Sewing,felting, folding, re-cycling, decorating!

After my friend Joan challenged us to use up by January some of the fibre and fabrics we've been hoarding I made a valiant start and then got waylaid by making the lace book. Then last week my friend Chris asked me if I would be prepared to make some bags etc that she could raffle this Christmas for the charity close to her heart - Combat Stress. In a year when too many young men have lost their lives in Afghanistan it is a salient reminder that not all those who return in one piece physically are un-scarred by the trauma mentally, so I am making something every other day for a raffle in two weeks time. I finally used up these tea towels I bought in Ikea. I always knew they would look great as a shopping bag. After all, who doesn't love cake?

As for the stash busting I am gradually using up my hoard of wool rovings trying to give up felting. So, I made myself a pair of wrist warmers at the weekend similar to a pair I made last year as a present for a friend. Of course I'm now restricted to the colours of wool I have left so the mitts had to be bright blue. I thought I'd 'pimp' them with a bit of hand sewing but my husband says they look like they belong to a 10 year old. Who cares as long as they keep me warm I say... plus there's no fear anyone will nick them in envy!

Mainly though I've been messing about with paper. It started with some origami hearts that Fiona posted here. I found a template and started making some but then I really got into folding things and started making stuff from tutorials I found online.

I folded these paper balls from this great tutorial. I thought they'd make great Christmas decorations and used the pages from an old book. Again, my husband passed a comment. This time he said the black ribbon didn't look that festive! Well, it was all I had to hand and I can easily make some more with brighter stuff if I want to. Luckily I have a circle cutter so they come together easy. If I had to cut them out individually I'd give up as these balls have about 75 circles in them.

With bauble mania in full flow I then found this video to make the above. These are called Polish Stars I think. I used an old map for my first one and tried another with an old book but the pages were too thin so they broke. Another one failed because the paper was too thick! Each one takes about half and hour or more to make and they do look really effective when they are finished. If you watch the video you will see the final move that brings it all together just like magic.

Finally I found this tutorial on a really interesting paper folding site. There were also tutorials for Christmas decorations from toilet roll tubes but we're not generating them fast enough for me to have a go at them. More up my street is this Christmas tree made from folding a magazine. I used my Crafts magazine because it is quite tall and decided to make a Polish Star for the top of it. I did have to buy a can of spray paint and it had to be copper because I had some copper glitter. I was trying to recycle as much as I could and make things that used stuff I already had or that cost me nothing.

I also made a start on making my Christmas cards this morning and then had an idea for an angel made out of papier mache and brown paper so I've been doing that all afternoon. I suspect it might go the same way as the willow reindeer but it keeps me occupied as I always feel very restless at this time of year so I shall keep stash busting and making raffle prizes. I hope some of these links lead you to other ideas for decorations and if anybody has a go at them I'd love to see the results!