Sammy's Handmade Christmas Tree 2016

Every year My Christmas tree has a theme, yes, I am not sorry, I am one of 'those' people. When we add kids to our family they will get to sort out the tree, but until then it is all mine. This year I was planning to go with a kind of winter forest thing, then I saw our friend Claire (aka Claireabellemakes) was bringing out some limited edition Christmas decorations and I had an even better idea. This year all the decorations on my tree are handmade by independent UK Designer/Makers.

Make it: Easy Gold Foil Easter Eggs

I am all about making things easy at Easter time, what with Spring cleaning and de-cluttering I want everything to be fresh and minimal. To carry on my grown-up Easter theme this year, I wanted some table centre decorations that were in-keeping with my theme.  I had a bunch of bits and bobs laying around that I had from other projects so I whipped up some of the easiest, classy Easter egg decorations I have ever made.

To make some for yourself you will need: Polystyrene eggs, Temporary tattoos (I used metallic ones I got free with a magazine) White acrylic paint, paint brush, water bowl and sponge, Mod Podge (or PVA glue), an old box or polystyrene (to stand your eggs in to dry), needles or wire to stand your eggs on.

Step 1. Start by popping a needle in the end of your eggs.
Step 2. Holding each egg by the needle, paint the whole egg with white acrylic paint.  You want it to be acrylic so that when you put the tattoo on, the paint doesn't come off.
Step 3. Carefully push the needle into the box or polystyrene for the egg to dry.
Step 4. Paint all the eggs you want to decorate and leave them to dry thoroughly, then add a second coat and again allow to dry.
Step 5. Next cut out the tattoo that you want to apply and grab your water and sponge.
Step 6. Gently push the tattoo in place, then following the instructions on the pack use the sponge to soak the paper on the back of the tattoo.
Step 7. Carefully remove the paper and smooth down any edges or bubbles in the tattoo with the sponge.
Step 8. Dab the excess water away from the area, then coat with a layer of mod podge to seal it in place, set it back on its pin to dry.

Once they are dry you can hang them up with some bakers twine or like me just pop them on a pretty plate in the centre of your Easter table.

Don't they look classy and so grown up. I love how simple they are and so easy to make.  I am making loads to put in a big bowl for when we have family visiting over the Easter weekend. For more Easter DIY ideas head to our Make it page for inspiration.

What Crafts have you been trying your hand at lately?  We always love to hear from you, head over to our Instagram for a chat @liveit.loveit.makeit 

Sammy xxx


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Make it: Festive Wreath with Turtle Mat

Another festive tutorial for you today.  I have been wanting to create another wreath tutorial since my Anthro-esq pompom wreath last year was so popular, but have just not found the right inspiration to create something I would actually have in my house afterwards. You know we hate making stuff for the blog that we wouldn't really use in real life. So when the guys at Turtle Mat got in touch with the opportunity to take part in their blogger challenge to create a festive wreath, I took it as a sign that this was the year to make my own wreath.

As soon as I laid out all the supplies I had a flash of an idea that wouldn't go away. I decided to go with a minimalist take for this wreath as I just loved the copper wreath ring that the team sent over.

The Turtle Mat team sent me a box of goodies that included: A copper wreath ring, A glue gun, and a pack of small Christmassy bits including the cute faux robin.

I added from my stash: a pack of battery lights, some copper wire, white card-stock and some copper spray paint.

I started by getting all the elements ready. I spray painted the little robin and set him aside to dry. Then I cut a selection of different sized stars from textured white card stock.  I used my silhouette cameo but I have included a template like the one I used for you to download and use to hand cut some stars If you want to re-create this wreath for yourself.  I also cut a small section of card to support the paper stars.

Next I took the wire and started wrapping the wreath frame, I ran my wire around from the 6 o'clock to 1 o'clock position as I planned that my paper stars would be covering up the rest. I did the same with the battery lights and secured the battery pack to the back of the wreath frame with some more wire.

Once the wire was all in place, I set that to one side and started positioning the stars onto the paper support.  I placed the biggest ones first using the glue gun on the points of the stars and layering them over one another to create a pleasing arrangement, filling in the gaps with the smaller stars until the paper support was covered. Then I glued the star panel in place on the wreath.

The final touch was adding our little robin friend by wiring his feet around the bottom of the wreath and a simple ribbon to the top to hang it pride of place beside my front door.

The joy of living at the top of a hill means no hanging wreaths on my front door. They would get blown away in minutes! So I always hang mine just inside the door. If you wanted to create this wreath to hang outside, I would suggest investing in outdoor safe lights and using some thin plastic to cut the stars.

I am so happy with how this turned out, I am looking forward to using more of the paper stars around the house to tie in the theme with my other decorations.

Why not download the Star template and have a go at making your own! You could also use the star template to make a little garland or a wreath made entirely from stars- gorgeous!

Sammy xxx


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Christmas Tree Festival

Normally this post is reserved for pictures of my Christmas tree and home decorations, however, This year we (Sew Crafty) were invited to be a part of the St Luke's Church (Maidenhead) Christmas tree festival! We headed over to decorate our tree last night and to see all the other trees of course. I thought I would take you with me.

The Church looked A-mazing filled with 49 real Christmas trees, it looked and smelled like the most beautiful Christmas tree party ever.

The trees had all been decorated by local schools, clubs, organisations and businesses. Some of my favourites were by our friend Head Candy who had decorated her's with some of her beautiful facinators and the Choo Choo Tree by a local preschool decorated with train tickets and pieces of a wooden train set.

The W.I. had made a lovely crafty effort with some cute crochet characters and Claire's Court School had used hand prints to make a friendship tree.

Our tree, of course, was Haberdashery themed! We tried to stick to our brand colour scheme which is yellow, aqua and silver grey, not totally Christmassy but I think it still worked out really well.

We filled clear baubles with sequins, threads, zips and buttons, and stranded pompom fringe and tape measures through the branches.

My favourite part of our tree is the star I made a from scissor shapes that I cut out of silver card with my silhouette cutting machine. Our Tree did look a little sparse compared to some of the others, but in our defence we had allowed for a much smaller tree than we got... I think we ended up with the biggest tree in the church, and it is on a pedestal right in the middle of the alter... no pressure!

I Love how it turned out and hopefully all the people who visit over the weekend will like it and all the other trees too.  Head over to St Luke's website so you can find out more about the Christmas Tree Festival, or check your local churches or community centres to see if is something similar near to you.

I hope you enjoyed that little look at our Haberdashery tree and the rest of the festival, have you put your tree up yet? Have you made any of your decorations? We would love to see them, post a photo on Twitter or Instagram and #livelovemake so we can take a look.

Have a lovely weekend
Sammy xxx


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Make it: Anthropologie Inspired Christmas Decorations

Anthropologie is one of my absolute favourite places to visit, both in-store and online. I always love flicking through their mailshots and like most of you, wish I could afford to buy everything! However just occasionally I see things and think, 'Whoa I could totally make that for half the price' and have the fun of making it myself along the way. This years Christmas decoration collection was the perfect example and I thought I would share what I ended up making.

Pom Pom Wreath

I absolutely love this pompom wreath, I love the textures and the soft colours but I could not justify the price tag! I used a mixture of soft wools and my trusty Clover pompom maker to recreate this lovely door wreath for my own home. I simply hot glued the pompoms I made onto a cardboard ring I cut from a box and hung it with some sparkly ribbon. 

Monogram decorations
How beautiful are these beaded initial decorations, I love them, but not all the colours were to my taste so I used my felt and bead stash to recreate the letters I wanted in the colours that matched my scheme. I simply drew and cut out the letters from felt then stitched around with embroidery thread before stuffing them to make them rounded. To embellish I just jumped into my bead boxes and used some yummy bugle beads and sparkles. You could easily replace this step with some glue if you didn't want to sew all the beads in place.

Pom Pom garland

This garland was a no brainer, I just used the leftover pompoms from my wreath and joined them together to make a garland to string in my tree, or maybe on our stairway? 

Do you have any favourite Anthropologie 'hacks' or inspired tutorials? If you do, link them up in the comments so we can all go and take a look and get inspired.

Have a lovely weekend
Sammy xxx

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Make it: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Baubles

It's Make it time again over here and this time it's a fun simple activity that the whole family could do to decorate the Christmas Tree, cos we all know it's nearly that time - if you haven't already put it up!

I saw these first over on Pinterest and just couldn't not make them, as they are just so cute.  I mean who doesn't want Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle baubles for their tree????

You will need:  Scissors, Ribbon (Blue, Purple, Orange and Red), double sided tape, self adhesive googly eyes and Green Baubles of course!

First, you will need to cut your 4 ribbons to the length that will go around your baubles, with a little overlap.  Then attach double sided tape to one side.

Wrap the ribbon around roughly the middle of the bauble and stick in place.

Next, get your adhesive eyes and stick onto the ribbon.

It really is that simple, repeat the steps for all four of your Turtles and you have your set.

Now, if you can't remember your turtles, I will help you out.  Raphael is Red, Donatello is Purple, Leonardo is Blue and Michelangelo is Orange!  Which one is your favourite???

These would make a great gift for the Turtle fan in your life and with the new film out at the moment, all my childhood memories are flooding back!  Gotta love the 80's!

H


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Make it: Birthday Fun DIY's

1/ Honeycomb Garland  2/ Cake Topper  3/ Party Hats  4/  Invitations  5/ Paper Streamers  6/ Ombre Cake   7/  Pompom Topper

Everyone loves a party, and there is no better reason to celebrate than a birthday! It is our blogs 3rd birthday tomorrow and we are celebrating the only way we know how, with cake and crafts! Here is a quick round-up of some of our favourite party DIY's.  I am so having a go at those party hats over the weekend, How about you?

Sammy xxx

Make it: Pompom's 3 Ways

It is celebration central round here this month, one reason is our blogs 3rd Birthday! (check out tomorrows bonus post to find out what else we are celebrating). We are thinking ahead and trying to decide how to celebrate... probably a little party! My favourite thing about a party (after cake of course) are decorations. We thought we would show you how to DIY some of our fave party decorations, Pom poms! We have an epic three different options to show you today using paper, wool and net.

Paper Pom poms

Paper pompoms are just everywhere these days, I have been making them for a long time, you probably saw them here when we did decorations for my friend Kelly's Barbie party a couple of years ago. You can buy them in lots of places now but they are super easy to make, then you can have any colour you like.

To make these small ones you will need: Two sheets of tissue paper, some wire, Scissors and thread.

Cut each of your tissue paper sheets into four strips, so you will have eight strips all together and pile them up on top of each-other. Start to make small folds back and forth until you reach the end. It should look like a fan. Find the centre point and cut two small slits in either side of your fan being careful not to cut all the way through.

Take your wire and wrap it around the centre of your fan shape, making sure the wire sits in the cuts you have made. Twist it around to make a loop, which you can hang it by later. Next is the fun part, start to separate the layers out one by one. Work you way around until you get to four layers down, then flip it over and peel away from the other side until you reach the centre, you may need to fluff it a little to even it out once you are done. Then attach your string to the loop you made and hang it up somewhere to look pretty.

Wool Pompoms

There is a long story behind my love of the Clover Pompom maker, it is a serious game changer if you like making wool pompoms, it means you can make a garland at lightning speed. If you are off to The Handmade Fair in September you might want to get involved in #worldpomination A record attempt to make the world longest PomPom garland! Head over to the site to find out more.

For style number two, wool pompoms you will need: Clover Pompom maker (or go old-school and use cardboard) Wool and Scissors.

Open out one side of your pompom maker and start wrapping your yarn around the double arm until it is full. Don't be tempted to over-full the tool, it works better if you just fill it to the edges. Then wrap the other side to match. Cut yourself a length of yarn to wrap around the centre, then start to snip the wrapped yarn in the groove of the tool.

Wrap the length of yarn around the centre and tie it firmly into a knot around the pompom. You can then remove the tool and you have a perfect pompom. To make it into a garland just use the yarn and tie it to a long length of wool to create a garland. 

Net Pompoms

The third and my personal favourite type of pompom are nylon netting pompoms. They are made in a similar way to paper pompoms but you can be a little more haphazard, oh and they are waterproof so you can hang them outside!

You will need: 75cm x 140cm of dress net, Scissors and wire.

Cut yourself a length of wire and eight strips of netting and layer all of them up. Start to scrunch the layers up in the centre, like we did for the tissue ones, but you don't have to be too neat about it. Grab a hold of it nice and tight in the centre and wrap your wire around the middle.

Once you have secured the netting, make a loop so you can hang up your pompom later. Then, as with the tissue paper style, pull the layers apart until your pompom is full and fluffed. Attach a length of string to the loop you made and hang it up wherever you need a pop of colour. 

 There you have it, three different but equally fun pompom techniques for you to try this weekend.

What are you celebrating at the moment? big or small, let us know in the comments below. There is no occasion too small for a pompom party! Right?! Don't forget to pop back for an extra special post tomorrow and don't forget to make a few extra wool pompoms to be a part of #worldpomination !

Sammy xxx

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a picture and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake