Step 1: draw a template
Draw a template for your tea cosy around your teapot onto white paper, adding 5cm (2 inches) on all sides.

Step 2: cut out your material
Cut two semi-circles in pink, two in blue and two pieces of wadding.

Step 3: decorate the outer layer
Before sewing the pieces together, decorate one of the semi-circles using felt scraps, embroidery thread and buttons.

A reversible tea cosy
Pin three pieces together: the pink on the bottom, wadding in-between and decorated layer on top and sew along the bottom with a sewing machine. Repeat with the other three pieces. Sew the two sides together and decorate around the edge with blanket stitch.

Accordion book with pockets
This handmade book has an accordion design with pockets to hold seed packets.

Step One
Make the book cover, using a square of bookboard (or reuse the card at the back of an old sketchbook). I've measured this to fit seed packets for herbs. You can make it in any size you wish. Cut paper to cover the board 5mm (1/2 inch) bigger than the board and cut the corners before folding over and gluing the paper to the board.

Step Two
After the glue has dried, you can paint or distress the cover. I sponged mine with green gouache paint to create a mottled effect. I then sprayed it with matt varnish.

Step Three
You will need to make a tag for the title of your book. I reused a tag from an item of clothing I bought recently and stamped a title on to it.

Step Four
Attach the tag to the cover with a decorate brad. I used a silver flower brad.

Step Five
With a bradawl, make two holes in the front cover and wrap a short piece of cord around a button or toggle to attach it to the front cover.

Step Six
You will need a length of cord that wraps around the book. Attach one end to the opposite side of the front cover to your toggle or fastener by making a hole with a bradawl and gluing it at the back. Attach a bead or charm to the loose end of the cord.

Step Seven
You will need to fold the paper for the inside pages. It needs to be a third longer than your seed packet or item and long enough to fold into an accordion shape. Fold over the bottom of the long strip of paper and fold according to the width and number of your seed packets.

Step Eight
Glue the ends of the accordion pages to the back of the book covers. The pages will cover over the back of your cord and any brads you've attached to the front cover.

Step Nine
Once you've glued the pages to the covers, you can start to decorate the pages. I made some maple leaves using paper. Cut out the leaf shape, paint and leave to dry.

Step Ten
Glue the paper leaves to the pages and glue a short length of string to look like the stem. Use stamps as lettering and to decorate the leaf. I used a ladybird stamp to decorate mine.

Step Eleven
You can insert the seed packets into their pockets.

Step Twelve
I decorated the pages with shell stamps and Indigo ink.

Finished handmade accordian book
You can give the finished handmade accordion book as a gift.

Five of Hearts Valentine's card
Here are two versions of the same Five of Hearts Valentine's card design. One made with paper hearts, the other with felt hearts.

Ace of Hearts Valentine's card
When the card is opened, you can see an ace of hearts card with a small envelope inviting the receiver to open it.

Step one
You can use any type of card or cardstock. Here I've used an A4 size sheet of card, which I folded in half and rounded the corners with scissors.

Step two
Glue a decorative card back of your choice to the back of the card. You will need a back for the Five of Hearts and another for the back of the Ace of Hearts. Then you can add paint or ink to give the card a vintage look. I used gouache paint but you could use Distress Ink.

Step three
You will need to cut a whole from the front of the card. the size and shape of the hole is your choice but it needs to be in the centre and to line up with the decorative back. I used a bradawl to make holes as a guide and then a craft knife and ruler to cut lines between the holes.

Step four
The end result should look like this. I used the bradawl holes as a guide to make sure that the hole lined up with the decorative backing before cutting.

Step five
Use a heart and a number 5 to stamp the corners of the card. Look at an actual playing card to see how it should look. Two of the hearts are upside down.

Step six
You will need to cut out five hearts from paper or material of your choice. Use letter stamps to create a message of your choice on the hearts. Mine say "The start of a...?"

Detail of Valentine's mini envelope
And on the inside of the Ace of Hearts envelope: "beautiful relationship?" You can create the mini envelope from paper that has two different patterns on each side.

Detail of Valentine's mini envelope
I also created a mini Ace of Hearts card to go inside the envelope. You can add a message of your choice.

Finished Five of Hearts Valentine card
Here's the card made in paper.

Five of Hearts Valentine card with felt hearts
And here I've used felt hearts.

Book covers
I created these book covers with reused materials such as board, belts, pegs and buttons.

Detail of bird on book cover
The passport cover features a bird holding a suitcase, made from paper and brads.

Step 1
Choose your paper. I chose a dark blue card for the background, white tissue and silver foil for the trees.

Step 2
Fold the paper in half and cut out the tree shapes.

Step 3
Position them on the card.

Step 4
Sew the tree shapes down the middle, using a sewing machine. Alternatively, glue in place and draw stitches with a gel pen.

Finished Christmas Tree Card
Add final embellishments to the card. I stamped snowflakes onto the white tissue tree shapes.

More Christmas Tree Cards
Here are more examples of Christmas cards. I decorated the tree shapes with small paper cutouts in a contrasting colour.

Finished snowflake card
This is a very simple Christmas or winter time card embellished with glittery paper snowflakes.

Step 1
First of all fold a piece of card and cut it with a craft knife on a cutting mat to the required size.

Step 2
To decorate the card, make paper snowflakes. Choose a paper that is easy to fold. Here I am demonstrating with ordinary white paper. Draw around a round object onto the paper.

Step 3
Cut out the circle and fold in half.

Step 4
Fold the paper circle again into quarters.

Step 5
And finally fold the paper circle again, until it looks like this.

Step 6
Cut out shapes along the edge of the folded paper.

Step 7
Unfold the paper and see what the snowflake looks like. Experiment and see which shapes you like best, before adding them to the card. Embellish the snowflakes with crystals or star shapes and stick them onto your folded card.

Step 1
Open up an old envelope and use it as a template to trace onto the paper of your choice. I used brown parcel wrapping paper.

Step 2
Cut out the paper and fold as per original envelope.

Step 3
If you are sending a greetings card with embellishments that need protection, cut out a piece of card that will cover the front of your greetings card. This step is optional.

Step 4
Glue and stick down the edges of the envelope over the top of the protective card, if using.

Step 5
Glue the back of the envelope over the top of the protective card, if using. Alternatively, just glue the back to the sides of the envelope.

Step 6
Fold over the top to form a flap.

The finished envelope
I used brown parcel paper to make the envelope and added the finishing touch of string drawn on with a white gel pen.

Step one
Choose four different colours of paper/card. It is best to choose contrasting colours and textures.

Step two
You will need to cut out shapes for the head, body and wings as shown.

Step three
Glue the shapes onto a neutral background. Use two buttons for the eyes.

Step four
Cut a hole for the owl's beak. Children must be supervised by an adult.

Step five
Insert a paperclip into the hole. This will form the owl's beak.

Step six
Cut out shapes that look like feathers. I used a die-cut that was shaped as a leaf.

Step seven
Glue the feather shapes on the front of the owl's body and on the wings. Draw 'stitches' around the body, face and wings.

Finished owl card
Use wool to sew on the buttons for eyes and stitches for the feet. Alternatively, glue on the eyes and draw on the feet with a pencil or pen.

Finished owl card
The owl card can be made in many colours.

Close up of finished porthole gift box
You can add chocolate fish or any sea related items to keep in your finished gift box.

Step one
Find a box that you'd like to recycle and paint it silver.

Step two
Use two round objects of the right size, one smaller than the other, to draw around onto a piece of card (cardstock). You could use a CD or roll of tape.

Step three
Paint the card silver or wrap with silver foil. Make a pattern of small dots around the edge with a bradawl.

Step four
Add brads at even intervals to look like the studs around a porthole.

Step five
Attach a hinge with another brad.

Step six
The finished metal ring should look like this.

Step seven
Attach it to the lid of the box with glue or glue dots or by using brads and make a hole in the centre of the lid. You can add clear acetate to the back. Fit the lid on the box, line with shimmery paper and add chocolates or candy of your choice that has a sea theme.

Finished gift box with chocolates
The gift box is great for holding chocolates. You can add whatever you wish, as long as the paper is strong enough to hold your gift. Experiment with scrap paper first, before moving onto a more expensive paper.

Step one
You can use any size of rectangular paper, depending on whether you want a small or a large box. (I used an A3 sheet of paper, but a standard US size is just as effective.) Fold a flap along one of the shortest edges.

Step two
Fold the paper in half so that the two shortest sides meet.

Step three
Unfold the paper. Using the middle fold line as a guide, fold the two shortest sides into the middle.

Step four
The paper should look like this with the two sides folded in.

Step five
Unfold the paper again and fold into thirds along the length of the paper.

Step six
Using the fold lines as a guide, cut the paper to form four flaps along each side. Decide which is the bottom of the box and cut three of the flaps so that they are shorter. Cut along the edge where you made the first fold to leave a small flap.

Step seven
Glue the small flap and wrap around to form the sides of the box.

Step eight
Fold in the shorter flaps at the bottom of the box. Glue the longest flap to form the bottom of the box.

Step nine
Fold in two of the flaps at the top of the box. Fold in the remaining two flaps so that they meet in the middle.

Step ten
Make a hole in the middle of the top flaps, ready to thread ribbon through.

Finished gift box
The finished gift box is tied with ribbon.