A Home Made Christmas

Each Wednesday from now until Christmas I will be blogging about a gift idea that can be made at home and I would love it if you would join in each week with your own contribution to "A Home Made Christmas".
I am sure that there are great projects to make, goodies to make, bake and bottle and ideas that you all have to share. I look forward to reading all about the things you make and being inspired by your ideas.

If you are worried about ruining the surprise feel free to post about something you have made in the past, something you saw or something you have received.

When planning home made gifts you need to consider a number of things:
How long the item will take to make? How far ahead do I need to plan?
How long will it keep?  What is the shelf life?
Does it need time to mature like Christmas Cakes/Puddings?
Can I make more than one at a time and give them to a number of people?

This week I want to show you some easy but somewhat time consuming decorations I have been making.   I like the idea of making decorations as gifts.  These are not something to start now unless you have free time on your hands.  They take a little while but no more than other craft projects and I think they look great.

These decorations are polystyrene shapes that I have painted in a similar colour to the sequins I used to cover them.  After the paint has dried you need to have 5 things ready, 3 small dishes (I use saucers) one with pins, one with beads and one with sequins, PVA glue and a piece of ribbon that will form the loop at the top.

The method is simple.  You add PVA glue to a small area then take a pin, thread on a bead followed by a sequin and push it into the polystyrene shape.  You repeat this until all of the shape is covered except the top section where your ribbon will go.  When you attach the ribbon you fold it so the cut end point to either side of the attachment point.  You can then use the sequins to hide where it is attached and attach it at the same time by putting one threaded pin through each side and work out from there.

Your colour choice is up to you but the pins come in a brass and nickel and I find the 13 mm the best size to use.

What decorations are you making this Christmas?