Half a Christmas Tree…

You may not believe it, but we have only just started preparing for Christmas.  Yes, we’ve done some Christmas shopping (DS’s present has been well hidden for weeks), but otherwise, we’ve done nothing for Christmas until today.

Why? Busy, busy… DH has been working hard, J. is busy with school work, I’ve been buried under a small mound of other tasks – which has included my mother’s Christmas preparations, shopping, wrapping presents, helping with cards etc – no time for much else.

Today we did something about that.  DH went into the loft and passed down a number of boxes, containing the Tree, the Lights, the Decorations, the Cake Tins, the Christmas Stuff in general (found my advent calendar!).

We tidied and cleaned the sitting room, stopped for lunch, then set about assembling the Christmas Tree.

Thereby hangs a tale…

We only have Half a Christmas Tree.

You see, our sitting room is not very big and there are not really any places to put a large, floor-standing tree.  Except a corner, near the dining-room door, between the fireplace and the table.

So, we fix on the four sets of branches at the front of the tree, but if we attached the back ones, the tree would stick out so far, that we’d fall over it.

The back of our tree is not there:

It’s still in the box.

But once you open out all the bits of branch and “fluff it up” a bit, you can’t actually tell that we only have Half a Chrismas Tree!

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It Wouldn’t Be Christmas Without…

The Tree (of course!)…

 The ornaments at the bottom of the tree are baby and cat-proof – all plastic or fabric and fairly unbreakable.

 

Home-made decorations. 

The paper ones were made by me, the “Hama Bead” ones by J.  We’re quite proud of our handiwork and enjoy seeing them on our tree (there are more, but I thought you could  only cope with so many photos…)

 












 





















My little nesting Santa and Penguin ornaments… 

Our glass angel and the special tree-top robins…  

 



My parachuting Santa, that I’ve had ever since I decorated my own  Christmas Tree, in my first flat, 26 years ago…

Our retro-1970’s kitsch… the (real) Swedish angel chimes and the hanging, self-assembly, cardboard Christmas card holder.  Fabby! 

 

The ribbons that hang on the fireplace, by the mirror and the robin-house that hangs on the outside of the sitting room door (to welcome us and our friends) 

The decorated mantlepiece – J. helped this year.

Our ancient, little-kids’ version of a Crib set.  The stable is cardboard, that you assemble yourself.  There is a set of toy people, a donkey and sheep, and the cows, goat and camels that came from the toy shop too.

Of course, the Baby Jesus and the Angel are put away for now.  If you look closely, you’ll see that the Shepherds are still Abiding in the Fields – on top of the fireplace – and Mary & Joseph and the Magi are still Travelling on their long journeys.

  

It really is not Christmas without our own tiny piece of Bethlehem.

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I wonder what you feel you must have around you at Christmas, for it to really feel as if the Season is here and that it Really Is Christmas?

Paper Star Christmas Decorations, the Stitched Version

It's Tutorial Time again! Read on to see how I made some great Christmas star decorations -

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Dobbies asked me to write a Guest Post, for their own blog.  This has been published today and shows how to make this little paper star Christmas Decoration:

The star is quite simple to make, with strips of paper and a brad/paper fastener.  It has a ribbon attached, with a bow on the reverse, so it can be hung either way round, or where it will be seen from both sides:

I also made some other stars, one of which was put together using stitching, with button decorations.

See the large star on the right?
 
I thought it would be nice to make a companion post, to go with my Dobbies post, showing how I assembled the stitched star decoration.

If you would like to follow the Tutorial first, to make the basic star, go to the previous post and follow the instructions there.  Then come back here, to make the Button-Decorated version too!

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Button-Decorated Christmas Star

Follow the steps in Part One of the tutorial to get to this point, or follow the summary instructions below:

You need double-sided stiff scrapbook paper, or two single sheets glued back to back.  Cut four strips of paper, 1” /2.5cm wide by 6” / 15cm long and cut each end to a point. 

Pierce a hole through the centre point of each paper strip.  Cut a piece of hanging ribbon, 10-12” / 25-30cm long.

For this version of the Christmas Star, you will also need two buttons (with two holes if possible), a needle and some sewing thread in a contrasting or toning colour.

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To Stitch the Star

Take the needle through the centre hole in the first strip, from the back, to the front.

Drop your chosen button over the needle, then pull the thread through.

Leave a “tail” of thread at the back.

Pass the needle through the second hole in the button and back through the hole in the paper strip.  You may wish to secure the end of the thread at this point, by tying a knot at the back.

Now push the needle through the centre of the second paper strip.

To make the hanging loop, fold the ribbon with the cut ends together and push the needle through both ends, as shown.  Pull the thread through.

Push the needle through the ribbon again, then back through the holes in both paper strips, so the ribbon is stitched onto the back of the second strip.

To make the ribbon secure, you may wish to fix it with a smudge of pva, as in the photo.  Spread the glue vertically along the strip, then press the ribbon onto this.  The top of this strip will then be the top of the star.
 

  
Continue stitching through the paper strips – third strip,  then the fourth,

always pushing the needle through from the front, to the back.

Once you have attached the fourth strip, slide the second button on to the thread, then pass the needle through the second hole in the button and back through all four paper strips.  You may find it easier to line the strips up for this, rather than have them spread out into the star shape.

Make another stitch through all layers, from the button at the front (mine is red), to the back.  Then secure the thread, by wrapping it round the back of the button and passing the needle through this wrapped thread, to make a couple of finishing stitches. 

Cut the thread off, just under the button.  This is the back of the star.

Now spread the strips back out, into the star shape.  Put a dot of pva between each layer, pressing well to fix the strips in the correct position. 

You want to make two crosses, one at 45 degrees to the other, as shown. 

The finished star, from the back.

Double sided star!

Hang it up somewhere where you can admire it.  Take a photo and post me a link in the blog comments – so I can admire it too!

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I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.   These stars are quite simple and fun to make, especially those made with a brad (as in the first part of the tutorial).   The button version looks very nice though and I think it’s worth the extra bit of effort.