A Unique, Handcrafted Gift to Celebrate Your Family - Family Birthstone Drops

With Christmas fast approaching (yes, we are now less than 100 days away from the big day!) my thoughts are turning towards Christmas planning. This year, I am looking at ways to create a more compassionate and sustainable festive season, and will be sourcing more food and gifts from independent businesses that share my ethics and values. I love the idea of giving unique, personalised gifts that are lovingly made by craftsmen, rather than things that are mass produced in factories.

Something that perfectly ties in with my Christmas wishes this year is this beautiful, handcrafted birthstone family tree set in a tactile wooden drop.

Made using reclaimed and repurposed woods such as mahogany, each Family Stone Drop begins as a hand carved ergonomic and tactile wooden drop. The ornaments are then handset with the birthstones of your family, configured in an arrangement approved by you, to create a bespoke piece that is completely unique and as individual as you are. Each creation comes with a numbered and dated certificate, in a beautiful presentation box.

My Birthstone Family Tree has the gemstones of Ian and I at the top, with my five children and two grandchildren included below us. Each of the three generations portrayed has a different sized stone, ours being the biggest and my two grandbabies having the smallest stones. It's a beautiful representation of our bloodline at this moment in time, displayed in a very unique way.

I love having something that represents the people I love most in the world that I can display in my home. It's a great talking point! I also find it very comforting to hold, making me feel close to everyone. It really is so tactile and feels so nice in my hand. There is something about wood; the warmth, the texture and the smell, that I love. And knowing that this is made using specially sourced, reclaimed wood makes it eco-friendly, creative recycling at its very best.

The family stone drop would make a wonderful gift for any parents and grandparents this Christmas. The presentation of the piece makes it perfect for giving. The unique design and loving craftsmanship makes something precious to treasure for years to come.

The birthstone family trees will soon be available to order on Etsy but if you want to express an interest or find out more, you can find the talented craftsman behind the product on Facebook, where you can drop him a message!

Stampin' Up - Hand Crafted Goodies For Halloween

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

Treat your little goblins this Halloween with Stampin’ Up!’s Ghoulish Googlies sweet bags. Simple and easy to make, they are the perfect trick or treat gifts to help put a personalised touch on your spooky celebrations. Fun for all the family to get involved with, these are ideal for customising with all of your favourite treats.

For £15.95 you can buy a bundle to make 10 treat bags to keep the ghosts and ghoulies away!

We were sent a set of bags, stampers, ink and glue dots so we could make our own bags ready to use for Halloween, packed with some yummy chocolatey treats.  The kit we received contained everything needed to make ten beautiful hand crafted gift bags.  The Halloween themed stampers feature cute, spooky characters that will be fantastic for all sorts of Halloween craft projects, beyond the gift bags.  They made lovely clean, ink prints with super detail.  the stick on googlie eyes and the autumnal coloured thread really do complete a very professional looking finish.

I was so impressed with the quality of the products and the design was excellent.  I also liked that the ink stampers fitted back into their plastic box for storage.  We were very pleased with our end result and can't wait to give out our gorgeously ghoulish gift bags stuffed full of Trick or Treat goodies!

Stampin' Up also sell a huge selection of inspiring craft products and sets for all seasons.  Their Christmas range is wonderful with kits for making hand crafted cards, gift bags, decorations, gift wrap and labels that  will be fun to make and lovely to share with loved ones (who will be delighted to receive them).  

All Stampin’ Up! products are available via a network of demonstrators. Visit www.stampinup.co.uk for more information and to find your local demonstrator.