Beaded Snowflakes

Yesterday, in between cleaning up my dusty home before a friend came over for drinks and busily making cards so that I could post them out in time for Christmas, I took a little break and beaded some snowflakes:

I was only going to make one, seeing as I had so much else to do, but they were so much fun, and so quick, to assemble I ended up making three:

... and I'm going to make some more today so that I can give them away as little gifts.

There is an excellent tutorial for constructing these over at Beading Daily. (These snowflakes would be great to make with children too.)

Simple Christmas Ornaments

I'm planning on putting up my decorations this weekend so I've been digging around in my stash of tinselly things. I came across some little tree ornaments I've made and I photographed some of them this afternoon.
Here is a small glass bauble that's been drizzled with glitter glue:



This is super simple and good to make with little children (...and isn't that blue sky in the background beautiful?)

Here's another ornament that I've made with youngsters ~ an ever so slightly skew whiff wooden star:




This was made with clothes pegs that were stuck together with PVA (white) glue and sprayed with gold paint.


Here is a little beaded star that I've constructed with wire and beads:

...and here's one of my favourites:

It isn't really simple, I know.
It hasn't been made by me either, but I think it's lovely.
I bought it last year from a beautiful gift store called Lotus and was really excited to find a tutorial to make ornaments just like it, with cookie cutters, over at Sunshine's Creations.
Sweet!

It's Starting To Look Like A Lot Like Christmas

Which means, here in sunny Western Australia, that the jacarandas are flowering in profusion and our beautiful native Christmas trees are covered in honey coloured blossoms
...and last night I was driving home in the dusk and saw, for the first time, a house lit up by Christmas lights. Hooray!

This little macaroni angel was made with some of the children I worked with the year before last.
I love kids and Christmas time ~ children's excitement is so infectious.

Here's a picture the angel on last year's tiny tabletop tree:


Only two weekends to go before I've finished most of my paperwork and can start really enjoying the festive season. I'm itching to craft again!