Camels at Christmas

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by Nativity crib scenes at Christmas. Even at the Winchester Christmas Fair a few weeks ago we saw one where children could dress up and be part of the scene. Since our early married days my Hb and I had a little set of plastic nativity figures we brought out at Christmas. Some years ago we bought a "stable" to display them in. Last year I "upgraded" and found a sweet wooden one, on 2 levels, more a barn!

Again over the years we have "upgraded" our plastic figures and bought beautiful carved wooden ones from the German Christmas markets in Cologne, Frankfurt and Nuremberg.

Our Nativity crib sits on the archway between the hall and our dining room and I love to look at it from where I use the computer and also when we sit and eat at the table.

 It's a tradition every year that my Dad cuts me some holly and greenery from his garden and I add it to my nativity scene.

Here are the steps where I placed my goats and chick. The sack, hay fork and rusted bucket were also bought at the German markets.

As you know I adore pigs, so of course I have to feature them in my little scene...I have male and female wild boar with a stripey piglet who stands with the shepherds. The shepherd at the back is one of my original plastic models.

I do not yet own any wooden kings. If we get back to a German market in the next few years these are what I will buy. I make do with my originals, which look fine. However we never had a camel in that set so for years I have put my childhood "walk down an incline" camel there. This really makes us laugh each year, He must be 45 odd years old and still "walks" if you put him on an incline.
Say hello to Humphrey...

I bet he made you smile ;0) 

I think even if we eventually get a wooden camel, Humphrey will still have to stand on the arch. He is part of our Christmas and when Daisy gets bigger she can have fun "walking" him down an incline.

My card today is my last Christmas card of 2014 and features another festive creature, the dear Robin.  I have used a sweet Nicecrane image which is available here. This vintage bird set has some great images and I made up some great last minute cards with them.

The holly die cut is Cheery Lynn and the sentiment is LOTV. The papers are ancient from my stash.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pile it on anything goes Christmas/holidays

Deep Ocean Christmas is all around
Creative Inspirations Christmas/New Year
Loves rubberstamps Holiday blitz anything goes
That craft place anything goes
Totally Gorjuss love at Christmas
Crafty Boots winter wonderland
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas whatever is still urgently needed for Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper anything goes
Papertake weekly pick a fave I have chosen a nice easy, anything goes one!

Tomorrow is my final posting for my countdown to Christmas as yes we will have reached Christmas Eve. I have a really special project to share with you so if you get a chance do pop back and take a peep.

Back tomorrow,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Funkie Junkie's 3rd tag of Christmas - with a Jane's Journal twist.

I have nearly managed to get up to date with my 12 tags for Christmas projects and managed to get #3 and #4 made on Saturday. Today I showing my #3 project. Click this link to see the inspiration tag over at The Funkie Junkie. There is still time to play along and it is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie on line store with some great prizes for the lucky winners.  The inspiration that I took from Linda's tag was the silhouette stamp, the stars are the colours. Here is my card

I made my backing card with a combination of Vintage photo, walnut stain and antique linen distress inks.

I remembered that I have some ancient silhouette Christmas wooden rubber stamps in my stash which are some of my oldest stamps. I stamped them using Versafine Black Onyx ink. Here are those sweet stamps in close up.

 I wanted to keep this card quite CAS (clean and simple) so I stamped some shooting stars using some stamps from my LOTV grunge Christmas postmarks set and set the centres with gold coloured star gems.

The sentiment is one of my newest dies from Cheery Lynn.



I would like to enter my card into these card challenges;

The Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #3
Simon says stamp Christmas
Polkadoodles Christmas is coming
Holly Jolly Inspired by a carol My carol is Away in a Manger
Crafts to Challenge you Christmas Festivities and what it means to me. My card makes me think of singing away in a manager at all the nativity plays which not only I took part in as a young child but my own children did too. I was always the angel Gabriel and my Dad made me amazing wings. My daughter was Mary once, something I never achieved and my dear son was always a shepherd with the obligatory tea towel head piece. Ahh such sweet memories.
Crafty Hazelnut's  Peace
Sparkles Christmas card challenges flowers
Make it Monday Linky party #163
Crafty Little Fairies Christmas in October

I hope you are all enjoying  your weekend? I have to spend today at a course for work (I have scheduled this card to post and I will link up the challenges when I get home). To make up for it I have tomorrow off work to meet up with my 37+ weeks pregnant daughter. We plan to have a girlie day together, unless of course our soon to be born grandbaby has other ideas ;0) (Now that is a joke, we need to get at least 1 more week down the line, now that's Nana talking ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Take one orange....

I promised to come back with a quick tut for making a Christmas Clove orange. I know there is only one week to go but this is so quick to make and the smell is just divine  When I smell this it takes me back to each wonderful Christmas I have enjoyed since I was a little girl. I can also remember my children making these at school and bringing them home to hang up. I last made one of these myself as a child and for a couple of years I bought the ingredients but never seemed to get things together in time. This year I bought the ingredients again and on Sunday I finally made the time. I am so pleased I did as the end product was really worth it.

Ingredients;
1 medium sized orange.
Jar of dried cloves.
1 large or 2 medium cinnamon sticks.
1 meter of thin ribbon (avoid satins and organzas)
Pins .
30 minutes of your time ;0)

So here we go...take one orange

Divide the orange into quarters by wrapping around the ribbon and crossing it over underneath

Secure the ribbon using pins, just simply push them into the flesh, they wont' be noticed at all. Tie the ribbon with a knot at the top but don't finish a hanging loop yet.

Open the jar of cloves and inhale deeply.......mmmmmm.....just wonderful

Use a cake tester or something else sharp to make holes in the flesh and then push a clove into each hole

Once all the orange skin is covered open up the cinnamon sticks and again pause and inhale deeply..............another............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sit the orange on it's base and cut the cinnamon stick into 2. Tie in one piece...

Then tie in the second and finally make either a hanging loop or as I did just tie the orange to wherever you want to display it.

Mine is hanging from the banisters where we also have lights and hang our cards.

The smell is just wonderful and it brings back a lifetime of Christmas memories. Do try one, they really are so festive and really easy to make.
My card really has to be something from the past too. I recently was the lucky winner of the weekly candy at Joanna Sheen's great blog and I received this card making CD in the post. It features images by  Giordano which were so

popular when I was a child. I can remember these images on cards which I bought and received in the late 1960s and early 70s. I had a play and found all sorts of projects on the CD including images, backing papers etc. I printed out one of my all time favourites from years ago. It is of a very stylised nativity and I used it to made a couple of quick last minute cards. There is no colouring involved so all I had to do was print out the image and put together my card design.

I simply matted the image onto gold card and added a few simple embellies as I did not think the image needed a lot more. I was really pleased with this.A very simple card for me but so right for my childhood memories of making Christmas Oranges.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Joanna Sheen With Love at Christmas
Top Tip Tuesdays Christmas #92
Bunny Zoe's Monthly Challenge Celebrations
Hooked on Crafts #27 Christmas
Woopsi Daisy Traditional Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas Vintage Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Anything Goes #103
Crafty Catz New beginnings I think the Nativity certainly fits the bill ;0)
Forever Friends fortnight challenge Christmas #51
Forever Friends monthly challenge Christmas cards
Dream Valley Anything Goes #34
Cutie Pie Christmas #34
ABC Christmas Y is for your favourite die/punch My favourite punch here is my fab holly punch, it is a really old Woodware one. I use it so much at this time of the year.


I would also like to mention that the Ribbon Girl has a 6 of the best giveaway..pop on over and join in the fun.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope I can inspire you to made a Christmas Orange and evoke some special childhood memories too. Keep inhaling that smell of Christmas past, present and yet to come. Enjoy the last week of festivities, remember to

Keep calm and carry on making Christmas ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x