Month: December 2021

 

The Christmas holidays have started and with all the gift wrapping and card writing you have on your list, it’s time to keep the children occupied with at-home crafts. This season we’re inspired by decorations, and Marlenka has put together a handy how-to guide with garlands and baubles made from things you can easily find in your home.

 

 

Wooden Beads and Clay Stars Garland

 

 

 

This is such a simple and yet satisfying activity. I must admit Florence loved joining in. We just sat there talking and threading the beads and stars. It was so relaxing.

We started off with rolling out the clay, flattening it with a rolling pin.

We then cut out star shapes. You can do any shapes you wish.

 

 

 

 

Before leaving it to dry for a day or so, I made a horizontal hole, using a toothpick.

Once the clay stars have dried, we then threaded them onto a piece of string alongside wooden beads.

 

 

 

 

You can just use your imagination here on what you’d like the pattern to be.

 

 

Cupcake Case Baubles

 

All you need is:

 

Cupcake cases

Glue gun

Glue sticks

String

 

 

 

How to:

 

Flatten a single case and fold it in half and repeat.

Once you’ve folded all of them it’s time for the glue gun.

Open a single case that you previously folded in half and apply glue from the middle moving outwards.

Repeat on all of the cases.

Once you’ve done that, apply two lines of glue on the outside of the case and stick another case on top of it. Repeat the process with all of the cases.

 

 

 

 

Once all the half circles are glued together, attach a string with glue.

Apply glue to the side of the cases and join both sides together creating your bauble.

 

Visit our instagram for a how-to video guide >

 

 

Give the gift of homemade baking this Christmas with inspiration from Great British Bake Off Semi-Finalist, Hermine. Sharing her chocolate bark recipe, these delicious treats are perfect for wrapping up in jars and gifting to family and friends this Christmas.

Hermine has recorded a video so you can bake along with her or read her handy how-to below.

 

Ingredients

400g of dark chocolate

100g of white chocolate

A few drops of pink gel food colouring (optional)

80g of dried cranberries chopped

80g of sliced pistachios

A handful of pretzels biscuits

 

 

How to 

 

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

 

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Add the food colouring and mix well.

 

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl placed over simmering water, pour the melted chocolate into the lined baking tray, and spread it around using a spatula.

 

Drop a few teaspoons of pink chocolate in the dark chocolate scattered around. Using a skewer or a knife whirl the pink chocolate around to create a marble effect.

 

 

Sprinkle over the dried cranberries, the sliced pistachios, and the pretzels. Set aside to dry at room temperature or place in the fridge for at least one hour.

 

Cut into small pieces using a knife. Place a few pieces into a jar and decorate using old wrapping paper, craft fabric, ribbons, and flowers. Your creativity is the limit when it comes to this project.

 

 

Useful Tips

 

It is always best to allow your chocolate to set at room temperature. Although leaving it in the fridge produces a much quicker result, the condensation from the fridge will leave marks on your finished product.

You can pick ingredients to suit your taste. Dark, milk, white or ruby chocolate. The same goes for your choice of dried fruit and nuts.

When choosing food colouring for chocolate, oil-based food colouring is the best. Water-based gel colouring has worked for me but in small quantities. Remember that with chocolate, you want to minimise the amount of water you add as water makes chocolate seize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is truly here when you’re surrounded by all your gifts, glass of mulled wine in hand and ready to wrap. This year we teamed up with Deborah Brett for wrapping paper ideas that are sustainable and have a homemade touch.

Make your gifts the ones under the tree that your loved ones reach for first, with woodblock festive print wrapping, featuring Christmas trees, snowflakes, the possibility are endless – the perfect crafting activity for the whole family.

 

What you need to follow Deborah

 

Roll of recycled brown paper

Acrylic paint

Sponge

Foam mat

Wooden stamp

Ribbon from past gifts, string or twine

Foliage from the park, garden, flower market

Baubles or old Christmas decorations

 

 

How to

 

Start by laying your foam mat on your kitchen table or work surface.

 

Lay your paper on top.

 

Put a small 50p size dollop of acrylic paint onto a small saucer. You can even add a few different colours at the same time to create an ombré effect.

 

Dab your sponge into the paint and transfer to the printing block. I used different types of snowflakes and trees to decorate my paper.

 

The trick is making sure the whole block is covered in paint but not too much.

Then choose your position on the paper, press firmly and lift. You should have a lovely, printed shape.

 

Then repeat. Don’t worry if they aren’t all perfect. The patina of hand printing and things not being perfect simply adds to your wrapping paper’s charm.

 

As you are using acrylic, your paper will dry fast. Make sure to wipe your block clean rather than soaking in water.

 

 

How to wrap

 

I use green Scotch magic tape. A plant-based adhesive. It also uses recycled plastic and cardboard for its packaging.

 

I use ribbon from past gifts that I’ve saved throughout the year. Or used coloured string or twine.

 

I use old Christmas ornaments to add a dash of sparkle to my gifts.

 

Try collecting leaves from your garden or park and spray paint using metallic colours. Although I’ve noticed florists selling metallic asparagus fern sprigs if you would rather not spray paint yourself.

 

I use pinecones, berries and dried limes from my old wreaths to give presents a Christmas twist.

 

If you fancy make wool pom poms in different colours to add to gifts instead of baubles. Choose a range of sizes and colours.

 

I adore Covent Garden flower market. It’s filled with gems for decorating your own wreaths, trees and gifts.

 

Once you have wrapped your gift and added ribbon or twine add a few pieces from the above list to the centre and tie them in place with a knot and a bow. I love making each gift individual but maybe grouping all my gifts in one colour theme.

 

I added recyclable brown craft tags to label each gift. I used a white or silver pen to write the name on. Or you could use my biscuit recipe from my last Christmas post for Monsoon to make your own personalised gingerbread name tags.

 

 

This festive season we’re all about Christmas crafting at home. For some inspiration, we turned to Candice Lake to find out what crafts she and her children were up to this year. Enjoyed by kids and adults alike, we’re ordering the oranges and ready to get started.

 

 Candice has put together a handy guide below for you to follow!

 

“I love the festive season, and naturally so do my children. This year I thought it would be really fun to make some decorations with my children to hang on our tree and around the house.  They love getting involved and these decorations are SO simple for them to partake in, also it’s great for all ages and abilities as you can make them as simply or intricately as you like.”

 

What you’ll need 

 

4 oranges

Small handful cloves

Cinnamon sticks

Thin ribbon, twine or string

 

 

Method

 

Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Slice the oranges very thinly. Arrange the slices on the trays, then bake for 45 mins-1 hr, turning halfway through cooking, until completely dried out. Leave to cool.  We got distracted and they ended up in the oven for about 2 hours – hence the crispy appearance of some of them!

 

The most important thing for these decorations is that the kids enjoy making them, not that they look perfect.  We just poke holes in the oranges and then my children thread the string through them.  You can then stud the oranges with cloves thread some ribbon, twine or string through the centres of the orange slices, then tie a knot to secure.

 

Also, a fun little trick I found was that hanging your dried oranges in front of a light really allows them to shine. Just poke a little hole through the top of each orange and threaded them with string.

 

et voila – Merry Christmas!

 

We’re ready to start planning our Christmas table for the big day and getting creative for the family table. We spoke to florist Willow Crossley for inspiration on our Christmas table centrepiece. Using a selection of dried flowers, she creates a beautiful floral bowl that can be enjoyed at festivities throughout the season.

 

Willow recorded a how-to, showing you how to make your own at home and we have also put a handy guide below for you to follow. Happy flower arranging!

 

 

 

What you’ll need to follow Willow:

 

Chicken wire

Pot tape

A small bowl

A selection of dried flowers.  I have used helichrysum (strawflower), grasses picked earlier in the year from the hedgerows, Limonium, miscanthus ‘dry feather’, Amaranthus Yearming Desert, heather, acroclinium and stypha pennata.

 

 

How to

 

Start by cutting a length of chicken wire.  The size will depend on the size of your bowl.  You want to scrunch it up into a ball that will fill the whole bowl.

 

Keep it in place with a strip of pot tape which you stick from one side of the bowl to the other.  If it’s a big bowl, you may want to make a criss-cross shape using two lengths of tape.

 

 

One by one, add the flowers by poking them into the bowl, using the chicken wire to support them.

 

Lengthwise, we want the stems to be proportional to the size of the bowl; aim for the general size to be around one and a half times the height of the bowl.

 

Keep adding the flowers until the bowl is full.  We want to hide all the wire; I find the strawflowers, tucked in low are great at hiding the wire!

 

 

I like making a few bowls and dotting them down the table for a very beautiful, everlasting Christmas table.

 

Have a very happy Christmas!