10th December - Candy Cane Growing

So I've been super excited about this one, it completely captures the magic of Christmas and the kids imaginations. However it is a long term investment of time and effort as you'll be the one to help the candy cane to "grow".

So to grow your candy cane you will need:

1. Plant pots, 
2. Magic Snow
3. Elf magic dust (glitter)
4. Candy cane seeds (broken up candy cane piece)
5. Candy canes to add later
6. Water

 First I got Scarlett to pour some magic snow into a small pot. 

 She then put in the seed and sprinkled with the Elf magic dust. Next pour water over the seed to help it grow.

 To Scarlett's great excitement the magic snow puffs up instantly and the seed is hidden. 

The magic of this is every night I will add a bit of candy cane to the pot to make it look like it is growing. Then on Christmas eve they will have a full sized candy cane. I'll update you with photos of our growing candy cane over the next 14 days of advents.
I did think these would make a really fun present for friends kids, Might do that next year!

9th December - Glitter Pinecones

I'm not going to lie, this is a messy one but who doesn't love getting covered in glitter right?

We collected loads of pine cones from a friends garden a few months ago. I wasn't sure what to use them for at the time, but they kept well and feel very festive.

To try and control the mess I set up the craft by putting some blue tac on the end of a straw. We then stuck a pine cone to the straw and it helped to avoid getting super gluey fingers.

You can then easily dip the cone in glue then sprinkle with glitter. As Scarlett demonstrates below.

These look super cute and the girls really enjoyed this one.

8th December - Angel Hangers.

These Angel hangers are taken from an awesome Christmas Craft Book. I bought this book a couple of years ago and I can highly recommend it. We've done loads from the book and there's still so manage pages left to use for crafts it's brilliant. The prints are nice and colourful and the girls love the simplicity of them.

7th December - Christmas Tree Bunting

Thankfully we are back from hospital and Millie is on the mend WHOOP!!!!

Sitting down with them both to do this advent craft was lovely. 

For today's craft I had pre bought some felt tree bunting. Then let the girls add a sparkly star on top of each one. Nice and straight forward but looks really effective, and Scarlett really enjoys seeing this hanging up in the kitchen.

3rd December - Christmas Cards

Homemade Christmas cards in my opinion are the best.

When you've not got much money and you want to show your love for people they can't be beaten. You spend time and effort (trying to make sure the kids don't mess them up) making them and endure mega hand cramp writing them all out...what more could your friends and family ask for!

So I included our handmade cards into the girls advent calendar to kill two birds with one stone.

So with a simple finger print design we set to work.

 Drying all the cards

Tot Friendly Christmas Tree

Today is the 1st December so I can finally share with you all my Christmas crafts!

This year I needed to think outside the box when it comes to Christmas decorations as Millie is 16 months old. She's a walking and climbing whirlwind of destruction and chaos, which means your traditional tree is totally out of the question. It would be no time before she would have taken off all the decorations, and pulled the entire thing down on herself.

I'd seen these felt Christmas trees online and in hobby craft so I decided to have a go at my own. This was much cheaper than buying the premade ones. I bought the 2m x 1.5m roll of green felt off ebay for £5 delivered, and all the extra felt and lights from the local pound shop. Overall this has only cost me £17. Much cheaper than a tree anyway.

I cut out basic felt shapes for decorations and stuck them together with a hot glue gun. I then added Velcro dots to the back of the decorations and the Christmas tree cut out. This will allow the girls to take off the decorations and re arrange them as they please.

I then added some twinkly lights to the felt tree. I bought the battery operated copper wire lights which are safe enough (not plugged into the mains) and tiny enough to not add too much weight to the tree. I cut a little hold in the felt, hot glued the first bulb in place, then worked my way down the tree.

This is the back of the tree where you can see the light wire.

This is how the front looks.

I then hung the tree on the wall using blue tac and it seems to be sticking quite well. The girls are having fun with it already!

 And what have we done with our normal decorations?? I still wanted to show them off as they are so pretty. So I've done this around all of the windows too. A branch from outside, Hung the decs off the branch using different ribbons and wrap around with lights. WAY out of Millie's reach!

Bonfire Night Crafts

Fireworks night is one of my favourite celebrations of the year. It always brings back fond family memories and we always make the effort to go to a display, whatever the weather.

Scarlett has been off school sick for the past couple of days but thankfully has recovered in time this year to go to the village display.

So to keep her busy this morning we made a couple of crafts to celebrate the event.

Firstly we made a lantern to help light the way on the dark damp walk to the fireworks. These are fun and practical. They also save you from having to pay out for one of those crappy flashing light toys they always flog at these events.

Firework Rocket Lantern

So to make the lantern you will need the following:

• Clear plastic tube, I used a tennis ball tube.
• Battery powered fairy lights or torch
• Stickers
• Sparkly things
• Ribbon/ create paper

So this is really simple. I let Scarlett pick as many bits out of the craft box she liked to fill her tube.

We then tied together different lengths of colour ribbon. I pierced a hole in the lid and fed the ribbon though. I then sellotaped it to the inside of the lid. 

Scarlett then covered the tube in stickers...lots of stickers. 

Lastly we put the lights into the tube, put the lid on and we were done. This was great as Scarlett did most of this herself and was very happy with the finished product. 

Our second craft was indoor sparklers. Safe, colourful and fun.

You will need:

• Scraps of foil, ribbon and coloured paper
• Straws

Firstly cut a slit into one end of the straw. Place strips of foil, plastic, ribbon and paper into the slit. Seal the slit with tap, securing the sparkles. Millie was a fan of waving these about. The foil makes a nice crackling sound a bit like sparklers too.

Cress Heads

This is a great penny pinching home craft for the little ones.

The kids enjoy getting messy making them, lots of stickers decorating them, then watching them grow. The best bit is they grow super quick for those impatient kiddies who tend to loose interest if they can't almost see something growing before their very eyes. These only take a week or so to mature so are perfect.

So here is how:

1. Cut up an old pair of tights around the ankles.
2. Pour a few cress seeds into the toe part of the foot.
3. Top with soil and tie up end. (for the daddy pour a few extra seeds in around the top of your soil to create a beard before you tie up)
4. Turn upside down onto the tied up end.
5. Decorate with stickers. We did a mummy, daddy and Scarlett. 
6. Place into little dishes to collect water.
7. Water thoroughly at first, then just pour water into the dishes when they start to feel dry.
8. Watch them grow.
9. When shoots appear to be trying to break through the tights, cut a small hole to let them through
10. Add to salads and sandwiches when you want to give them a hair cut.

Day 1

Day 3

You can see the shoots coming through. 

Day 7