Christmas Decoration Crafts with Hobbycraft #shop #cbias

I’ve started crafting for Christmas as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®. I made four Christmas decoration crafts using items from Hobbycraft to use at home this holiday season.

I thought I’d get a headstart on crafting for Christmas, I’ve got so many ideas in my head, yet time is not always my friend! I wanted to make sure I shared these ideas with you, and even though I’ll be featuring a month of Christmas ideas in December, I’ve got some easier-than-they-look crafts for you to try out before the madness of the holiday season is upon us!

With the help of some wonderful crafting goodies that I bought in Hobbycraft, I have been able to make four Christmas decorations, that take no time at all to create, use minimal specialist crafting equipment, and above all, are quite simple to put together (yes, really!).

Christmas Decoration Crafts

So, what have I crafted? I spent just a few hours one afternoon, making…

• Super Simple Snowglobe
• Christmas Wreath
• Button Christmas Tree Ornaments
• Tinsel Christmas Tree Cone

On Sunday, hubs and I took a trip to our Romford Hobbycraft store. The carpark was packed – I guess people have already started their Christmas shopping – but we managed to find a spot eventually. We stopped for a coffee before the shop opened, a lovely Sunday morning treat! Hubs had a gingerbread latte, a real indulgent coffee with whipped cream and a cute tiny gingerbread man on top! I just had a plain coffee, but the barista created a pattern on top which I thought was a nice touch! It’s lovely to just go out for coffee with hubs, although we don’t do that very often!

10:30am and Hobbycraft opened its doors. Grabbing a basket I made a beeline to their Christmas stuff which is right there as you walk in. I love that they dedicate a section at the front of the store for holidays (Halloween stuff was here just a few weeks back!) Hobbycraft is a crafter’s paradise. I don’t think there isn’t a craft in the world that doesn’t have a section of the store devoted to it. I can happily waste a good couple of hours just walking around my local store, looking at all the crafting goodies and getting tons of inspiration from all the things that I see.

I tend to visit Hobbycraft with some ideas in mind, but quite often other ideas pop into my head as I walk around and see all the things that are on sale. Looking at these pictures of some of their Christmas crafting items you can see why. There are kits (so you don’t have to worry about buying things separately), stickers, card making bits, baking stuff, ready made decorations and more. After picking out a few things from this section of the shop, we then wandered in and out of the aisles and then upstairs too so that I could buy some more craft goodies. It’s quite easy for me to spend a fortune in this shop – my every growing craft stash proves that!! (Although, it is hard to resist the wonderful 3 for 2 offers!) However, I managed to rein it in, buying only what I needed for the Christmas decoration crafts I am about to share with you.

So, what did I end up buying? Well I bought a rattan wreath, raffia, Christmas decorations, a jam jar, glitter, buttons, polystyrene cones and tinsel pipe cleaners. I visited the store knowing that I want to make a wreath and a snowglobe, but used the items in the store to guide me as to my other crafts!

Super Simple Snowglobe

I’ll start off with the easiest decoration I made – a Super Simple Snowglobe. You will need…

• jam jar with a screw top lid
• plastic decoration(s) of your choice
• Strong glue or a glue gun
• glycerine (available in the baking aisle of supermarkets)
• water
• glitter in your colour choice

The first thing you want to do when making a snowglobe is make sure that the lid is nice and secure – you don’t want the water leaking out! And you also want to make sure that the decoration(s) that you have chosen to go inside your snowglobe will actually fit. I used a blob of blue tack to hold my penguin figure in place and then screwed the lid to the jar. He just fit and I was happy! Also, make sure that you don’t put the decoration(s) too close to the edge of the lid otherwise it won’t screw onto the jar.

When you are happy with the placement of your decoration(s), glue it securely in place on the inside of the lid. I used a glue gun to apply hot glue which is always very strong. You could use a cold strong glue of your choice. When your decoration(s) is dry, hold the lid upside down just to make sure!

Now, time to test the water levels before committing to glitter! Fill the jar up, leaving a gap at the top. Screw the lid on and then turn over. See if enough water covers the top of the decoration(s). If you need a little more, add some, if you’ve spilled water everywhere by putting the lid on and the displacing of the water, then pour some out. It’s a little trial and error, but you’ll get there in the end!

When you are satisfied with the water level, add a teaspoon or two of glycerine. This helps the glitter to float. Then stir in a teaspoon or so of glitter. I used silver. Use which ever colour you like!

Screw your lid in place, flip over and shake your Super Simple Snowglobe and watch the glitter fall! You could make several snowglobes of differing sizes and with different coloured glitter. You could even make your own decorations to go inside using modelling clay. I’d love to see your snowglobes, so don’t forget to share them with me in the comments! Oh, and if you’re wondering why I just didn’t recycle an old jar – I can’t find them after our move!! (Story of my life!)

Red Robin Christmas Wreath

I love to make wreaths – they can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, and Hobbycraft provide lots of different items to create a beautiful wreath to decorate your front door this Christmas. If you’d like to replicate the Christmas wreath that I made, then this is what you will need:

• 16″ Rattan wreath
• Red raffia
• Christmas glittery berry pick red
• Glitter mini berry bunch red
• Mixed red poinsettia pick
• Robin clips
• Hot glue gun (optional)

I used hot glue to stick my decorations into place – however, because you can push the picks through the rattan wreath, you don’t actually have to – this would enable you to switch up the style of your wreath from year to year!

Start by having a play about with the decorations in different positions. If you do decide to glue the decorations in place, make sure you are happy with the layout before applying. That hot glue really does keep things in place…including fingers >_<

To hang your wreath, tie a bunch of raffia at the top of the wreath. Then tie another knot at the top to create a loop for hanging. I then added a bow to the base of the loop.

Finally, I clipped on the little robin decorations and that is it. How simple is that?! Yet, I think it looks so lovely, and I’m sure your house guests will do too when they see your wreath. Don’t forget to share with me in the comments below if you have a go at making your own Christmas wreath.

Button Christmas Tree Ornaments

I bought a few pots of different coloured buttons on my shopping trip to Hobbycraft, but I decided to use the green buttons to make little hanging Christmas tree ornaments for the, uh, Christmas tree! I had the thread in my stash, and additionally, I also found some star shaped beads in my craft stash too. But, Hobbycraft have a lot of different beads for sale, I just didn’t know what I was going to make with the buttons on the day that I went shopping!

• green buttons in various sizes
• thread
• star shaped beads

The tubs of buttons that you can buy in Hobbycraft come in colour batches, and in various sizes. I tipped the buttons out and started stacking them in size order from large to small until I created a sort of Christmas tree shape. When I was satisfied with the shape and size of it, it was time to secure them all together.

To join my buttons together I used black thread and a blunt needle to guide the cotton through. I tied a loop at one end of the cotton so that I could hold onto something as I started pushing the needle and thread up and down each section (I started at the top with the star bead, then smallest button to largest), into each button hole. My buttons had four holes each, so I threaded through each hole, making it as secure as possible.

To finish off, I didn’t go through the star again, but on the outside and then tied a knot so that the bead and buttons wouldn’t slip off.

It was a bit trial and error on how to get these to be strung together! You may find a different way, but as long as they stay together when you hang the button decoration up, you’re good to go!

Tinsel Christmas Tree Cone

Finally, I looked at the polystyrene cones that I bought. I wanted to cover one of the smaller ones in sequins like I did at Halloween for my witches hat, but, thinking I had green sequins at home, didn’t buy any. Turns out I didn’t have the right colour sequins to hand, so that idea was out of the window. I then started adding a layer of glue and glitter to a cone, and that was a fail – I had glue and glitter everywhere (I’m still finding it!), so scratch that idea!

I then looked over at the bag of tinsel pipe cleaners and thought I could use them to cover a cone – but not with glue! I twisted the pipe cleaners together at the ends and made one looooong pipe cleaner. Starting at the bottom I poked a hole in the polystyrene and inserted on end of the giant pipe cleaner to secure it (I guess you could add some glue to secure it more). I then formed a line from the bottom to the top of the cone and started to wrap down and around the cone until it was covered with tinsel. To secure it, I tied off the end to the starting point and snipped off any excess.

To make this craft you will need:

• tinsel pipe cleaners (approx 20 – 30)
• Polystyrene cone

How many pipe cleaners you will need will depend on the size of your cone. I started a few times wrapping the tinsel before running out and having to add more! But the result is worth it in the end!

I’ve also got lots more Christmas Crafts for Adults for you to try out. Right-click and open a new tab to read next.

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