Loving Thanksgiving in Boston!

Hello, after promising to be more strict about posting blogs, I haven't made a great start. This post doesn't contain any crafting either!
That's because I spent last week Stateside, getting to experience Thanksgiving for the first time. My sister and I met up with two of our cousins in Boston. My cousin, Kate, is in her third year of university in America, we promised to visit and Boston isn't too far from her. Her brother, Mark, flew over from Ireland to meet us as well.

We had the best time (easy in great company) and Boston is wonderful!

Not being American, Thanksgiving doesn't really mean much to us, so we weren't sure what to expect, but we had such a good day. It was like an early Christmas (without the pressies), spending time with family and eating delicious food. Actually I'm thinking of adding spiced, mashed, sweet potato to our Christmas menu with roasted pumpkin seeds on top- super yum. 
To add to the fabulous feeling of Christmas we watched the Blink Christmas Tree Lights to Music Show, in Faneuil Hall Marketplace, every night we were there.

The one shame about our trip is that I missed going into a wool shop by about 30 seconds! As part of the Freedom Trail we visited the Old South Meeting House and stayed until closing time. On our way out, I found out there was a wool shop right beside it (which could even be enter from the Meeting Hall's gift shop) and it was closing too and I didn't have a chance to go back- not good! Ah well, you can't have it all.
I did get some crochet done en route though - the beauty of a long flight. You'll never here me complain- it's the perfect excuse to sit for hours hooking away ;-) 
I'll share that next time, until then - craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

Wrapping Paper

I love wrapping presents, so much so I'd do it as a job if I could.
Having said that I can feel rather guilty about the frivolous nature of wrapping gifts with paper and the cost to the planet. I always try to unwrap things carefully so I can reuse the paper for something, be it to wrap something else or to make a card or line something, whatever it is it's good to reuse and is cost-effective too- a nice bonus! There are some really gorgeous papers out there that are such good quality they can be used over and over, especially if tied with ribbon instead of using sticky tape.

I'm always on the look out for for things to use as wrapping paper or to make gifts bags etc.
With this philosophy in mind I rescued some paper from work recently after the photocopier had a "software malfunction" and printed out a document as a series of lines similar to a barcode. Most had an overall green appearance due to the stripes being blue, yellow and black and some were just black and white.

I immediately thought the green tone paper would make great Christmas wrapping and the black and white could be easily jazzed up.

I made a gift bag using one sheet of the green, just the right size to pop a few small Christmas presents before finishing it off with a festive bow. I used a box of tea as the base structure (see below) and began wrapping as per normal at one end but without sticking anything down. I then drew a flap template at the other end which I cut out with scissors. I stuck the edge and the folded end together with double sided sticky tape and attached a strip along the edge of the flap, ready for sealing.

Using this wonderful origami tutorial from the delightful Gathering Beauty, I used two, green sheets to make a box. I finished it off with red and white striped washi tape along with a gift bow made with the same tape and plain paper off-cuts. It's just right for a Christmas present of jewellery. 

I used a pink and a yellow highlighter to spruce up a sheet of black and white, I thought this was "bang on trend" ;-) as neon is everywhere at the moment and would be good for my friend's birthday as she likes bright colours. It looks great with black ribbon

Making your own stamps as in this post is a great way to personalise plain paper into something a little more special and could even make newspaper a possible source?!
The other black and white sheet was calling out for haphazardly stamped, hot pink bumblebees and to be made into a gift bag.

I covered it with transparent, sticky vinyl then I used the same technique as the Christmas bag, although, this time, I stuck the edge and flaps down as I went.

I then folded the top 2cm down all the way around and cut 2 holes in both of the wide sides approximately 1cm down. I threaded a piece of ribbon (liberated from inside a cardigan) through each side to create handles and used a bead on each end before knotting for extra security. I also popped a rectangle of card in the bottom for a bit of extra strength.

When that's all done you're left with with a lovely little gift which is durable enough to be used over and over!

I hope you like the results? Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Until next time- craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I feel I can legitimately go all Christmassy now that's it's December! Although I don't mind Christmas festivities starting in November, it helps me get organised. I know a lot of people can be a little "bah humbug" about starting to early.

I am pretty much set although I still need to do my "wrapping". I try to recycle as much as possible and thought I would see gift bags this year. I do love wrapping though! I know quite a few people who don't like wrapping so I get to do it for them. I genuinely think I could do it full time if there was such a job as full time professional wrapper.
I've done a little decorating, that is I've decorated a little tree. I thread a mix of red, green and gold buttons onto some sheer white ribbon, wound it around the tree then added a few baubles and a glittery "Noel"!

I have made my Christmas cards and because I get to use my fountain pen with green ink I even like writing them.

I used the same method as seen in my blog from May about rubber stamping....
http://craftinernest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/t-shirt-print-make-over.html
I made some with a robin on and other's with Rudolph, up close and far away, the classic holly and a Christmas Tree or two. As with everything, buttons were involved, as was sequins (a Christmas necessity) and a other bits and bobs.

I even folded and cut most of the card myself this year, recycled of course. It's a bit time consuming but I kept them all the same size- A5 folded to A6. I also used some square cards left over from year and some from a few years back when I folded A5 lengthways, just to mix it up a bit.

Festive fun! Craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x