Advent Calendar – Day Five

We’ve just taken down the display for the Angels and Light Festival so I’m revisiting something I made for the last church Festival three years ago for today’s Advent Calendar make. This where blogging comes into it’s own, being able to look back on previous occasions! Our Knit and Stitch Group had the font to decorate on that occasion too.

The theme on that occasion was a Crib and Wreath Festival and so we decided to encircle the Font as the wreath element with the crib, beautifully knitted by one of the group, sitting on the top. It was rather a challenge, but the design I came up with was for something to which we could all contribute various elements, and could then be split up to be sold in aid of church funds.

You can find the tutorial on this blog post if you’d like to try it yourself…

Oh for more time! I’d like to try it with wire threaded through to bend it into a wreath which could be spectacular, or just with multicoloured scraps which would have a lovely homespun look.

What would you do?

Back tomorrow…!

P.S. If you’d like to join in with the Prize Draw, check out the post for Day Two to find out about the prize, and how to enter!

Advent Calendar – Day Four

Here we are on Day Four of the Advent Calendar and I’ve been ferreting around in the button box! Well, the Mother-of-Pearl button box to be precise…

to reprise a little decoration I made a few Christmases ago. I spotted the idea in an upmarket catalogue and decided it would be silly to buy it when I had so many buttons, had a go at making it and was very happy with the result, and very smug because it hadn’t cost me anything!

The box is rather full, but I’m gradually working my through the small buttons…

I shall have to be inventive for the big ones!

It’s a very simple little button heart…

and apart from the buttons all you need is gold or silver wire and some jewellery pliers.

Select your buttons and lay them out in your desired order. Cut two lengths of wire, about 18″ in length, you just snip off the excess. Twist the wires together a couple of inches from one end then thread the first button on to one of the wires then twist the two wires together for a few turns before threading the next button on a single wire again.

Continue like this until you have used all the buttons, then bend into the desired shape, bringing the two ends together at the top of the heart. Then you can use the excess wire to twist a hanging loop, and snip off the ends.

Finish with a length of pretty ribbon or cord…

hang, stand back and admire!

Of course you can use any buttons you happen to have in your workbox, coloured ones look pretty too…

Have fun, I’ll be back tomorrow….x

Advent Calendar – Day Three

For the Planet Penny Advent Calendar today I’ve gone to a Christmas favourite of mine, Origami Stars. I first tried Origami when I was about 11. My mother found a book in the library, and thought it was a great idea as it didn’t require any cutting up of bits of paper. (She says I spent my entire childhood creating scraps of paper which were too small to pick up, and too big to be vacuumed. Nothing’s changed there then!)

The stars didn’t make an appearance then, but my lovely daughter-in-law, Celia, discovered them a few Christmases ago, and decorated the mantelpiece in their old house in Rouen, and they now remind me of the last Christmas we spent there together before she, my son and grandsons move back to the UK. Happy memories, and I’ve been making them every Christmas since…

What I love about them is that they are so simple to make, and yet can be made to fit in any colour scheme, from the wild and colourful to sophisticated and plain. You will be very surprised by my particular choice, given my love of colour but I really like them plain and white and simple…

The possibilities are endless when it comes to decorating ideas. They look good just in a glass jar, dish or vase…

…so pretty scattered over a red Christmas tablecloth…

In the past I’ve strung them together to make garlands, added individual strings to each little star to hang them in the Christmas tree branches and attached them to mirrors and windows with double sided tape. Made in gold and silver and glued on to a simple wreath they would look stunning and in bright colours stuck to the ceiling to a child’s bedroom they would look pretty any time of the year…

Tempted? Well, there’s a great tutorial here which will get you started, and before too long you’ll be churning them out in every spare moment!

And if you’d like a little colour fix, I found these on Pinterest. Aren’t they gorgeous? (no source I’m afraid)

If you missed yesterdays’s post don’t forget to join in with the Prize Draw, see this post for all the details of the prize. Just follow Planet Penny in some way, whether it’s by email sign up, or on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Don’t think I expect you to do everything, and if you are already following, well thank you very much! All I need is for you to tell me somewhere in a comment during the Advent Calendar posts because that where I will be compiling my list of entrants from. Hope that make sense…

In the meantime, Have fun, and I’ll be back tomorrow!

Day Two of the ‘Virtual’ Advent Calendar!

I’ve had lots of encouraging comments about my Christmas blogging marathon, a post a day for the virtual Advent Calendar until Christmas Eve, thank you all very much! (And if you’ve just discovered what I’m up to, scroll down to end of this post and find Day One’s crafty wrapping ideas…)

Today is all about my celebratory Giveaway for my 5 years living on Planet Penny, and I’ve deliberated long and hard to think of something everyone can enjoy, whether you are a maker, or someone who just appreciates what is made. So the prize is ready made, and part of it is the Advent Calendar make for today.

Having spent so much time with my Rainbow collection of yarn I thought it would be good to celebrate that with colourful tree decorations, so I have made some mini balls of yarn complete with tiny knitting needles.

These look lovely on the Christmas tree…

…but are far too pretty and colourful to hide away for the rest of the year. Can you imagine them strung on a line adorning someone’s crafting corner, or hanging round the edge of a lampshade perhaps?

They are simple to make if you want to do your own. I used a small polystyrene ball as a base and glued the yarn on to start with. Then you just wind round carefully until the base is hidden and the ball is the size you want. Glue the tail back on itself to form the hanger. The needles are made from cocktail sticks with beads on the end and pushed through the ball…simples!

But you can win your own if you enter the Give-away Prize Draw!

The next part of the prize has to be needlefelt don’t you think? It’s been so much of what I do. So this too could be yours…

..a little Christmas Mousie…

And finally, I’d like to include a book, and this time there’s a choice. It could be a copy of ‘Knitting on the Road’…

…if you are a knitter. There are some beautiful and unusual patterns from around the world…

Or if sewing’s more your thing, there’s ‘Zakka Style’…

This has some stylish and unusual designs which are very appealing…

…or if you or someone in your family would prefer to snuggle up with a good read you could choose this…

…which will be signed by the author, Thomas Taylor, just for you. I know him quite well! (You can find out more about Thomas, the book and how we know each other from this post)

So to recap, the prize is –

14 hanging ornaments – mini rainbow balls of yarn with knitting needles
a Christmas needlefelt mouse with hat and bell
And a choice of one of three books

And what do you have to do to have a chance of winning? I didn’t want to make things complicated so all you have to do is follow me in some way. You can subscribe by Email in the little box at the top of the left hand column. If you do that already there’s also the choice of Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. And then just leave a comment on this post or any other of the Advent posts to let me know so I can add you to the list. You only have to do one thing, but if you sign up for more than that you get more chances!

If you sign up to follow me on any of the other sites, please let me know via a blog comment so I don’t miss you off the list!

This will run until after Christmas to give every one as much of a chance as possible to take part and I will make the draw via a Random Number Generator in the week between Christmas and New Year. In the meantime, do call back and find out what happens next on the Crafty Christmas Countdown Calendar!

See you soon…!

P.S. Don’t forget to call over to Handmade Monday to see what else is going on in the crafty world!

An Advent Announcement

It’s December 1st, I can’t believe it’s come round so quickly and Planet Penny is celebrating! It’s five whole years since the first tentative post, with that fear of having nothing to say, to anyone! Since then there have been over 200,000 visits, so to celebrate I’m trying something a little ambitious. I hope I can keep up!

The first plan is the Planet Penny Advent Calendar…

Everyday until Christmas Eve I shall be posting a Christmas make, recipe or link which I hope will give you a little inspiration for the Christmas Season.

Secondly, there will be a Christmas Anniversary Giveaway as a thank you for all the support over the last five years and this will be explained over the next couple of posts.

But, to begin with, the Advent posts…and it’s …

Advent Calendar- DAY 1

It’s wrapping time, and although pretty paper can be very expensive there are lots of ways to make very basic materials look special and individual. I was recently send some pretty tape by the DotComGiftShop which has meshed really well with my current favourite Scandinavian theme of red and white.

The tape comes in a natty little box with a cutting edge so it’s easy to tear off just what you need.

I’ve used Kraft brown wrapping paper which comes in a massive roll and is a great background colour for lots of projects. The red and white is set off beautifully by the buff colour of the paper and the tape is easily cut to mite the corners as shown here.

I’ve also experimented with wrapping leftover yarn and butchers red and white string, looks pretty doesn’t it…?

I also found this gorgeous woven Christmas ribbon which I shall use sparingly on very special pressies if I can bear to part with it!

If you run out of gifts to wrap and there are still a few centimetres of tape to use, it makes really lovely teeny tiny bunting, which can be hung across windows and around the Christmas tree or across the fireplace. The tape is folded round fine cord, embroidery thread or yarn and cut to shape. Really easy, and a fun project for older children to do.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about the Giveaway, which will run until after the ‘Big Day’ , so do pop back then and every day to see what I’m getting up to!

Angels and Light – Part 2

A brief pictorial post to bring you up to date with the angels from this post. I’d like to share the beauty of our local church, St Michael and All Angels, and the talents of people in the surrounding area who have made it look even more beautiful for this festival.

You can see Knit and Stitch have quite a selection of angels, apart from the dollypeg ones!

The one I found most moving was the British Legion Angel, an amazing labour of love made as a tribute to all the lives lost to date in Afghanistan. Four hundred and thirty five men, three women and one dog…

Each poppy an individual tribute to a lost life… Such a waste…

If you live in the Norwich/Broadland area this is well worth a visit. The church is open until next weekend from 10 -4 and you will also find some lovely ladies serving delicious soup, cakes and tea and coffee!

And if you are too far away, I hope you enjoyed this virtual visit!

See you soon…x