handmade
Making you own Gift Tags : Homemade Ideas
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Honestly, in around half an hour, you can have enough gift tags, to last you all year. I use whatever I have in my craft things, so there is no cost at all. I think they more personal and individual than buying gift tags. All you need is to buy either brown paper, or plain coloured wrapping paper to wrap the gifts in and you are sorted! If you are feeling extra thrifty though, how about using newspaper, or magazines made into gift bags.
My first idea, is the bunting gift tag. I can’t remember where I saw this idea first. It is so simple, and you can get your children to make them with you. You simply use a pencil with an eraser on the end, using a sharp knife *adults only this stage though* make the eraser into the shape of the triangular bunting. Then using different coloured inks get stamping! Drawing a line to finish the bunting.
The second homemade gift tag idea, is the much-loved washi tape gift tag. For this I cut up coloured card, with a hole punch for the ribbon, and simply added a line of washi tape. The beauty of this one, is you can make them lots of different sizes, so if you have awkward small or large gifts, you can make very different sizes.
Ruffles gift tags, I really enjoyed making these. Again, I made my own tags from coloured card, but for this I added scraps of fabric that I had left from another project. Choosing a simple zig-zag or straight stitch I found worked best. I pleated the fabric, by hand as I fed the tag through the machine. I love the 3D effect of this one.
And finally….
Because any handmade post I write, wouldn’t be complete without the addition of my favourite buttons. I have also made some button gift tags. Attach the buttons, you can either sew them, which looks really effective, or use double-sided tape, if you don’t have the time. Adding some decoration around them if needed.
I hope you enjoyed this homemade gift tag post. If you have any other ideas, that you use for gift tags, I would love to hear from you.
Thank you for reading
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Making Memories : Sherwood Pines Nottinghamshire
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We all want the best for our children, and strive to give them everything that we can. I think the thing in my heart I realise is the most important thing to give a child is happy memories.
This Easter Holiday we were given the chance to make memories with our children, as we went on an adventure to Sherwood Pines, in Sherwood Forest. Its probably only 20 miles from where we live but we have never been until now. Sherwood Pines has a website which had lots of information, including facilities available, to help you plan your visit. You could also follow them on Facebook, to hear news of events which I would highly recommend.
You can even sign up for a Forestry Commision Discovery Pass to support your local forest, which gives you lots of extra benefits.
We were met by a couple of the rangers, it was great to see how excited the children were. I captured this shot as Ranger Kev, asked the children who wanted to make a Den.
All of the younger adventurers (Miss A included) set about making a den for each of Kev (the rangers) friends – a badger, fox and a hedgehog. Whilst the adults and my eldest daughter Miss N made a larger den, big enough to fit all of the younger children in. 
It was fantastic watching the children at work building the dens. They built three different types, one supported by a tree, a free-standing one, and then one to cover a badger, in his sett. They even made, and edged with sticks, a road connecting the three together.
The children were very excited to try out the adult den, and the rangers decided to test out whether the den was waterproof…It worked, each of the children did a twirl as they excitedly proved it!! When the adults tried it it wasn’t quite so successful ;)
It was soon time for lunch, and we tucked into lots of treats from the Sherwood Pines Cafe. The apricot flapjack was very yummy!
Once we had refuelled, we went on a nature trail, one of the two ‘all weather’ trails. We had already been given a piece of card each, so as we walked, and we saw anything interesting we could stick it to the card. We stopped and chatted as we found things. The children took great delight in the task, and it seemed to make us all so much more observant of our surroundings. The ranger pointed things out to us, and answered questions. Here are the great trail pictures we made, with our card:
Once we had finished our walk, we then started an art project where we made a fox out of things we could find on the forest floor. The children worked brilliantly as a team, coming up with ideas of what materials would make the Harry the Fox picture. With sticks for claws, and sharp stone teeth, even some of the green foliage, to make his tail extra bushy.
Next up was making a Boggart.
Never heard of a Boggart? Well neither had we! They are the very strange creatures, that live on the floor of the forest, in puddles. Remember that time when your wellington boot was stuck in the puddle, the sound of the squelching, as your wellington stays in the puddle, leaving you bootless. Well that’s those mischievous Boggarts!
I really hope this post, conveys the fun that we all had at Sherwood Pines. Its fun, that is free, and the only thing you need really is imagination. I think I’ve fallen a little bit in love with Sherwood Pines, and there was so much more that we didn’t even get time to do. I think next time we will make sure we have enough time to try out the amazing park areas, and if the weather was warmer, a lovely picnic too after a long walk or bike ride would have been perfect.
Here is the video made by my eldest daughter Miss N of the day through her eyes :
Thank you for reading
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Pootles Papercraft!
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I am very honoured to introduce to you today Pootles Papercraft from my very talented friend Sam (of Make-up Advice Forum fame) who lovingly hand-makes these beautiful stationery products.
Pootles Papercraft has the tagline…
Taking the ordinary and making it EXTRAORDINARY!
When you visit the site, I am sure you will agree this is the perfect description – take a look at all of the stationery collections Sam currently makes! She takes things like ordinary note pads and post it notes and makes them look beautiful.
They arrived, carefully wrapped in tissue and ribbon, and I had two very eager volunteers to open them all up.
Sam very kindly made special notepads for each of the girls. Here are Miss A’s Princess and the Frog Pads, which absolutely loves, especially loved the badges that had been added to them as decoration.
And look at this, post it notes, but with a gorgeous wrapper, which has a strong velcro circle to close it.
Post it notes I find so handy, especially when I’m writing, to jot down ideas. They get grubby, and curled at the edges very quickly though, so I love this case – what a genius idea! I’ve already started using them for plotting and planning.
I was also sent these gorgeous blogging notepads, which I just love. The green one reminds me of my celtic roots, and the black and cream one, Miss N declared as ‘very you’.
If you look closely you can see that each pad is hand embellished, just beautiful!
Prices are incredibly reasonable too, for something handmade. A blogging duo such as this would be around £3 upwards, depending upon the design.
Pootles Papercraft, is the kind of place, where you are going to find things, that just a little bit unusual. The majority of the products featured on the website are unique one of a kind products, and rarely duplicated. So perfect for gifts, and for people like me, who love handmade and unique products.
There are other plans afoot, and Sam plans to do some different ranges too, gift boxes, and larger writing pads.
My advice is if you want it when you see it, get it while you can!
Thank you to Sam of Pootles Papercraft, for sending us these gorgeous products.
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No Sew Lavender Bags : Sew Simple Advanced Fabric Glue
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I was given the chance to test drive Bostik’s, Sew Simple Advanced Fabric Glue (£5.99) and seeing as I didn’t have any repairs, or hems that needed doing I thought I would do a craft with my eldest daughter Miss N (10).
I have been meaning to make Lavender bags for ages. It also meant that we would need to join hems of the fabric, so really we would be using the glue in the way it was intended anyway. So we set to work!
First of all we cut out the fabric, making sure that each of the sides were exactly the same size. We ironed a hem all the way around the square. Then using sew simple fabric glue, we applied glue around three of the sides, leaving one of them open to add the lavender.
Using the glue, was as simple as the name suggests. You attach the blue nozzle to the tube, by screwing down. In my case this didn’t pierce the top, so I simply took it off and pierced it myself. You then hold it in the same way you would a pencil and allow the nozzle to draw thin lines of glue on the fabric. When I attached the two pieces of fabric together, I was amazed how strong and quick the glue was. We did have a little excess on one of the squares, when were being over zealous, but once dried you couldn’t tell at all.
We then filled the square with Lavender, and applied glue to the hem that was open. This was slightly more tricky, but still very doable. Made me wonder, if I could perhaps sort a falling hem whilst I was wearing the clothing?
The glue is washable and can be ironed, so ideal to use on clothing repairs. It also dries completely invisibly.
So we repeated the process until we had a stack of lavender bags, and tied them up with ribbon.
What do you think? I love them!
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