Happy New Year and a Cinnamon Stick Fragrancer

Hi Everyone

Happy New Year to you all.  Hope that 2014 is a great year for everyone with lots of creativity going on!

I was browsing through Pinterest and saw these cute little cinnamon stick nativity ornaments and liked the idea of it but as I am not religious, the nativity scene didn't really appeal to me.  I made the frame up and decided it would be great to hang at anytime of the year as a fragrance ornament.  I just added a slice of dried orange (I did some of these myself before Christmas as they were expensive to buy already dried!!).  You can find instructions to make the frame and the nativity here.

I used a piece of jute string to hang it and just used my glue gun to attach it to the ornament.  I also stuck the orange slice and star anise with the glue gun and I put glue on the back where I had tied the raffia to secure it more.

Here is the one I made

As you can see I positioned my cinnamon sticks alittle differently at the bottom than shown in the tutorial but both ways look good.  I can now add fragrance oil to the orange and all of the other bits whenever required and as well as looking pretty, it smells lovely!

A Small Christmas Gift for Friends.....

A few days back I went out for dinner with some friends.  We all used to work together many years ago at an insurance company and we try to meet up for dinner whenever we can.  We call it our Supper Club!  We like to try a different restaurant each time and this time we went to Turtle Bay - a newish Caribbean restaurant in the centre of town.  I've actually been there before for lunch and an afternoon of cocktails!!  I really enjoyed it the last time I went and I was keen to try it on an evening.

Anyway - I wanted to take a small handcrafted gift along for my friends.  I decided to give each of them one of my handcrafted felt Christmas Pudding tree decorations and I also made them a tiny little felt gingerbread man brooch.

I've put a 1p coin next to them to show just how small they are!!

Next for the packaging.  I've recently taken delivery of my new We R Memory Keeper Gift Box Punchboard.  These are a fantastic invention and you can create lovely neat boxes in no time at all!  Here are the ones I made using Kraft card, I used the backside of one sheet and it is a different shade!

I wrapped the pudding and the gingerbread man in some tissue paper.  I love this paper, it is from Ikea, nice and bright!!

Now to decorate the outside of the box!  I recently dried some orange slices.  I think they look gorgeous dried and can be used for all diferent things.  I have put some on my door wreath this year as well!!  They are perfect for decorating my boxes!  I used a glue gun and stuck a Star Anise to the top of each one - mmm Star Anise smells lovely!!

I wrapped a small paper doily over the top of the box and stuck it down.  I then used my glue gun to stick the orange slice ornament on the top of it.

Cute aren't they!!

I popped them into a kraft paper bag with a stamped sentiment on.

and then made a quick stamped tag to finish it off!

My friends were delighted with their little package and actually thought the decorated box was the gift!  They were reluctant to unwrap it as they didn't want to spoil the decoration!!

Thanks for stopping by today x