4 Simple Ideas for Christmas Craftyness

Hello, my name is Becky and I’m a craftaholic. So when it comes to things like Christmas I always get me craft on.

Last year I hand made everyone’s presents which you can read about here. There was no way in hell I was going to be doing that again, but of course I wasn’t going to go without completely. Here’s what I whipped together for Christmas 2014..

Reindeer Poo

I have a large collection of glass jars because not only am I addicted to craft but I am also addicted to coffee. The kind that comes in glass jars. I can’t bare to throw them out so I hoard them until I find uses for them, such as Christmas inspired treats.

Usually for Christmas I make little chocolate/coconut truffles, coat them in chocolate then smother the tops in white chocolate and finish them off with chopped red and green jelly lollies to resemble little puddings. They’re awesome, but also very time consuming and fiddly. So I cut out the last few steps and decided to call them ‘Reindeer Poo’ for something a little different.

I made about 4 batches, all different flavours! Choc/Coconut truffle, choc walnut, choc mint and fruit’n’nut. To keep spending to a minimum I invented some recipes to use up ingredients that I already had in my pantry. One such idea was the fruit’n’nut choc balls where I added dates, mixed nuts, cocoa, coconut and coconut oil to a blender. I rolled the mixture into balls and dipped them into melted chocolate. The only ingredient I purchased for those was the chocolate for about $3.

Gift Tags

Gettin’ stampy.. I had the blank tags left over from another project but they’re pretty easy to get your hands on. Using my Shirley Barber fairy stamp collection I got stampy and coloured them in with some coloured pencils. Cute huh!?

Home made deodorant

This stuff is the bomb. Here’s 3 reasons why you need to switch your deodorant to home made:

1. It’s chemical free

When you think about it, deodorants you purchase are made to stop you from sweating. Sweating is how the body releases toxins. By using ingredients such as alcohol which closes the pores and reduces your sweating, this prevents the release of toxins and as a result those toxins remain in your body.

This recipe is so natural you could eat it – not that you would want to, but it does smell delicious.  I used 3 ingredients: Bi carb soda/baking powder, arrow root powder and coconut oil.

2. It’s cheap and easy to make

A jar this size (small recycled moccona coffee jar) will last around 6 months. I made enough for 2 jars and it cost around $3. That’s $1.50 for a years supply.

The Recipe: Add 1 part bi carb soda to 1 part arrow root powder and mix in 2 parts melted coconut oil.

The mixture becomes a thick white paste that solidifies in cool temperatures and melts to a goo in the heat. When it is solid simply scrape out a chunk (no bigger than a 5c piece) and it will melt onto your skin. Hold for a second, then rub it in.

3. It works!

It is by far the most reliable deodorant I have ever used. I put it on in the morning and it still works by the time I go to bed. next morning.. still no smell!. The ultimate test is the gym. I apply this mixture before going to the gym and even after an hour work out I don’t smell bad. Just a little coconutty.

You can add essential oils to make it scented, or leave it as is which has a mild coconut aroma. It’s mild enough to still be able to wear perfume at the same time.

Daggy Decoration

It’s not quite Christmas at my house with some sort of daggy little decoration that just didn’t quite turn out as well as I’d imagined. But I’ll still put it on display all the same. I had envisioned this cute vintage style little hand stitched tree with buttons for baubles.. which it kind of is.. minus the ‘cute’ part. I really do need to practice my sewing!