Category Archives: Craft

Advent Calendar – Day Nineteen

Today for the Advent Calendar I am responding to a special request for a bow tying tutorial from a regular reader which came about after the Day Twelve project, the tiny Christmas rings. These little bows are the ones I glue or sew on to projects, rather than for tying parcels or shoe laces.

As I started the photographs I realised that my lefthandedness might be a problem so I have flipped all the photos so it suits both left and right handed people. I’m just a slightly concerned about the reader who requested tutorial in the first place. Marigold is a goat… Does it work with hooves? I don’t think so, but hopefully she has a helpful human around to assist her!

I find it easier and more economical with the ribbon not to cut off a length but to leave it on the reel.

1. Make a loop at the end of the ribbon…

2. Bring the long end up in front and over to the back…

3. around the first loop then push a loop of the ribbon through the second loop formed by the thumb.

4. Pull through, and the bow is formed.

5. Carefully pull the loops to tighten the central knot to hold the loops then tweak and pull to make the loops your desired length, cut off from the reel and trim the tails.

I’ve seen ribbon bows for sale in packs of 10 or 12 in craft shops and they’re quite expensive. It bothered me for ages that whenever I tried to make my own I could never get two loops at the top and two tails at the bottom, they were always lopsided but now I’ve figured it out I buy my ribbon out of the remainder basket or in bulk and save some cash.

Now I hope you can too!

Good luck, Marigold, do let us know how you get on!

Advent Calendar – Day Sixteen

Today’s make for the Advent Calendar comes with a puzzle. Anyone who has visited Planet Penny for Open Studios will know that we’re in a very rural location. Passing traffic tends to be dogs and their walkers, horses and their riders, tractors and assorted farm vehicles and the odd car. (Invariably being driven far too fast given the narrowness of the road!)

We have our bins near the road to save the morning panic of remembering it’s bin day and having to scurry around in a dressing gown towing it to the road. But I never imagined this would mean that someone would stop off and deposit something in the bin whilst passing by. So I was very surprised one day a few months back to go out with the recycling, open the bin and find lying on top of the cereal boxes and newspapers, two music books…

They were perfectly clean and dry and came straight in to the studio go on the shelf as ‘Something-which-will-come-in-handy-sometime’. But it continues to baffle me. They’re are not dated, but the music, the look and the prices mentioned makes me think they could be anything up to 70 years old, and I just can’t imagine the scenario of riding past on your horse or tractor, or walking past with your dog and having an urgent need to dispose of the music books you just happened to be carrying on your person!

Anyway, they have come in handy for todays piece of Christmas Crafting.

I know quite few people make beautiful things with upcycled books, but I really struggle with cutting up or dismantling them. So I made a scan of one the pages of music and printed it on each side of a sheet of paper and used my big paper punch to make a collection of paper circles…

(I like the fact it comes from ‘The Sleeping Princess’ in this Pantomime season!)

Then I just stitched them together on the sewing machiune leaving a little gap of stitches in between to make a simple paper garland…

That’s a really simple idea, but by putting three discs together, stitching through them all and fanning them out you have a really pretty and stylish tree decoration…

…and as we put our own tree up this afternoon I was able to put it straight to good effect…

A number of these hung together on a twiggy branch against a white wall would look simply stunning…

The bidding has closed on the mini Christmas Jumper Auction and the little green jumper will be wizzing off to the lovely Joan who made an extremely generous donation of £20 towards the Save the Children charity. Thank you so much, Joan, I’ll be in touch.

And I’ll be back tomorrow too…! x

Don’t forget to call over to Handmade Monday to find lots of other Christmas makes, and if you haven’t entered the Prize Draw you can find out all about it, and the fab prizes on this post…

Advent Calendar – Day Twelve

It’s Day Twelve on the Advent Calendar, half way there, and a special date on the actual calendar as it’s 12/12/12! I don’t know whether the numbers imbue the date with any magical properties, if it does a visit from the Ironing Fairy would be nice…

The make today stems from the Christmas Fair we are having on Saturday in aid of our Village Hall. For years we raised funds for the old Hall. First to keep it standing, then to raise funds to build a new hall and now we have a wonderful new eco-built hall we have keep it in good repair. As it’s where our Knit and Stitch Group meet every month we have a table at the Fair and we’re all working to fill it with goodies to sell on Saturday.

With things being a little hectic on Planet Penny at the moment I haven’t been able to come up with as much as usual, but I spent some time yesterday afternoon with my trusty glue gun…

…a section of crafty bits and pieces…

…and I now have a dozen little Christmas tree rings for sale on Saturday.

If you haven’t got a glue gun, quick! put it on your Christmas list! It’s the most wonderful thing for quick assembly while crafting, as it sets as it cools so you’re noty left trying to hold everything together with clothes pegs while the glue dries over half an hour or so. I first started using one when I worked at a dried flower shop making arrangements and decorations, back when dried flowers were very fashionable. My own glue gun dates back to that era and is an industrial strength model, but the hobby ones are quite reasonable price. You do have to be careful when using them as the glue is incredibly hot when melted, I sported quite a few burns when I first started out.

(I’ve just realised that I obviously like to live dangerously, if I’m not stabbing myself with felting needles I’n burning myself with glue! Who’d have thought Crafting was an Extreme Sport!)

The little rings are available from most good florist shops and then you have scope for using any number of different odds and ends out of your crafty bit box. It’s a great way of using all the tiny bits and pieces which are too small to make a whole project.

You’ll spot I’ve made use of the little pot of silver bells I bought the other day, I just stitched through the loops with thread to maker a cluster of three and stitched through the twig wreath to hold them. Then the glue which attaches the bow and leaves holds it all in place.

I hope that’s fired your imagination. I’d love to see what you make if it has…

See you tomorrow….x

Advent Calendar – Day Eleven

The Advent Calendar make today has me revealing my secret hoard of wrapping paper, well, a tiny bit. It’s too embarrassing to reveal all! I do love wrapping paper, but when it comes to using it I can’t bear the thought of the eager recipient tearing it off and discarding it, too eager to get at the gift to appreciate it’s beauty and preciousness! (I know, it’s me that’s getting precious!)

But this make means that not only is there no necessity for any reckless ripping, but both sides of the paper can be on show (another cause of head scratching, if it’s gorgeous on both sides which do I use? No wonder I end up with the brown paper!)

I bought this paper the November before last at the Pick’n’Mix Market and it’s been wrapped in tissue ever since..

the robins…

and the winter flowers and berries, which is by Emma Bridgewater…

I found a great little tutorial here on a Japanese blog called Mairuru which explains beautifully how to make gift bags. Apart from a slightly tricky bit of paper folding when you construct the bottom (which is fine if you concentrate hard and keep your cool!!! (I’m saying nothing!) ) I just used a hole punch so I could thread through the ribbon handles. It’s a very simple and satifying little skill which will come in handy for more than just Christmas.

All ready to be filled with all sorts of goodies…

Remember, that little grey mouse could be yours! Have you entered the Prize Draw yet? All the details are on Day Two of the Advent Calendar which is here. All you have to do is to leave a comment to say which way you follow Planet Penny, whether it’s on the blog, or Facebook or even Pinterest. And if you follow via multiple sources tell me that too, because then you’ll go in the Draw twice!

The little brown Mouse? Well he’s appearing later on in the Advent Calendar, wait and see!

See you tomorrow….x

Advent Calendar – Day Ten

Yesterday I wrote about the simple things, so that has prompted today’s simple make for the Advent Calendar. A pompom garland. If you’ve been visiting Planet Penny for a while you’ll know I have had a bit of a love affair with pompoms! The Pompom and Heart Garland which is in this tutorial now hangs in the studio, if I look up in the office I see this…

…and in my 2010 Using Up Leftovers post I had fun with the remains of my big granny square blanket to make my first pompom bunting. So it’s snow balls!

(if you are having Higgins withdrawal symptoms these links will also take you to a couple of little ‘aaah’ moments from his younger days!)

It gave me a chance to get out my little pompom makers, which I find very addictive because it’s so quick. You don’t have to go out and spend money to do this because there is always the traditional way to make pompoms, but I would recommend these over other gadgets I’ve tried.

There’s no point wasting good quality yarn on these, it’s such a shame to cut it up and cotton in this case is useless because it doesn’t have enough ‘give’ and you end up with something like a little corn sheaf! I used a ball of snowy white acrylic which looked perfectly fluffy and snowballish…

These are just strung on a length of the acrylic, but you could also use some sparkly thread, or even some fishing line so they appear suspended in mid air!

And if you’ve got completly carried away and filled the house with pompoms, you can always give them away on your Christmas gifts!

By the way, thank you for all the comments yesterday, sharing your fantasy Christmas dreams. It’s been lovely reading them. If you haven’t added yours yet, please do!

I’ll be back tomorrow, happy pompom making!

Advent Calendar – Day Six

It’s Day Six on the Advent Calendar all ready, time is rushing by scarily fast. So far I’m finding the most challenging part of posting every day is not the ideas, or writing the post, it’s finding a slot in the day with the right light for photography.

Today’s make is quick and simple and useful at any time of the year. Do you have a pin board? This is a great way of personalising it, and if you are making one as a present a little pot of these will complete the gift.

It’s map pins, or thumb tacks, like the ones I used in this post when I made a pin board of my own.

All you need are drawing pins, plain metal ones not the plastic covered type, some metal self-cover buttons…

…scraps of pretty fabric a tube of Super Glue and some small pliers. When you take the buttons off the cards you’ll see they are in two pieces, with the front piece having a metal loop so they can be sewn on to a garment.

This is superfluous to requirements so before going any further use the pliers to remove the loop, taking care not to damage the main part of the button.

Follow the instructions on the card for covering the buttons with the fabric and clipping the back on firmly. Once you have made up the buttons, use the Super Glue to stick the drawing pins to the button tops (again, read the instructions on the glue, Health Safety and all that!) It takes about an hour for the glue to cure and then they are ready to use.

I’ve been using my original ones for two or three years and they are still going strong even though I used the plastic covered type which tend to show more than the metal ones. These work well for pinning up Christmas cards on boards if you’ve used a Christmassy fabric. I’ve had this pretty little piece I bought on Ebay from somewhere in Central Europe for ages, it’s about time it had an airing!

These could also be made as fridge magnets when you could use the larger buttons and scraps of fabric left over from any kitchen accessories you made yourself. The ultimate in co-ordination!

Have fun with this, and I’ll be back tomorrow!