Handcrafted Gifts for 2016!

Here in the Workshop we're thinking of New Year resolutions already!  But this new project needs a lot of preparation... the design team have their heads in dreamy clouds, pencils whittled and at the ready... to conjure up all handcrafted gifts and cards for 2016!

Three thoughts have meandered, roamed and finally joined hands:

Living the Simple Life

                                     The Joy of Giving a Handcrafted Gift
                                                               

                                                                                                 Frugality and Thriftiness

The Workshop team have a confession: yes we have popped out and spent a few nuggets on bought cards, when our crafty stores are brimming over with all the material we could ever need to make our own! So we are pulling our socks up, hauling on the overalls and firing up the stove for an endless supply of hot chocolate... as we abandon the checkout queues and get back to basics!

And first a little practice as Christmas approaches... a few oddments have already been brought home, ready to be wrapped in brown paper and tucked under the tree... but no more!  We have made our pledge to homecrafting gifts and cards and here we will start...

... with Spiced Smiles... the first concoction from the Workshop Kitchens... coming to friends and family this festive season!

The Green Woman

The brand new set of face paints were a little underused at the Workshop birthday party this year.  So one random afternoon not long after, the table was set with mirror, paints and face wipes and the cry went up 'let's face paint today!'  And why not indeed?!

Now some of us down the Workshop have a bit of experience with the old face paints... some of us are rather keen on the amateur dramatics and have been known to paint a whole crew of people up as Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty!  But today a mystical feeling overtook us and we summoned up...

The Green Woman!

Interesting to note regards Workshop technique, that the sponge applicator that came with the set produced rather poor coverage, whereas one go with the brush and the Workshop was all a-buzz!  True face painting indeed!

The Workshop design team are now meditating on their next creation, over a large slice of homemade lemon meringue pie...

Doodle-a-day

Inspiration hit the Workshop over the summer and attention turned back to a glorious wooden box of blendable colouring pencils... a box with two layers no less that has the power to make spines tingle just at the thought of the rainbow of possibilities!

Yes a new project was afoot.  Heedless of housework, these were busy times in the Workshop, focusing on the new challenge to create a doodle-a-day.

Now comes the confession.  We are not big doodlers here.  We are a wee bit perfectionist about our designs.  A doodle per DAY?!  Clearly unrealistic.

But when the Workshop is enthused, the Workshop gets busy.  So drawing style and design inspiration from stained glass windows and woodcut prints, here are the cheery results!

 So a doodle-a-day was rather optimistic but now Pumpkin Workshop is all fired up again about illustration!

Digging and Dungarees

After many Workshop experiments with windowsill farming, resulting in a bountiful feast of four whole runner beans and a handful of oregano, we have followed our muddy dreams and now have an allotment!

We took over the Pumpkin Plot back in January and what a scrubland lay before us.  Brand new spades at the ready, sparkling in the winter sunshine and crisp, clean dungarees on, the digging began in earnest.

Using a wheel design, invoking thoughts of the Wheel of the Year, a central circle is surrounded by triangular rays of freshly turned soil.

A triumphant moment as the first potatoes were planted...

Now nine months on, some of the first crops have been harvested; courgettes are thriving, broad beans have boldly battled black flies, calendula is in full bloom and one single pumpkin thrives.

With kindly gifts from neighbours (giant marrows, cabbages and apples), Pumpkin Workshop is enjoying the fruits of the Earth!

On your marks, get set....GROW!

This is of course an update on the runner beans!

Well, a poor turn out for the race - twelve bean seeds planted, sweating away in my mini windowsill propagators and only two shoots burst forth!  On further investigation discovered that the remaining ten were mouldering and maggoty beneath the surface!  Grim!

But the two brave sports are pushing on through, moving onwards and upwards:

Next on the starting line are broad beans and an attempt at indoor strawberry growing from seed!  The propagators are humming away again on the sunny south-facing windowsill!

Adventures in Windowsill Farming!

Here at the workshop we dream of self-sufficiency, homesteading and The Good Life.  But the reality is a few windowsills and a front porch!

We have not been deterred!  With a bit of imagination and experimentation, pots, compost and a handful of seeds, we are setting out on the adventure that is windowsill farming!

The first shoot of success is traditional windowsill herb growing, which has resulted in this lovely crop of oregano; a much used herb in the workshop:

And here is a medley of home grown produce:

Cress - (top left) just beginning to shoot up in a saucer, cress is always a very heartening seed to sow, with almost immediate growth and hence cheer!
Sage - (top right) a little straggly, I have a second pot of much stronger plants on a windowsill that receives less direct sunlight
Oregano - (bottom left)
Beans - (bottom right in the mini propagator) of the runner variety, yet to poke their heads out into the world.  More news to follow, just hoping that the age of the seeds won't stall growth too much!

Papercraft Post - Homemade Envelopes

Now I'm often raiding the farthest corners of my craft cupboard, hoping to find a long lost envelope somewhere in Narnia!  But it is so easy to make your own! 

I once had a plastic shop-bought template for making them...that too has been swallowed up in the snowy regions of the cupboard...but who needs shop bought, when by simply deconstructing an existing envelope, you can create your own card template...

...and then the world is your oyster!  Any paper, old magazine pages, old wrapping paper can become the most cheery envelope for that personal postal delivery!

Start with a card template and pages from an old magazine...

...add a little bit of basic origami magic...

...and you have conjured a beautiful array of unique envelopes!

Next to create my own labels to write the address on... 

...oh and careful positioning of the template is vital I discovered; one of my envelopes has a lovely close-up of a tubby bird tummy...while the head has disappeared over the back!