Category: seasons

How to Make Christmas Ornaments

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Why buy Christmas ornaments that look handmade when you can actually make them so easily? Sharon from The Key Bunch requested me for instructions on making Christmas ornaments so I’ve tried to document all the steps you need to take when making your personalised ornaments. So, this is not really a tutorial, but rather a bunch of suggestions written in an orderly manner. Shall we get to it?

1- First of all, you may want to look at some books, magazines, blogs and flickr photos for inspiration. Decide on shapes and look for patterns online. That’s right, I’m not going to provide you with any template, sorry! Just google ‘candy cane’, ‘Christmas stocking’, ‘gingerbread man’, ‘mitten’, ‘heart’ or — even better — draw your own shapes. Then assemble all your materials: various pairs of scissors, a pencil/pen, your glasses (optional), as many types and colours of thread as you wish, baker’s twine (if you own it), loads of buttons, fabric scraps, rick-rack, ribbon, pins and needles. You may notice that I’ve chosen a very limited colour palette because I believe that’s the key to success. But of course you can go wild and pick all the colours of the rainbow.

2- Gather all your felt scraps and turn your radio on!
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3- I decided I’d make my templates the old-fashioned way: first I printed them out and then traced over them using some tracing paper I found at the bottom of a drawer (I think I have these sheets since primary school). I then traced the shapes onto a cereal box for durability.


4- Trace all your shapes onto felt and cut them neatly. Always trace and cut in pairs because you’ll be stuffing the ornaments later.


5- Here they are all cut and ready to be embelished.



6- Now comes the fun part: play around with rick-rack, ribbon, buttons and scraps until you are happy with how it looks. Then sew everything onto your ornament piece. There are so many possibilities here that I had to choose and show you how to make only one type of ornament. That means that from now on you’ll watch how to finish this star; then at the end of this set you’ll see other examples of ornaments you can make.

7- Let us get back to the star: make a loop (you’ll want to hang it on a tree branch, right?) and begin sewing the front and the back pannels together.
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8- You can do it either by hand or machine and use different kinds of stiches. Here I sewed it by hand using the simplest stitch ever.


9- When you’re nearly finished, grab a bit of polyfill and stuff it through that little opening. You may want to use a chopstick or other pointy tool to get the stuffing in all the tiny and tricky places.
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10- Close the opening. You’re done! 🙂

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As I said, I’ll show you other examples of things you can make using this technique. Have fun and if you make something based on these instructions I’d love to see it!



Cartões de Natal :: Christmas Cards

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Estou a gostar imenso de ler os comentários ao mais recente giveaway e tenho de começar a tomar notas! Vou decididamente tentar fazer uns posts sobre dar os primeiros passos na costura, mas desde já deixo um disclaimer: eu aprendi sozinha e só coso à máquina há dois anos… posso é partilhar a maneira como me fui aventurando neste mundo. No fundo, resume-se apenas a isto: com a ajuda da internet e sem medos!
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I’m really enjoying reading all the comments on my most recent giveaway and I have to start jotting down some notes! I’ll definitely try to write some posts about starting to sew but I have to make a disclaimer: I am self-taught and I’ve only been machine-sewing for two years… what I can do is share the way I’ve been venturing into this world. In a nutshell, it all comes to this: online help and no fears!

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Entretanto comecei a fazer os meus cartões de Natal. Este ano, e visto que começo a ter o meu pequeno negócio, vou enviá-los não só a família e amigos, mas também a quem me comprou peças ao longo deste ano. Por isso, se é cliente do Saídos da Concha, já sabe! (se calhar tinha mais graça se fosse surpresa…)
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Meanwhile, I have started making my Christmas cards. This year — since I’m starting my own little business — I’ll be sending them not only to friends and family but also to everyone who has bought something from me this past year. So, if you are a Saídos da Concha customer, now you know! (maybe this would have been more interesting if it had come as a surprise…)

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Este ano estou rendida a três novas aquisições: o almejado baker’s twine (este cordel encarnado e branco à l’ancienne que encontrei na Dille & Kamille na Bélgica), uma guilhotina de papel (presente de Natal de há dois anos e apenas estreado ontem…) e um “arredondador de cantos” (comprado nos EUA, onde floresce a indústria dedicada ao scrapbooking).
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This year I’m fascinated by my three new acquisitions: the much-desired baker’s twine (found at Dille & Kamille in Belgium), a paper guillotine (which I was given two years ago but which made its debut only yesterday) and a corner rounder (bought in the US where the scrapbooking industry flourishes).
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Decidi-me por um esquema bastante básico: guilhoteinei folhas A4 a meio, imprimi o endereço da minha loja, dobrei a folha a meio e desenhei uma árvore de Natal com agulha e fio. Em seguida, arredondei os cantos e escrevi os votos de boas festas.
I went for a rather basic design: I cut A4 leaves in half, printed my shop‘s address, folded the leaf in half and drew a Christmas tree with needle and twine. Then I rounded the corners and wrote down my wishes.
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

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… e eu começo a ficar entusiasmada com as possibilidades. Fazer enfeites e pensar em presentes para oferecer são as minhas actividades preferidas nesta época. Ah, e embrulhar os presentes!
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… and I’m started to get excited with all the possibilities. Making ornaments and thinking about presents to give away are my favourite activities this time of year. Oh, and wrapping presents!

A minha coroa foi totalmente inspirada nesta e acabei de a fazer ontem à noite; aproveitei ainda para experimentar, também em cores natalícias, os pássaros deste livro.
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My wreath, which I finished last night, has been totally inspired by this one; I also attempted to make this book’s birds in Christmas-y colours.

Agora só me falta decidir a questão da árvore… Queria encontrar uma alternativa tanto a uma árvore natural como a uma artificial… Vou tentar explicar o meu dilema: não quero uma árvore natural que, à semelhança do ano passado, traga bichos e deite, diariamente, folhas e resina para o chão; mas também não me apetece comprar uma árvore de plástico. O que sugerem?
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Now I have to make a decision about the tree… I’d like to find an alternative both to a natural tree and to an artificial one… I’ll try to explain my dillema: I don’t want a real tree that, just like what happened last year, brings along bugs and stains our floor with dead leaves and resin; but I have no desire whatsoever to buy a plastic tree. What do you suggest I do?

O meu tipo de livro / My kind of book

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Podem achar que sou doida, mas acho que já é tempo de começar a pensar no Natal. Acabou de sair The Christmas Book, um livro cheio de ideias bestiais e ecológicas para preparar mais uma época natalícia. As imagens falam por si!
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You may think I’m crazy but I believe it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. The Christmas Book has just been released and it’s packed with great, eco-friendly ideas to prepare ourselves for another Xmas season. The pictures speak for themselves!

Do Natal e por aí fora / About Xmas and so on

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O Natal correu muito bem: acordámos na nossa nova casa, dividimos o tempo entre os vários ramos das nossas famílias, abrimos presentes…
Os dias que se seguiram foram passados em arrumações (ainda temos caixotes, mas estão confinados num único quarto: grandes progressos!). Convidei avó, mãe e primas para inaugurar a casa com um lanche, que pode ser visto na fotografia abaixo. Estreámos as três chávenas GreenGate que comprei há duas semanas em Madrid: uma para a minha avó, uma para a minha mãe e uma para mim. A toalha de chá veio de casa dos avós do Tiago e é de Viana.

Xmas was fine: we woke up in our new appartment, we managed to spend time in various family houses, we opened up presents…

The following days were spent tidying up our home (we still have some moving boxes but now they’re all in one single room: great progress!). I invited my mum, grandmother and cousins to a house inauguration tea party, which you can see in the picture above. We drunk our tea in the three new GreenGate cups I bought a couple of weeks ago in Madrid: one for my mum, one for my grandmother and one for myself. The towel came from Tiago‘s grandparents house and it’s embroided with traditional motives from Viana do Castelo.

Feliz Natal! / Merry Xmas!

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Uma estrela que é uma forma para bolachas, presentes embrulhados com papel do IKEA e com a fita-cola da Ana Ventura e uma carteira de última hora, feita a partir de um modelo de um livro japonês.
Bom Natal para todos os que lêem este blog! 🙂
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A star that’s really a cookie cutter, presents wrapped in IKEA’s wrapping paper and Ana Ventura‘s tape, and a last-minute bag inspired in a bag I saw in a Japanese book.
Merry Xmas to all of you that read this blog! 🙂