Square Bear Knitted Teddy

A cute knitted little teddy from Patons whisper yarn to give a fury and cuddly look. He is called a square bear not because he is dull and straight laced, but because the teddy is made from knitted squares and rectangles without any shaping, which makes the square bear and easy and ideal knit for beginners, or a quick knit for a veteran knitter.

To make a square bear you will need...
3.25mm, UK size 10 or US Size 3 knitting needles,
2x 50g balls of Patons Whisper or Lana Grossa knitting wool,
Scraps of wool for markers,
A pair of safety animal eyes and a nose, and a length of contrasting ribbon.

Head Front
Cast on 25 stitches and work 30 rows of stocking stitch (one row knit, one row purl)
Mark each end of this row with a piece of coloured wool.
Continue working on these stitches to knit teddy's body. Work another 40 rows.
Cast off.
Make another head and body piece to match.

Legs
Make 2 the same.
Cast on 20 stitches and work 26 rows.
Cast off.

Arms
Make 2 the same.
Cast on 15 stitches and work 16 rows.
Cast off.

Ears
Make 2 the same.
Cast on 10 stitches and work 10 rows.
Next Row: K2 tog, K6, K2 tog
Cast off.

To Make Teddy...
The right side of the knitting is the furriest side.

In the very enter of the bears face, push the nose through the knitting and fix the nose into place. Fix teddy's eye just above and either side of the nose.

Put the back and front parts of the bear right sides together, and stitch the two long sides and across the top of the bear's head. Turn right sides out and stuff the head. Sew a row of running stitches around the bear's neck marked by the coloured wool. Draw the running stitches up to draw the neck in. Wrap the yarn around the neck a couple of times and Finnish off with a couple of stitches on top of one another at the back.

Stuff the body and sew up the opening at the bottom.

Fold a leg piece in half (right sides together) so that the row ends meet. Sew along one of the short sides and the long side. Turn and stuff. Sew into position along the seam at the bear's bottom. Do the same with the second leg.

Make the arms in the same ways as for the legs and sew into place.

Sew the ears onto the corners of the bear's head, with the least fury side facing forward.

Finnish off with a traditional ribbon tied in a bow around the bear's neck.

A Christmas QuizEveryone has their own idea about Christmas. But few know the "facts" as given by the Bible. Here is a short quiz to test your knowledge. I think you will be surprised at how much you know (or don't know)
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Little Donkeys Special SecretWe all know the Christmas Carroll 'Little Donkey'. The little donkey carried Mary safely on her way to Bethlehem where Mary gave birth to Jesus. But the story doesn't end there for the little donkey, because something very special happened to the donkey that would change him forever.
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Twelve Tips For Decorating a Christmas TreeSometimes decorating a christmas tree can seem so complicated that you feel like singing "Uh oh christmas tree" rather than "Oh christmas tree". Whether you are decorating a natural evergreen or an artificial tree here are some tips for making the entire experience a little less disorganized.
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SantasPostbag Full of Christmas HoHoHo!!

Peg Art Rocking Chair

Wooden spring laundry pegs are great building blocks for making decorative wooden structures. The fancy peg shaping lends itself to make a pretty old fashioned looking rocking chair.

To make a peg rocking chair you will need...
13 wooden spring laundry pegs (with their springs removed), PVA glue or suitable wood glue, varnish, wood stain or paint (Optional).

Click Here... for a photo step by step guide of how to make this peg art rocking chair.

For more Peg Art Projects

Peg Art Teapot StandThis is an ideal Christmas pressie for Granny or any great tea lover. This peg teapot stand is practical, beautiful and so easy to make. It's a work of Art.
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Peg Art Christmas StarFunky peg art stars can make a modern looking display. The stars are simply made from pegs and can be painted in any colour to fix in with your Christmas decoration theme.
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Deck the Halls with Ping-Pong Balls

Funky Christmas Ping-Pong baubles are simply made from Ping-Pong balls. There are five different designs you could make a Christmas pudding, a Christmas Robin, a sprig of holly, a sparkly bauble or an apple.

To make Christmas Ping-Pong Baubles you will need... Ping-Pong balls, poster paint, glitter, scraps of card, PVA glue, twigs, and Parcel ribbon to make hanging loops.

To start with you will need to make a ball stand to top the Ping-Pong balls from rolling around as you work on them. Cut a piece f card about 7cm by 2 cm and wind it around a pencil to make it curl. Unroll and bring the two ends of the card so that hey meet and staple them together. This is the ball stand.

The Glitter Bauble
Paint the Ping-Pong ball in any colour you choose. Metallic colours look great. Leave the paint to dry.

Using a corkscrew gently push a hole in to the top of the ball. Take a length of parcel ribbon and fold it in half to make a loop. Fold the ends length ways a little, this helps when feeding the ribbon into the hole.

Cover the top half of the ball and the hole with PVA glue. Push the ribbon inside the ball leaving a hanging loop sticking out. Sprinkle the top of the ball with glitter and set aside to dry.

For instructions of ow to make the other ping-pong ball christmas trimings Click Here...

Send a customised letter from SantaAdd extra magic to your child's Christmas this year with a free customised email from Santa. Choose one of our beautiful, especially designed Christmas note papers on which your letter from Santa will be written. Then customise the content of the letter, add your child's name, age, friends and family names, even what add what your child's has been doing. Customised letters from Santa re-enforce their belief in Father Christmas and adds to your child's seasonal excitement. Letters can also be sent to big kids and husbands, wives, sisters, granny, in fact anyone who you think would enjoy a bit of festive cheer. All Santa emails can be sent world-wide FREE of charge, and the emails will appear to have been sent from Santa himself.
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Having problems? Check out Santa's 'Frequently Asked Questions' Page
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Write a Letter to SantaWe have a cunning service for children (or adults) to write a letter to Santa requesting all the goodies that they would like for Christmas. The child (or adult) has to submit their parents (The person you want to hint to) email address, we tell the child that this is due to age restrictions. Of course this is nonsense, we ask for the parents email address so that the wish list can be sent directly too the parents (or the person your hinting to) All letters to Santa are sent a reply from Santa View the reply email here This service enables you to know exactly what your child wants for Christmas. Adults can of course also use this service to hint to their partner what they would like for Christmas. Writing to Santa is a FREE service
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Christmas Danglers

This Christmas project is a magical one, you can watch your dangler shrink in size in the oven.

To make a shrink to dinky dangler you will need...
Flat polystyrene. A great source of polystyrene can be found in food packaging Cold meats are sometimes displayed on polystyrene rays and some pizzas have polystyrene backing to keep them flat.
You can also use other type 6 plastics. Type 6 is Polystyrene e.g.. Yoghurt pots, foam meat or fish trays, fast food, boxes and some egg cartons, vending cups, plastic cutlery, protective packaging for electronic goods and toys.

You will also need, a black marker pen, felt tip pens, threading cord or skoobies, beads and bells, greaseproof paper and an oven. Younger children may need adult help when using the oven.

First design your dangler and draw it onto the polystyrene. The snowman fob was 14.5cm high when first drawn and shrank to 7cm high just to give you a rough idea. Bear shrinkage in mind when creating your dangler.

Draw the outlines of the fob with a black marker pen and colour in with felt tips. Cut out the fob, turn and outline and colour the reverse side. You can also run the black marker along the edges of the dangler.

Put a hole in the top of the dangler. The hole will shrink too, so make sue that the hole is about 1cm across. When baked the fob will become rigid and you will not be able to make a hole.

Put the fob onto a baking try line with greaseproof paper ad put into a preheated oven set to Gas mark 4, 180 Centigrade or 350 Fahrenheit. Make sure the room is well ventilated when baking the danglers.

Fobs take only 2 minutes or so to shrink. If your oven has a glass front you can watch the shrinking process. Sometimes the fobs curl up. If you are quick you can get them out and uncurl them, they shouldn't be too hot to touch. If they only curl slightly put a flat oven gloved hand on them to press them firmly flat again.

The fobs become cool and hard in no time.

Thread a length of threading cord or a skoobie through the hole in the dangler. Bring the two ends together and thread a bead on and tie a knot to hole the bad and dangler into place. Leave a loop big enough to pass the dangler through, and tie another knot. More threading cord and beads can be added, and you could add bells, which would add extra festive cheer. Attach the Christmas danglers to your belongings and enjoy.

Learn to play Jingle Bells On the PianoLearn to play that Christmas classic jingle bells, even if your can't read music!
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Christmas Criss-Cross PuzzleA fun Christmas criss-cross crossword puzzle. Print some out and have a race with your friends to see who can solve the puzzle first. Printable Version is available.
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Delicious Christmas Cookies RecipiesGet in the kitchen and bake some Christmas cookies. Easy enough for everyone to make.
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A Puff Fabric Christmas Tree

Fancy an unusual Christmas tree for a change? This Christmas tree is made from fabric and with a dab of essential oils on the branches, it's sure to enhance your environment visually and smellily.

To make a fabric Christmas tree you will need...
A plastic fizzy pop bottle, a four inch plastic plant pot, 450g of all purpose decorators interior filler, approximately 32cm of wooden doweling (about pencil thickness), tin foil, paint, assorted fabrics, a Christmas bauble as a tree topper, stuffing and binding an beads to decorate.

Begin by pushing some tin foil into the bottom of the plat pot to cover the holes.

Mix up the interior filler to a thick mixture and put I inside the plant pot. Push the doweling into the mixture in the centre of the pot of filler.

Cut the plastic bottle around the top where the thickness of the plastic changes. Keep the neck part of the bottle and discard the rest. Turn the neck of the bottle upside-down and thread it down over the doweling and push it into the filler a little way to fix it into place.

The bottle top and the doweling should be self-supporting with the thickness of the mixture holding them up, but criss-cross some selotape over the top of the plant pot to keep the dowel upright. Leave it over night too completely dry out.

Paint the plant pot, dowel, plastic bottle, and the exposed filler. I used a metallic bronze coloured paint. You may need to apply a few coats of paint to get a good finish. Leave to dry.

Glue some bronze coloured bindind around the top of the plant pot.

Making the branches of the Christmas tree...
Cut out six circles with radiuses of 14.5cm, 11cm, 8cm, 6cm, 5cm and 3cm. A free printable patters n the circles can be printed out here...

Fold each cloth circle in half and in half again and snip the corner to create a small hole (about the size of the doweling) in the centre of the fabric.

Begin with the largest circle. Sew a line of running stitches around the edge of the fabric. Thread the fabric circle over the doweling and draw up the stitches slightly. Lightly stuff the circle and draw up the stitches a little more until the edge of the fabrics is roughly 4cm away from the doweling. Finnish off.

Work the 11cm radius circle next in the same way, but this time draw the fabric up so that it is only 3cms away from the dowel, making sure that this 'branch' conceals the stuffing from the previous branch.

Continue in this way until all the circles have been added to the Christmas tree.

With PVA glue, stick the Christmas tree bauble to the top of the doweling to create a Christmas tree topper. Decorate the branches with beads, small bells, stings of pearls and anything to hand - a couple of little stitches should hold each decoration in place.

Finish off by dabbing a few drops of essential oils to the Christmas tree branch to create a pleasant aroma.

SantasPostbag.co.uk Lots of Christmas Fun Stuff to make and do

Advent Town

Advent town is a three-dimensional advent calendar. At Christmas time children open a door of an advent calendar each day to count down the days to Christmas. Nowadays most advent calendars conceal a chocolate behind each door.

Advent town is an advent calendar. The town has 23 houses and a church. The buildings each have a door numbers, the door numbers represent a day of December. For example house number 4 is the 4th of December. The church is Christmas Eve.

Each building is made from thin card. The nets for the buildings can be printed directly on to the card. Advent town building nets can be printed here...

Advent Town House nets Can be printed free of charge here...


Clich here.. See the images of the Advent Town House Accessories

Cut out the nets, score the lines and assemble with a small amount of glue but only stick down one side of the roof because when the house has been decorated a small treat can be hidden inside the house.

Decorate with paint, pens, windows and doors cut from magazines, stickers, buttons, and beads, sticky paper and other materials around the house. Leave the house to dry.

The treats for inside the houses could be a party sized chocolate bar or a mini box of Smarties, any party bag type novelties, a lollipop or a hand full of boiled sweets. A Christmas joke can also be added. Christmas Jokes can be found here...

Once the house has been filled the roof can be closed, with the envelope type flap tucked inside the roof. Number all of the houses 1 to 23; the church being number 24.

Create a town scene with the buildings and look forward to the 1st of December.

Visit Santas Postbag the website where Santa send children emails

Christmas Tree Candy Canes

The first record of candy canes dates back as far as 1670, when a cathedral in Germany made sweets to give to the children during a nativity service. The sweets were shaped to look like a shepherd's crooks.

Candy canes are still popular today and some Christians have found other meaning in the humble sweet. If you turn the shepherd crook upside-down it suddenly becomes the letter 'J' for Jesus, and the red-and-white stripes represented Christ's blood and purity.


To make Christmas Tree Candy Cane sweets you will need...
12 tablespoons of icing sugar,
1 egg white,
Red food colouring,
Green food colouring,
Peppermint flavouring.
Lemon flavouring.

Remember to wash your hands and clean the work surfaces before you begin.

Method...
Add to a bowl the icing sugar, egg white, 4 drops of peppermint flavouring. Mix.

Divide the mixture into two bowls and add 12 drops of red food colouring to one bowl. Mix well, and kneed the mixture to form two smooth balls. If the mixture is a little too wet add more icing sugar.

Roll the balls into long sausages and fix the ends of the sausages together and then twist the sausages together. Give the sausage a roll to make round again.

Cut the sausage into lengths and bend the top over to for a shepherd's crook, or a 'J' and place on some greaseproof paper or a chopping board to dry. Putting them into a fridge overnight helps the drying process. Then the candy canes are ready for hanging on the Christmas tree.

You could also try green coloured, and lemon tasting candy canes for a variation on the traditional.

For more Christmas Decoation ideas visit SantasPostbag

Are you on Santa's Naughty or Nice list? Find out here...

Special Memories Album

A special memory’s album is an ideal Christmas, birthday, anniversary, wedding or christening gift because it is a collection of special memories. The album could include photos, poems, certificates, concert tickets, and newspaper clippings, scraps of fabric or anything else that holds sentimental value. It could be a kind of “This is our life” album.

This special gift is easy to make, all you need is…
Glue, double sided sticky tape, ribbon, a hole punch, memories and contents and some multicoloured thin card (ring binder dividers are cheap and ideal, just cut of the holes and tabs).

Cut the sheets of card to the size you want the album to be.

Choose a coloured card for the front and back cover. The front and back covers need to be double thickness card to give the finished album some rigidity. Stick two sheets of card together, one on top of the other for the front cover and do the same for the back. Set to one side to dry.

The front cover will need a title of sorts, you could name it “Special memories album” or “An album for Mum” or “Grandad – This is your life”. You could create a title page on a computer with images and a decorative font and print it out and glue it to the front cover of the album. Alternatively you could paint or draw the title. You could cut out flowers from some wrapping paper to make a small collage to decorate the front of the album.

On the front of the front cover rule a pencil line 3cm in form the spine edge of the album. With a pair of scissors score this line, so that the front cover will open with ease.

Sticking in your memories…
Cut some strips of card, 1cm wide on assorted colours.

Take one strip of card and a piece of card and lay the strips diagonally over one of the corners and fold the excess strip behind the sheet of card to form a triangle. Remove the triangle from the sheet of card and trim away the excess strip of card. These are the “Photo corners mounts”. Make a set of four (one to fit each corner of a photo or document). Put some double sided sticky tape on the back of each photo corner mount and stick the memories into place in the album.

Between the memories can be decorated with stickers or more wrapping paper decoupage to form some continuity throughout the album.

When your album pages are complete you need to mark the centre along the spine edge of each page and also the front and back covers. This mark is used as a guide for the hole-punch to ensure all the holes are central. Hole-punch each page.

Put all the pages in order and thread the ribbon through the holes to tie the pages together, making sure the ribbon ends are at the front of the album. Tie a knot in the ribbon ends and then tie a bow for a decorative finish.



More of S. Roberts crafty gift ideas can be found at http://busy-crafting.blogspot.com/. For Christmas crafts visit http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/ where you can also send a free letter to your child from Santa Claus. SantasPostbag is in association with http://www.bigboystoyz.com together keeping Christmas Magical.

Three French Hens Novelty Tea Cosy

By S. Roberts
Inspired by the Christmas Carroll 'The Twelve days of Christmas', this easy knitting pattern shows you how to make a Three French Hens tea cosy.

Don't be fooled into thinking this tea cosy must be difficult to make, because it is really very quick and easy with minimal shaping.

To make the three French hens, tea cosy you will need...
5.5 mm, UK size 5 or US size 9 knitting needles,
3.25 mm, UK size 10 or US size 4 knitting needles,
50g White double knitting wool,
50g Lemon double knitting wool,
25g Dark Brown double knitting wool
25g Red double knitting wool
Other oddments of hen coloured double knitting wool and scraps of felt for the beak.

Knit the Front and Back of the tea cosy to match.
Using the white wool and the lemon wool as double thickness yarn and size 5 knitting needles, cast on 28 stitches and work 38 rows in straight garter stitch (Knit each row)

Leave the stitches on a spare needle until later.

Shaping the top...
Using white and lemon wool as a double yarn proceed to knit across the tea cosy front and then tea cosy back as follows...

Shaping the top Row 1: *K5, K2 tog* repeat to end

Next and every alternate row Knit.

Row 3: *K4, K2 tog* repeat to end.
Row 5: *K3, K2 tog* repeat to end.
Row 7: *K2, K2 tog* repeat to end.
Row 9: *K1, K2 tog* repeat to end.
Row 11: *K2 tog* repeat to end.

Thread the end of the yarn through the remaining stitches and through the loop of the yarn itself and draw up the knitting tightly and Finnish off.

With the front and back right sides together, sew about 9.5cm from the finishing off point down the side seam towards the cast on edge.

At the bottom of each side seam, sew about 3cm upwards. The holes are left for the teapot handle and spout.

Knitting the hens...Using a hen coloured double knitting wool and with size 10 needles, cast on 16 stitches and work 16 rows in stocking stitch (knit a row, purl a row)

Cast off.

To make up the hen...
Fold the square of knitting in half diagonally (with the right sides of the work facing) to form a triangle. Sew along one edge, turn and stuff lightly and neatly over-sew up the opening. With the thread still attached, sew small running stitches half way along the folded side of the triangle. Then insert the needle into the middle of this side and come out at the opposite corner, passing the yarn through on the inside of the hen. Draw up the stitching tightly to the hen's tail and head a bird like shape, and finish off.

The Hen's Comb (The red crest on the top of its head)...

With red double knitting wool and sized 10 knitting needles, cast on 7 stitches.

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K1 *Bring the wool round the needle to the front of the work and K2 tog* repeat to end.
Row 3: Purl
Cast off.

To make up the Comb...
Fold the red knitting in half so that the holes form a little scallop edging. Over-sew the long straight edges together and sew into position on the hen's head.

Finishing off...
Finish off the hen by sewing an eye on either side of its head in dark brown wool. Cut a diamond shape from black felt, fold in half to create a triangle and sew into place. With red wool sew a couple of loops just below the beck for the hen's wattles.

Make three hens in this way for the top of the tea cosy.

The Nest...
Using dark brown knitting wool and size 5 knitting needles cast on 60 stitches and then cast off.

Sew this long length of knitting to the tea cosy to form four loops, a bit like a flower. These loops make the hen's nest.

Sew the three hens into position on the nest at the top of the tea cosy.

Make a peg art Tea Pot stand for your tea pot, Click Here to see how...

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