Robin Red Breast - Fun Christmas cross stitch motif

Robin Red Breast - Fun Christmas cross stitch motif

Hello everyone,
Today we have a pair of cheeky red breasted Robins getting ready for Christmas.
I really couldn't decide if he looked better with or without the crown (or is it a party hat) so I decided to include both versions in this post.

Colour	Where is it used	Anchor Thread numbers
Dark brown	Outlines	359
Light brown	Robin main colour	324
White	In eye	2
Red	Red breast	1098
Yellow	On beak	295

Colour	Where is it used	Anchor Thread numbers
Dark brown	Outlines	359
Light brown	Robin main colour	324
White	In eye	2
Red	Red breast and details on crown	1098
Dark yellow	Outline on crown and on beak	298
Yellow	Main colour on crown and beak	295

Reference picture found on Pixabay listed in the public domain:
https://pixabay.com/en/bird-christmas-card-blue-modern-979481/

I love to watch the Robins in the local park. They are very bold birds for their size and quick too. You have to be really watching out for a flash of red to see them. 

For more Christmas themed designs here are some links:

Christmas designs

Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design.
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters!
Wavy Christmas tree - Simple Christmas card cross stitch design
Christmas Angel playing a trumpet cross stitch design
Simple cross stitched Christmas gift tag designs

Single colour Christmas card designs - Simple to sew cross stitched cards

Bah humbug - Cheeky Christmas cross stitch design

Reindeer heart cross stitch design for a large Christmas card

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

Reindeer heart cross stitch design for a large Christmas card

Reindeer heart cross stitch design for a large Christmas card

Colour	Anchor Thread numbers	DMC thread numbers
Red	335	606

Inspiration for this design came from this picture in the public domain:
https://pixabay.com/en/reindeer-love-christmas-decoration-1087610/

Hello Everyone, 

A few of my friends and I like to make a start on our Christmas cards in January while we are still feeling inspired from Christmas. So for fellow early Christmas card creators heres a lovely reindeer design. Since this design is only one colour it will be easy to switch up to colours to match your card stock or just what you think looks nice. 

This design could look great in variegated thread too in a fun Christmas gradient. 

I left the center of the design plain so that you can add your own message. From a simple Merry Christmas to a fancier Joyeux Noel the choice is yours. 

For more Christmas themed cross stitch designs here are some links:

Christmas designs

Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design.
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters!
Wavy Christmas tree - Simple Christmas card cross stitch design
Christmas Angel playing a trumpet cross stitch design
Simple cross stitched Christmas gift tag designs

Single colour Christmas card designs - Simple to sew cross stitched cards

Bah humbug - Cheeky Christmas cross stitch design

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

Bah humbug - Cheeky Christmas cross stitch design

Bah humbug - Cheeky Christmas cross stitch design

Colour	Anchor Thread numbers
Black	403
White	2
Red	334

Hello everyone,

Today I wanted to share a new Christmas design for anyone not feeling too Christmassy this year. 

Its been quite the year hasn't it? So I'll be making this as this years Christmas decoration. 

For this picture the Humbug is a humbug sweet. If you have not tried one of these delightful snacks before its a boiled sweet usually flavoured with Peppermint which is striped black and white. Though other colour and flavour combinations exist the back and white minty sweets are by far the most often seen. 

For more information check them out on Wikipedia:

Humbug (sweet) - Wikipedia

Christmas designs

Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design.
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters!
Wavy Christmas tree - Simple Christmas card cross stitch design
Christmas Angel playing a trumpet cross stitch design
Simple cross stitched Christmas gift tag designs

Single colour Christmas card designs - Simple to sew cross stitched cards

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.

Single colour Christmas card designs - Simple to sew cross stitched cards

Single colour Christmas card designs - Simple to sew cross stitched cards

                                    

A lovely ornate heart for someone you love this Christmas

A bold Christmas tree to wish someone a Merry Christmas

Colour	Anchor Thread numbers	DMC thread numbers
Green	923	699

Hello everyone,

I was asked for a couple of designs which only used one colour to keep my nieces busy while they visited Grandma without having to bring along lots and lots of threads. I chose green for these because green is very festive and goes with almost any other Christmas decoration but theres no reason to stick with green if theres another colour you'd love. Why not try one of these with some variegated thread to really let the colour variations of the thread show through.

If you wanted the areas which are white in the original design to be a different colour you could always fill this in or to save yourself a little time (since there's always many Christmas cards to sew at once) change up the colour of the aida to something which compliments or contrasts with the embroidery thread you are stitching with.

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas time and can have great fun with their family as well as fitting in a little relaxing stitching in the holidays.

Much love and happy stitching
Gemma xx

If you'd like to see some more Christmas themed cross stitches here are some links:

Christmas designs

Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design.
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters!
Wavy Christmas tree - Simple Christmas card cross stitch design
Christmas Angel playing a trumpet cross stitch design
Simple cross stitched Christmas gift tag designs

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

How to make painted Kirby bauble Christmas tree decoration

How to make painted Kirby bauble Christmas tree decoration

Hello everyone,
Its that time of year to get your decorations on the tree. I got given a few baubles covered in scrapes and chipped colour which were not neat enough for the tree but not broken so I just didn't want to throw them out. Instead I decided that painting them was the answer to cover all the little scuffs.

This little Kirby bauble came about because I thought this character would be perfect to place near the star on the tree. With his round shape he is perfect for a Christmas bauble and his happy face seems perfect to bring a smile to those who see it.

So with no further ado lets get to this tutorial going :)

What you will need:
Spare bauble
Acrylic paint in pink, black, white dark pink and blue.
String or ribbon to hang your bauble from the tree.
Paint sealant spray (optional)

Step 1:
Get your bauble, if you have managed to get one in light pink skip over to step 2. However if like me you havn't been able to find a pink bauble or have a scuffed one you will need to paint one pink.
Paint it in light pink acrylic paint, you may need to paint one half at a time while resting it in a cup to dry. (I used an egg cup for a small bauble)

Tip: If you are able to remove the piece of the bauble with the hanging loop do so before painting the whole bauble, this will help it stay neat for later but if you cannot remove it be careful when painting around it.
This piece cannot be removed on all baubles so do not force it else you risk breaking it.

Step 2:
Once your light pink paint is fully dry draw on Kirbys features in pencil.

Heres an example of the pose I used. The feet are up around the body like Kirby is sitting so it looks correct around the bauble. Feel free to copy this pose or make your own.

Tip: Don't forget that the bauble will be hanging a certain way up so it is recommended to ensure that the hanger is facing upwards when drawing your pattern. 

Step 3:

Next we need to fill in some of your pattern
Fill in the eyes and mouth with black and the feet with dark pink. Let this dry before the next step

Step 4:

Paint in black acrylic around the arms, you will need a thin paintbrush for this

Put a white dot at the top of each eye then allow the paint to dry

Step 5:

Add a blue dot at the bottom of each eye. Then using the dark pink you used before for the feet add a little oval on each cheek and a tounge at the bottom of the mouth.

Step 6: (optional)

Once all of the paint is dry use the paint sealant spray according to the packet instructions and allow it to dry as recommended by your product. 

This will help prevent the paint on your bauble from chipping if the bauble is dropped but you can get away without doing it if you are careful with your new decoration. 

Finally hang your new Kirby onto your Christmas tree. Add some ribbon or string to the bauble to allow you to do this easily or hide it among the branches. I think a Kirby bauble looks really nice with some gold/yellow star shaped decorations which reminds us of course of Kirby's warp star 

And that's it! how easy is that? I hope everyone has fun upcycling their old Christmas baubles.

Much love and happy crafting
Gemma xx

Christmas Bauble Upcycling

Upcycling worn out Christmas Baubles
Spiderman Halloween decoration
How to make a Bloody handprint Halloween decoration from an old Christmas bauble
How to make a dripping bauble Halloween decoration.
Pokemon Gastly Halloween decoration
How to make a Wrapped sweet Christmas decoration.
How to make a Squirtle Squad decoration
How to make a Jake the dog decoration
How to make a Chain Chomp Christmas bauble

For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 2 - Glass markers and table decorations - advanced designs

Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 2 - Glass markers and table decorations - advanced designs

Hello everyone,

Heres part two of the Fun things to make with Simbrix posts, this time I'll be concentrating on a few designs which require a little construction to make them work out.

If you'd like to try your hand at a few easier designs first here's a link to my first post containing a few fun things to make:
Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 1 - Easy designs

First up are some markers to wrap around your wine glasses to help you renember who has which drink.

Flat glass markers

Here are a few examples of shapes which can be used for the flat glass markers, renember each one needs to be different to help tell apart the glasses. They can be different colours for each glass or mix up the shapes for each person.
To attach them to the glass split your finished design in half and reconnect the Simbrix around the stem of the glass. My glasses are standard thin stem glasses, if your wine glasses have thicker stems you may need to make the hole in the middle a little bigger to fit your marker around the glass.

Christmas tree Glass marker

This one is a little complicated to build and the exact number of pieces that you will need will depend on how tall the stem on your glass is. For each piece split it in the middle and re-form it around the stem. It is easier to attach the bottom pieces first and work up. 

For my glass I used:

3 x shape 1 (shape one is the trunk of the tree)

2 x shape 2

3 x shape 3

2 x shape 4

1 x Shape 5

1 x Shape 6

For the green shapes feel free to mix up the greens between the light and dark green to give your tree a more natural feel. Id you'd like to make more than one as a glass marker why not replace a few of the edge Simbrix with other colours so that it looks like your Christmas tree has a few colourful Christmas baubles. 

For special occasions my Mum let me drink my lemonade out of a wine glass. I felt so very grown up with my fizzy pop in a wine glass. However it was revealed to me later that the wine glass was rather small compared to our large tumbler glasses and it served a second purpose of making sure I only had a small glass of lemonade. :) It worked though and in fact I still do it today.

Standing train decoration

 

 

For this design make one copy of the train and three copies of the stand (the shape at the top) Once all of the pieces are made simply slot the stand piece into the gap in each wheel and your train will stand up.

This method can be used for all sorts of standing sculptures just make sure to leave a gap of two Simbrix spaced evenly on your sculpture to fit the stands in.

 

 

3D Christmas tree

This cute little Christmas tree sculpture is made from two pieces of Simbrix sculpture slotted together.

 

Simply build the two pieces as shown above (feel free to mix up the greens on the tree or add bricks of other colours to look like decorations)

Then slot the two pieces of Simbrix together to create the 3D tree.

 

Why not use these to give your favourite toys a Christmas tree. My tree ended up just the right size for the kids room in my dolls house but it could also be used as a mini tree for Barbie sized dolls so they can join in the Christmas fun.

 

Table markers

 

 

This is a little idea for a table marker, it is made to place at the dinner table to remind family, friends and guests where their seat is for their meal.

They can be made plain just like the picture above or made with a letter in the middle to represent the first letter of the name of the person who will be sitting in that place.

 

To put your table marker together build the marker and two stands (the shape on the left), then slot the stands into the gaps in the place marker section. With two stands your place marker should stand firmly without wobbling.

 

 

These colours are only suggestions of course. Why not make each one in the favourite colours of the person who the stand is being made for? Alternatively the stands could be made to match the table decorations or just at random with whatever colours you find fun to use.

 

Anyway I hope everyone has a awesome Christmas, if you get a bag of Simbrix under your Christmas tree have a great time making some fun sculptures!

 

Much love and happy crafting.

Gemma x

For more information about Simbrix here are some links:

A preview of Simbrix - Interconnecting bricks for creative sculptures
Fun things to make with Simbrix
Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 1 - Easy designs

However if you are here for a few christmas cross stitch designs here are some links

Christmas designs
Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design. 
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters! 

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here. 

Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 1 - Easy designs

Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 1 - Easy designs

Hello Everyone,

This week I got my Christmas present early and it was a big bag of Simbrix, a bead toy where each bead slides together without a need for a peg board or like other bead sets it does not need to be ironed. None of the items I have in the above picture were ironed, they stayed together long enough to put on display and better still can be taken apart again to make brand new designs whenever you like. 

In addition would you believe that all of these designs came from one Crafter kit, I did not need to dip into the collection of Simbrix I already owned. 
If you'd like to visit the Official Simbrix page to find out more heres a link: http://www.simbrix.com/

There is also another blog post to help you create some more difficult items in the above picture such as the train, 3D Christmas tree and glass markers. Find the post at the following link
http://buzybobbins.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/fun-things-to-make-with-simbrix-this_23.html

Without further ado lets get on to a few easy Simbrix designs:

A simple Christmas present with a bow. 

This is a little christmas present, feel free to change up the colours to any ones you like. With 17 colours in each Simbrix set you'll have loads of combinations to add to your decorations. 

 Music Notes

A pair of Christmas Angels

This is a pair of cute angels, feel free to change up the colour of the dresses, hair and skin to make a selection of angels to match the decorations you have. 

Cute little mouse

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse! 

Why not pop this little mouse up on your mantlepiece to keep an eye on the goings on in the house and to wait for Santa to deliver the presents. 

Doctor Who's Sonic screwdriver

This is the Sonic Screwdriver for the 11th Doctor, just the thing to make while waiting for the Doctor Who Christmas special to begin. Watching the Christmas special is quickly becoming a tradition within my family as we follow the adventures of our favorite TV show. 

Snowman snow globe

Heres a super cute little snowman in its scarf sitting inside a snowglobe, it was inspired by one of my Christmas ornaments on my bookshelf. If you like the Snowman can be made separately as a small simple design without the snowglobe.

Pokeball and Great Ball from the Pokemon Series

So how many people are waiting for Christmas to get their copy of the latest Pokemon game - Pokemon Sun/ Moon? I personally can't wait to open this present. I may be a little bit behind my friends but I know I'll be picking Popplio and with that super cute little seal by my side I'm sure I'll catch up in no time!

Simple flower 

With this little flower you can change up the colours in any way you fancy. If a few of these flower patterns are joined together in a rectangle this pattern could be used as a coaster or a place to rest the Christmas sweet bowl. Making a few of these to join up could be a fun project for kids to do together. 

Christmas candle

This is a little candle based on the classic Victorian candle holder design, the holder will also look good in yellow as if it was a brass or cold covered design. 

If you can't get enough Simbrix designs part two of this post for more advanced designs can be found here:
http://buzybobbins.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/fun-things-to-make-with-simbrix-this_23.html

For more information about Simbrix here are some links:

A preview of Simbrix - Interconnecting bricks for creative sculptures
Fun things to make with Simbrix
Fun things to make with Simbrix this Christmas - Part 2 - Glass markers and table decorations - advanced designs

However if you are here for a few christmas cross stitch designs here are some links

Christmas designs
Christmas stocking maze
Christmas bauble collection
Gingerbread people
Colourful Christmas Crackers
Christmas bauble maze
Cute advent calendar motifs
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse - card and bookmark design. 
Pengiun in a Christmas hat
Making friends - Santas Elf making a snowman
Fur topped stocking Christmas card design.
Sprouts! Just say no! Christmas cross stitch design for sprout haters! 

 For the Buzy Bobbins Index page Click here.