eight craft of christmas: snowflake pompom

my very clever Mum had a spare 20 minutes this morning and created this gorgeous snowflake pompom, the plan is to make a few and bunch them together in front of her mirror in the hallway.... i love it and am definitely going to try it out at the weekend, I have included a link to a video on how to make it, enjoy!!

crafty foxes

in my mollie makes  magazine  this week the project was “felt fox brooches” and I knew my 2 friends Tara & Shainey would love them, they were so easy, take a look....

Just cut 2 of the coloured felt ear pieces and 1 x white face section

Sew the brooch onto the back of one coloured piece

Then sew around the top edge (ears) of the 2 coloured pieces

Insert the face section and then sew around the remaining edge

Then simply sew on the eyes and nose

the ritz

having already kicked off the 30th birthday celebrations last month with my trip to Paris, yesterday was the next instalment, my lovely friend Michelle took me to Christmas Afternoon Tea at The Ritz, what a magical and opulent place it is... I loved every single second, the champagne was amazing and sandwiches and cake to die for, thank you so much for such a special treat.....

seventh craft of christmas: milk & white chocolate christmas pudding cake

inspired by mum's very old Jane Asher party cake book, we decided to whip up this amazing chocolate christmas pudding cake, it looks brilliant and great for any members of the family who prefer chocolate to currants and raisins, really want to try it out in miniature versions too....

ingredients:

basic 6 egg chocolate sponge mix

milk chocolate (large bar)

white chocolate (large bar)

chocolate chips

glace cherries

sprig of holly

method:

1 - make basic chocolate sponge mix and bake in a glass basin, roughly 20cm dia

2 -  leave to cool completely

3 - melt the milk chocolate and pour over the entire cake

4 - leave for a couple of minutes to go tacky, then add the chocoalte chips randomly over the bottom half of the cake

5 - leave in the fridge to dry completely

6 - melt just over half the white chocolate and pour gently over the top of the cake and allow to drip down

7 - add sprig of holly and glace cherries to the top...

8 - keep in fridge till you serve

suze's gorgeous robin bunting & applique stag cushion

my fellow very talented crafty friend Suzanne Tyler made this gorgeous festive robin bunting, how lovely is it.... I particularly love the tartan ribbon detail, I am in the middle of making felt robins too at the moment and not sure what to do with them, Suze has inspired me and I may indeed make mine into bunting, however I am a bit concerned it won’t quite match up to Suze’s standard.... wish me luck and enjoy! Also take a look at her appliqued stag cushion Suze made for her friend, beautiful!!

sixth craft of christmas: rudy the reindeer cupcakes

ingredients:

  Chocolate cake mix (Betty Crocker choc fudge mix is delicious) or just make   a basic chocolate sponge mix)

  Chocolate fudge icing (Betty Crocker)

  Giant chocolate buttons

  Glace cherries

  Mini marshmallows

  Chocolate chips (dark)

  Curly wurly’s

-           

method:

  1.Mix up basic sponge mix and bake the cupcakes

  2.Leave to cool for at least an hour

  3.Ice the top of each cake

  4.For the nose – place a giant button at the bottom of the cake, use icing to stick on half a cherry

  5.For the eyes – cut a mini marshmallow in half and stick above the nose, use icing to stick the chocolate chip on top of the marshmallow

  6. Cut the curly wurly into random pieces and stick 2 on each cake for the antlers

shopping edit: christmas stockings

wilkinson's have a great range of very affordable, gorgeous christmas stockings, grab yours before they sell out!!

shopping

http://www.wilko.com/berry-christmas-collections/wilko-berry-reindeer-stocking-christmas-decoration-felt-grey/invt/0323165?VBMST=stocking

http://www.wilko.com/berry-christmas-collections/wilko-christmas-decoration-berry-stocking-hanging-snowflake-red/invt/0323235?VBMST=stocking

http://www.wilko.com/forest-friends-collection/wilko-forest-friends-stocking-hanging-christmas-decoration-hessian/invt/0335365?VBMST=stocking

http://www.wilko.com/heirloom-christmas-collections/wilko-heirloom-snowflake-stocking-christmas-decoration-creamsilver-effect/invt/0335376?VBMST=stocking

vintage baubles

wanted to share with you these gorgeous vintage baubles I bought from e-bay last Christmas, can't wait to get my tree up, not long now....

fifth craft of christmas: felt holly

to accompany the Christmas pudding decorations on the tree we also made these felt holly leaves, so easy, just cut 2 x holly leaf shapes and then one slightly smaller, add wadding and the string loop and then sew all together however you please, the berries are just red felt painted with red glitter nail varnish (I used Barry M). mine is the first darker leaf and Mum’s is the second lighter one. Coming up next for the sixth christmas craft is baking.....

fourth craft of christmas: cake stand winter wonderland

this is so simple and looks so effective, create your very own mini winter wonderland..

shopping list

plastic reindeer - http://www.craftcompany.co.uk/reindeer-1715.html

plastic trees - http://www.craftcompany.co.uk/bristle-christmas-tree.html

wadding / snow - e/bay / Amazon

stag cake stand - http://www.johnlewis.com/culinary-concepts-stag-cake-stand-dia-29cm-silver/p453992

third craft of christmas: felt christmas puds

sorry for the delay on the next christmas but i promise i will have a few for you this week, the third christmas craft involved felt, i saw these beautiful christmas pudding tree decorations on pinterest / etsy, and wanted to try and recreate them, so have a look at how we got on below... very simple and only took about an hour start to finish, enjoy!! mine is the stripy string one and mum went for red satin ribbon.