Busy making gifts

Hi Everyone ,

Sorry to have not been around , Ive been busy being the perfect hostess for my Mother in Law and cramming in some last minute gift crafting . I'm not overly good at getting prepared early so Thursday eve saw me rushing to wrap some boxes of chocs for James' class staff and decorate them ....

I used brown parcel paper to wrap the boxes and then decorated a sleeve to go round them ... just sweet and simple I think and they appreciated the gifts too  :)

I've also been altering a jute shopping bag as a gift bag for my Sister-in-law as we are going to her birthday get-together tomorrow. She and her husband are in the process of emigrating to New Zealand for a couple of years so I decided to buy some luxury edible pressies instead of another thing to add to the baggage of moving and this is the bag I decorated to put them in ....

Having lived and worked in Canada for a good part of her life I had to put a Polar Bear or a Moose on the bag so I went with a more colourful scene other than white!!!

I've used scraps of material to make up the picture that have been sewn with my machine and then stuck onto the bag with book binding glue . Everything apart from the moose and the grass is hand cut out of material scraps which have been backed with Vlieseline to stop it fraying . The moose is cut from a pattern off the cricut machine and the grass is a sizzix die

Do you like the snow capped mountains and the swampy lake in the background? It has taken the best part of a day to make but I've really enjoyed it and what a useful gift bag too :)

I'm going to pop over and add this to a blog I've heard about called Passionately Artistic which allows you to link up your crafty projects and see other creations made by some very talented people too...do go and have a look :)

My other bit of news is that I've been asked to join the design team at St Lukes Charity Card challenge by Tara from August onwards and I'm delighted to say that I said yes ... it's for such a great cause :)

It's a monthly card-making challenge with prizes and the hospice benefits by you kindly donating the cards you make so they can be sold to raise vital funds for the work that they do for the patients and their families , of course this is not obligatory to join in with the challenges but the more cards sent in the more money will be raised . Please hop over to the blog and see why this challenge was personally set up by Tara .

Thanks for stopping by....normal crafty service will resume next week X