Sweet Treat for the Christmas Tree

Hi there.  On my last post I said that I had a make to share for the Christmas tree that also tasted good.  So this is it…  A basic patchwork piece put together to hold just one sweet treat, and ready to hang on your tree.

The idea for this came from my sister Tina, who was given one by her friend and work colleague Diane (Thanks girls!).  So I had a good poke and prod, and worked out how to put it all together.

First you need to cut 8 squares of fabric each 2.5 x 2.5 inches.  Choose some fun festive fabric, two  different contrasting prints.  Cut 4 squares from each piece of fabric.

Once cutting is done pair together one of each pattern and place them right side together.  Leaving a quarter inch seam, stitch around the edge of the square on three sides.  On the fourth side only stitch along half the side.  Do this to all four pairs of squares.  

Press each of the stitched squares.  Using scissors cut the points of each corner (take care not to cut your stitching!).  The square should now look like this.

 Now turn all four squares the right side out using the opening you have left down one side.  Take some care to work each corner out.  Tuck in the unstitched half side and press.

Put the four squares together, placing the open edges at the centre, and stitch each together, from half way along each side.  The stitching should form a cross shape.  This can be done by hand or use the zig zag stitch on the sewing machine.  By piecing this way the openings for turning the squares are sealed.

Now place the four square piece on the ironing board right side up, and fold the opposite corners of each square to meet each other in the middle. Press.  Do this to all four squares.

Stitch together the folded corners and stitch a bead onto the corners.  Now it's beginning to take shape!

Last thing to do is to draw together the four points stitching to secure.  The loop is made from 4inches of ribbon doubled and stitched into place.

Now all that's left to do is fill with your favourite wrapped chocolate ( Ferrero Rocher fit very well!), and hang on the christmas tree.

If you have a go at this let me know.  Happy making :-)

Christmas Tree Follow-Up

So a couple of posts back, I attached a jpeg of a christmas tree I had drawn as a download.  I've been messing around with it trying different things... and came up with this triangular card design, just really simple.  I've printed the tree three times, and stuck one on each side.  The one that is front facing has been decorated with some sparkles, really simple but quite effective!

How are your Christmas cards going?   :-)

Just Starting

After years of making things for pleasure, as presents or for friends, I have set out on the adventure of starting an Etsy shop, and at the same time I'm back to blogging.  I'm told it helps people find your Etsy shop by creating spaghetti links out there in the cyber-ether...
I have sold a variety of my products at craft fairs  over the last few months, but have yet to make any inroads on the internet.

So what I've found is that there is quite a bit to this Etsy business.  Making things is just the start.  You have of course, to set up your Etsy account, and start constructing your shop.  You have to get the things you've made up on the site, which means decent photos, and that is a whole other art. Finally you have to decide what you will charge and where you will ship.  That's really hard, when basically you have only ever given things away.  That's the basic set up, but then something a little more scary has to happen.  People have to find you, and like your work, and buy it... and you have to do things like blog to help get you shop further up the google search engine lists...I think!

For my first post I'm going to  share a page from my creative journal.  It's just ideas and a diary in one really.  I have been working on some christmas stuff recently and this page tells some of that story.

In some ways it's just arty doodles, but it helps me to keep ideas together.  I wanted to draw my own christmas tree to use on some of my paper craft products this year.  I printed three copies of it  to use on the page.   I ended up folding two, trimming them a little, and sticking them one on top of the other to give a 3D effect.

Any way I thought it might be fun to give away a download of my tree.  You can then print it and use it to make your own cards, tags etc. It is a JPEG file, so it should be easy to use with most software.

Well that seemed  such a simple idea! But then I realised that blogger does not really support  downloads very well.  So I've loaded the image up to a cloud, and linked the download button to it...and hope it works!  Lots of other blogs do it this way, so it should be fine...but let me know if you have any problems! The Download Button will take you to a Wikisend page, and the file should download from there. 

 I hope my crafting journey encourages you to make things too.  I'm sure it's in us all, just looking for different way to find expression!!