12 Days of Christmas - Day 10 - Pomander of Spice

Do you have a house full of lanterns glowing their Christmas lights?! Hope you had fun making them. Did you decorate them with pencils or textas?

Today, I have something that I used to make with my mother to hang in the cupboard to keep the moths away and help the clothes to smell nice. They make a great little present, too! You could make them tag-team style – sometimes little fingers get sore!

Here’s how simple it is: tie ribbon around the orange and make a loop for it to hang from. Pin it in place. Poke the cloves into the skin of the orange – all over! You might find you need to pierce the skin with a skewer first.

Some people preserve these with more spices and orris root powder, but as a kid, we never did. Although it won't last for years, it will still be nice and fragrant for a couple of months! I wonder how long Mary kept the presents that the wise men gave Jesus?

These could make a quick and lovely gift, or place them in a bowl on the table to fill the room with its sweet scent! A bit like you, with all the Christmas joy you are bringing to your little corner of the world, sweetening with a beautiful aroma!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9 - Christmas House Lantern

I could imagine that as Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, there were lights shining from inside all the houses. And, when I think of a traditional, Victorian Christmas, I think of the soft glow of light shining out of those quaint little houses.

So, we couldn’t help but make a cute little house that can shine its Christmas glow!

Simply print off this printable here onto light card, cut out on the cutting line, join the sides and tabs with glue, then glue on the extra decoration!

Pop a little battery-operated tea-light candle inside so it can shine out the windows! You could maybe make a whole row of these little houses, or draw on your own details.

12 Days of Christmas - Day One- Washi Tape Card

'I'm dreamin' of a white Christmas, with every Christmas card I write ...' It's one of those classic Christmas songs, isn't it? I love it!  And it's so true - we associate Christmas with cards. Here's a simple start to our 12 Days of Christmas - a little washi tape card!

Take some cardboard and cut to size. You could make a flat card, or a folded one.

Cut a strip of washi tape and trim one end as you would trim the end of a ribbon, with a little 'v'.

Place the tape on the cardboard - don't worry about it going over the edge.
Add a couple more strips of washi tape.
Trim the washi tape at the edge of the card.

Hot glue buttons on the end of the washi tape strips.

Why not listen to some Christmas music while you're making this. You could make a whole set of cards, ready to use when you think of who to send them to. Use this card to let someone know how much you appreciate them.

Christmas is all about love. It started with God’s love for us. He loved YOU so much, that He did all He could do to make sure YOU can spend eternity with HIM. He gave up His own son, to come and live here. Jesus was born, just like you and me, but He lived out His life showing us just what God is like. He loved all those around Him. And He did all He could do to show that love. Christmas is a celebration of the greatest love we could ever experience.

At Christmas time we make the most of this opportunity to let people know we're thinking of them, or to catch up and let them know what we've been up to. But we can also turn this into a time to bring real heart-joy to someone by telling them how much they mean to us. Share some of the love of Christmas - the love of Jesus, by making someone feel special and cared for.

With your daughter, write a list of people you'd like to share Christmas joy with, and write your newly-made cards to them. You could even pop them in the post - we so rarely receive letters in the mail, it makes it kind of special when we do!

'Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.' 1 John 4:7

12 Days of Christmas Starts Soon!

Planning on joining us for our 12 Days of Christmas? We get started TOMORROW! Simply keep an eye out for a post here on our blog and facebook page. To make sure you don’t miss out, you can subscribe to our blog to have each post emailed to you!

To get ready for tomorrow, you might want to collect some plain cardboard, washi tape (Christmas style if you have some) or ribbon, button, scissors, hot glue and a hole punch.

Set aside some time so you’re not too distracted by other things, keep some table space clear and set up all that you’ll need ahead of time.

It's going to be great, Christmassy fun with the special girl in your life!

Get crafting! . . . a beautiful Christmas snowflake t-shirt!

This is our inaugural post for our blog, so we have a special Christmas craft for you. It celebrates the uniqueness of snowflakes, as well as making a great gift for someone else! 

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year, and here in Australia, it is the end of the school year as well, so long holidays just add to the festive season! It means we have time to do craft and think of how we can be a blessing to others, in a special, Christmas-sy way! This is a fun craft to do with mum. Try upcycling an old t-shirt (which is what we did!) for a special friend as a Christmas gift, or wear it to get into the Christmas feel!

We've seem a number of similar t-shirts on the internet, but here's how we did ours!

It's so much easier to do a craft when you have everything with you, so take the time to collect all the bits and pieces you will need first. You'll need:

• a plain t-shirt
• paper doilies
• scissors
• paint (and textile medium)
• paintbrush
• pieces of material, ribbon, lace, crocheted doilies, buttons

The first thing you will need to make is snowflakes out of paper doilies.

• Snowflakes look best when they have six points, so fold the doily in half, then in half again (just to mark the centre of the first fold). Then fold it into three, using the centre point to keep the folds even. Shape the points of the snowflake by cutting out a piece or two. 
• Paper doilies are a bit plain in the middle of them, so cut out some half circles, diamonds or squares along both folds, to make the middle more 'lacey'. 
• Use different sized and patterned paper doilies for variety.

Mix your paint on the one plate, so you can have a few shades to work with easily. We used regular acrylic paint, and mixed it with a textile medium (according to the manufacturer's directions) so that it will be permanent on the t-shirt. Mix the textile medium in before you start mixing colours.

Place some newspaper inside the t-shirt to protect the back of the t-shirt and the table. Lay out the doilies in the pattern you want. Overlap some of them to keep the pattern more dense. If there is a part of the t-shirt you don't want to accidentally print, cover it with paper (we didn't want to print on the neckband, so we covered that up).

You can make your prints using a roller, but we found it just as easy to use a thick, round brush to 'dab' over the holes of the paper snowflakes. 

• Vary the shades of paint you use, by picking slightly different shades for each snowflake, and adding highlights on each snowflake, using your lightest shade. 
• You might find you need to lift a snowflake to print one that is partly underneath - just be careful that you lift it carefully so it doesn't smudge paint. 
• You could even add a little bit of glitter paint in some spots for a bit of extra sparkle!

Allow the paint to dry for 24 hours then give it an iron or set according to instructions on your paint. 

To add some more dimension and texture to your design, make a selection from your bits and pieces you gathered. Think of balancing your design, incorporating the same colours and shades. Play around with what you would like it to look like. You could even take a photo of this, so you can refer back to it as you sew it on.

We used simple stitches - mostly running stitch - to sew each piece on. 

• The crocheted doily has running stitch around its edges, while the ribbons were both attached on the inside of the t-shirt, and one was stitched right down the centre of it with running stitch.

You could even make a fancy little addition, like this little frilled button.

• Take a piece of lace and, starting with a knot at the end of your thread, stitch a small running stitch along the edge. 
• Pull it tight to gather it up, overlap the edges and anchor it to the t-shirt as you stitch a button in the middle.

 Add some buttons and ribbons . . .

And look at what you've made! Take a moment to appreciate your work, and give yourself a pat on the back! If you're making it as a gift, have a little thought about how the person you are giving it to, may feel when they open up their present (it's exciting, isn't it!). Maybe even take a minute to say a little prayer for them - that's a special gift, too!