All the homemade Christmas people over here please, lets share our ideas :)

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

Do we have a 'Homemade Christmas Thread' going yet? Ive linked to last years below, I am determined to MAKE MAKE MAKE this year and bugger the responses

I need a fail safe mulled wine kit to give people please if anyone can help, Thankyou :)

Last years thread!

I'm waiting for my Pinterest invite too, although I already fear I may end up having to leave it because I'll become ever-so-slightly obsessed...

Anyway, what I actually posted to say was that all you Mumsnetters into sewing/knitting might like to take a look here for Christmas gift ideas. They have some really lovely things to make, and loads of patterns (see down the right-hand side of the page). These were a particular success for some small girls of my acquaintance. You could make them in Christmassy colours and add some sequins for a more festive touch, I'm thinking.

Hello all some brillant ideas. Can someone send me an invite?

Tia

No problem - PM me (with your email address!) for an invite.

Have just bought ten of the ikea SLOM jars for fudge and butterscotch sweets, and tea towels for aprons, and my felt has arrived from fleabay, so very excited and almost wishing it wasn't 24 degrees outside so I had a good excuse to stay indoors and get going! :o

Ooh that's a lovely website terpsi but it puts my sewing skills to shame :( Still, last night I did my first heart, snowman and Christmas-tree tree decorations - hearts in particular were so easy and look really lovely! :)

Marking my place so I remember to come back later when I'm not on my phone and can link to stuff I'm making this year.

My cousin is easy, she's already requested a big tub of fudge, so that's easy at least!

So, having finally read to the end of this thread...

Christmas Cake: my favourite recipe by far is Mary Berry's Victoriana Christmas Cake. Recipe is:

1 1/4 lb mixed dried fruit inc. peel
4oz stoned raisins, chopped
4oz currents
4oz glace cherries, quartered
1/4 pint medium or sweet sherry/rum/brandy/brandy flavouring
6oz soft margarine
6oz soft dark brown sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange
3 eggs
1 tbsp black treacle
2oz blanched almonds, chopped
4oz plain flour
2oz self raising flour
1 level tsp mixed spice

Put fruit and cherries in a container/mixing bowl, pour over sherry/alcohol and leave to soak for 3+ days, stirring daily.
Put marg, sugar, lemon and orange rind, eggs, treacle and almonds in large bowl.
Sieve flours and spice, add to bowl.
Mix together till blended. Stir in soaked fruit and alcohol.
Heat oven to 150C/Gas 2/300F. Grease and line with greased greaseproof paper an 8-inch round cake tin.
Spoon in mixture and smooth top flat.
Bake for 2 hours, then reduce the heat to 275F/Gas 1/140C for a further 1 1/4 hours. Check if it's cooked by sticking a knitting needle/similar in to see if it comes out clean. If not, leave cake in for extra 15 minute intervals until cooked.
If top looks like it's getting too well done, cover loosely with tin foil.
Leave to cool in the tin.

I've followed a couple of you on pinterest too (was already a member) and have nicked a load of ideas, so thank you thank you thank you.

I've made my DS a picture/collage for his bedroom, pic is on my profile.

I'll have to have a think about what I'm doing next.

Oh, and I make and sell crayon rolls, so if anyone fancies trying them and wants some help, please shout!

Crayon rolls look great - do they sell ok? They might attract stocking-filler purchasing.

The lego kit idea is lovely, but I'm not sure I'd be happy selling it - I wouldn't have really done anything to warrant earning money from it. I wouldn't feel so bad about it if I was selling to raise money for charity, but I'm doing it for me!

So far for the fair I have -

• Christmas cards with a felt snowflake on the front
• Wooden tree decorations in heart, star and dove shapes, some with felt and button on the front and a jingle bell, others painted red with white patterns
• Enamelled mini bucket scented candles (to make)
• Teacup scented candles (to make)

Also perhaps tree decs with a cut out wooden initial on (to use up wooden letters I have), and maybe more lavender hanging hearts.

I've made a couple of blackboards, with a couple of tiny painted stars in the corner. I think they look really sweet. If you were to buy one, would it bother you that there's nowhere to put the chalk? I'm looking for someone to supply me with plastic pencil clip thingies to put a Tailors' Chalk pencil into. Or could I tie one on with twine?

I've bought the sicilian lemon oil from Lakeland before - that makes the most incredible lemon drizzle cake so would probably work too.

Why is it that children always want attention when you are busy ignoring them-- your attention is caught?

Hello lovely homemade crafting people, you have some wonderful ideas! I'm well and truly caught by the idea of the button tree and am going to make lots of gingerbread men/penguins/reindeer to put on the walls.

Am also going to experiment with christmas pudding vodka/brandy!

I'm going to try making magnetic boards for some of my nephews/nieces and am going to get on with making christmas cake this week!

I noticed in Sainsbury's yesterday that their Basics ketchup comes in an approx 300ml glass bottle AND ONLY COSTS 22P!! Is there any reason why i can't put my flavoured vodka in them for gifts? and what do i do with a gallon of cheap ketchup?

No reason that i can see, debka - but i wouldn't have a clue as to what to do with all that ketchup, sorry.

So, best place to buy Candy Canes from? I want to make peppermint bark, but tried in both the local £ shop and the 99p shop yesterday and there was none to be had.

Debka you could buy some other bottles and give it away as home made

You've inspired me, feels wasteful but the mixed jam and marmalade are only 30p for a 464g jar and would be perfect for my red onion chutney. Do you think I could get away with putting the hand scrub in one of those as well?

This is my current list of things I think I can make, just need to price up and decide plus do a bit of a timeline.

Xmas gifts

Plants from cuttings
Lemon hand scrub
Red onion chutney
Homemade cards
Mulled wine kit -good food mag
Handmade Xmas tree decs?
Cinnamon butter
Xmas pudding vodka
Spiced nuts
Homemade mincemeat
Hot choc mix?
Epsom salts for men?
Photoframed pic of dcs decorated by Dd
Bathbombs
Shortbread with mincemeat
Grapeseed massage oil
Fudge
Candles (made from melted existing candles) with added oils
Biscotti
Chilli jelly (nigella)
Granola
Childrens cushions with names sewn on in felt letters
Towels personalised for babies
Parmesan cream crackers
Honeycomb maybe choc covered
Fridgecake

thell, how do you make blackboards?

Hi all! I have returned from Pinterest.
Have we worked out a fail safe dried orange slice recipe?
Or a recipe for Christmas pot purri?
Thank you.
I want to sit and make felt gingerbread men but we are moving in 5 weeks and apparently getting ready for that is more important. Ridiculous!

LOVING all the Christmas ideas and Pinterest boards, this is mine, although there's not a lot on it at the mo Pinterest

Now all I need to do is get off my backside and actually DO it!

Love I'm sure you could put handscrub in one of those jars - just make sure it's reasonably easy to scoop out with your hand. I'm lazy and wouldn't be faffed getting a spoon every time I wanted to use it!

CJCregg it's actually really simple - blackboard paint is readily available in hardware & DIY shops. I bought some pieces of MDF ready cut, painted it, drilled holes and tied twine for hanging. Then I added a bit of decoration by sticking on a couple of tiny wooden stars painted pink or blue.
I would say though, I'm not going to use MDF again - it's like a sponge. I tried to seal it with pva before painting and it still soaked up paint. Plywood next time.

Christmas Pud and Candy Cane Vodkas steeping in the cupboard!

Thanks.

Whilst looking for other ideas someone on another site said they buy asda smart choice mint sauce cause it's about 12p!

I've always had good luck getting jars off freecycle, you get a mixture but they are free that way. Or you could send out an email (or a facebook status) asking all your friends to save empty jars.

I can't get Pinterest to work this morning, I think we've broken it

I've just been given another sack full of pears, woohoo! have ordered vanilla beans off ebay, and will use them to make this as it looks delicious! DH will be banging his head off the floor in frustration at me making more jam, but tough! I still have a few jars left from when I emailed round at work a few weeks back asking for empty jam jars! Doubt I can fill all of them with jam, but I'm giving it a good try :o

So I've decided my gift distributions:
male friends/family in the UK - flavoured alcohols
female friends/family in the UK - cookies in a tin, or jam, depending on how local they are, and how much I like them
children - playdough in a jar (candycane playdough, maybe?) for littles, and cookie mix in a jar for the few older ones.
overseas family and friends - spice mixes, and maybe cookie mixes, plus some chocolate bark of varying flavours.

DS gave his nursery keyworker some apple butter (jam) today for her birthday - not sure she was totally thrilled, but he's only 2, so I was hardly going to let him hand over booze!

Yup, I can't search Pinterest either

I'm saving salad dressing bottles for vodka - they're about 250ml, so a nice smallish present. They will have to be - I was too scared to buy cheap vodka in case the end result was horrible, so I've bought Smirnoff, and it's worked out quite expensive!

I've had an idea for a unisex stocking filler...

I'm making a bath fishing game, using a little drawstring bag, a small aquarium net I've just ordered, and a few fish cut out of sheet foam.
I made one for DD a couple of years ago, but back then I bought a washbag and the smallest net I could find in a shop, which is bigger than the ones I've ordered. It works really well, as the fish will float, or stick to the side of the bath like bath letters do. I'll have to make the bags this time, or it will be too expensive.

I think I bought candy canes from both Tesco and Sainsbury's last year - they were pretty cheap from what I remember.

Oh, and Sainsbury's used to have basic curry sauce for somethign ridiculous like 2p (I kid you not). I think it's 10p now...will go check