It's absolutely no secret that I love Christmas, and one of my favourite Christmas activities is putting the Christmas tree up. Changing colour schemes and buying new baubles every year can get expensive, and so making some of your own each year can be an inexpensive way of decorating a Christmas tree.
Disclaimer time: I am in no way bragging, but fortunately the financial side isn't much of an issue for me these days. It was a different story when we first bought our house though, as we had saved for years and poured all our money into the house, so I did genuinely worry about spending so much money on Christmas decorations.
That was the first year I made some DIY decorations and I've made some every year since.
This year I opted to change the theme of the tree; instead of red and green, I wanted to go for white with hints of gold, champagne, sage green and pastel blue. That meant a LOT of new baubles. I took a trip to the Range and picked up several individual baubles (did a haul in week 48 of this year's blogs if you're interested) but I wanted to top those up with some homemade ones. I had already ordered 12 small glass baubles and some natural coloured feathers from eBay, so I picked up some gold leaf flakes, adhesive and acrylic paint and off home I went.
I'm sure I don't need to explain the process of making the feather filled baubles, but the gold leaf ones were a little more complex, although still very straightforward. Essentially, all you need to do is pour a little paint into the bauble, and shake it (with your finger over the end) until you get good coverage. Then apply the adhesive to the exterior of the bauble wherever you want to apply the gold foil, leave it to go tacky for a few minutes, apply the gold leaf, and then using a clean paint brush, brush the gold leaf into the bauble until it sets.
That last part is VERY messy, so you might want to put down some newspaper first.
I did also try my hand at making some with temporary tattoos, but they were less successful. I won't bore you with details, but you get the gist...
Personally, I adore making a few baubles every year. I do appreciate it's not for everyone though, and if you fall into that category, why not pick up a charity bauble from Intu Chapelfield? This year, Chapelfield are supporting EACH and have launched some gorgeous limited edition glass baubles, with a handmade butterfly and sparkling gold lametta within. There are only 2017 in existence, and for a small additional fee you can pick a specific bauble with a serial number which has sentimental value to you or to the person you are gifting the bauble to, be that a birthday, anniversary or a date which holds precious memories of a loved one.
So there we have it! If you fancy trying your hand at some festive craft but don't want to head out and purchase lots of materials, keep an eye out on my blog as a tutorial for some origami stars will be coming shortly!
Merry Christmas!
LAURA
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