**IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!** **Meowy Catmas**Merry Christmas**Meowy Chrispmouse**Festive Greetings** from Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

Dearest fabulous furiends

We would like to wish mew all a most epically epic festive time this holiday season and thank mew most sincerely for your continued company, comments and support throughout 2024. We feel so blessed to have furiends like mew. 

And thank mew all for the beautiful Catmas cards. They bring a smile every time we see them, and we will be featuring them on our midweek news round-up next week!

Here's this year's official card. We do hope that it has arrived to all those on the list, and if not, we apologise for the delay.

On that note, we'll wish mew a supurr blessed day and hope all your dreams come true.

We'll be here tomorrow with our Boxing Day post and look forward to your company when we're sharing our favourite boxes of all time on our Boxing Day Extravaganza. 

In the meantime, be...

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

**CATMAS SPECIAL** CRAFTING WITH CATS RERUN ~ HOW WE MADE OUR FURRY OWN EPICALLY EPIC CATMAS TREE SCRATCHER WITH VELCRO CATNIP ORNAMENTS

 Supurr Festive Greetings Pawesome Pals

Welcome to the second of our Crafting with Cats Catmas Specials.  

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.

*    *    *

**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 fur commercial/resale purrposes.

Copyright ©BionicBasil®

*     *     *

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 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. 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 have 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 is 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

*    *    *

 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.

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 on to those too and attached 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 to 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 video's 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 second Catmas Crafting with Cats post, we do hope mew liked it, and if mew decide to make your furry own Catmas Tree Scratcher, we'd love to see, so feel free to tag us on social media @BionicBasil - Instagram & Twitter or @BionicBasilCats on TikTok.

So we'll sign off on this bright and breezy Monday and look forward to your company on Wednesday's Midweek News.

In the meantime

Keep calm and have a niptini, well it is almost Catmas! MOL

Festive purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

Don't furget to subscribe to our blog and never miss another post. 

Disclaimer:

We at BionicBasil HQ are not responsible or liable fur 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 use of any Crafting With Cats posts we may share.

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

**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.

*    *    *

**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®

*     *     *

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

*    *    *

 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

Follow Us @BionicBasil®  at TikTok, Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

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