Christmas Craft

Oskah may have seemed quite quiet recently...thats because I've been very busy crafting Christmas Presents for friends and family and I couldnt possibly have ruined their surprises! But now it is Christmas, the crafty cat is out the bag!

Me and my husband, Matt, have been doing pyrography onto chopping boards and wooden spoons, typography onto mugs (thanks design mom for that one!), making our own chai tea bags and spiced hot choc, painting perpetual calendars, knitting hats, sewing cushion covers, cutting hearts out of maps, putting brownie mix into jars and burning mix CDs...and now, we can relax!
Happy Christmas to you all!

Frame the Place you Love

I saw this done somewhere before but using a map of the whole of europe. I decided to do it for our friends Tim and Jane but using a map of their local area (of which they are very passionate about). They loved it...I have plans to do more for other friends!

Rabbit Cushion

A rabbit cushion for my friend Anna!

Perpetual Calendar

I have come across a few versions of this before and decided it ought to be simple enough to make. We got some wood, cut it into 3 cubes. One cube is used for the months of the year and the other two for the dates of the month (hint: the six doubles up as the nine!). We painted the blocks white and then using a black POSCA pen, we added the typography. A great 'look at my cool office' sort of gift.

Pyrography Wooden Spoons

Since discovering a pyrography pen, we have literally been pyro-ing all wood in sight! Having done chopping boards, my husband, Matt, moved onto wooden spoons to go with my Aunty B's Brownie-in-a-jar! We did these for some little people that we know...they will need some adult assisstance but I think it will be fun for everyone involved. We attached the customised wooden spoon, along with an illustrated version of the recipe, to a clip jar full of the dry ingredients for the recipe.

Chai tea and Spiced hot choc

For some of our Christmas gifts this year we made our own chai tea bags and spiced hot chocolate mix. For the tea bags we used strips of organza, a sewing machine, de-caf black tea leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and chilli. It tastes delicious and is such a refreshing winter beverage. I did two spiced chocolate recipes; white chocolate and ginger and dark chocolate and mixed spice. You melt the mixes into hot milk for a hot chocolate drink that is simply divine. We packaged some of these teas/hot chocs along with monogram mugs to complete a very home made, affordable, fun-to-do, great to recieve (hopefully), christmas gift.

Knitted Hats

I have been churning out baby/toddler hats on my size 4s, mostly in the style of these two below. Other colours include green and white stripe with either red or pink ribbing and pom pom. I also did one that had orange ribbing, a yellow pom pom and a block of purple inbetween (inspired by the bold colours of Annie Larson).

Monogram Mugs

I came across a great idea for customising mugs from design mom; monogram mugs.
I used a slightly different porcelain pen and I just scribbled all over the back of my print out in pencil instead of using graphite paper. I didnt do the bake in an oven bit either. I used the same principle for a plate for my niece too.

Customised Chopping boards

Having discovered a pyrography pen in our office, I couldnt resist having a go. As I was wandering around a very large, blue and yellow Swedish home store recently, I noticed some very cheap plain wooden chopping boards for sale...perfect for my experimentations! Here are the results: