Winter season swap

A big thank you to Becks for this fabulous winter swap.

A gorgeous red felt stocking and...

...a beautiful felted snowman with teeny handknitted scarf.

Thank you so much; I am so impressed you found the time to make me something so lovely inbetween all your other crafting and family life.

While we're on the subject of season swap...

...this is what I made for Claire - a knitted robin with a bar of chocolate inside.

Box of cards

Every time I made a card this year I tried to make an extra one.

There's quite a variety here; mostly birthdays, some blank, two new baby cards and a sympathy card.

I've packaged them up in cellophane bags.

I found an old box - it had some soap and a loofah in originally. I've covered up the words with some pretty paper and put all the cards in it.

These are for my mum as an extra Christmas present. She often asks me to make her a card, and now she can send genuine handmade greetings throughout the year.

(She can even claim them as her own work if she likes!)

Tree biscuits

Don't my tree biscuits look yummy?

They are decorated with a star cut out of roll out icing, stuck on with glace icing.

Paper stars

I'm in love with making these fabulous stars!

All you need is some square paper - and I have lots of that in my cardmaking stash - and some glue dots or double sided sticky tape. And some ribbon for hanging.

The instructions are on this blog The Magic Onions.

Here are mine hanging from the light fitting in the hall.

Christmas greenery

I am definitely no florist!

This is my attempt at arranging greenery which I picked in the garden.

It is very hard to find bits which are the right size and which point the right way.

I' m quite happy with the result though, as it cost me only £1.20 for the oasis (and I only used half of it) and £1 for a packet of candles. I already had the tray and the baubles.

Christmas cupcakes

Do you like my cupcakes?

I've made sixty (in a fit of productivity!!) for the boys to take to school for their class friends.

They're super simple - just pale blue glace icing with a star cut out of fondant icing on top.

50th Birthday Card

Been far, far, far too busy to be very productive lately, but here's a card I had to make quickly last night.

I've just used some pretty papers and rubber stamped the numbers and greeting.

The recipient is off to Australia for Christmas and her birthday, so I thought the ice cream paper was quite appropriate.

Easy tea bread

 This is delicious, moist and chewy with lots of yummy fruit.

Pour 150ml boiling water onto 350g dried fruit and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

Beat 75g brown sugar and 1 egg into the fruit.

Sift in 175g self raising flour, and stir until combined.

Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin, level and sprinkle a tbsp of brown sugar on top.

Bake at 180 deg C for 50 minutes.

Eat sliced with a cup of tea.

Sables vanille

Sounds posh, but it's just the French version of shortbread!

These are little teeny biscuits where all the mixing is done by food processor.

Chop 115g room temperature butter into cubes, and blitz until creamy. Then add 50g caster sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and blitz again until mixed. Add 160g plain flour and give it another blitz.

You should have a crumbly mix like this.

Make it into a dough by pressing it all together, then roll into 2 long sausages - about 2 inches thick.

Sprinkle brown sugar onto your surface and roll the sausages in it.

Then chop into slices - about an inch thick.

Spread onto baking parchment and bake for 20 minutes at 180 deg c.

Perfect served with a mocha for that coffee shop experience!