Christmas Craft - Inspirational Words

Today’s little craft project has taken two hours* but might be the most fun I’ve ever had craft-wise.  I’ve seen lots of homes around where people have painted craft letters to make words they find inspirational or fitting so this idea is by no means new.  It’s just my take on it.  So, to the craft part! 

First up, you’ll need craft letters that spell out words you like.  Initially I was going for “Joy”, “Hope”, “Peace” and “Love”, all of which I associate strongly with my family**.  Charles thought the fact that I’d included the word “peace” was hysterical and more ironic than anything else.  Then Bunnings didn’t have any H’s in stock.  After abandoning Charles’ inspired suggestion to simply use an apostrophe instead of an “H” giving me ‘ope instead of Hope, I was left with “love” and “joy”.

You will also need to choose some nice paper.  Since I have impulse control issues when it comes to craft supplies, not only did I score the scrapbooking paper I was going to use but I also went slightly nuts and splashed out on three gorgeous sheets of Japanese parchment paper with gold highlights through them.  They were almost three times the cost of the scrapbooking paper, but I DON’T CARE.  Incidentally, the scrapbooking paper was by far and away the easiest medium to work with.  Japanese parchment paper is closer to thick tissue paper, tended to go a bit soft even with almost no glue at all and was harder to cut with the utility knife.  The choice is obviously yours.

Back to business – prepare your letters – this basically means peel the price tag off and use your utility knife to trim any ragged bits.

I have chosen to paint the face of the letter in a colour contrasting my papers.  I also painted the rims of the letter in a bright gold to give it some sparkle and a bit more depth.

The choice of the “O” as the letter that gets covered in the pretty paper was deliberate.  Not only does it show off a fair amount of your chosen paper, but it’s also easier to cut the paper off with your utility knife when you’re done.  You can, of course, choose any letter you like.  You could do all of them in paper.  Just remember that the final stage involves using a utility knife to carefully cut the paper from your letters.

After your paint has dried paint the top of the letters that are going to have paper SPARINGLY with craft glue***.  I cannot stress this enough!  Too much glue will make your paper bubble and melt.  Bleugh.  Just spread a couple of drops as thinly as possible and make sure the entire surface of the letter is covered. 

The easiest way to do this next step is to place your paper right side down and pop the letter on top.  Press down evenly.  Flip the letter over and run your finger gently over the top to make sure the letter is smooth.  Leave to dry.

Now that your letter is dry flip it right side down onto a cutting board and run a very sharp utility knife around the edge.  Again, I have to stress this part so you don't make the same mistake as I did.  Before you start cutting anything, put down the knife and check that there is a cutting board underneath.  You'd have to be really stupid to forget that there was no cutting board under the paper bag you're using as a backdrop to paint your letters on.  Anyways, using a nice sharp utility knife should give you a clean line on the paper and your letter should be perfect.

If you’re hopeless with a utility knife (like me), especially with a sharp one, you’ve probably managed to shave bits of your letter’s rim off in the process.  Now is a good time to touch up the rim.  

And voila!  Awesome letters of love and joy!

*  Admittedly I was frequently interrupted by the little Viking looking for a fix.

**  “Eat”, “bicker” and “sleep” are just as appropriate in our case but not nearly as romantic.

You will need:

Craft letters – the cheapest ones I found were at Bunnings where I paid $1.12 for the little ones and $1.78 for the big ones.

Paper – choose something you love and then choose your paints to complement it.  Smaller patterns are better because you’ll see more of it on the letter.  For bigger patterns just be mindful to place your letter over a particular part of the pattern that you love.  As mentioned above, scrapbooking paper is ideal but there are prettier options in harder-to-handle forms. Scrapbooking paper starts at $1 and goes up to $3 a sheet.  The Japanese parchment pages were $3.70 each and about a third of the size as the scrapbook paper.

Paint – I’ve used artist’s acrylics and they start at $3 a tube at Bunnings. The gold is about $7.  You can get cheaper brands in the cheapie variety stores like Hot Dollar and The Reject Shop but they tend to be quite watery.  Spend the extra $$$ and go for quality - the tubes are huge and will last for ages.

Craft glue – good ol’ PVA.  Every home should have some.  $2 for a 50ml small bottle but why would you when 500ml will keep you going for a lifetime and set you back $5?  
*** Alternatively one blog reader has recommended spray adhesive for a nice, even, non-liquid coverage.  I think this is an awesome idea and clearly a lot smarter than the old PVA.  The thing is that spray adhesive terrifies me because, while basically craft competent, when I mess up, it's spectacular and I am convinced that one of those moments will eventually be macing myself with spray adhesive.  I don't know why I think this...I just do.

Paint brush – this is going to sound really odd.  The best craft brushes I’ve ever found are at Bunnings in the craft section and they go for $1.27 a pop.  I love them.  They are cheap.  Go now, buy many.

The Scary Face of Addiction

This is the face of an addict looking for a fix.  

Mama addiction.  Currently there is no known cure or treatment program.

I am a terrible enabler when it comes to feeding the Mama addiction.  I have found that smothering my little addict with kisses and cuddling him to the point of breathlessness might buy me enough time for a shower.  But look at that face...     

How could you say no?

Contact TC Guide To Life

Recently I discovered that blogger has this neat little segment called “stats” which shows me all sorts of interesting things including which countries my audience come from, how big my audience is, which posts get the most hits, etc.  No need to stress people!  Nothing personal!  It does not say Miss Jane Doe is checking your site out every three days but Mr Joe Bloggs is coming here five times a night because thanks to your profile pic he thinks it’s a porn site.

Given the number of people that comment officially (which is one.  That’s you Pipparevenge) I would be forgiven for thinking this is more of a private journal than anything anyone reads*.  I do get some messages through Facebook and the odd phone call but obviously these are from people who know me.  Until now there has been no means for people to contact me if they’ve simply stumbled across my blog and read it because they like it without entering a public comment.

But all that has changed!  You can now write to me and tell me anything you like, ask anything you like and I will answer right up until the blog audience gets out of control and there are too many questions for me to answer.**

SO – questions, comments, feedback, suggestions?  Want to suggest a physical challenge?*** Write to me at TCGuide2Life@gmail.com and await my reply.  I can’t promise not to publish your correspondence but if I do it’s guaranteed to be anonymous. 

Oh and a big hello to all my American, Canadian, Japanese, German, British, Scottish, Irish, Danish, Latvian, French and Slovenian readers.  Whew!  You guys are very coy but thanks to blogger I know you’re out there and I’m seriously flattered.

*  Except for Paranoid Pip.

** Twelfth of Never.

*** I do not do porn, snakes or sky-diving.  Other than that, ask and we’ll see.

Christmas Gift Designs

Incidentally I thought it was worth noting that most of the ideas in the coming blogs for Christmas gifts are my own.  This is not because I am especially creative, smart or gifted.  I am sure there are truckloads of better gifts you can make.  I even tried to find them by Googling a plethora of variations using the words “cheap easy Christmas gifts to make”.  Unfortunately the retail scum have managed to work out how to use Google such that if you search for cheap, easy gifts to make most of the sites you’re likely to come up with will route you through to a commercial entity trying to flog you a glue gun for five times what it would cost you at Bunnings (plus $16.95 for postage and "handling") with a bunch of random craft materials thrown in so you can produce the miracle that is a three dimensional paper snow flake.


I'm aiming to use a bunch of craft stuff I have on hand thereby limiting the stuff I have to buy and keeping the cost down.  But I have considered the cost of buying all materials for each project and I reckon you can get out of most of these for $10 or less for each one.*  Time wise each project shouldn't take more than an hour or so depending on your dexterity.  I make no apologies if you have to visit triage for four hours to get your fingers unstuck in between stages because you used some weird sort of fast-drying mega-bonding arrangement and you accidentally got it on yourself instead of your project.  We're assuming basic craft competence here.

Anyways, this is all meant to explain why most of the gifts I’ll be making will be of my own design.  I will keep looking and if I do happen to find anything worth making** I will note the source in the blog.

*  I do tend to assume people have a needle and thread on hand and not much else.  
**  And feel free to send me either your own designs or someone else’s that you’d like me to make.

Sustainable Christmas Gift - Teddy Ornament

Today we’re making a cute little Christmas Teddy ornament!  Today’s example is in purple and pink tones which are not very Christmassy, I’m the first to admit.  But my little girl does not like the red ones and has specifically requested something “pretty”.  Obviously you can choose any colours you like.  These instructions are also the quick and easy minimal sew method but you can make your ornament a bit stronger and a bit more exotic if you know how to hand sew.  I had all the necessary items on hand for this project - most of the material came from my scrap bag and the ribbon came off a birthday gift someone gave us.  So my total outlay for this project was $2 for craft glue.  For those of you who are  craft materials have-nots, I’ve included a list of things you’ll need to make this ornament at the end of this post.  


You should be able to get everything you need for about $10 or less and the cost per ornament if you buy everything brand spankers is about $1 or less (assuming you make at least ten), depending on how much you paid for your stuff.

So, first up – stencils.  You will need to make a stencil of a teddy, a big heart and a small heart.

Things to note at the stencil stage – you do not want teddy to be too fat because she has to fit behind her dress.  Second, teddy has to fit inside the big heart with a good 5mm (1/4 inch) of space around her.  Third, the smaller heart is the template for your wadding so draw an outline of the big heart onto some paper and make the line for the smaller heart about 8mm (3/8 inch) inside this line.

Okey doke – first up cut your teddy shape out of some brown felt.

Teddy’s dress is made from cutting one “frill” out of some cotton lace*.   Trim the top of the frill so it’s as wide as teddy’s neck and run a smidge of glue down the sides to stop the fabric from fraying.

Cut out a felt heart using your big heart template.  Cut out a quilt batting heart using your smaller heart template**.

Then glue your teddy to the centre of the heart.  Try not to use too much glue – you don’t want it to soak through the felt.  Next up, glue your cotton frill to teddy to make her dress.  Set these aside to dry.

You can use more felt to make the back for the ornament but I like to use a patterned cotton fabric with contrasting colours.

Place the front panel of the ornament on top of the backside of the backing fabric with the wadding sandwiched in between the two. 

At the top place a double over length of ribbon to make a hanger for your ornament.  You might like to pin everything together if you’re not confident at sewing.  You could also try gluing everything together instead of sewing.***

Sew a seam 5mm (1/4 inch) around the edge of the heart.  Then thread your needle with a contrasting colour and hand sew a decorative stitch around the edge.

To finish, trim the backing fabric to match the front and voila!  Homemade Christmas Ted ornaments!

* You can see in the final photo some ornaments made with two “frills” and they are definitely cuter.  Be warned that these versions had a running stitch in the collar of the teddy’s dress to gather it so it would fit on the neck.  The side hems of the “dress” have also been hemmed with tiny stitches.  It takes longer and you will need some sewing skills, but I personally think if you can do it, it’s worth it.

**  Alternatively you can use polyester fill but you’ll have to leave a gap when you sew or glue your ornament together, stuff it and then close it up.

***  Not sure how this would go but if you can’t sew, it’s worth a try


You will need:
Brown Felt (about $1 a sheet)
Coloured Felt (about $1 a sheet)
Cotton lace ($2-$5 a metre)
Ribbon ($1 a metre up)
Contrasting cotton fabric (From $5 a metre)
Quilter's batting/polyester fill (20cm of polyester batting is about $2)
Thread
Craft glue ($2)
Needle
Pins

The Sustainable Christmas Philosophy

Charles and I have never been huge on buying gifts for our little girl.  She has a bunch of family that give her nice things at Christmas and on birthdays so we only ever bought her a couple of things and they would never be overly big.  Generally I prefer to let her pick some fabric out and sew her a new dress, a quilt or make her something (this year she’s asked me to make her a little cradle for her toys and I have just the right design in mind). 

Despite this philosophy and the thought that she was probably still getting way more than she needed, I never thought about stemming the flow of gifts from other people.  Then, when she turned three we had her birthday at KidCity where they make you put all the toys in a big bag and take them home to open them.  Once home Madam opened three and then declared she had enough and didn’t need any more.  When I asked her what we should do with the rest she shrugged and said, “give them to someone else?”

At first I thought it was a phase.  But three weeks later as Christmas approached, when I asked her what she wanted, she rolled her eyes and said, “Mama, I just had my birthday and I got lots of presents and I don’t need anymore!”  And it was pretty much the same story when Madam turned four.  At this point I realised that we were at a turning point.  We could either encourage her to be more materialistic and really push her to ask for and accept gifts - effectively indoctrinating her into the commercial world of me, me, me, what planet?  Or we could build on what she had already realised and encourage her to think of the things she really needed in her life - not just the things she momentarily wants.  

Since that time we’ve encouraged people to slow down on the gifts and think instead of things they can do with her.  Every Saturday when she wakes up the first thing she asks us is where we’re going and what we’re going to do.  She is nuts about visiting her family and longs for more time with her aunties, uncles, grandparents and cousins.  So this year we went all out and asked for vouchers for experiences instead of gifts.  We also encouraged people to make their vouchers for small things as much as big stuff.  At Charlotte’s age an icecream and a play in the park are almost as cool as the zoo or a day at the beach.

The “vouchers instead of gifts” program was a screaming success.  Madam likes to shuffle her vouchers and plan her weekends around what she can do with the gifts people have given her.  They’ll keep her going well into the year.

It was so successful that it got me thinking even more about our gift-giving practices.  Charles and I have heaps of stuff and while there are always some things we need, more ubiquitous “stuff” that people bought on a whim is unlikely to fill those gaps.  When I think about it most of our family are in the same boat.  With good salaries and full lives, what we’re short on is time with each other.

So this year Charles and I have started the move towards a more sustainable Christmas.  We’ve decided that gifts will fall into one of two categories – either we know the person needs it and then we can buy it new or, if it’s just a nice thing to have then it’s revamped secondhand or homemade.  Example one – Charles’ sister has a beautiful mirror that shattered years ago now.  We’ve taken it off her hands and offered to get new glass installed as our gift to her.  We know she loves that mirror, we know she doesn’t have the time to do it herself.  Personally I think she’ll appreciate it for a lot longer than the random DVD we bought on the off chance she’d like it.

As a part of our move towards a more sustainable Christmas we’re also going to fill a basket with homemade goodies for people to choose something out of as their gift and that’s what some of December’s blog posts will be about.  I will be giving full instructions for easy to make, relatively cheap gifts.  In January I will also post on some of the bigger second-hand items we lovingly scored and restored for our beloved family members.*

I really urge everyone to think about your gift-giving practices and move towards sustainable gift giving.  You don’t need to rape the planet to have a good Christmas and your loved ones will probably appreciate it if you devote your time and effort to something personal for them this Christmas.

*  But not now because some of them read this blog and no one wants to ruin the surprise.

Quotable Quotes #6

This weekend we hosted a bunch of the brothers and sisters to celebrate a few of the birthdays in the family.  We offered up roast meat and veg as a main and our guests contributed with a variety of other tasties including one of Charlotte’s favourites – a selection of cheeses.

Our little girl is quite the connoisseur of cheese platters and eats everything from Bries to Blues.  She takes great delight in assembling a mouthful of yum but she’s not yet allowed to cut her own cheese.  This weekend I caught her, little tongue firmly wedged out the side of her mouth in concentration as she attempted to saw her way to an impressive wedge of Brie.

“You know you’re not allowed to use the knife by yourself, what do you think you’re doing?” I challenged.

“Oh Mama,” she sighed, rolling her eyes, “I’m five now, you know!”

And a day later she offered up this little age-related pearl of wisdom to the little Viking, “Don’t worry James, I used to do the same thing when I was little.”

Clearly for Madam turning five is not so much a celebration of birth as a graduation into a new era of maturity that comes complete with a plethora of newfound wisdom and ability.