Tag: handmade

Whats in our Christmas Eve Box..

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Hi everyone, hope your having a lovely day and hope the Christmas prep is going really well.

I had so much fun making our Christmas Eve box!! I had been wanting to do it for ages and it was super fun to do!!

I love Christmas Eve. I absolutely love it being a family day of doing fun things together and getting creative. Each family is different and thats the beauty of the boxes, what goes in your box is what suits your family.

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I wrapped each present in a mix of brown paper and brown decorated paper to match the box, and put a clue on each tag so the children can take a guess at whats inside 🙂

As promised heres what I put inside…

  1. Santa hats for everyone!
  2. Santa headbands for the children (and possibly adults 🙂 – I think these will be good fun on Christmas day and great for photos)
  3. Christmas eve crafty kit, with lots of things to colour and make for the big night 🙂

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4. Christmas DVD – Not sure if its for the children or me.. 🙂

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5. Treat plates for Santa, Rudolph and the Elves (this is essential unless you want to end up on the naughty list 😉

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6. Home made reindeer food.

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7. Christmas pyjamas, these go up to age 14 so it meant my girls could be matching which is lovely.

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8. Snowman mallows.

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9. Bedtime stories for the girls.

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10. A gingerbread decorating kit, my girls love us all doing this together, this one is from ASDA, a lovely thing to do as a family.

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11. Finally some hot chocolate and marshmallows to snuggle up with and watch the movie! Bliss.

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I hope you have fun making yours, would love to hear what you put in yours and how it turns out.

You can check out how I made my christmas eve box here: Christmas Eve Box making!!

Happy crafting x

DIY – Upcycling your dresser

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Hi Lovelies, If you are interested in upcycling something then this one is for you.

I really wanted a shabby chic dresser so I searched shops, ebay, gumtree etc.. and to be honest I didn’t like them or they were really expensive so I decided to give it a go myself with my husband, heres how it turned out.  I got one off ebay. It was pine before, a bit worn out with a broken door.

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  1. We cleaned our dresser, sugar soap is great for this.
  2. We then sanded down the top to expose the fresh wood.
  3. Then we gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint. I have since refreshed it with one more coat.
  4. Then apply a layer of Annie Sloan clear wax. All done!

We could then get on with the best part decorating it 🙂 I got some drawer liners from Home bargains.

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The door handles are decoupage and are from Bettys Shabby Chic Boutique, you can order these here.

https://bettysshabbychicboutique.bigcartel.com/product/decoupage-pine-knobs

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It is one of my most beloved possessions. I love the fact that it was just pine before and now is something I absolutely love. Hope you give it a go and its something you love forever.

Happy crafting x

The Joys of Autumn – Five things to do and make.

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Hi hope you are all enjoying autumn!! I’m loving it this year and have really got into decorating for it.

Its been super fun and one of the best things about it is you can do some of these with children, so if you have children, or nieces and nephews its a great thing to get them involved with, heres what we got up to this year 🙂

1 – Here is my autumn frame I made, this looked perfect in the hallway, all the info on how to do it and where to get your hands on the free autumn print is here, Autumn frame diy!

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2 –  Autumn leaf Garland.

This is lovely to make with the children, we collected the leaves in the morning and then popped them on some twine, with super cute wooden pegs, it looked lovely and complemented the autumn frame nicely.

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3 – Autumn Bowl

This was lovely to make, it is a mixture of pine cones, cinnamon sticks and red berries on a bed of hessian. I soaked the pine cones in pine cone essential oil so it smells AMAZING! You can keep topping up the fragrance over the season.

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4 – Autumn candles – These are so sweet, and made the house feel all cosy and nice 🙂 super easy to make, I just collected lots of different shaped leaves and chose the ones I liked. Then I attached them using invisible thread but you could use whatever you like to attach them like hessian or ribbon.

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5 – Last but not least, my hydrangeas are drying out and look incredible. The colours are delicious, if you have hydrangeas growing in the garden or nearby its a lovely thing to do.

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Happy Autumn everyone 🙂 Hope you get some time to decorate your home for the season, have a great time doing it!

Happy crafting x

Autumn frame diy!

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Hi there! Hope you are having a lovely week!

This week I wanted to make a Autumn frame for my hallway.

I searched around for the perfect frame and I found one I liked in poundland, but you know me I love the shabby chic look so I painted it with some Annie sloan chalk paint and waxed it. It needed around 3 coats and then a thin layer on top.

It looks super cute in the hallway, and is making me look forward to all things autumn.

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If you would like to make one, the print I got was free from lollyjaneblog, so this craft was super cheap to make. Here is the link for the print:

https://lollyjane.com/free-autumn-fall-printable/

Happy Autumn everyone!!!

Happy making!

lotsalove x

Christmas Eve Box making!!

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Hi Everyone, hope you are enjoying the season and looking forward to autumn and the snuggly nights in by the fire.

I have been busy this week working on a Christmas eve box. I have wanted to make one of these for ages and just got around to it. It was so much fun!!!!!

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Heres what I used to make it:

  • Glue gun
  • Gingerbread men toppers from Hobbycraft
  • Gold glitter toppers from Hobbycraft.
  • Chalk paint.
  • Chalk paint clear wax. (I used Annie sloan but you could use any chalk/furniture paint)
  • Scrabble letters.
  • Wax brush.
  • Paintbrushes.
  • Box from hobbycraft.

How I made it:

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  1. I painted my box with two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint and let those fully dry.
  2. I waxed the box to seal and protect the wood.

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3. I then had fun arranging my letters and stuck them on with the glue gun and arranged my decorations too to see what design I liked the most. Simple.

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It was really good fun, and thats how it should be 🙂

Will let you know what we decide to put in ours when its all bought, collected and ready….

Happy crafting everyone x x x

Teacup flowers

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Hi, hope you are all looking forward to spring! I am so excited for spring, to see the fresh flowers popping up, and the sun shining.

On a very wet day last week after a very soggy school run, wishing for spring, I popped into my local supermarket and bought some flowers, and this gave me an idea to make some teacup mini vases.

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They look super cute and were good fun to make and made the day brighter, the cups I found in a charity shop and were so inexpensive. (I love giving abandoned teacups a new life 🙂 and theres always loads in charity shops, yay!). I actually got the idea from one of Kirstie Allsopp’s programmes so thanks Kirstie.

Would highly recommend this lovely little craft!

Hope you give it a go!

Happy crafting!

J x