Etsy Favourites - Merry Christmas!

by ModernPrintedMatter

by AlpineElephant

by Sophie0610Designs

by WhiteEarsDesign

by UrbanBlue

Mediterranean Summer

Christmas Ornament Inspiration - Felt

If you haven't seen the wonderful Christmas inspiration floating around Pinterest, then you sure are missing out!
Here are some of my favourite  felt ornaments from my Pinterest Christmas board.

Click on any picture to go to the pin -and the link.

How To Make A Simple Scarf - a DIY for Absolute Beginners

This step by step instructions tutorial on how to make a simple scarf is for absolute beginners. 
While the scarf in the photos is a small square scarf, the steps are the same for any shape and size you would like to make.

1. Decide on your fabric and shape.
(This tutorial is basically for fabrics that fray, like cotton, linen, etc when you want to have a neat, stitched finish.) 
If you want a perfectly square scarf, and you don't want to get out your tape measure, just  fold your fabric over until you make a perfect triangle. 
Cut. 
Open it up, it's a perfect square.

 2.If you're pretty new at this and are not confident of your sewing skills, or if you just want everything super neat and tidy, it helps if you use an iron to flatten out all your seams before you stitch them.
This is how you do it.
Fold over a thin strip of fabric making sure that it's the same width all the way down. Press this down with your iron untill flat. 

 Once you've done this, fold it over again, in the same way, and press it flat with the iron again.
Do this for each side.

3. Stitch over all sides paying attention to the corners.

 Use pins to keep the fabric in place and help you make them align perfectly.

Tip: When stitching something that will see a lot of wear, backstitch a little so that you don't have unravelled stitches later.

4.Congratulations!
You have just made your very own scarf!
Now you can go ahead and make some more for your friends and family! 
 They make for cute Christmas gifts.

Linked to:

Threading My Way, Annemarie's Crochet Blog, My Creative Space

I spy....Grosgrain Handmade Holiday Guide

Grosgrain has put together a wonderful handmade gift guide for 2011 -with a twist. Not only do you go there for inspiration, you can also link up your own handmade goodies to inspire others.

I picked just three of the  wonderful links you can browse through to be inspired.

Decoupaged Bangles

Mason Jar Sewing Kit

Sugar Scrubs

For the rest you'll have to go to: Grosgrain Handmade Gift Guide 2011.

Road Trip - Part 1- The Roads

road trip [countable] American English

a long trip that you take in a car, usually with friends

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)