This evening I’ve been playing around trying to pretty up some Christmas presents. I love wrapping my presents with simple brown paper but they are not always well received. I remember last year my father in law looking a little puzzled when I handed over our presents, he asked if we had run out of wrapping paper! This year I made sure to wrap his presents in the brightest Christmas paper I could find. I wanted to re-visit my idea of simple brown paper for some gifts but I thought I would embellish them to show I’d put some effort…
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Last night I was searching for some online inspiration for decorating ideas. I came across a post on the Multiyork blog about making a handmade countdown for the 12 Days of Christmas. I love the idea of making a festive keepsake, especially one that the family love to bring out each year. Throughout November and December my focus is on Christmas Day and I feel a little deflated on Boxing Day. So this year I have found 12 sweet crafts, each connected to one of the 12 days of Christmas in the song. Next year I hope to be a little…
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I love crafting with styrofoam baubles. We’ve made a styrofoam snowman, styrfoam pumpkin, and even a styrofoam spider. I have lots of them so am always trying to think of different uses for them. Today I’m sharing my tutorial for stash buster Liberty scrap baubles. This is the perfect activity if you have any left over fabric scraps, but I think Liberty fabrics are exceptionally pretty. Equipment needed to make Liberty scrap baubles: scraps of Liberty fabrics PVA glue water bowl and brush styrofoam balls How to make Liberty scrap baubles: Cut the scraps into small pieces about 1cm square.…
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I was hoping to make some seasonal doll quilts for my quilt gallery wall but I’ve only managed to make one. However it’s one I’m really pleased with. A few weeks ago I finished the final seasonal stitching club from Mollie Johanson – the Winter Stitching Club. As usual each week a new embroidery pattern was introduced. They were all fun seasonal patterns like this sweet thermos flask. I enjoyed stitching them so they came together really quickly. Each hexagon became a puffy hexie. I used fabric from Moda’s “In From the Cold” which is so pretty. There was plenty…
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Monday again and only 9 days til Christmas. Hope you’re all feeling super organised! Although I haven’t made as many handmade gifts as I wanted to there has been lots of Christmas crafting. Our house is very twinkly and pretty and the tree is beginning to lean with the weight of decorations. Over the last week we’ve made wreaths, a styrofoam snowman ornament, gingerbread sun catchers, Liberty baubles, apple and cinnamon muffins, upcycled toy ornaments and personalised baubles. We’re all enjoying wearing Christmas jumpers this year. I have a sparkly gingerbread man, the 4 year old has a beautiful Fair…
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For the final time this year I’ve teamed up with some European children’s activities bloggers to co-host a Countdown to Christmas organised by Rainy Day Mum. Every Monday we have a different prompt to inspire our festive crafting – this week’s theme is family fun. Don’t forget to add your crafty post to the linky at the end of this post! This time of year is all about family fun – we’ve been wearing our festive jumpers, listening to brass bands play carols on the High Street, attend parties and festive lunches whilst the excitement builds up to Christmas Day.…
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One of the things I love about this time of year is the opportunity to be really creative. Mobile Mini challenged us to help out Santa by designing a portable grotto that can fit within a storage container. Now my 4 year old loves his Playmobil cargo truck and cargo ship as it comes with a couple of shipping containers. He loves these toys and can often be found using them to ‘ship’ other toys around the house. I immediately knew this was the challenge for me. Of course my first thought was to create a gingerbread-inspired portable grotto for Santa.…
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Our Christmas tree is looking amazing this year. It’s full of decorations, some traditional ones we’ve had for years and lots made by the children. One of my favourite is our Styrofoam snowman so I thought I would share how we made it with you. Equipment needed to make a Styrofoam snowman ornament: two styrofoam balls (one small, one medium sized) Bostik Glu Dots Ribbon Pipe cleaner Pom poms Foam stickers Beads How to make a Styrofoam snowman ornament: Glue the two styrofoam balls together using a Bostik Glu Dot, place the smaller ball on top of the larger one.…
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I have a really simple project to show you today – how to make a snowflake ornament from wooden clothes pegs. they are super sweet and make great decorations for indoors or outside. How to make a simple clothes peg snowflake ornament: You will need 8 wooden clothes pegs, a glue gun and silver paint. The first step is to remove the metal spring from each clothes peg. When you have done that paint them, I chose silver and gave them two coats as my clothes pegs were a bit tatty. Take the two pieces of a clothes peg and…
