• recycled toy decorations
    Christmas - tutorial

    Recycled toy decorations

    December 24, 2014 - By 

    As part of my pre-Christmas clear out I sorted through the toy boxes and put aside some of the children’s old toys. As I was putting them into a bag for the charity shop I had an idea about recycling them into decorations. Both children have small trees in their bedrooms and I thought we could make some decorations for them. Equipment needed to make recycled toy decorations: Unwanted plastic toys Spray paint Screw eyes Pin vice How to make recycled toy decorations: Pick a selection of plastic toys. I would love to use toys the children play with but…

  • Cookie cutter Christmas gift tags
    Christmas - handmade - Kids crafts - Paper craft - tutorial

    Cookie cutter Christmas gift tags

    December 23, 2014 - By 

    I have a brilliant craft to share with you today, cookie cutter gift tags which is a great way to recycle Christmas cards. For some reason I packed away last years’ Christmas cards, fully intending to recycle them into gift tags. Today I finally found the time to make them. Equipment needed to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Christmas cards Festive cookie cutters Pencil Scissors Hole punch Ribbon How to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Pick a part of each card that you want to keep and position your chosen cookie cutter over it. Draw around your cookie…

  • Christmas - crafts - gingerbread - gingerbread house - handmade

    Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House

    December 23, 2014 - By 

    Today seems to be a great time to tell you about our felt gingerbread house. This is one of those projects that has been waiting to be finished for a while. I’m terrible at starting something and not finishing it! Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I made it as much for myself as the children and we’ve all had fun getting it out and looking at it. Here’s our Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I purchased the pattern from Jeanette Lim at umecrafts a while ago, she’s also the author of Big Little Felt Universe which is one…

  • Kids crafts - tutorial

    Make your own gingerbread house paper

    December 22, 2014 - By 

    We had some small gifts to wrap today so we thought we would make our own wrapping paper – gingerbread house style, of course! Equipment needed to make gingerbread house paper: sheet of styrofoam (we used a piece from a pizza box) cookie cutter brown paint and brush sheets of white card rolling pin How to make your own gingerbread house paper: Use a cookie cutter to impress your chosen shape into the piece of styrofoam. We did this several times with a gingerbread house cutter. Cover your styrofoam sheet with brown paint. Next, carefully place a sheet of white…

  • Christmas - crafts - handmade

    Monday happy things

    December 22, 2014 - By 

    We survived Big Brother’s first term at Reception. This week we’ve had parties, lunches and just so much that I’m grateful for a 2 week holiday from all the running around. Let’s ignore the fact it’s Christmas and we have a household full of guests, at least I don’t have to go outside! Over the weekend I made a wreath for the Winter solstice. I like it’s simplicity compared to our Christmas decorations, just a ring of intertwined branches and a string of lights. I placed it in the dining room and put one of my new house-shaped tea light…

  • Advent crafts - book review - Christmas

    Book Advent 2014

    December 21, 2014 - By 

    My children take a real pleasure from books and I love that they are excited by our Book Advent. A Book Advent is a Christmas themed book-a-day during December, much better for you than chocolate! This year we’ve had a whopping 29 books, so nearly 1 for every day of December. We’ve taken out some from last year and passed them to our local charity shop. We’ve also picked up a few more along the way. This year we have stored our Advent books in a Children’s Cardboard Bedside Table Kit from The Cardboard Man. It comes as flatpack but…

  • No sew Christmas pudding ornaments
    Christmas - crafts - tutorial

    No sew Christmas pudding ornament

    December 21, 2014 - By 

    Earlier this month I made some no sew Christmas pudding decorations to sell at the school Christmas Fayre. They were quick and easy to make and look great on a Christmas tree so I thought I’d share a little tutorial with you. Equipment needed to make no sew Christmas pudding ornament: ping pong balls silicone glue brown wool green and white felt red sequins scissors How to make no sew Christmas pudding ornament: Wrap your ping pong ball completely with brown wool, make sure there are no gaps. When you’ve finished leave a small loop to hang your ornament and…

  • clay gift tags
    crafts - handmade - Handmade gifts - tutorial

    Easy personalised clay tags

    December 21, 2014 - By 

    As we’re hosting a family Christmas I really wanted to add as many handmade touches as I could. This year I’ve made some super sweet clay tags to hang on everyone’s cracker. When they’ve finished with the cracker they can remove and keep their tag and hang it on the tree. Equipment needed to make easy personalised clay tags: Sculpey oven-bake clay Small cookie cutters Acrylic paint and brush Small letter stamps How to make easy personalised clay tags: Roll out your Sculpey clay until it is 2-3mm thick. I rolled it between two sheets of greaseproof paper so it…

  • crafts - gingerbread house - handmade - Patchwork & Quilting

    Gingerbread house quilt block

    December 20, 2014 - By 

    A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take part in a collaborative quilt with some other crafty bloggers. The idea was that we each made a quilt block which would get sent to the next blogger via InPost. They would then attach their block to the quilt and send it on to the next person. I made a couple of blocks as I couldn’t decide what to make. This morning I received a text message to say our #CraftTheParcel was waiting to be collected at the locker I designated. I scanned the QR code I had been sent…