Easy Paper Decorations for Christmas

paperdecorationsWith Christmas so nearby you’d be forgiven for thinking that time had run out for crafting but today I’ll show you how to make some quick and Easy Paper Decorations for Christmas. They’re also the perfect craft to keep the kids busy now that the Winter holiday looms! All the supplies were given to me by Bostik as part of their craft ambassador program.

supplies

What You’ll Need:

Paper (cut into long thin strips roughly the same size)

Blu Tack Fine & Wide Glu Pen

Plastic Gems

Thread

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Paper Flower

This is the simplest of my two decorations and super quick!

paperflowerStart by laying strips of paper over each other to form a cross, keep laying until you have a star shape made of 6 strips of paper (3 of each colour).

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Using the fine and wide glu pen stick together two opposite strips of paper (see pic). Continue until all the red strips have been stuck together to make three petals. Repeat with the green strips of paper.

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Glue a gem into the centre of the flower, tie on some thread and you’re done!

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Paper Star Decoration

A variation on the same theme but a little more involved.

paperdecorationStart by laying 3 strips of paper side by side. Pop a little glue in the centre of the strips and then lay 3 more strips at right angles to make a cross shape. Continue laying 3 strips until you have a star shape.

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Stick together the 3 strips of red paper, they should curl slightly towards the centre. Repeat on each branch of red paper.

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Take the centre piece from the green strips of paper and stick to the opposite strip as shown in this picture.

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Stick together the remaining 2 strips of green paper.paperdecoration4

Attach some thread and enjoy your new decorations!

 

Easter crafts for kids – Simple button flower decorations and Chocolate Easter nests

Following on from my previous two posts here are my last two Bostik craft club tutorials. I hope you enjoy making (and eating) them!

IMG_7928Simple Button Flower Decorations

What you’ll need:

Felt

Ribbon

Buttons

Bostik Glue

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Start by drawing flower shapes onto your felt, you’ll need two pieces for each flower. Cut out each piece carefully.

IMG_7759Glue a piece of ribbon to one flower piece, once secure glue another flower piece on top.

IMG_7760Then all you need to do is glue a button to the front to make the centre of your flower, super simple and super fun!

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Chocolate Easter Nests

What you’ll need:

Shredded wheat

Chocolate

Mini Eggs

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Starting by melting your chocolate, this can be done in a double boiler on in the microwave, if using the microwave make sure to melt in short bursts of about 10 seconds and then stir, this will help to stop the chocolate burning.IMG_7709

Crush up some shredded wheat cereal and add to the bowl of melted chocolate, you can actually mix in a surprisingly large amount, so don’t hold back. Once mixed arrange inside cake cases using a spoon and then drop some mini eggs inside to complete the nest. Leave to set.IMG_7767

 

Happy Christmas!

Just a quick post today to say Happy Christmas to everyone!

You can probably tell by my distinct lack of blogging this week, that I’ve been rather busy of late. No matter how organised I intend to be, there’s always last minute bits and bobs that need sorting near Christmas, parties that need attending (most of these are for the kids!) and a generally full calendar. I’m sure the same is true for many of you so you’ll understand completely.

In the few moments I’ve had, I’ve managed to sort huge quantities of Gingerbread, remember the last post about our new tradition 🙂 Here’s the first batch ready to go.

Make three Wise Men/Woman costumes for the crib service.

Help the kids to make salt-dough decorations (although in truth it was their Granny’s idea).These were made over a period of about a week, thanks to a few stops and starts but the children absolutely love them!

My daughter took real pride in the detail.

My eldest son loved making new shapes.

My youngest just wanted them all to be pink.

There’s plenty of little bits left to do, plus somewhere in the midst of all this chaos we have to remember to pick up the food (especially the Turkey) and actually wrap some presents! It’s surprising how easy it is to miss these small (and somewhat essential) things 😉 My one goal year on year is to have as stress free a Christmas as possible, which basically entails having absolutely everything as prepared and organised as possible the day before.

With this in mind I’d like to wish you a thoroughly merry and completely stress free Christmas whatever you have planned. I’m not taking a massive break, in fact I’ll be back next week and looking forward to the New Year. In the mean time though have a wonderful weekend all!