More gifty bits

salt dough stars, made and decorated with home made glitter glue, threaded with hemp twine. shopping bags from here decorated with the help of fabric paints a carrot, and a paintbrush

More christmas makes

T has painted this 'man with Santa hat' onto a pencil case (here) to make a make up bag for his Auntie. I think they are about 99p, which is nice and cheap, but the quality is great, and now it's personalised too. Christmas on a budget? No problem :p He also handprinted this T-shirt from ASDA for his cousin. It cost me £1.75 for the t-shirt, so not an expensive gift, but made to be special

And I made this stocking for DP. With lack of inspiration for anything big to get him, I'm going to get lots of little bits and put them in here for him

Scented valentines hearts

Cut two identical hearts out of felt. I used pinking shears because I like the effect. I used a paper pattern to make sure I got it right. Cut out any additions you want. I put a light pink flower on mine.

Sew applique onto first heart, using over stitch, then sew the two hearts together using a running stitch. Try not to leave too much gap between stitches. Leave a small gap for stuffing.

Stuff your heart with a small amount of dried flowers. Dont add too much or the seams will bulge and the flowers will escape through the gaps. Dried rose petals and buds have a nice 'valentine's' smell, and I added chamomile, just because I like it. Lavender smells nice, but is harder to keep contained inside the heart.

Sew up your gap, and Ta Da!!

These can be used as gifts, you can use them to scent clothes draws, position on the sofa as a natural air freshener, add a ribbon loop and use to decorate a season table. If you use chamomile flowers, and add a drop of lavender oil, you can pop it under your pillow to help you sleep. If you use rose, and add a drop of jasmine oil to go under your pillow, that apparently has a... erm... 'stimulant' effect ;)