Valentine’s Day Fimo Hearts Teacher Gifts

For the latest Staedtler Try-It-Tribe challenge we were asked to make some Fimo Hearts for Valentine’s Day, using a Fimo mould. The kids were not so keen on making hearts (can’t we make more spaceships?!), until I suggested we make them to give to their teachers for Valentine’s. They LOVED this idea as they are still at the age where they love their teachers and want to give them nice gifts!

Here’s the hearts we made:

The 6 large ones are teacher gifts, so we added ribbon to those to make them into decorations. The others are spares for the kids to play with (though they gave the tiny yellow one to me).

Want to know how to make your own?

Step 1: Start with some Fimo, a Staedtler Fimo Clay Mould, some talcum powder, and a brush:

Step 2: Sprinkle your mould with talcum powder:

Then use the brush to dust it around and into the creases of the patterns, tapping any excess off:

You should barely be able to see the talcum powder:

Step 3: Knead the Fimo a bit to soften it then roll it into a ball:

Step 4: Press the ball into the mould, making sure you are pushing it down enough to fill the dips of the patterns:

Once you’ve pressed all your Fimo in it should look a bit like this:

Step 5: Turn the mould upside down and use your thumbs to press the Fimo out of the mould, the mould is quite bendy so it’s easy to do:

Ta-da!

Make sure you re-dust the mould with talcum powder if you are using the same heart again. We had to re-do the rose one almost straight away, as I managed to put my elbow on the one we’d just made. Doh!

Some hearts may need a bit of excess Fimo cut off if there was a bit too much for the mould:

You can experiment too. We thought the plain heart shapes looked a bit boring compared to the patterned ones, so we twisted 2 sausages of Fimo colours together, then pressed them into the moulds for a marbled effect:

Here’s the ones we marbled:

Little Miss also got creative with the back of some of them, making a pattern with the point of the plastic knife:

Step 6: When you’ve finished making hearts use a wooden kebab stick or similar to make a hole through the hearts which you want to hang up. You will need to wiggle the stick around a bit to stretch the hole so it’s big enough to fit ribbon through. And don’t forget to pick the heart up and make sure the hole is big at the back too, not just at the front:

Step 7: Arrange on a baking tray covered in tin foil, and bake according to instructions – for the Kids Fimo we were using this was 30 minutes at 110 degrees C:

Step 8: Once they are baked and cooled you can add a ribbon – you may need to use the kebab stick to help poke the ribbon through – and tie a knot to hang them up:

The kids can’t wait to give them to their teachers (Cheek Boy has turned into Spiderman!):

I especially like the patterned hearts, they’d make nice Christmas decorations too I think:

They’d look even nicer with a bit of gloss varnish on, as some of them look a bit talcum-powdery! But I didn’t have any gloss varnish, so never mind.

Do you ever use moulds for any of your creations? I want some small ones to make some embellishments for my scrapbook pages!

Have a great day – it’s a rather stormy one here with Storm Imogen rattling the windows. We’re staying snug inside.

Disclosure: Staedtler sent us the products to use for this post, but all photos, text, and opinions are our own.

Bye for now, Jennifer x

Mermaid Pattern Bowl DIY

I’ve always wanted to be a mermaid. You know, just for a few days, to swim with the whales and discover the depths of the sea. We just watched Disney’s The Little Mermaid again last night and I was signing along merrily. My kids told me to ssssh. I ignored them.

This mermaid pattern bowl won’t magically turn me into a mermaid, but it makes me happy to look at it while I eat my cereals:

Here’s how to make your own…

Step 1: Begin with a plain white bowl and Edding’s Porcelain Brush Pens:

Step 2: I ended up doing this step wrong and having to start it again. You’ll see a couple of reasons why!

Draw a pattern of fish-scales by drawing connected semi-circles around the base of the bowl:

See how the filled-in semi-circle on the left doesn’t look as smooth as the one on the right? You need to use broad sweeping strokes when colouring in with these pens, as they don’t bleed together too well if you try a more scribbled approach like I’d used on the left.

Don’t try to correct it by drawing over it again either – if the ink had already started to dry then you’ll just make scratches in it:

It’s best to wipe off the offending section with a damp cloth, then dry with a dry piece of cloth (I used kitchen paper for both) before starting again:

However it still wasn’t quite right, as when I went to do the next layer I realised the semi-circles would have to be huge in order to connect with the first layer in a mermaid-scales pattern. Too big – it looked more like flower petals:

So I wiped it all off and drew the first layer again with smaller semi-circles:

Step 3: Now draw and fill in the next layer with a new colour. The semi-circles should be offset with the first layer, so that the dips of the 2nd layer meet with the middles of the semi-circles on the first layer:

Step 4: Repeat 3 more times with new colours each time, for three more layers:

Step 5: Your mermaid scales are done but it needs a little ‘something’ to make it look finished:

So draw a scalloped line around the top edge with a contrasting colour, to give it a ‘frill’ and make it look more mermaid-like!

Bake according to instructions and your bowl is finished and ready to use:

 

The perfect gift for someone who wants to be a mermaid.

On my belated hen-party I was allowed to give out stickers to my hens for ‘good work’ eg. if they said something funny or re-filled my wine etc. One of my friend’s said I looked like a mermaid when I was swimming so I gave her a few extra stickers!

Have you ever wanted to be a magical creature or to have super powers? I hope most people have crazy dreams like that!

Bye for now,

Jennifer x

Concertina Christmas Trees and the Frosty Festivities 2015 Wrap-Up Post!

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Well, it’s the last day of November, which means it’s also the last day of my Frosty Festivities 2015 event. Have you enjoyed it?! I have a few things to mention and then I have one last project to inspire you with!

There’s a list of all the Frosty Festivities 2015 posts on THIS PAGE of my blog. Make sure you check to see if there’s any posts you missed, especially all the giveaways {ALL NOW CLOSED}! Look at all the fabulous prizes you could win:

Al the giveaways and the challenge to be inspired stay open until 10pm GMT on next Sunday the 6th of December {ALL NOW CLOSED}. Winners will be announced on Thursday the 10th of December so make sure you check back to see if you’ve won.

If you have enjoyed the event, I’d be really grateful if you can pin or share the projects you like. Whilst I do enjoy making all the projects, running the events, and reading your comments, it’s visitor numbers that convince me to run it again and convince sponsors to add a prize. So the more visitors the better!

Talking about sponsors, make sure you shop at Lettera Etc, The Paperdashery, Little Dorrit & Co, Feed Your Craft, and SVG Files Shop, when you can, to thank them for being fabulous sponsors!

If you have any questions or suggestions about how these events are run, then don’t hesitate to contact me at jennifergrace(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk!

Now for one last project, these Concertina Christmas Trees:

These were a fun way to use a bit more of my favourite Christmas collection (Christmas On Market Street by My Mind’s Eye)!

I started with a pile of items from the collection, plus some plastic cups, a score board, a hole punch, a hot glue gun, some sand, and some bamboo sticks:

However I did end up swapping the bamboo sticks for chopsticks, as the bamboo sticks were too thick, and swapping the hole punch for a big bite hole puncher, as the normal hole punch couldn’t reach far enough:

If you want to make some of your own…

Step 1: Cut 2 triangles from patterned paper. One of mine is 11″ tall, and the other is 7.5″ tall:

Step 2: Score the trees horizontally at regular intervals – my score lines are about 3/4″ apart:

Step 3: Concertina the trees by folding back and forth along the lines:

Step 4: Draw a line down the center vertically on the back of your triangles. Then punch holes on each panel, along the line:

Step 5: Make the holes a little larger by gently pushing the chopstick through, from the front of your triangle to the back, to widen them:

Step 6: Push the trees onto the chopsticks:

Step 7: Use hot glue to add some embellishments – I added a gold snowflake and a gold garland to the tops of the trees, and sentiments in the middle:

Step 8: Add any other embellishments – I added a few enamel dots to each tree:

Step 9: Decorate the plastic cups by hot glueing on some glitter ribbon at the top, and another die-cut card embellishment at the front:

Step 10: Fill the plastic cups with coloured sand (I had to add some coloured stones too as I didn’t have enough sand), then stick your trees in and put them on display:

Make sure you display them somewhere that they won’t get knocked over and spill sand everywhere!

These concertina trees would also look good made in miniature and added to cards and scrapbook layouts! You don’t even have to punch holes and add a stick if you’re going to be sticking them down flat.

Be Inspired:

Make some concertina Christmas trees

At glitter tape around the rim or edge of something

Use a wooden stick on a project or page

Remember to let me know what you thought about the event. Which was your favourite project?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I have enjoyed reading every single comment! Bye for now,

Jennifer x

Watercolour And Brush Lettering Plate And Mug

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

On Monday I showed you my explorations in brush lettering, and today I’m back with a watercolour and brush lettering plate and mug:

Fun huh? I have been wanting to try out a watercolour effect on plates after seeing THIS POST and THIS POST. Then I saw some Porcelain Brush Pens on sale in TK Maxx, and I after the fun I’d been having with brush lettering I had to get them too!

The brush pens are by Edding, the porcelain paints I used are by Pebeo, my plate was from Ikea, and my mug was from The Range. Please be aware the paints and pens say they haven’t been tested for food use so should be used for decorative purposes only:

I wanted to write on the mug first, so I went straight on with the word ‘warm’ in purple:

I didn’t like how it looked as I wanted it to be big and bold. Luckily you can wipe the pen off with a baby wipe or damp paper towel if it hasn’t dried yet. Then dry the spot with a dry paper towel and you can write on it again:

I continued the writing underneath the word ‘warm’ first, rather than going above it, so I didn’t smudge it. I wrote ‘drink on a cold night’, mixing bold and script font styles:

Then once these words were dry enough not to smudge them I wrote ‘nothing better than a’ at the top:

I prepped my paints – stirring them with a lolly stick:

Then tipping them into some plastic bowls (which are ones I already use for painting), and mixing in some paint thinner. The bowl on the left hasn’t got the thinner mixed in yet, the bowl on the right does. I ended up having to add even more thinner. I’d say a good ratio for a watercolour effect is 9 parts thinner to one part paint! I used way too much paint and thinner:

I stippled the mug around the words with a layer of blue paint, trying to stop it looking too drippy. I should probably have used paint without thinner but I wanted it to be a bit translucent, plus I’d already mixed the paint and didn’t want to waste it:

Then I stippled it with gold paint over the top before leaving it to dry for 24 hours, then baking it in an oven according to the instructions:

On the plate I wrote the words ‘baby it’s cold outside’:

Then I tried dripping some paint down from the edges:

And used a cocktail stick to spread it out a bit:

But I didn’t like it! Luckily the paint can also be cleaned off while wet!

After cleaning the paint I tipped a pool of blue paint onto the plate:

I added a bit more thinner and started tipping the plate about to spread it out:

I decided it was covering too much of the plate, so I wiped some off:

Tipped it about again:

Added some splashes of gold:

I kept splattering and tipping until I was happy with the effect:

So I again left it to dry for 24 hours before baking in an oven according to the instructions:

 

I definitely want to experiment with these techniques a bit more, and try out some more colours of paint too!

Be Inspired:

Get some porcelain or glass paints and decorate some tableware

Use one of the phrases I used as inspiration for your project

Add some gold or blue stipples or splatters to you card, layout, etc

What would you write on your mug or plate?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back tomorrow morning with the next Frosty Festivities 2015 post – there aren’t many left now!

I hope you have a great day,

Jennifer x

DIY Decorated Gift Box

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Hello! Today I’m back with some more pretty packaging – this DIY Decorated Gift Box:

I’m a TRUE crafter. Do you know how I know? Because I collect everything and anything that looks like it might be good for a craft one day. Spot a button on the path? Pick it up and add it to my button stash. Cutting the annoying shoulder ribbons out of clothes? Keep them to use on a card one day. And today’s useful bit of collecting – pretty leaves, fake berries, and ribbons adorning your Christmas crackers? Don’t you dare throw them away! I think my family all decided I was mad when I collected all these bits off some Christmas crackers. Except my Mum, she gets it. In fact she’s probably the one who taught me to do it!

Along with my collection of cracker adornments, I gathered up a box to decorate, plus some useful tools including a hot glue gun and some embossing powder. I did end up using some other bits too, which you’ll see as we go along!

The first job was to paint the kraft box with white satin craft paint. It only took one coat for my box, but it will depend on the darkness of your box and the quality of your paint:

Next (once the paint was dry) I used some Versa Mark ink to stamp teeny snowflakes around the bottom of the box and covered them with gold embossing powder. I stamped 2 at a time, tipped powder on, then moved onto the next 2, so the ink didn’t dry before tipping the powder on:

After heat embossing the snowflakes I filled in the pattern with some stars using the same technique:

To prepare the items for the lid I cut a couple of wires shorter with some wire cutters, and folded them back on themselves, so the cut end of the wire would be hidden under the leaves. Then I tied one of the ribbons in a pretty bow around one of the loops of wire. The bells were tied together with a bit of twine:

And then I tied the twine to another loop of wire on some fake berries, leaving a bit of twine between the wire and the bells so they could still shake and jingle:

I used hot glue to adhere everything to the lid. A bit of hot glue was showing more than I wanted it to, so I used some Mod Podge to blob on top of it:

And then sprinkled on a bit of glitter to make it sparkly:

It’s the perfect way to package up a small pressie like jewellery to make it extra special:

I might put some of my Snowman Earrings or a Snow Scene In A Bottle Necklace in it for a gift!

Be Inspired:

Recycle something pretty like a button, ribbon, or Christmas decorations to add to a project

Use holly and berries on a layout, card, etc

Create some gold snowflakes for a bit of shine

Do you collect odds and ends in case they are useful for crafting one day?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back tomorrow morning (8am GMT) with the next Frosty Festivities 2015 post!

I hope you have a great day,

Jennifer x

A Winter Scene Triangle Ornament (With Template)

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Here’s another Christmas Ornament to freshen up your festive decorations – a Winter Scene Triangle Ornament:

I want to make lots of these and fill them all with different scenes!

I have a PDF A4 Template which you can download HERE if you’d like to make your own (you will be prompted to download it, it doesn’t start automatically).

Here’s how to make your ornament. You may notice that the step-by-step photos show me using some woodgrain patterned paper as the ornament. That was my plan, until I made a mistake when it was nearly finished and ripped it – arrgghh! I will talk about that when I get to it. It turns out I actually prefer the blue card I ended up using, so it was okay!

Step 1: Print off your template and find some card or stiff patterned paper to use:

Step 2: Cut out the template and then the card just along the outer edges:

Step 3: Score along the fold lines – I just laid the template on top of the card and scored both sheets together, but you could draw the lines onto the card before scoring if you prefer:

You don’t need to put the template on top to score the tabs, just follow the edge:

Step 4: Use a sharp craft knife to cut out the window, again I just cut through both layers at once (using a metal ruler to keep my lines straight):

Step 5: Pierce holes for your twine or thread to go through using a paper piercer or darning needle:

Step 6: If you don’t like the pattern on the back of your patterned paper you can cut triangles from another pattern to stick inside – but don’t stick them both down yet:

You need to adhere one of the flaps together first:

And then stick the patterned triangle on top to hide the tab:

Step 7: Cut the ‘snow’ from white card and fold the edges in at an angle. Now here’s where things started to go wrong. I used tape to stick my ‘snow’ into the ornament, but I should have used hot glue:

The next steps are to stick on a tiny tree or any other images or stickers which you want in your scene, then close the ornament by taping down the other tabs (tape worked fine – a bit too well – for my tabs on the woodgrain paper, but not so well on the blue card – I ended up using glue on one tab as well as tape).

I did those steps, but then my snow fell out. I tried to stick the snow back in by pushing it back through the window, and then I ripped the edges of the window. Then I tried to undo the tape and ripped it some more… disaster! I gave up and swapped to some blue card, following all the steps above, but sticking the snow in with hot glue!

I did also cut a larger window, as I decided you couldn’t see enough of the scene. The template has been adjusted accordingly, so you will have the larger window on your ornament:

Step 8: Back to scheduled programming – stick your snow in using hot glue or another really strong glue at the sides:

Step 9: Stick a bit of cotton wool at the bottom to hide the gap and give more depth to the scene:

Step 10: Add your tree and a character sticker or chipboard piece by hot gluing them to the front of the card snow:

Step 11: Tape or glue the other tabs down so the ornament is closed, then use a darning needle to add some thread or twine to the top for hanging the ornament:

Step 12: Glue any additions you want on the outside of the ornament. This is also when I added a bit of glue to the bottom tab as the tape kept coming undone:

That’s it! Now you can hang your ornament. I’m thinking these would also look cool with a child’s drawing of a Christmas character inside instead of a sticker. I shall get Little Miss to design some!

Be Inspired:

Make a triangular Christmas ornament

Add some cotton wool snow to a project

Create a winter scene on a layout or card with snowy hills and tiny trees

What Christmas or winter character would you add to your snowy scene?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Jennifer x

What’s The Fuss Layout with Shrink Plastic Embellishments

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

I’m sorry there was no post yesterday. My son’s ill, just a cough and a cold, but he’s been off school with it and waking up a lot during the night, so after a few exhausting days it was time for a day away from blogging! We spent yesterday recuperating and he’s doing a bit better today. So I’m back with another festive project for you, this time it’s a layout with some shrink plastic embellishments…

This page is about how my son didn’t really get what all the fuss was about in advance of Christmas 2013… he’s certainly excited for Xmas 2015 though!

Can you spot which ones are the shrink plastic embellishments? It’s the little line of trees on the journal card!

I made them using the Clearly Kelly ‘Noel’ stamp set. I figured they went well with my page, but I couldn’t stamp them straight onto the busy background, so I went looking for something else to stamp them onto:

I found a sheet of white shrink plastic (the brand I used was Shrinkles). I wanted to stamp a gold tree, but I didn’t have a good gold ink pad, so I tried colouring the image with a Metallic Gold pen from Staedtler, before stamping it onto the ROUGH side of the shrink plastic:

Note the green underneath the plastic – it’s a piece of felt which I used to try and give a better impression of the stamped image.

Unfortunately it didn’t come out that well the first time. But it wasn’t because the felt didn’t work – it was because the ink had dried too much on the side I’d coloured first – maybe because I had stopped to take a photo of the coloured-in stamp! Here’s what the first layer looked like:

I coloured the stamp just on the one side which needed more coverage, and stamped again on top of the first image:

It was slightly out of alignment but I decided I quite liked the effect!

I stamped the same tree again, using black StazOn ink (I didn’t end up using this tree on the layout):

Next I attempted to colour the stamp again, but I made a big mistake. I tried to use ProMarkers. Don’t do this! The stamped image was really faint and I stained my stamp. Lose-lose. Oh well, we live and learn:

I cleaned the stamp and used it again, with green pigment ink this time. But some of the pink ProMaker, which wouldn’t come off when I was cleaning the stamp, did come off on the stamped image:

Again I quite liked the accidental effect!

Finally I stamped the little tree using red pigment ink:

I cut out the four colourful trees and used Staedtler pencils to add some red and blue to the black tree:

Then I shrunk them in the oven according to the manufacturer instructions. Here’s how they looked when they came out – I left the colouring pencils in the photo so you can see how much they shrunk:

I decided the black, red, and blue one didn’t really match my page, but the others look really cute all lined up on the journal card:

Another thing I did on this page was to cut some stars from the background pattern to use on foam dots (I got the idea to do this from a card on the Basic Grey blog HERE):

When adding them back on to the layout I made sure they overlapped something on at least one edge, so they stand out as well as blending in!

The cream enamel dots and white painted wood veneers were added as an afterthought, as I decided the page looked too dark with all that wood.

Be Inspired:

Stamp some images then cut them out to use as embellishments

Cut an image from a background sheet to use at the front of the project too

Cut a photo or patterned paper piece so that it’s tall and skinny

Have you ever used shrink plastic to make embellishments before?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back tomorrow at 8am GMT with another sponsored giveaway!

Jennifer x

Snow Scene In A Bottle Necklace

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Here’s another wintry item of jewellery you can keep for yourself or gift to a friend… a Snow Scene In A Bottle Necklace!

My daughter wanted to buy these little (just under 2″ tall) glass craft jars from The Works, and they were only £1 for 6. I told her she could have 3 and I’d have 3! I was trying to think what to do with mine when I came across a tutorial for a tree-in-a-bottle necklace at The 36th Avenue HERE. I knew I had to make one, but with an addition of a little lamp post, so it reminds me of the The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (one of my favourite books and films).

Here’s the bits and pieces I gathered. I also ended up using an advanced craft glue, some Mod Podge, and some wire cutters (all not pictured):

The little bottle-tree is from a cake decorating supply shop, so that’s a good place to look if you can’t find a small one.

Here’s how to make your necklace…

Step 1: Use wire cutters to cut the tree to the correct height:

Step 2: Drop a blob of hot glue into the base of the bottle, and stick the tree into it. Use a wooden kebab stick to help apply the glue if your glue gun hasn’t got a long enough nozzle:

Step 3: Make your lamp post, using tiny bits of black Fimo. I made a post and a ‘hat’ to fit on either side of a sparkly bead. Once the Fimo parts are made bake them in the oven according to the instructions on the packet – don’t bake the bead:

Step 4: Carefully add another blob of glue into the base of the jar. I ended up using the Advanced Craft Glue (Beacon 3-in-1) for this, as I couldn’t get the hot glue in without getting it on the glass and the tree. Stick your lamp post in:

I would use a small bead next time, as this one was quite big which kind-of pushes the tree to one side. It looks okay, I’d just choose more carefully next time!

Step 5: I dripped a bit of Mod Podge into the jar, and tipped in some glitter and seed beads for a snowy base. I’m not sure I’d use Mod Podge next time, again it was hard getting it in without getting it down the glass, and there is some glitter suck to the glass in a few places. Next time I might just put the glitter in loose so it shakes around:

Step 6: Screw an eyelet into the top of the cork:

Step 7: Use a strong glue to put around the base of the cork, before pushing it into the jar to seal it:

Step 8: Add a chain and clasp:

Now you can wear or gift your snow scene in a bottle necklace:

Magical isn’t it?!

Be Inspired:

Put a Christmas tree next to a lamp post for a snowy scene

Create an ornament or item of jewellery inside a glass or clear plastic object

Add some sparkly beads to a project

Would you gift this or keep it for yourself? What would you put in your bottle?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back tomorrow with another project for Frosty Festivities 2015!

Jennifer x

Christmas Village Candle Houses Kids Craft (for LED candles)

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Hello! Today I’m sharing these lovely Christmas Village Candle Houses. I’ve called this a kids craft as my children made these, but I’m sure grown-ups will enjoy making them as well – I’m certainly tempted to make a few of my own!

I do want to point out straight away that these are for LED candles – the battery powered, flameless, kind. DO NOT put normal candles in these as you will start a fire – those roofs would burn up nicely.

That’s the safety message out of the way!

My kids had great fun making these and now they want to play with them, but I’m trying to keep them out of their reach so we can have them on display at Christmas. I know they will become a toy as soon as Christmas day has passed though, so you could always just make these as toy houses instead of candle ones. I just want to have a Christmas village to display this year!

If you want to make some of your own, here’s how to create them…

Step 1: Find some cardboard tubes, cut them to the size you want your houses to be, and make some initial holes for where the windows will be, to help you get your scissors in. I did all of this step before the kids came to the table, as I knew the card would be too tough for them to get their scissors through without a starting hole. I used a Big Shot to punch the initial holes:

You could also use a paper piercer or sharp scissors to make those first cuts, just be careful not to pierce your hands – you could put a lump of blue tack or playdoh at the back of the place where you are going to make the hole, to give you something to press onto.

Step 2: Call the kids in, if you are doing this with kids who can use scissors, and put them to work making the windows larger. I wasn’t expecting Cheeky Boy (age 4) to be able to do much, but he came up with an amazing star-shaped design, that obviously isn’t neat and tidy, but it let the light out and it’s all his own work. Look how much they were both concentrating:

Step 3: You can do this bit later, but I wanted to get it out of the way before we got messy, and I thought it might help with the next step – choose which papers you will use for your roofs:

Step 4: Start painting your houses. I thought we’d paint depending on what colour the roofs would be, but the kids found it more fun to paint what they wanted and then decide which roof would go on which house later. I let them go with the flow. Make sure you protect your work surface and wear aprons, if you want to. I did neither because our table is too covered in stains to worry about, and I couldn’t find the aprons! We used kids craft paint so it washes off easily anyway:

We painted most houses with one coat of paint, except white which needed 2 coats. Actually it probably needed 3 coats but the kids didn’t want to paint them again!

Step 5: While the paint is drying (which could take all night depending on your paint) you can prepare the roofs. Our circles were 10cm (4″) in diameter, I got the kids to draw around some Ikea cork coasters of that size, onto the back of the papers they’d chosen for their roofs:

Cheeky boy’s circles were way out. Below you can see one of his circles on the left, and one I’d helped him to correct on the right. At least he was having a go:

Step 6: Cut your circles out, then cut a piece-of-pie styled chunk out of them (it doesn’t need to be a certain measurement, just eye-ball it). Cheeky boy also can’t cut in circles. The blue one second from left was one he’d cut, and it was too small, so I re-cut a blue one for him, and a red one. The one on the bottom left, which looks white (but is green patterned paper on the other side) he’d managed to cut outside of the circle, in a very jagged way, so I left that one as it was. I cut the pie-pieces out for him after I took this photo too. Little Miss did it all herself, after I showed her an example of the pie-piece:

Step 7: To make the roofs into a cone shape, put adhesive on one edge of the pie-piece hole, then flip the roof over and put adhesive on the other edge of the pie-piece hole:

Step 8: Bend the roof into a wide cone shape and stick the edges down. There will be a bit sticking out as we didn’t measure the pie-piece hole:

Just trim off the excess using scissors:

Cheeky Boy put the adhesive on his roofs but I did the bending and sticking.

Once the houses are all dry…

Step 9: Stick the roofs on. I used a hot glue gun, just dotting a few blobs at the top of the house before pressing the roof on. Tacky glue would work too, but I wanted it to dry fast:

Step 10: Draw on some details. I actually left the room and went to do some housework while the kids did this bit, as if I’d stayed in the room I would have kept telling them to keep it neat and make it Christmassy, but really I wanted them to have fun and be creative. So I left them too it. Of course I did come back to find they’d got Sharpie pen marks on their clothes, but they had drawn some fabulous designs too:

Hopefully the Sharpie marks will come out after a few washes!

Step 11: The final step is to blob on some tacky glue, around the edges of the roofs, and the bases of the houses, or wherever you want, then tip on some white glitter. This is the step that makes them look like Christmas village houses. Then you just need to pop an LED candle inside, and sit back to admire the glow:

In the above photo you can also see how Cheeky Boy cut a door in one of his houses, when I wasn’t looking. It means you can see the candle inside, but not if you turn it around the other way!

Be Inspired:

Make a Christmas village house, or other Christmas decoration or embellishment, out of a cardboard tube

Cut or punch some star shapes

Tip white glitter on as a finishing touch to make a project wintry

Would you like to live in one of these cosy little houses?!

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back tomorrow morning at 8am GMT!

Jennifer x

A Twine-Wrapped Gift Jar (and a winner announced)

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

This morning I posted a giveaway from The Paperdashery, a UK online store selling washi tape, twine, and more – you can see that and enter to win a £10 gift voucher to spend in their Christmas category HERE {NOW CLOSED}. At the end of this post I’m also announcing the winner of the ‘Announcing Frosty Festivities 2015 Giveaway‘!

Now I’m sharing a project I made with some twine and washi tape that I purchased from them – a twine-wrapped gift jar:

I went for a non-traditional colour scheme for this project, seeing as there’s been a lot of blue, white, and red so far in the Frosty Festivities 2015 event! You can see I’ve filled my gift jar with nail polishes, but it could be used for all kinds of things, like sweets, mini biscuits, small toys, golf balls and tees… anything small that you want to gift in a unique way!

Here’s how to twine-wrap your own jars…

Step 1: Thoroughly clean an old jar with hot soapy water. You might need to use white spirit or similar to remove any really sticky areas – if you do wash your jar again afterwards. If you are planning to put anything edible in your jar you need to sterilise it too – you can see a video from Jamie Oliver on how to do that HERE. Basically clean it until it’s free of any residue or dirt:

Step 2: Use Mod Podge to paint a thick ring of glue near the base of your jar. If you don’t have Mod Podge a strong tacky glue will work, or you could just dot a bit of hot glue where you are going to start the wrapping, and keep adding more dots as you go up the jar. Here’s my Mod Podge line:

Step 3: Start wrapping your twine around the jar (I used the Bakers Twine in Metallic Gold), pulling it tight as you go:

Step 4: Every 4 – 5 times around you should push the top layer down with your finger, to make sure there aren’t big gaps in between the rows:

Step 5: When you get as high as you want to wrap, put a bigger blob of glue and push the end of twine into it:

Step 6: Push that end down so there’s no gap between it and the top row of twine. Then clean any glue which is outside the areas of your twine, using a baby-wipe (or damp paper towel) and a dry paper towel to dry it until it’s nice and shiny:

Step 7: To make a tag just wrap a bit of washi tape (I used Maste Washi Tape Geometric) around the base of a tag, and stamp a sentiment and any other details you want at the top:

Step 8: You could outline some details to help them stand out – I also added a pink gem:

Step 9: To decorate your jar lid just stick a few rows of washi tape onto a piece of white card:

Step 10: Then punch out a circle or other shape, big enough to stick onto the jar lid and cover up any writing on top:

Step 11: Fill your jar, pop the lid on, and tie the tag on using more twine:

Gift it to someone you love this Christmas!

Be Inspired:

Wrap twine around a large part of a project

Put washi tape on white card then punch a shape from it

Stamp an image then outline it with black pen

What would you put in your gift jar?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

Do you want to know who won the ‘Announcing Frosty Festivities 2015 Giveaway’? It was… Nancy Bradford! Nancy please email me at jennifergrace(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk with your mailing details so I can post out your prize. Thanks so much to everyone who entered and helped to spread the news about the event!

I’ll be back again tomorrow morning at 8am GMT, see you then!

Jennifer x