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?
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 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
Last year the advent calendar I made for Anya was a huge hit. She loved opening those boxes so much and since about June of this year she has been regularly asking when she could have another advent calendar. Of course I was going to make her another one, just not in June! I think the advent calendar may have been her favourite part of Christmas which is just as much about the build-up as it is about the day.
This year I’ve made it a bit earlier as I wanted to share it with you sooner and I hope you like it. I was drawn to origami as I chanced across some lovely matt origami paper in a deep green. So I thought why not make a forest of mini Christmas trees and that’s exactly what happened. But of course I needed to find a place for the gifts and what better place than under the trees?
To make this DIY advent calendar you will need:
Origami paper – you can choose any colour but I went for two shades of green Mini paper cups – they’re called souffle or sauce cups Gold spray Mini number stickers (or you could hand write the numbers on)
To start with make the trees. I followed an origami tree tutorial that I found online. It was a bit tricky at first but after the 2nd or 3rd tree it was really easy so stick with it. I didn’t even need to look at the instructions after the 5th or 6th tree. Follow the tutorial exactly but I added one more step. I blu-tacked each fold of all the trees as I found that they flared out too much otherwise, and didn’t stand up quite as well as I wanted them to.
Next take your mini paper cups – these are the little paper cups that you fill with ketchup and mayo. They’re called soufflé cups and cost very little for loads of them. I had them at home as I’ve used them in the past for Anya’s birthday parties to serve ketchup. They make the perfect little pots to balance the trees on and of course to put your little gifts in. Spray them gold – best to put them in a disposable cardboard box or similar otherwise they fly around when you spray as they’re so light.
Finally take your number stickers (if using) and stick them on. Fill each pot with your little treat and place the tree on top. That’s it – done! You have an easy DIY advent calendar that looks so great. Do you usually make your own advent calendars or do you buy them?
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.
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Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...
