Thank You!

First of all, thanks so much for following us over to our new space! We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was spent with family, friends and food. It was good.

So on to our winners!

For her choice of pouch from Mums shop number--

 Crafterhours - Adrianna


For her choice of garland from the my shop number--

 Sherie Lee

And for the Suprise number--

Kelly's Korner

So what is the surprise? Well Mum and I were feeling festive and I stumbled on this photograph for sale on etsy the other day. (shop here) 

It inspired me because I remembered Mum told me that the Cinnamon ornaments were very popular back at the Patch Craft Shop... (Mum still has the ornaments she bought from Mary) and I thought wouldn't it be awesome to make a cinnamon garland?! (I am not sure what they are made out of in this photo- maybe FIMO? )

So we got to work - and decided it was amazing and we must send it out to someone to enjoy or we'd be fighting over who gets to keep it... which would be messy... mainly because of the glitter but also because we both really want it! (I still think I would have won)

We enjoyed it so much we realized  we should just show everyone how to make their own because it's so easy and fun and it will make your house smell like Christmas.

Cinnamon Ornament Garland Tutorial

We used this recipe with variations (I bolded them below).

Ingredients

• 1 cup ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon allspice
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 2 tablespoons wood glue

Supplies

ginger bread cookie cutter- we used the Dad from this set which we found at Michaels

Craft hole punch or circle icing decorating tip

Glitter - We used Martha Stewart Glitter in Brownstone

Glue/paint brush - We used Martha Stewart Glitter Glue which includes a brush inside

Ribbon

embroidery needle

Directions

In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Mix in the applesauce and glue. Work the mixture with your hands 2 to 3 minutes to form a ball. If mixture is too wet, add more cinnamon. If mixture is too dry, add more applesauce.

Lightly dust a clean surface with cinnamon. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out gingerbread men. You can re-roll dough to get as much as possible out of each batch.

Use a hole punch or circle icing tip to make a hole for hanging with a ribbon.

Dry in a slow oven, 200 degrees F (100 degrees C) for several hours, or air dry in a sunny spot for 4 or 5 days. Some people suggest flipping to keep them nice and flat. 

When dry coat top with glue using a paint brush, sprinkle generously with glitter and then knock off  the excess for reuse.

When dry, string on ribbon. We used a continuous piece of ribbon and just went through each arm twice to create a loop, then ran the ribbon along the back to keep each gingerbread man from moving

Enjoy decorating your house with garland or ornaments- these things smell wonderful and with the glitter addition the sparkle like crazy

**Winners** Please contact us with your picks and address information so we can mail your prizes.
(jessica_m_m@hotmaildotcom)


Thanks so much for playing along!

Ribbon Storage

 We're still working on getting Mum's sewing room completely organized. This last weekend I made her get rid of her old ribbon storage ... it had no where to go in her new room. So I came up with this fast solution that uses the space behind her door 

Here's what we used

 Mark the center of each finial tip

 drill out a guide hole for your hook 

 screw in the hook

 I used a piece of fabric to protect the hook and pliers to make the job easier

 Using a level mark 1 to 2 inches in from either side of your dowel 

 Drill, insert anchor and screw in your finial

 fill up your dowels with your ribbon collection and hang

 The supplies for the two rows ran only $12 (she will be needing more rows)  

 Which seemed like a good deal to me since I paid more then that for half the storage for the system I bought from Michaels

Now if we could just get the rest of the room organized that fast!

Box of Chocolates Garland Giveaway *and the winner is*

 I want to thank everyone for participating in my giveaway and welcome everyone who is new- I hope you continue to visit because I have a lot of fun things planned! 


So without further ado the winner of the garland is~

The winner has 5 days to contact me or a new winner will be selected.

I really hate that I can't give everyone who entered a garland so I put together this tutorial for you and I hope you will make one for yourself! If you do please add it to my flicker group so we can all see!


Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only. 

Materials and Supplies

dark and light red felt*

white felt*

dark and light brown felt*

DMC Embroidery floss: (2) red, (2)brown, cream

4 feet brown grosgrain ribbon

1/8" wide brown ribbon - length of garland

scissors

pinking shears

hot glue gun

printed heart templates

*wool felt or a wool blend felt work best for this project. If using acrylic it's best to use felt by the yard as opposed to the small sheets of the felt. Felt by the yard is a thicker product and will hold up better with the embroidering. 

Instructions

Each heart will need two base hearts in addition to the top layer (if top layer is desired). Use one of the templates to cut out all three layers

 Use your scissors (or pinking shears) take the top layer and cut the heart smaller. Be sure to keep the shape of the heart consistant.

 Use your scissors to do the same to one of the base hearts. The heart you cut down will be used as your backing heart.

 When you layer your two base hearts they should look like this.

 The three hearts should now look like this.

 Take the top heart pair (on the left) and embroider as desired

Below are some ideas for decorating. 

*Helpful hints*

My personal preference is to use all 6 strands of the embroidery floss.

On the undecorated cream hearts  I use 3 layers since the cream felt is slightly see through

 When you have finished decorating all of the hearts, lay them out making sure the garland will look well balanced when its completed.
To prepare the ribbon. Sew 1/8" ribbon through the grosgrain and tie it off.

 Using your hot glue gun pipe a line across the top of the heart. Make sure to put the knotted ribbon far enough into your heart that the backing will cover it.

 Pipe hot glue onto the backing heart and let cool for just a second,

 then sandwich your ribbon so all of your thread and ribbon is covered.

 Continue adding hearts to the ribbon until the garland reaches the desired length. Repeat the ribbon tie off on the opposite side of the garland.

Start decorating!

And please don't forget to add your project to insanely crafty's flickr group so we can all see!

Pine Cone Tutorial

I figured it out!!! Here's a quick tutorial- hope you guys enjoy. If you make them please link to yourself in the comments so I can see how they turn out for you!

Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only.

Please let me know if I made any errors and I will correct them.

Supplies

-styrofoam eggs 1 7/8"x 2 1/2"

-grosgrain ribbon

-1/4 yard of 36" wide felt by the yard will make 3 pinecones

-rotary cutter with wave blade

-hot glue gun

eggs are from Joanns

-Cut a 28" piece of ribbon.

-Fold ribbon in half and put a drop of hot glue at the center

-Stick ribbon to the top of your egg
-Cut out 1 1/2" circles

-Scallop your edges

-Cut diamond shape at the center

- Set aside
-Using a wave rotary blade cut (3) 36" strips at roughly 3/4" wide

-Snip at the center of each indented curve
-Start rolling the felt adding drops of hot glue as you go.

-Stop when the roll is about 1/2-3/4 thick.

-Push the center of your roll out a little to create the tip of the pine cone

-Add glue to the top (the non rotary cut side) allow glue to cool down for a few second and then adhere to the bottom of the egg.
-Start wrapping the egg with the felt gradually working up the egg until the top is reached.

-It might be necessary to cut a few pedals off the long strip and glue them on individually when the top is reached

Add a drop of glue at the top of the egg and then pinch the ribbon together at the top of the egg.

-Thread the ribbon through the scalloped circles and then glue over the top part of the pine cone to hide the edges.

-Clean all of the hot glue hair off the finished pine cone

Make a bunch more and wrap them up in a cute bakery box for a gift!
And just because here's a picture of the little guy. Seriously the double chin just KILLS me- he is so scrumptious!