• hanging Christmas tree ornament
    Christmas - handmade - tutorial

    Hanging Christmas tree ornament

    December 20, 2015 - By 

    One of the decorations I love to get out each year is a sweet hanging Christmas tree we made a couple of years ago from some off cuts. I can’t believe I’ve never got round to blogging about it as I love it. Hanging Christmas tree ornament It’s actually been up for the whole past year. This could mean I am lazy about putting away Christmas decorations or it fits right in and looks good all year round. It was hidden in a corner of the dining room so I thought this year I would give it a festive makeover.…

  • festive upcycled sign
    Christmas - Christmas - Crafts for adults - tutorial - upcycling

    Make a festive upcycled sign with lights

    December 18, 2015 - By 

    We love to decorate the house for Christmas and every year we try to add a new decoration to our stash. I love our handmade tradition, my mum always made room for the handmade Christmas decorations we brought home for school and I fully embrace this with my own children too. Harveys asked me to write a post about my favourite Christmas crafts as part of their Harveys Yule Rules. This year we’ve made festive wreaths and tree decorations and a couple of weekends ago we made something larger for the house. Harveys featured the finished craft on their blog…

  • Christmas - Kids crafts - tutorial

    An itty bittys festive garland

    December 15, 2015 - By 

    We’ve been playing with some of our festive itty bitty’s over the weekend. I wrote a little about them the other day, they are collectable plush toys from Hallmark. They are very tactile and the perfect size for little hands. There are a range of characters to collect including the Justice League, the Wizard of Oz, Peanuts and Scooby Doo. New ranges are being released and we’re really excited about the Star Wars ones which I want to get for my 5 year old (and perhaps my husband too!). The only difficulty would be in choosing them as I know…

  • Christmas - Kids crafts - tutorial

    How to make confetti tape

    December 13, 2015 - By 

    Last week I told you about the special gifts we had been sent to wrap for the Honeypot’s Children’s charity, which is the only charity in the UK who provide consistent respite support for young carers, aged between 5 and 12. This Christmas Sellotape is donating festive gifts for vulnerable children and young carers at the Honeypot Children’s Charity and sharing the magic of giving. They asked me to get involved with wrapping a couple of gifts so last week we carved our own stamps and hand stamped festive trees on brown paper on one of the gifts. Today we wrapped our…

  • Christmas - Handmade gifts - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Personalised crackers with Hallmarks itty bitty’s

    December 11, 2015 - By 

    My children love small toys, the kind that fit easily into their rucksack or a pocket. I was asked to review itty bitty’s from Hallmark and these are just the kind of toy my children love to collect. If you haven’t heard of itty bitty’s before they are new from Hallmark and are a collectable plush toy. Big in the US and Australia they have recently come to the UK. There is a huge range of characters and they appeal to both children and adults. We were sent a selection of Super Heroes, Scooby Doo and characters from the Wizard…

  • Christmas - tutorial

    How to carve your own stamps

    December 8, 2015 - By 

    Today I finally got the chance to try something I’ve been wanting to do for ages – carve my own stamps. I bought a kit which contained a couple of sheets of rubber, a carving tool with a gouge tip and some ink pads. There were no instructions which meant I had to make it up as I went along, but it all turned out ok in the end. How to carve your own stamps I cut the rubber sheet into 4 pieces and drew out my design on one of the pieces. Then I started to gouge out the…

  • crafting a christmas grotto
    Christmas - Kids crafts - Staedtler Try It Tribe - tutorial

    Crafting a Christmas Grotto

    December 8, 2015 - By 

    We seem to be surrounded by boxes and packaging at this time of year. I’ve ordered some Christmas gifts online and have been inundated with boxes which the children have been having lots of fun with. The boxes have become cars, trains, even a place to sit and watch tv. I thought it would be fun to challenge the children to make a 3D Christmas grotto using the lid of a box. Staedtler sent us a bundle of their products to get creative and they really enjoyed themselves. Crafting a Christmas Grotto Little Sis decided she wanted to paint the…

  • Pom pom Santa hat decoration
    Christmas - Kids crafts

    Pom pom Santa hat decoration

    December 7, 2015 - By 

    We’re putting our Christmas tree up next week and we’ve been really busy making some handmade decorations to hang on them. My favourite has to be the easy pom pom Santa hat decoration. Today I thought I’d show you how we made them. There are lots of ways to make pom poms. You can make them as we did at school, with two circles of card which you wrap the wool around. I’ve recently discovered the Clover Pom-Pom Maker and they make it even easier to make pom poms. Equipment to make a pom pom Santa hat decoration Clover Pom-Pom…

  • gingerbread man with candy cane card
    Christmas - gingerbread - Handmade gifts - Kids crafts - Stamptastic Ambassador - tutorial

    Gingerbread man with candy cane Christmas card

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    We’ve made some lovely festive crafts over the last week. The children are so excited about Christmas and I’ve been enjoying watching and listening to their chatter. They are both rehearsing for their Christmas plays at school and it is really funny listening to their interpretation of Christmas. We love making handmade gifts and cards. This year we thought we would try something a little different from a photo card and made a gingerbread man with candy cane Christmas card.   Gingerbread man with candy cane Christmas card I had a few attempts at making a gingerbread man who could…