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Entries Tagged as 'christmas crafts'

DIY Advent Calendar: Santa & the elves

November 26, 2015

It’s that time of year – time for my annual DIY advent calendar. Since I shared my mini forest DIY advent calendar last year, I have had so much love for it. It even got featured in Marie Claire Maison. Wow! So this year the stakes were high – I’ve also had readers asking me months ago what I was going to make this Christmas!

I went through a few DIY advent calendar ideas but in the end I loved the idea of making santas and their little elves. Aren’t they so Christmassy and cute? I chose different sizes as they not only look great but also allow me to put different size gifts under each one. I love making my annual advent calendar to share here and inspire others but also it’s Anya’s favourite part of Christmas by far. She adores the little surprise that each day brings and that makes making my own advent even more special for me.

To make this DIY advent calendar you will need:
24 craft cones in different widths and sizes
acrylic paints (in your chosen colours)
a fine black pen
mini felt balls
number stickers
glue

First of all get your cardboard cones and using a pencil mark out the outline of the hat area and face for the santa cones. Also mark out the little face area for the elves.

Next paint the santa hats in your chosen colours, paint the beard bit white and the face bit in a skin tone colour – I used an acrylic paint colour called antique white. Similarly paint the elf cones and their faces. Some colours will require two coats for a better finish otherwise the cardboard will show through.

Using a fine black pen draw on little eyes for both the santas and the elves. Glue the felt balls on to make santa’s noses and thats the cones done. Either use number stickers to number the cones or you can even paint or write them on. Finally, add little gifts, notes or whatever you like under the cones and you have a super cute advent calendar.

What I especially love about this DIY advent calendar is that it’s simple enough for kids to make. Just get them the cones and they can create and decorate the santas as they wish. Also once the advent calendar has been used, you can easily turn these santas and elves into hanging Christmas tree decorations. Do you make your own advent calendar? I’d love to hear about what you make.

{I bought the cones on ebay but they are easily available from craft shops as are the felt balls.}

A very simple Christmas DIY: Tree garland

December 23, 2014

Do you remember my DIY mini forest advent calendar? Well, I had all those mini origami trees floating around so I had to do something with them. With our recent house move, I knew there would be no tree this year but I did have 24 of these mini trees which I wasn’t ready to get rid of just yet. So I decided to simply make a little mini tree garland.

If you’re starting from scratch you’ll have to make the origami tree’s first of course. But after that it’s really simple. All you need is a needle and thread and just string the trees together at the top. Super easy, peasy! I had the green trees from my advent calendar but you could easily make the garland in any colour you like – perhaps a black and white one or even a gold one. Alternatively these little trees could also become tree ornaments – again just thread from the top and hang from your big tree.

What else would you use these little trees for? Name place holders? Table decorations? Anything else?

{all photos by ebabee}

Four easy Christmas crafts for kids

December 19, 2014

Christmas is the perfect time for crafting. It’s cold outside, the holidays are on and so it’s a great way to keep the kids entertained. My preference is always for quick and easy crafts. Anything too involved and I find that the kids patience wears thin and the crafts don’t get finished. So with that in mind I’ve picked four fun and colourful crafts most of which come with free printables too.

1. How cute are those printable Christmas crackers? The printable templates also come as blank ones so they’re great to give to the kids and let them decorate as they wish.

2. I’m loving these playful DIY birch Christmas tree ornaments. For these you will need to buy the birch rounds or improvise with something else like thick cardboard. And then decorate as you wish – with stickers or drawings or both.

3. These printable tree and gingerbread pouches come undecorated so you can print on to colourful paper or plain paper and decorate. These shapes can be used for so many things – storing little treats, making hanging ornaments, gift tags and so much more.

4. A cute little printable geometric snowman that even comes with a hat. This little snowman can be used on it’s own as a decoration or if you print quite a few, it would make a super cute table decoration on Christmas day. You could even use it for place names – just write each persons name on the hat.

Have a great weekend all! Enjoy the happy, cheerful, festive atmosphere which is the thing I love the most about Christmas.

P.S. Today is the last day for UK Christmas orders from our kids clothing shop.

The best DIY Christmas trees

December 9, 2014

The weather’s turned freezing, we are well in to December, lights and decorations are popping up everywhere; that can only mean one thing – Christmas is coming! As I’ve been busy moving house, I haven’t really gotten in to the Christmas spirit but now I fully intend to.

With the chaos that a house move brings and moving to a home that needs complete refurbishing getting a Christmas tree isn’t going to work out this year. Anya looks forward to decorating the tree each year so I don’t want to disappoint her and besides I want to have a little festive corner so that we all feel a bit more Chrismassy. I thought instead of a real tree we can make our own alternative tree which Anya can help with. That’s my plan for the coming weekend so I’ve been collecting ideas for alternate Christmas trees which are also great if you have limited space or some of these ideas are perfect for creating a little Christmas corner in your kids rooms too. I especially love the simple washi tape Christmas tree (no. 2) which you can create so easily in any room of your home. And aren’t those brush trees (no. 7) a great idea too?

Here’s where more about each tree: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

4 easy Christmas DIY projects…

December 19, 2013

Here are 4 fun and most importantly easy Christmas DIY projects that I found around the web. Those giant baubles are just the best!

1. Giant baubles: made from balloons, this is such a fun DIY and I can’t wait to try it. 2. Character cookies: a tasty looking treat and the kids can help decorate too. 3. Snowman ornament: a quirky take on a traditional snowman, perfect for kids to make and hang on your tree. 4. Elf ornaments: cute little tree hangers that can be stitched but for the easy option just print out the paper versions.

7 things I love about Christmas…

December 18, 2013

There’s so much to love (and possibly hate too) about Christmas. I like to focus on the good things and so here are the 7 things I love the most about Christmas:

1. Sitting round a big table and eating an even bigger meal stretched out over hours with your closest friends and family.

2. Sparkly, twinkly lights everywhere you turn. Makes everything feel magical and if I had my way, I would have lights throughout the dark Winter months.

3. Decorating a tree or just decorating your home is fun but watching your kids do it is even better.

4. Cookies, cakes, sweet treats in abundance… what’s not to love?!

5. Snow… this of course isn’t ever guaranteed but I always dream of a white Christmas.

6. Hot chocolate especially the Italian kind.

7. The endless craft possibilities that Christmas brings – from the little decorations that Anya brings home from school to the fun of getting creative with your gift wrapping.

What do you love about Christmas? I would love to hear about your favourite things.

DIY stars advent calendar…

November 25, 2013

This year I really wanted to make an advent calendar for my daughter Anya. Being Indian, while growing up we didn’t really celebrate Christmas although we did occasionally get gifts. But we never had anything as fun and exciting as an advent calendar. So this year I decided to make Anya these little gold star topped boxes with a hint of neon pink. This DIY advent calendar was easy and fun to make. I used: mini white favour boxes, glittery gold card, cocktail sticks broken in half, washi tape, real leaves, gold spray, gold glitter and tape. I cut out 24 stars from gold card and stuck each star with tape on to half a cocktail stick that I had covered in neon pink washi tape. I also added an extra little detail of a gold leaf on each box. I took 24 tiny leaves from a bunch of flowers I had at home and sprayed them gold. At the moment I’ve numbered the stars graphically but I have little white number stickers and I’m going to let Anya do the stickering which will delight her no end! Alternatively, you could also put the numbers on the gold leaf. Finally, I sprinkled some glitter over all of the boxes to add a bit of extra sparkle.

Have you made an advent calendar this year? What did you make?

Merry Christmas + a happy new year!

December 24, 2012

Thank you all for the amazing support this year and for all the likes, comments, shares, email messages and so much more. It’s been a great year and I look forward to sharing lots more with you in 2013. In the meantime have an amazing Christmas and a fun New Years celebration. I’ll be taking a little break and will see you back here in the new year. Before I go, I wanted to leave you with a few festive crafts and treat ideas that you can try out over the holidays.

1. Fun and delicious chocolate mustaches and you can even go a step further and make a white chocolate Santa beard! 2. Super cute candy snails that will go down a treat for kids and adults. 3. Pretty DIY glitter acorns that are so festive and easy to make. 4. A cute little DIY wooden family that you can decorate and adorn as you like.

See you in 2013 ~ nomita xx