12 days of Christmas Crafting

Let’s create a beautiful handmade Christmas together, with my 12 days of Christmas Crafting.

Show your true spirit of Christmas in goodies handcrafted by you. Trust me – creating this way will bring the full meaning of Christmas into your heart, and those handcrafted gifts will bring so much joy to those who are the lucky recipients.

Crafting at Christmas is also a fabulous way to get kids off devices, thinking about the people they love, and connecting with you as you create together. I think this truly puts the magic in the season for me.

Over the next 12 days, I’m going to share a range of Christmas Crafting ideas, all very simple and do-able, so you can celebrate in hand made style.

Day 1 – Christmas Cards

Now don’t you dare say does anyone still send Christmas cards?!

In fact, I love this post I read recently, on 10 Reasons Why You Should Send Christmas Cards.

It may be true that this is less of a tradition than it was, but for me, nothing will ever diminish the joy of opening my letterbox, and simply recognising the handwriting of a friend on an envelope. Are you the same? Do you know all of your friends’ handwriting? (Perhaps that’s a dying art these days too?) That’s the first excitement. Then opening up that envelope, enjoying a beautiful card, and then reading the messages within. Writing to those you love will ALWAYS be treasured.

But the joy doesn’t finish there. Now you’ve got a beautiful card to display – a display of Christmas cards is part of decorating for Christmas right?! How sad would it be if you didn’t have cards as part of your decor?

So this year, make sure you are sending that joy on to your friends.

The Holly Jolly cardmaking kit

We’re starting with Christmas cards today as our first project, because if you’ve got friends overseas, you need to be getting them in the post soon. I have four gorgeous nephews in England, and at 4, 6, 8 and 13, I think they’re old enough to enjoy getting a card each.

In Close to my Heart’s current seasonal catalogue, there is an Elf that I fell in love with the instant I saw it. It’s part of a Cardmaking kit (the Holly Jolly cardmaking kit), so if you don’t have a lot of time, or struggle with creativity, this is an awesome pack for you. It comes with all you need (other than your basics such as ink and adhesive), to create 16 cards, 4 each of 4 designs. It also comes with full cutting and creating instructions, so you can totally switch off the brain, and just enjoy the creating process.

OR

You can also use the products to create something original, OR, like me, copy someone else’s original idea!

A very clever consultant (Janice Gilhooly) created an Elf design that I just loved, so this is what I chose to re-create for my nephews.

This is the same design, and uses the same stamp set, but the cards are completely individualised.

In amongst the kit contents, are a stamp set and co-ordinating thin cut (die cut) set. So this card is actually super easy to make. I cut the elf design first using the thin cut and my cuttlebug. Then I stamped the image using Archival Black ink – this is great for colouring as it doesn’t bleed. Once that had dried, I then coloured in as below. I also cut the frame using the CTMH stitched rectangle frame set. You can’t see the stitching in the photos, but it adds another element.

The shadow under his feet is so super simple to do – it’s just a quick wash with watercolour paint. To finish the effect, you simply adhere the elf to the card with foam tape, for added dimension.

Then I saw another clever consultant (Laura Beacham) create this idea, and I just had to ‘case’ this one too.

Pretty cute huh?!

These cards involved stamping and colouring, so I thought I’d create a little video to help share some basic colouring techniques.

I hope this has inspired you to spend an evening creating your own Christmas cards, to send to friends and family. Get crackin’ on those that you need to send overseas now, so they arrive in time.

DAY 2 – Christmas tree ornaments and tags

Today I’m going to share another fabulous CTMH Christmas product with you – the Holiday Cheer gift tags and ornaments pack.  These couple shaker windows with chipboard so you can create the cutest and totally personalised Christmas ornaments.

I’ve chosen this as today’s project, because I’m going to pop one of these into each of my nephew’s Christmas cards.  Then they’re going in the post to England.  With postage costs SO expensive, especially internationally, it’s a cute wee present, that won’t cost anymore than sending a card.   Hopefully this idea could help you if you’re in the same situation.

If I had young kids around, this would also be a project I’d do with them.  Could you imagine their joy and pride in seeing their own beautiful creations hanging from the Christmas tree?!

Let’s have a quick look at what you can create with the kit;

Cute huh?!!

Below is what you receive in the full kit – it’s very comprehensive – you have everything to create 8 ornaments and 10 tags, and you’ll have a lot of goodies left over.  But the great thing is you can purchase any part of this kit on it’s own, so if there’s something you don’t want or need, you don’t have to pay for it.  (But you do get a 20% discount when you buy everything 🙂 )

Here are the first two ornaments I’ve made for my nephews – I’ll finish crafting after classes today. 

If you want to see how easy these are to put together, check out my video – I take you through the whole process;

One of the other ideas I’ve seen that I love with these, is that you can add a photo into the ornament or tag.  Or … you could pop an elf face in (from yesterday’s project).

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how you can create gorgeous personalised tags and ornaments.   If you’d like to purchase any of these products, click HERE for all details.

Day 3 – One Pot Brownie Jars

Do you ever struggle to find a gift for someone who has it all? Or elderly parents who really don’t want any more ‘stuff’? This could just be your solution. It’s super quick and easy to make, and then you get to get your crafty scraps out to make a beautiful tag for it.

How gorgeous is this?!

To create the tag, I used kraft cardstock, and cut it using a free tag image on cricut.com. Here’s the file so you have the sizes set for you.

Then I cut a stitched circle using CTMH’s stitched circle thin cut set. I stamped my sentiment (from the Candyland stamp set) in black ink, and then stamped my little gift image using archival black ink, so it was set to color. The coloring took all of 2 seconds, using tri-blend markers. The finishing touch was added with a little red stickles. Isn’t it amazing how just a touch of blingy glitter can add such a big difference?! Last but not least, it’s all tied together with the skinny white and gold ribbon. The whole project took minutes to make, but I’ve had so many comments already about it when it’s just be sitting on my bench.

(Although one kid is wondering how long it has to sit there before he can make it and eat it!)

Here’s a little visual of the products used;

I printed off the free printable from My Moments and Memories for this project, and cut out one of the instructions and adhered it to the back of my tag, as below. The recipe for the brownies can also be found on this site.

I hope you enjoy creating this as much as I did. Of course, I highly recommend making the brownie yourself first, just to test that the recipe is good!!

Day 4 – Christmas Banner

Welcome back to the 12 Days of Christmas Crafting, and Day 4.

So today’s project is a little different, because it’s a project I’m GOING to create (no, really!). One of my lovely consultant sisters in Aus (Jacqueline Paech) created a gorgeous banner that I was going to ‘case’. Have you heard of that acronym before? It stands for Copy and Steal Everything. (In the nicest possible way, and with full credit of course).

But then, CTMH just announced that as part of their Black Friday sale tomorrow (NZ’s Saturday), they have created this beautiful banner project. I fell in love with it instantly, and there is always room for more Christmas decor right?!!

How cool are these?! When you buy them you purchase the wooden banners, which have the letters ‘die cut’ out of them. Total bonus, you also get those letters, so I know we’re going to see a wealth of other projects created with those. (Stay tuned!)

The banners above have been decorated very simply – just using a wee bit of ink and paper. In fact, such little paper, the Noel and Be Merry were created with just scraps. So this project is even more of a win win, as I bet you have some Christmas crafting paper left over from a previous project.

If you’d like to create this project, and are in NZ, message me on my FB page to place an order (like NOW!). If you’re anywhere else in the world, head to www.closetomyheart.com I’m running a pre-Christmas class on the 15th of December to create the banners with friends (message me if you’d like to join us).

Day 5 – Treat bag

Welcome to Day 5 of our 12 Days of Christmas Crafting.

Today’s project is a cute one that is perfect for little gifts. It can be used on your Christmas table, you could put one in each spot around your work’s board table at your next meeting, or you can pop one on the desk of all your favourite workmates. (OK, not so fair, you’d better give one to everyone).

As someone who LOVES to make Christmas sweets, this is the perfect way for me to package and gift some of my home baking.

There’s a fudge that I’m a wee bit addicted to called White Rocky Road Fudge (actually, it could be that I’m a wee bit in love with most fudges I make!) If I make some, I have very little control over how much I eat, so I tend to only make it at Christmas, when I’m giving most of it away. (Which does not preclude me from licking the bowl, the beaters, and spatula, the plate …… )

I’m going to share the recipe with you in a second, because I know you’ll be asking, but first, here’s the little bags I’ve made for this year.

These were a cinch to make using my Cricut. The template is one of the images on CTMH’s Art Philosphy cartridge – it’s actually called a basket on there. I sized it so I could get two to a 12″ piece. Here’s a photo of my measurements.

As a reference to how big these finish up, the dark green square on the green bag above is 2″.

You could cut the bags in decorative papers, or cut in plain cardstock and decorate as you like. Doing it this way is a great way to use up scraps of paper, stickers, ribbons etc. Using up those scraps will make you feel way better about buying in beautiful new supplies.

Ok, so here’s the recipe for the fudge. Because I’m a photo geek, and guess you might be a little bit too, I’ve created this to print as a photo, which you can then pop into your recipe album or folder. (I use CTMH’s Everyday Life 6×8 album for my recipe cards – it works great.)

To receive your free printable copy just fill in the below form, then keep an eye on your inbox.

[ctct form=”3762″ show_title=”false”]

I look forward to hearing how delicious you find it.

Day 6 – Christmas Crackers / Bon bons

Christmas crackers on the table are a tradition for many, but in today’s world of so much waste, the tacky ones you buy in the shops make me a cringe a little. Not so much the cracker, but all of the useless plastic inside, that might give you a quick giggle, then goes in the bin. Who needs more landfill?

So today’s project of our 12 Days of Christmas Crafting is a much more environmentally friendly way of doing it, and so much fun also.

To create my crackers I’ve again turned to my trusty Cricut, and a CTMH cartridge. The pattern for this is found on the Artiste Cartridge, and bizarrely it’s called a box. Here’s the number code;

Box#M44F7CClose To My Heart – Artiste

You can cut these with plain cardstock and choose to decorate in a similar manner to the treat boxes, or if you’ve got some beautiful patterned paper, that may just be enough on its own. For this one I used a very decorative piece from CTMH’s Cedar & Pine range, and all it needed was some pretty ribbon, and a wee touch of bling. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I do go over any ‘points of interest’ on the box with stickles to just give it a bit more bling. The other great thing with the CTMH patterned paper, is that it’s two sided, so you get to see the other pattern on the ends. Isn’t it pretty?!

If you don’t have a Cricut, you can find instructions to make your own here.

So now you’ve made your Cracker, you need to fill it. Here’s a few ideas I thought of, but I’d love for you to weigh in and suggest some others;

• purse size lip cream
• lottery ticket
• chocolates
• party hat
• small soap (these are another item making a ‘better for the planet’ comeback
• a bad joke (you can find these on the internet)
• Christmas earrings
• Mini torch
• Bottle opener
• washi tape (if you’ve got crafters in your group!)

I hope this inspires you to create your own, I know your guests will love and appreciate them.

Do leave a comment below with any other ideas you can come up with, I’d love to hear them.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Day 7’s crafting project – I’m putting it in a new post so you don’t have to keep scrolling down. Click HERE to see it.

Until then, have a GREAT day.

PS. PIN this post so you can find it easily later.