving your sketches. Don't beat yourself up if you skip a day here and there - life gets in the way sometimes and that's okay! At the moment I'm trying to read for half an hour in bed each morning before I get up. I've been amazed by how many books I've been getting through and it's a lovely way to start my day.

34. Offer to babysit for friends with kids so they can have a night out, or just an afternoon off to catch up with those jobs they never have time for.

35. Feed the birds - set up a bird feeder in your garden, or go to your local river and feed the ducks something healthy. Watch the birds. Repeat.

36. Treat waiters and waitresses, shop assistants, and baristas how you'd want to be treated if you did those jobs. Be polite, smile, tip where appropriate! This sounds like the most obvious thing but it's amazing how many people treat people in service jobs like we treat Google, demanding what we want without a please or thank you.

37. Recycle! Check your local council's website to see what you can recycle and where.

38. Leave a comment on a blog post you've enjoyed or found useful (bloggers love comments!)

39. Make a positive playlist, play it loud and dance and sing along.

40. Look online for some free printable artwork to decorate your work or living space. Pinterest is a great place to search for pretty printables of all kinds - try searching for "free printable poster" or "free art printable" and you'll find hundreds of lovely designs to choose from.

41. Send someone a surprise postcard (proper post is always great, and surprise post is even better), or write an email to an old friend.

42. Have a long bubble bath, let your toes get really wrinkly as you unwind and soak away your stress.

43. Compliment someone's outfit, shoes, or amazing dyed hair. "Wow, I love your shoes!" "That is a fantastic coat!" is a great thing to hear from a passing stranger. Don't be creepy though, and avoid complimenting someone at the start of, say, a train journey where they'll be sitting next to you awkwardly for the next 30 minutes :)

44. Ring your elderly relatives, send them a letter or a card or some photos, or (even better) arrange to visit.

45. Have a cuppa with an elderly neighbour - tell them your news and let them tell you stories - or just stop to chat if you pass them in the street.

46. Buy someone flowers (or pick some from your garden) to cheer them up.

47. Take the time to sit and really look at something you love - a painting in a museum, a favourite view. Look at the details and think about what you love about it.

48. Get plenty of sleep. The world is always harder to handle when you're tired. I've been paying attention this year to all the things that get in the way of me getting enough sleep, and doing my best to make changes accordingly. No internet after a certain time in the evening (the temptation to sit up late clicking from link to link is just too strong), no telly after a certain time too - especially when watching a great box set ("just another episode!), and so on.

49. Help your older neighbours or relatives with physical chores like gardening that they might be struggling with.

And last but by no means least...

50. Make something, just for fun or as a gift for someone else. The process of making can be incredibly relaxing and meditative and there's nothing quite like the quiet satisfaction of creating something.

P.S. This isn't the usual stuff I tend to blog about, but I just needed to get this out of my brain and into a blog post. Many thanks to everyone who suggested things when I tweeted about this xxx

Be the Best Version of YOU: Free Embroidery Pattern

Today I'm sharing the third free pattern in my positive embroidery series.

This one is a reminder to Be the Best Version of YOU.

 

 
Don't get lost comparing yourself to other people or squashing yourself into a mould cast by others, focus on your own life and how best to make your own spirit bloom!

 

 
This design fits nicely in a five inch embroidery hoop for framing, but if you want you can use a six inch hoop when stitching it to give yourself more room to work. I actually used a seven inch hoop when stitching this pattern as I'd managed to misplace my smaller hoops at the time and wanted to start sewing immediately, not faff about finding exactly the right size hoop.

The fabric I used is Cotton & Steel's XOXO in Ghost, which looks grey in some lights and almost brown in others (not ideal when you're taking photos of it, but it looks really lovely in real life!). For the stranded embroidery thread (floss) I used the same shades of pink and teal as I'd used in the earlier patterns, and added some turquoise blue for the stars.

The pattern is mostly stitched with backstitch, using three strands of six-strand embroidery thread (floss) and slowly sewing small stitches along all the curves. The small teal lines radiating from the circle are each sewn with one stitch.

 

Because my chosen backing fabric is rather pale, I was careful  not to carry my threads across the back of the work, giving a neat (ish!) finish. When sewing those final radiating single stitches, I stitched into/under the pink circle of stitching so the thread follows the circle round between the single stitches instead of stretching in straight lines from stitch to stitch.

You could frame the finished pattern in the hoop as a bit of embroidered art, use it to make something small like a zip purse or add it to a patchwork project. 

Click here to open the pattern sheet in another tab or window. Make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100%.

This embroidery pattern is for non commercial use only: you can stitch it as many times as you like for yourself or as gifts, but please don't use it make anything for sale. You may borrow a photo or two if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire post or share the pattern itself on your site. Thanks!

P.S. Let's not talk about how long it's been since I said I'd be sharing these "over the next few weeks"! Life, man, it gets in the way sometimes...

You'll find the first pattern here: Remember to be KIND to yourself.

And the second pattern here: Don't compare your INSIDE to someone else's OUTSIDE.

Enjoyed this free pattern? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

My Happy Rainbow Blanket: Almost Finished!

Remember my rainbow blanket?

 

I bought the final ball of yarn last month and finally finished knitting the squares last week.

I had two "halves" of the blanket already knitted and sewn together but it was missing three rows of aqua and green.

So, I got to knitting the final green squares...

This is quite a hard shade to capture in photos! It's half way between a spring green and a neon green and it looks lovely and zing-y against the other colours in the blanket.

After many evenings spent knitting in front of the TV (I am not a fast knitter) all the squares were finished. Hurrah!

I laid them all out on the living room floor to plan the final arrangement of colours.

This has been a bit of a "make it up as you go along" project (earlier it was going to look like this, and before that it wasn't even originally intended to be a rainbow blanket!) so I'm especially pleased that it's all worked out well in the end.

Once I was happy with the layout of the squares, the final bit of sewing-up began! I added squares to each side of the blanket then joined the two sections together.

I've been sewing the loose yarn ends in gradually over the months I've worked on this blanket, but there are still lots of ends still to sew in!

 

It's not the most exciting task in the world but I actually find it quite meditative - sometimes a nice simple repetitive task is exactly what you need at the end of a long day. Put your feet up, pop the telly on and stitch stitch stitch...

 

I'm thrilled with how the colours in this blanket look together and can't stop myself from smiling whenever I work on it, or when I look at these colourful photos. Making stuff is always fun, but making something that fills your heart with joy? Just magical.

I'll be sure to take lots of snaps of the finished blanket to share with you guys sometime soon, and I'll also write about how I made the blanket (needle size, stitch, colours used, etc) so you'll be able to make your own happy rainbow blanket if you fancy one :)

A Happy Blanket Becomes... A Happy Rainbow Blanket!

Remember my happy patchwork blanket?

I started with some knitted squares left over from one project (a blanket that never became a blanket in my teens) and some bright yarn left over from a couple of (much more recent!) projects. I decided to use them as the basis for a nice new patchwork blanket: adding these sorbet colours plus some bright red left over from yet another project, knitting slowly in the quiet evenings and gradually building up a nice pile of squares.

After much umming and aahing about how to arrange the colours I decide lay the squares out in colour order.

 

 

 
Don't all those bright colours look delicious together? Yum.

I've now got 70 squares knitted for the blanket but the colour mix is a teeny bit imbalanced. The perils of using leftovers!

I thought about just adding in some greens to balance out the reds and pinks at the "hot" end of the spectrum but then I thought how nice it would be to "go full rainbow" and cram in as many bright happy colours as possible.

So, these are the new colours I've bought...

 ... and here's (roughly) how they'll fit in with the other colours. 

I love how all these bright colours just ZING together.

 
I'll probably switch some colours around later when I come to arrange all the squares, and maybe add in some more shades if they're needed. But for now, knitting squares from these new colours will keep me plenty busy!

P.S. In case you're interested, I'm using double-knit acrylic yarn on size 8 needles and casting on 30 stitches making squares approx 14 cm across. The finished blanket is probably going to be a good size for a single bed, or curling up on the sofa. The new shades I bought are all Stylecraft Special DK - sunshine, aster, citron, spice, fondant and lime.

How To: Make a Box of Sunshine!

Time for a free tutorial - yay! How to make a cute box of sunshine to brighten someone's day :)

This is a sponsored post, to celebrate the release of Annie on DVD and Blu-ray.

The re-make of the classic family musical stars Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz along with Quvenzhané Wallis as Annie ... and it's now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

This looks like such a happy film! So, my Annie-inspired project is all about spreading a bit of happiness: a box filled with rainbows and a little felt sun that you can give to a friend to make them smile.

 

I think a box of sunshine would be a really sweet gift for a friend or loved one who's ill or feeling blue.. or to send in the post to a friend you can't hug in person. This is also a very fun project to make, and one you could work on with your kids.

To make the box, you will need:
- the box template (at the bottom of this post), printed on white card
- felt tip pens, coloured pencils or crayons in seven rainbow colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, dark blue and purple), sky blue and black
- scissors
- a ruler
- a glue stick
- bakers twine or coloured yarn to tie the box, OR washi tape
 
To make the sun, you will need:
- the sun template (at the bottom of this post), printed on paper
- yellow felt
- sewing scissors
- a sewing needle and pins
- yellow thread
- a small amount of toy stuffing
- a black permanent marker pen

1. Print the box template provided onto a sheet of white card, or use the measurements provided on the template sheet to draw the box template onto the card.

2. Colour in the template - this will be the inside of your box. Colour the rainbow stripes in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, dark blue and purple. Then colour the central section sky blue. Remember to colour the four tabs!

3. Carefully cut out the box shape, then score along the inner lines of the box to make them easy to fold.

To do this you need something pointed that you can press into the card - a ballpoint that's run out of ink, a butter knife or an open pair of scissors. Take care with this step, especially if you are using scissors! Place the card on something like a cutting mat or a pad of paper to protect your worksurface. Hold the ruler in position with one hand and your chosen scoring tool firmly in the other and carefully score along the lines, bringing the tool towards yourself slowly along the edge of the ruler.

Fold each scored line then unfold them and flatten the box again. The box will now be easy to fold later and the line of each fold means the different sections will be clearly visible when you turn it over in the next step.

 

4. Turn over the card and decorate the outside of the box! You can use your imagination to add patterns or pictures on the four sides of the box and the two flaps (and even the bottom of the box if you want to). You could also add fun things like stickers or personalise the box with your friend's name or drawings of some of their favourite things.

Tip: make sure the box is the right way up, so that when it's opened red will be at the top of the rainbows.

I decorated my box with a red heart and some abstract patterns, using rainbow colours. I added the heart to the left flap and used the right flap for writing my message.

5. Now it's time to construct the box. Use a glue stick to apply glue to the white side of the four flaps, then fold up the box pressing the flaps into place inside one by one. Pinch the card between your fingers for a few seconds until the glue sticks the layers together. Then set the box aside so the glue can dry completely.

6. Print the sun template provided onto a sheet of paper then cut it out. Pin the template to some yellow felt and cut around it. Repeat this to cut a second circle.

7. Pin the two felt circles together and whip sitch around the edge with yellow thread, hiding your knot between the two layers. Stitch most of the way round, leaving a gap big enough for a couple of your fingers.

8. Stuff the sun so it's nicely shaped but still squishy. Add little bits of stuffing at a time, poking them with your fingers so the sun is evenly stuffed. Then sew up the rest of the gap with more whip stitches and finish your stitching at the back.

9. Use a permanent black marker to give your sun a smiley face. Wait for the ink to fully dry before touching it, to avoid smudging.

Tip: practice drawing on a scrap of felt first.
 

 

10. Put the sun in the box, then tie it up with some pretty bakers twine or coloured yarn.

Alternatively, secure the top flap of the box with a small piece of washi tape.

Click here to view the box template sheet and here to view the sun template sheet. Make sure you're viewing them full size then print them at 100%.

Tip: for paler lines on the box template, use the "fast" or "draft" setting on your printer. 

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post, celebrating today's release of Annie on Blu-ray and DVD. Screenshots from the film are used with permission.