Haribo Anyone?

I had the chance to make another sweet tree for my sister, this time a Haribo packet one...

I used an oasis ball for this one but even though it is brilliant to stick the packets in due to its softness, it is too soft. Where ever you touch it, it ends up with your finger print or a hole. I tried using tape first but it wouldn't stick. In the end I got white tissue paper and covered the whole ball with it, then I used the washi tape on top of it. When it came to sticking it on the stick it was a nightmare as it wouldn't stay and kept falling off regardless of how much glue I used but at least it eventually survived until that person received it.

I made a slight mistake on the pot as I used tissue and when it came to putting in the plaster of paris in to it, it got a little wet and started to bubble. I redecorated it so it ended up slightly different as you'll see in the next photo. When redecorating it I covered each heart in plastic first.

I hope that you think it turned out nice. I've no idea what the person receiving it thought and neither does my sister as they threw her a surprise party so she was in too much shock. I forgot to mention in the pot there are also some Freddo chocolates.

Yippee!!

I finally have summer holidays starting today! Of course I didn't spend it so far in the best way by visiting the doctor as my feet are super duper swollen. I wondered if it was the medication but it didn't help that we have had a serious whopper of a heatwave and then to top it off I had to clear out the area I work in for building work in the summer... which of these was the culprit! I had painful ankles but not swollen ones before but the culprit showed its nasty head yesterday. I was sat down all day and my ankles were throbbing like mad so I had them up on a chair, they were at their worst at the end of the day (absolutely huge!), I hadn't been sat in the sun so the only option was the medication... it also confirmed it in the evening when I had pains all over in my stomach and I was struggling to breath. Now I'm back to square one (major bawling session here!). The doctor says that the reason is that the medication hasn't been working, I might as well stop it and in 2 weeks give another sample and from there they will choose another course of medication.  I'm so upset of course I just wanted to feel much better but it just means that from tomorrow I'll be joining majority of the muslims taking part in Ramadan and it will mean that I only need to make up 16 of the fasts later. It probably won't be December until I can do this though as the medication course is a month and a half, then you need 4 weeks to see if it has worked. Also in mid September I have my blood pressure test so lets see what happens there also....

 

Now that I've got that bit out of the way and my washing machine is doing its job I might as well show you why I have been quiet the last couple of days...

I did this blog post a couple of weeks ago about filling up a wine bottle with lucky stars. I had no idea what to do to fill the rest but then I had a light bulb moment (ting!). I decided to visit Staples, buy their lowest quality paper in yellow and cut my own strips. When I went they had multi-coloured packs of coloured paper and fluorescent so I bought both! I then tried cutting my strips on my paper cutter, what a mess it didn't work, in the end I bought an A3 cutting mat and individually cut each strip and filled my bottle.

There are roughly about 600 stars in that bottle. I did end up swapping the pink with the blue and it looked so much better.

As well as the bottle I'd purchased an international smash journal and washi tape....

I then wrapped it all up to look like this...

With the journal I had wanted to use my calligraphy pens but I honestly don't know what's wrong with the set I bought as the ink doesn't flow easily and it stops working. This meant I used a normal pen which to me didn't get the effect I wanted but the lady I gave all this to liked it so at least it was effective.

 

I did want to share more with this post but it will end up seriously long so I'll save that for tomorrow.

Crafty munchkins....

Lately my niece has been asking to do some making, I was convinced she wanted to bake and since I couldn't be bothered I kind of made out we had no time. She also went home and said the same thing to have her mum ignore her.... I know we are both mean. In the end I asked her what she meant by 'making' and she explained things like cards etc...

We ended up going to the store and buying a couple of new things to stick as to be honest I'm bored with what she has even though she isn't.

She made a cute card for her mum but I didn't photograph the outside this time, only the inside.

She wanted to write lots of kisses and hugs so I encouraged her to draw them and she did... its so cute... her mum also got coloured squares... Hey! What ever takes her fancy!

We also had some time to make a necklace using our supplies

She was so proud of it as she stitched everything on herself but others didn't have such encouraging words to say which quite upset her. I'm not surprised though. It now has pride of place in her bedroom.

 

It was a bank holiday weekend which meant I had today off work too but it doesn't at all feel like I've had 3 days off as time as always has flown. I could do with having more time off of course but that I will have to wait another 2 weeks for. At least we can enjoy the amazing weather which is something.

My week...

Its another week already and my holidays are over... I'm going to miss the fact I don't have to wake up with the alarm clock but most of all that it was lightish when I woke up in the morning... I of course did a couple of times wake up about 6.30am and was convinced it was in the middle of the night due to it being pitch black outside but just rolled over and went to sleep... no chance of me doing that now but the great thing is knowing spring is just around the corner!

In my last week of the holidays I...

Crafted a little, I had imagined I'd do so much more but my mind just wouldn't allow it. Hopefully I'll get a chance in the next couple of weeks even if its just with my niece.

I did way too much shopping, I bought a new bag, some things for my husband, niece, younger brother and friends.... as well as a new duvet for the bed as I've had mine way before I even got married and its almost falling to bits due to the type of material its made from. Of course I bought plenty of food too!

I asked someone to buy me a bun, they bought this delicious looking one that I couldn't help taking a photo of... I ate it, it was delicious with gooey chocolate in the middle also but then someone  else told me Smarties are not Suitable for Vegetarians which surprised me as we used to gobble these by the bucket loads but haven't had any for years... it turned out to be true as the chocolate contains animal rennet... How could you Nestle! Still its my own fault as one of the reasons I hardly eat chocolate anymore is because of Nestles and Mars the company, in about 2010 there was a huge outcry about majority of their products not being suitable for vegetarians and some shops even went to the extreme of taking those products off the shelf. Can you imagine not eating any M&M peanuts, my siblings were gutted as they loved them. I am usually so careful when shopping to check for signs but this day because I didn't buy the bun I didn't even think about it. This is also another reason why I've stopped eating yogurts as so many of them aren't either.

 

Bakewell tarts which I love and I had to try this new flavour of kit kat, cookie and creams. Apparently there is an oreo one too but that isn't suitable for vegetarians.

 

By the way I'm not vegetarian, I just have to eat meat products that are slaughtered in the Islamic way. Also no pig products or alcohol. My pen-friends are great in checking products before sending them to me to make sure it contains no animal fats, beef or pork gelatins, animal anything really...

I will have a healthy year despite all this sweet stuff because I hardly eat any chocolates/cakes when I'm working.

I was looking at the vitamin one day whilst waiting for my mums medication. I was surprised to see all the varieties available but the best one for me was these cranberry tablets. I love the juice but a whole carton is too much for me and you have to consume them within 2 days. I did start buying the small ones but they cost more then a bigger carton considering you probably got less also. So I'm giving these a try now and I hope they work.

I haven't read as much as I would have liked to. If anything I've been reading the same book all week and I'm only still 50% into it but I've been going out more, writing a letter and making the most of my time... Still it didn't stop me from ordering this kindle case online which I loved but the packaging added a little something else to it.

 

Oh! that's just reminded me that I bought this...

I've always wanted one so couldn't resist when I saw it.

It definitely has been a relaxing two weeks, even though things haven't always gone quite to plan...

Christmas Crafting Part 2

I was busy creating the last of my Christmas cards on Saturday when my niece called me down by saying 'I'm here Khala, come down!'. So I had no choice but to... she handed me a piece of paper, 'I've made you a picture Khala' before I got the chance to question her about it, her mum piped up... its a picture of her dad sleeping... erm ok... I actually asked her why I needed a picture of her dad sleeping but got no response.

To me though it looks like dads dreaming of spring or summer as he's got a flower above his head but best of all 3 sunshines even though the yellow one isn't visible. I think I know how dad's feeling there as we're all nearly dreaming of some warmer weather.

 

I couldn't help laughing on my way to drop my niece off to school on Friday as we turned the corner and were hit by a blast of cold air.... she went 'oh its cold. It's freezing!' she sounded like such an old lady. Her dad got a phone call later saying she wasn't well and can they give her some medication, my mum went after a hospital appointment to get her but they refused to let her go home saying she was fine now. Well when I went to get her, I got a lecture on having dropped her off at school poorly when she had been perfectly fine for the hour and a bit she was with me... I'm guessing she caught a chill from that blast despite being wrapped up in tonnes of layers, gloves, hat and scarf.

Anyway back to Saturday after she gave me this picture, it was like someone pressed a repeat button on her as she kept continuously asking to make Christmas cards as we hadn't finished the few she had left. I decided to share another type of card I made with her in case you'd like to do something like it yourself with a little person. Its so easy and one you can more or less leave them to do.

You'll have to excuse the photos as I took them about 8pm on Saturday night as my sister had mentioned she was going to write them to give on Monday. They are a peach and beige colour but they both look exactly the same. I have a tub of glitter glue from my days of making FBs and Decos which I hardly use anymore and weirdly still work. Before she had even started she told me she was going to make lots of spots so I told her to go for it even though I knew they would flatten out. They remind me of fireworks, baubles or fairy lights.... her mum has some Christmas foam stickers at home and I said if she wanted she could get her to stick some on top but she liked them as they are.

I've since told her not to write the cards as I saw a post on GypsyofJaspers blog about Salt Dough ornaments that I thought it would be so much fun to make with my niece as she's been begging for me to bake with her for ages only this will have a different twist of course as she can paint them. I've decided to make circles (baubles) and stars and she can give one each to the adults that work with her which in reality I don't actually know how many there are so I'll make about 20 if I can. Its one of the things my niece has always found hard is not knowing who would be there on the days she went.

I've only seen salt dough used once at work and it was a nasty experience as the children used it like play dough to make something in pieces so they were differently thicknesses. It ended up taking a whole day to cook it so the thin bits snapped and the fatter bits were still squidgy... so you can imagine where that project ended up! We had no choice as it was just crumbs so I hope the same doesn't happen here.

Hopefully I'll leave work straight away at 4pm tomorrow (I'm getting home about 4.30pm due to parents not collecting their children on time) so that I can do this with her as on Tuesday I'll be viewing a house which has probably sold by now as we had to wait a week to view it at the time we wanted! Its been put on the market for the 3rd time! Then I'll work until 4pm on Wednesday too.... I hardly do anything with my niece anymore and feel so guilty... I can't even remember the last time we went to the library.

I'll blog about our salt dough adventure soon though as I will give this a try.

Christmas Crafting....

My niece always asks me if she can make someone a card which sometimes we do but mostly we don't. When she realised I'd be home on Wednesday she asked to do some baking! Well you know I'm not such a great baker but also with not feeling well there really was no way I could bake.

A while ago I thought of the idea for my niece to make cards using stamps etc... so when my niece woke me up when she came from school I gathered everything together and more or less left her to it.

She started by stamping all the cards and envelopes which she was just as bad as me with as she had to fill in all the gaps.

I showed her once where to colour and she just got on with it. I even had to leave her at one point and she picked up the next item and got on with it. I was amazed that she had the initiative to do it.

We finished them off with some sequins but I made the mistake of buying some PVA glue with a flat nozzle so my niece couldn't glue it and I didn't have a spreader for her to do it. We actually did the sticking a couple of days later as she suddenly ended up really clingy on Wednesday, she kept crying as she couldn't stop coughing. It got worse over night so she didn't go to school the next day, her dad had to take her to the doctor as she was so pale and thankfully he gave her some medicine that knocked her out which meant I could rest too. We finished these cards off on Saturday as her mum left her with me whilst she did her weekly shopping.

The envelopes match the cards. I only made 4 for her to give to staff at school but my sister turned round and mentioned her neighbours too so now we'll have to make some time to make those too.

 

I decided to share this with you now incase you have little ones that would love to make Christmas cards but you don't know what to do. My niece is 3 years old and she could just be left to do it with only a little prompting and she didn't get bored. If anything she got annoyed when I suggested putting things away as I thought she might be tired.

 

I will be posting my handmade postcards on my bubbles blog next month which are all address/stamped and ready to go.

 

Have you sorted your Christmas cards out yet? I haven't got my presents ready at all.

Maybe you can help....

With crafting quite a lot lately I feel inspired to do so much but unfortunately there are just not enough hours in the day.

• One of the things that keeps coming to mind is to make my own rubber stamps, its just something that I want to try even though I've no idea if I'll be any good at it or will keep it up but I'd love to give it a go. The problem is though that I've tried searching online for kits but I just get loads of listings for rubber stamps or places that sell them so if you know anywhere that sells supplies please send me a link. Even better if you can give me some tips on what to consider when doing this.

• The other thing that I'd love to do lately is decorate old book pages. I only have one old book which is about guillotines which wouldn't go down quite so well if I decorated and sent those to people. So I was wondering if anyone has any old but neatly torn out pages that they would like to swap something with me for. (none with pictures on)

 

Its so nice to get this motivation, I never lost it but with all my supplies being in our bedroom I wasn't able to make use of them until the weekend when my husband was at work... then I was torn between writing a letter or crafting. At the moment he's abroad and I'm making the most of it but also at the same time encouraging him to stay a little longer!

 

I had the need to use a corner punch last month and bought one, I have crafted with it so much that I don't know what I ever did without it... so hopefully these 2 items that I want to do something with will have the same effect :).

 

Is there anything you'd like to try that you haven't done before?

(It doesn't have to be craft related)

Origami Love....

I was asked how I made my origami hearts. I hardly ever use Youtube but there are times when I have just ventured by through links people post on their blogs and then ended up staying to look up other things which resulted in me creating something out of the experience....

I used this video to create these....

With the flappy bit at the back it was so easy just to slip the lollipop stick under and it looked like it was part of it.

This video I used to create the hearts that I made recently. They are so neat once made and look great too.

And of course I have to finish with this one since I'm on the topic of origami as on Instagram I had so many people ask me how to make lucky stars.

My addiction...

I was meant to post this yesterday but Flickr for the first time since I had it wasn't working...typical don't you think which is why I'm posting it today. I hope that you found it helpful.

 

What Origami items have you made?

I've mentioned the C word....

 

I thought once my holidays end I would be back to regular blogging again especially since my husband isn't in the country at the moment which means I have a lot more time to do my own thing. You would think that's the case anyway but I'm getting up at 6am every morning for my niece which means I'm completely shattered by 8pm and just want to go to bed.... of course I don't as I want to make the most of having my bedroom back to myself that I've been crafting and writing letters.

 

During the week I made some British themed postcards for make my day which are still available. Then last night I finally made a start on my Christmas cards.  

I had planned on using these square Christmas images that I bought from Crafty Individuals some years ago but couldn't bring myself to do anything with them even though I tried as I found them boring and couldn't understand why I bought them. I finally decided to do something with them when I bought a pack of GB stamps and they were 90% Christmas stamps which really annoyed me of course.

I decided to buy some Christmas paper as I wanted something brighter compared to last years. I know its not that bright but most of my things are Vintage looking so I couldn't go for cutesy bright. Anyway once I got last year pack out I realised I had way more paper left then I imagined so I've ended up using mostly that in order to finish it off. If I don't finish that this year I think I'll have to give it away as I can't have another year using that same pad again.... it didn't even have that many sheets.

 

When I went to the craft store yesterday I was so excited to see washi tapes, its come in so handy already to make my cards with that its tempting to buy some more from Angoo-Mart but I won't as I have already placed 2 order this year. I have asked the lady in the craft store in the city though to see if she can get hold of some as then I will hopefully save on shipping but if not at least it means I can choose what I really want rather then filling a box. Also like the tape I bought above, the green one was cut twice so when I peeled it off, it came away in layers so I was able to take it back where as if I bought it online I wouldn't have said anything.

I mentioned that I started making my cards last night but when I actually sat down the images and stamps just wouldn't work so I decided to back all the cards and round all the edges in the hope that an idea would come to me and thankfully it did after I'd been to the opticians today. I decided to not use the postage stamps and just focus on the images, paper, washi tapes and my templates from last year to create something. I'm not 100% satisfied and I've not co-ordinated the colours at all but its a lot better then I imaged. Also they are completely flat at the moment so maybe this year I will post my postcards naked.... if  I don't then I can use the Christmas Stamps on the back.. I'll have to see.

 

Are you thinking about Christmas already?

 

I am trying this year as I always end up feeling rushed with taking so much on as you know from previous years of me almost having a melt down and wondering if I'll get them done in time as I've over done things.

Its Me...

I'm still around barely... I spent most of last week at my aunties house which is why I haven't posted all that many blog posts or commented much on your blogs. Also though it doesn't feel like I ever had holidays as I am still truly shattered and work is super hectic but I'm still in the easy two week period. From next week I'll find out truly what the work of my new role will be like....

 

One thing for sure though is that I have had the best weekend with the most amazing sunshine which seems to have disappeared today as we're back into rain again.... still I managed to get all my washing done and dried so I don't care....

 

Here is a little snippet of what I've done....

I follow Goodnight Little Spoon's blog and watched the transformation of these silhouettes in to postcards that when she listed them in her Etsy shop I just couldn't help buying a set to use. I waited so impatiently to receive them and absolutely love them. I could never create anything like this as I'm hopeless at doing anything to do with people.

I replied to a super cute sesame street letter with a simple letter pad....

I ate way too many of these Netherlands apple rounds as they were so delicious and almost as thin as a biscuit.

I showed off my Care Bear Tape collection, I just couldn't help it as I just love the brightness and fun side of them.

I went to the supermarket on Sunday but decided to check out the craft section at The Range first as I haven't been for some weeks and they have quite a few new ranges in from Docrafts that were so tempting to buy. In the end I only bought these because I have been drooling over them since they came out earlier this year but refused to pay the over the top prices for them due to the Olympics and Jubilee celebrations. These were reduced to about half price so I decided to finally buy them. I didn't even notice these stickers had borders on the back until I sat to craft last night and should hopefully have something to list on make my day soon.

 

After going to the supermarket I went out for a meal with someone from work. It was such a nice day/time but mostly it was nice just to get out and enjoy the sunshine. The day before I also went in to the city and bought myself a pair of shoes from Clarks for work as its not long until the weather gets worse. I always need new shoes as when the weather gets bad I only wear the one pair all day everyday and they don't seem to last long. I'm going to buy a pair of boots too when I get another Clark Voucher...

 

Now I need to make the most of my husband not being here to craft as late as possible as usually I couldn't as he was in bed about 8pm! As well as making the most of the last bit of lighter evenings as even though as you can see from my photos I'm already struggling with lighting.

 

How did you spend your weekend?