NIKKI-SHELL

Christmas postcards

I worked on my Christmas postcards for the swap over the weekend.  I was going to use my Gocco and do some cool prints, those cool prints didn't turn out so cool so i went back to my original idea and i'm SO glad i did.
I've been saving the toilet roll tubes (recycled of course) for the past month with the intention of using them in my postcard creations.  I had an old dictionary that i had picked up at an op shop a while back and used some of the pages which i printed with 'Merry Christmas!' in different fonts to cover the outside of the tubes. 

"What is that inside?" i hear you ask.  Well, inside the tube is my miniature postcard made from a scrap piece of recycled cardboard on which you will find a cute little peg dolly.  I used some scraps of fabric and ribbon for her dress and acrylic paints for her face and hair, she has a little flower in her hair too!

She has a magnet attached to her back so she can be used all year round :)  And on the back is a holiday message.  I almost sliced off my thumb last night while cutting the messages out with a craft knife to stick onto the cards.  Ouch!  My Mam will be proud though, she's good at doing silly stuff like that.

As you saw in the first photo i have tied the tube up with twine and inside along with the dolly postcard is a little scroll with a note to the recipient printed on recycled paper.
And finally they will be posted in these little sacks that i made from some calico in my stash.  I printed the addresses onto recycled paper and sewed them onto the calico along with a piece that i can stick the stamp onto.

I really enjoyed putting these together and hope my swap partners like them :)

Christmas bunting

We put our Christmas tree up last Wednesday.  For the past few years we've had little stockings hanging on there as decorations and also as an advent calender.  We're not having an advent calender this year so we needed some new decorations.  Of course we added fairy lights but it needed something else.

Mini Christmas bunting!!!  I used up scraps of fabric and a piece of blue fabric from my stash to make the binding.  I'm making more to cover the whole tree.  The little dolly peg you see above the bunting was made by Mia yesterday.  Once the bunting is made i want to make either a star or an angel for the top of the tree then if i have time i may make more decorations for the rest of the house.  I LOVE this wreath and the stacking trees!

Oh and thanks to all that left book recommendations for me.  I downloaded 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' by Lisa See last night and am loving it so far.  A lot of you recommended 'The Time Travelers Wife' which i have already read and really enjoyed and a number of your mentioned books by John Irving who is one of my favourite authors.  My favourite books of his are 'Hotel New Hampshire', 'The Cider House Rules' and 'The World according to Garp'.  I'm thinking of listening to 'The Life of Pi' next.  Maybe i'll add a list of books i've read and enjoyed to my sidebar.  Thanks again :)

Book recommendations please

I don't have a lot of time to sit and read a book, infact i have a number of books sitting in a pile waiting for me to do just this.  What i do like to do though is to listen to audio books while i do other stuff, you know, multi-tasking :)  I've just finished listening to Barbara Kingsolver's 'A Prodigal Summer' and loved it.

I download my books from Audibles and now have two credits waiting to be used up.  I'm stuck on what to buy though so would LOVE for you to give me some recommendations.  I'm not such a fan of the girly 'lay on the beach' style books nor am i keen on thrillers or sci-fi.  So, can you help?

Ho Ho Gocco!

Thanks to all of you that left me info about the Gocco.  I found some graphite pencils i'd been hoarding in my stash and they worked a treat!  I'm not showing my postcards yet, i want to wait until they're all finished but i will show you Mia's that she whipped up this afternoon.

That's Santa saying "Ho Ho Ho".  She did the whole process herself from the drawing to making the master copy to printing with just a little supervision.  Since they're only printed on paper (recycled btw) we are going to do something with them to give to her friends, maybe make them into cards or make some small notebooks and have these on the front cover.  Any suggestions?

Oh and it seems i've got the posting bug after doing it all of November, it must be that 21 day habit rule :)