My first Christmas Wreath

I am trying my best to have a handmade Christmas this year. This means making all my presents, decorations and cards. I can tick Christmas cards off my list, I'm doing quite well on the handmade presents which I will report on later and here is my first Christmas wreath. I made this at a Christmas Craft evening that was held at my sisters church.  We were given a wire base to start with which was then stuffed with moss and wrapped with florist wire to hold it all together. I then took a long piece of ivy and wrapped that around to give it a bit more of a 3D look. I then used some fake red berries on wire to add a little colour with a couple of cinnamon sticks and red ribbon to finishes it off. I really enjoyed making this and I have always wondered how they were made. Mystery solved.

My Recycled Christmas Card Design

This is my Christmas card design for this year. I kept it quite simple and wanted to use recycled materials as much as possible. The silver card is from off cuts of food packaging from a local business. The blue printed paper is from envelops linings which I have been collecting from bills and letter over the past few months. I know a blue tree isn’t very traditional Christmas colour but with the silver back ground I think it gives a modern look

My brothers Christmas Present

Well first things first I didn’t win the Folksy recycled Christmas decoration competition but I’m glad I took part. It was good fun trying to think of what to make.
This is my little bro’s Christmas present. (He doesn't know I have a blog so I don’t think this will ruin the surprise) He was given my granddad’s war medals when he passed away a couple of years ago and my brother has wanted to display them nicely some how for a while now. This is just a scanned image of the backing ground and the medals. I am presenting it in a black box frame so it has a 3D effect. The old newspaper and vintage flag I got from a local car boot. They are spray mounted onto the base of the frame and I think they really give it a vintage feel. I stitched the medals through the back of the frame so they were secure and so it didn’t damage them. I hope he likes it, he hasn’t noticed the medals are missing yet so hopefully it will be a lovely surprise. I am aiming to make all my presents this year and this is my first one. I hope I don’t run out of time!

Folksy Competition Second Entry

This is my second entry to the Folksy competition. The brief as I mentioned in my last post was to make a festive decoration out of recycled materials. Once I had made my first entry I still had quite a few ideas so as we weren’t limited to one entry I thought I would have another go. I think this one was slightly more successful then my first. I kept this design simple. As the competition was called Folksy Angle I thought why not attempt to make my own. I used a Champaign cork for the main body with the wings made out of a drinks can. I used a beer bottle top covered in a chocolate wrapper with some gold wire for a halo and legs.  I made two of them so they can keep each other company. I think they look quite cute.

The competition deadline was yesterday and voting has begun today. I’m not sure how long voting is open for but I know it’s going to be very short period. If you would like to show your support then please go along to the folksy blog and cast your vote by leaving a comment at then end of the post with you entry choice.

Folksy Angle comp

Folksy Angle comp shot 1
Originally uploaded by DuckDownDesigns

It has been a while since I posted, not because i've been lazy but because I have been the complete opposite. I had a craft stall at the Christmas faire of the school I work at and it was my boyfriends birthday. So I've been busy making all sorts. I will hopefully take some photos of all I have created so you can believe me. To start off with this is my Folksy Angle competition entry. The brief was to make a christmas/ festive themed decoration using recycled material only. This was quite a challenge but my saving grace was the fact I am a huge hoarder. I never thought I would say that was a good thing, but my stash hopefully has payed off. I made a Merry Christmas plaque. I used a piece of old fencing as a base and a zip as a hanger. The holly has been made from old book pages with vintage button berries. The Robin has been made from an old pair of linen trousers and left over fabric from a pair of curtains I have made in the past. The text was printed on scrap linen with an antique printing set. The closing date is Sunday so fingers crossed.

Happy Halloween

I have been unbelievably organized this year when in came to sorting out my halloween costume . Here is a quick photo I took this morning just to make sure my costume looked ok. I actually made it about a month ago but still hadn't tried it on. This year I am going as a pumpkin. I wanted to go as something a bit different then a witch and I am loving the colour orange at the mo so I thought perfect. I appliqued the pumpkin face onto a long sleeved t-shirt and then made a tu tu style skirt to go over some black trousers. I will get some better photos when I go to my friends house party tonight. It's quite hard to take a full length photo of yourself, by yourself. 

I also made a spooky chocolate take to take along to the party. I just made a simple stencil out of foil and sprinkled the cake with icing sugar. Now I just have to cake down to Devon in one piece on the train and then it's party time. Yeh!

Banksy in Bristol

Went to Bristol on the weekend to catch up with a couple of friends and managed to catch sight of some Banksy on my travels. I do love his work.