Charming Ornaments - Part 2 - How To

I had a few requests for the instructions for making your own Charming Ornaments. You can make up a batch fairly quickly. 

Supplies for each ornament:

• small piece of quilters cotton (I used red, lime, and pink)
• fusible webbing such as vliesofix
• white felt (I used the polyester variety although they would be nicer made up in wool felt)
• 10 inch length of narrow white ribbon
• one button (I used red, white, and lime)
• fibrefill stuffing

Trace your shape onto a piece of fusible webbing (I used hearts and stars) and iron it onto the reverse side of your cotton fabric.

Cut out the shape, peel off the paper backing, and iron it onto a piece of felt that is at least 1 inch larger than the outside of the fabric shape. Cut another piece of felt that is the same size for the backing.

Position the top layer of felt with the fabric shape, on top of the backing felt and pin together. Sew around the fabric shape using a machine buttonhole stitch or zigzag stitch, leaving a gap of approx 1 inch. You will be sewing through two layers of felt.

Lightly stuff the shape through gap in between the two layers of felt. 

1. Stitch up the gap in the buttonhole stitching so the stuffing is secure.

1. Cut out the shape, leaving approx 1/2 inch of felt around the fabric shape, using pinking shears. 

Overlap the ends of the ribbon as shown in the picture and secure to the top of the shape. Sew a button over the stitching to secure the ribbon.

Hang the completed ornament on the tree; or attach to a Christmas present. 

Posted by Lisa

Charming Ornaments

Some scraps of Prints Charming fabric were put to good use on these felt ornaments. This year I am planning on wrapping gifts in shiny white paper, tied with red ribbons, and will attach a felt ornament for decoration. Simple but festive!

Edit: You can find the tutorial here. 

Posted by Lisa

Beautiful Bloggers

(Image Credit: Tessa Edwards)

We have "met" many amazing people through the wonderful world of blogs that inspire us on so many levels.  One of these is the lovely Renee who shares her incredible journey on Circling My Head. Renee had a giveaway recently and Sarah and I were one of the lucky winners.

The wonderful thing about Renee's giveaway is that it highlighted the incredible work being done by an Australian Doctor whose dream is for the people of Swaziland to have running water and food to eat; a dream where children can actually survive childhood. You can read more about Maithri's work at Possible Dreams International.  Renee's  friend Tessa, an amazing artist,  has been selling her prints and donating 100% of the proceeds to help save the lives of children in Swaziland. You can see Tessa's work at Aerial Armadillo.  

We love our limited edition print of Ssese Island Fishing and we are going to display it near our front door where it will bring us lots of joy. The colours are so vibrant and amazing! Thanks again Renee.

Posted by Lisa and Sarah  

Christmas Gift Tags for Bridge Lovers

My In-Laws are great lovers of card games - Bridge, Canasta, 500 etc - so I have created some Christmas gift tags with a Card theme.

Supplies and Equipment:

• Old deck of Playing Cards
• red ribbon
• red and white card stock
• double sided tape
• hole punch, circle punch, and a fancy shaped punch
• computer and printer

My kids helped me come up with some corny greetings that fit the card theme, which I printed onto white card stock. I punched them out with a circle punch and mounted them on a piece of red card cut with a shape punch. The greeting was positioned on the playing card with double sided tape. Easy Peasy!!

For another Gift Tag idea, check out my Paint Chip Gift Tags from last year. You can also check out my Advent Calender over at Blue Cricket Design.

Posted by Lisa

Freaky Friday with Blue Cricket Design

Today I am doing a guest post over at Blue Cricket Design - so if you would like to see a fun Advent Calendar tutorial, you will have to pop on over! In return, the lovely Becca from Blue Cricket is posting here with a fun tutorial of her own. So without further adieu - a warm welcome to Becca!

Hi Spoonful of Sugar fans! I can't tell you how much I love Lisa and her daughters fun blog! It's been all sorts of wonderful visiting all their amazing creations!

I'm thrilled to be coming to visit all the way from the great State of Utah! I'm Becca! The creative mind behind Blue Cricket Design! I'm a wife and a mother to three young girls and I am always in the middle of a project...or two or three!

I'm excited to share a fun, easy and affordable project with you today! First you'll need to raid your little girls dress up jewelery! Quick! She's not looking!!! This fun scrap fabric bracelet project uses plastic bangle bracelets and scrap fabric and buttons (optional!). Don't laugh but the bracelets I'm using came from a Barbi Happy Meal from McDonald's! FINALLY a Happy Meal toy I didn't want to throw away!!!


You will need: Bracelets, a glue gun and glue sticks, fabric and
buttons if you'd like to adorn your bracelets!

First cut long strips approximately 1/2 " x 12" or longer!

Starting on the inside of our bracelet we are going to glue on an end of our fabric strip!

Wrap your fabric around the bracelet pulling it tight!
Completely cover the bracelet and finish it by gluing the end of your fabric strip on the inside!



Make a set to wear together! Lightweight, interchangeable and so comfortable! Now I only wish I let me kids at McDonald's more often!!!


I added some vintage buttons to this one for a little more detail!


I'm addicted I tell ya!!! I need to make more!


Thanks for letting me invade your fun blog girls! All that fun together and none of the Jet Lag!!!
Gotta love it!

Come visit me over at Blue Cricket Design and enjoy project ideas, sewing how to's, recipes, Photoshop tips and giveaways! With Christmas just around the corner you are sure to find something you'll love! I'll soon have endless gift ideas and hand crafted ideas for you to enjoy!

Take care my new friends!

Quilt-A-Long

Thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes for my Mum - she was delighted to read so many well wishes from all the corners of the world! 

I have finally found some time this week to make a start on the Joseph's Coat Quilt A Long that the ever so talented Kellie from Don't Look Now is hosting. The hardest part was deciding on a colour scheme for the project. Following consultation with Sarah, I settled on a monochromatic red and white palette. I have raided my stash of its red fabric and have also purchased a few others to add to it (good excuse for a shopping trip!) as I want to have at least 30 different fabrics in the quilt.

I am using a slightly different technique on mine - instead of using the Stitch and Wash product, I am using my iron and spray on starch to press the seam allowances under. As I have started a couple of weeks late, I have some catching up to do. 1.5 blocks down - 47 more to go! Wish me luck...

A special thanks to Some Day Crafts for featuring our mini notebook tutorial and to Anne Kaz for featuring our chocolate boxes.

Posted by Lisa

Moondance Rose

Thanks for all the wonderful Birthday wishes for my Mum!  Anyone who knows my Mum, knows she loves everything to do with roses. At one stage she even had more than 50 varieties of roses growing in her garden. When I saw the Moondance fabric by Robyn Pandolph a few years ago I knew it would be perfect for Mum.

The quilt is a queen size and is my own design. Mum was thrilled with it!! I made a carry bag for it with some of the left over fabric but forgot to photograph it. 

*******

Remember the sweet felt shapes from Fix Design that Tracey sent me? Well Meredith, the owner, emailed me today to offer a 20% discount to readers of this blog at her etsy shop. Simply mention "A Spoonful of Sugar" in the buyers note to the seller and she will give you the generous discount. Thanks heaps Meredith!!

Posted by Lisa 

Happy 70th Birthday Mum!!

My wonderful, amazing, talented, and beautiful Mother celebrated her 70th birthday last week. On the weekend we celebrated with a High Tea Party and I had a lot of fun putting it all together. We went with a pink and white colour scheme, with accents of chocolate to make it more elegant. 

I bought some of the styling items at IKEA - including cake stands, flower pots, lanterns, and artifical rose petals. Table runners and table toppers were made with pink and white fabric I had in my stash. I made a Happy Birthday Banner out of scrapbooking paper. 

Using an idea I got from Martha,  I made each of the ladies a little mini garden to take home as a party favour. I simply cut a plastic cup to fit inside a baking case, and then planted 2-3 little seedlings in each one to make a mini cottage garden. They looked pretty arranged on cake stands.

We placed a number of small round tables on our alfresco area and they were decorated simply with a placemat and a white pot filled with some pink impatiens. 

I forgot to take photos of the savoury food - including crab sandwiches, Pumpkin and fetta frittata, Thai Chicken sausage rolls, spinach crepe rollettes etc - but it was all delicious! Some of the sweet foods included - Butterfly cakes with cupcake toppers; Peppermint crisp mini pavlovas; and strawberry cheesecakes. 

All in all, it was a very special celebration. Next post I will show you the quilt I made for my Mum!

(I even managed to find colour co-ordinated chocolates!)

Posted by Lisa

Warning: Seriously Cute Craft Supplies

Recently I helped out a fellow quilter who was desperately seeking some fabric to finish off a project, and made a new friend in the process! Not only did Tracey write the sweetest thank you  - she also sent me a package of the most gorgeous felt embellishments and brooch kit that I have ever seen! Tracey is such an accomplished quilter and designer - lots of eye candy on her blog. 

Thank you Tracey - you have wonderful taste in craft supplies and I look forward to incorporating them into a few projects soon!

Tracey has advised that the felt goodies are available from Fix Design in New Zealand who have an etsy shop and an online store.  I have some ideas for the felt, but first I want to admire them some more!

The latest issue of Marie Claire Idees arrived in my letterbox this week and it is a wonderful issue full of lots of decorating and craft ideas for Christmas. Here are some of my favourite projects -

I can't wait to get crafting on some Christmas projects - it is my favourite time of the year!!

Posted by Lisa