How to make a pom pom garland.

If you know me, you will know that I like to spend a lot of time on Pinterest (you can follow me here if you like!) and there's always something I want to make. I pin them and look back through my boards and decide on what to make. I went round my mum's the other week and got some of my old bits including a big bag of fabric and these balls of wool. So it was decided, pom poms had to be made. 

When I was little my mum and I would make these but wrapping wool around a circular piece of card. I can remember it taking forever. You can now buy pom pom makers which are even quicker than the method I used but my method is the easiest. All you need is your hand (you should hopefully have one of those) a pair of scissors and some wool. Simple as. My mum was impressed of how quick it was.

You will need:- A few balls of wool/yarn - your hand - scissors 

Choose a few different colours for your garland. 

Take your ball of wool and wrap around your hand. 50 times will make a small pom pom and 100 times a medium sized.

As soon as you've wrapped the wool enough times, cut the end

Cut a length of wool. It needs to be long enough to tie around the wool.

Carefully slide the wool bundle of your hands and tie the length of wool around the bundle.

Tie as tightly as you can. Three or four knots is ideal.

You will then need to cut the sides. Hold the length you've tied so you don't cut that by mistake.

Pull out the wool to make it more into a pom pom. Cut the other side the same.

You will need to give your pom pom a quick trim to neaten it up!

And repeat until you have enough pom poms to make the garland.

Take a long length of wool and use the length of wool on the pom pom to tie onto the long length of wool. Trim the pom pom length to blend in. Repeat this process until all the pom poms are safely secured.

And volia! The perfect pom pom garland. 

Now all you need to do is find the perfect place to hang your garland.

Valentines - Cute face mug DIY!

This DIY didn't exactly go to plan. I planned to make a letter monogramed mug. But after not being able to find masking tape without taking out a bank loan, I decided that I would create something different instead. 

Tea cups and mugs with faces are a bit of a thing at the minute. Most bloggers and their cats have this beautiful teacup. Which I adore but not at that price. So get your Sharpies out and get a bit creative. I'm suitably impressed with myself and I'm going to get hold of some more plain mugs and plates too and give them all a bit of a makeover.

And the best bit, these make the perfect Valentines gift, and cost so little. How about making a matching Mr and Mrs? 

You will need: Plain white mug/teacup - Sharpies (Black and pink) 

Make sure your mug is sparkly clean.

Practice your face a few times first., unless you're really good! I drew my face out three or four times first. Just so I knew I'd get it right. 

Draw your face onto the mug. I added eyelashes and cute pink cheeks. But the possibilities are endless. 

 Bake the mug for 30 minutes in a hot oven about 180º.  Allow your mug to cool completely before washing or using. 

Wrap in plently of tissue paper and find a box, wrap with ribbon and you're all set for Valentines!

DIY: Cake Bunting

So you might have noticed that on the last post that sitting on top of the funfetti cake was a string of bunting and it's so easy to make. It can work for any occasion, birthdays, Christmas, Valentines etc. As long as you have some pretty wrapping paper or coloured card you can make this.

You will need: Pretty Wrapping Paper - Scissors - Twine/String/Wool - Gluestick - Wooden Skewers

Step One - Cut out eight triangles out of your chosen pretty wrapping paper.

Step two - Glue together the triangles to stiffen the paper.So in total you have four triangles.

Step three - You may have to trim around the sides slightly to keep them look neat and tidy.

Step four - Measure out a length of twine. You need enough space to glue the triangles on as well as some extra twine to tie around the wooden skewers.

Step five - Tie the twine around the wooden skewers. This should look like a mini washing line.

Step six - Glue the triangles onto the twine and hold down slightly until they are secure. And voila! Your cakes shall never look plain again!

Salt dough ornaments

Salt dough ornaments bring back so many memories of childhood. My mum would always make a load of dough and let us cut out lots of different shapes, paint them up and put so much glitter on them. They would then take pride of place on the Christmas tree. In fact I'm pretty sure that my mum still has some of them still.

This is such a cheap and easy way to decorate your home this Christmas. It's also perfect for the kids. I know my niece and nephew would love these! But I've made some for tree. I'll post more details about that soon. 

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup of salt

1/2 cup of water

(Please note that these are not edible! I imagine they taste foul!) 

Mix all the ingredients together, if you find the mixture too sticky add more flour. If you find the mixture to dry add more water! 

Cut out any shapes you like! Remember to make a small hole in the tops so they can be hung.

You can either leave to air dry (this takes forever around a week!), oven cook them on the lowest heat for 3-5 hours (too long!) or do what I did. Zap them in the microwave for 3 minutes. If they're not done or are still sticky after the 3 minutes, keep microwaving until dry.

Once the shapes are dry you can paint them or leave them natural. Thread a coloured ribbon or thread through the hole and they're ready to hang!

Gift wrapping

When you make your own presents how its' presented and how it looks is important. There's no point in spending your time on baking/making something delicious and then giving it to someone in a ice cream tub. (Yes I do wash up and reuse ice cream tubs to store baking/food in, it's a family tradition, blame my mum, sorry mum if you're reading this!) 

So I've come up with a few ways you can present your gifts without spending a fortune. 

Paper bags - Traditional brown paper bags are always good and you can pick them up so easily on eBay. Or if you're feeling a bit adventurous why not get a candy striped bag, pick a festive colour like red or green. Decorate with a pretty tag, bow or with a star cookie/salt dough (salt dough tutorial coming Friday!) 

Old fashioned - Good old brown paper and string! Make a tag out of brown paper too and secure it with a mini peg!

Cellophane bags - Also found on eBay and perfect for pretty things like truffles. Secure with ribbon. 

Tags - Make your own tags, Homemade with love, Eat by and telling people what's in their food is always a good idea. Use alphabet stamps to spell it out. Also found on eBay.

So that's it. Get creative. Why not bundle all these lovely edible gifts up into one big hamper?