A Home Made Christmas

Pennies have been tight this year at TheMadHouse, so we have put our heads together and made as much as we can.

Rice and Lavender hot pad with removable cover

 

Felt pocket tissue cover

 

Home made tea cup candles

 

Basic wrapping with brown paper, wool, string and ribbon  - I am of the opinion that good packaging detracts from the homemade feel

 

I tied home made gingham and mother of pearl hearts to the wrapping.

We  had printed postcards of some photo's we had taken over the year at Moo.

I made pouches to hold them

The minimads decorated 90p shoppings bags from Hobbycraft

 

I made unique appliqué book bags for my neices.

Filled with home made crayon rolls

Paint brush and water colour rolls

and pen rolls

We included a good pad of artists paper in their bags too.

We made pear butter from gifted pears over the summer

The boys made calenders

We supplemented the gifts with some fantastic charity shop finds (Father Christmas Cushions 50p brand new)

All in all, I am really proud of what we managed to achieve over a short space of time, with little on the resource front.  The thing is that it has all been made with love and the person receving the gifts.

 

Childrens Craft Showcase - Fabric Painting on Bags for Gandmas

We have been busy cooking, baking, crafting, drawing, painting and generally having fun. over the last few days.   One of the tasks this week for the mini mads was to make a Christmas present for Nana and Grandma

Materials

Stamps (poundland have some in)

Fabric paint (I got mine when MaxiMad was born over 4 years ago from Baker Ross)

Masking tap

Plain shopping bags (99p from Hobbycraft)

Card

We were lucky enough to receive some wonderful Christmas foam stamps from a friend and they are great and that was how this came to mind.

Mask off a square on each side and put the card inside to stop the paint seeping through.

I put the paint on paper plates so I can just throw them out afterwards.

stencil one side first, we used 2 colours on each side, therefore use the lighter colour first.

I allowed 24 hours drying time between sides.  MaxiMad did one and MiniMad the other.

Finally I added the boys name and date and then ironed each side to set the paint.

Using the masking tape gives a really nice finish to the edges and that way you can just let the children gave free run on how and where they want to paint.

Kirtie's HandMade Christmas - Rant Alert

Now I love Kirstie with the rest of the country, but I feel a little reality check is required here.

I was really looking forward to this and have waited until viewing all three episodes before letting rip.  I was hopiong to be able to watch it and get useful, practical, inexpensive, handmade ideas for Chritmas and maybe that was were I was going wrong.

Yes it was beautiful, the artisans were increadably talented, but cheap it wasn't!!  Gold leafing a pear, what a precious waste of good fruit, in addition to a frivolous, not make that mad way to spend £38 on a book of 24 carrot gold.  Dear lord that would buy most peoples turkey for the big day.

I was also starting to bubble when it came to the candle making.  There are much easier and less expensive ways for people to give candle making a go nowadays.  You only need use soy wax, take a look at my post on Tea Cup candles and  see whicks n whacks for suberb and value candle making kits.  Yes they looked stunning, but who has 3 weeks to let things set and then time to top them up and melt the tops to make them all even.

Oh and do not get me started on that poor bear - £75 for the mohair, MadDad nearly fell off his seat.  He has just received a wonderful bear from Abby at Mutterings from the Moor a very reasonable price he tells me, which he has put away for my birthday.

Then let me move on to the soap, it doesn't have to take 6 weeks or however long to set and involve all those ingredients.  Just take a look here at the wonderful Violet Posy's blog and how she and her daughter made soap for Christmas this year.  I wouldnt let my children near any sort of acid!!

Right I am going to step down off my high horse and go and take a look at all the Thrifty Christmas Ideas which were posted at Violet Posy's.  You know you could do a whole lot of more economical and excellent gifts if you do too!!

I guess my idea and Kirstie's idea of homemade differ somewhere along the way, plus please Channel 4 can I have some of these wonderful people to come and finnish off all the projects I start!

Crafting with Children - Make your own wrapping paper

This is another really simple, but fun childrens craft, which will save you some pennies over the Chrstmas period and also over the year to come.

Materials

Paper - we have a roll of white paper from Ikea £2.99

Washable paints

Paper plates

Washing up bowl filled with soapy water

Towel

Now I am not going to pretend this is a clean craft, no sir, it is a messey, fun and wonderful craft and if you are feeling up to it then why not join in too.  If you have a fine day then you can always go outside for this one.

Now I do not have images of this work in progress, I was was too busy joining in and helping out!!

But it is super simple, lay out the paper - we laid ours through our lounge/diner and make some patterns on it, we decided to do foot prints and splats.  I placed some of the paint on o the paper plates, so the boys could put their feet in it.  I did warn you it can get messey.  We also opted for multi colour, but as Christmas is coming you could stick to festive colours of red and green or perhaps gold and silver.  You could also add gliter whilst the paint in wet.

This would also look great with a roll of brown paper.

If I have inspired you at all to make your own wrapping paper then please add you link to the McLinky below.

Handpainted Mugs and other porcelain.

Another Thrifty Christmas Post inspired by Violet posy and by the Cowgirl in Wellies.

We made these for MaxiMads teachers in July to say thank you for looking after him at Preschool.

They were really simple to make, I purchased some porcelain paint from Baker Ross ages ago and it last and lasts.  we did designs based on finger prints as it is much easier for children to do them.

You paint the mug or what ever you want, we used egg cups, bread trays and cups, but also plan to do plates with hand-prints on for the grandparents and godparents.

White crockery can bee picked up very inexpensively from all of the major supermarkets and in Asda at the moment they are doing 4 mugs for 99p, which wold make this really inexpensive indeed.

Once the cups and other crockery has been painted you set the paint according to the manufacturer's instructions in the oven and then they are even suitable for washing in a dishwasher.

I popped some different hot chocolate sachets and herbal t-bags in the cups.

Now these are very childish decorations, but if you go and take a look at The Cowgirl in Wellies post about Hand-painted Holiday Mugs, you will see how professional they can look!!

Tea Cup Candles

Well I have been busy preparing for Christmas, we like to give homemade and  handcrafted presents and this year at TheMadHouse we are a little strapped for cash due to illness and other issues, so I am trying to make it a Thrifty Christmas.

I have been collecting pretty tea cups, saucers and tea plates from charity shops since the summer to turn them into tea cup candles for Mini and Maxi Mads teachers, teaching assistants and also the lovely ladies that run the toddler group we attend.

So  I thought I would do a quick tutorial and let you know just how easy and child friendly this is to do with the introduction of eco soy wax.

Eco Wax is wonderful, not only is it environmentally friendly made from 100% soy beans, it is clean burning and melts at a lower temperature, making it super easy and perfect for the craft enthusiast or first timer like MaxiMad and me.

What you need:

Tea cups of other containers

Wicks (I used premade voltive ones)

EcoSoy Container Wax

Scented Oils (I used Jasmine)

A microwaveable jug

I got the wax, wicks and fragrance from Debbie at Whicks n Whacks.  She is very reasonably priced especially when you take into account postage etc.

We started by washing the cups in hot water and drying them thoroughly (actually I popped them in the dishwasher),  we then melted a small amount of wax in our hands and popped a tiny amount on the bottom of the pre waxed wick and placed them in the centre of the tea cups.

We then melted some wax in the microwave just until it had all turned liquid and added 10% of the volume of fragrance to it.

Then I poured the wax into the cups and allowed to set.

It was as easy as making a cup of tea.  But the most wonderful art of this is that Eco-Soy wax is washable with soap and water, so you can wash the tea cups out and reuse them.  Any spills you make will also wipe away really easily. 

In fact I had collected so many cups and saucers we care going to have some left over, so if you are intested in buying one, please email me.

All I need to do now is to make some labels for them on luggage tags, with the details of the Eco Wax and reusability of the tea cups.