Happy New Year!

Welcome 2015!

We had a lovely Christmas how about you?

And now the festive season is over and the children are back at school Mrs Fox needs to wake up, sort out her messy den and get back to work.

We moved house before Christmas.  To a cottage with an acre garden and much, much work to be done on it.  It has overwhelmed me, I will be honest.  Having started another blog Mrs Fox's Den to write about the renovation of our house and garden it has been so all encompassing that I've written very little, taken none of Mrs Fox's wares to market for months now and Mrs Fox's workshop is not even unpacked!

However, thats the end of that kind of behaviour.  A new year and we are back on track, crafting, partying and having fun.  Christmas Thank You-cards have been made by the little foxes using paint, glue, stamps, string and Christmas wrapping paper I had saved off of their presents.

And while the kids were stamping, sticking, cutting and crafting their thanks, I made gift tags for next year out of more of the recycled Christmas wrapping paper.  So, we are feeling suitably crafty and thrifty.

1

Bumper Christmas Craft Box

Our last Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes for the year went out to our subscribers yesterday - phew!  Our November Crafty Box was all about making Christmas things for people we love; Christmas cards, gift boxes, a trivet, concertina tree's and more.  December's subscribers will be making pine cone elves, lollypop stick angels, felt snowflake decoration, garlands and thank you cards.

For our friends who take a box here and there, we've put together some of our favourite crafts from both boxes and come up with a BUMPER Christmas Crafty Box.

In this box is all you need to make;

a wooden Christmas trivet;

lollypop angel and toilet roll santa instructions;

felt snowflake decoration;

blank cards & envelopes; ideas with templates and decorative paper for Christmas cards or thank you cards;

snowman paper chains;

concertina Christmas tree ornaments;

pom poms - along with easy instructions to make a gift box and recipe for gingernut biscuits.

All in all, hours of innovative crafting Christmas fun for busy little hands - only a few boxes left… and available for £15 through our store.

0

Handmade cards - Christmas Holly card.

OK, here we are with another easy design for you to customise in your own unique way.  Holly is wonderfully Christmassy and a plant which is only really truly appreciated this time of year, so to show our appreciation for this prickly symbol, we took a very standard design which we initially used in our November Crafty Box on a trivet for our crafters to make and placed it on a greetings card.
The trivet is also available in our bumper Christmas Craft Box, in which there are also materials to make angel decorations and a felt snowflake decoration, Christmas or 'thank you' cards and lots more to boot.

You will need;

• card/heavy paper/old Christmas card
• scraps of wrapping paper
• white paint
• paintbrush (or finger)
• glue

Instructions;

1. On a scrap of nice paper, draw two holly leaf shapes and cut them out
2. Using a contrasting paper, cut out three small balls for berries
3. Fold your card in half or use an old Christmas card and in the middle paint a messy large white snowball
4. Arrange and stick your holly leaves in the snowball and then stick the berries in place

For loads more Christmas craft ideas including more designs for handmade Christmas cards CLICK HERE

0

Handmade Christmas Cards - The Not So Lonesome Pines.

So the Lonesome Pine Christmas card was simple and surely there couldn't be a more simple card to make... well, perhaps not more simple but then, maybe as simple.
Instead of the Lonesome Pine, which seems a rather sad title for a Christmas card (especially as the pine is not an unhappy one), we thought we'd bring in a few friends, hence the Not So Lonesome Pines.
Just as easy and just as beautiful.              

You will need;

• card/heavy paper/old Christmas cards
• scraps of wrapping paper
• white paint
• paintbrush (or finger)
• glue
• scissors

Instructions;

1. Fold your card or use an old Christmas card and along the bottom half, messily paint a snowy landscape
2. Cut triangles out of your paper scraps or old cards
3. Cut some strips out of paper scraps for trunks
4. Stick the trunks around the snowy landscape
5. Stick a triangle over the trunk
6. If you wish, using a finger or a chop stick, dot snow around the trees

1

Handmade Christmas Cards - The Lonesome Pine.

Making a beautiful Christmas card at home probably couldn't get more simple than this, yet the finished item is charming by this very simplicity.

You will need;

• card/heavy paper/old Christmas card
• old Christmas card (to cut shapes out of) or,
• wrapping paper scraps
• glue
• scissors
• white paint
• paintbrush (or finger)

Instructions;

1. Either fold a piece of card or use an old Christmas card and messily paint the bottom half white
2. Cut 3 equal sized triangles out of your paper scraps
3. Cut a strip of paper/card to use as a tree trunk
4. Stick the trunk near the bottom of the card.
5. Stick the triangles so that the top points overlap the next triangle to form the top of your tree
6. Stick the tree over the trunk so that it pokes out of the tree's skirt
7. Using white paint on your little finger or a chop stick, dot falling snow around the tree
8. If you are using an old card, cut and stick a piece of paper inside over the old message so that you can write your new message to the recipient

Hey presto!  Easy for small and big people alike to make lots of these, all slightly different - same same but different, as they say in Thailand!

0

Handmade Christmas Cards - The Snowman.

This is yet another unbelievably easy Christmas card design and there are two ways to achieve the final result.  If you get your pieces cut and prepared beforehand, your little one's can just stick the paper in place and the card will see them proud.

You will need;

• card/heavy paper/old Christmas card
• white paint
• paintbrush (or finger)
• glue
• scraps of wrapping paper and/or fabric
• cardboard
• marker pen

Instructions;

1. Using scraps paper or fabric, cut out a hat shape, a carrot shaped nose and a scarf
2. Paint one large white circle towards the bottom of the card and another on the top of this, then smudge some white paint around underneath the bottom circle (**)
3. When the paint is dry, stick the hat on top of the top circle, the scarf around the neck and the carrot shape where you want the nose to be
4. Using marker pen or scraps, make some dots for eyes and buttons
5. Using thin strips of cardboard, cut and stick on 'twig' arms
6. Using a finger or the end of a chop stick, dot flakes of snow around the snowman          

**Instead of using paint, cut out a wave of white, then a large and a small circle and use these for the head and body of your snowman before adding his accessories.

This one below was made using an old card for the background and cut paper for the snow and the snowman.

Mrs Fox's loves to craft and create and celebrate the festive season with hand-made creations.  This year we are doing a series of posts on handmade Christmas cards you can create with your children, or for even more ideas check out our "Handmade Cards" pinterest board.

http://www.pinterest.com/mrsfoxs/handmade-christmas-cards/

0