Tag Archives: Planet Penny Advent Calendar

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!

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!