How to...Make GIFT-TAGS

This is a bit of a cheat How To... I was doing a bit of a sort out and came across a whole load of stickers I'd got from CraftCreations ages ago. It was a selection pack and to be honest I don't really like most of the stickers I'd got in the pack - they are a bit bright and gaudy for me as a rule. But then I got to thinking that actually I could use them on some quick gift tags. And having just come across some bits of card from years ago as well I thought I would combine them. So here is a very quick and easy (we're talking less than 5 mins) how to for you. 

Materials:

Coloured card

Ribbon

Peel-Off Stickers

Hole punch

Corner punch

1) Use a craft knife to cut your card into a size that works for you (I didn't measure mine - but using the squares on my craft board they're about 7 squares by 5)

 2) Hole punch in one corner of the card piece. (Looking very easy so far, right?)

 3) I've got an embossing corner punch (that I NEVER use!) and used it to punch in each of the corners of my gift-tag making a softer, fancier edge.

4) Place the hole-punched corner into the top left and then put some stickers around the bottom and right-hand edge. The great thing about these stickers is that you can take them off without leaving marks so if you make a mistake or don't like it, you can re-do them!






 5) Thread some ribbon through the hold in the corner making sure you have enough to make a bow and have threads left over. Tie as if you are doing your shoelaces up.










6) Hold the bow together and pull the ends down so that you make a tight bow that has long ends. And voila! Your gift tags are done!






Obviously I didn't stop at one - as these take so little time, I made a few... Sorry the photos are a bit blurry - the light had gone by the time I got round to taking photos of them!

That Friday Feeling...22/07/2011

Today is the beginning of the Summer Holidays for me - and it's being marked by a weekend wedding in France.  The original plan was to get the ferry over with our bikes and then start our massive cycle from north to south, but since I am not able to cycle at the moment (waaaah!) we are going over for just the weekend. We get the overnight ferry to Saint Malo and arrive tomorrow morning, get a second ferry to Dinard and go to the wedding and then return by ferry on Sunday. So, as there are lots of boats involved this weekend, I figured a nautical theme was only fitting for today's Etsy shout out.

Anyone for tea? Cute teacosy by Harlechcottagecrafts

What great buttons by Emmamount

LOVE this beach bag by LifeCovers

As usual, I thought I would tell you some quirky facts you may or may not already know about boats, sailing and life at sea...

• There is a theory that the word POSH comes from Colonnial and East India Trading Company days - the best cabins on boats to India were those which caught the afternoon sun. On the way out these were on the Port side of the boat while on the return it was those on the Starboard side. POSH stands for Port - Out, Starboard - Home and as these were the most expensive cabins the word posh came to symbolise someone with a lot of money. Actually there is no foundations for this theory but I like the idea of it!
• British sailors got the nickname 'Limeys' due to the cargo of lime juice they would carry on board. Scurvy was a fairly common disease that afflicted all sailors in those days and the vitamin C that limes provide was a good preventative. Lime was more readily available than lemons at the time because the British Navy had colonies in the Caribbean. Lemon later became the juice of choice when sailors realised that limes didn't actually have enough vitamin C in them after all. 
• The most famous Ferryman is probably Charon - a character from Greek mythology who carried dead souls across the river Styx to the Underworld.
• The busiest seaway in the world is the English Channel (or La Manche if you speak French) that connects Great Britain to France. At the narrowest point (between Dover and Calais) it is only 34km  although at it's widest it is about 240 km. 
• To dream of sailing can represent how you are coping with your path through life - smooth sailing means that you are in control whereas a rough sail can mean that you are able to overcome life's difficulties. 
• The difference between a boat and a ship is technically that a boat is some kind of vessel small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship) or be lifted out of the water. So: boats are small, ships are big and ferries... well they are for transporting people across shortish passages of water.

So there you are - possibly not the most informative facts about boats, sailing and the like but the ones I thought I would share with you. Enjoy your weekend! 

That Friday Feeling...08/07/11

I love penguins. I think they may be my favourite animal - from the cute but totally silly waddling on land to the grace and ease with which they move in water. My favourite kind of penguin has always been Rockhoppers because anything that has such a great tuft of hair must be pretty cool, right? 

Because I like penguins, I am totally cold towards seals - yes they have cute eyes, but they EAT my favourite animal, and therefore they must just be evil. So today's Friday Feeling is dedicated to my favourite animal... there are LOADS of penguins over at Etsy so you should probably go and check them out. But for the moment here are few of my favourites:

Not technically possible but I love it anyway  Iotaillustration! Hitching a Ride print 

Awww! If I had a baby it would be wearing this penguin babygrow by NoahandMole

And isn't this crocheted penguin hat the cutest? Great pattern from  MicahMakes

I love all of these - but I have to admit I did initially have about 10 penguins in my shortlist of items to feature this week. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the little critturs. Thought I'd share some penguin facts with you too...

• Penguins and Polar Bears don't mix: penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere while Polar Bears are Northern bound.
• While we all know penguins live in Antarctica, they actually live in much warmer climes too... the Galapagos breed live close to the equator and they are not alone: lots of penguins live in more temperate zones.
• The largest penguins are Emperor Penguins - they grow to the heady heights of about 1.1 metres and weigh around 35kg. I remember being quite shocked by how small they were when I first saw one!
• Penguins and puffins are NOT related. It's like saying a bagel and a doughnut are the same. Yes there are similarities but they are totally different species.
• The penguin got it's name from Auks (pingouin) but there seems to be a lot of dispute about why penguins kept the name - some people think it was a case of mistaken identity: a penguin was mistaken for an Auk chick! Whether it's penguin because the word 'pinguis' meant fat is possible but improbable.
• There are about 20 different species of penguin - and some of them are pretty small.

Oooh oooh ooh!

I've been really bad and ordered a whole load of fabrics and felts recently... and they all arrived today! How excited am I? Ridiculously so. So I thought I would show you why I'm so excited:

First up - felt from Lupin on Etsy - I've got 30 squares in my own choice of colours! I think I forgot to get brown which was a bit of an oversight on my part, but looking forwards to some Christmassy felt projects (and other top secret ideas too...!) Hooray! 

Love the batik effect of these blue and purple fabrics from ForgetMeNot Fabrics. And can I just point out that they have FANTASTIC customer service: I had also ordered a blue bundle which they had sadly run out of - they went out of their way to try and get it back in from their supplier and refunded immediately (including changing postage costs) when they weren't able to. Thank you!

And finally I went back to Seamstar for a new red fabric bundle and found this cute blue daisy bundle too. Hooray!

So I guess I need to reveal why i need so much fabric? Well.... here's the beginning of it:

I can't really reveal the rest of this yet but I'm sure you can see what it is the beginnings of. For those of you on Twitter - these are the 'project #' s I've been tweeting about. It's recently had a huge design upheaval but I'll reveal more when I have done more of it...

That Friday Feeling...1/7/2011

You may or may not know that I spent a long time living in Russia - a year in St Petersburg living with a Russian family while I was a student and then, when I had finished my degree, 3 years in Moscow as an English Teacher. Maybe I should post some of my photos on here at some point... I'll have to dig some of them out. But I digress. This week I thought I would do the same as last week; instead of having a theme of items, I would choose a subject and see what items I could find around that theme. And because I love matrioshka dolls, and I've been asked by one of the Yr 3 classes to come and talk to their kids about life in Russia, I thought that this week I would dedicate the Etsy shout-out post to Matrioshka dolls.

How cute is this bag by Overthegardenwall? You can see (& buy) it here

I need a new keyring - & these ones look like just the thing - especially the red ones!
Thanks Ricecakeshack!

I'm doing lots of sewing at the moment & this fabric is just so sweet!
Beautifulwork has lots of other matrioshka fabric designs too...

I thought as a quick finish to this week's shout out I would give a bit of a background to Matrioshka dolls... 

The first Matrioshka doll as we know it was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and had 8 dolls - the outer one being a woman in traditional peasant dress, with girls and a boy inside. Like today's dolls, the innermost one was a baby carved from a single piece of wood. Nowadays they are usually female throughout but originally it was only the outer one that was female - the inner dolls could be either male or female.

There is some dispute as to how the original nesting doll came about; the idea for a doll probably came from a similar design from Honshu, Japan, but Russians had been making Easter Eggs with the nesting idea before the doll idea came about. So whether it is a Japanese or Russian invention is up for debate. What is certain though is that Russian Dolls took off quickly and are now the most well-known Russian souvenir. Traditionally they have either 8 or 5 pieces but I have one that is 11 pieces - the smallest one is smaller than a grain of rice and is beautifully ornate. 

The name Matrioshka is an amalgamation of the name Matryona / Matriosha which was quite a popular name among the serfs during the late 1800s. It conjures images of motherhood being also related to the word mat' meaning mother and mater (Latin). As the outermost doll is usually a woman and it tends to be a microcosm of a family, Matriosha seems fitting - the 'ka' at the end is a diminutive: in Russian my name is Sasha but I'm known as Sashinka = little Sasha (term of endearment).

Nowadays you can get all sorts of different Matrioshka dolls as tourist souvenirs - I've had one with different presidents of Russia and I bought my sister a Leornardo diCaprio one with 5 dolls featuring his different looks in different films! Lenin is a popular version as well...

So there you have it: a very short background to Russian Dolls. By the way, they are apparently also known as Babushka dolls. I've never heard a Russian say that about them - Babushka means Grandmother and it doesn't really apply.