Crafts Beautiful Magazine - free downloads

I bought the Christmas Special of Crafts Beautiful magazine and it's packed FULL of crafting ideas and FREE gifts.

As well as getting some free Xmas paper to play with if you go on line and register you can access the FREE downloads of patterns for your crafting projects and paper patterns!

There are lots of other things you can access too.

BARGAIN or what!?

I will definitely be experimenting with Cardmaking and Papercrafts.

Follow the link to access their website.....they have great competitions you can enter online  :o)

www.crafts-beautiful.com

MedARTation Project 8...Felt Santa Hats

Ho Ho Ho.....here's some great Christmas Tree decorations to try.

These Santa hats are simple and will add some fun to the Christmas Tree.

 

The starting point for these was a cookie cutter!

 

 



Using the cookie cutter as a starting template cut out a santa hat, a piece for the bobble and a fur brim

 



Use your Red Felt and white felt to make the relevent pieces. I used some sparkely white felt for my bobble.

Quick Tip!
Check your off cuts of felt and bits boxes for small pieces that could be used up by making the bobbles etc.

Stitch the pieces together using a back stitch or running stitch

Make 2 hats to fit back to back...

 

Add a hanging loop and stitch around the sides using a running stitch, but leave the bottom open!

You can then use your decoration as a Santa Hat for a bottle of Wine/Beer as a gift AND as a tree decoration.

 

 

I'm sure you will agree these are really easy to make.

 

Other suggestions for how to use this project:

 

- Make some Blue santa hats for any friends who support MCFC/Chelsea or in their favourite football team colours

- Add some embroidary detail or sequins on the fur trim to add variety

- Stitch names/Year onto the fur trim to personalise gifts/tree decorations

- Attach a few hats to a ribbon and make a Christmas Garland

- Add numbers to the hats to make an advent garland

- Make larger hats to fit on your mobile phones/remote controls for a bit of fun

- Use just one of the Santa Hat cutouts and use to decorate cards or stick to a piece of card to make a fun present label

 

Have you got any other ideas you could share?

 

I hope you enjoy making these x 

 

MedARTation Project 7....Felt Snowman

Well...it's beginning to look alot like Christmas...at least it is in the crafting work as folk get busy makig Christmas crafts for gifts and fairs.

I've made a few christmas tree decorations including a cute snowman which was really easy to make and uses the same templates as the Hedgehog and Sheep..

 

 

You will need:



2 pieces of white felt for the body

Black Felt

Ribbon

Buttons, sequins and pom poms

Pipe Cleaner

 

Start by sewing the pom pom on for the nose, 2 sequins for eyes and some buttons

 

 

Stitch a hanging loop to the back..position the stitching so it will be covered by the hat...

 

 

Cut out a felt hat to a shape of your choosing and add a few sequins for added detail...

 

Stitch the hat to the 2 body pieces and using a blanket stitch fix the 2 body pieces together. Make sure you leave a gap to add some stuffing and then close up.

 

* If you would like to add arms - use the pipe cleaners and stitch them in place at this stage. To be honest - I got so carried away with what I was doing I forgot to add them to this snowman, but will add to others. It's good to have some variety anyway :o)

 

Finally add some ribbon for a scarf ...attach using a cross stitch at the front and back.

 

 

And there you have it ....a cute Christmas Tree Decoration.

 

I hope you like it.

 

I will be adding some more Christmas projects to the blog, so keep checking in.

 



so much to do...and so much fun doing it

Things have been pretty busy of late.
We bought a house...and it needs LOTS doing to it, but that's ok - it's a blank canvas to test out new ideas on :o)

My mind has also been feeling a bit creative...maybe a little too creative as I now have 101 ideas of things I'd like to try, but I'm trying to be mindful and focus on the now.

I have been collecting beer bottle tops for a long time and would like to make a mosaic from them.
I've also been looking at ideas for bottles....any suggestions?
For our stairs I'm thinking of doing something a little more decorative and off the cuff to make a feature out of them...will post pictures once done ;o)

Some of my favourite tweeters are the upcyclers and I have had a look at www.hipcycle.com and they have some great ideas.

I've also been creating my mood boards on Pinterest www.pinterest.com/medartation so you can follow what I'm thinking!

Be back soon with more MedARTation projects x

MedARTation Project 6...Felt Sheep

Following on from my previous post, this is a felt sheep that I made using the same template of 2 overlapping circles...

 

 

I cut the heart in the tummy from some sparkley white felt and with the red bow (cut free hand) I think it has a christmassy touch...know any farmers or sheep lovers??

 

Below are the pictures of how I made it incase you would like to have a go...

 



You will need;

White felt - cut into 2 larger body pieces and 1 smaller underside/belly piece.

                 I used pinking sheers to give a more fluffy look.

Black felt - cut into a heart shape for the face

Heart shape & Bow for accessories of your choosing

1 Pair of googley eyes

A hanging loop

Stuffing



Start by straight stitching the heart & face onto the belly piece then back stitch on the bow. I like to angle to the face piece slightly to give a more inquisative look to the sheep.

Cut the black pipe cleaner to a suitable length to make the arms and legs and then secure these to one of the body pieces. Stitch the hanging loop to this body piece as well. Position the stitching so that they are covered up by the belly when attached (see below)

Secure the belly onto the body and pin in place. Use Straight stitch to secure to the body piece. Finally using back stitch fix the 2 body pieces together, leave a gap for the stuffing and then close up. Stick on a pair of googley eyes and you are done!

NB: Take care not to give this to small children to handle as the eyes may come unstuck over time and present a choking hazard.

I've made a small flock of these sheep and will hang them on the tree. I'm also going to use them to make a mobile for a childs room.....counting sheep makes..you..sleeepy..zzzzzz

Hope you enjoyed this MedARTation project...try it with other colours too (black ,cream sheep or even rainbow sheep).

Next; A felt Snowman decoration

MedARTation Project 5...Felt Hedgehog

There are a few characters that can be created from using 2 overlaping circles as a template.

My next few projects will be using these to create a Hedgehog, A Sheep and a Snowman!

 

 

I used the shapes function on my word processor to draw the circles and overlap them slightly. I then softened the join to make a smoother shape.

For the hedgehog...

Cut out the felt pieces as shown. I used Pinking Sheers for a spikey effect. The heart & bow were from pre-cut shapes & you will need a pop pom for the nose. You will need 2 brown peices for the body, 1 off-white piece for the underside/belly, 1 heart shaped piece for the face (cream), 4 small grey squares rounded off on one side for paws, a hanging loop & stuffing.

 

Sew the brown pom pom on to a heart shaped piece of cream felt for the face and then stitch 2 eyes using brown thread

Straight stitch the face to the 'Belly' (off-white felt) and sew 4 paws. I used squares of grey felt which I rounded off at the corners.

Add the heart and bow or any other decoration you like

Sew a hanging loop to one of the Brown body pieces. It's ok to stitch all the way through the felt as this will be covered up when you sew the 'belly' on top of it.

Using a back stitch fix the belly to the brown body piece (covering the stitching for the loop) and then back stitch the 2 body pieces together. You need to do this a neat as you can so there is a good finish on both sides. Leave a gap and add your stuffing before closing up.

And here's your finished Felt hedgehogs.

They are pretty straight forward to do and I think they are pretty cute. I'm going to play around with colours and combinations and I'm sure I will enjoy making more of these.

 

I hope you like them.

 

In my next post I will show you how to make a felt sheep using the same template pattern.

 

Thanks for looking at my blog x

 

Buddha Quote...

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea thats exists only as an idea"