Christmas Lantern Arrangement

November 24, 2017 · 2 Comments

Christmas Lantern Arrangement

I’m always so happy that Christmas is at the darkest time of the year.

I love the winter anyway, and one of my favourite things is putting the lamps on and lighting the fire. You can’t do that in the summer when it’s warm and still light at 9.30 pm!

Since visiting Oslo last year, we now eat breakfast by candlelight on dark mornings. And with Christingles, carols by candlelight and remembering that Jesus came as the light of the world all coming up, Christmas is the perfect excuse for more candles!

If you’re not big on flower arrangements, don’t worry. This is easy :).

I’d actually planned to use one fat candle, but they didn’t have any at the weird little shop in my village, so I used 3 standard candles instead.

You could also use tealights, or even fairy lights in a tangle in the centre if you didn’t want to use candles at all.

For the greenery and berries, I raided the hedgerows on my way home from taking my boys to school! You could try the garden or even a bunch of Christmas flowers from the supermarket. For the actual greenery, an out of control leyland cypress hedge is ideal!

Here are the instructions for making a Christmas lantern arrangement.

Instructions For Making a Christmas Lantern Arrangement

You Will Need

A lantern (I was sent this one by Oasis Home and Hobby), some oasis, ribbon (I used this, again from Oasis Home and Hobby), candles, berries, greenery, pinecones, florists’ wire.

Making the Christmas Lantern Arrangement

1. Cut the oasis to size. You only need a smallish piece as it needs to fit through the neck of the lantern. About 6-7 cm high and about the same across is a good size. If you’re using the ribbon on the roll, this is actually the perfect size, so you can just cut the oasis down to the same size as the roll of ribbon.

When you’ve cut the oasis down to the right size, pop it in the sink to soak. Being a small piece, it won’t need very long, so if you do this first, it should be ready to use by the time you’ve sorted out the other bits.

2. Cut a length of ribbon about 150 cm long. To tie it around the top of the lantern, you’ll need to take the handle off by unscrewing it at the neck.

On the ribbon, mark where the screws are and make 2 little holes. You could cut it if you’re using a ribbon with a close weave. As the ribbon I used was loosely woven, I just poked the blades of the scissors into it and wiggled them about to make a hole.

Wrap the ribbon around the neck of the lantern, poking the screws through the holes you made. Tie the ribbon in a bow and reattach the handle.

3. Cut the greenery into pieces 10-15 cm long. Cut the berries into smaller bunches. Wrap florist’s wire around the bottom of the pine cones.

4. If you’re using 3 candles, you might like to cut a bit off the bottom of 2 of them so that they are different heights. This is what I did :).

5. Now retrieve the oasis from the sink. Push the candles into the middle.

6. Start arranging the greenery around the candles. I started at the edge, then filled in the centre. Remember to leave some space for the berries and pine cones!

Don’t put any into the sides or you won’t be able to get it into the lantern!

7. Push the berries into the oasis around the candles, then add the pine cones. You won’t need many berries and probably only 3-5 pine cones.

8. Drop some greenery into the bottom of the lantern and push it to the edges. This is to cover the sides of the oasis.

9. Carefully drop the arrangement into the lantern. If you’ve pushed the candles in quite far, you might be able to use them as a handle.

I found that I needed to remove the pine cones first, then I put them back in once the arrangement was inside the lantern.Just one word of warning: use a taper or another candle to light it or you will burn your fingers! Not only does this hurt, but burnt fingernail smells bad!

Christmas Cutlery Pockets

November 21, 2017 · 11 Comments

A Christmassy project I have been working on recently is some Christmas cutlery pockets.

The problem with being a crafty person is that you often end up hoarding craft supplies.

In an effort to prevent the situation from becoming completely out of hand, I try to only buy fabric when I have a specific project in mind.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I bought some Scandinavian inspired fabric to “make some Christmas stuff”. That was a specific as it got. I have made a stocking (you can read about that here) and I have decided that a nice way to use some more of it is to make some cutlery pockets for the table on Christmas Day.

These Christmas cutlery pockets are very quick and easy to make, so if you need to make a lot of them, it shouldn’t take too long. I needed to make 6 and I completed each stage for all 6 before moving on to the next stage.

How to Make Christmas Cutlery Pockets

You Will Need: cotton fabric in 2 or 3 designs (I had half a metre in 3 designs and that was way more than I needed!), ribbon or trim, ruler and pencil, usual sewing supplies.

Cutting Out

For the main part of the pocket, you will need to cut a front piece and a back piece measuring 12 cm x 26 cm. I drew the rectangle onto a piece of paper first and used that as a template.

For the pocket section, you will need 1 pocket outer and 1 pocket lining, measuring 12 cm x 16 cm.

Sewing Up

1. Sew the trim to the pocket outer.

2. With the right sides together, join the pocket outer to the lining along the top edge. Trim the seam, turn it the right way out and press.

3. Take the larger rectangle that will be the at the front. With the right sides up, place the pocket on top of the larger rectangle so that the bottom edges are aligned.

4. Put the other larger rectangle on top facing down. Pin, then sew around the sides and the bottom edge.

5. Turn it the right way out and run the iron over it.

6. Tuck the raw edges at the top inwards. Pin, then top stitch all the way round.

I made them all the same to avoid my boys arguing but you could mix them up a bit, especially if you have odds and ends of Christmas fabric left over from other projects.

If you like this post, you might also like these:

Felt Bird Decoration

Easy Christmas Centrepieces

Cookie Cutter Decorations

10 Ways to Get Ready For Christmas Crafts Now

September 19, 2017 · 8 Comments

10 Ways to Get Ready For Christmas Crafts Now

Christmas always sneaks up on me. I know the date never changes, but somehow every year I find it’s the end of November before I’ve even started to think about Christmas crafts and what I might make.

I suspect it might be partly because all 4 of my boys have birthdays in the autumn and I tend not to think about Christmas until the Season of Birthdays is over.

I also don’t like thinking about it too early. I want to feel Christmassy at Christmas. I want to enjoy the cold weather and the twinkly lights. Feeling Christmassy is a hard thing to sustain if you have been doing Christmas crafts since July.

So if you want to get organised for Christmas crafting, here are 10 ideas to help you get ready now before the cold weather arrives without leaving it all to the last minute.

10 Things You Can Do Now to Get Ready For Christmas Crafts

1. Start planning. You can write down ideas if you want to or you could just start having a bit of a think.

What is your theme going to be? Red and gold? Blue and white? Natural?

Do you want lots of Scandi style decorations this year? Or things made from nature? Or felt?

Have you got small ones at home who might like to do some Christmas crafts?

Are you planning on making a lot of gifts or will be you be focusing more on making your home feel Christmassy?

Pinterest is great for organising ideas as well as finding them! My Christmas Crafts Pinterest board is here.

2. Start collecting pinecones. Pinecones are great for autumn crafts too, so collecting them doesn’t have to feel too Christmassy.

If there are no pine trees near where you live, plan a day out somewhere that does have them. Even though we live in the country, there are not that many trees near where we live. Thankfully though, there are woods not too far away, so the boys and I will be having a little trip off to the woods at some point over the next month or 2.

3. Dry citrus fruit slices. I love to do this! Dried fruit can be used to make garlands, tree decorations and wreaths. These can be used to decorate your home nearer the time, and they can be given as gifts too.

Drying fruit is very easy to do! Just slice some citrus fruit thinly and put it in a warm (not hot!) oven for a few hours. Full instructions for doing this can be found here. It’s possible to dry whole fruit as well. I usually stick to clementines as they’re small and take less time to dry.

4. Plan Christmas crafts for your kids. Also plan when you are going to do them. I always find that things get so busy in the run up to Christmas, we end up not having time to do half the things I wanted to. So decide what you want to do and when you want to do them.

If you have school aged children, it’s nice to have some things planned for them to do as the excitement before the big day is often enough to send everyone loopy. You can arrange them round trips to the woods/ common/ beach to wear them out and keep them busy.

5. Evaluate your Christmas fabric and ribbon situation. If you see something you need while you are out and about, you can buy it. Then when the time comes, you’ll be ready to make stuff without having to brave the Christmas crowds or wait for the postman.

It’s worth mentioning at this point too that shops get their Christmas stock delivered in September, but things like red ribbon, gingham and felt are usually available all year round! So stock up on what you need when you get the chance.

6. Identify where you can obtain greenery. Greenery is so useful for table centrepieces, candle decorations, decorating mantlepieces and for wreaths.

Christmas flowers are usually easy to find, but greenery is often less so. You might have some in the garden, or you might have a neighbour with a laylandii hedge who might let you have some if you ask them. I know several places near me where there is hawthorn growing in the hedgerows. I’ll be down there in a few weeks with my scissors ;).

7. Start collecting jam jars. Homemade jam makes for a great last minute Christmas gift and t’s very easy to make. Just weigh the fruit, chuck it in a pan with the same weight in sugar and a little bit of water and boil it until it starts to set. Pour the jam into sterilised jars. When it has cooled, put the lids on.

Jam tastes better if it is left in the jar for a couple of weeks, so if you can make it a little while in advance, it’s worth doing so.

Jam jars have other uses besides holding jam, which brings me onto…

8. Create a Pinterest board of last minute handmade gifts. Stuff you can put in a jar is great. Sewing kits, brownie ingredients, sweets, bath stuff and natural things to make your house smell nice are all things you can make up yourself and put in a jar. To make the jar pretty, you could tie some ribbon round it or cover the lid with a square of fabric.

If these don’t appeal, a quick search on Pinterest will throw up plenty of other ideas for last minute Christmas gifts you can make. Although the point here is to get ourselves organised, it’s a good idea to have some ideas like this as these will probably be quick and easy things to make if you do find yourself short of time.

9. Dig out stuff you have made or started to make over the last year and decide whether you can give any of it to people as presents. A couple of years ago I had a glut of mug cosies, some of which became presents for my sons’ teachers.

Perhaps you’ve made something that was more about trying out a technique than making something you needed. Or maybe you made lots of covered notebooks just for fun! It’s probably worth having a look at what you’ve made or not quite finished.

And if you want to make more gifts, it’s probably never too early to start., so that’s definitely something to start planning now.

10. Start making a list of anything else you might need. Successful Christmas crafting often needs more than fabric and ribbon alone. So start to consider what else you’ll need.

This could include oasis flower foam, wire for centrepieces, twine, raffia, buttons, glitter, gift bags and tissue paper. There’s probably a whole lot of other stuff too that you’ll think of once you start to make your list!

Having a list prepared well in advance will mean that you can get stuff when you see it. It’s no good sitting down to make a Christmas wreath then realising that you don’t have any bay leaves or florists’ wire!

It also means that you won’t find yourself wandering round the Christmas section of Wilko knowing that you need stuff but not knowing exactly what!

You might be interested to know that there is a Christmas craft planner available as part of the super good value Christmas bundle! You can find out more here.

How to Make a Dried Citrus Wreath

December 10, 2016 · 10 Comments

How to Make a Dried Citrus Wreath

One of my favourite pre Christmas jobs is to make a wreath for the front door. Usually I’ll make one from greenery and berries, but this year I wanted to try something different.

This dried citrus wreath has slices of dried orange, lemon and lime, with bay leaves and ribbon in between.

It’s fairly easy to put together and the bits and pieces are all easy to find. A trip to the supermarket should cover it if you don’t have what you need already!

The bit that takes the time with this wreath is preparing the fruit slices, sorting out the bay leaves and cutting the ribbon. Once you’ve done that, it all comes together quite quickly.

Instructions for Making a Dried Citrus Wreath

I’ve included some affiliate links.

You will need

Thick garden wire or a wire coat hanger, about 85 cm
Wire cutters
or old scissors
Strong tape, like gorilla tape or electrical tape
About 60 dried fruit slices (8-10 in total of oranges, lemons and limes should be enough). Instructions for drying the fruit can be found here.
Ribbon (about 5 m cut into 15 cm lengths)
Bay leaves (the cheapest ones I found were Polish ones in Tesco)
Wide ribbon for the bow
Florists’ wire (optional)
String, raffia or bakers’ twine for hanging

Assembling the Bits and Pieces

1. Cut the wire to size. If you’re using a wire coat hanger, just cut off the twisty bits and the hook. To do this, I cut through the plastic casing with the scissors, then bent it back and forth until it snapped.

If you’re using garden wire, you’ll need a length of about 85 cm.

You can make the wreath bigger or smaller by changing the length of the wire.

2. Cut up the ribbon. It will need to be in lengths of about 15 cm, into 4 roughly equal piles.

3. Sort out the dried fruit slices. You’ll need 8 piles with 7 in each pile. If there’s a lot of variation in size, choose larger slices to go in the middle of each group and smaller ones for either side. Check whether each slice has a hole in the middle. If not, poke a hole through with a knitting needle, darning needle or skewer.

4. Sort out the bay leaves. You’ll need 4 lots of about 15. Each bay leaf will need a hole through the middle.

5. Make the bow. Tie a bow in a length of wide ribbon. You could thread a piece of florists’ wire through the back, but if you don’t have any, strong thread will do.

Making the Wreath

1. Take one of the piles of fruit and start threading the slices onto the wire. Push them on so that they are about half way round.

2. Thread on one of the piles of bay leaves in the same way. I found the bay leaves to be quite brittle, so gently is the way to go!

3. Next thread on 2 more lots of dried fruit. You’ll be tying ribbons in between these once all the fruit and bay leaves are on the wire.

4. Thread on another pile of bay leaves, then another pile of fruit. You should have 4 lots of fruit slices, with bay leaves between the first and second group and the third and fourth group. This is one half of the wreath.

5. Take the other end of the wire and repeat steps 1 – 4.

6. Using the tape, stick the ends of the wire together. They’ll need to overlap by 5 – 10 cm. Wrap the tape around the overlapping part a few times to hold them securely.

7. Make a loop from the string or bakers’ twine and tie it to the top of the wreath.

8. Tie on the ribbons. These need to go in between the groups of citrus slices that are not separated by bay leaves, including the top part.

9. Attach the bow to the top of the wreath. If you are using florists’ wire, wrap the wire around the wire of the wreath. Otherwise just tie it on.

Now your dried citrus wreath is ready to hang on your door!

If you have any dried fruit slices left over, you might like to take a look at these tutorials:

Dried Fruit Decorations

Some More Dried Fruit Decorations

Dried Fruit Garland

DIY Decorated Glass Jars

December 5, 2016 · 1 Comment

DIY Decorated Glass Jars

Making some diy decorated glass jars is something that I’ve wanted to try for a while. I’d previously done something similar using glass paints, but they were expensive, messy and difficult to clean up.

So when I was sent some Chalkola chalk markers to try out and review, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to dry doing this in a different way!

I also needed an activity that I could do with the boys to keep them out of Daddy’s way while he attended to a diy emergency. As chalk markers are totally non-toxic, this was something that they could join in with.

If you like the idea of making DIY decorated glass jars, keep reading because I’ve got a discount code for you that will give you 20 percent off!

Using the Chalkola Chalk Pens

Before using the pens, to get the ink flowing, you have to give them a good shake, then repeatedly press the nips down. The advice I was given said that this might take a couple of minutes, but it was more like a few seconds. We did this on some bits of scrap paper.

Once the ink starts flowing, it’s best to stop, otherwise you’ll end up with a puddle of chalk ink!

Then all you have to do is start drawing!

Any mistakes or chalk in places where you don’t want it can simply be wiped off with a baby wipe or a piece of damp kitchen towel.

Decorating the Jars

One of the things I really loved about doing this was that I could squeeze in a sneaky bit of craft time while simultaneously being a “good parent” by doing stuff with my kids ;).

When it comes to Christmas, I love everything vaguely Scandinavian. This has only increased since we went to Norway at half term. So I wanted my jars to have a Scandinavian theme.

I did one with a star. I actually used the drawing I made when I was designing my felt baubles as it was already the right size. Using washi tape, I stuck it to the inside of the jar.

Then all I had to do was draw over it with the chalk pen.

I also did this one with mountains and trees. I drew the design on a piece of paper to get an idea of what I wanted to do, then I drew it straight onto the jar.

And I made this one with houses, which I did in the same way.

My boys were not bothered at all about doing their jars so that they would fit in with Mummy’s Nordic Christmas decor.

Barnabas, who’s 7, did this one featuring the Titanic and the infamous iceberg.

Aidan, who’s 9, did this one. I’ve no idea who this chap is.

Cosmo (he’s 4) just had a happy time scribbling.

It was very easy and a lot of fun. I actually only scored a G in my GCSE Art, but despite not being able to draw at all, I was still able to produce something that I was happy with. And my boys had a lovely time! In fact, they had so much fun we ran out of jars and I had to have a rummage in the kitchen to find some more.

The Verdict on the Chalk Pens

Pros

Very easy to use
Not too messy
Non toxic
Lots of fun and you don’t have to be good at drawing
Easy to clean up
They don’t stain
Mistakes are easy to fix
They’re cheaper than glass paint
They are versatile and can be used on a range of non porous surfaces.

Cons

My younger ones had some issues with the caps. I found them fine to click back on, but they had a bit of trouble. We had caps flying about and I was worried about chalk ink going everywhere, although it didn’t.
The nips are quite thick so it would be difficult to do anything very detailed.
Even after the ink has dried, if you touch it with damp hands, or rub it, it will come off it.

On reflection, I was very happy with the Chalkola chalk markers. My boys and I all enjoyed using them and I’m looking forward to trying out some other ideas. I fancy decorating some stones to make paperweights!

If you want to try this and you need to buy the chalk markers, they’re here on Amazon (affiliate link) you can get 20 percent off with the code 20OFFSTR