The Home made year....Christmas 2013

Happy New year!! Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?? Are you full to the brim with turkey and mince pies?

How quickly it has flown by, so much preparation and its all over in a flash. But in all honesty I wouldn't change a single thing. I love this time of the year, its hard to choose between this and Halloween, and I enjoy the preparation as much as the day itself.

So needless to say I've made lots of things and rather than waffle on for ages I've put them into a visual collagey feast. So take a break from putting away the decs, grab that last mince pie and cast your eyes over this lot.............




 

Clockwise from left : countdown door hanger for Jacks room, which says Santa's been on the reverse, cupcakes with cinnamon butter cream.

 Flying reindeer applique blanket. Those that follow my facebook page will have seen this in the making.

 

 

 

 

Tulip decoupage card made with a kit by Papermania.

 

 

Cards made with digital stamps from Pink petticoat, and handmade sentiments.

 

 

Handmade Polar Express picture. I love the Polar Express and watch it on Christmas Eve every year, and yes the bell does still ring!

 My special Santa and reindeer that came home with me from Lapland last year.

 

 

Homemade gifts.

 Finnish piparkakut, gingerbread to you and me. We had this in Lapland last year and it was so lovely I knew I had to find a recipe for it, its different to our gingerbread as they use different ingredients and its much more spicy.

 Sweet chilli jam normally I make red pepper relish at Christmas but I'm told its not hot enough so I made this for a change.

 

 

 

Homemade mince pies and homemade apple and cinnamon ice cream. Those who follow me on Instagram will have seen this in its early stages, and I have to say its tastes amazing. Recipe courtesy of the icreamists.

 

 

Felt Christmas trees,

 yarn wreath,

 felt reindeer's, with button noses from nans button jar.

 

 

Jingle bell wreath with ribbon flower.

Close up of card made with digital stamps from pink petticoat.

 

So all that's left to say is have a fantastic new year I hope it brings you all you dream of, and don't forget in between blogposts you can always catch up with me on facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest by clicking on the links at the top of the page. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Homemade year ; Halloween

So the clocks have gone back and we're all enjoying our extra hour in bed, which can only mean one thing. Yup autumn is here and its Halloween. Time for our Halloween Party!!

As usual there was much to be done and as usual there was much running around at the last minute..lol. At least I didn't have tonsillitis this year though. So without further ado lets have a mooch at the pics....

 

clockwise from left;

 Party bags. Yay I actually managed to remember to photograph them this year! Handmade by myself using my craft programme and some ace printables from gwynn wasson designs. Hop on over to her blog to have a look at the Halloween party on there. Its seriously awesome and puts mine to shame!

Skull shot glasses

Eye ball cupcakes, again made by me. Vanilla and chocolate marble cakes, orange butter icing and a jelly eye ball.

 

 

Boo Sign ; I wish I could take the credit for making this but I bought I from Asda for £1.00 and seriously you can't make it that cheap so you may as well buy it.

Glass pumpkin votive from Waitrose.

 

 

Dual iced witchy cupcakes.

 

 

Jacks beware sign which he bought with his pocket money to help me. bless him.

 

 

Rogues gallery; I intended to do this last year but due to being ill never managed it so I'm pleased I was able to do it this year. This is a wall of Halloweens past, there's pictures of jack in his costumes from each Halloween and pictures of past party guests. I made these myself by printing out some Halloween backgrounds found on google and gluing them to black card. I messed about with the pics a bit to give them an old, dark halloweeny look, printed them out and stuck them onto bright card. I plan to add to it every year.

 

 

Top; Pumpkins of course, and luminaries. I love those they look fab at night when the tea lights are lit.

Bottom left; Tree scene setter from party delights, made an otherwise empty wall look ace.

 

 

Graveyard cup cakes. these again were chocolate and vanilla marble cakes with green butter icing and had such residents as Eileen Dover, Claire Voyant, Uma goner, and Hugo First.

 

 

left; Aaargh there's a monster at the window. We also had one of these in the shower lol.

Right; bat votive.

 

 

 

Now these are as close to selfies as your ever gonna get from me, but I had four Halloween functions to attend this year and yes I know I could have had one costume for all four but wheres to fun in that???

So clockwise from top left; Witches cat for my own party.

Top right; Toil and trouble witches for the school spooktacular with the lovely Stacey.

Bottom right; Sugar skull for my dads party on 2 November which is actually Dia de los muertos (Mexican day of the dead) so it seemed a bit more appropriate and secondly because I'm a little bit obsessed with sugar skulls.

Bottom left; broken dolly

 

but of course no Halloween is complete without the pumpkin king himself.. the one and only jack Skellington.......

 

 

and here he is my very own Jack Skellington, with his ghost dog zero.

 

So what now? Well I'll be enjoying some fire works in our back garden this evening and I've already started to plan for Christmas so I'll be showing you some of the things I always make at Christmas and some new things too.

 

Thanks for stopping by

 Vicky Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sew Sunday ... scotty dog

This little scotty dog was actually a gift for my mom last christmas. I know its a bit lazy but the new stuff i'm working on is still a work in progress, but it will be ready soon. So back when it was very cold and wintery I made this. Yes I know its still fairly cold and wintery now but rest assured the new things im working on will remind you of warm sunny days!!
We did have a name for him or her but I honestly cant remember what it is, so any suggestions let me know.

I think I might have wanted to call him 'button' due to his button eyes, or maybe petal. But honestly who knows, it was christmas and ive slept since then. Anyway I guess its up to my mom to name it really seeing as he lives with her now.

I also wanted to show you this fab new magazine I found 'Ruby loves'.

 

I know anyone who has little girls will love this. Its packed full of stuff to make and only costs a fiver. The best of it is everything you need to make the projects inside is in the bag, apart from the eggs and flour for the cookie pops because that would be stupid lol, but theres no need to buy anything. In this the first issue you can make a bag, cards, a ring, a keyring and loeds more. I cant think of better way to get young girls interested in craft, and yes I know its aimed at young girls but I couldnt help but buy it anyway. So if you've got little girls who love to craft I suggest you check it out.

 

Love Vicky

Xxx

thursday crafternoon...vintage caravans

Well thank God most of the snow has gone, although there's still some bits that are refusing to go and its still bloody freezing.

So lets think about sunnier days, picnics, the seaside and vintage caravans. I love vintage caravans and would love to have either a tiny little British one to renovate or a huge American airstream. But for now I'll just have to make do with these.

 

Mixed media vintage caravan

 

Mixed media art is great, its like collage for grown ups, I used some old scrapbook paper, paints, pens and an old book I have no intention of reading again. which is a good job as its got pages missing now....lol.

 

If I had a caravan I'd call it Dolly. I could even cope with one at the bottom of the garden. I could do all my crafting and blogging in there, not to mention hide away from the boys when I've had enough ;)

 

 

Jack asked me to do one with a british theme in red white and blue, he's fast becoming my most important advisor and harshest critic. You can always rely on a child to tell you exactly what they think. Bless him.

 

I'm hoping to open an etsy shop in the next few months and doing a whole seaside range, hopefully some variations of these will be available along with some other stuff.

In the meantime I'll just have to dream of one day owning a 'Dolly' of my own!

 

Love Vicky

xxx

 

 

 

In my Kitchen....Easy Peasy Easter Bark

Well I just read on Facebook that all the shops have sold out of Easter eggs!!!!!! So it seems that this post has come right on time.
Easy peasy Easter bark, honestly this is so easy and idiot could do it and its super quick too. I made some for my little mans teacher who retired this week and it seriously took less than five minutes.

you will need

 6oz chocolate (I used white but whatever you choose)
12oz mini marshmallows or big ones chopped up
sprinkles
greaseproof paper
baking tin

 

How to.....

 

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or on a double boiler. If using white chocolate, be careful it burns easily I suggest 30 second blasts.

 

When completely melted pour in the marshmallows and mix to cover them. Do this quickly as the marshmallow will begin to melt.

 

Pour into your lined baking tin and spread out to the corners

 

Decorate with you chosen sprinkles

 

 

 

Transfer the tin to the freezer for 20 mins (to stop the marshmallows melting)

 

Remove from the freezer and cut into squares, or shapes using a cookie cutter.

 

Pop into a bag or jar and voila and easy peasy Easter gift.

 

 

 

Oh and its really yummy too!

 

Happy Easter

Vicky Xxx

sew sunday...

Just a quickie today to show you these fun little hair clips. I'm busy busy busy at the moment trying to sort out stuff for the little fellas birthday and Easter.

 

OK so there isn't an awful lot of sewing to these, but they're easy peasy to make and would look so cute in a Little girls hair. And there really cheap too, I bought a pack of 30 hair clips for £1, the felt I already had but that's not too expensive either.

 

 I really like the bright pink one, Its such a pretty flower. it looks complicated to make but its really easy when you know how. maybe if I get around to it I will do a quick tutorial.

 So now I'm off to bake Star wars cakes in preparation for my little mans tea party and I'm off to the craft show on Thursday to spend some of my hard earned cash lol.

Thanks for stopping by
Love Vicky Xxx

 

 

 

Homemade Christmas - Cookies

I gave these cookies away as presents as part of my attempt at only giving handmade gifts this year. I intended to pipe the red lines, but I have to admit my piping sucks and after a few failed attempts I admitted defeat. Now a paint brush I can handle, so these have been hand painted with red colouring, dusted with shimmer powder, appropriately titled snowflake, and sprinkled with edible glitter!!!

These ones I made as a quickie to use up some spare icing. I gave them to my little man as a stocking filler, who assured me they were yummy! I only wish he was always this easy to please. lol.

xXx

Homemade Christmas - Wreaths

One day I might get to show you all my Christmas makings before the new year instead of in it, but hey ho what can I say?These past few months have been so busy for me and I feel like Christmas just jump up and bit me on the ass! I was planning on having any Christmas stuff made before the end of October but due to an unexpected turn of events I hadn't even started anything in October!!
But I had vowed when I was making Halloween Stuff that I would make one of these wreaths for Christmas. I made this white one to hang on my dining room door, I had a vision in my head of how I wanted it and I am very pleased with the finished result,  (I have to aplologise for the crappy picture quality in this one but I forgot to take a proper pic before I put it away and this is a quickie taken with my phone) soo that was where I intended to move on to other projects. However my mom had other plans.......

As soon as I showed it to her she wanted one too !! So I postponed my projects and set to work. To be honest I was kinda glad as I love making these. Mom asked for one the same but with green wool and I have to admit that I think I like this one slightly more. What can you say, Mom knows best. lol

 xXx