Snowflake Tutorial and Christmas Cards

I don't know about you, but I find writing Christmas cards somewhat stressful! Don't get me wrong, I love sending and receiving cards, but I wish there was a way to make the organisation a little easier.

It's not possible to just sit down, write them, put them in envelopes and post. Oh no! This year I've had the following piles: cards to post (the least stressful pile), cards to put letters in, cards to put photos in, cards to check addresses, cards to give to others to pass on (to save on stamps!), cards to give to others when I see them, or through neighbours' doors, Little W's school friends, Toddler W's playgroup friends, both their teachers (quite a few of them!) and finally, Mr W's work pile. It's quite possible that I've missed a group there, but you get the idea.

Anyway, this is the card I made for family:

 

It's simply a snowflake template that I brayered over. I like the demin effect. And I used these lettering stamps for the inside:

I'd not found a use for them before, but think they look really Christmassy.

This year, the little W's made Christmas tree cards:

Last year was Rudolph and the year before was cotton wool snowmen. I love Christmas crafts with the kids! It was always my favourite time of the year when I was teaching as well.

So... if you want to make some snowflakes, either for a card like I did, or to hang up, then look no further...

Snowflakes are really simple to make and make very effective decorations. Here's a quick and easy guide to making your own pretty snowflakes!

1) Fold a square sheet of paper in half to make a triangle.

2) Fold in half again.

3) Bring the right side over and fold like so:

4) And the left side:

Both sides should be equal. You're just folding one over the other.

5) Now trim off the triangular ends so you're left with a straight edge:

6) The fun bit! Cut lots of shapes. The more paper you cut away, the better your snowflake will look, but make sure you don't cut all the way across, or it'll fall apart!

You get used to what cuts will look like on a finished snowflake.

7) Here are the finished cuts:

8) And here is the finished snowflake!

Frosty Morning Spider Webs

One of my favourite things to admire on a frosty morning is a spiderweb. They are so beautiful! I can't resist photographing them, so thought I'd share some pics I took this morning...

 

They make fantastic decorations for the garden, don't you think?!

I love a cold sunny day, with the sun peeping through the icy bare branches:

As we're on the subject of photography, I have just set up my new shop called The Small Art Company. I haven't done a great deal with it yet, as I've been so busy with personal stuff and Christmas of course, but hope to get working on it in the New Year. If you want original art but are short on space, then this will be for you! At the moment the focus is on photographic transfers, so each piece will be one of a kind.

Anyway, that's all for now. Keep warm!

Traditional English Christmas Dinner!

Wow, where did that month go?!

I thought I'd do a post for any international readers that may be interested in a typical English Christmas. I've been reading up about what people eat for Christmas dinner in various countries and it's been really fascinating!

Generally, we'll have turkey, although some people may have goose. We'll have chestnut, sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes, sausages wrapped in bacon (also known as pigs in blankets!), Yorkshire puddings, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots and one or two other veg, cranberry sauce (more like a lumpy jelly than a sauce) and gravy.

I don't have many photos of Christmas dinners I'm afraid, but this is Little W's from two years ago!

Afterwards, we'll have Christmas pudding with brandy butter or whipped cream. The former is more traditional, but I do like the whipped cream!

On the table will be crackers to pull and sometimes we have party poppers. There's not usually room for any other ornaments, although we have managed to squeeze in some festive candles in the past.

And then we'll just be having cold turkey in various formats for a few days after...

Seeing as I'm being festive today, here's a photo of our new VW campervan in the snow the other day:

There's still little bits of snow around and was very icy this morning. We had a bit of a snowstorm on the way to school and now the sun's out... I do love British weather!

Anyway, I  would love to hear what you have for Christmas dinner!

A Little bit of Sparkle

Just thought I'd share a couple of little pics of last night's sparklers...

There would have been more but I had my camera on the wrong setting and there wasn't much sparkle left by the time I realised! Ah well.

This year was the first we'd been to our local firework display. It was pretty good, although I think we'd have had a better, if more distant, view from across the lake.

The last two years we've been to a display near where my brother lived, but he's just moved a little way up north. I kind of missed his little firework party though. We used to have home-roasted chestnuts, marshmallows, toffee apples and chilli... Very yummy on a cold night! I managed to rustle up a jacket potato instead...

I think next year we might take the little Ws to the Lord Mayor's Show in London and see the fireworks after that. There's nothing like a firework display on the Thames. The echo is amazing!

Hope you all had a good and safe Bonfire Night.

Want to host a Toy Voyager?

I came across the Toy Voyager site a few months ago. It's a similar kind of thing as Bookcrossing, which I joined about 10 years ago but have never actually managed to release a book!

I thought sending a Toy Voyager (TV) off on his world travels would be educational for the kids as they can follow his travels on the map and see different places around the globe. Hopefully they'll feel they're kind of experiencing a little bit of culture themselves as MiniMarshmallow (our TV) was part of the family for a short while...

Here he is at my dad's birthday lunch in the summer:

 And at a very windy Land's End:

Camping in the rain! Just finished dinner and about to eat this delicious marshmallow, chocolate and banana wrap (recipe below) and we had to run and hide in the car:

Then, once back home, another TV joined us. This is MiniMarshmallow and Krumelknirps at one of the gold postboxes:

MiniMarshmallow then went off to Germany to start his world travels. And another two TVs, Mishuta and Kathy, joined us. Here we are at Alexandra Palace:

We just have Kathy with us right now. She's actually looking for a new UK host, so if you would like her ro become part of your family for a few weeks, then let me know! Here she is eating popcorn at the circus:

And if you're outside of the UK and would like to host MiniMarshmallow, then please let me know also:)

It's lots of fun hosting a TV. You basically take pictures whenever you go somewhere or even just doing stuff around the house. They usually stay with you for a few weeks and then their owner will give you a new address to send them on to.

In case you were interested in that camping recipe, it's very simple. You just need:
Small wraps
Mini marshmallows
Banana
Nutella

Spread the Nutella over the wrap, add chopped banana and marhsmallows, roll up, wrap in silver foil and grill for a few minutes, until it's all melted and gooey! Yummmm!

Skinny Jeans and Trainers (and New Art)

Time for one of my random thoughts posts!

I bought my first pair of skinny jeans a few months ago. Well, actually, Mr W. bought them. I sent him to the shops while I was tutoring, asking for some new jeans (I've really not been bothered about fashion since having kids!) and he came back with skinny jeans. To my surprise and delight I guess, they fitted!

Anyway, I put them on one morning when it was a bit dull and drizzly and was about to leave the house, putting on my trainers. I looked down and realised that skinny jeans and trainers do not go! It suddenly occurred to me why I've been seeing women wearing sandals in non-sandal weather! It's either sandals or boots I've discovered.

Apart from this earth-shattering discovery, I've found a new outlet for my photography. I have images for sale on Fine Art America. You can buy in a variety of formats (like RedBubble). This image called 'Light of the Desert' has just had some votes in one of the contests:

I'm currently working on some other artwork to sell alongside the photography. I'm trying to combine the photography, children's illustration and other arty things I'm doing with all the different inks I bought a while ago. I love abstract and fantasy art and that's what I'm working on right now. I've been experimenting with different textures, backgrounds and materials, so hope to have some new artwork for sale soon!

If you missed my personalised colouring books by the way, they're here over at Folksy. Make wonderful Christmas presents!

  

Hope to show you some new work soon:)

Kids' Travel Activity Pack

I meant to make these last year for our trip to the Lake District, but, well, life got in the way I guess. This summer holiday, I really wanted to make sure I did them for our trip to Cornwall. Almost exactly the same amount of time in the car, but in a different direction...

These travel packs had to be made as cheaply as possible, so I found two cushion covers that I'd never used. They were a set of four from IKEA that we bought years ago. We use the other two, but the colours of these didn't really go with our living room. Perfect!

I folded them in half, so the zip is along the top:

Then I sewed up the sides and the middle, making sure I didn't go too high so the zip will still open. This has made four pockets - 2 with a zip and 2 open.

I cut a bit of material from old T-shirts and sewed some velcro on, which was then stitched to the back in the middle like so:

And the other bit was sewn on the front, along with my kids' initials (I made sure I only sewed through the top layer of the cushion):

The bit I had most trouble with were the inside pockets. I wanted clear page-like pockets. I was thinking clear pencil cases, but they were too thick. I'd thought of ringbinder pencil cases, but they were way too expensive, so I did some research and found people had made similar things using food bags. Off I went to Tesco! These were only £1 something for a pack of 25 I think.

I used six altogether, three on each side. I alternated each side, left, then right, pinned them and then sewed them in place:

And there you have it! I've filled it with various bits and pieces. In the zipped compartments are eye-spy bags (from Etsy), wipe-clean travel cards I bought in a book shop and Michelin eye-spy books.

In the open section are colouring books (now for sale!) and dot-to-dots.

Then in the plastic wallets are:

• Pipecleaners
• Plasticine
• Handmade fuzzy felt
• Handmade magnetic photo boards
• Handmade laminated games like eye-spy, bingo, maps, boxes etc.
• Crayons and whiteboard pens

I'll let you know how successful they are!

Edit - since I wrote this, we've now been and come back from our trip! As something to keep the kids occupied, they were brilliant! Not sure the style was so good for in the car though, as things kept falling out onto the floor. They'd be better for an aeroplane or restaurant I think.