Tag: Christmas decorations

Posted in Uncategorized

Christmas Greetings (and a Table Centrepiece)

Posted on by Jackie B

Happy Christmas from Northumberland, where there was dusting of snow and it was a cold but sunny and bright Christmas Day. We had a lovely day that involved opening and delivering presents, a beach dog walk and five of us for a delicious roast goose dinner, expertly prepared by K. Daughter made a decadent dessert. Son, who recently passed his driving test, was his granny’s chauffeur for the day.

On Christmas Eve I made this flower arrangement for our table. For the base I used a glass cake stand. I cut a block of florist foam to fit a glass bowl, soaked it in water for 10 minutes then sliced it in two, cutting a channel in the centre to fit round the stem of a wine glass. I used blu-tak to secure a white pillar candle in the wineglass.

We used a trip out to glean some sprigs of ivy from the hedgerows, both pieces of the mature plant with flower clusters and young shoots with small triangular leaves. I also used rosemary from the large bush in the garden and some white roses from the supermarket.

I added larger pieces of foliage first, overhanging the edge of the bowl. I kept rotating the arrangement and checking what it looked like from a seated position so I could keep the shape and distribution of material even – a table centre has to look fairly consistent from all angles.

I then added the roses, trimming stems to fit and inserting more pieces of foliage to fill in any gaps

I also used dry sprigs of alder cones and wired pine cones, both sprayed white. I also found some pearlised and crystal beads from an old necklace and wired these to add a little bit of sparkle.

These were also pushed into the foam throughout the arrangement.

The final result!

I hope your Christmas Day was as good as it possibly could have been. This year many people have had to quickly scale down their celebrations and could not spend the holidays with their loved ones as COVID restrictions were tightened at the eleventh hour. I’m thankful that I could spend the day with my family.

Posted in Uncategorized

Lockdown Crafts: Pheasant Feather Baubles

Posted on by Jackie B

With Daughter taking Mondays off work (with annual leave allowance to use up by the end of the year), we’ve decided to use those days for a bit of craft activity. Welcome to Crafty Mondays! Unlike the wax melts we made last week, this week’s makes took me until Thursday to finish off. I’m pleased with the result though.

I have quite a collection of feathers, mainly pheasant. How I came to have these is another story.

Daughter had seen these Christmas tree decorations on Pinterest and had wanted to try making them for a while. The tops of the baubles are made with the ends of cartridge cases, so she’d asked some friends who shoot for some spent cartridges we could use. The brass part is attached to a plastic tube so I looked online and found a great way to separate the plastic from the metal – you pack the cartridges into a shallow box with the metal parts upwards, proud of the box, then rest an iron on top, turned to the highest heat setting. After a few minutes the metal heats up enough for the plastic to start to melt and the two components pull apart quite easily.

For our decorations we used polystyrene balls as a base. We painted these with acrylics first – the darker ones worked best. I wouldn’t use such a bright tan colour next time as it showed through the feathers. Impaling each ball in a toothpick was the best way to hold each one and these were stuck into a piece of polystyrene packaging to dry.

We only used the tip of each feather, snipping off 1-3cm pieces.Further down the feather the central vane is too thick and rigid to bend round the ball shape.

Starting at the lower end, with the smaller feather tips of similar colour, we glued these on in a circle, overlapping slightly with the tips meeting in the middle.

We continued gluing on the feathers (using a light coating of PVA glue, thinned slightly with a drop or two of water). Each circle of feathers overlapped the previous one, covering the cut feather ends.

At the top end the last circle of feathers was glued in place with the cut ends together, close to the toothpick.

Where there was too much of the base colour showing through, I simply touched this up with a black Sharpie. The feathers were then sealed in place with a thin coat of clear PVA glue.

Next we cut about 12 inches of gold thread, knotting the ends together to form a loop. The knot was then glued to the inside of the cartridge end with hot glue. Holding the thread to each side of the cartridge, hot glue was applied along the edge of the cartridge end. It was quickly positioned centrally over the cut feather ends and held firmly in place until the glue set.

The loop was then threaded through a gold-coloured bead which was secured to the top centre of the cartridge with another drop of hot glue.

We made seven baubles altogether in different sizes, a couple with the barred dark brown and cream hen pheasant feathers, and the rest with the rich chestnut, black and cream cock pheasant ones. The brass tops go well with them.

I just need the tree up now…maybe at the beginning of December!

Posted in Uncategorized

Christmas Wreaths and Festive Treats

Posted on by Jackie B
Caitlin made her first door wreath

Having tried and run out of time last Christmas, C and I made a concerted effort to book on to Christmas wreath-making workshop for this year and when we heard about one at The Running Fox, Shilbottle it seemed to fit what we were after. I’ve just got back with my competed door wreath after a lovely evening with C.

We were given prosecco with a dash of sloe gin on arrival and my glass was topped up throughout the evening, Then we were brought a platter of Christmas pie ( turkey, stuffing and vegetables in pastry)Bacon and brie quiche and pigs in blankets.

The guys from MBC Arts, our workshop tutors for the evening, distributed materials and tools ready for us to begin

Frames and moss ready to start

We got to work watching each step demonstrated and then doing it ourselves before moving on to see the next stage. First of all we attached handfuls of sphagnum moss to a wreath frame, winding craft wire round the frame to keep it packed securely in place.

The moss is wired onto the frame, keeping it quite densely packed. The moss is very absorbent and will hold water to keep the wreath foliage fresh

We were brought boughs of blue spruce and cypressus and we cut sprigs, sharpening the cut ends of each with an oblique cut, then pushing them into the mossy base, all lying in the same direction, at an angle, overlapping along the, frame (forming a sort of swirl pattern), then securing them further by winding more craft wire around. the ring, We used smaller sprigs to fill in any small gaps until the front of the frame was totally covered

Sprigs of foliage are added until the mossy base is covered.
Foliage in place

Stage one complete, we had a short break and were served more festive treats – sweet ones this time: Cornflake cake Christmas puddings, gingerbread spice cake, cheesecake and mince pies.

Sweet treats

After the break we were given items to decorate our wreaths: dried apple, orange and chilli, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and lengths of ribbon. Although all materials were provided in the cost, we’d brought a few items of our own to add: some pheasant feathers and small gold baubles. We were shown how to secure each item on to a length of florists wire, then push each through the moss and bend back any ends coming through at the back, to secure. We finished off with a wire hanging loop attached to the frame.

You can see C’s work at the top of the post. Here’s mine below

My wreath

I may tweak it a bit now it’s home, but I’m quite pleased with the overall result. We had such a lovely night: the refreshments were delicious and plentiful, The tutors from MBC Arts were very helpful and gave lots of encouragement and the cafe staff looked after us extremely well. With all materials and refreshments included, the price was a very reasonable £35 each. We had some wonderful Mother/Daughter bonding time. Maybe again next year?

Do you have a new Christmas craft for this year?