Hi Guys, here’s the second of my DIYs for the festive season. I’ve teamed up with Singapore’s number expat lifestyle website The Honeycombers.
You can watch the full video here:
Be sure to share and subscribe to them for more. Happy Making and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I am super sorry for the tardiness between my posts, it’s been busier than ever at work. I am super excited to reveal I am doing a DIY series for Singapore’s most-popular online expat-living guide The Honeycombers. I’ve come up with 3 easy and original Christmas ideas for the home.
The first of them is a gilded branch Christmas tree inspired by Scandinavian style. The branch was literally found on the side of the road!
You can watch the full video here and make sure you subscribe to The Honeycombers Youtube channel for more.
So most of you know I have spent the last 10 years living away from my home country of Australia. Christmas this year was my first at home since 2006. It was also my first Christmas in a non-Muslim country (they don’t really go as all-out in Dubai with Christmas as the majority of people aren’t Christian) in 6 years and my first Christmas in a house instead of an apartment in 10 years, naturally my DIY brain went into crafting overdrive.
I wanted to share with you some images of my home made Christmas. Most decorations were hand made and I definitely shy away from red and green which I feel is a stressful colour combination and can often make a stressful Christmas Day more of a headache. It also doesn’t look very chic.
This year was my first cooking and decorating and hosting Christmas. It was very special for me to be back with my mother who has suffered a stroke.
I tried to work with colours my Mum’s house already had in the decor. Colours like gold, grey, beige, light brown and white.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. To my fans and followers from all over the world, thankyou for staying with me for all of these years.
You can check out my Christmas craft tutorials here, here, here and here.
I hope 2015 rocks your socks off and the glue gun from your hands!
This is probably the cheapest and quickest Christmas present you will ever make. The best DIYs during the busy festive season are quick to make and have a great pay off. These jars look substantial but are really economical and make lovely gifts.
You will need:
Empty jars (One serving of this filled 3 large jars)
510g of normal white sugar
150ml cold water
250g cashews
Sea Salt
Olive oil
1) Begin by wiping a baking tray down with olive oil.
2) Place the sugar and water in a sauce pan and boil on low heat until the sugar dissolves.
3) Increase the heat and let it bubble until it turns the colour of honey.
4) Stir the cashews through the mixture as fast as possible as once the sugar mixture sets it will be hard as cement!
5) Quickly pour the mixture onto the baking tray and let it cool. When it is warm loosen the brittle.
6) When the brittle has cooled completely use a meat tenderiser over a clean tea towel to break up the brittle into bite-sized pieces.
7) Put your gift into a nice jar and label it nicely for the one you love!
Happy DIYing and let me know if you make this for anyone! Merry Christmas.
So last weekend I had the best time with all of you making high fashion “rocktail” rings at Westfield Carousel. Using real raw gem stones, metallic paint pens and a whole lot of Christmas cheer we were able to create lovely statement pieces.. I’ll have the full tutorial up here soon so that if you missed this DIY you can achieve the project at home.
It was absolutely chocabloc and I wish I could have taken photos of that but some participants object to having their picture published online, which I completely understand. Here’s some pictures from the day!
Thanks to every single person who came! I hope you had a great time.
p.s I am wearing my DIY Tom Binns necklace.
These chic ornaments are nice and large to cover lots of space on the tree (hence having to make less of them) but if you want to make loads of them that’s cool too as they only a few minutes to make.
You will need: embroidery hoops (I chose the small ones), gems or embellishments, scissors, wool, glue gun and sticks. I got all of my supplies from Spotlight.
Start by tying a knot onto one side of the hoop.
Make a star with the wool and then continue to wrap more wool around the configuration.
Glue on your embellishments at random areas on the star.
Create a loop with the wool to hang your ornament.
They look great on table settings as well as on the tree!
Let me know how you go making these and if you do them in different colours.
Americans call this project “Paper Lollies,” I really don’t even know what we’d call these in Australia. They look more like pinwheels to me? Regardless, I think you’ll agree they look great.
These formed another part of my DIY Christmas where I made almost every ornament by hand in my week off from my radio show. They are fast, easy and have a large surface area (which means you can make less of them but still have a fabulous effect).
For this, you will need: A ruler, pen, glue gun and sticks, rhinestones or gems, scissors, a piece of square card (mine is glittery card stock used for scrapbooking from Spotlight).
Cut the card into 4 strips of equal width. I do this by folding the card and using the ruler to make the crease sharp and then cut along the mark with your scissors.
Take 3 of the 4 strips and concertina fold them.
Glue these 3 pieces top to tail using the glue gun.
Glue the strips to form a ring.
Cut the fourth strip in half.
Concertina fold the 2 thinner strips and glue together, now you have 2 rings of differing sizes.
Hold the larger ring flat with an object and glue between the folds, press together until the glue dries. Repeat this with the smaller ring.
Glue the smaller top ring on top of the bottom ring.
Place some glue into the centre of the two wheels and fasten together with your gems for a neat finish.
I turned these into ornaments for my Christmas tree by fastening some looped twine to the back with a square of scrap paper to hold it in place. They look great on the white tree I got for just $34 from Spotlight. You can also add sticks to the back and place them grouped in soil for a garden party. They are not just for Christmas!
Happy DIYing and do let me know if you make these!
I have to admit that this DIY was one of those fantastic “seat-of-your-pants” projects where I didn’t know if it’d turn out or not. I love that the final project has a very “Australian bush” feel despite it being made completely out of paper ornaments.
I will be posting back here soon on how to make the paper lollies so do check back here soon.
For this project you will need: glue gun and sticks, embroidery hoop, white rope and various baubles and ornaments. (All supplies from Spotlight Australia). These are some of the ornaments I made:
Begin by grabbing your embroidery hoop and glue on the first part of the length of rope:
Continue gluing with the glue gun and winding the rope around:
Once your embroidery hoop is covered, add your embellishments.
I would love to know what you think about my modern take on the Christmas wreath! I love hearing from you in the comments below! Happy DIY’ing.
