Merry Xmas

We hope you all had a safe Xmas. And enjoyed spending time with your family or just having a rest. It's such a crazy time of the year. I will be away until the 17th of Jan so not on email much. Please feel free to still contact me but I won't get back to you until after this date. We have some exciting things lined up for next year and look forward to bring you the best in Auckland markets again. So on that note. APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN. Keep it crafty everyone. x

Small hands at work.

I had the pleasure of spending time with a group of 8 and 9 year olds just over a week ago. At this time of the year my life is so full. Maybe a little too much some days. It's one market after the other leading up to Christmas. My days and weeks all blend in together. Some days I feel like I don't have time to come up for air.

So I made a special point of booking a day with Mr 8's class to work on a Christmas project. Thanks to my trusty Stampin Up products I was ready to go. (well as much as you can with 20+ children). I had a great project in mind but the question was, would it work!! Over the last month I've been working a lot
with glass jars. Bringing them back to life with a little crochet here, a bit of fabric there.
Why not make little Christmas trees I thought.

This would be a great Christmas project to try with the kids. Or why not do it yourself in a large scale. I made a beautiful one myself which I will share later at a later date. So what you will need is....

1) A small glass jar. ( I used baby food jars which are perfect for this project )

2) Sand.

3) A small stick.

4) Wool scraps. (yes this is the reason you have been saving them up)

5) A small piece of felt or fabric.

6) Twine and accessories to add to your tree.

So here we go.
First lets work on your stick. The children did an amazing job with this. Some took 5 mins some took a good 40 mins. It's just a case of winding your wool around the stick. When I did this project on a larger scale I used a number of colours to get an amazing effect. Let your imagination go wild on this one.

Once you feel your all wooled out why not add accessories to your tree. The children wrote tiny notes on there little butterflies. These are made by my amazing!!!! ( did I mention amazing ) Big shot machine from Stampin Up. Basically it's a cutting machine. No more cutting by hand people. The cutting pad choices are endless with this machine. Lay your paper ( or fabric!!! yes that's right fabric ) on your cutting pad and just roll it through the machine. It's so easy. I made about 100 of these little butterflies just like that.

Next we need some sand. I brought a bag from the landscapers down the road. Cheap as chips at under $10 for a very large bag. Fill your little jar almost to the top. Add your tree. Yes plant that puppy. And like you do with all planted items give it a good push down. I also added more sand around it. The best part is you will never have to water it!

Then it's time for your finishing touches. We got the good old glue gun out and attached some felt around the jar. Fabric would look just as good. You could always crochet a little warmer or wrap wool around it.

Finishing it off. We then went back to the amazing!!! Did I mention amazing (sorry it's an new toy) Big shot and cut a beautiful Doilie. A stamp was added to the front of the doile. Being a Christmas theme we added a Merry Christmas Stamp ( again from Stampin Up ) The idea's are endless on this one. A thank you, love you, Happy Birthday or just plan would be cute. We thread these Dolies with twine and tied them around the jar. Bingo there you have it. A mini Christmas tree.

The kids loved this project and I totally enjoyed spending time with my Mr 8 and his class. We even got his teacher involved in the project. And how cute do they look all lined up in the class.

To all the amazing students I really hoped you enjoyed working with me and I hope to do much more of this next year with both my boys classes ( look out teachers here I come!!! ) I've never been one for paper crafts but at the moment this is all I'm doing!!! My poor fabric is feeling left out. Lucky I can use my Big Shot for fabric as well. I'm not one to rave about products unless I really feel they are worth it. I'm very impressed with all my new Stampin Up goodies and hope to enjoy working on more projects over the holidays. I might even try to sneak my Big Shot in the car for our holiday (I'm sure my hubby won't notice!! )

All lined up in a row. 

What a great last market for the year.

A big thank you to everyone that came along on Saturday. We have drawn our gift basket and live table top Xmas tree winners and look forward to hearing back from them so we can share the news.

We looking forward to a little break over Xmas and coming back in February with lots of exciting new events each month for you all.

I just thought I would share this great and yummy idea with you all. I'm sure the kids would love it as well.

Make sure you keep checking in on us. I have some cute crafty idea's for you all to share.

Lisa

One more market to go....

I hope your all looking forward to coming along on Saturday. It's going to be a huge market. We are fully booked out. Inside and out. You won't want to miss it. And you know we all love a giveaway
so why not go out with a bang. Every purchase on the day will go into the draw for our lovely gift
basket. We also have a live tabletop xmas tree from The Francis Foundation to giveaway. And....
the most exciting thing. Be one of the first 30 in the door at 10am ( one per family if there is a group of you ) and get one of our love gift boxes. These will be full of lovely vouchers, prizes and snacks for you all to enjoy. It's very exciting isn't it. Maybe you might a lay down and a cup of tea ; )

Watch this space for photos of these lovely boxes.

Lisa

Yes another great market.

We hope you all got the chance to come along on Saturday. The weather was amazing as were the stall holders. Make sure you head over to our facebook page for photos, and make sure you  invite all your friends to our last market of the year on the 15th.

  Well done to Amy Scott who won our Live Tabletop Xmas tree thanks to The Francis Foundation. What a lovely prize. We are yet to contact our winner for the gift basket so watch this space. Our blog will be updated during the week so you can see who will be joining us on the 15th. Don't forget our extra hour. So 10am -3pm. And we have eftpos if you wish to draw out market money on the day. This went down very well on Saturday.

Need a Xmas Tree? Why not head into our Store Love Vintage & Retro ( over the road from the markets at 455 New North Road ) we have some beautiful Xmas trees and don't forget our huge
closing down sale. Lots of lovely products to be found. We are also stocking Xmas gifts from
Sweet Matilda and People Puppies.

Lisa x