christmas – Mediocre Mum

Christmas Garland Made from Recycled Cards

How to Recycle your Christmas Cards

I have mixed feelings about Christmas Cards. On one hand I love hearing from old friends, but they quickly begin to take over all the surfaces in the house. This year with a bit of blue tac I managed to keep on top of them.

Shortly after Christmas, that urge to de-Christmas my house set in, but what do you do with all the old cards? There are local schemes that recycle them for you, but as we had a few more days off school, I was looking for an activity to entertain my 7 year old.

Over the years we have made Mosaic Placemats with them, Thank you cards and Christmas tags. I had a quick look on Pinterest and came across an idea from Party Planning Center for creating Christmas Garland with them. I have a personal hatred of the store bought shiny garland so this was a perfect solution and it was relatively easy.

The most difficult part was locating a 2″ Circular Craft Punch, like any other time we decide to craft it always results in a trip to the shops as we aren’t well stocked in the craft department. I managed to find one at Hobbycraft.

I think they’re fairly self explanatory but the full instructions can be found at the link below.

How to Make Christmas Decorations with Recycle Paper

Now that we have the circular punch, we thought we’d do a few Thank you cards while we were at it.

What do you do with all your old Christmas Cards? Do you have any other craft activities I can use my punch for?

How to Recycle your Christmas Cards

Simple Craft Idea for Recycling Christmas Cards

I couldn’t take it anymore and have de-Christmassed my house today! I know it’s a bit early, with the 12 days of Christmas and all that! Hubby went up for a nap and when he came down he declared ‘that Christmas must be over’ as everything was down and ready to be boxed up and put in the loft. We live in a small house and the boxes everywhere were doing my head in. I can’t stand chaos.

Space is a premium

This afternoon Madame and I spent the afternoon sitting on the sofa watching the Sound of Music, as you do on New Year’s Day, cutting Christmas Gift Tags out of the cards using pinking shears for next year. She didn’t quite understand why we were doing it now and not next year. I had to explain that I didn’t want to save the cards for a year.

Necessary Evil

Last year we made mosaic placemats with our old Christmas cards using our laminator. I’d come across Helen from Actually Mummy’s idea for Thank You Cards using Recycled Christmas Cards but she wasn’t quite ready. This year was the perfect timing as she had the dexterity to do it. It’s simple really. All you need is cards, doubles sided sticky pads, pinking shears and a silver pen. Surprisingly I had everything in the house to do it.

I think they’re fabulous we now just need to get her to write them and get them posted sometime before Easter.

There are also a lot of schools, charities and organisations that will re-purpose your old cards. Click here to find local Christmas Card Recycling places.

Christmas Eve Box! A new tradition???

Love it or hate it?

About a month ago I saw someone post a photo for a Christmas Eve Box and I was taken with it and had never heard of it. It’s basically a present that the kid’s can open on Christmas Eve, to get them into the spirit, typically with PJ’s, Hot chocolate, Books and DVD’s. I’m not sure why I was taken with it but it may link back to when I was a child we were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. I can’t help thinking it was my mum’s way of getting us to stop bugging her!

There are really mixed feeling about it as we all know kids are spoiled rotten and have no idea of the real meaning of Christmas, just the sheer number of presents.

I don’t know where it originated, I’ve heard murmurs that’s it’s from across the pond, which would fit as I’m Canadian.

Anyhow, we have decided to do it this year and I may regret it as I will now have to carry it on for years to come.

Hot Chocolate
Jiffy Pop (popcorn)
Reindeer Food
Books
DVD
PJS
Reindeer Food

Do you love it or hate it?

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly……..

I hate tinsel, inflatable Christmas decorations and cheap branded advent calendars. Some get the impression that I’m humbug when it comes to Christmas, but I’m really not, I just like to keep it in perspective. We’ve dotted a few decorations around the house and it’s starting to feel a bit more like Christmas and I’ve done a big chunk of my Christmas shopping.

You’ll never guess where the decorations (garland, candles and hearts) came from………..

Wilkinsons, they have an amazing selection of classy decorations which are incredibly cheap. Some were only a £1 and I think the most expensive one was £4.

I’ve even splurged and bought a new advent calendar from Not on the High Street. I’ve filled it with gold coins, gingerbread men, spinning tops, glitter and some Luxury Chocolates from Bellucci Chocolates. I accidentally put a chocolate covered coffee bean in the calendar. You should have seen Madame’s face. Priceless!

And of course we can’t forget Father Christmas. He’s (she’s) going to be rather handy on Christmas day.

Just a few more things to organise and then I can start to enjoy the holiday season. Wine and food has been ordered.

Disclosure – The decorations, chocolates and fancy dress outfit were complimentary for review purposes.

Easy Christmas Decorations to make with kids

Fimo Candy Cane Christmas Decorations

Don’t laugh but I’ve been doing a bit of ‘pseudo’ Christmas crafting so I thought I’d share. Growing up in Canada we always added edible Candy Canes to our Christmas trees when decorating. I know you can get them here in the UK, but on occasion I’ve got caught out leaving it too late or when I retrieved them from the loft they were broken.

Plus, I was also looking for something to entertain my daughter on a Sunday afternoon.

They really are as easy as they look

Directions:

Use 2 or 3 different colours (red, white or green) of Fimo. Soften the Fimo in your hands then roll out a long snake of each colour. Try to keep them the same diamter. Then simple twist them together. Once you have twisted them into one multi-coloured snake, roll them gently on a flat surface like a table or cutting board to smooth them out a bit. You could trim the ends if you like.

Bend them into a candy cane shape, place on a baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven (120 C) for 30 minutes. Let cool.

If I get time I hope to varnish them.

What do you reckon???