Christmas crafts

Christmas crafts and ornaments

Christmas can be very expensive. What not save money on decorations and gifts while providing some fun for your family or friends? Here are a few very simple craft ideas that you can get your teeth into over the Christmas holidays. All of them are very simple so you don’t need specialist kit or much skill and you can get young children involved.

Paper Flowers

I saw this on Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas last night and was inspired. These are so simple and cheap to make and you can use them to make stunning gift decorations, hanging decorations, tree decorations, centre pieces, hair decorations and corsages. The only limit is your imagination. This is a great one to do with kids but would also be great fun with a load of girl friends.

All you need is a load of tissue paper and string, ribbon or pipe cleaners. You will need at least eight sheets of tissue paper cut to the same size stacked neatly on top of one another. The size of the paper with determine the size of the finished decoration and the number of sheets the thickness of the petals. Experiment to see what works for you. Once you have your stack of tissue paper fold it over in a concertina pattern until you have a single long thin stack of paper. Gently fold this in half to crease the paper in the middle.

Tie ribbon tightly around this central fold or use a pipe cleaner. Use scissors to round the two ends off so they look petal like. Look at the image to the left to see what it should look like at this stage (there are 8 stacks here). Then simply tease the paper open. You can only do this half way to form a gift decoration or tease it out through 360 degrees for a round hanging decoration.

Icing & Marzipan Sculpture

You can buy ready made packs of icing and marzipan really cheaply from any supermarket. You can use this basic raw material to form cake decorations, tree decorations and table decorations. Knead the marzipan or icing until it is soft and becomes and pliable and then sculpt away. Alternatively you can roll out the icing and use pastry cutters or a sharp knife to cut out shapes. If you want more colours you buy pre coloured icing, edible paint or knead food colouring into your white icing. Add sweets, ribbon, paper shapes or anything you have to hand to add details and decorations.

Snowmen are a good things to start with. Just roll out two different sized rounds from white icing for the snowman’s body and head. Where they are going to meet gently scratch the surface of the icing and wet a little as this will help the icing stick together. If you are going to add coloured icing to form a hat or scarf make sure you let it dry a bit first so the colour does not run into the white icing.
If you are rolling the icing to make flat decorations you can hang – while the icing is wet use a knife to make a hole for a ribbon. Leave the icing to dry for at least 24 hours or until it is hard. Then thread ribbon through the hole and hang.

Snow Flake Decorations

These decorations are brilliant and very simple to make. All you need is an old jigsaw some paper glue, water soluble paint and some ribbon or string. These decorations look great on a tree, hung from windows or banisters.

The simple white version pictured here is great but you can go crazy with glitter, colours and decorations to tie in with your own theme or colour scheme.
If you don’t have an old jigsaw you will be able to pick a couple up from any charity shop for under a pound. Start by choosing a large jigsaw piece or just cut out some round shapes from some cardboard. This will form your centre piece. Then glue 5 or 6 jigsaw pieces around the edge of the centre piece. Leave the glue to dry and then paint and decorate. Leave to dry again. Finally attach a piece of ribbon or string to the back of the snowflake using glue, a stapler or use a large needle to thread ribbon through one of the jigsaw pieces.

Ribbon Trees

The first job is to go for a walk and collect some sticks. These will form the trunk of your trees. The second job is get hold of some string, ribbon or scraps of tough paper or fabric. You can buy them but its more fun to go hunting in charity shops and the loft. Simple cut your material into strips of slightly different lengths and tie them round your sticks, longest at the bottom and shortest at the top. Have a look at this image to get an idea of what I mean.

Use scissors to trim the ribbons to perfect a triangle tree shape. You can use glue to stick on glitter and other items to decorate your tree. Use stars, stickers, jewels or hunt through the garden for berries leaves and nuts. Tie string or ribbon to the top of the tree so you can attach it to railings or hang it from your real Christmas Tree. Alternatively use the free stick at the bottom of your tree to attach it to a table decoration or set it into an orange or plastercine.
Just have a go – cheap family fun!