**CATMAS CRAFTING RERUN** Crafting With Cats ~ Catmas Special Part 4 ~ How We Made Our Furry Own Epically Epic Catmas Tree Scratcher with Velcro Catnip Ornaments

 Supurr Festive Greetings Pawesome Pals

Thanks for joining us for a rerun of our Catmas Special Crafting with Cats segment. 

If mew missed Part One of our Catmas Crafting Extravaganza; How to Make a Purrsonalised Catmas Stocking and How to Make the Bahumbug Burlap Cat ~ click here, and Part II How to Make the Epically Epic Catmas Pudding which every kitty on the planet will want. And click here for Part III, the supurr cute catnip toys.

If mew missed any of our previous CWC posts, stop by the Crafting with Cats Page and see all our previous projects, and mew don't have to be an expert in anything to make any of them.  Plus we offer workarounds and no-sew projects for those who don't like to sew.

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**A quick note before we begin**

All Crafting with Cats ideas and creations are of our own design, and we share them for purrsonal/home use only.

  So purrlease do not copy for commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

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In today's Crafting with Cats, we're making the only Catmas tree mew'll ever need: 

Catmas Tree Scratcher with Velcro Catnip Ornaments

What We Used:

One x Road Cone 750mm or  29.5" high

Sisal rope ~ we used 60 m x 6mm or 196ft in black

Faux fur for the bottom ~ we used dark green

Felt squares ~ we used red, white and green

Velcro tape ~ we used black

Ribbons for trim

stuffing/wadding

Optional sparkly pom poms

Catnip ~ organic homegrown extra-strong primo quality

scissors, non-toxic glue/glue gun, cotton thread, sewing machine, or needle

>^.^<

Optional Cat ~ Smooch was today's Craft Room Snoopervisor

Let's Get Started on The Tree

1. - 4. Get a road cone, we purchased ours from Amazon, and it cost £14.99. We placed it on a lazy-susan turntable which made it much easier to glue the sisal rope in place. Just glue a few centimetres/inches at a time until the entire cone is covered as above. This cone is 750 mm or 29.5" high and took approx 60 metres or 196 ft of rope. It did take a while to glue as mew can imagine, but it looks purretty nifty when done. Leave the last couple of metres/6ft or so until mew've finished steps 5 to 11.

5. Take your faux fur and cut to size, leaving enough to finish underneath.

6. Measure the circumference at the base of the cone; ours is approx 90 cm or 35.4".

7.  Draw the same size circle in the middle of the faux fur.

8. Cut out the hole, and mew should have something that looks like this.

9. Check that it fits properly, tucking it under the rope.

10. We used regular non-toxic PVA glue for this stage and coated the entire base in a thick layer.

11. Place the faux fur in situ and gently press onto the glue. Leave to dry and then glue the edges to the underside to finish. Finally, glue the last part of the sisal rope to finish off, we stuck ours to the faux fur and the rope above to make sure it was secure.

12. Mew should now have a finished Catmas Tree Scratcher, that looks something like this.

Let's Decorate The Tree

The Catnip Star Tree Topper

1. We created a simple 4-point design with a longer point at the bottom, so it can be stuffed into the top of the tree, but still easily pulled out.

2. Cut 2 pieces in your chosen fabric and stitch around the edge, leaving a small gap for stuffing and catnip.

3. BBHQ epically epic catnip.

4. Sew up the gap, and mew should have something that looks like this.

Pandora came to snoopervise at this point and to also do a bit of quality control! MOL

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 The Velcro Catnip Ornaments 

1. We chose a basic square for a pressie, a shaped bauble and a bell for our catnip ornaments, but mew could make anything mew like. In fact, check out last year's Catmas toy selection for inspiration.

2. Hot glue the soft side of the velcro to the back of each toy 

3.  Decorate with ribbon. Stitch together and follow the steps for the Catmas Star.

4. Hot glue the rough/scratchy side of the velcro to the tree, attach the toy and repeat until mew have made all your catnip decorations. 

And mew should have something that looks like this...

Isn't it epically epic?

We added a few red and green sparkly pom-poms, glued velcro onto those too and attached them to the tree.

It's supurr sturdy too, so don't worry about it toppling over, as it has a nice weight to it.

So what did we think of our special Catmas Tree? 

Fudge went straight for the star, Parsley and Melvyn also really enjoyed it.

Stop by our Instagram account as we'll be posting the videos there and mew can see just how much we love our tree and what fun we're having with it.

In all honesty, this project turned out so much better than we could have ever imagined and for all those kitties being yelled at for climbing real Catmas trees, get your staff to make mew one of these, and mew can pull the ornaments off to your heart's content, climb it, scratch it, steal the star and generally be as naughty as mew like and it doesn't matter a hoot!

We think it's one of the best things we've ever made, what do mew guys think?

Health and Safety

Here at BBHQ, toys with pom poms on are only available to The B Team when the P.A. is snoopervising the play session.

Use pom pom toys under supervision only.  

Or mew can just make the Catmas Tree Scratcher without the pom poms.  If your kitty is a total heathen toy destroyer, definitely make it without the pom poms! 

Mew should regularly check shop-bought toys too, and throw away anything that is damaged, broken or defective.

And that furiends, furry sadly brings us to the end of our fourth crafting rerun post, we do hope mew liked it, and if mew decide to make your furry own Catmas Tree Scratcher, we'd love to see it, so feel free to post your pawesome crafty pics on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The B Team @Facebook

So we'll sign off on this bright and breezy Purrsday, and Amber will be here tomorrow with another cat-tastic book review!

In the meantime

Keep calm and craft on!

Festive purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

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Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable for any injuries to person/s and/or cat/s, crafting addictions, glue on cats, paper cuts, misplaced pins and needles, cats stealing your supplies, broken scissors, cat fur stuck on your projects, or your project not turning out as planned.  By using this information you hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless BionicBasil and staff from and against any and all claims for personal injuries or damages of any kind arising from the use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

**RERUN** Smooch Around The Wurld and Today We're Smooching All Offur The North Pole with Shadow as My Pawesome Travelling Companion

Woo Hoo Pawsome Pals

Smooch here, and how are mew doing today?

So dudes and dudettes, we're going to be Smooching All Offur The Planet as we Smooch Around the Wurld ~ how much fun, so much fun!

Oh and because The B Team doesn't use conventional means of travel, I'll be using the TTTB aka the Time Travelling Telephone Box to go on my little jolly's, so thank cod I won't have to use an airport as I don't think I'd get through security with all the extra covert hardware I travel with! MOL

Furst though I have to do my travel checklist:

Oh, and I've already had all my travel vaccinations, as mew neffur know, and I always think it's better to have the lot rather than risk getting some foreign lurgy which in turn ruins your jolly's. 

So, where are we going today?

Today pawesome pals, we're headed way, way, way up north to find the magical land of Santa Paws!

So with Shadow's travel card ready, I hopped in The TTTB and moments later landed in the front garden at Chez Shadow.

Now some of mew may not know that Shadow like myself is a tripod, tripawd, tripawed or 3 legged kitty - I'm sure there's some purrliticolly correct terminology to use but I always say tripaw! MOL 

So how epically epic, that not one but TWO tripaws head out on the adventure of a lifetime, OH MY COD it's gonna be so much fun.  

Anyhoo I digress, the TTTB landed in Shadow's front garden and I opened the door and let my terrific travelling companion hop in.

"Hiya Shadow dude, come in, don't hang about out there in the cold," I chuckled.

"Smooch dude, oh my cod!" Shadow said as he entered the TTTB and looked around the bridge. "Mew guys have the best toys effur, jeez I gotta sign up and join The B Team for sure!"

We paw bumped and I replied, "Dude we'd love mew to join, anytime just say."

"So Smooch what have mew got planned for me?" Shadow asked eagerly.

"Oh my cod, we're going up north to find Catmas," I laughed as I saw Shadows expression.

"Mew mean we're going to see Santa Claws?" 

"Yes indeedy we are, and mew just need to hit that red button and we'll be there in a jiffy," I answered.

Shadow peered at the red button and grinned madly. "Dude thanks so much fur this," he said as his paw came down hard and the TTTB vanished.

11.56733200098234444r seconds later we landed.

And this is what happened next... 

We tried snowshoeing but we both got stuck in a drift, it was hilarious; Note to self, tripaw cats can't snowshoe! MOL MOL  We fed all Santa's reindeer with some extra speshal carrots, they're the ones that make them fly, and the highlight of our trip was getting to go on the pre-Catmas test flight.

When I tell mew that sleigh is fast, jeez it's supurr-sonic guys; me and Shadow loved effury single moment and we whooped and hollered in delight fur the entire lap of the wurld. In fact we're surprised that some of mew didn't hear us! MOL

We definitely found Catmas and guys when I tell mew, Shadow and I had the best time, but we can't talk about the Catmas Casino incident with the mistletoe, the cat fairy and the sled aftur far too much catnip-nog [like eggnog only more potent] - needless to say we won't be invited back to that establishment anytime soon!! MOL MOL 

We both gave our letters to Santa aftur he hauled us free from another snowdrift, and said that he'd do his bestest to help as many shelter and homeless anipals as pawsible this year aftur he read our requests.  

And that brings us to the end of our adventure today and when I say what a trip, it was epically epic, it truly was!

Thanks so much for joining Shadow and I on our epic northern adventure,and I'll be back before mew know it sharing another far-flung destination, so hope mew can join me.

And if any of mew would like to accompany me on any future excursions which no doubt will be terribly exciting, possibly a little bit dangerous [might be furry dangerous at times] and definitely a once in a lifetime oppurrtunity, send an email to:

deardrbasil @ gmail . com

With Smooch Around The Wurld in the subject line and a nice picture of yourself [which we can clip] plus your name, age and a couple of fun facts about mew, and who knows mew could be joining me on the adventure of a lifetime!

We'll be back tomorrow with our midweek news, so do join us then as mew know how much we love your company! 

Until next time

Keep Calm 

and 

Don't Furget Your Scarf

Smooch ~ Wurld Traveller and Adventurer Extraordinaire

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post!

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com 

Welcome to The BBHQ Midweek Festive News Round-Up ~ Festive Bandanas, Catmas Cards Galore and Guarding The Catmas Tree

Festive Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to the BBHQ midweek news round-up!

We do hope mew've been having a wonderpurr festive season, ours has been really fun. The P.A. found a bottle of bubbles (champagne) in the fridge so decided that she needed to sample a drop before our guests arrived. Then Nanny and Grampaw arrived for Catmas lunch, and it was really delicious, Nanny had seconds, well it was another full plate because she was enjoying not cooking for a change, the P.A. didn't have room for seconds because of quaffing too many bubbles! MOL

Furst up in the news this week.

Last week we asked who mew'd like to see in our festive bandanas, sadly only Fudge and Melvyn were available to model, as Smooch and Parsley had gone a little recon mission down the field.

We think they both did an epic job of modelling, what do mew think?

And if mew like the bandanas, we purchased them from Eric's Empawrium, there's a little banner link and discount code in the lefthand side bar to his shop at Etsy.

Next up in the news

Thank mew all for the absolutely epic Catmas cards which arrived by snail-mail, and thank mew for the e-cards and festive wishes! We printed out as many of the e-cards as we could but then the printer ran out of ink - typical - and the P.A. forget to bring supplies home from wurk last week - yes we have severely reprimanded her for the utter incompetence and she was put on the naughty list immediately.

Our kitchen is full of festive cheer, and we love displaying them all, even though Fudge likes to jump up everywhere and his giant floof has sent a few cards soaring, but they are soon returned to their rightful place! 

We do hope mew all received our card, which we sent by snail mail on the first of December and email last week. We also sent extra cards from the ameowzing website Jacquie Lawson just in case!

And finally this week

Fudge and Melvyn were put in charge of guarding the Catmas tree, as believe it or not some paws were quite taken with all the shiney things! MOL

They have been taking their duties very seriously, and are taking it in shifts to watch the tree, so far so good and no breakages, we may get through this holiday season scot-free yet.

Though it has helped by having our Cat Catmas tree available for twitchy, bored paws; watch Melvyn and Fudge have a little riot on TikTok! And most mornings the tree is stripped bare of all catnip ornaments and sparkly balls. The P.A. even found one of the toys in the bathroom this morning, so somepawdy had a bit of a pawty last night! MOL

The P.A. will be back next week with a brand new ghost story, and this is one from another house about 40 meters away from BBHQ, so don't miss that!

That's us done for today, we'll be back on Friday with a surprise post and look forward to your company then, and if mew missed Smooch's epic adventure to the North Pole on Monday, click here. And we showcased our best boxes of all time on Sunday's post, do mew have a favourite box?

Epically festive purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com