Starting Christmas - Still Crafting our Stash

 Christmas Craft - From my Stash

Well here we are in October and I am starting to think about Christmas, maybe even a Christmas Fair, not sure if I will manage one this year, but I like to try new things and if I think they will be suitable for a craft fair I make a careful note of the materials and instructions for future use.

I really enjoyed the September theme of smashing a Card Kit and am going to continue the theme of using up your stash for October.

I don’t know what other crafters do, but I keep boxes of Christmas material separate to the other yearly papers and embellishments. I do not have children so unless I am doing a Craft Fair I do not have a lot to make for Christmas except cards gift bags and parcels. I also make some cards for Charity and maybe a craft class or two. With this in mind I pick up pads and embellishments anytime I see them on offer and put them away. This year I have bought a couple of 12 x 12 pads and some 8 x 8 Paper Tree pads to make Gift bags. 

So I started this months crafting by getting out my large box of Christmas items put away at the end of January. There were several bits and pieces, part paper pads, and some unfinished projects. So I am going to start my Christmas crafting by completing these and using up some of my stash to do this. I may end up with a mix up of Christmas crafts and Craft Fair items but they will all be made using my stash, not with new purchases. This months posts will be all the items I make from my stash, with inspiration from the items in the box 

First Out The Box

A pack of Mini Notelets in a matching Mini Folder 

The mini notelets were made for a craft fair and was the last pack of several made using A7 cards and envelopes. I know I had purchased cream and white packs of these A7 cards and  I had a white pack  hardly touched. I was not completely happy with the presentation of the cards and decided to make a box to put them in .It was a simple single piece box made from a sheet of white A4 card. 

You measure the items to go in the box add 1cm to width and length and then measure the depth you need. The depth measurement becomes the measurements for the sides so a box that needs to be 9 x 11 x 2.5cm will require a piece of card 

Width 11cm + 2 x 2.5cm = 16cm 

Length 2.5 + 9 + 2.5 + 9 + 2cm = 25cm  

These measurements become the score lines.

I wanted the cards to be Christmas “Thank you” cards for children to be able to say Thanks for their gifts. So to make the cards I ran the whole card, opened out,  through an embossing folder and then simply added a wooden button in the shape of Santa or Penguin. I finished the card by adding a simple paper lining, There are no greetings as that way the cards can be used as Christmas cards or Thank You cards. 

I decorated the box with some paper from a Christmas Paper pad purchased from The Works. 

This has used up all the A7 cards and envelopes and half the wooden Christmas buttons and made a very very small dent in the big box.

Back soon 

Dee