December in Pictures: Frosty Leaves, Festive Fun & a New Home

It was rather quiet on my blog this December because I was a) busy getting ready to move, then b) moving house, and then c) doing lots of DIY in my new flat... but I also got up to some fun stuff and shared pictures! Wanna see?

I started the month in true Instagrammer / blogger style, by almost missing my train because I'd stopped to take photos of some frosty leaves. Totally worth it.

I got some gorgeous post from one of my (then) blog sponsors, in thanks for hosting their ad. How sweet is that? The adorable bunny brooch is by illustrator Emma Evans. 

I spent most of the start of December packing ready to move house, and ticking lots of other things off my "stuff that needs to get done before I can move" checklist. That bunny brooch got packed within hours of me taking that photo!

Of course, I couldn't resist squeezing in a couple more local Nice Days Out before moving away from the South-East. I spent a busy day in London, doing some Christmas shopping and oohing over all the festive loveliness (the lights, the shop windows and all the sparkly things for sale).

This is the swoonworthy flower stall in one of Harrods' food halls. It was such fun picking out delicious gifts for friends and family, umming and ahhing over all the loveliness.

 
I can never resist popping into the haberdashery department when I'm in Liberty. Not least because they're still selling my book! So thrilling.

My second last-Nice-Day-Out-before-I-move-away was a trip to Windsor. They had a gorgeous Christmas tree this year - a gift from the German town where Queen Victoria's husband Albert was born. Victoria and Albert popularised the idea of Christmas trees in Britain, and apparently Albert had his first tree at Windsor shipped in from his home town!

Windsor Castle is always a wonderful place to visit, but especially so at Christmas. It's quieter in the off-season, and the Castle is decorated with wreaths and garlands and Christmas trees, including a huge tree in the main hall.

 

I had a marvelous bit of luck, as it turned out that the only day I could manage to get away to Windsor for the day was not only wonderfully sunny (yay!) but it was also part of a special festive weekend of events at the Castle (hurrah!). There were choirs singing carols, ornament-making workshops, and a very funny "pop-up Panto". So much fun!

I also really enjoyed Fashioning a Reign, an exhibition of some of the Queen's outfits. Some of the embroidery and beading was quite incredible.

Back at home, I wrapped all my Christmas gifts super early so I could leave them at my parents house (to save carting them back and forth as I moved house then headed "home" for a family Christmas). Isn't the gift wrap gorgeous? It's not technically Christmas wrap, but who cares!

I totally dropped the ball on Christmas cards this year (I didn't send a single one! and I love sending Christmas cards!) but at least I managed this.

Before my unplanned blogging break I finished blogging about my trip to Leeds (so much great architecture!) and my day in Oxford with Polly. This is one of my favourite photos from that Oxford trip: a quiet corner of All Souls College.

 
I also blogged about the felt Christmas baubles tutorial I'd designed for the Village Haberdashery's blog. It feels a teeny bit pointless linking to a Christmas tutorial in January, but maybe you could bookmark it (or Pin it!) and make some felt baubles for Christmas 2017?

Then in the middle of December I moved to the seaside! Into my very own flat!

I'm really happy to be living in the South-West again (I love it here and had missed it a lot), and it's very exciting having my own place.

I shared this photo a few days after moving in: I might not have had a cooker or a fridge yet (or much proper furniture!) but I did have all the important stuff, like piles of colourful handmade blankets.

Seriously though, it has been such a joy finally using these blankets in my new home.

There's my Happy Rainbow Blanket (which I still need to take "finished" photos of!), a Giant Granny Square blanket (the first and only thing I have ever crocheted), my Sky Blanket, and my Random Squares blanket (which includes squares I knitted as a teenager). Each of these blankets contain so much meaning and so many memories, and they're all so wonderfully colourful. I love them.

It's also been really nice rediscovering some of the things I've had in storage for the past few years. I missed these plates rather a lot - isn't the pattern lush?

After a couple of busy weeks of moving boxes and doing DIY it was time to head to my parents house for Christmas. These are a choir of singing trees from the Christmas at Kew light trail I visited with my mum back in November; the trees lit up as they "sang". Delightful!

We had a lovely quiet Christmas - just how we like it. We watched lots of films and some Christmas telly and ate far too much food.

These are the excellent gifts I got for Christmas: the Ghostbusters remake on DVD (which I made my family watch immediately; such a great film!) and a Chocolate Orange (yum!).  

Aaaand that's it for another month!

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Gift Wrap Idea: Cassette Tape Gift Tags / Toppers

If you're like me, you've probably got some old cassette tapes sitting in a drawer somewhere...

I still play a lot of my old, beloved mixtapes (I actually bought a new walkman recently for this very purpose) but I've also got a whole load of old, totally random tapes that just aren't worth keeping - and which none of my local charity shops will take.

So, I thought I'd use some to make some gift tags / toppers!  This project would be a fun way to decorate gifts for the music lover in your life or if you've got loads of old tapes you could have a mixtape theme to your Christmas wrapping this year...

First up, you need to spray-paint your cassette tape. I chose silver for my tape (which looks great in real life, but which I have to admit is a total pain to photograph!), but bright colours would also look great.

Follow the instructions on your can of spray paint...

 

... and turn something like this...

... into something like this:

To attach the tape to your parcel, cut a length of ribbon long enough to tie around the parcel in the normal fashion. Thread the ribbon through the holes in the cassette tape, so the tape is in the middle of the length of ribbon.

Turn the tape over and knot the ribbon at the back.

Then carefully tie the ribbon around the parcel (you may need someone to help you do this, so one of you can hold the tape in place on top of the parcel while you turn it over) and finish by tying the ribbon in a knot underneath the tape.

If you've used curling ribbon, you can curl it and leave it in place. If you'd prefer to remove the ribbon ends, lift the tape up carefully and snip the ends away so they'll be hidden under the tape.

You can leave the tape blank, or add a paper label to turn the tape into a gift tag.

Measure the label space on your tape and cut out a strip of white paper to size. Position it on the tape to check you're happy with the size, write your message (remember to start with an A or B to mark the "side" of the tape!) and then stick the label in position with prittstick or double-sided tape.

You could also make mixtape gift tags...

Position the tape on a luggage tag and mark the position of the holes with a sharp pencil.

Use the pencil to poke two holes through the tag where you've marked. Then thread a short length of ribbon (the same colour as the tape) through the tape, and thread each end through one of the holes in the card tag.

Secure the ends of the ribbon with sticky tape...

... then stick a large address label or a piece of paper onto the tag to cover up the ribbon & tape. The tape makes the surface a bit lumpy, so if you want to write a message on the label or paper it's probably best to do so before you stick it in position.

As before, you can leave the tape plain...

 ... or add a label with a short message like "Happy Birthday!", "Happy Father's Day", or "Merry Christmas"

Please note: once you've spray painted the tape you (obviously) won't be able to play it any more! So only do this to tapes you'd otherwise throw away, and make sure your gift recipient knows the tape is decorative only.


Please feel free to borrow one or two photos 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 on your site. Thanks!

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Gift Wrapping: The Joy of Kraft Paper

One of the more "random" questions I get asked a lot about my blog is "where can I buy some of that stripey brown paper you use in your gift wrapping projects?" As you can see, I use this paper a lot...

(Click on the images throughout this post to view the full gift wrap how to for each project). The soft, subtle stripe gives a lovely soft, retro feel to your gift-wrapping and it's a great neutral on top of which you can pile lots of colour and sparkle and general glitz!

This type of paper is known as "kraft" paper - I think it's a lot more common / popular in the USA than it is here? Most of the folks who ask me about it tend to be from the UK, anyway. I always buy a roll or two of it if I spot it somewhere and I know my supplies are running low (they sometimes have it in Post Offices, or in pound shops) but a Google search for it usually brings up the sort of packaging supplies companies where you have to buy giant rolls of everything which isn't exactly ideal for recommending to people when they email me! But - good news! - I have recently found a couple of UK-based shops that sell it in sensible non-wholesale sizes, so I thought I'd share the links with you guys in case you fancy getting some for your own gift-wrapping supplies stash... and so I've got a post I can link people to in future when they ask :) "Party & celebrations" store Pipii sells it in 8 metre rolls:

And stationery store Paperchase sells it in 5 metre rolls. They also sell some awesome silver and gold kraft paper which is another of my gift-wrapping staples, I just love it. Added bonus: it's recycled.

Every time I buy some I think "oh, it would be silly to buy more than one roll of this, don't go crazy and spend all your money on rolls of paper, you idiot" and then regret not buying more as it's always gone in a flash. I use it a lot for wrapping Christmas gifts...

(The gold wrap in the photos above actually came from Oxfam. They always have a nice range of recycled wrapping paper in their shops in the run up to Christmas. I've also bought huge rolls of yummy red kraft wrap from IKEA's Christmas store) ... and it's great for paper crafting too.

Gift Wrap Idea: Buttons

With all my business parcels packed and posted for the year it's time to turn my attention to my own Christmas gifts!

I'm using lots of yarn and pompoms (perfect for making use of the leftover yarn from the scarves I've been knitting) but I'm also trying out a few other ideas including one I'd like to share with you today... decorating your gifts with lovely buttons.

 

If you've got any crafty friends I think using craft supplies like buttons (or beads) and ribbon is a fab way to personalise their gifts. And because they'll be able to add the trimmings to their supplies stash and use them to make new things it's eco friendly too.

Start with a simple wrapped parcel (regular readers will know I'm a big fan of brown paper!) and tie ric rac, ribbon, yarn, lace or any other trims you fancy round it.

You can keep it simple with one striking trim like this ric rac...

... or use lots of co-ordinating trims together:

 

Then you need to add the buttons - this is a bit fiddly but well worth it. Thread an assortment of buttons onto a length of embroidery thread or yarn, and then weave the string around the ribbon so the button string becomes intertwined and the buttons are evenly spaced.

You don't need buttons for the underside of the parcel so I'd recommend tying one button string top to bottom around the parcel and a second string left to right (instead of using one long piece as you would with a normal bit of ribbon) leaving the ends of each string empty and tying the ends together on the underside of the parcel.

 

Another way to use buttons in your wrapping (and fewer of them!) is to make a button tag.

You can make a homemade tag easily with some cardstock, a holepunch and some embroidery thread or yarn as a string, or raid your stationery supplies if you've got some! Use a needle to pole the holes you'll need and then sew your buttons onto the tag using a double thickness of thread or some embroidery thread.

 

Use some sticky tape to secure the end of the thread and cover your sewing with a large address label or use craft glue to stick down a piece of paper or card.

 

Then write your tag and tie it to your parcel. Lovely.

 

PS if you'd like to add a vintage crafty feel to your gift wrapping without any of this messing around with buttons check out these lovely downloadable tags from doe-c-doe - button cards and vintage trims.

Please feel free to borrow one or two photos 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 on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this gift wrapping idea? 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.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns: