Handmade Christmas Gifts

Firstly I would like to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas and New Year. Lets hope its a good one as they say in the song.
Like lots of us, I made a few gifts for presents and have had to save them up for now, so as not give the game away. I didnt make lots this year it has to be said, but here is a round up.

For my sister in law, who loves elephants, I got a cute miniature kit from The Old Pincushion . This made up and popped in a lovely teacup.  My brother cant moan about more elephants taking up too much room with this one can he?

For Mum, I purchased some lovely theraputic gels from Simply Beautiful Cosmetics. Whilst not handmade, these are fabulous and definitely to be recommended. They are not in the prettiest of packaging and I wanted to perk up the presentation a bit.  The cup above came as part of a pair so I tried my hand at candle making and made Mum a pretty teacup candle and packaged it all up to look pretty. it is a shame I didnt photograph  it pre- pink cellophane as you cant see it really, but you get the idea.

I made a cosmetics bag for Mum in law but forgot to take a picture, doh!

Whilst in the wax vibe, I made this one for a friends gift too.

For my other siter in law I opted to buy handmade from a lovely fellow etsy seller.  I have admired her work for some time and was lucky enought to win these gorgeous hand tatted snowflakes for my tree in her giveaway.

No, dont worry, I am not a cheapskate, I didnt give these as my gift to her. I ordered her this gorgeous pendant from Heathers range. Do check out her shop at Tatiana Rosa. You will not be dissapointed.

That rounds up the handmade gifts for this year, except to show you this cute pair of foxes I finished for a loveley customer in Canada. They are travelling as we speak. I love foxes, I think they are my absolute favourite to knit.

Just a quick reminder that I have 25% off lots of items in my shop until 7pm Friday so its a fabulous time to snap up the things you may have had your eye on. So do have a peek whilst you are on the computer.
Bargains here

   xxxxxxxxxxx   See you in 2012 xxxxxxxxxxxx

SALE TIME

Ok folks, as the Christmas shopping fury is over for this year, it is time for you to treat yourselves.  Like the high street (which will be noisy, busy and infuriating no doubt), I am having a sale on my teddy bears. There is a whacking 25% off all the bears from 9am tomorrow until 7pm next Friday.  I have lots of bears planned for next year and would like some space for them so why not take the opportunity while they are a wee bit more affordable.
The bears are here, but do have a peruse of the whole shop. We have so much more than teds.

Oh, and if you are an etsy seller and would like to use the sale tool I did to create this sale very easily, just use this link  http://www.etsyonsale.com/sellers?referralCode=GRAQHFN6YV  to take you to a very helpful site. Do look at the you tube instructional video. Tells you quickly all you need to know.

DIY Wrapping

I dont know about you, but I find commercial warapping paper either quite boring or if its nice (more the latter in my case) and tasteful, hugely expensive.  I hadn`t found any I liked this year and had a wrapping urge last Sunday.  So what was a girl to do with the notion in her head and the gifts ready to wrap but not tools to complete this whim?  Answer, make it yourself.  Now, last year I used brown paper and stamped it up with some tags and red and white bakers twine.  This year, no forefthought at all so had to be even more resourceful.
A good few years ago, we bought my son a huge roll of drawing paper as he was always drawing. That has stopped and I found the roll on top of the kitchen cupboard.  This I stamped with a metallic blue mandala stamp and raspberry snowflake. Tags were simply cut from some blue gingham card I had in my stash. There is always some suitably  coloured embroidery floss floating around here. That just left the tying up finishing touch. I had some hessian which wa sleft over from previous projects and cut this into strips.  Apart from that large one, which the hessian was not long enough for. This was solved with brown paper cut into strips with fancy scissors and punched with my crop o dile punch.  What do think? I even made a cute gift bag for a small gift. Obviously,  there are a few more but these give a feel of what I did.

Beary Gift

I have been hanging on to show you this, for obvious reasons.  My good friend had her birthday today. She has long admired my bears and gave me some lovely red silk which she loved but found hard to work with.  So the logical thing was to make her a bear of her own and use her beautiful silk.  I love her and even my husband said he rather liked her too. What do you think? Sadly, it was a bit dark the day I took her mug shots and they dont do her justice really.

Foxes!

I am currently working on a pair of cute foxes for a custom order.  I have to say, they are my absolute favourites to knit.  In the real world of course, they are a bit of a pest.  They remain very popular with children and you have to admit a real life fox is a beautiful sight. I know, i know, if you have hens they strike the fear of god and rightly so.
I have 2 very well behaved little foxes in the shop now and rearing to go off to some new homes. Maybe you would like a pair. Shame to separate them really.  I think in the new year I shall make some more of the large ones. If like my lovely customer, you would like a bespoke one, do get in touch. Its unlikely I can get a large one done for Xmas now as I am booked up, but I could possibly squeeze in another small one for UK delivery. The little ones below are dressed and ready to go right now.

Click here to buy Felipe




 

Click here to buy Fliss

These 2 are past work and give you an idea of what can be made.

This is a small one at 9 inches. This size is perfect for little hands with no small bits or too many moving parts.




This is a larger one at 12inches tall