Christmas Mugs

This year I am endeavouring to make as many presents as possible. Who am I kidding every year I start out with the best of intentions usually falling in a heap by the start of December.

So yesterday I sat down with the kids and we made a start. We got going on personalised Christmas mugs for the great grand parents. We will fill them with chocolate and wrap them in cellophane.

Do you want to make your own? Here's what we did.

What you'll need

jo sonjas folk art acrylic paints
plain white coffee cups (we got ours from kmart for $1 each)
a fine paint brush
a paint pallet
some cotton buds
and extra helpers (this works well if you helpers have good listening ears)

I started by painting the recipient's names on the mugs and circling them.

Then my helpers joined me. I squeezed out one colour at a time and we started dotting with the cotton buds. when you are happy with the coverage leave it to dry for a couple of minutes and move onto your next colour.

Once you are happy with the result let it air dry for half an hour (mine sat for about 3 hours but I got distracted with dinner prep)

preheat your oven to 180°c and place the mugs in there on a tray for half an hour. pull the out and let them cool completely.

give them a wash in warm soapy water.

The important stuff

do not use a scourer to wash them.
gentle hand wash only.
have a grown up do the oven part.

This was a really fun activity. that kept the kids entertained for a couple of hours (we made 6 mugs) with a lovely result. The perfectionist in me twitched a little at the imperfections in the cups. but as this is a gift from the kids to their great grandparents I embraced it.

GO ON HAVE SOME FUN WITH IT!!!

This week

This week has been a whirlwind. Extra hours at work, spring cleaning (with a 3 and 5 year old, not easy) and school transition days to name a few.

However i still managed to squeeze in some time to craft. On Wednesday i headed to my dear friend Carolyn for a crop. It was slow starting. but I managed to get 3 layouts done and a couple of pages in my December documented smash book ready to go. i also did a bit of stamp organising as well. Tonight after running around all day returning the carpet cleaner, painting some mugs with the kids for Christmas presents, heading into town to pick up a lay by (it was a lay by I couldn't have an audience for to collect) I sat down and couldn't find my oomph. I thought well there's a waste of a night. come 10.30pm my mojo kicked in (of course) and I completes a layout that has been weeks in progress.

I love this layout. I was inspired by a layout my friend Carol had done and asked her if I could scrap lift it. The problem was I didn't know what background paper she used. So out came my stamps and I created my own background paper using kellies stamps (have you bought from her? you simply must!) and some studio calico stamps. It turned out really well. I wasn't sure what photos I wanted to use until my nanna arrived this week with an envelope of stamps from when I was growing up. Bang!! There they were. The perfect photos.

Crochet hook handles

This winter I lost my scrapbooking mojo. But I found a love for crochet. I have taught myself watching you tube tutorials.  I have always wanted to learn. However being left handed I was impossible to find someone who was patient enough to reach me.

Over the cooler months I managed to complete 3 lap blankets, a couple of beanies, a pair of wrist warmers and a scarf.  Today I completed a beautiful chevron pram sized blanket for my oldest friends sister. (Its in the wash I type).

My biggest challenge with learning to crochet has been the extreme pain I suffer in my hands. I have a strong suspicion its arthritis (however I am too busy/lazy to pursue a diagnosis). I have seen some beautiful crochet hooks with wooden hand turned handles, they do however come with a price tag. I found some ideas to create my thicker handles using polymer clay. I wanted a multi coloured effect but didn't feel it was nessicary to buy (and have leftovers sitting in my craft stash).  Then yesterday while wandering through Kmart I found a day snow globe kit with polymer clay in it 4x2 inch squares of colour for $8. WINNING!

Needless to say it came home with me. I'm really happy with how they turned out I only did 4 of my hooks to see chow they went. All I did was roll out the colours into "snakes" like you would with playdough and twist them all together. Flattened it out and wrapped it around the hook. I ran a knife around the end the hook to create a pattern and bakes them at 130°c for 30 minutes.  I left them on the tray tool and voilà... Beautiful crochet hooks with handles.

Crafting in december

Let's face it in an ideal world we all have grand plans of getting some crafting done for Christmas. Reality is if you don't get it done early it's not getting done. Between the shopping, baking, family outings and to be honest in Australia Christmas falls in summer so we dot want to be holed up in a room documenting life. We want to be out living it.

So the last 2 weeks have been focused on my Christmas albums (yes plural). I love Christmas and in the past I have had trouble cresting Christmas themed layouts. Not this year. So far I have 5 12x12 layouts ready and waiting for photos. And have completed my "things I love about christmas" based pages using the Heidi swapp believe album. I am loving how they are all looking.

Now all i need to do is decided whether my December daily is going to be integrated into my project life or in the smash book i have here???

Oh the decisions!

Christmas stamps

My favorite place to purchase my stamps is from my friend kellies over at kellies stamps. I love the design quality and service that I get from her.

I didn't quite realise how much I loved her stamps until we were at camp and I was showing her how I store my stamps and a large majority of them were hers. There aren't many of her releases (if any) I don't have.

So naturally when she released her Christmas stamps I was all over them. The small set I found perfect for my project life/December daily while the large set is ideal for cards.

As soon as they arrived I sat straight down and got creating. This year I had resolved to actually make my cards. Each year I plan to and I end up getting so bogged down with them they never make it out the door. So this year I was running with simple and quick.

All I did was cut some a4 card stock in half and got stamping. I finished them off with a couple of enamel dots (of course) and I love how clean they look.

Now to write them and get them in the post. What are you doing for your cards this year?

Finding my mojo

Lately around here I have rediscovered my scrapping mojo. For the last 8-9 months I just haven't been feeling it. My project life had stayed fairly up to date (sans journalling) but as for 12x12 layouts all inspiration had been missing. I even considered giving up all together. I mean what's the point of having all these supplies but not using them.

At the start of October I attended scrap camp. The weeks leading up to it I put all my efforts into prepping for camp. I had kits made up some were specifically to make 1 layout with the photo already chosen and others were there to make multiple layouts. I thought if anything was going to get me out of my slump this would be the way to go.

Its safe to say that camp and preparation truly did have the desired outcome. The challenges that the camp organisers set up also helped me with this. I managed to get 9 layouts done and had a lot of laughs along the way.

I had also made the decision I needed to scrap my stash. Sometimes (and you will probably find this yourself) we get so caught up in the purchasing side of scrapbooking. We get swamped in product. This was exactly where I was. I had so much stuff I didn't know where to start. Prior to campo I sold off a fair bit of my stash. So much so I was receiving messages from some scrapbooking friends worried I had packed it in. Given up. Not the case at all. I was just too overwhelmed with product.

I returned from camp mojo renewed. I have scrapped every night I have had free. And I have the resolution to have another clean out. I took to camp everything I could have needed to create layouts and I feel I can get rid of all the other "stuff".

My advice to you when you have lost you mojo and feel like giving up the scrapbooking journey. Find some sketches. Make some kits up from your stash and find some like minded people to give you a nudge in the right direction. There is always something to scrap and you have it in you to do it. Sometimes we just lose focus on what the journey is about.

Its not about having the latest greatest releases. Its about working with what you have and opening your mind.

This was my monochromatic challenge layout. I have always wanted to do a all white layout and I'm very happy with how it turned out

This challenge was to scrap about something or someone that means something to you and journal why it means so much to you. I absolutely adore this layout