Saturday 24 December 2011

Happy Christmas everyone!

I just wanted to stop by and say a Happy Christmas to my followers, friends on facebook and fellow tweeters.  Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

We are all set for Father Christmas.  For some reason Father Christmas had to have a straw in his wine (!?!) and the children made mince pies and a Christmas Tree biscuits for him.



Saturday 17 December 2011

How to make a paper box - tutorial


I have been making these little boxes for years.  They are perfect for filling with treats and giving as gifts throughout the year, but I always make them as Christmas gifts for teaching staff that work with my children.  I love making them, and I love making little treats to put inside them.  This year we made Nigella Lawson's 'Hokey Pokey', I actually remember it being called Cinder Toffee when I was a girl (oh deary me, I sound like my grannie!), but it is more commonly known as honeycomb, and can be found inside Crunchie bars.  Apparently the name 'Hokey Pokey' comes from Cornwall.  What a fab name, I love it, and  it gave me the opportunity to sing the Hokey Pokey (while my daughter pulled her face at me!!!) whilst making it.

Okay, here's how to make the boxes:

This makes a box measuring 10x10cm

Materials needed:
2 complementing pieces of 12x12” paper*
scalpel
glue (not essential)
ruler

1.   Place the piece of paper that is going to be the bottom of the box in front of you and take a 1cm strip off the top, and a 1cm strip off one of the sides (you should still have a square!), to make the bottom of your box slightly smaller.

2.  Take one of the corners and fold diagonally across to meet the opposite corner (fig 1). Crease, unfold and do the same with the other corners so that when you open it out again you have a cross (fig 2).



fig 1.
fig 2.
 3.  Now take each of the corners and fold into the centre point (fig 3).

fig 3.
 4.  Leaving the corners in the centre, fold the bottom edge up to the centre line, crease and then unfold (fig 4).  Do this with each of the edges.

fig 4.
 5.  Unfold you sheet (fig 5).

fig 5.
6. Fold two opposite sides into the middle, and using your scalpel and ruler, cut along the crease to the edge of the folded sides (fig 6).

fig. 6
 7.Okay, now you should have two opposite sides with long pieces, and two short sides.   Place the paper with one of the short sides towards you.  Pick up the long end on the left and the long end on the right and bring them together (fig 7).  Still holding the two pieces together, take the short end and fold it over the top so that the triangular end fits into the bottom of the box (fig 8).
fig 7.
fig 8.
 8. Turn your box around and do the same for the other side (fig 9).  You can at this point put a little spot of glue under each of the triangles in the bottom of the box to hold them in place.  It’s not necessary, but they often pop up if you don’t.

fig. 9
 9.Time to make your lid.  Follow steps 2-8.




10. Fill full of treats and wrap a pretty ribbon around for a perfect gift.

If you are putting food in them, I recommend that you put a piece of greaseproof paper in, big enough to come up the sides and fold over the top too.

The past few years I have made truffles, what would you put in yours?


Sunday 11 December 2011

Sparkly Sunday

I can't say I am a fan of sparkle, but I guess at Christmas time, you just have to make exceptions.  This morning, we got out the paper, scissors, glue and glitter to make snowflakes for our window.

Do you remember making these at school?  I haven't made any since then, but thought it would be a simple activity for this morning.  We had great fun, and ended up with little bits of paper all over the floor.  Luckily the little Tinker still finds hoovering a novelty!!! 



Glitter was essential, and the little Tinker got really involved in this!


I know the picture is rubbish, but you get the idea.  They are very pretty.


Last year we made these birds for the window, and these were the snowflakes we made, I fancy making some more.  What have you been making, or will be making?

Wednesday 7 December 2011

A Little Self Indulgence

I have been neglecting blogging recently.  Things have been so busy here, and both myself and the little Tinker have been suffering from horrible colds (with hacking coughs), and therefore sleepness nights and fuzzy heads!  I have also had so much to share, I've not known where to start... resulting in Emu syndrome!  Anyway, my head is out of the sand, and I've decided not to dwell on what I have done and what I have wanted to write about, and start afresh from yesterday.

As I have said, things have been very busy.  I have been doing lots of making ready for my stockists, and for the events that I have been selling at.  All this is done now, I had my last party (before Christmas) on Monday evening (another successful event), and thought I deserved to do something for myself.

So, after the children had gone to bed last night, I came into my room, and instead of getting my machine out, I picked up a piece of paper and started doodling...


... and then out came my scalpel...


... and a few hours later I had this!

I just love paper cutting!