Have yourself a mini little christmas

To all the visitors of my blog :  Merry Christmas

Crochet pincushion doll , just like Gramma's

Here is the pattern for my little pincushion doll.  

The pattern is fiddly and not really suitable for beginners. Please note that the skirt is worked from the bottom upwards and should look like a little bag for the doll to fit into. After stuffing  it will begin to look like a proper skirt, believe me.

The size of the doll is shown by the real of yarn next to it. This is the normal DMC  fils dentelles real that is quite small. The finished doll is standing on a 12 th scale table  and this will also give some idea of her size.

For those who prefer a bigger doll, I suggest working the pattern with a ticker thread and bigger crochet hook. Note : I have not tested this but I am pretty confident that it will work.

Super fast and easy cookies

These cookies are very easy and quick to make. No kneading, no mixing, no rolling out and even no baking !

All you need are a few easy to get materials and a hole punch :  Craft foam  or  cork sheats  can be turned into these easy cookies.

Just punch out a lot of them over a small container.

To decorate them I place them on a piece of double sided sticky tape. Do not press them down or you will never get them off again just put them down gently so they stay in place while you decorate.

For the decorations you have many options : glass paint, puffy paint, snow paint, pearl paint all will look pretty awesome. Tip : brown glass paint makes your cookies look nice and shiney.

Sesame seeds make great nuts. Poppy seeds, semolina and mustard seeds will look nice too. Grated cork(, if you buy it from a shop it is called model railroad gravel but with a nutmeg grater you can easily make your own  )   will look like chopped nuts.  No hole beads are a lot of fun to use as well.

And if you happen to have some nail art stickers, do use them too.

If you have some paperpunches in different shapes you could try those as well .  But most of mine could not cope with the cork or the craft foam.

So in stead I used some card board. The  tree and heart shaped cookies are cardboard. I added some glass paint to make them look nice and shiny and then I decorated in the same way as the little cookies. If you want a thicker cookie you can glue several layers together.

Santa takes stock of his toys

Playing with stuff to make a center piece for Christmas today 

. I got out my collection of toys. Had no idea I had so many ( perhaps I should make a shop ?) . There are some I made and some I bought and some that were gifts.  I thought it would be fun to make a place where Santa was checking his stock of gifts.

. I had a set of shelves that a friend made for me and never had a chance to use it so I painted it white and filled it with the toys. Added some christmas stuff and Santa of course. He came from the dollar shop and I think he is more awesome then anything I could make.

Used photo glue to glue the ensemble to a disc so it all can be removed after christmas and then I think I must start thinking about this toyshop.