CRAFTY DAY 8 - CROCHET CANDY CANE DECORATIONS

I have been making these little candy cane cosies  for years.  A little treat to hang on the tree and reusable every year.  Simple to make and whip up in about ten 15 mins

MATERIALS

Candy Cane lollies
Yarn
Crochet hook
Large eyed needle
Scissors
Large eyed needle





Make a chain as long as the length of your candy cane and add ten more chain. *One  Double crochet and one chain into third chain from hook, skip one chain into next chain one double crochet and one chain* repeat *-* to the end. Do not turn work. Now this is where it might get a bit confusing.  You will now be working along the otherside of this ladder (your base chain). On the top of the ladder where you finished crochet 1 single crochet, 3 double crochet one single crochet, 3 double crochet 1 single crochet. Thats the end done, now into each gap in the ladder *1 single crochet, 3 double crochet, 1 single crochet* to the end.  Finish off and sew in tails.  Crochet a string of 30 chain finish off, this will be for hanging.  Now weave your candy cane through the rungs of the ladder.  A dab of glue at each end will keep everything in place. Tie your chain to the top of cane.  And you are done.

CRAFT DAY 7 - SANTA'S MAGIC KEY

So my kiddies are at that age where they question everything, so planning to pip them at the post with this one.  How is Santa going to get inside to leave presents when we don't have a chimney?  Good question and I have an answer - Santa's Magic Key - now I know there are alot of these on the market, but I wanted to make ours special.  We have two keys, the large magic key that gets left hanging on the front door, and a smaller regular sized key that Santa leaves next to his plate.  I explain to the kiddies that the magic key got smaller so Santa could come inside and that by next year it will have become a big magic key again.  Just be sure to not leave both keys out - kind of spoils the magic part.

Materials

Large decorative key
Smaller regular key
Ribbon
Gold paint
Card
scissors
Note to Santa x 2
Glue



SANTA NOTE - Add your childrens name at the bottom and print x 2

Dear Santa,

We don’t have a chimney

As you can plainly see

But we would still like you to visit us

And leave gifts beneath our tree

Our Mum says this is a

“Magic Key”

Which will let you visit us

There is cake and milk inside for you,

 And if you wouldn’t mind to much

Please leave the key beside the plate,

So next year you can come again

Love

Spray your keys with the gold paint and allow to dry.  In the mean time cut out your Dear Santa notes. Cut your card a 1/4 inch larger all round than your notes, you will need two of these.  Spray the back of your card gold and allow to dry.  When dry turn over and spray the front.  When dry glue your notes to the front, punch a hole in the corner of your card and thread a piece of ribbon through then your key, tie off. This ribbon needs to be long enough to go over your door handle .  Add more ribbon and tie to your key.  Repeat for the second key.

CRAFTY DAY 6 - HOME MADE CHRISTMAS CHEER

Every year and only at Christmas time I make my Christmas tipple.  It has become a family (grown ups only) tradition.  So as Christmas is for giving I am sharing my favourite Christmas dish with you all.  And by dish I don't mean you drink it out of a bowl - but feel free if you want to. This will make 1.125 litres, but I warn you you will have to make more as it is very moorish

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whisky
300ml cream
400g can condensed milk
3 eggs
3 tblsp chocolate sauce
1/2 tsp coconut essence

Blend together condensed milk, cream, eggs and coconut essence. Blend well. Add chocolate sauce and whisky.  Blend well.  Bottle and store in refrigerator.  Will keep for up to 2 months - if you can keep away from it for that long

CRAFTY DAY 5 - CROCHETED CACTUS

This crafty idea came to me in the middle of the night - as all good crafty ideas do - and whipped it up in a couple of hours.

MATERIALS

Crochet hook
Green yarn
Pink yard (small amount)
Stuffing
Bottle brush
Small pot
Cardboard
Needle
small pebbles
Glue gun
scissors
ruler
pen



With your green yarn crochet 25 chain and join to form a loop.  Crochet 20 single crochet onto loop. continue singe crochet to form a tube.  When at the desired length decrease crochet to close the tube. With the pink yarn make a six stitch chain, join to form a loop. into loop make 1 single crochet, 1 double crochet, repeat four times. Secure end and weave in tails.  Stuff the green tube, leave end open.  Glue flower to the top.  Cut some of the bristle of the bottle brush. Dip end of bristle into nozzle of glue gun and place a bristle in each single crochet of the green tube. Trim to length. Measure your container/pot and make a carboard stand to fit inside, glue your cactus to the top of the stand and place it into the pot.  Glue small pebbles around the cactus to cover the cardboard.  And there you have a beautiful cactus that no-one can kill.  Experiment with size, shape and colour to make a colourful cactus collection

CRAFTY DAY 4 - CROCHETED NECKLACE

While going through my large button bucket I found a heap of metal rings that I had recycled from old bags and todays crafty offering was born.  And of course a couple of hours of no housework

For this crafty goodness you will need
Crochet hook
yarn or cotton
metal rings in various sizes
large eyed needle
and a couple of hours

1. Single crochet through your metal ring until the ring is tightly covered and cannot be seen.
2. Tie the ends together and leave long tails for easy joining
3. Arrange your rings in a pleasing design, and using the tails tie them together. Weave in loose ends and cut of excess
4. Crochet a length of chain. making sure it is long enough to go over your head. and join to your rings.  Alternativly make two chains and use jewellry findings to make closure at back
5. Enjoy your home made accessory

CRAFTY DAY 3 - EASY CHRISTMAS WREATH

This easy Christmas wreath will take you less than 30 mins and less than $5 to make.  A great way to re-use those broken decorations.

Materials
length of poly pipe and joiner (mine was approx 60cm long)
1 x 2m length tinsel
assorted mini decorations ( I picked these up at the op-shop for $1)
1/2 meter ribbon or fishing line (for an invisible hang)
glue gun

NOTE : the crepe paper in the pic didn't end up getting used

1. Join the poly pipe into a circle with joiner.  
2. Wrap the tinsel firmly and evenly around the polypipe secure with glue
3. Remove the tops from the decorations, apply glue to top of decoration and glue onto tinsel
4. Attach a loop of ribbon or fishing line for hanging

CRAFTY DAY 2 - TEENS "T" TO TOT'S NIGHTIE / DRESS

With the weather warming up my beautiful 3yo daughter needed some nighties for those warmish nights.  Checking out the prices of new nightwear $10- and upwards put me on the path of finding a cheaper alternative. I had been given a bag of clothing with a few teens t shirts in it, with great little designs on the front.  And with minimal time - 10 minutes - and a little stitching on the machine she now has three new nighties to see her through the summer season.  And could easily double as a summer dress.

Materials
Old t shirt
Hat elastic
Large eyed needle
sewing machine

Thread elastic onto needle and thread through the neckline binding - tie in  a knot, Repeat on the sleeves.  Turning your t shirt inside out, mark where you would like your waist line to be.  Holding shirt upside down and inside out fold over top (bottom) section useing your marked line as your fold line. The shirt at this stage should be a tube with right sides together.  Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the fold to make a casing, leave a space to thread elastic through.  Thread elastic throught the casing and secure with a knot.  Turn in the right way and Voila you have a for a low or no cost a cute nightie or dress all ready for summer. A little ribbon bow on the sleeves and at centre front on the neckline would really dress it up.

CRAFTY DAY ONE - FOR THE XMAS TABLE

Ok, so this year we are having a girlie Christmas.  Pink and Purple tree, decorations, paper etc.  So I decided that we needed some yummy looking table wear.  Of to the hardware for spray paint and the op-shops for old crockery, and we have some girlie stuff for the table. The bowl will hold lollies and the jug will have something in it (not food)

Wash and dry your items well, and spray. Easy peasy

For the jug I sprayed it pink first them put on some sticky dots - sorry forgot to get a pic of that stage - then sprayed purple.  Make sure your item is well dry and then carefully remove the labels.  I was a little impatient and some of my pink paint came off, must not off let it dry properly.  You will also see in the pic that the purple spray is not very even on the insIde top of the jug.  Just take your time and let it dry well between coats.

WELCOME TO A CRAFT A DAY

As you can probably deduct from the title of this blog, I would rather be crafting than doing housework.  If you look in your dictionary CRAFT comes before HOUSEWORK, and this is how I think it should be in life as well. Any avid crafter will understand that the mess made when crafting is easier to clean up afterwards and use it as an excuse to do the housework. I have been an avid crafter for years.  My earliest recollection is making a HUGE robot out of cardboard boxes and a patchwork skirt when I was 10yrs old.  Needless to say I have done a tonne more crafting since then.  I have worked in many mediums, beads, scrapbooking, sewing and patchwork, stained glass, recycled and just general crafts.  I hope to post on here everyday a craft that I am working on, even if  it is an ongoing  project or a quick one that can be done in a couple of hours.  There are heaps of quick, easy and cheap crafts out there that I have been wanting to try so will post them here as I do them.