I am a a hoarder (“what?!”, my family and friends cry, “it cannot be true!!“) so I have all manner of lovely boxes just waiting to be made into something lovely and useful again. This box was a box of aftershave that my wonderful mother (knowing my penchant for such things) saved from my (delightfully-smelling) brothers’ bins.

I covered it in old vintage book-pages, covering any sign of its former life (note the bottom outside half had lovely deep green sides unblemished by logos, so I left that unpapered in contrast)

Then I started adding papers, laces, old maps, buttons and ephemera on top; here is a series of photographs I took as I made the decorative top:

Before I added the buttons, butterfly anything else 3-D, I covered the whole thing with PVA/mod podge to seal it all (this also makes to “sit” down together.

I scripted “Keepsake Box” on the coffee-stained card and it’s ready for gifting!

What you need is: soft towel (and I also decorated some matching face-cloths too, shown at the end of the post),

ribbon, contrasting yarn/embroidery floss, three circles of fabric (I used a deep maroon, smaller circle of cream and a smaller floral one on top of another) and a big red button with a cream one on top:

Using the contrasting yarn, I sewed a simple running stitch through the ribbon, across one side:

I measured out where three piles of fabric circles would be equidistance to each other:

and sewed them on:

For the face-cloths (I bought a pack of three that matched the towel in fluffiness and colour!),

I did a pretty similar embellishment, using the same pile of circles and buttons:

I added a loop of ribbon to hang them by the sink:

And there you have it: A matching towel and face-cloth set, sweet and simple!

Another frame idea: a bit of a mad idea, but I have to say I love the eccentric look of it!!

Start with a plain frame (if not white, paint it first). You need glue, ribbons, lace, buttons and some decorative paper flowers. I decided on a faded-vintage-y look and dyed some lace in tea to give them an “old” appearance.

Decide on your arrangement and then glue down (I think I need to make little Youtube videos for these, a picture saying a thousand words etc etc)

I then put one of my mixed media collages into the frame…

but a much simpler photo with a plain mount would be just lovely, (and would tone down the eccentricities of this a lot) (!)

You need: plain frames (Ikea do a great selection), strong PVA glue/Mod Podge, lots and lots of flat buttons!

Put a layer of glue on the frame, and arrange your buttons in random colour and size all around it.

The variations on this are endless: all one colour, symmetrical arrangement, a few buttons on the top, bottom and sides, or on the corners…

Tomorrow, I’ll be making another decorated frame, but for now I’ll leave you with my finished framed picture of my beautiful niece, Erica:

(photograph of Erica by Joyce Byrne Photography)

This year, it would be really nice to actually post some Christmas cards rather than write them a couple of days before Christmas and see them into the New Year languishing on the dresser (I did consider changing the date before you ask)

Anyway. A year later and I am now starting my Christmas-card-making far too late to send out of Ireland, but terminally late I shall have to remain yet again.

I believe, the only way to make any sort of cards for an occasion is in bulk. That means being prepared, having your stacks of materials ready, and having a production-line process going on.

The materials I used here were those useful old book-pages (feature heavily in all I do!!), beautiful paper napkins, green tissue paper, buttons and stars I cut from old Irish books (with Gaelic script)

I lay out my cards and with a glue stick stuck down the book-pages, tissue, napkin, star and two buttons on top.

I had my little helper making and creating at her end of the table

(I just LOVE the cards she made for her brothers)

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