A few evenings ago I was having a very rare night out and we were discussing Christmas. Someone asked if we had any special Christmas traditions and I’m not sure I realised until then that we have lots. Perhaps having young children helps, but I want to make Christmas a magical time for all of us and create some special memories. My Christmas preparations start early as Advent marks the beginning of Christmas for our family. I bring out the Advent Box and set up the Book Advent tower in the lounge. I’m not sure how I heard about a…
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Yesterday Little Sis and I had a baking session. She only attends nursery in the afternoon which means we get to spend every morning together and we usually craft or make something. She loves to bake so I knew she would enjoy baking some festive gingerbread biscuits. We were sent a pack of the latest product in the Cookie Crumbles range – the Fabulous Gingerbread Biscuit Mix with wholemeal flour – to try. This mix contained everything we needed except for the butter and Golden Syrup. I made the dough as Little Sis picked her cutters. When she was ready…
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I know it’s November but we got our Christmas decorations out of the loft at the weekend. I wanted to go through the boxes and have a sort out before the children start rifling through them, demanding we put up every Christmas decoration we own. I took out all our Christmassy craft supplies as the children want to start making Christmas crafts too. We love gingerbread and gingerbread crafts so today we’re going to share our gingerbread jumping jack decorations. They are a really fun craft, can be decorated however you like, and look great hung on the tree or…
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Today I’m taking part in the Kid Made Gift Series organised by teach me mommy. Over the next few weeks 24 awesome bloggers will be sharing fun ideas for gifts your children can make for friends and family. Today is my turn and I’m so happy to share with you our handprint decorations. Easy hand print decoration keepsakes We love creating art with our hand and foot prints. The children love to see how they are growing and I think you can make wonderful keepsakes using your hand and feet too. We love to create with FIMO and air drying…
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If you haven’t yet decided on a colour scheme for your Christmas decorations then you’re in luck. Over the summer I attended a couple of press previews and today I’m going to tell you a little about the products I saw at Paperchase. Next week I will be sharing some fun ideas I picked up at the Hobbycraft Christmas press show. I’m aware that as the parent of young children my attempts to even have a colour theme have so far been thwarted. They bring home their gorgeous handmade decorations from nursery and school, they help put the decorations up…
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Every month I challenge myself to make the Mollie Makes magazine cover gift. I’ve subscribed since it first came out and have a drawer full of unopened kits. The latest issue included a free calendar which was nice, but I missed my little crafty project. Luckily I picked up a copy of Prima Makes which had a cute little kit to make two festive finger puppet. Today I am bringing you Jenny Makes Prima Makes! Jenny Makes Prima Makes issue 9 Christmas 2015 The kit contained pieces of felt in light brown, light grey, white, dark brown and black. I…
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A couple of weeks ago I went on a workshop run by Jessie Chorley. She is a designer/maker with a shop and workshop on Columbia Road. I’ve visited her shop a few times and was pretty excited to discover she runs workshops too. I signed up for a Christmas workshop. On arrival I was handed a little pack of paper items from which I could make three items: Stitched and collaged Christmas cards Collaged and stitched postcard decorations to be placed in your home once complete Decorating pre cut Christmas decorations that will then hang from a string in your…
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Right now I’m sitting on my sofa surrounded by Christmas magazines and craft books. I love Christmas and am happy planning handmade gifts, home made crackers and personalised Christmas cards. This year we all have our Christmas jumpers ready and we’re even planning a little festive shoot this weekend to try out some ideas for our own cards and gift tags. Despite the rise of email and text messaging I *have* to send out Christmas cards. I try to get ours printed on recycled, sustainable paper and often find myself recycling the Christmas cards we receive. The only thing I’m…
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I love this time of year so much. I got an early start of my festive making with a sew your own Advent Calendar fabric panel from elephant in my handbag. It’s always lovely to make your own decorations and gifts (time permitting!) and I really enjoyed putting my Advent Calendar together over a couple of evenings. I chose the Winter Wonderland panel, designed by Bethan Janine for Dashwood Studio. The panel is 100% cotton and the instructions are cleverly printed at the top of the panel. Once you have the fabric panel you need to buy wadding and some…