Noel

So for the first time in god only knows how many years we have decided to get the tree and decs up now rather that 3 days before xmas day. The reason? Well we're kind of settled in our new home now and have so much more room than we've been used to these past 8 years so we figured it will be nice to make a bit more of the holiday season and spirit. Heck even hubby has done all his shopping! Not only that but he's wrapped everything too! Not bad considering he normally leaves it till xmas eve eh! His wrapping would be rushed and a disaster and if he bothered to put a tag on it it would simply say 'Linda'. Not very inspiring is it! Hence why I am very impressed with him this year, though I do draw the line at putting the pressies under the tree - I'm left alone here far too much to resist that temptation!

Look at that, I've managed to digress from a xmas tree to my pressies!

Anyway like I said I've been putting up the tree and decs today and what would normally have taken me a few hours has so far taken me the best part of a day and they're still not finished.

What I have managed to get finished though are some xmas blocks I recently made. They're not brilliant I'll admit because although I have the lettering down (finally) I'm not too hot on adding embellishments.
Here's the Noel blocks:

These were so easy to make. I simply cut out square blocks from any scrap wood, sanded the edges and corners and then lightly sanded the fronts and backs.
2 of the blocks were painted using Laura Ashleys 'Summer Pudding' and the other 2 were painted with Crowns Metallic 'Striking'. All 4 were given a good 2 coats.
Next is the bit I always look forward to and enjoy - the lettering.
I always seem to prefer opening up CS5 (though you could use any word document) and then typing the letters and playing with the fonts.
Once I have the font I want and have stretched it to the size I want I trace them onto paper from the laptop using the backlight as a sort of lightbox. I only do this because I'm having printer problems but I find it pretty easy and quick.
Once I had them on paper I turned the paper over and traced the image on the back from the front and then it's just a case of lining each letter up correctly on the block and scribbling over the letter to produce a vague outline to follow later.
With that done I nicked my daughters Calligraphy ink again (Eek) in Black and using one of her artists brushes I traced over the N & E outlines and filled in where needed.
The O & L were traced and filled in with a gold Pilot pen.
Finally I added a bow (albeit tacky one) and some strands to the N & E, glueing them on using a hot glue gun.
For the O & L I attempted to replicate snow but it kinda went wrong!

Next I finished these blocks:

These were mega easy to make also, using the exact same method as above.
The only difference is that I traced the letters from a book I have and the Black & Gold are both calligraphy inks and were used with a glass calligraphy pen (it's more of a glass stick TBH).
The top of these ones are simply some fake Holly leaves I found with some fake berries attached, hot glued on with some squirly ribbon.
Like I said, neither are perfect but still look pretty cool!

So thanks for taking a look. I'll be posting wreaths etc I've made soon and I've been enjoying checking out all your own Xmas crafts.
Happy Xmas crafting y'all.



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