Christmas Table Fun

This is a very simple and inexpensive item to make for Christmas. This idea started when my son presented me with a four pieces of wood  he had  cut and challenged me to make a perfect T. To be honest I gave in and asked him to show me how.  I thought it would make an ideal Christmas cracker filler for the craft fairs if I could come up with a simple, cheap and easy material to replicate it in a large number.

I finally settled on using cork tiles. I started by printing off a template from this link  puzzle.com 
I used page 3 of the pdf. file.  I cut out the four pieces and used them as templates to mark out the cork tile. I then cut out the shapes using a cutting mat and sharp knife.

To form the tube of the Christmas cracker I printed out a Christmas quiz on thick white card stock 5.5 x  8 inches.  The printed quiz was used  to roll around the four pieces of puzzle together with a folded up piece of paper with  solution to puzzle  and answers to quiz. To hold it secure I used an elastic band.

I then rolled all items in a 9 x 13 inches  piece of hessian fabric securing both ends with more elastic bands. Two pieces of red gingham ribbon were used to decorate the ends. I frayed the ends of the cracker for more effect. The topper was made by using a die from Papertrey Ink  scroll down to Photo Finish StripsDie Collection
and then stamped using Holiday Photo Finishers
To complete I just had to add a little red sparkler.

If you are making for personal use here is a link for the Free printable Christmas quiz

Fabric Wreaths

My goodness where on earth does the time go. I was away on  holidays for a few weeks and now I am up to my tonsils cutting, sticking and filling as I get ready for the Christmas fairs. I love it even though it is a  little bit of a rush. No stress though  it will all get done in the end. While away I spotted a lovely fabric wreath in a cute little shop in Mykonos. While chatting to the lovely owner of the shop I asked her if I could take a photo or two of some of the items on sale. I had made a little purchase so I was n't being too cheeky. She said photo away.

This is the one of the photos. The fabric is cut in strips,  tied in a knot and then glued to the frame.

The following is a photo of supplies I used to make my one in the top photos. It is really simple and takes about an hour to make. I used a different method to attach the fabric. I cut in squares of about 2.5 inch and then just poked them into wreath using the little embossing tool. Any fabric can be used, different textures would be good. I wanted to create a softer look so I filled it out using lots of plain cream squares.

Busily making a dozen at the moment !