daydreaming in aqua...

Gingerbread Houses

We buy these gingerbread house kits every year from the school
Christmas market ~ they are so beautifully made and easy to
assemble. Rhiannon decorated her house tonight. Inside is a
little tea light candle which she will light on Christmas Eve







And here is the one Jem made at her friend's house today

Little Almond Biscuits

I found the recipe for these 'Russian Tea Cakes' at Smitten Kitchen
They keep well and can be packaged up into little parcels to give
out as Christmas gifts. Instead of roasting and grinding the nuts,
I used a small packet of almond meal.  They are delicate and
light and definitely morish!

DCM ~ Card Challenge: Tweet Tweet

Thought I'd give my first card challenge a go after visiting
Daring Card Makers. It's not quite as Christmassy as I'd hoped
but I do like the green and orange together. The backing
card isn't dirty, it's actually recycled and is flecked
throughout and just doesn't photograph very well!

Christmas Butterflies

Since it was too hot to do any baking today, the girls and I opted to
make some more decorations. Looking for something to do with the
red, white and green pipe-cleaners I bought yesterday, these simple
butterflies were the go.  They look lovely hanging in the kitchen
window with the light showing off all the colours so well

Instructions:
* Trace around a plate on a sheet paper [kitchen] towel and cut it out.
* Spray sheet lightly with water [helps the colours spread further]

* Drop food colouring blobs onto paper in a random pattern

* Once dry, fold paper back and forth as you would to make a fan

* Cut pipe cleaners about 18 cm long, fold around centre of paper
   twisting around once or twice, then curl the ends into antennae

* tie some thread onto pipe-cleaner just below the antennae and hang
* you can also thread a couple of beads onto the antennae if you wish

The pipe cleaner off cuts can be used to make little candy cane
decorations; just twist together and bend over at the top

Tree & Reindeer

It's up! Heaps of wrapping will now follow, card making and posting
and lots of baking with the kids ~ My favourite part!  

It's a bit hard to see the fairy light when taking shot in the daytime!

I'll leave you with this little reindeer Rhiannon made out of corks a
couple of years ago at cubs. He makes an appearance every year :O)

 

Cards & Little Notebooks

  Here is a new design I worked on last night with the baubles, ribbon
               and beads/brads and some embroidery thread.

A couple more of first design..

Following Mel's tutorial for 'Kids Christmas Books' I made these 2
little note-books for my girls. Mine are a bit smaller than Mel's
Dimensions are: 14cm tall by 10.5cm wide

Mel has also made some gorgeous felt notebooks and is posting
'25 days of Christmas Craft' so check it out if you need some
festive season inspiration!

Blissful Chocolate Balls

I tried one of these [well 3 actually!] at my recent garden party
and they were divine!

  The ones my friend made had grand marnier liqueur, but since I
   didn't have any, I tried using kahlua instead. I think they'd work
     with almost any liqueur really ~ just whatever you have on hand.
    For a child friendly version orange juice is a good option.

    Here is the recipe ~ just 3 ingredients: Store bought fruitcake,
   liqueur and dark chocolate. They are moist, delicious and the
perfect Christmas treat. :O)

Quick Christmas Cards

Some quick cards, using pattern paper scraps again. They are
probably a little plain but I'm sure the 2 single tree cards can
be improved by maybe having a slightly fatter tree or thinner card

The plain green one would also be nice with some little metallic
brads as baubles ~ I might try that next time

I just got a surprise email from Karin to tell me I had won
a handmade gift by commenting on her lovely blog 

  So now it's my turn.. if you are one of the first 3 to leave a
comment here and request to join in, I will send you a
  handmade gift sometime within the next 365 days :O)
                If you win, just pass it on to the first 3 signing up on your blog               

 

Christmas Countdown

Thank you Beth for showing me these .... I had a go making one
last night. It will be a good way to use up these love heart buttons
I've had put aside for a project for years.. The plan will be to make
some aqua and purple ones too ~ that's the main colour theme of
our tree. [along with silver] But for now I'm continuing with my
purple obsession!