2015 Topic 23: Christmas Cards and Gifts

 2015 Topic 23: Christmas Cards and Gifts

Hello everyone, Leandra here for the final topic of the year, but there is no challenge for this as we know you are busy enough, so think of it as eye candy!

Our bloggers will still be blogging for the next 2 weeks with lots of homemade Christmas gift and card ideas to help you in the final push towards the big day!

I have an amazing Christmas Pinterest page for this topic with lots of ideas, more than we are showing here, so take a look when you find that rare 5 minutes!!

Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 22: Masterboards Challenge...

Hi, Darcy here. Well you are all masterboard masters! You lot are a whizz with a brayer and created some luscious backgrounds before turning them into mini marvels such as cards and tags. Great to see so many people joining in right before Christmas, we know how busy you all are. 

The winner of Masterboards is: Jules B. 

Contact Darcy to claim your prize darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

Ok, Leandra back with you to present some fun and hopefully achievable ideas for decorating your home, gift giving and more over the seasonal period.

Christmas can be such a stressful time for us all, planning food, people to stay, budgeting, all these pressures can really take the shine off the day if you don't keep it all in balance.

I try to focus on enjoying the quality time spent with friends and family, and nothing says that more than a thoughtfully prepared gift. 

It might be a crafty make, some home cooking, a jar of sweet treats or a wreath for the door. Whenever you create something with your own hands for someone else, they do seem to appreciate the care and effort you have gone to, just for them.

In this post you will find many such ideas, and often using supplies you probably have to hand.

Candles.... I do love a candle, but the icicle idea is easily done with our frosting glaze, or even metallic or pearl glaze if you want a bit more sparkle - less messy than a load of glitter too!

What about adding a paper-cut scene into the mix? Instructions here. 

Or maybe other glass ideas, these tree decorations are not too much of a challenge, and very pretty

Or perhaps trees on top of glass decorations??

I do love a centerpiece, but i struggle with fitting food and centerpieces on the table at the same time, but here is a nice window ledge idea...

...and perhaps this could fit among the food with less of an issue, plus it is see-through, so you can still talk to the person opposite!

So lets look at tree decorations, I always aim for a colour scheme and go from there, but it often goes awry or gets sabotaged by aquiring must-have decorations! I'm sure you are all the same, even harder when the kids were young and would bring home all kinds of colourful creations made at school that required pride of place on the tree!

Now they are older, it is easier for me to be more restrictive in our colour options, and if you are making your own, even easier to stick to the plan!

But how fun are these simple, yet effective critters made from cones, nuts and more!

This idea we used as a make and take at Ally Pally, lace was glued onto a wooden heart with matte medium, then we base coated with a white paint, and did a patine with French Roast. of course you can use any colours of paint to suit your theme. And we added a tickle of Treasure Gold!

You can buy glass decorations that are designed to be filled. Usually people use glue and glitter, but this version is adorable! Very elegant.

Here is another version of a paper decoration, this time on the outside - perhaps you are changing colour scheme and have some naff baubles to paper over in the loft??

Got some spare letters floating about? how about covering them with Christmas Papers??

I cannot leave felt out of this blog post, i think at Christmas, one of the first crafts I ever did was making angels from felt and calico with twiggy legs, very shabby chic even 20 years ago!

So here are some cute as a button Robins....

And trees. There are som many ways you can take this....Felt trees type 1, simple triangles with buttons - love the base idea!

Trees type 2, the rolled method! Liking the grey a lot!

And tree Type 3, this looks like more work, but aren't they lovely!

This little angel is adorable too - all from a cork!

And these are brilliant twig re-purposing!! Skinny Santas!

or Snowmen

... and Christmas Angels too by Mary Jane Chadbourne. I know lots of you enjoyed Mary's tinytopia class this year, so check out her blog and website here for her class schedule.

This one too...is she a grumpy angel?? Love the attitude! She cracks me up!

So how about some cards?

This is a Squiggly Christmas by Emma Godfrey

Minimalist JoFY by Joanne Wardle...

Eclectica {Lin Brown} stamps made into gorgeous Cards by Wanda...

Liz Borer gets colorful with her own Winter stamps...

Ellen Vargo makes Xmas trees from her flower petal stamps! See them here.

And we all love Anneke's bright and cheery style! with JoFy here...

And again with JoFy baubles here...

And here are some cards from Jo Firth-Young herself using her newest Christmas stamps...

And the cards I made last week from my masterboard video fit this topic perfectly too! Again with Jo's new Christmas stamps...

Ok, as ever, I could go on, don't forget to follow my Christmas pinterest board, you will see plenty more examples there! 

And of course you have 2 weeks of glorious blog posts coming on this topic to enjoy!

I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas! What an unusual year it has been for the world in oh so many different ways, and we sincerely hope that 2016 is prosperous and fruitful for you all!

From all of us here at PaperArtsy HQ, we wish you peace, love and happy times over the festive season and beyond. We very much enjoy your compnay through all our social media platforms, share with us your seasonal pictures, we'd love to see how you all celebrate the festive season!

Love and goodwill to you all

Mark, Leandra, Emma and (big) munchkins xxx