Reindeer hair bobbles

Last year I ran out of time and didin't get to show you my reindeer hair bobbles that were inspired by my snowflake hair bobbles. My little niece Molly loved finding then in my Winter Wonderland Advent house calendar. The good news is that Paperchase are selling the felt deer table scatter this year too, 36 for £3!

Reindeer hair bobbles
Tools and Materials

• Small hairbands in pink, white, blue and aqua
• Felt reindeer
• Hot glue gun

Reindeer hair bobbles, How-to step by step

Using a hot glue gun, place a small dab of glue at the join on the outside edge of the hairband. Immediately stick a felt reindeer to the glue and leave to dry.



Paperchase are also selling the snowflake felt table scatter again this year so you can make the hair clips too!



Have a sweet day!

Gluten free Black Forest cupcakes

I hadn't made cupcakes in ages and wanted to try something new for Christmas so I decided to use Black Forest Gateaux as my inspiration. Instead of the traditional layers of chocolate cake, cherry liqueur sauce and whipped cream I made chocolate cakes with a cherry liqueur sauce filling topped with whipped cream.

Gluten free Black Forest cupcakes (makes 24 cupcake size cakes)

Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• 100g Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate buttons
• 160 ml (2/3 cup) semi-skimmed milk
• 2 eggs
• 175g caster sugar
• 200g gluten free self-raising flour, sieved
• 2 tablespoons Hotel Chocolat organic cocoa powder, sieved
• 125g/4½oz butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F)
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases
3. Place chocolate and milk in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until smooth
4. Beat butter, eggs, and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour
5. Stir in flour, cocoa, and warm chocolate mix until mixed thoroughly
6. Divide mixture among cases
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes
8. Place cakes on a wire rack to cool

To Fill & Decorate (24 cupcake size cakes)

What you will need

• 200g black cherries, pitted and pureed
• 60 caster sugar
• ½ tsp cornflour mixed with a little water to make a smooth paste
• 2 tbsp cherry liqueur
• 300ml/10fl oz double cream
• Pink food colouring
• Fondant snowflakes

Instructions

1. Place cherries, sugar, cherry liqueur and cornflour mixture in a small saucepan and, over a medium heat, stir until just boiling
2. Remove from heat and stir until mixture thickens, leave to cool
3. Using a cupcake corer, remove centre of cooled cakes
4. Spoon cooled cherry mixture into the hollow of the cakes
5. Whisk cream and pink food colouring until you have soft peaks in an even colour
6. Fill piping bag fitted with a star nozzle full of pink whipped cream
7. On top of the cakes, starting at outside edge, pipe a swirl of pink whipped cream
8. I decorated the top of mine with sprinkled sugar snowflakes and some with a fondant snowflake

Here they are on my Winter Wonderland dessert table:



Have a sweet day!

Beaded Garland

Catching up.....

Today I am sharing with you another quick and easy Christmas craft idea: a beaded garland made of miracle beads in colours to match my Winter Wonderland Christmas.

What are "miracle beads"? They are plastic lucite beads where the core is finished in a mirrored silver plate which is then coated in multiple layers of vibrant lacquer. Light passes through the multiple layers of lacquer and is then reflected back through the lacquer due to the mirror-like properties of the plating. The reflected light radiates a glowing illusion of shimmery depth. I just love them so!

Beaded Garland
Tools and Materials

• Miracle beads
• Duck egg blue thick thread

Have a sweet day!

Winter Wonderland Dessert Table

Wishing you and yours all a Merry Christmas!

Gift wrapped

How are your plans for Christmas coming on? I am slowly but surely getting there, fingers crossed....

I have wrapped my presents in a combination of four printed rolls of wrapping paper using double side tape so no tape is visible, tied them up with velvet and raffia ribbon and trimmed them with gift tags and candy canes.

Winter bird stripe gift wrap, pink velvet ribbon

Winter bird print gift wrap, tree print wrap, pink paper raffia, cut outs used as gift tags

Winter bird stripe gift wrap & tag

Way of the birds gift tags

Have a sweet day!

Pretty Pinecones

This has to be one of the cheapest, cute decorations I have made this year. Just simply collect pine cones from your local woods, park etc. wash them in soapy water and leave to dry. Then paint them in shades of colours to match your Christmas decor. I also PVA glued a few and sprinkled them in coarse glitter to give them an icy effect.




Have a sweet day!

Christmas tree card holder

Yesterday I showed you my upcycled wooden Christmas trees, today I am sharing with you my upcycled Christmas tree photo holders that I did the same thing with. I am using them to display my Christmas cards.

This brings me nicely on to the gorgeous Christmas cards from Portuguese graphic designer, Filipa, from Kids and Babies design. Filipa wrote to me a few weeks back to ask if she could use my Winter Wonderland colour palette as her inspiration. Of course I said yes; I loved what she did for her cards and she kindly sent me a set.




After working for several years in some design studios and publishers, Filipa decided to create a personal project, the "Kids & Babies Design", a printable party shop where you can find, among other things, vintage and shabby chic custom design partyware and personalized party printables. All her pieces are unique, customized and inspired by their recipients and made to order.

Have a sweet day!

Wooden trees

A couple of years ago I bought some cheap craft wooden Christmas trees that I painted white and with the pots in bright colours to match that year's Christmas colours. This year I have up-cycled them by painting the pots in colours to match my Winter Wonderland theme and covering them in coordinating glitter.

Wooden trees
Tools and Materials

• Wooden trees
• White undercoat paint
• Pink Clematis, tester pot of paint
• Water, tester pot of paint
• Proud Peacock, tester pot of paint
• PVA glue
• Small paint brush
• Pink, teal, mint and white glitter

Wooden trees, How-to step by step


Start by painting the entire tree and pot in white undercoat paint and leave to dry. Carefully, with a small paint brush paint the pot in a colour and leave to dry. Coat painted pots in PVA glue and liberally sprinkle with coordinating glitter. Gently tap tree to remove excess glitter and leave to dry.




I loved how Citrus and Orange had styled her beautiful deer, the colours are so pretty! She inspired me to paint my wooden plaque in duck egg blue and sit my same beautiful deers atop it. With my glittered wooden trees in the background, and some needle felted acorns in the foreground.




Have a sweet day!

Needle felted acorns

Last year I collected lots of acorn cups and never got around to doing anything with them. So this year I decided to make needle felted acorns with them, which I have hung on my Christmas tree and used them in my Christmas displays. I used the same colours as my needle felted roses.

Needle felted acorns
Tools and Materials

• Acorn caps
• Undyed merino wool tops
• Antique pink roving
• Teal merino wool tops
• Pale jade merino wool tops
• PVA glue
• Martha Stewart crystal coarse glitter
• 8cm long strips of 3mm double faced satin ribbon

Equipment

• Small needle felting mat
• Pen-style needle felting tool

Needle felted acorns, How-to step by step

Start by lightly washing your acorn cups in soapy water and leaving to dry. Liberally coat them with PVA glue and immediately sprinkle on glitter and leave to dry. Gather a small ball of roving together and start to needle punch it, turning and twisting it as you punch so you keep it in a small ball.



Roll the felted ball in your hands to get the shape you want and continue needle punching the roving till you have a small, tight, felted acorn shape. Using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of glue on the inside of the acorn cup and push felted ball into the glue. Fold your ribbon strips in half and, using the hot glue gun, add a dab of glue to the top of the acorn cup. Push ends of ribbon strip into glue before it dries.



Now hanging on my tree...

Have a sweet day!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you my Flickr mosaic, "It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!", all of which I have shared, or will be sharing here on Torie Jayne. Now I must dash, as I still have plenty to do!

So, in case you missed them....

• Needle felted roses
• Advent house
• Paper chain garland
• Glittered toadstools
• Cake stand
• Felt birds

Have a sweet day!

Snowflake hair clips

I loved making the snowflake hair bobbles to put in my advent house for cute Molly: they were so quick and easy to do! I had quite a few snowflakes left and thought they would look sweet on pretty hair clips so I bought a bunch of glittery pastel hair clips to stick them to.

Snowflake hair clips
Tools and Materials

• Small hair clips in pink, lime and aqua
• Snowflake table scatter
• Ribblet punch
• Hot glue gun

Snowflake hair clips, How-to step by step

Using a hot glue gun, place a small dab of glue on the end of the clip, immediately stick a felt snowflake to the glue and leave to dry. Cut out a small rectangle of pretty card and, using a ribblet punch, punch holes in centre. Clip hair clips to card by threading through holes in card.




Have a sweet day!

Strawberry Panna Cotta

I loved how the Eton Mess dessert was served in mini glass jars at the Next press event, which gave me the idea of making mini desserts for Christmas that I could use to fill my cupcake stand. I want an array of desserts, in a selection of colours, to match my dessert bar. For a pretty pink I am going for strawberry panna cotta! Now I just need to work out how I will decorate the jars?!?

Strawberry Panna Cotta (makes 4 mini jars)

Ingredients

• 300g double cream
• 30g sugar
• 1 gelatine leaf soaked in water
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 90g strawberry puree
• 30g sugar
• 1 gelatine leaf soaked in water

Cooking instructions

• Place cream and sugar in a small saucepan and gently bring to the boil
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla paste
• Add the gelatin leaf into cream mixture and stir until gelatine dissolves
• Pour mixture into jars and leave to set in the fridge

• Place strawberry puree and sugar in a small saucepan and gently bring to the boil
• Remove from heat and add just the gelatin leaf into strawberry mixture and stir until gelatine dissolves
• Pour over the top of the chilled panna cotta and leave in fridge to set

Have a sweet day!

Gingerbread Crayons

I made lots of pretty hair bobbles and hair bands to put in my advent house for cute Molly, and lip balm for my sisters. I also wanted to make some cute gifts for my adorable nephew, Samuel, so I decided to make some chunky gingerbread shaped crayons. I did not have any old crayons so I bought a new pack but you can use old bits too.

Gingerbread Crayons
Tools and Materials

• Crayons
• Gingerbread mould (pg 4)

Gingerbread Crayons, How-to step by step

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Start by removing all the paper from the crayons and chop them into small bits. Fill your mould with the crayon pieces and place in the oven for 15-20 mins until wax is melted (you can add more bits of crayon through the melting process so the moulds are completely full). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Then push out the crayons and they are ready to use.


I think they look a bit like jelly babies?!?

Have a sweet day!

Snowflake soaps

I wanted all my gifts in my Advent house to be hand-made so after making sparkly strawberry lip balm, cool mint lip balm, snowflake hair bobbles and clips, reindeer hair clips and gingerbread crayons I only had a few drawers left to fill. I went for peppermint, snowflake-shaped, glittery soaps and made a few extra snowflake soaps for my Christmas crackers!

Snowflake soaps
Tools and Materials

• Soap base white
• Cosmetic grade silver glitter
• Peppermint fragrance oil
• Snowflake mould
• Cling film / plastic wrap
• Washi tape

Snowflake soaps, How-to step by step

Start by chopping up the soap base into small pieces and placing them in a microwavable jug. Place the jug in the microwave and heat for two minutes on medium heat, the soap will start to melt. Continue heating the soap, checking on it frequently until it has all melted. You can now carefully add any fragrance, colour, or glitter you require. Stir carefully so as not to make bubbles. When you are happy with the colour/fragrance etc., carefully pour into the moulds and leave to set. Push the soap out of the moulds and wrap in cling film to keep fragrance in.

*Please note that if you make a mistake or it sets too quickly you can re-melt at any time.





After wrapping my soaps in cling film I wrapped a strip of washi tape around the outside to add prettiness.

Have a sweet day!