• baking - Christmas - gingerbread - gingerbread house

    Our 2012 Gingerbread House

    You can probably guess from the title of my blog that I love gingerbread houses! This year we made a kit from John Lewis over a couple of days. The toddler was really excited about it as he loves his “gin-gin” men! First of all he helped daddy put the kit together, then we left it to dry overnight. The next day we got out all our sweetie supplies which included icing pens, liquorice wheels, Necco wafers for roof tiles and gumdrops for the fence. We got to work, the toddler mainly ate the sweets whilst I iced and strategically…

  • Christmas - crafts - gingerbread house - handmade

    Christmas Card Craft Off

    Do you make your own Christmas cards or do you prefer shop-bought ones? There’s so much choice out there but I love sending personalised cards to family and friends. This year we chose a photo of the children playing (happily for once!) in the park and everyone seems to love it. I’m feeling so organised that I thought I would make a Christmas card for my husband. Christmas Card Craft Off My card combines my favourite things – gingerbread houses and washi tape bunting! I really enjoyed making it and I thought I’d show you how. You will need: red…

  • Cath Kidston - Christmas - crafts - handmade

    Christmas tree for toddlers

    It’s that time of the month, the PinAddicts Pinterest Challenge. The idea is to choose something from your Pinterest boards to create and link up each month. I saw a small felt Christmas tree which had been made for a toddler to play with. I thought I would adapt this for my own toddler so here is my Christmas tree for toddlers. You will need: a large gift bag a selection of felt ornaments velcro stick ons Christmas tree for toddlers I bought an extra large gift bag from Ikea which featured a plain Christmas tree. I hung it up using…

  • baking - Christmas - gingerbread - gingerbread house

    Gingerbread houses, biscuits and kits

    Have you spotted many gingerbread houses around this year? Everywhere I look (or shop) there seems to be one but I’ve tried to be good and only bought ones I know we’ll have time to make.   So far we’ve had fun trying the following pre-made kits: Create A Treat House Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15) Create A Treat Village Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15) Gingerbread house kit from Tiger   We’ve also eaten a fair few gingerbread biscuits (all in the name of research): Make Your Own Gingerbread Decorating Kit from John Lewis (£4.50) Morrison’s Jolly Gingerbread…

  • baking - Christmas - gingerbread

    Gingerbread house biscuits

    We’ve been busy making gingerbread house biscuits. You can never make too many gingerbread men but sometimes it’s good to make something different. As the toddler was helping we used Sainsbury’s gingerbread dough which we tried earlier this year. This time we rolled it out even thinner and squeezed 10 biscuits from the dough. I used one of the vintage cutters I recently purchased to make cute little gingerbread houses. When they were cool I iced them (not brave enough to let the toddler loose with an icing pen just yet). I think they look cute and I can safely…

  • baking - Christmas - vintage

    Vintage cookie cutter decorations

    I’ve been on a bit of a splurge recently, buying vintage cookie cutters from a well known internet auction site. Most seem to come from the US and the range is huge compared to the ones I’ve found here in the UK. This week my little collection grew and I have some great seasonal cutters, including candy canes, gingerbread houses, drums, candles, trees, holly leaves, Father Christmas and even reindeer. As much as I love to use my cutters when baking biscuits there are lots of other things they can be used for. I used some cutters as gift tags…

  • Christmas - handmade

    Felt Mistletoe Kissing Ball

    My project last weekend was cutting out felt mistletoe leaves to make a Mistletoe Kissing Ball. I love working with felt and couldn’t resist this adorable felt decoration to add to our collection. My mum always decorated the house with mistletoe by the front door and I thought I would recreate the tradition in my home, but with a modern twist. It was the perfect project for long periods spent in the car, and as we’d just returned from a 48 hours round trip to Devon (from London) you can imagine I had plenty of hours to craft! The pattern…

  • Christmas - handmade

    Red and white candy wreath

    I can’t believe it’s two weeks until Christmas. I felt so organised until I realised I hadn’t made half the decorations I wanted to. This evening I made a yarn wreath which was top of my list. It was a great project to do, especially as I didn’t need to buy anything. I covered the polystyrene circle in red and white wool and wrapped a chain of felt candy sweeties through it. I love working with felt and the felt candies are spaced with red and white beads – this project definitely ticks my red and white decoration theme! Although…

  • Christmas - handmade

    Handmade Christmas decorations

    This year I have two little people who I really want to make Christmas special for. I know Christmas doesn’t have to be about spending lots of money but I may have been a bit silly with the amount of presents they have! Fortunately I also love to save money where I can which is why we’ve been busy getting our craft on and making our own decorations. I thought I’d share 5 of our favourite handmade Christmas decorations: Handprint family Christmas tree – The toddler loves to paint so really enjoyed this craft. We all covered our hands in…