OS christmas decorations :)

Pooky

SALT DOUGH

2 Cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of tepid water

Mix well and add a little more flour if needed to make into a dough - shouldn't be sticky - kneed for 10 mins to work it through and then leave in a plastic bag for half an hour to rest. You can then roll it out or mould it really easily. You could either poke a hole through shapes for a string or ribbon or break a paperclip in half and poke into the dough to make a small loop.


You need to bake these in the oven at 120degrees for about 5-6 hours and leave them in the oven when you turn it off so that they cool without cracking. You can then either paint with emulsion or poster paints and varnish if you want.

culpepper

make some little square boxes from waste card and cover in coloured paper.tie with a ribbon.
Make cones and hang with string (put smarties in).
make a fairy doll's dress using a bit of old net curtain or one of the wash nets.

Pooky

Another one we used to do when we were little was to wrap empty match boxes and cigarette packets that Mum and Dad had saved. Wrapped in nice paper with a bit of ribbon or string and hung on the tree they looked great.

troll35

Here's another. We go for a walk in the woods and collect lots of pine cones. Let them dry out for a few days until they have opened up, then roll them in glue and glitter and tie on some glittery string to hang them up.

johanne

Some fab ideas on here.......mum and i went to a local big DIY store and spent ages looking at all the xmas deccies.. found some nice things but kept saying "could make that cheaper ourselves!" So we bought none of them. lol

Instead we headed over to the "home" section and picked up some "traditional" clothes pegs (99p for 24).. yknow the wooden ones that are wooden, long and have a little ball thing on the end? Think they are called dolly pegs? Were going to make fairys and santas out of them using cones of card and stuff!

Decided too that the "fancy" baubles with the velvet and sequins stuck on them were dead easy to copy with polystrene balls and a bit of imagination.. and when they were chargin £1.99 each :eek: Its cheaper (and more fun) to go the craft shop and make them ourselves! :j

Sarahsaver

A Lambretta would look cool parked under the tree! LOL

Make garlands out of that polystyrene squiggly packaging if you have had any parcels lately - just sew it together.

Make pompoms out of bubble wrap - futuristic snowball effect here!

Why not make pipecleaner 'stick men' and print out pics of the family's faces to put on them.

Actual socks, surely every house has some odd socks, and hang them on to put little presents in.

Make your own crackers out of loo roll inners and newspaper à la Tom and Barbara.

I made a really cool garland one year out of old earrings I no longer wore and a piece of ordinary parcel string.

arkonite_babe

My Mum makes gorgeous baubles from polystyrene balls, material scraps ribbon and pins. I know she scores the ball, pushes the material into the scores, covers the joins with ribbon and then pins the ribbon into place. I'm not sure what the pattern is for the material, a diamond I think, but I shall ask her tomorrow and post it up here for you if anyone is interested? If I can manage it too, I will try to get pics so it'd be easier to see how to do it.

Allexie

arkonite_babe wrote:

My Mum makes gorgeous baubles from polystyrene balls, material scraps ribbon and pins. I know she scores the ball, pushes the material into the scores, covers the joins with ribbon and then pins the ribbon into place. I'm not sure what the pattern is for the material, a diamond I think, but I shall ask her tomorrow and post it up here for you if anyone is interested? If I can manage it too, I will try to get pics so it'd be easier to see how to do it.

Yes please!

pdoff

Sarahsaver wrote:

Actual socks, surely every house has some odd socks, and hang them on to put little presents in.

what a great idea - 3 year old has loads of odd socks. think they will be better than his dad's size 11s! will look for baby xmas socks in sales as they would be really cute for next year.

Chris25

...........and the tops off the bottles of Teachers whisky make great bells.
Have to put loops on though and would take a long time to get a tree-ful
and of coursh you omly get oen four eash bottle. Hic! Wash was the qestion again???? :snow_grin