

Alas, my children now expect an edible version (a former nanny spoilt them by creating a hotel-sized gingerbread house for them covered in sweets).

I used to make and decorate a cardboard gingerbread dwelling with my boys each year from a craft subscription box – a messy but fun afternoon of painting and sticking. Young children love making houses – there’s something about them that captures their imagination. She uses cloves and linocutting tools to embellish citrus fruits with spirals, leaves and snowflakes – the end result is a bowl of scented ornaments. You can simply stick cloves into oranges, or take it to the next level by following an online tutorial with author and maker Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell. Decorate with festive fruitįill your house with the Christmassy scent of cloves and orange with a bowl of clove-spiked pomanders. They look quite elegant and understated hanging from raffia in the playroom window, but the boys tell me that next time they’ll decorate them using fluorescent pom-poms and glitter. I’ve cheated by buying pre-cut cardboard stars from .uk, which they paint using tins of sample paint colours and decorate with silver and gold stick-on beads. While I grapple with willow, the boys make their own star decorations out of cardboard. Julia’s willow star kit and guide is available for £35 on .Or cardboard Much, much more beautiful than the wicker stars you can buy for a few quid on .uk, or so I will keep telling myself. Weaving with willow takes some getting used to – it’s hard work on your fingers with the rods trying to spring out of position – but the finished articles look amazing in a homespun way.
TUTORIAL PUNCH HOME DESIGN PLUS
I try my hand at a willow tutorial kit by artist Julia Clarke ( ), which contains pre-cut willow rods, wire, ribbon and festive sprigs plus comprehensive instructions. Craft gifts with willow.Ī willow star is a great alternative to a wreath make it now and reuse it forever more, embellishing it with different seasonal foliage. Miss Shelly’s make your own gingerbread man bauble kit, for example, costs £12.95 on. Now the boys want me to make them each one of her ninjabreadmen. She’d done the boring bit by sourcing the eyes, buttons, bow tie, stuffing and embroidery thread, along with the felt, which she’d cut to the right shape. I completed her gingerbread man Christmas decoration kit in an hour. If, like me, you like the idea of sewing but have a house filled with projects you haven’t even started, I can recommend Miss Shelly.

Now, I’m cutting corners with one of Mapp’s kits, which contains a papier maché bauble and 60 shiny leather (or vegan leather) rounds plus a set of instructions (£19.50, mappoflondon.uk). Plain cardboard baubles are available at .uk I have previously decorated them with overlapping shreds of shiny Christmas wrapping paper but you can also use strips of fabric – you just need a glue gun or strong PVA. Top 20 festive family craft ideas Design a disco bauble for the treeĮmma Mapp’s classy Christmas baubles, which she makes by sticking shiny rounds of leather left over from her camera bag business on to papier maché balls, are proof that you can make beautiful decorations from leftovers. There’s no shame in cheating, I decide, when you’re supporting a small business – and learning a new skill at the same time.Īfter a weekend of creativity and upskilling at our home in London, here are 20 handmade Christmas decoration, gift and wrapping ideas to try right now that will hopefully bring a smile to your loved ones.
TUTORIAL PUNCH HOME DESIGN HOW TO
“Craft supplies can be quite kitsch I wanted to learn how to make the nice stuff you see on Instagram,” explains founder, Sophie Rochester. Another revelation is, a website featuring online workshops and kits from a curated selection of artists and craftspeople, designed to help people like me release their inner maker.
