Best Home Made Christmas Decorations

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014 Jayne9 Comments

Since Sausage came along, I’ve made it a bit of a Christmas tradition to make home made Christmas decorations to go on the tree and around the house. We always make our own paper chains, usually from Christmas printed paper or old rolls of wrapping paper from the year before but the main event is the decorations for the tree. I have a dream that, one day, when I’m old, none of the decorations on my tree will be shop bought, but all handmade by the girls and I over the years, so that when our grandchildren, should we be lucky enough to have them, come over for Christmas I can show them all the treasures their Mum and Aunty made when they were little.

This year, as it’s BB’s first Christmas, I thought we’d make salt-dough stars from their hand prints – we’ll cut out the shape of their hands (providing BB plays ball!) and then decorate them with white paint and glitter.

Some of my blogging chums have got some absolutely stunning ideas for home made decorations so I thought I’d pull together some of my favourites, to give you some inspiration for the run-up to the festive season:

Cas from Mummy Never Sleeps wrote a guest post for Carolin at Mummy Alarm showing us how to make a gorgeous, kid-friendly, cheap window display from things you’ve probably already got around the house.

Joy over at Pink Oddy has made some simple but effective salt dough stars which are perfect for making with little ones. I also love how versatile these are in terms of the millions of different ways you could decorate them, even to match a specific colour scheme or as gifts for family or class teachers.

As a single Mum, my friend Aly from Bug, Bird, Bee is one of those amazing people who makes her budget stretch as far as possible by foraging, making home made gifts and some seriously savvy charity shop shopping and I’m always impressed by her skills. I love these Hama bead (which you can buy from Craft Merrily) creations for Christmas and I can totally see a Hama bead Angel sitting at the top of our tree!

My friend Vanessa from HPMcQ is one of those people who is ridiculously stylish and talented so I just knew her handmade decorations would be something aspirational – and I wasn’t wrong. These paper tealight houses (for battery operated tealights, of course) are utterly adorable and would look at home on even the most minimalist of mantlepieces. I really want to try making these but I suspect they might be a ‘mummy-only’ project!

I absolutely LOVE this home made wreath, for which Ali at Kids Chaos used upcycled books. I’ve never been one for outdoor decorations before but I love this idea so much that I’m definitely going to put something on my front door this year. We’ve actually got a pine-cone giving tree in our garden AND a holly bush, so I’m thinking I might be able to make this without any expenditure whatsoever!

For me, Christmas should be a time to treat all of your senses, and these cinnamon stick tree decorations from Cass at Frugal Family are the perfect way to tantalise your sense of smell! Nothing says Christmas like the smell of cinnamon, and true to form, these gorgeous decorations are super cheap to make.

No craft round up would be complete without something from the Queen of Craft, Maggy at Red Ted Art! Her site is awash with amazing Christmas-themed crafts, but these cork snowmen and Rudolph would make such a lovely, colourful addition to any tree – and it’s always good to have an excuse to accumulate a lot of corks!

Otilia, over at Romanian Mum, made this gorgeous paper tree garland, which I reckon Sausage would love to make too, especially as it involves glitter glue! I guess we could use other shapes too, such as snowmen and stars.

My own offering may not be quite as slick at the others, but I was so super impressed that my woollen baubles worked last year! They’re super messy to make but very cheap as you only need water balloons, wool and PVA glue.

All of these will be added to a Pinterest board of the best home made Christmas decorations from around the web, so if you’ve got a post you’d like me to add, please leave a comment below with a link to the post. We’d love for you to follow the board too, so you can see all of the new Pins as they’re added.

Follow Mum’s The Word’s board Home Made Christmas Decorations on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading and happy Christmas crafting!

Christmas Craft – Woollen Baubles

December 3, 2013March 1, 2016 Jayne23 Comments

Every year, Sausage and I make a new set of decorations for the tree, just about a dozen or so to add to the current collection and each year I try to do something different with her. Last year we made some plaster of Paris models which she painted and the year before was salt dough, but this year I wanted something completely different. My good friend Jamillah posted one of her Pinterest finds on Facebook and I thought we’d try to recreate the effect for our tree, and I’m really chuffed with the results so I thought I’d share them with you!

What you’ll need:

Wool – we bought some small offcuts from Ebay, which were about £3 for a bag.
PVA glue
Saucer or tray for glue
Small balloons or water balloons

Method:

Place a splodge of glue onto your saucer or tray
Take a balloon (we used water balloons as they’re the perfect size) and blow it up to the rough size of a bauble.
Tie a small piece of wool around the knot of the balloon for hanging to dry
Snip off a piece of wool about 12 inches long
Drag the wool through the PVA glue
Wrap the sticky wool around the balloon
Repeat the process again with another piece of wool
Hang the baubles to dry (we snipped slots into a long piece of cardboard and slid the balloons into it, before hanging them off of the edge of a desk)
Once the baubles are completely dry (we gave ours about three hours), snip the knot carefully off of the balloon with a pair of scissors. The balloon should deflate but the wool bauble should spring back to shape once the balloon is removed
Tie a piece of coordinating wool at the top of the bauble in a loop, for hanging on the tree

And there you have it! Super easy, rather messy but the results are really worth it in the end. I think these baubles look really unique and effective and I’m really pleased with how they look on the tree. We used wool with a glittery strand running through it (although I can’t take a picture which does the glittery strand justice!) but you could also roll them in glitter before they dry, or even use a little bit of snow spray on the bottoms once they’re dry.

Family · Kids · Review

Interplay Fairy Princess Craft Party Review

September 30, 2013February 11, 2014 Jayne1 Comment

A few months ago, Sausage went to the birthday party of her best friend (I swear, that kid has a better social life than I do, I’ve literally lost count of all the parties she’s been to this year!), which was hosted by a company which provides dress up clothes and accessories (princesses and pirates in this case) and then provides crafts for the kids to get involved with, like painting plaster-of-Paris ornaments and colouring in. All of the kids had a marvellous time, so when Interplay got in touch a while ago and asked if we’d like to review one of their party in a box kits, I had a feeling it would go down well.

The kit we were sent is the Interplay Fairy Princess Craft Party kit, which gives you everything you need for six little ones to be able to make and decorate a crown, a fairy wand, and a pair of wings. The activities are expected to keep the kids entertained for up to an hour and a half and are an absolutely brilliant way to plan a party on a budget.

We’ve not got around to hosting our party yet, between the masses of birthday parties, all of our recent hospital appointments and half term now being upon us, but we’re really excited about putting it all together. The kit itself costs between £20 and £24, so even if you wanted a party for 12 kids, you could effectively host a party at home for under £50, if you were to buy snacks cheaply (and let’s face it, what kids want at a party is nuggets, cake and juice!). As Husband and I are ALL too aware, birthday parties for little ones can be prohibitively expensive and coming up with a new thing to do every year can be a nightmare, so Interplay have provided a really cost effective way to host, whilst providing kids with a decent amount of entertainment.

The other good thing is that the kids can take the crown, wings and wand away with them at the end of the party, which takes care of the party bag gifts, too. The set is aimed at 5-8 year olds, and Interplay also make sets for kids who are Mad About Ponies, as well as Treasure Box making and Pirate parties, which means you could have mixed parties for boys and girls if the dudes didn’t want to make wands and wings.

I can’t express enough how much I love these kits – Sausage is so excited about planning her little soiree (which will no doubt involve some pink cupcakes) and I really think the kids she invites will get a lot of enjoyment out of the contents. Providing a budget option in the current financial climate means that kids who may have been unable to have an expensive party could now have a great little birthday treat for them and their friends, which doesn’t seem like a glaringly cheap option, and will allow their parents to do something nice for their kids without breaking the bank.

Interplay get serious props from the whole family for making these kits, for the ‘fun for kids’ aspect, as well as giving adults a break when it comes to cost, which really does make them an all-round winner in my book.

(post contains affiliate links)

Crafts

Mum’s the Word Loves Scrappy Owls

May 2, 2013February 11, 2019 Jayne1 Comment

My friend Becky is a very talented lady, she’s a real whizz with a sewing machine and I’m often admiring the clothes she makes for her daughter, who’s in Sausage’s class at school. Just recently, she’s started putting her talents to other use and has set up her own shop selling some of the gorgeous things she makes. I’m a huge fan of small businesses and cottage industry as I think it’s brilliant when people are able to use their ingenuity to allow them to do something positive for themselves, so I wanted to show you some of her wares:

Dribble Bibs

I love these dribble bibs, they almost make me wish I had my own small, dribbly person to wear one!

Owl Bags

These owl bags are so adorable and very fashionable right now, I’m thinking about commissioning a matching mama and baby owl pair for me and Sausage!

Scooter Bags

I think these scooter bags are just so clever, they look seriously cute on the front of a proscootersmart scooter and are very practical for carrying sunglasses, sweets and all the other little treasures that our younglings like to stow away.

Scrappy Owls

My absolute favourite thing that Becky makes are these Scrappy Owls, which is good as they’re her signature item! I love the bright colours, the design, even the expression on the owls’ faces! So kitsch and cool.

Head over to the Scrappy Owls Facebook page to see all of Becky’s wonderful creations and place an order for yourself!

Disclosure – No payment or payment in kind has been received in exchange for this post, this is not a paid advert and all opinions are my own.

How To

Upcycling Roses Part 2 – Homemade Bath Bombs

April 4, 2013December 8, 2013 Jayne5 Comments

Last week I showed you how to make a pretty and more-or-less free centrepiece for a table using recycled rose petals and today I’m going to show you how to make homemade bath bombs using some more of your dried petals. You will need:

150g Bicarbonate of Soda (food grade)

50g Citric Acid

5ml of Rose Essential Oil

Edible Glitter

Pink Food Colouring

Dried rose petals (method for drying in previous post, see link above)

Tools:

Sieve

Kitchen scales

Large mixing bowl

Rubber gloves

Teaspoon

bath bomb mould (we used a rose shaped one)
Hand sprayer full of cold water

1. Begin by chopping your rose petals into smaller pieces with a sharp knife – remember, they’ll need to be able to fit down your drain when you enpty the bath!

2. Measure out the dry ingredients (bicarb, citric acid, glitter) and sieve them into the mixing bowl

3. Add the food colouring a couple of drops at a time. The mixture will start to fix and you need to mix quickly to get the colour through evenly. You could also use powdered colour, which would avoid this altogether

4. Add the rose petals, then the essential oil and mix thoroughly. Some oils have a yellow tinge, depending on the carrier oil, which may alter the colour of the mixture. Try to find a clear oil, or adjust the colour after adding with the food colouring, adding a drop at a time

5. Using a gloved hand, grab a handful of the mixture and spray LIGHTLY with the water in the hand sprayer then push the mixture firmly into the moulds (do not allow too much water as the mixture will start to fizz). The back of a teaspoon is handy for smoothing out the flat side of the bomb once it’s in the mould

6. Once you’ve filled all of your moulds (the amounts above made two of our rose shaped bombs but you can multiply the amounts to make more bombs) leave to set for 30 minutes.

7. Ease the bombs out of the moulds

Voila! You have yourself some homemade bath bombs! I used one of them a couple of nights ago to test it out and I must say, they felt wonderfully luxurious. The rose scent was delightful and I felt a bit special having such a lovely bath, full of rose petals and glitter.

Obviously, you’ll need to be careful with these if you have sensitive skin or are pregnant.

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