Crafting for Christmas 2009, let's begin again.......

irishgirl62

last year i made advent sour cream contaniers for my brother and his wife they lovedit so much put it on their tree and did not eat the contents till after xmas cos it looked so lovely on their tree!

sethsgran

yippee_kye_yay wrote: »

i have bought 24 matchboxes today (the cashier looked at me like i was mad), with the dream of making an advent calender. can anyone point me in the direction of any tips please?

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rubberroadadventures.com/RRAJanFeb07%2520Files/RRAJanFeb07BeckyLemireMatchboxAdventCalendar1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.rubberroadadventures.com/RRAJanFeb07%2520Files/RRAJanFeb07BeckyLemireMatchboxAdventCalendar.htm&usg=__wHv_iS3-rZ5uPf5WqNjBgm_HbnQ=&h=336&w=446&sz=38&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=XSTVhv34jGn4MM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmatchbox%2Badvent%2Bcalendar%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
http://www.scrapjazz.com/gallery/image/other/487466.html
http://www.bubblyfunk.co.uk/article_info.php?articles_id=39
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandalarama/3058301705/
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=matchbox+advent+calendar

Just a few ideas!! LOL

sammy_kaye18

"Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.'"
Hugh Downs

Ive just read this quote and been thinking about decorations fro Christmas I know yes its august but I loved our old traditional Christmas' at my grandmothers house - haven't had one since i was small but I remember them so clearly.

Was thinking I might do this as my decorating theme this year - with handmade ornaments and decorations.

Me and my sister would spend forever making paper chains, snowflakes, pom poms, dolly chains and snow flake ones. Thinking now Im a bit older that sewing and felt items would be no problem either and im sure i could get ben making a few bits now hes bigger.

does anyone else have any other decorating ideas for an old fashioned Xmas, Im thinking some dried orange slices would be nice, dried and put in a nice bowl to scent the room too and lots of candles.

sethsgran

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Ive just read this quote and been thinking about decorations fro Christmas I know yes its august but I loved our old traditional Christmas' at my grandmothers house - haven't had one since i was small but I remember them so clearly.

Was thinking I might do this as my decorating theme this year - with handmade ornaments and decorations.

Me and my sister would spend forever making paper chains, snowflakes, pom poms, dolly chains and snow flake ones. Thinking now Im a bit older that sewing and felt items would be no problem either and im sure i could get ben making a few bits now hes bigger.

does anyone else have any other decorating ideas for an old fashioned Xmas, Im thinking some dried orange slices would be nice, dried and put in a nice bowl to scent the room too and lots of candles.

My dad always put crepe paper decorations up where he would put 2 colours on top of each other, about 3" wide, pin them in the corner of the ceiling then twist them once twisted enough he would then fasten them in the centre of the celing. This was repeated from each corner of the room.

helyg

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Ive just read this quote and been thinking about decorations fro Christmas I know yes its august but I loved our old traditional Christmas' at my grandmothers house - haven't had one since i was small but I remember them so clearly.

Was thinking I might do this as my decorating theme this year - with handmade ornaments and decorations.

Me and my sister would spend forever making paper chains, snowflakes, pom poms, dolly chains and snow flake ones. Thinking now Im a bit older that sewing and felt items would be no problem either and im sure i could get ben making a few bits now hes bigger.

does anyone else have any other decorating ideas for an old fashioned Xmas, Im thinking some dried orange slices would be nice, dried and put in a nice bowl to scent the room too and lots of candles.

We decorate in quite an old fashioned way in our house. The kids make paper chains (easy to make yourself or you can buy packs of ready made strips from Hobbycraft etc). I have knitted a load of little Santas and Snowmen which hang from the tree, I picked up the knitting pattern from our local wool shop where it was being sold to raise money for a local charity, but they are very similar to the sort of thing that used to appear in Womens Weekly magazine in the 1980s (I can remember having similar on the tree when I was a child). A couple of years ago I made a load of small cross stitch tree decorations from kits, they are filled with dried spices so smell yummy too! I have also made tree decorations using dried orange slices and cinammon sticks. I personally think that homemade decorations are far nicer than bought ones!

sammy_kaye18

sethsgran wrote: »

My dad always put crepe paper decorations up where he would put 2 colours on top of each other, about 3" wide, pin them in the corner of the ceiling then twist them once twisted enough he would then fasten them in the centre of the celing. This was repeated from each corner of the room.

Oh that sounds pretty and wonder if i could do red and green together. Plus i have two lights in my long living room so i could do technically four strips to each light. ITs been bugging me for ages that I never have any decorations near the ceiling! :mad:

whoopidoo

yippee_kye_yay wrote: »

whoopido, im guessing that was for me?
thank you i will get on2 it tomorow ive got to stay in all day and am planning on having a day of xmas crafting!

Oops yes sorry, was being hassled to get off the pc (MY pc!! Huff! :P) And forgot to do the quote thing

C_J

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

does anyone else have any other decorating ideas for an old fashioned Xmas, Im thinking some dried orange slices would be nice, dried and put in a nice bowl to scent the room too and lots of candles.

Collect pine cones! They seem to be falling from the trees already (I scooped up two carrier bag-fulls of pine cones which had fallen from a pine tree in my local Tesco car park last weekend!). I add a dash of essential oils, then either dip them in glue and sprinkle with silver glitter, or spray their edges with some fake snow. They look brilliant piled into a bowl.

I also do thick slices of orange, dried slowly in the oven (I just but a baking tray of them in there to use the residual heat every time I have had the oven on for something else) which I thread onto raffia along with bundles of cinnamon sticks and conkers (drill a hole through the centre of the conkers before they dry out and get too hard). Once made, these decorations last for years and can just be refreshed with some orange essential oils when you next bring them out.

I spent last night knitting little Christmas wreaths from a free pattern I adapted from the knitting pattern central website. I am going to use them as brooches, but made bigger they could be great Christmas tree decorations. They end up looking like this :



(Instead of using i-cord or french knitting, I used 3.5mm needles, cast on 5 stitches and knitted in stocking stitch until it was about 4 inches long, then cast off leaving a long length of yarn .... then I folded the piece of knitting in half lengthwise and stitched up using the spare yarn, and then sewed the two ends together so I had a circle). It was really quick and easy to do - if you don't want to knit little berries, you could use beads I guess).

CandyB101_2

Santa's coal decoration

CandyB101_2

Santa's candy coal