Personalised Christmas For Handmade Monday

Did everyone remember to put their clocks back last night? Lovely as it was to have an extra hour in bed this morning its going to be a shock to the system when it gets dark so much earlier :/ it really makes it feel like 'proper winter' doesn't it, although we still have a few summer flowers blooming in the garden!

More Christmassy makes to show you this week, this time a focus on fun ways to create a personalised Christmas.

Ceramic Chalkboard Decorations

I'm a fan of chalkboards, i think they're really fun and i've been known to have a go at applying chalk board paint to just about everything over the years :)

It occurred to me this year that creating little ceramic chalk board decorations might be fun for Christmas,

and i'm really pleased with the results! All three have a red and white theme. The heart and star have a stripy boarder painted in porcelain enamel paint and are plain white on the reverse side.

They could be used as gift tags, tree decorations, table place settings - anywhere you want to add that personal touch. They'd also make fun stocking fillers i think.

The bauble has a gingham ribbon to match the others but no painted boarder providing a bit more surface area to decorate.

Sticks of regular chalk or chalk marker pens can be used on these decorations and they can easily be cleaned with a wipe from a damp cloth.

They are available now from the Free Spirit Designs website and Etsy shop priced £7.99 each. I look forward to hearing what you think!

Personalised Rustic Gift Tags

I've also included some personalised rustic name tags in my shops this year.

They feature gorgeous polka dot linen and can be personalised with a name of your choice, hand painted on a central hessian panel.

They're perfect for adding that personal touch to gifts and stockings and at £1.20 each they are affordable for most budgets.

They are also available now from the Free Spirit Designs website and Etsy shop.

Nordic Style Christmas Tree Ornaments

Last but not least i want to show you this pair of quirky, nordic style, free standing tree decorations. I know they don't really fit with today's theme of personalisation but they are one of a kind!

I made them with a patchwork of scraps from some of my red and white Winter Wonderland prints. As regular readers will know, i'm a big fan of this kind of random style patchwork, i think their is something very homely about it :)

The taller one is 25cms tall, and the shorter is £18cms. Each is finished with a star on top,

and a Free Spirit Designs label on the base.

They are stuffed with wool which i've packet less tightly towards the bottom to avoid a rounded base. They stand up quite happily and can be re-shaped with a bit of a squeeze if needs be.

I'm selling them as a set of two, priced £18, available now from the Free Spirit Designs website and Etsy shop.

That's all from me for another week! What have you been up to? I'm off to Handmade Harbour to find out :) thanks for dropping by! x

Winter Wonderland Christmas Designs Part Two

Hi all :) Another busy week getting prepped for Christmas, is it me or does time actually accelerate on the downhill slope towards the end of the year!

Picking up where i left off last week i've got a few more of my Winter Wonderland designs to show you as well as a peak at some of the things i've been making with them...

Winter Wonderland Snowflakes

I wanted to make a simple design that could be used alongside the Winter Wonderland snow scenes is showed you last week. Snowflakes seemed the obvious choice so i had fun drawing a collection of different ones by hand before putting them together to create the final design.

Its available in two different print sizes (pop along to my Spoonflower shop for more details).

There are also four different colourways to choose from - the two white and pale blue options above (the pale blue is the same one used in the snow scene designs) and two red and white options.

I'm pleased with how they've turned out. As always, i look forward to hearing what you think of them!

Winter Wonderland Printable Craft Papers

I have also made my Winter Wonderland designs available to buy as printable craft papers, available from my Print and Paper shop on Etsy.

At £3.50 i hope the price is pretty reasonable, especially as Christmas is such a popular time for hand-making cards and things. Once you have downloaded them you can print them off as many times as you like for personal use or for making items to sell on a small scale.

Winter Wonderland Gift Tags

Now, here's a peak at what i've been making with the fabrics, first up, rustic gift tags. They come in sets of three - here are the animal ones.

They have a central layer of hessian which creates a pretty frayed trim and also adds a nice sense of substance. On the reverse side of the tags is a panel of brown paper ready for writing your message.

I think that adding a nice tag makes a gift much more special and these are a great way to add rustic style and interest to brown paper gift wrap.

Here is the other set.

I hope you can make out the lovely texture of the linen/cotton blend fabric from the pictures, they are wonderfully tactile.

Both sets of tags are available now from my website and Etsy shop priced £4.50.

I think that's enough for one blog post so i'll save the rest for another day... meanwhile, i'm off over to Handmade Harbour to find out what you've been up to, see you there :) x