Advent Day 21 - Everyone's a Winner!

Well I only had five posts on my giveaway (and Mel declined to be entered in the contest) so on that basis I think I might send everyone a little something!! Over the weekend (yes, AFTER Christmas) I'll have a peruse of your blogs and put something together and pop it in the post!!

As for the Advent Blogalong - I give up! Christmas has been too hectic this year by half. I have been making and taking photos but just haven't had the hours in the day to download them and post about it!

Advent Day 6 - A Tutorial

So I've already fallen behind a couple of days with the Advent Blogalong so I thought I'd "catch up" by sharing one of my traditional Christmas crafts!!

First, gather your supplies - red and green cellophane, a packet of Jaffas and a packet of Mint Leaves, plus sticky tape and scissors.
Cut the cellophane into squares (approx 5" square - I tend to just follow the fold lines and then cut those rectangles in half so they're not quite square but close enough!!). Take three red bits and two green bits of cellophane and three jaffas and two mint leaves.

Now wrap each lolly in a matching piece of cellophane.

Now get a bit of sticky tape about 8" long and start wrapping it around the stem of a jaffa...

...then add another jaffa, and another...

...and then the two mint leaves, until you have lolly holly!

Tie it to the gift you've brought for your grandma with curling ribbon!

I've been making this stuff for 20+ years - I'm sure it was something we did at Brownies so is probably suitable to make with kids from about 8 years of age (as long as you can trust them not to eat the lollies)! If you can't get jaffas or mint leaves where you live then just substitute them for any round red lollies (like jelly raspberries for those who can't eat chocolate) or any green leaf shaped lollies - if you don't want lollies then you could probably use red and green crepe paper to fill the cellophane and get a similar but not-quite-so-delicious effect!!

Keep following - since this is my 110th post so my next one will probably involve a giveaway!

The Advent Calendar

I went to work yesterday thinking it was 29 November and that I had a couple of nights up my sleeve to get an advent calendar together for Matilda - oh boy was I shocked when I realised I had only "one sleep" to prepare for December!

So I got supplies in my lunch hour and then made this last night...

It's just lollies, wrapped into little parcels and attached to some cardboard using toothpicks and those little wire ties that come with freezer bags and lie at the bottom of the third drawer down, waiting to become useful!

It was a success but I think my January is going to have to involve the making of a re-useable advent calendar because next year in not going to be another "just-in-time" Christmas!!

So I'm going to attempt (and probably fail at) the Advent Blog-a-long (since there's only chocolate and lollies in the advent calendar for Matilda). Click on the button if you'd like to join in!