Green Christmas Window
 

Hi folks, half my neighbours have their houses lit up like dublin airport for the past two weeks! Drives me nuts. Anyway, I want to get cracking on my own decorations next week but I'm looking for ideas to do up my window. I have lots of glass jars and food tins ready for decorating and turning into lanterns. I have any amount of cotton wool for snow. I need lots of ideas of easy things to do that won't take up too much time. Also, anything that can include a three year old who loves getting hold of the craft glue!! Thanks a million.

[Update 21 Dec - yeah about time] I'm gonna post up some photos of the window finished but the photos didn't come out great but I'll show you the photos of everything that went up in the window.

Lots of cds covered with old christmas cards and the penguin is wrapping paper. The wreath was done the way Unapam said and then bits of sheet & ribbon entwined and roped around skeleton leaves I had in my craft box and the "berries" are quality street wrappers! The angel is also from a card I got last year and she's so gorgeous so I just carefully cut around her outline and suspended her from a thing strip of ribbon. The second one was just wrapping paper twisted round - scrunched up the pale yellow one and left the red one intact. The snowflake was one that didn't go up on the window. Some of the cards (the 3d one with the snowman and what looks like silver snow!) were embossed. The silver snow is actually white with tiny flecks of silver in it. The little Christmas tree came with a chinese takeaway last Christmas eve! There's a jar in the window too I took a close up of it. It was a coffee jar and myself and my 3 year old munchkin took into painting two of them. I put outline stickers on both of them and away we went. Removed her sticker when the paint was dry and that's what you see there. I removed my sticker and big lumps of the paint came with it and broke the outline sticker too! Annoyed me a little that! The only thing bought in my window is the little tri-fold Santa, Reindeer and toy train that I bought for two euros! And a practically empty green bin! Really proud of my window folks. Thanks for all the ideas. I'm gonna start earlier next year and add to all these wondrous things. Sorry I did buy something else - a disco ball for €8! It's great fun on a foggy night with the curtains open! Merry Christmas everyone and thanks again for my beautiful window.

Emer

P.S. The dog in the photo is not part of the display. She's very fond of cameras! Proof enclosed now too!

hi bluecurlygirl, if you cut snowflakes out of thick white card and let your 3yr old glue on the glitter? then you can hang them in your window at different lenghts? kiara x

xmas decs
 

dont forget the holly and if you can find old cards with robins on cut them out also plenty for a child to do to help

Lovin it..
 

Keep them comin folks. I'm lovin it so far. I want a really good window to show to those who feel the need to use enough lights to make the national grid surge (or meltdown!). Won't be doing any robins though - a bit of a superstition. But I have plenty of snowmen and santa and reindeers.

You can make decorations of bits of straw into the window and for the tree.

no robins
 

i have two china robbins given to me by edwina mountbatten when i was a kid mmmmmmmm ok a very long time ago and still put them on the tree along with a very nice match box parceled by my oldest when she was a child This year my two grandsons will add to my tree with their own made bits lol havent been told yet what they are its my surprise which im lookng forward to

Dried orange, apple, lemon and grapefruit slices make nice decoration, too. I'm making a christmas wreath like this for the table, and one for the door.

Decorations mae of string, pinecones and bits around the house...

Tracing paper glued behind shapes cut out of white or colour peper, also you can gat tracing paper in different colours. Just pop a small lamp or candle behind it, it' lovely.
Now I got too excited... I'm off to make some of these thing for myself! ;)

Trust you Paprika!
 

I might have known that you'd have loads of ideas. I'm off to search the "allfreecrafts" website too for ideas although keep going with these ones and I won't need to they're so good - but I especially love the one with the tracing paper behind it and a little tealight (in one of my jars maybe to keep it safe). The wreaths are gorgeous too. Lovely lovely ideas. Keep them coming - I'll be lucky to get any christmas shopping done at this stage (or housework ...)

Paprika, did you buy the dried apples etc or did you cut them up and let them dry out yourself? I have any amount of pine cones too from numerous nature walks (and chestnuts - some still in their shells!). I have a lovely little candle holder for the table already. It just needs some repairs done to it and it'll be fine. Need a wreath for the front door though. But would really love to create maybe a christmas village in my bay window but it would have to be safe enough for a 3 year old and a dog (big eejit of a labrador)! Doing snowflakes tonight - I have loads of different colours of glitter. Also have loads of embossing powder which may be better again. Oh I just remembered, I have a beautiful porcelain angel setting a dove free that I bought in dunnes last year - gorgeous. She'll have to go into the window too.

fake ginger bread
 

60 dkg flour
30 dkg salt
1,25 dl water

mix these then gradually add more water, appr. 1,25 dl again, until it's a firm dough. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and paint them, or you can make small figurines too.
Bake in the oven 120 C for 2 hours.

You can hang these on the tree or in the windows, or dot around the house. I loved it when I was a kid, now found the recipie again!

Just found a pic, you can add wire or bells (or ANYTHING) to the shapes to make them nicer.

And if you mix some cocoa powder or something brown to the dough it's gonna look like real gingerbread. Only thing, it's NOT EDIBLE!

I've dried them meself. Made lovely decorations last year, was gonna use the bits again, but oh no, they are covered in mold! So new load of apple and orange slices are drying on the stove now. I like to make all festive decorations myself. Bit time consuming but great fun! And there are so many good sites! Like the allfreecrafts.

If you pop them into the oven they dry out quicker.

Mmm - gotta try all that
 

Lookin forward to the dough and the drying of fruit! Found another website called howstuffworks and it shows you how to make angels etc. Some nice stuff on it. Thanks a million.

Pardon my ignorance....
 

..... but whats a dkg and a dl? I'm an old fashioned girl who works on pounds and ounces (grams also). Teaspoons, tablespoons, mls.... can you convert for me please?

Please convert as I'm a little simple and have no idea what those measurements are either!!

You lot will have my heart broken!! It's because of this site that i've convinced my whole family to make our own Christmas presents so I now have 15 things to make and now I want to make decorations too!!!

I'll have to give up sleeping soon :o)

Oh Elnr
 

You make me laugh. I know the feeling. I'll have to give up the day job, the housework, time on facebook - actually facebook has already gone to the dogs I'm afraid (sorry winnie!). I spend more time on here than I do talking to my other half who has moved to England with work since June. I miss him dreadfully but I can't get off this site! That's bad isn't it. Oh but I'm really on a mission with the christmas decorations I'm afraid. And I love the ideas. And well done Elnr for getting all your family involved. I'm still working on mine.

Ha ha!
 

I know the feeling! Totaly addicted!!

To be honest I think I'm in a little over my head with the Christmas pressies!! Have to get sewing sewing sewing!!!

I even got bought a sewing machine as an engagement present from my friends who heard what I was doing :)

Ooops, sorry, my apologies! These are the short versions for dekagramm and deciliter. I'm bad at imperial measurements, so will try to convert it to tablespoons. 1 tablespoon of flour is roughly 1 dkg. With the salt I'm not too sure, about half tablespoon for a dkg.
1.25 dl is exactly half cup, or so my IKEA measuring thingies say.

I'm not sure I will have time to make these things this year, can't find the Off button on the baby... Or at least to figure out how to turn the volume down!

She is 8 month, bluecurlygirl. And in the middle of teething... And starts screaming when I try to put her down :0

Hee hee
 

Nice of them to buy it for you though. But yeah sometimes you're better off not saying anything! Just do the job.... Does it all have to be sewing though? Could you make little boxes and fill them with their favourite biscuits (homemade of course). I have a great link to Susan Branch's website (another personal favourite) in which she has a big cookie jar full of recipes.... I feel my hips expand every time I look at it. mmmmmmmm

Aw
 

Paprika, what age is your bundle of joy?

needle work
 

Or if you are good with thread and needle... Especially for Elnr83 ;)

more
 

For the recycling of bits of felt and clothes pegs...

Really simple: stick pins with nice heads or cloves into oranges and hang them withh a nice ribbon. Smells good, too.

HI Bluecurlygirl,

Wow Paprika is such an inspiration..... as you say you are in Belturbet not so far away from me in Clones we should invite Paprika over for a make some Chrimbo Decorations Party..... I have been dying to put decorations up for weeks so you have made my day to hear some homes have theirs up allready. I am off to Belturbet boot sale on Sunday as one of the regular stall holders tells me he has loads of chrimbo decs.

Hope you get loads of ideas...

Summersun

!!
 

Paprika,
These & all your decorations are absolutely beautiful. You really are a STAR. B

For sure summersun
 

I'm with ya and that invite to paprika. Could we sit back & drink loads of wine and watch paprika do it all? We could take turns at rocking the baby too!

paper decoration
 

Here is a link how to make a lovely decoration from a sheet of paper.

http://www.komplett-otthon.hu/index.php?tev=cikk&id=u9

No, it's not my credit, I just looked at my favourite Hungarian sites, and they had some links to more.
Will try to find the photos of last years decorations though, managed to make the whole house really festive - all home made and recycled, and cut during the walks.

Like the offer!

No car though, so I have to stay stuck in the Middle of Nowhere, here in county Galway... :(

Good nite!

Good night Paprika
 

Hope you get a good night's sleep. Thanks for all the ideas to keep me awake!!!
Take care,

Emer

Logging off now to go cut out snowflakes for tomorrow evening glitter-fest. I'll be picking it out of every oriface no doubt!

recycling CDs
 

Just found this: glue paper on old CDs and you can glue festive pictures on them from xmas serviettes. Also glue ribbon under the paper and hold 3 CDs together. Simple, looks good and your 3year old can go mad with the glue ;)

Or if you have a plastic ball or anything round, you can glue ribbons or sting all over it and glue some bits on it and hang it up with a ribbon.

Using odd bits of coloured paper and string...

decorations
 

What lovely ideas they all are. I am going to give some of them a try too. Thanks!

For Unapam, Queen Of Patchwork
 

Green Handmade Decoration
 

This is my "Green" decoration I made from scrap fabric and ribbons and bows salvaged from last years gift sets + a large vintage button. It is quite rough and rustic but I love that look. It will be given as a small gift for one of my crafting friends in Germany.

Just spotted the last post.....Thanks Paprika! :-)

More of my creations for Christmas. The rag doll is a dog toy I made for my dog who just HATES the vet. Now she can get her revenge!

Lovin it....
 

The ideas are fantastic - keep them coming. Progress to date is the snowflakes are made. We couldn't find glitter - can you believe that? Only glitter glue which is rubbish for the effect we wanted so we did emboss some card which I know is bold (using electricity & all) but I figured it'd be less lights glowing this christmas so I could indulge a little. Doing cd's tomorrow too. Don't know what to put on them yet. The effect I'm going for is a christmas village. Might put some pics of old cards of christmas houses - have few stickers like that with cardmaking too! Mmmm. Want to get some photos of the kids in winter gear and make little figures of them possibly! Picture of snowman.... Anyway, would love to make little light up village if anyone has any ideas. I have loads of jars, tins (tomatoes) and I have a coke can that I'm thing of making a star of david out of if anyone knows how to do that! Will post pictures when it's all done - if the glare isn't too bad on what will be my lovely clean windows!!!! You only really notice how bad they are at this time of year when you go to do stuff like this!! Well for me anyway.

P.S. My window sill is narrow and I need to place something on it to make everything visible outside & in so anything I make can't be too heavy & can't have a very wide area supporting them from behind if that helps....

Star from can of coke - my thoughts
 

You will need tin snips, heavy duty gloves, nail and a hammer.

Carefully remove the top and bottom of the can, then cut a line down the side so you can flatten out the can.

Cut out your star shape and use the nail and hammer to punch a design in it.

Just the edges I am a bit unsure about so they arn't sharp.

Might find more information on this site
http://craftzine.com/projects/

Thanks for that....
 

... I've just got a project for my 17 year old son now! Hee hee. Thanks a million rccrchickie (hope i got that right!). Keep them comin.

Cut out a simple bird shape from card & get your three old to decorate it.Then fold white (?) paper into a fan & stick the fan onto the bird's body (at the top of the back) so the fan becomes the wings. Suspend the bird using thread.(Saw this in Norway. 6 birds = a flock of doves?