#CraftBlogClub Secret Santa....

Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed the festive break and 2017 has started well for you. I hope this year is a happy, healthy and crafty one!

To start the year off it's time to reveal my #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa.

My Secret Santa this year was for the lovely Kay who has been one of our guest hosts on #CraftBlogClub. I made her a Christmas decoration....

I painted an MDF bauble and stamped it with a funny sentiment in black ink.  I used green irridescent and silver metallic acrylic paints giving it a satin finish.

Along with it I sent a Made By Mrs M notebook, I love these, I have some myself. They are a handy size to keep in your bag and I thought a great place for Kay to keep ideas for blogging, crafty projects or whatever else she would like to use it for.

Notebook by Made by Mrs M

Tonight is the first #CraftBlogClub chat of the year and we will be sharing our Secret Santa gifts.  Don't worry if you haven't taken part we will also chat about any handmade gifts we made or received for Christmas.

If you have taken part in this year's Secret Santa please link your blog post below so we can all go and check it out.  This is the best part of the challenges, seeing what everyone has made.

Tonight's chat is over on Twitter from 7pm (GMT). If you have not joined us before we are a friendly bunch and welcome newbies all the time, you can find out more about our club here.

#CraftBlogClub Secret Santa reveal....

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great festive break and 2016 has started well for you.

My first post of 2016 is another #CraftBlogClub challenge reveal....

#CraftBlogClub organised a Secret Santa, it's the third one I've taken part in and it's my favourite challenge of the year. Each year names are picked at random for us to make a gift for another participant.

As soon as I received my parcel I had to open it, I couldn't wait until Christmas day!  Gill from The Little Soap Kitchen sent me gorgeous smelling handmade soaps. The box smelled amazing even before I unwrapped the beautiful box the soaps were wrapped in....

Gill sent me a selection of her handmade soaps

I've started using them and they are gorgeous! You can tell they are made with love and they aren't harsh on my hands that tend to get dry easily, I'm impressed with how soft and smooth my hands are, thank you Gill!

My Secret Santa was for Sue from The World of Suzy Homemaker. When I did my research, I found she was a fellow Bon Jovi fan! I was very excited by this so I made her a coaster with this in mind....

I painted MDF and stamped the phrase with black ink before varnishing.

I've been making and selling a lot of my beaded snowflakes which are fun to make so I also sent Sue one of these....

I also made this card which you might recognise from this tutorial....

I made a box in Kraft card using my Silhouette Cameo to fit Sue's gifts and added a pom-pom. I made pom-poms for all my gifts this year using sparkly red yarn, they are fun to make and I think they look fab on a gift.  I've also added pom-poms to my tree this year as well. There has been a lot of pom-pom love this festive season!

Have you joined in with the #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa? I can't wait to see what everyone has made during our first chat of 2016! 

fizzi~jayne x

Pssst.... Our first #CraftBlogClub chat of 2016 will be on Tuesday 5th January at 7:30pm (GMT). 

My Handmade Christmas....

Following on from my #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa reveal I thought I would share other gifts I made for Christmas.  

Do you remember the blanket I made for a friend's new baby? Well, it was her first Christmas so I made her a Christmas tree decoration as a memento.  I personalised it with her name and the year of her birth.  She's too young for it now but hopefully in a few years she will enjoy seeing it on the tree and in the meantime her parents can appreciate it. 

I love to make jewellery for gifts as it is the only time I really get to do this craft.

I made these earrings for my Sister-in-Law....

They were fiddly to make but I'm really pleased with the outcome and she loved them too.  I might make a pair for myself!

For my hubby on our wedding anniversary I made scrabble tile cufflinks, so I made some for his Dad and Brother....

I made this cute bookmark for my Mum....

My Mum loves elephants but they have to have their trunks up, apparently it's good feng shui. So I knew who this little fella would be for when I found him.

My friends and I don't give each other Christmas gifts but we do for birthdays and one of my friends has a birthday a couple of days before Christmas.  I decided to put together a gift based around Baileys hot chocolate, mmmm! I crocheted the mug hug using this pattern. I also made her one of my popular coasters to go with the chocolate theme.  The chocolate stirrer with marshmallows in the photo was from one of my fellow stall holders at New Milton, Fiona Ann Chocolates . Fiona's makes her chocolates and they are so yummy!

I crocheted other gifts....

A teapot cosy for my Brother-in-Law and his family.  The colour scheme was chosen to co-ordinate with their new kitchen.

I also hooked up a hair band for my 2 year old Niece and she kept it on so I guess she liked it!

I made this cactus for my husband's desk as a jokey gift. He had a real one but it died and when I came across a pattern for one in Simply Crochet magazine I had to make it!

and here he is in his new environment....

he has a nice view!

Everyone seemed happy with their handmade gifts which is a relief! I really enjoy making gifts, it makes them so much more personal and unique. The run up to Christmas is a busy time of year and at one point I was worried I wouldn't get them done in time! This year I have promised myself I will start much earlier but I'm sure I said that last year!!

fizzi~jayne x

#CraftBlogClub Secret Santa Reveal....

Happy New Year! 

I hope the year has started well for you.  Do you have any resolutions? I have goals I want to achieve this year and I'm thinking about what I am going to do to make them happen, but more of that another time.  I have Christmassy things I want to share with you, first off is the #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa....

In November last year, my co-host Katie launched #CraftBlogClub Secret Santa Challenge, obviously I signed up straight away!

I received my gift from Kay the week before Christmas but I couldn't wait to open these goodies....

They were beautifully wrapped

Kay sent me a lovely package, as well as a very pretty handmade card she also made a Christmas decoration for my tree....

The stocking suited my colour scheme perfectly and looked so pretty on my tree. I loved the bell on it too.  This will make an appearance every year on my tree alongside the Secret Santa I received last year. 

Kay is from Cornwall and also in my present was a Cornish Piskie....

I have put him in my purse with the hope he brings me wealth!

This is not all, Kay also sent me some yummy Cornish chocolate, Christmas pudding flavour Mmmmm! I did wait until after Christmas to eat it but it did go in one sitting!

Thank you Kay! I loved my Secret Santa!

You can check out Kay's crafty blog here, but before you do, check out the Secret Santa gift I made....

My Secret Santa was for Zoe...

After doing some research on her blog and agonising over what to do for a while I decided to make her one of my coasters.  Zoe loves baking as well as craft and I was inspired by her baking posts so I made this coaster....

I also made her this Christmas card and sent a couple of candy canes, because they are just so Christmassy

It is always a little nerve racking making a gift for someone you don't know but I was happy to read she was pleased with her gift, phew! You can find out what she thought of it over on her blog, here.

#CraftBlogClub chats are every Tuesday from 7pm (GMT). 2015 is going to be an exciting year for #CraftBlogClub, we have guest hosts and more super challenges planned, it's going to a lot of crafty fun!

fizzi~jayne x

Psst.... I can't wait to see what you have created, so what are you waiting for?! The linky is live below and ready for your Secret Santa posts.