Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2011

Advent Days 14, 15, and 16 - and Christmas Freebies!

I'm not sure how it happened, but several days got away from me. So now I have THREE days all at once for you! I'd like to offer just one song, "The Prayer," sung by RhemaMarvanne. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of it!

"The Prayer" by Rhema. Click Here.

Gift for Advent day 14:

Gift for Advent day 15:

Gift for Advent day 16:




Thursday, December 1, 2011

Advent Day 1 - A Christmas Freebie

Can you believe it's almost Christmas? Just 24 days now. Have you finished your Christmas shopping (or like in my case, crafting)? So many advent calendars around there that I decided to do a virtual one! Here's how it works: Just click on the image to gather your gift, and then scroll down to click again on the words "Click Me" to download the image. I hope that's not too confusing. If you come back every day from now until Christmas, you'll gather all the pieces of my new kit, "O Holy Night." So, you're invited! Come have some fun and be inspired!


"Click Me" to download image.

And don't forget to leave a comment to enter the Share the Memories Software Giveaway!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Selecting the Right Cloth or Paper for Your Craft Project


These fabrics are available at www.spoonflower.com. Designer: Susannah Wollman
Scroll down to download your matching scrapbooking freebie!


by Owen Jones
Up until fifty years ago, the vast majority of women knew how to sew. All the women that I knew as a child sewed and knitted and manufactured some of the clothes for me and my four brothers. When I was eight or nine, I and each other child in my class was taught the fundamentals of knitting and before I went off to college, my mother taught me how to take up my jeans, sew on patches and repair my clothes. Unfortunately, sewing, knitting and repairing clothes has largely died out in the United Kingdom. I now live in Thailand and I do not see much evidence of sewing or knitting here, so I assume that these arts are dying out all over the world among the masses, although I am certain that there are individuals everywhere who still knit and sew. It is a real shame. If you are going to make your own clothes or furnishings like cushions, pillows or soft toys, it is pretty essential that you select the right fabric for the job. Using the wrong cloth will make your task more difficult and might even render your work worthless. So here are a few suggestions on choosing the correct cloth for the task in hand. The first and most obvious thing to do is read the recommendations on the pattern you are using and if you are a novice take that advice until you know what you are doing. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not read the instructions anymore. I can not remember the number of times I have seen someone struggling to assemble something and found the instructions in the bin with the packaging. Get to know textiles by examining the fabrics in the shop. Ask questions about textiles and look at the fabric on the bolt or roll. If the fabric does not look right on the bolt it probably will not look correct anywhere else either. When you unroll a couple of feet of the bolt, does it lie flat or does it roll up or crumple? Grab a handful and squeeze it. Does it crease easily? Does it feel right? Is the fabric fraying on the bolt? If so it will fray while you use it too. Look on the bolt for special cleaning or handling directions. Do they suit your needs? It is quite a problem to work with satin because it slips easily. T-shirt knit is also a problem because it rolls up on itself. It is almost certainly best to avoid these materials until you gain some experience Cotton is the best fabric for beginners because it is easy to work with and everyone is very familiar with cotton goods. We know how they should feel and we can tell good, thick heavy cotton from cheap, thin cotton. We also all know that cotton shrinks. Therefore before you cut your cloth, wash it and cut the shrunken cotton fabric. In effect, you have pre-shrunk it.
Here's your FREE Scrapbooking Kit!


Thursday, November 3, 2011

Ideas for Baby Showers and Invitation Freebie

To download template, click on the image.

Ideas For Baby Showers

by Owen Jones
Baby showers are well-liked events, especially in America. A baby shower is usually given or hosted by a friend of the expectant mother, mostly before the birth but sometimes after it too. The point of the baby shower is to collect presents for the child and its parents, which is why family of the mother find it awkward to organize the baby shower themselves - it looks too much like begging. If you can get a friend to arrange a baby shower for you or if someone offers to do it, the invitations should be sent out a month or two before the birth day, so that the mother is not in too much uneasiness and is not likely to drop the baby during the party. It is nice to have handmade baby shower invitations. There are two ways that you can do this: either design the invitation card yourself and have it printed out or choose a template at the printers. Both approaches give acceptable results. If you have the invitations printed to a standard size, you can purchase cheap envelopes at a budget stationery office, but if you go for some weird size, ask the printer to provide the envelopes too. Usual details like the date, the time, the venue, your name and the baby's name can all be printed but you will have to write or type the recipient's name in personally. Add your phone number as well so that recipients can ask questions if they have any. If you would like the party (and the presents) to have a theme, you should say that on the invitation. Perhaps the card could be in the same theme as well. In fact, if you want to go down that route, you could download a suitable image off the Internet, say, a scene from Peter Rabbit, and give that to the printer so that they can print that onto your card. People are very busy these days, so make sure you give your friends at least a month to book you in and get a fitting present for the shower. If you would like to be fairly sure how many people are coming, enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard in with the invitation, so that they can let you know easily. If you are looking for items to do during the party, you could get the guests to suggest names for your baby and guess the sex or weight of it too. You could use a cross on a chain as a pendant to see if it the movement predicts a boy or girl and how many individuals get the same movement. You could also discuss themes for the child's bedroom after it is born, one for if it is a boy and one for if it is a boy.
About the Author:
Email: owen@amiabledragon.com Keywords: baby shower,bedding,knitting,beds,birthday,party,gifts,handicrafts,recreation,hobbies,family,tradition,parenting,other,uncategorized Word Count: 470 Category: Crafts ---------------------------------

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Guest Blogger: Things You Should Know About Christmas Gifts

to access this freebie, please just click on the image.

by Sarah Mean


Distinctive Christmas gift ideas are often pretty difficult to dream up. With Christmas just around the corner, things develop into stress rather rapidly, if you lack some general ideas about the types of distinctive Christmas gifts you ought to buy for your friends and family.

With all of the work that goes into deciding  on the Christmas decorations upwards, using both "Merry Christmas" as well as "Happy Holidays" credit cards, calling up associates to arrange Christmas parties and the like, obtaining unique Christmas gifts is often a rushed and frantic affair. And although you need to find the best gift idea for the people you love, when you sense you are rushed and stressed, sometimes finding people unusual Christmas treats just doesn't quite happen quite the way we plan.

But begin using some creativity and you'll find that it's not too late yet to get great Christmas ideas. If you don't buy all your gifts ahead but you maintain your cool, you may possibly be able to create some unique Christmas gifts for many of your friends and relatives even at the last minute.

Perhaps you've got someone you need to buy a gift for who's a humanitarian - someone who volunteers at a few charities or likes to supply donations to help out the homeless or other disadvantaged people. If you do, you can actually consider a variety of of charitable contributions based around one of their favorite charities, - World Vision, Save Our Times, or perhaps some sort of local charity. Countless generous spirits sooo want to receive a traditional gift that will really make a difference in the lives of people less fortunate than you are.

Personalized items may also be given as unique Christmas gifts. And there is the wide variety of gifts that can be personalized, from necklaces, pens, plastic mugs, glassware, even golf ball sets. most of these unique holiday gifts can be adapted for just about any one; however they are particularly ideal for the men in your life.

And then for the woman, unique Christmas item ideas for women will certainly include jewelry of some description, and designer—or original—jewelry will likely be appreciated very much.

Looking to find the best deal on Christmas cards? Then just click on the image (above) and print out some of your very own cards. You can always add a personalized message inside just by printing it on the reverse side of the card. Then when it's folded, voila! Your own unique cards! (And these fit in standard greeting card envelopes, so no extra postage is needed.)

You most likely have some acquaintances who you're feeling you should get of a holiday gift for, but need ideas of what to buy that will be uncommon Christmas gifts they'll particularly appreciate. And perhaps differences that have clearly had plenty of thought put into it might make your acquaintance feel a little uncomfortable, particularly if he or she has not purchased you anything really special, or even worse - anything in any way. So having several novelty gift items for acquaintances can definitely come in handy.

It often is fun to give a novelty gift item containing something to do with the holidays, while still a unique Christmas gift idea. Every year or so I spend some sort of morning with our family, making hand made Christmas ornaments, and another afternoon making Christmas cookies along with goodies which might be whipped up into Christmas gift baskets - large or small, to suit the specific recipient.

About the Author:


Learn more about christmas gifts. Stop by Sarah Mean's site where you can find out all about christmas gift basket and what it can do for you.