Christmas time is here - How to craft some quirky Christmas cards

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you have a lovely time with your loved ones - 

enjoying being together, enjoying a lovely decorated house, lovely food and well thought out presents.

I had to do some major Christmas shopping to do before Christmas Eve, that’s why I’m running a little late with this blog post.

While we’re talking about Christmas shopping, do you find it hard to be all secretive about the good things you just bought? When I buy a present, I want to give it to the concerned person right away. “Last Minute” Christmas shopping is definitely the right for me; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to cope with all the suspense.

I want to show you how I made my handcrafted Christmas cards this year. I definitely needed a quick crafty fix to make me feel Christmassy for the time leading up to Christmas.

As you can see again, I can't help going for bright colours. With six hours of daylight, I don't feel like the traditional dark green and Santa red. I need something more quirky and fun.  

You need:

- Cards and envelopes made from recycled paper

- Burlap like fabric

- Felt scraps 

- Pritt stick 

- Scissor

How to do it:

1.     Cut out lots of little dots out of the felt scraps.

2.     Then cut out the Christmas tree out of the burlap like fabric. It helps folding the fabric in the middle when cutting to make both sides of the tree similar looking.

3.     Glue the tree shaped fabric onto the card using a Pritt stick. Don’t use fluid glue as it will make the card go wrinkly.

4.     Then start arranging the different coloured felt dots onto the Christmas tree and glue them on with the Pritt stick. Different colours set a different tone as you can see in the below example. 

If you have an idea on a quick crafty Christmas project you want to share, post the link and I have a visit! :)

Fall Lanterns - This little light of mine

A few days ago, on the 11^th of November, people in different countries were celebrating St. Martins Day. This festive day remembers one of the most famous Christian Saints, the bishop Martin of Tours, who lived in the 4th century, who is a patron for the children and the poor.

He dedicated his life to Christianity, first by living as a monk and later on by serving as a bishop. He continued to live a very simple and humble life which inspired many people of his time. 

The legend says that while he was in service for the roman military but already believing in Christianity, he helped a beggar during a snowstorm by sharing his only belonging, his coat. He took his sword and cut the coat in half and gave one half to the poor man. Later in the night he dreamt of Jesus, who revealed that the beggar was actually himself.

 This festive day of St. Martin became the marked beginning of harvesting. People also started to do a fasting period after St. Martins Day which later was later shortened and which was named Advent by the church.

St. Martin doesn’t seem to be a festive day here in the UK, but I remember celebrating it when I grew up in Germany. As kids, we used to go with paper lanterns through the streets at night and singing songs about St. Martin. I loved to carry that little light though the darkness and to see so many others crafted lanterns from my friends. The air was getting colder and you could see your own breath creating a in a little white cloud when exhaling. 

In nursery school we would build a lantern as followed:

-          Round cardboard box from the supermarket (normally for camembert cheese)

-          A 4 transparent paper to decorate

-          Metal wire

-          80 cm long wooden stick with a little hook on one end

We would then decorate the transparent paper in different ways.

-          Paint on leaves and use them as stencils to print onto the transparent paper

-          Paint onto the transparent paper with crayons and melt the wax with an iron

-          Cut out shreds of different coloured tissue paper to glue onto the transparent paper.

We would glue both ends of the transparent paper together, which would create a cylinder shape.  Then we would glue the round cardboard lids onto both ends of the cylinder to make a bottom and a top for the Lantern. Obviously we would have to cut out a circle of the top so that the candle doesn’t burn through the cardboard. Then you would bend the wire, and fix both ends onto the lid of the lantern. Finally you have to hang the lantern via the wire onto a little hook fixed to the wooden stick.

 My lanterns are made slightly different. I bought a transparent hard plastic sheet from paper chase (roughly £2). I cut it into shape (80 cm long, 20 cm high) and decorated it with coloured transparent paper. From my experience it’s not as easy to get here in the UK, so a good alternative is coloured tissue paper, which you can get in any craft shop.

It’s not yet Advent, so I prefer having a little fall lantern in the living room that creates a cosy atmosphere. Steven discovered a 3 hour video of a burning fireplace on YouTube which we like to watch on our Xbox. Hopefully we will be able to have a real fireplace one day. But what is better on those long dark nights then having burning candles and a fireplace in the living room. 

What do you do to decorate your home to make it cosy in those dark days leading up to Christmas? Please share :)