Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Arts and crafts

Discover knitting, crochet, scrapbooking and art and craft ideas on this forum.

Ideas please for home made christmas gifts...

20 replies

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 12:25

sorry, I know its only October but I'd like to be prepared!

I have a 7 year old and a 2 year old and I'd ideally like one/both of them to be involved.

I'm a bit stuck for ideas as I'm not a crafty person (although I'd like to be)

Any suggestions much appreciated

OP posts:
southeastastralplain · 09/10/2006 12:26

hand painted ceramics, clay things

Neena28 · 09/10/2006 12:27

Why not start off with them making christmas cards and then see whether they enjoy or not and go from there. You can get all the bits and bobs from craft shops/ early learning centre.

If they love it then have a go at fairy's for the top of peoples trees or decorations. Also basic truffles are lovely and fudge too and they could make and decorate little boxes for them to go in. Tie with ribbon and a lovely little grandparents gift.

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 12:27

Do yo mean buy plain white and paint? do we need special paint or a glaze or something?

Sorry should have warned you I'm a complete virgin

OP posts:
MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 12:28

oh yes I could bake stuff and make pretty boxes, good idea

OP posts:
southeastastralplain · 09/10/2006 12:28

tesco do alot of ceramic painting kits with everything included they look fun

shazdisembodiedronnie · 09/10/2006 12:28

Try this website for ideas and equipment.

Tommy · 09/10/2006 12:29

any home style magazine - Prima, Family Curcle etc will have loads of ideas in. I still have last year's copies in the vain hope that one day, I might get around to doing something crafty for Christmas!

anniediv · 09/10/2006 12:29

Have a look in the Yellow Moon (Baker Ross) catalogue. They have all sorts of kits, eg paint your own Russian dolls, stained glass clocks, picture frames, paint a mug, plate, teapot, make your own teatowel, shopping bag etc. There's loads, great for grandparents, aunties and uncles!

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 12:30

ooh that website looks great, thank you

OP posts:
bewilderbeast · 09/10/2006 12:42

salt dough xmas decorations that way its something you can keep and something the kids can get really crafty with. they always used to be the most appreciated presents from the students when my mum was a teacher. 10 years after she retired she still has a really pretty farmers wife type figure that one of them made her up on the wall in the kitchen.

Maddison · 09/10/2006 12:50

Bewilderbeast, how do you make the dough to make the decorations?? That sounds really good I think my DS1 would love to do something like that!!

Looneymum · 09/10/2006 13:20

Mamaghoul - how about getting those mini blank canvases and acyrilic paint and let your kids make some "lovely" gifties for the rels and school teachers! I am sure I have seen similar "abstract works" as the ones my DD has created selling for a fortune!

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 13:25

good idea Looney

bewildebeast - how do you make salt dough?

OP posts:
bewilderbeast · 09/10/2006 13:26

From multi-hobbies dot com

Here is the basic recipe:
one cup of fine salt

one cup of flour

about half a cup of water

Mix the flour and the salt together in a large bowl. Depending on the flour brand, you may need a different amount of water so it is best to make a well in the center and pour in the water. You have to knead until smooth and elastic and non-sticky dough.

Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it into a plastic film in order to prevent it from drying. The dough is now ready to be used.

Variations :

The basic recipe can be adapted for different purposes :
Add more flour and you'll get a softer dough

Add more salt and the aspect of the sculptures will be granulous

Add wallpaper glue and the dough will be more cohesive

A few way to add color to your sculptures :
by using different brands of flour (rye, ...)

by adding spices, chocolate powder, coffee...

by adding gouache, oil paint (use gloves and knead long enough to get a uniform color)

by adding food colorants

by leaving the sculptures in the oven until golden

you can also paint your sculptures once they have dried

Air drying is alright for small and thin objects. Let the objects dry a week on a grill before painting or varnishing.

Cooking

Several methods exist depending on the oven, and on the time allowed to check the object.

If the object air dried a little, start cooking at 50°C. After about 30 minutes, you can gently increase up to 100°C. Then you have to estimate the cooking time, the thicker the object, the longer it needs to dry!

For each centimeter, count roughly 2 hours at 100°C. It obviously also depends on your oven. So check out from time to time your object, it should sound hollow if it is well cooked!

For those who want to brown the objects, increase the temperature at the end up to 170-200°C and check very often.

The best thing to do is to cook the object at once (thus at a constant temperature) in order to prevent cracks due to the cold/hot variation.

If you have prepared the object on aluminum, remove it at the middle of the cooking so as to put the object directly on the grill. This way both sides of the objects can dry.

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 13:26

WOW! 1 second later it appeared...!

Thanks

OP posts:
bewilderbeast · 09/10/2006 13:28

I'm just magic me!

MamaGhoul · 09/10/2006 13:28

ohh Im confused

what is fine salt?

should I use plain or SR flour? Does it even matter?!

if its 1 cm thick, 2 hours at 100 decrees - is that right?

[confused emoticon]

OP posts:
ScreamandYellowFeathers · 09/10/2006 13:29

Last year I bought a tub of clay from ELC and made xmas decs with dd. We decorated them with glittery bits and after they were done I sprayed them with hairspray to set them. I also attached some little bells and put ribbon on them.

bewilderbeast · 09/10/2006 18:03

fine salt is just normal table salt like the one that comes in the orange pouring bottle in the supermarket. Don't think it matters whether you use plain or self raising to be honest.

bewilderbeast · 09/10/2006 18:05

yes 2 hours at 100 should do it, basically if you turn them over and tap them and they sound hollow like homemade bread buns then they are done

New posts on this thread. Refresh page