Make your own Xmas!
Handmade Christmas gifts and decorations are enjoyable to make and save you money too. By Judy Yorke
You will need: A candle Holly Red berries Hessian material Gardening twine Glue gun or safety pins Scissors Cut a strip of hessian to fit around your candle and attach it together at the back with a glue gun or safety pin. Wrap the gardening twine around the hessian and tie into a pretty bow at the front. Take your foliage and tuck it in behind the bow. You can spruce it up even more by bunching together a small foliage arrangement with floristry wire and tucking it behind the bow.
From rocketgardens.co.uk You will need: An orange Cloves – about 10 for each orange slice Ribbon or string Knife Chopping board Scissors Slice the orange widthways into even slices about 1cm thick. Place the cloves around the edge, pushing them through the orange flesh. Leave a space at the top for the ribbon and when you’ve finished putting the cloves in, make a small incision in the orange flesh at the top with the knife. Bake at 60C for about four hours. Use a wire rack rather than a tray if possible as it lets the air circulate and dries the orange more quickly. Once the slices have cooled and dried, feed the ribbon through the hole at the top and tie on to the tree branches.
From nationaltrust.org.uk You will need: A large Xmassy cookie cutter and a potato that’s bigger than the cutter Coloured or brown paper Acrylic paints Carefully cut a slice from the middle of the potato. Press the cookie cutter into the slice. Push out the shape you have cut. Dab both sides of the potato shape on some kitchen paper towels to dry it.
Press a fork into the potato shape. This will stop you from getting too messy when you print. Pour two or three small patches of paint on newspaper. Do them close together. Dip the potato shape into the middle of the paint, then press it on to a piece of plain coloured paper or brown paper and repeat until it’s filled. Leave to dry before using.
Reproduced from 100 Christmas Things to Make and Do by Usborne Publishing (2013), usborne.com