Tag Archives: Christmas

Gingerbread buttons

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I am still waiting for a photo so I can finally show you why I am making gingerbread buttons in the middle of summer.

But now I would like to show you that my products actually are 100% HANDMADE.

Not just the buttons themselves are handmade. But also the little tags, that the buttons are sewn onto are made with lots of love by my hands! :-)

1 -This is what the button tag looks in the beginning.

2 – The tag gets stamped.

3 – The tag gets cut. By hand. 

4 – And this is just to test you and see whether you are really paying attention while reading. ;-)

5 – A hole is punched into the tag. Again by hand. 

6 – The tag gets a dashed line – also by hand.

7 – Finally the buttons are sewn onto the tag. Of course – by hand. :-)

Pretty?

 
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Wall Christmas tree – or Christmas card recycling

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Wall Christmas tree – or Christmas card recycling

 

I guess it is a bit late for showing photos of Christmas trees. But we put away our “real” Christmas tree yesterday which kinda put me in the mood to show off one last Christmas project that I had done: a Christmas tree for the wall.

 
  
I had put this one in the kids’ room and my kids really liked it. My first idea was actually to make a tree out of stars that are affixed directly to the wall. But then I saw this Walltree DIY by Matthew Mead via Oh my handmade:
And if you do not know Oh my handmade – go check it out NOW!!! Seriously, you are missing out!
 
Photo by Matthew Mead via Oh my Handmade
 
Wow! I loved it! But I did not have such cute patterned paper. And really did not want to buy any just for this one project. So … Christmas card recycling! ;-)
 
I do not get that many Christmas cards, but the ones that I do get I can not throw away. So I had collected a few over the years. This seemed like a perect way to use them.
 
And when I saw the beautiful “woolen” Christmas trees by Eline Pellinkhof it was the last inspiration I needed. 
Her blog by the way is also VERY beautiful. Very pretty pictures – so again, GO! :-)
 
So here is what I did:
1. Used a huge shaped “hole” punch to cut stars out of my old Christmas cards.
(If you turn around your “hole” punch you can see where you are cutting.) Put a hole into the star.
2. Thread all the stars onto some cotton thread. 
3. Started crocheting the chain stitch. After a certain number of stitches pulled a star to the crochet hook and crocheted “over” the star so it stays in place.
4. After the star garland was done I used masking tape to affix it to the wall. I added a straw star to the top as well. Done! :-)
 
 
(Of course you do not have to use crochet. You can also just knot the stars to some yarn. But you might want to use thicker yarn than I did if you wanna skip the crocheting part.)

The best thing is that next year I can use the garland again. Either as a wall Christmas tree – or as a garland for my windows or the Christmas tree or …
 
If you have not thrown out or packed away your old Christmas cards yet you could make a star garland now and pack it away for next Christmas. This way you have a nice new handmade decoration ready to use without doing anything when you unpack your Christmas stuff next time. 
 
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Cute Christmas-DIY – gingerbread candle

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Cute Christmas-DIY – gingerbread candle

Isn’t this the sweetest Christmas-DIY? A gingerbread candle!

Keks-Kerze - schöne Bastelei für Kinder / cookie candle - cute craft for kids

It’s super easy to make – all you need is storebought gingerbread, a waffle roll, an almond and some sugar icing to glue it all together. The gingerbread candle in the photo is the work of a 6 year old and a 2 year old. So it really is SUPER easy to make!

And if you don’t wanna eat all the gingerbread candles you’re making … just gift some to your neighbour, the postman or post woman, your lovely library worker … a teacher … grandma?

The idea for the gingerbread candle isn’t mine, though. I saw the gingerbread candle on this blog “titatoni” and just had to try them.

And if you’re interested in more quick and cute Christmas DIYs … why not try some easy and quick recycled gingerbread house tags?

free-affirmation-card-workshop-ursula-markgraf

Last Christmas

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… I made some Christmas crafts. Before I show you what I made this year I wanted to remind you of some of the crafts I did last year:

There is a tutorial for making strawstars

And I sewed a Christmastree pillow – especially fun for the kids as they can play with it:

 

And I made this Bascetta star out of musical sheets. Totally love it:

Wishing you a great 4th of Advent!

Now I better return to my crafts … :-)

 

Knopf-Lebkuchen-Kekse … mit Rezept

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 Sorry, still working on the translation!!!

Backen ist eine meiner Lieblingsbeschäftigungen. Deshalb zeig ich Euch heute Lebkuchen mal etwas anders. Das sind nämlich Knopf-Lebkuchen-Kekse. Etwas ungewöhnlich für die Vorweihnachtszeit. ;-) Aber wenn Ihr eine Weihnachtsfeier in der Nähgruppe plant oder etwas ähnliches, dann sind sie perfekt! Und eine nähende Freundin freut sich sicher auch über ein paar Kopf-Kekse als Mitbringsel.

Falls Ihr die Knopf-Lebkuchen-Kekse nachmachen möchtet – hier das Rezept. Ihr braucht: 410g Mehl 1 Päckchen Backpulver 2 TL Lebkuchengewürz 1/2 TL Zimt (nach Geschmack auch mehr oder weniger) 125g feste Butter, in kleine Stücke geschnitten 125g brauner Zucker 125g Zuckerrübensirup 1 Ei

Mehl, Gewürze und Butter mit dem Mixer vermengen bis eine krümelige Masse entsteht. Zucker, Ei und Sirup hinzugeben. Alles zu einem Teig verkneten. Den Teig abgedeckt (mindestens) 30 Minuten kühl stellen. Dann ausrollen und ausstechen. Und wo hab ich den hübschen Knopf-Ausstecher her? ;-) Etwas Rundes und einigermaßen Scharfkantiges in der Küche finden (kleine Schüssel oder Trinkglas zum Beispiel) und damit die Knöpfe ausstechen. Dann mit Cocktail-Trinkhalmen – die “dicken” – die Löcher in die Knöpfe stechen. Einfach, oder? Die Kekse auf Backpapier bei 200Grad (vorheizen!) für ca. 12-15 Minuten backen. Dann abkühlen lassen und … ESSEN!

Man kann sie natürlich auch noch hübsch mit Zuckerguss oder Schokoglasur verzieren. Aber soweit ist es bei meinen nicht gekommen. Irgendwie waren die vorher schon … äh … weg. ;-)

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Advent “wreath” tutorial

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Have a wonderful 1st of Advent!

 

If you still do not have an Advent wreath but would like one – here comes your post! :-)

I show you what Advent wreaths I am using this year. And yes, this year I have TWO! Last year we used an Advent “box”:

To find out more about the Advent box click HERE.

This year I made two – one for the kitchen where we eat and one for the living room. The basic idea for them is similar to the Adent box above. Here comes “wreath” number 1.

Cake pan Advent wreath: 

Tiny tutorial:

1. Search for (old) cake pan.

2. Fill the pan with bird sand.

3. Put candles in there.

4. Put some nuts on top … or something else decorative that will cover the sand.

5. Light candles and admire your great work!

I have to admit though that this wreath was more a collaboration than my idea. I started out and did everything until step 3 and had left it at that. Then my kids decided that the nuts that we had collected that day would look good in the pan and just started to fill up the pan. I did not want to start a big fuzz so I decided to let them do it – I could change it later. But when they were done I loved so much what they had done that I just left it like that. :-)

And wreath number 2.

Big glass bowl Advent wreath:

Tiny tutorial:
see above ;-)
Just exchange the pan with a big glass bowl. And instead of sand you use sugar or salt – looks prettier in the glass bowl. Kinda like snow. Then decorate whichever way you want. My kids used pine cones cause they were everywhere in our apartment from our last walks in the woods.
What I love about these “wreaths” – you can use pretty much anything you find and you like. So if you do not have an old cake pan or a big glass bowl – just search for something else. You will probably find something in your kitchen or basement that you can work with.

How do you like my untraditional Advent “wreaths”?

And what does your Advent wreath look like this year?

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Panicky Pre-Christmas-Post

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Today was a really stupid day!

Everyone has one of those at some point. I know. But unfortunately in my case stupid days lead to stupid thoughts. So if you are a person who gets panicky when reading about other people’s panick 

 
STOP READING! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Hey, I said stop!

Well, I warned you! Your choice ….
 
 
I really do like Christmas!
 
And even more I like Advent. I LOVE Advent – the time before Christmas. 
I do not like stress, hectic hustling, trying to finish what feels like 100 projects at a time …
 

When I started to get this panicky feeling when realizing that next weekend is the 1st of Advent – I tried to calm myself. I told myself “You can do this” No problem!

 

I will just make a list with all the things that need to get done before Christmas. And then I can distribute all those things over the days to come! 

 

Easy, right?!

No stress at all.

Quiet nice Advent-days.

 

*

Well … kinda …

It did sound rather simple in my head.

Unfortunately the reality had a somewhat different look:

 

 

I sit down and write my list.

I write.

And I write.

And I write.

I pause.

I realize that I could keep writing for a REALLY long time.

I realize that I could not by any means finish off the things I already have on my sheet of paper until Christmas. No way.

Not even with stress.

So … I declare list-writing to be finished and am frustrated!

 *

Apparently my problem solving strategy went straight down the hill. 

So therefore my question:

 How do you deal with pre-Christmas-panick?

Or am I really the only one who ever gets that?

 And even more important:

 
How do you do it that you can actually ENJOY Advent and Christmas time – and not just survive it?
 
 
 
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