Washi tape Christmas tree 45/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

The big day is getting ever closer and its starting to showing in my home.  As usual my inspiration for this is courtesy of Pinterest and all it takes is some washi tape and a suitable surface, I added a few Christmas stickers too.

This is my efforts, yes I did get a bit carried away!

and this is some of my inspiration










This has to be one of the simplest makes I have done in this project of 50 Makes for Christmas.

Have you put your Christmas tree up yet? We brought ours on Friday but I only started decorating it last night but once the Christmas boxes come out its more than the tree that gets trimmed so things are looking a bit chaotic at the moment, peace and harmony will be restored.... at some point!

Christmas bulbs 44/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

I love to see hyacinths in flower around Christmas time, I have tried to find out the history of when it became part of the Christmas festivities but could only find lots of helpful advice on how to force the bulbs.  It makes sense to try and brighten up the dark winter months with some natural beauty so I guess it is probably as simple as that.

I have been keeping an eye out in the charity shops for odd pots and bowls to use for this project and settled on a little pudding basin for 50p I like to think it may well have been the home of someone's Christmas pud at some point in its life.

I added a few badly drawn snow flakes with a sharpie, I tried popping a little red wooden heart on but it seemed a bit out of place.  Somewhere in my hordes of Christmas stuff I have a few plastic toadstools on wires but I just cant seem to put my hands on them at the moment, I will post an update should I find them and use them.

I purchased the bulbs from Lidl they cost just under 3 pounds and came in a little wicker basket with a plasticy holly decoration, both have been saved for future projects.

We brought a fresh tree this year and I am waiting for it to settle before I attack it with fairy lights and baubles.


Its begining to look a bit like Christmas ...........que the music

Make 44 completed so only 6 more to go in my 50 makes for Christmas

I hope your own plans are all coming together, I really must write the few Christmas cards that I send. Every year I promise myself that I will send them out nice and promptly at the beginning of December and I almost always end up sending them at the last minute!

Fresh Garden Christmas Wreath 43/50 - 50 Makes for Christmas

I was thrilled with the dogwood wreath I made last year so it was a no brainer to include it in my list of things to do this year.  Of course I need to change it up a bit from last time when I kept it very stark with only a grey linen ribbon and a few clay ornaments.

This year I am looking to hide the dogwood away with a wealth of foliage that I have collected from mine and my daughter's gardens.  I had intended to use plenty of holly as we are planning some changes to the bottom part of the garden and this involves removing a much loved holly tree, it came from my Mum's garden as a little twig of a thing and seemed to struggle for a while before picking up and growing into a fine healthy specimen.  I had hoped to have uprooted it and replanted it at my daughters as she has a fairly large garden, however there are many holly trees already established and plenty of self seeded saplings so we will need to have a little think about what to do with it.

The Dogwood base was made by creating a circle with one stem and securing it with some wire. More strands were woven in to give it some substance.

 I then bound on the base foliage using florists wire and followed this up with bunches of foliage and flowers that were also bound on with the wire.  I had a few false starts before I got it where I wanted to to be so my advice would be to play around and learn what works best for you.

The final arrangement is now hanging on my front door and I am hoping it will not fall to pieces all over the postie!

I made a second wreath for my daughter and tried to give it a more modern look with a bit of tinsel and a few baubles. This hides that I was running short of the base foliage and the tinsel was a bit of improvisation to fill in some of the gaps.

I had a lovely but very cold morning exploring this new craft.  I don't think the local florist has anything to worry about but I shall be making wreaths again next year.

Make 43 completed from my 50 makes for Christmas challenge with just 7 more posts left to completion.

Home made potpourri 42/50 - 50 Makes for Christmas

I looked up the definition of potpourri and it has two meanings

 a) a collection of dried petals and leaves used to make a room smell pleasant

 b) an unusual mix of things.

I think my potpourri is a bit of both of these descriptions!

In no particular order I dropped the following into a big glass hurricane lamp jar

• Dried Orange Slices
• Pinecones
• Cinnamon sticks
• Cloves (Left over from the Orange Pomanders)
• Christmas Scented oil (I brought this in the sale from M and S about 10 years ago and it is still smelling strong!!)
• A few clay tree decorations

It smells like Christmas!

I have a feeling that there may be a few more decorative items dropped in over the next few days and knowing my family they will probably put in toy from a cracker to see if I am on the ball!

That is make 42 ticked off the ever changing list and only 8 yes 8 left to complete my 50 Makes for Christmas!

Its not too late to still make a few things for your own Christmas celebrations

50 makes for Christmas - 31 to 40

Just 3 weeks away from the big day and I find it hard to believe I have completed 40 little makes and have just 10 more to go!  Here is a summary of the last ten in case you missed any





31 Baboushka snowglobes





32 Christmas jam jars





33 Decoupage gift tags





34 Free prinables





35 More pinecone firelighters





36 Pomander Oranges





37 Easy make paper pom poms






38 Hips and Haws






39 Christmas Cocktails






40 Delicious slow cooker red cabbage



And links below to the previous 30

Makes 21-30

Makes 11 to 20

Makes 1 to 10


I hope your own preparations are steaming ahead, I would love to hear what you have been making yourself.

Christmas stocking 41/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

I can honestly say that this stocking has a massive amount of love sewn in to it as it is the first thing I have made for my lovely Granddaughter. She will about 6 weeks old at Christmas and will have absolutely no idea of what is going on around her!

I drew the stocking shape on a bit of old newspaper thinking I could tweak it if I wasn't happy, it is not perfect but I felt it was good enough, I sometimes waste time trying to improve things when the basics are just fine.  The Christmas tree shape was inspired by some felt tree decorations I made last year, I thought it had a nice childlike quality that would endure as she grows up.

There is a small secret pocket on the inside that can be used to leave a little note for Santa or that Santa could stash some chocolate coins in there or even pop in a small cuddly friend and have him peeping out over the top of the stocking, all these decisions are out of my hands as it will be up to my daughter, her partner and Santa to decide.

This is not surprisingly my favourite make of this project and with just a few makes left to complete my 50 makes for Christmas there is not much room for me to top this.

Do you have any homemade Christmas items that have a connection through the generations?

Slow cooker red cabbage 40/50 - 50 makes for Christmas

Mmmmm slow cooker red cabbage, tastes heavenly, is very easy to make and is quite inexpensive (especially if you can pick up the cabbage when it is on an offer). It freezes really well so I only need to make this a couple of times a year and freeze it in portions. I love it with my Christmas dinner but it also works well with lots of Winter comfort foods like bangers and mash, stews and casseroles

Ingredients

Red cabbage - sliced
2 large onions - sliced
2 large Bramley cooking apples - peeled and sliced
knob of butter
100ml Red Wine Vinegar
300ml hot water
tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Method

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker give them a stir and cook for about 3 hrs on fast or 6 hours on low.

Notes

• The quantities and times given are a guide line only.  
• Add 1 tsp of mixed spice and 1 tsp of cinnamon for a "mulled"  flavour.
• The addition of a few raisins adds a new texture and flavour
• Substitute 100mls of Mulled Apple juice for 100mls of hot water
• Use up stuff you have in that you think will marry into the flavours already there
• Eating apples ( preferably tart) or pears can be substituted for the Bramleys

1st of December tomorrow and with only 10 makes left it looks like I will pull off my 50 makes for Christmas.


What are your Christmas dinner must haves? and can you make any in advance?