Holiday Season Traditions

Hey guys!

So, with New Year's Eve approaching, I want to share a few of my family's holiday traditions with you! 

I personally think that traditions are great - they're the part of a holiday that make it recognizable every year. Apart from all the obvious Christmas traditions such as exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve (in Germany that's more common than on Christmas Day), there are many smaller traditions that developed throughout the years in my family.

Raclette on Christmas Eve or Day, Fondue on New Year's Eve. Or the other way around.

I don't know where that tradition came from, we somehow happen to always have that, every year :D

Singing together at my aunt's place.

We - all my cousins, my parents, brother and me - used to gather my aunt's house every Christmas Eve because it's her birthday and then we would sit in the kitchen, singing Christmas carols and pretending not to see our parents placing the presents under the tree. It was really nice, but I can understand that now that all the cousins are too old to believe in Santa, my aunt wants a less stressful day and instead we now meet at Christmas Day. But we're usually still singing and this year, I played a few carols on the flute together with my cousin who recently started playing the piano. Music's the best!

Putting up the Christmas tree no earlier than a week before Christmas.

I don't know exactly why my parents don't want to put it up earlier, maybe because it takes a bit of space or something like that, but we never put up the tree until a few days before Christmas. 

Lead-Pouring! 

Well, it's not really a family tradition since I seem to be the only one in the house who always does that on New Year's Eve :D I love pouring molten lead into cold water because I think it's fascinating to watch it harden instantly. 

Midnight snack on New Year's Eve

Uhm, we call it midnight, but we actually do that at elevenish. My mother always makes some sandwiches (but with bread rolls instead of sandwich toast). 

Sparkling wine for New Year

I think that's pretty usual but yeah, we do that too :D 

So, what holiday traditions does your family have? Are there any unusual, weird or funny ones? Let me know ^^

Dec 24th: Snowflakes for Christmas!

While some of you might actually find snow outside during the holidays, most probably won't. For those of you who aren't as lucky, I've got you covered. Today, we'll be making snowflakes! The snowflakes I mean aren't that cold though and won't turn back to liquid water when touched. But they'll melt in your mouth.
By now, you might have guessed what snowflakes are. For those of you who don't know, the snowflakes I'm talking about are a sort of cookies that are traditionally made for Christmas.
During Christmas time, a lot of cookies were and are being baked. That's why there are many recipes like the one for snowflakes that don't contain any eggs. So don't worry if you've run out of eggs lately!

You will need:

250g butter
100g powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanillin sugar
a pinch of salt
100g flour
250g starch
An electric whisk
A bowl with a lid..with a hole in the middle :D

How it's done:

Whisk butter, sugars and salt in the bowl with the lid until foamy (Note: the butter should be soft, so take it out of the fridge about an hour before starting; do not pop it into the microwave, this will ruin the consistency; it's completely normal if it simply looks like weird crumbs that will never ever combine after the first five minutes, it'll be alright).
In a separate bowl, mix flour and starch and gradually add it to the butter mixture while whisking. It's right when the mixture looks like small crumbles. Kneed the crumbles together (they'll stick to each other).
Take small pieces (about hazelnut-sized) of the dough and roll them in your palms. Place them on a baking tray covered with baking paper (leave enough space between the dots, they will expand). Take a fork to press them down a little and give them some texture. If you happen to have a cookie stamp with a snowflake design, even better! If you think the dough is too sticky to get your fork or stamp out again, press the fork/stamp into flour first.
While handling the dough, don't get it too warm, it'll get stickier the longer you touch it.
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320 Fahrenheit) and bake 10-15 minutes. The cookies should stay light, so don't let them get brown. (Tip: the cookies will start looking wet when they're in the oven; take them out when they're matte on top)
Out of the oven, the cookies are terribly fragile and soft, but don't worry, they'll be more firm once they've cooled down.
When they're done, you can leave them as they are or sprinkle them with a touch of sugar.
Enjoy!

So, this is the last post for this year's Advent Calendar. I hope you've appreciated spending some time on crafting and baking with me!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dec 23rd: Elf Door

Hi everyone!
Christmas is right around the corner! Yay!
Today, we'll make an elf door to let Santa's little helpers in. If you have small children around, you could use it to cover an electrical outlet near the floor.

Without further ado, let's start right away!

You will need:

Air drying clay (papier-mâché or salt dough should do) or polymer clay

Paint (I used acrylic paint)

Sculpting tools (if you use salt dough you can work with kitchen ware as well since it's not toxic)
A poster glue strip (removable without damaging the wall)

How it's done:

If you want to make the door cover an outlet, you will need to use clay that doesn't shrink while drying, so I would recommend using polymer clay here.

Take a piece of your clay and roll it to a strip of about 0.5 -1 cm thickness and a length that will easily fit around the outlet from one side of the floor around the outlet to the other side twice. This strip will be the doorframe. "Fold" it in half and twist it around itself like a vine. Lay your vine to a rounded shape to look like an arch.
Cover the inside of your doorframe with clay as the door itself and smooth it out. If you want to make it super fancy, you can make a separate door and doorframe and attach them to one another with a small hinge so that the door can open.
After making the door flat inside the frame, take a tool to make indents to immitate seperate planks. Add the texture of wood by making lines along each of the planks. They shouldn't be too even and you could add a few branch-holes as well.
Now it's time for decorating your door. You could cut a little heart or star into the door to act as a window. Or you can make a donut shape as a wreath like I did.
Add a little ball of clay for the handle. If you want to, add a hole for the key.
If you want to cover an outlet, add some clay to the back of the frame (and the frame only! No clay to the back of the door) after the front has hardened and blend it in with the frame.
Let everything harden completely and paint it in the colors you like!
To attach the elf door to the wall, use a poster glue strip.

 

I hope you liked this tutorial! Have a great day!

Dec 22nd: Snow Globe Christmas Card

Last minute Christmas card! Easy to make and looks pretty cool. Let's not waste any time and get straight into it!

You will need:

2 sheets of colorful paper (different colors)
A clear plastic bag
Punch holes (any color you like; I chose white)
Optional: Glittery stuff (I took golden stars)
Glue
Scissors
A pair of dividers or a round object
A picture of your choice

How it's done:

Fold both sheets of colorful paper in half to be the basic card. Cut out a circle from the front of your outer paper. The hole will be your snow globe. Make sure your hole is smaller than the width and height of your plastic bag.
Take your plastic bag and fill some punch holes and glittery stuff in there. Try not to put in too much because it'll cover your picture.
Once your satisfied with the amount of "snow" in your snow globe bag, cut your plastic bag to size if necessary and glue the open side(s) shut with some clear tape all along the side.
Grab your picture and glue it onto the inner paper where the hole of the outer paper is. Glue the plastic bag in front of it, making sure that no edges are visible through the hole in the outer paper.
Cut a rounded rectangle from any other üiece of paper and glue it onto the outer paper as the base of the snow globe. Spread glue all over the inside of the outer paper and stick it to the outside of the inner paper.
Now your card is done. You can write your message to the inside and a "Merry Christmas" somewhere onto the front page.




Have a nice day!


 

Dec 21st: Reindeer Ornaments

Do you like reindeers? I sure do. And do you know what I like too? Walnuts ^^ That's how I came up with this project.
So I'm one of those people who can't simply smash a walnut. When I open them, I do that really carefully so that the nutshell basically stays intact (or at least doesn't break into more than four pieces). When I was a kid, I used to glue them back together with a piece of thread in between and painted them golden or silver. I guess that's why I still don't like breaking nutshells :D
Well, anyway, I found another use for those nutshells I keep in my drawer: reindeer ornaments. They are really so simple to make and it's really fun when doing this in company.
So without further ado, let's get going!

You will need:
Walnuts
Thread or thin ribbon (I used those that you cut off the inside of new clothes)
Thick colored paper
Glue
Scissors
Markers and/or paint
Optional: a third hand

How it's done:
Crack the walnut carefully, eat the nut and keep the shell. Do that as often as you want *nom*
Once you've eaten all your walnuts ('^^), gather your crafting supplies and sketch out a nice design for the antlers of your reindeers. I made mine a bit chubby and they kinda look like oak leaves (which I like because it looks pretty natural).
Use your pattern to make two antlers from thick colored paper. Place them between the two sides of your nutshell and shove them around until you're happy with the placement. Put a drop of glue to the bottom of your antlers and glue them to one half of the shell where you want them to be. If you have a sort of glue that doesn't really stay until dry, get someone to hold the antlers in place while you spread glue around the edge of your nutshell and put the thread in. Glue the second half to the first one.
Then, paint on two black circles for the eyes and either a black or red nose. When the paint is dry, you can add little dots of white for light reflexes.
And that's it!

I hope you have a great day ^^

Dec 20th: LED Candle Snowman

So easy to make, yet it looks so nice and cheers anyone up.

You will need:

An LED candle
Markers
Optional: two little pompoms, a pipe cleaner and glue

How it's done:

Draw the face of the snowman onto the candle, using the "flame" as the nose. You could already be done now. If you want to, you can glue a mini pompom to each end of a piece of pipe cleaner (about a third of the circumference of the candle) and glue that on as ear muffs.

Enjoy your little snowmen!

Dec 19th: Snow Globe

Hi!
Snow globes are fascinating, aren't they? And they can be easy to make, too! Here's how I made mine.

You will need:

A clean and empty glass container with a screw on lid
Water
A bit of dish washing soap or glycerin
Glitter, tiny rhinestones, etc. for the snow
Plastic or polymer clay figures (air dry clay obviously would dissolve)
Hot glue

How it's done:

Arrange your figures on the inside of the lid, making sure the container can still be screwed on. When you're happy with the layout, glue the figures on with hot glue. I made a little white tree from pipe cleaners.
Next, fill the container with water and screw the lid on to displace all the excess water. Screw the lid off again and add a little bit of dish washing soap to the water so that it will stay clear. Put the glitter in, let it sink and screw the lid on again. And that's it.


I hope you liked the tutorial!

Dec 18th: Felt Phone Sleeve

Hey you!
Constantly carrying your phone or tablet around in a crowded bag without any extra protection might result in a scratched display. That's why phone sleeves come in handy. Conveniently, I'll be showing you how to make one from felt today.

You will need:

Felt (the thicker the better)
Applications
Needle and thread

How it's done:

Lay your phone or tablet onto your felt and trace around it, leaving a bit of space around the edges for seam allowance and the thickness of the phone/tablet.
Cut this shape twice. Lay them on top of each other and start sewing around the edge, leaving the top open. You can use any stitch really, even just wrapping the thread around the edge every time will do and probably look nice. Just make sure to secure the ends by making knots.
When the basic pouch is done, you can apply any application you like to it. I used a sew that came with the owl parts already precut and matching cutouts of fusing sheets to iron the owl in place. You can use badges, embroider something on or even leave it plain if you like.

I hope you had a nice start to your week!

Dec 17th: Whiteboard Planner

If you are like me, you cherish pretty much anything that helps you organise your every day life. And this is why I really appreciate this planner. It might also make a nice gift for a family member. This whiteboard is super simple to make and can be adjusted to individual needs.
So here is how to make it!

You will need:

A picture frame
Scrapbook paper
A whiteboard marker
Optional: two magnets, hot glue

How it's done:

Take the piece of paper that usually is inside new picture frames out and trace it onto your scrapbook paper (you could also just print out a nice pattern you like, just make sure that what is written with your whiteboard marker can be read easily). Cut it out and place it inside your picture frame.
Optional: Take a magnet and glue it to one side of the picture frame. Take your second magnet and glue it to your whiteboard marker.

If you want it to be more personal, you could use a child's drawing as the background. Or you could draw or paint something yourself like I did. If you want to make a weekly plan for dinner, you could add the week days on your background so that they won't be erased when wiping last week's meals off.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoy trying this simple idea and maybe it'll help some of you get more organised. Have a nice time!

Dec 16th: Cozy Lantern

Do you love candles like I do? I really like the way candles can instantly make any room feel comfortable. Today, we're going to make a quick lantern to embrace a tea light

You will need:

Paper

A stapler
Scissors (or one of those cutting machines that make clean straight edges)
A needle or pin
A pencil

How it's done:

Cut your paper to your desired size. I made three smallish lanterns from one DIN A4 sized paper. You could make two larger ones by cutting the straight down the middle lengthwise as well, it depends on you.
Using a pencil, draw a design you like onto the paper. I chose to make music notes. Using your needle, poke a few holes as guidelines through the lines drawn and erase the lines.
Now here's the fun part: poke tons of holes along the guidelines.
When you're happy with your design, bend the paper to a circular shape and secure it using two staples (one at the top and one at the bottom of the overlapping edge).
For my lantern, I decided to repurpose old sheet music. Can you guess what song it is? ^^

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. Have a great day!

Dec 15th: Cupcake Baubles

Christmas tree decorations! I love ornaments...!
In this post, I will show you how to make simple cupcake baubles that look pretty cool no matter how much you mess up *yay*

You will need:

Cheap baubles in a color you like
Cupcake papers
Glue
Glitter or acrylic paint

How it's done:

Take your bauble, put a dot of glue directly at the bottom of it and press the cupcake paper onto the bauble. Mix some glue with lots of glitter and spread it on top of the bauble to make it look like icing is dripping down. If you aren't the kind who likes discovering bits of glitter all over their body and house for the next two months, you can simply use acrylic paint for the frosting. After really messing around with my glitter, spilling it everywhere, I'd probably recommend using acrylic paint '^^
Anyway, let the frosting dry. If you want to, you can paint that silver top part of the bauble red to look like a cherry, but I decided to leave mine plain as I thought it might look weird with the red wrapper.

And that's it. Easy, right? Now go and make like twenty of those to have the most cupcake-y Christmas tree ever.
Another idea would be to skip the cupcake wrapper part and simply make a bauble with color dripping down. I think you could use nail polish to create this effect too, so if you happen to have a nail polish color that seriously doesn't suit your appearance at all, feel free to spill it over a bauble.

I hope you have a really nice day ^^

Dec 14th: Mickey Mouse Tree Topper

Today we'll Disney-fy Christmas just a little bit more..! If you don't have a traditional tree-topper yet, why not consider adopting this one as your new tradition? It's super simple to make and, let's be honest, it's so cool! What could be better than topping your Christmas tree with a hat that has Mickey ears?
So let's get straight into it!

You will need:

Santa hat (those cheap felt ones are fine)
Foam rubber or sturdy felt (preferably black)
Hot glue

How it's done:

Put the hat onto a piece of paper and sketch out two circle parts for Mickey's ears. I made mine rather big and placed them near the white edge.
Once you're happy with the size and shape, cut one of the pieces out and trace it onto your craft foam twice (if your foam has two different sides, mirror the second piece). Cut the foam pieces out, place them on the side seams of the hat where you want them to sit and glue them on using hot glue.
And you're done!

I hope you have a nice and relaxed day!

Dec 13th: Felt Key Chains

Today's craft is fairly easy to make and won't take too much time. We'll be making little key chains from felt. You can probably already guess that I'm really into Winnie the Pooh, right? '^^
Anyway, let the crafting begin!

You will need:

Felt
Ribbon
Key rings
Scissors
Marker
Hot glue
(Note: I'm using hot glue here despite some pieces being really tiny since any other glue didn't work for me. Most liquid glue will be visible through the felt (cf. poor Pooh). You can of course sew these, too.)

Pattern

How it's done:

Cut out the pieces of felt according to the pattern. For the penguin (the five pieces on the bottom right), the black part can be substituted by any color you want, like light blue or something like that.
Once you have all the pieces, cut a piece of ribbon (mine are about 10 cm) fold it in half and glue the ends together.
Now you arrange the pieces as shown in the pictures, placing the ends of the ribbon between the front and back piece. Place the feet and ears of Pooh and Piglet between the front and back too. The rest of the pieces go onto the front or back of the character.
Carefully take the front (with the face on it) from the back and put hot glue around the edges (just leave the ribbon, legs and ears resting on the back piece and pretend they aren't there). Quickly press the front onto the back piece before the glue hardens.
Then, glue on the face pieces and any other details. Be really careful not to burn yourself. You might want to use tweezers to put small pieces like the eyes onto drops of hot glue on the front. Don't try to put the glue onto small pieces, they'll either stick to your tweezers or you'll burn your fingers!
You can decide to leave the key chains as they are (and use them as Christmas tree ornaments) or you can shove the ribbon onto a key ring like I did.

Layout

Happy crafting!

Dec 12th: Cable Organizers

Hello all together!
Two words: tangled cables. Did I scare you? Well then, this simple project is for you. These cable organizers/wrappers are so useful. It literally took five minutes to make them and they make a real difference in the mess of cables on a desk or inside drawers or even pockets.

So here we go!

You will need: 

Fabric

Velcro fastening or snaps

Needle and thread

Optional: Sewing machine

How it's done:

Cut two rectangles of the same size from your fabric (you could use two matching fabrics or the same one here). Round off the edges if you want to (Note: for the one in the picture I had rectangles of about 10 by 5 cm).

On one short side of each rectangle, attach one side of the velcro or snaps to the good side. (I took self adhesive velcro dots. No sewing needed!)

Lay your rectangles good side to good side so that on the left there is one side of the fastening and on the right the matching other piece (both facing inside). Sew the rectangles together leaving a gap to turn it right side out.

After turning it right side out, close the gap. You an decide to be done now or to make some top stitching around the edge.
Tip for lazy people like me: skip closing the gap and instead shove the raw edges inside and do some topstitching right over it. It's like closing the gap, except that there's no need to thread another needle. This tip only applies for machine sewing since it would take much more time by hand than simply closing the gap.

So that's it for today. If I couldn't convince you of the convenience of this project, simply try it yourself. As I said, it only takes a few minutes if you have a sewing machine on hand.

Have a great day!

Dec 11th: Pompom Ornaments

Pompoms are super simple to make and they make great (and fluffy) decorations. So why not make ornaments for your Christmas tree from pompoms? If that sounds interesting to you, here are a few ideas for you to consider!

You will need:

Yarn
Pompom makers (or simply use your fingers)
Scissors
Craft knife (for cutting the yarn apart around pompom makers)
Felt for details
Glue

How it's done:

1. Following the instructions that come with pompom makers, make a pompom and leave tails for hanging them onto the tree. If you don't have one, wrap the yarn around four fingers (for a smaller pompom you could use three or two fingers and for tiny ones a fork should do) until it's really bulky on your hand. Cut off the end and thread a piece of yarn (about 15-20 cm) through the hole between two of your fingers and the yarn-bulk. Make a double knot on the other side of the yarn, as if you were trying to make a bow. Tighten the knot really well! Knot the two ends as well. Now take your yarn bow off your fingers (or fork) and cut through the loops on both sides.
2. Trim your pompom to make it look more round.
3. Make details from felt. To cut eyes, you can use a hole punch. I like to use a hole punch for noses too and trim off a bit to make it look oval or rather triangular. Glue the pieces on using all purpose glue. Do not use hot glue, you will burn your fingers!
Now you can hang your pompom onto your Christmas tree.
Another idea apart from making Disney Charakters as I did would be to immitate real baubles. To do that, take a bottle cap, paint it silver, make a hole in the middle and thread the ends you hang the pompom onto the tree with through the hole in the cap before making a knot. Or how about making emojis from yellow yarn and felt faces?

I hope you'll come back to my blog again tomorrow and enjoy your day!

Dec 10th: 1-2-3 Christmas Cookies!

Hey guys!
Doesn't baking some Christmas cookies on the second Sunday in Advent sound like a great idea to you? To me it sure does!

You will need:

One part of sugar
Two parts soft butter
Three parts of flour
Some flavour (like vanilla, almond, ...)

How it's done:

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Kneed the dough until it doesn't stick to your fingers anymore.
Now, grab your rolling pin and cookie cutters. Spread some flour on your working surface and roll the dough out. Cut cookies and put them onto a baking sheet on your baking tray.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) and bake the cookies until lightly brown. Repeat until you don't have any dough left.
Cool the cookies on a wire rack. When the biscuits are cold, decorate them with icing, sprinkles, ... !

I hope you have a fun day! 

Dec 9th: Tic-Tac-Toe Travel Pack

Today we'll be making another gift. As many people know the fun of playing tic-tac-toe, how about making a travel version that doesn't waste paper?
Here's how to make it.

You will need:

4 wooden sticks for the frame
Pipe cleaners (or pebbles, buttons, beads, ... always 5 of one color, 10 in total)
A bag or box
Optional:
Paint
Glue

How it's done:

Take your wooden sticks and cut them to the same length. If you want to, you can glue them to another resembling the outline of the board, but it's okay to simply lay them out when playing for easier storage. Next, you're going to take your pebbles and mark them somehow. To do that, you could draw "x"s on five of the stones and "o"s on the other five. You could also paint half of the stones in one color and the other in another. For the pipe cleaners, I cut ten short pieces (about 2-2.5 cm) and twisted two together in the middle for the "x"s and for the "o"s I took five longer ones, wrapped them around my thumb and twisted the ends together.
Make sure everything fits inside the bag or box you want to use. You can paint the box or embroider the bag if you want to.
And that's it!

How about making it to fit inside a match box? Take four toothpicks and cut them to size and use small buttons instead of pebbles.
You could go for an all natural look as well if you pick up little sticks from your garden and use e.g.
horse chestnuts as gaming pieces. This diy is really versatile and not that time consuming.

I hope you have a nice day!

Dec 8th: Salt Dough

Have you ever heard of salt dough? It's a sort of play dough that is often used for crafting candle holders and Christmas pendants in Germany. It's not supposed to be eaten (because it tastes terribly) but it is intoxic so there's no risk for children. The recipe is simple and inexpensive so it is great for simply having some fun crafting without the risk to waste any of that expensive polymer clay.

You will need:

1.5 cups of flour

0.5 cups of cornstarch

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

A few drops of oil (optional)

(Sidenote: you can make smaller batches if you use spoons instead of cups)

How it's done:

Dissolve the salt in warm water. This step is really important so don't you dare skip it! 

Mix the rest of the ingredients together and kneed it. It should have the consistency of play dough and shouldn't stick or crumble. If it crumbles, add some water. If it sticks, add flour. 

Once you have the desired consistency, you can start playing with it. You could roll it out and use some cookie cutters to make Christmas cookies for your children to play with. You could make a hole into each of the cutouts to make ornaments for your christmas tree. You could form letters to spell a name or word to stick it to a door (inside the house though). Maybe you want to make some doll food like I did here? Or how about handprints or fingerprints or paw prints? Just make sure you don't try to make something that is too thick since it will shrink a bit while drying, which could lead to some...let's say unusual results. 

Once you're happy with the shapes, you can either leave them to dry for the next few days or pop them into the oven. I don't have any experience with putting salt dough into the oven though since I don't want to heat the whole oven for just a few little pieces that could totally air dry as well. 

Either way, make sure your pieces are completely dry before you paint and seal them. To give cookies a baked look, use some chalk or chalk pastels, rub some yellow on all around the cookie, then take some light brown for shading the top. Seal the chalk/chalk pastel with a coat of clear nail polish or some waterproof spray on polish. You can use acrylic paint to paint the pieces, too. Acrylic paint already seals the pieces too, so you won't have to polish them. Even if you don't want to paint your pieces, it's better to polish them since they will draw water from the air over time and this will ruin them. 

I wish you a happy day and a nice start to the weekend!

Dec 7th: Nailed it

Today we'll make some cute crafty decorations for your wall or to put onto a shelf. You can make these in any size you want. And they're pretty easy to make and could be done with children as well.

So let's start!

You will need:

A wooden panel
Nails and a hammer
Some push pins
Wool
Some paper to draft your design

How it's done:

Draw a simple shape onto your piece of paper that doesn't cover the whole panel. This could be a star, heart, smiley, a letter, pretty much anything.
Lay the paper onto your panel and place it the way you want it to be. Pin it with a few push pins so that it doesn't shift.
Take another pin and mark dots along the outline of your shape, about equally spaced. Once you've marked the whole outline, take the push pins out again and remove the paper.
Next, you'll hammer a nail into every marked dot. After that, take your wool and tie it to one of the nails loosely (leaving a bit of a tail). Then you weave the wool around the other nails randomly, filling the shape eith color. The more random the better. If you want to, you can make an outline once you're happy with your design. Make sure you end at the same nail you started.
Cut off the end of the yarn and tie it to the beginning. Make a strong knot and cut off the ends that stick out.

And that's it!

I hope you enjoy your new decorations! They make nice gifts for the grandparents too, maybe combined with salt dough handprints?

Dec 6th: Gingerbread Dollhouse pt. 3

Welcome to the third and final part of the gingerbread dollhouse. Yesterday we've sewn the house together and all that's left to do today is decorating. If you've missed yesterday's post, you can find it on the right in the Advent Calendar 2017 section.

So let's start decorating!

How it's done:

1. Take your buttons and sew them securely in place, making sure the loops of your ribbons reach them to close the house. Tip: you could use white buttons and paint on red swirls to resemble peppermints.
2. Make a door from felt or fleece. I wanted mine to look like a biscuit, so I took light brown fabric and cut a wavy-ish edge. It's easiest to glue the pieces on instead of sewing.
3. Add "icing" by gluing on white ribbon or felt/fleece. 
4. Make windows maybe? How about trying to immitate jelly beans or gummy candy? Just have fun decorating your house.
You can also make windows from the inside or even add furniture (if you have enough time to do so, the furniture could actually be 3D). You can get inspiration for furniture from the sweets series in Animal Crossing for example.

I hope you've had fun making the gingerbread house with me! I would be really happy to see all of your creations! Have a nice day!

Dec 5th: Gingerbread Dollhouse pt. 2

Hello and welcome back to the second part of the gingerbread dollhouse. Yesterday we prepared the basic shape of the house. If you've missed the last post, you can find it on the right in the Advent Calendar 2017 folder.


So, today we'll be sewing it together. So let's get straight into it!

How it's done: 

1. Lay the fabric shapes good side to good side and pin them together. Take up to four pieces of elastic ribbon and make a little loop with each of them that fits around the buttons you chose for closing the house. Pin the ribbon with the loop facing inside the construction on the points shown. (Note: I first had two elastic bands sewn in and cut them off later because the "door" would stay shut without any help)
(Optional: sew handles by sewing along the long sides of two long rectangles. Flip them right side out and pin the edges of them to the "x"s on the picture. Again, the loops are inside and the raw edges outside)

2. Sew around the corner, leaving a gap that is wide enough to get every piece of your cardboard through (e.g. leave the purple or red line open).
3. Turn the shape right side out. If you want to, you can press the edges to get them more neat. This is optional though.

Steps 4 and 5

4. Shove all the cardboard pieces inside the construction and onto their destined place and close the gap. Pin along the edges so that the pieces won't move while sewing.
5. Sew along the edges between the pieces. It might be a good idea to do some of the edges by hand if you're making a large house since it might not fit under the sewing machine without folding the cardboard. Take care not to sew through the cardboard!


6. Sew the red line in the sketch to the purple line and the blue one to the green line. Join the roof pieces in the middle as well.




Depending on the size of your house, the fifth step might take quite some time. That's why I want to stop here for today. Tomorrow we'll be decorating the house, so you could do half the sewing today and the other half tomorrow if you don't have enough time today.

Dec 4th: Gingerbread Dollhouse pt.1

I hope you had a good start into the week! To ensure that you won't have to spend your whole day crafting, today's project will be part one out of three.
Today, we'll start making a gingerbread house. But not one that can be eaten - it'll be all sewn and glued, ... and it'll make a nice gift for any little girl in your family (or just for yourself).
I've seen a few of these houses lately and I really love how convenient they are. On the one hand, they sure make a great dollhouse (if large enough) and when playtime is over, everything fits neatly inside the house until next time.
Mine measures about 10 cm in height, that's why the sides look a bit chubby. The taller your house is, the higher the percentage of space on the inside since the pieces will be a bit more flat. If you take the measurements in cm like I did, the house could also be a nice way to hide a little present or money.

So without further ado, let's get started!

Templates & Arrangement

You will need:

Templates
Brown fabric (I use fleece but really anything will do)
A sewing machine
Cardboard (plastic sheets work as well, just make sure they're strong enough to keep their shape and not aren't too hard to cut)
Stuffing
(Optional: ribbon and buttons to close it)
Ribbons, other (non-fraying) fabric, buttons, etc. for decorating
All purpose glue
A bit of fantasy and lots of fun

 

How it's done:

Well, as I already said, this project takes a bit more time than the others so far, so I wanted to split it up. Today, we'll concentrate on preparations mainly.

1. Bring the templates to the desired size and print them out. If you're like me and don't like puzzling the pieces on different sheets together, the templates have angles and relative measurements to make it easier for you to adjust them to your needs by constructing them on paper with ruler and pencil.
2. Cut out the template pieces and trace them onto your cardboard. Cut those out (I find it helpful to use a box cutter).
3. Take your cardboard pieces and glue some stuffing on. Just a coat on both sides so that it's a bit more fluffy. Don't overdo it here, we'll need the pieces to fit inside the construction in the next two steps.

Stuffing glued to one side of four pieces

4. Arrange the cardboard pieces on the brown fabric as shown in the picture above. The space between the cardboard pieces is about 0.5 cm on each corner they meet (if measurements are in cm like I did them). Trace the construction, leaving about half a cm around the outer edge too. If you're not sure whether your "stuffed" cardboard pieces will fit inside, rather leave more space between the pieces and on the edges.
5. Cut out the t-shaped construction, leaving an additional space around the edges for seam allowance. Cut a second one just like the first.
And that's it for today!


I hope you have a nice time. Stay crafty!

"Song of Peace and Hope" Needs More Attention

During Christmas time, many people think about donations for charity. So let us think just a little bit broader than that. Take a moment to think about all the people out there who can't live in their home countries anymore, all the people who suffer from loneliness, poverty, hunger or war in this world.

The motto of my school's Christmas concert this year is "Peace" and someone found this awesome song dealing with the refugee crisis that is still continuing. 

The song is about giving hope to the refugees that have to leave their homes and families behind. For us who haven't experienced anything like the situation in their home countries, it's simply impossible to understand how much they have to go through and the singer is right, we just all can't find the words to comfort them, no matter how hard we try. 

They say you should treat others the way you would want to be treated if you were in their situation. And I'm pretty sure that all of you would want to be helped or at least not threatened when there's war in your country.

In most countries though, there is a huge debate on how many refugees the country can take and whether or not to send them back. Isn't it weird that we are all talking about love and world peace, Christian values of helping one another but on the other hand some people don't care about the refugees or try to send them back to the terror they fled from? 

Christmas time is a good time to think about helping other people and trying to accept others the way they are in general. In fact, every time is a good time to do so. Spending time with family and friends isn't the only thing that makes Christmas special, it's also giving love to other people, may it be by handing a coin to the poor man at the side of the street or going for a walk with the neighbour's dog.

Just as the song says, let's not waste precious time on useless debates that won't change anything. Let's start doing something right now. And it doesn't even take much to make the world a better place - oftentimes, charity organizations are happy about each donation, no matter if it's 100, 10 or even just 1€. It doesn't even have to be money, you could volunteer to help out in the soup kitchen, spend some time with the elder lady next door or talk to the sad-looking girl at the bus station. I'm sure that you will find someone who could use your help.

Remember, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, but the second best is right now.

Dec 3rd: Silicone Phone Case

You've read that right - today we are going to make a phone case completely from scratch! 
If you happen to have a nice little phone that literally no one knows, you'll know the struggle of finding a phone case that suits your phone. And even if you have a "normal" phone, you could take a few minutes to make one that is unique! Well, at least if you can live without your phone for a couple of hours or happen to have a dummy. It will really only take about an hour or two for the case to harden enough to take the phone out again. It's Sunday, you won't need it all day long anyway and even if so you can just make sure to charge the battery, turn it off and leave it to dry over night.
I hope the weather is nice at your place since I would really recommend doing this outside. Or at least in front of an open window. This stuff smells extremely like vinegar (you can believe me, I had tears in my eyes when I did this...!)

Anyway, without further ado, let's get straight into it!

You will need: 

Silicone
Cornstarch
A cartridge gun
Cling wrap
Lots of old newspapers
Latex gloves
A rolling pin (one you use for crafting only)
X-Acto knife
Acrylic paint (optional)

How it's done: 

First, take your phone and wrap it in cling wrap. Try not to add too much volume to the sides and back, but wrap it well since you don't want your phone to be damaged.
Then, spread old newspapers all over your working area and take a bowl you don't care that much about (or if it's not windy you can simply combine the mixture on your newspapers). Pour some cornstarch into the bowl/onto the newspaper and add some silicone. Wearing gloves, take some of the cornstarch and put it on top of the silicone (it should be about half and half, but you'll have to adjust this anyway) before trying to kneed the starch into the silicone. You can put in a drop of acrylic paint now if you want your case to be tinted. The consistency is right when it feels like play dough and doesn't stick anymore. 
Work fast. This stuff dries really quickly. Roll the silicone dough out, wrap it smoothly around your phone (place the back of your phone to the middle of the dough), gather it in the front and lightly press it onto the phone to get any edges right. 
Let it dry for an hour or two or over night. Then take your knife and REALLY CAREFULLY cut out the front part to see your phone's screen. Take it out and cut out a hole for your charger and the camera hole and any other hole there should be. I'd recommend not to cut out holes for the buttons on the sides since it can get pretty tricky to reach the actual buttons, depending on the thickness of your phone case. I've done that mistake, so please guys learn from my mistake. 
That's your basic phone case done. You can alter the design by pressing glittery stones into the dough (or gluing them on later), making a pattern with a toothpick or some clay tools, sculpting a bear or simply painting on a design using acrylic paint (I recommend not to cover it in paint completely... another mistake I did which I regret '^^).
Another idea would be to use this case as a base for making a phone case inside a teddy bear or wallet.

Don't forget to close your silicone cartridge! I don't know if they're like this everywhere, but the ones I have can't be closed airtightly after being opened for the first time. If yours are like that too, take a piece of cling wrap and put it on top of the opening before screwing the cap on. Make sure that you've cleaned the cap thoroughly from any silicone since you won't get that out there once it's dry.

Either way, I wish all of you a happy first Sunday in Advent and hope you enjoy my advent calendar so far. Let me know which crafts you've done with me and I'd really appreciate to see a picture of your projects.

Dec 2nd: Mickey Mouse Wreath/Dream Catcher

Today's craft is for all the people out there who love Disney. The iconic shape of Mickey's head will immediately be recognised and will touch up every room. So why not make a wreath in the shape of Mickey Mouse?

You will need:

Thick and sturdy cardboard

Yarn

Embroidery floss or effect yarn

Some beads

How it's done:

Draw a big circle and two identical small circles onto your cardboard. Don't connect them! 

Draw an inner circle into each of the circles, about two cm smaller in radius. 

Cut out the inner circle and the outer circle. You can throw the inner circles away or keep them for other crafts. 

Take your yarn and tie it around one of the circles (around the 2 cm rim). Then, wrap the yarn around the circle until you reach the beginning again and no more cardboard is visible. Do the same with the other two circles.

Now, place the two small circles at the top of the big circle to resemble Mickey's ears and tie the same yarn around the two layers. Wrap the yarn around the two circles to connect them with each other. Do that on both sides. 

Optional: before you connect the circles, you can make a dream catcher pattern on the inside of the circles like I did. You can see how that's done here from about 1:40 on.

If you happen to know how to make an Advent wreath from twigs, you could make one of those to look like mickey's iconic head too.

I hope you have a nice day!

Dec 1st: Christmas Stocking

So, the first day of this year's advent calendar has come! And as I've promised, I've prepared an easy little crafting tutorial for you.

The first craft I'd like to make with you this December is a simple stocking to hang onto the wall. You can easily resize the pattern to your desires and could use it to make an advent calendar to fill or hide some presents for your family and friends in it. Why not make a big one to "wrap" a present in? It's not quite common to fill stockings in Germany where I live, so wrapping a present in a handmade stocking might be a fun idea to spice up the load of normally wrapped presents. 

Anyway, let's get started. 

Template

You will need: 

Some sort of fabric, preferably non-fraying

Some ribbon or twine

Needle and thread

Sewing machine (optional)

Anything you want for decorating (beads, applications, ...)

I left a bit more fabric at the top

How it's done: 

First, trace the pattern onto your fabric. Cut it out, leaving about a cm for seam allowance.

Place the two mirrored parts good side to good side and sew along the outer edge, leaving the top open. Flip it inside out, sew a piece of ribbon or twine to the inside of the back and your basic stocking is done.

Now for the fun part. Decorate your stocking. I decided to do some decorative stitches around the edge of the brim. If you have kids around, let them draw something on with markers. You can also cut out shapes of stars or snowflakes or hearts and glue or sew them one. You could use some ribbon to make a brim at the top. Be creative and have fun using the materials you have at hand!

I hope you have a nice first day of December!