Make Your Own Christmas Pomander - Guest Post from Stacey

Today's guest post for The Crafting Days of Christmas comes from my cousin Stacey. Stacey runs a lovely company called Designs By Stacey. Stacey has always had a passion for art and when she painted a mural for her first daughter's nursery, it started off a new career for her.

Now mum to two lovely girls, Stacey somehow manages to find enough hours in the day to craft and paint!

Here's a selection of her wonderful work:

  

She has kindly written this great how-to post which I am pleased to share with you all.

This is what Stacey says about her glorious pomanders:

I remember making these pomanders at Llanciach Ffawr on a school trip once and have always fancied having a bash at making another. I spend a fortune on plug ins and especially now that all the Christmas scents are on sale in the shops (I love the smell of Christmas). So, this year, I decided to save my money and make something that will last for much much longer. Some sites have even said that they last for years!

To make a Christmas pomander

You will need: 

about 2 ounces of cloves per whole orange

'x' amount of oranges depending on how many you want to make

ribbon

maybe a thimble (some of the cloves can be quite sharp!)

How to: 

Step 1 - Tie a ribbon around your orange crossing it at the top and bottom and then making a bow. 

Step 2 - Pierce the orange with the cloves- remember to leave a small space between each clove as the orange will shrink as it dries out. 

Step 3 - Hang it up! Simple as that! Your house will smell of Christmas without the need for expensive plug ins! 

Tips: Add a sprig of holly to the bow for extra decoration. Supermarkets can be quite pricey on cloves so try health shops or online. I bought a 250g bag online for £4.20 and it'll make lots of pomanders!

Don't forget to check out Stacey's website.

This guest post was brought to you by Stitch N Ting as part of the Crafting Days of Christmas blog hop!

Dried Orange and Cinnamon Decorations

I love the smell of Christmas. It's a smell that when you close you eyes and concentrate, you can recreate it in your head every time. It makes me think of open fires, family, new pajamas and walks in the snow (when we have some).

I had a few oranges laying to waste in the bottom of the fridge so instead of throwing them in the bin (I hate wasting food) I'd dry them out and make some traditional scented orange and cinnamon decorations.

What you'll need:

Oranges, preferably large ones
Sharp knife & chopping board
Flat baking trays
Cinnamon sticks or cinnamon essential oil
Ribbon / string / wool / elastic for tying and embellishing

How to make them:

Step 1 - Pre-heat your oven to 100 degrees C

Step 2 - Lay your orange so that the top where the stem used to be is at 9 o'clock and the bottom is at 3 o'clock. This means you'll get a nice cross section of the orange when you slice and the piece won't fall apart. Slice your oranges thinly (less than 1cm thick) with a really sharp knife.

Step 3 - Space out your orange slices on some flat baking trays and bake in the oven for around 2-3 hours. I have a convection oven so it gets pretty hot in there! You may need to cook for longer but until the pieces are dry to the touch and don't stick to the try when you lift them up.

Step 4 - If you're using cinnamon oil, drip a single drop on the centre of each orange segment.

Step 5 - Make a small hole at the top of a slice and thread ribbon/string through it and tie to make a loop. Use these as single decorations and embellish with a bow tied to the string.

Step 6 - if you're using cinnamon sticks tie another piece if ribbon / wool around the stick and tie this piece toto the orange's thread.

You can also embellish in other ways such as adding glitter, beads or different scented oils. You could also string them together to make a festive orange garland for your tree or fireplace. How about drying some lemons and cranberries and making your own festive pot-purri? The list is endless!

This post is part of the Crafting Days of Christmas blog-hop! Why not join in on the festive creativity?

The Crafting Days of Christmas Blog-Hop

So today is the 1st of December and that means it's time for The Crafting Days of Christmas blog-hop!
Please visit the link for buttons to add to your blog or see the right hand sidebar of my blog for the code.

There aren't any strict rule to this blog-hop other than add your link to your Christmas blog or craft posts and have a browse at the other links and meet some new bloggy friends and hopefully find some interesting Christmas crafts along the way. You're not limited to one link either, if you write multiple posts about Christmas crafts please feel free to add them to the blog-hop.

Don't forget to comment on any new blogs you follow so that the owners can follow you back!

The first few links are from the following bloggers: Myself, of course! Ros @ Ros Made Me and Kara @ Happy Go Lucky. Click their links below to see their crafty Christmas posts. (Please note the Christmas Pomander link is a scheduled link and won't be live until the 2nd!)

Happy crafting!

(I've also scheduled a few crafty posts of my own for the next few days as I'm going to London over the weekend and will be shaking my boots at the Alexisonfire gig on Monday, oh I cannot wait!)

Planning for Babysitting and a Trip To London

Tonight my darling mother is driving a hundred or so miles to come sit with IQ while me and daddy go to my work's Christmas party. I know she's going to adore the time with IQ and we well and truly deserve a couples night together. I can't believe that this time last year I had only just told my colleagues that we were expecting and was reeling at everyone for being able to knock back the wine and I had to settle for juice! Now this year TWO of my colleagues are expecting!

As always, I like to plan ahead so my fridge is stocked and ready to go for when we hit the tiles. We're only going to be out from 6:30pm until 11pm!

(Please don't shoot me down for using formula. I'm still having a real hard time breastfeeding and am coming very close to giving up. Quitting won't be easy for me either so I'm stuck in a catch 22 at the moment!)

We've also got a very busy weekend ahead of us. We're travelling 5 hours cross country to go and stay with Andi's mum for the weekend. IQ is getting a grandma overload this weekend as mum-in-laws very kindly agreed to sit for IQ on Monday night as we're going to see Alexisonfire in London! Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how excited I am about this gig. It's their last EVER EVER tour. It's going to be emotional I can tell you. It's also landed on a very strange date too. When me and Andi first met, he went to see AOF in Brixton in early December. We also saw them in Bristol in 2009, just after we got married and now we're seeing them off one final time.

It's going to be lovely to catch up with so many people and IQ is going to meet most of them for the very first time. I'm a little nervous about the trip as it's such a long time for IQ to travel. I'm also nervous about travelling around London, I find London extremely stressful and I really dislike the tube!

I'm a wuss!

I hope everyone has a fab time this weekend, especially if you're putting your Christmas decorations up already. We'll be doing ours when we come back from London on Tuesday.

Don;t forget, tomorrow is the 1st and my Crafting Days of Christmas blog hop goes live!

Handmade Fabric Christmas Wreath

When visiting my local yarn store last week, Knit Wits and Crafty Bits (awesome name), I saw that they had a fabric wreath for sale. Of course, it was handmade and very lovely. I thought to myself "hey, I could make that!".

I managed to find time to craft over the last week and as Christmas is around the corner I decided to make two of these fabric wreaths. One is supposed to be for my mum and I'll hate parting with it so I may end up making another! This is so simple to make and should only take about an hour, great as a gift for friends and relatives.

The first wreath I made was with a selection of fabric and ribbon and the second was just made with fabric.

What You'll Need
Fabric, at least 2 different colours about 1 metre each
Ribbon
Scissors, although pinking shears worked best for me
Gardening or stiff craft wire
Wire cutters
A circle to use as a template for the wreath, I used a circular pillow but a large dinner plate would work also

How To Make It
1 - take your wire and wrap around template circle a few times, cut wire and wrap ends around. Fasten down with tape if the ends are sharp.

2 - cut your fabric in to 7inch long by 2 inch strips.

3 - Start tying the fabric strips around the wire, packing them closely and alternating colours. Try to tie the knots in different directions to make the fabric "splay" out.

4 - keep tying until the wire is completely covered.

5 - take a 10 inch long piece of ribbon and tie a loop around the wire.

Done! Easy peasy!