91Èȱ¬

Stacey Solomon returns with a Christmas special where friends and family join her to create a new batch of ingenious home-made gifts and decorations that she hopes will bring joy without blowing the budget.

This year she’ll be making even more gifts as she throws a special Christmas party to say thank you to the volunteers, including in her local area who have been working through the year to help those in need.

With five kids to keep occupied, Stacey will need all of the help she can get. Together with her boys, sister, the local WI, and with a special appearance from her 90-plus grandmother, and professional organiser and Sort Your Life Out co-star Dilly Carter, it’s time to put everyone to work...

Crafting a range of ingenious money-saving makes from Nutcracker figures made from household items to stunning Christmas Pudding wreaths and hand-made festive lanterns to personalised presents, foraged decorations and a very special home-made gift for Joe, can Stacey pull off her most ambitious Christmas craft party yet?

Stacey Solomon’s Crafty Christmas, coming to 91Èȱ¬ One and iPlayer 14 December at 8pm. 

CT2/MF2

Crafty Ideas

91Èȱ¬made Christmas Pudding Wreath

Essential Equipment

• A swimming pool noodle or similar 
• Gaffer tape
• Pins 
• Brown ribbon or fabric 
• Cream or white ribbon or fabric 
• Sequins 
• Clear PVA glue
• 3 medium sized red baubles 
• Green ribbon (wired is great) for the bow

Instructions

1. Take your pool noodle and bend it to create a circle, attach the ends together using gaffer tape. 
2. Use pins in a neat line across the end of the brown ribbon or fabric to secure it and wrap the whole noodle.  Be sure to wrap tightly so you can’t see the bright colour underneath. 
3. Once the whole noodle is completely wrapped tuck the fabric neatly at the end and secure with pins. 
4. Repeat the same around half of the pudding with the white or cream ribbon.
5. Glue the sequins on with clear PVA to the brown section of the pudding. 
6. Glue together 3 baubles and secure them to the top of the wreath.
7. Loop the green ribbon around the top of your pudding this will be used to hang the wreath.
8. Tie a bow and attach it to the top of your wreath.

91Èȱ¬made Nutcracker

Essential Equipment

• 1 empty, stackable crisp tube.
• 2 empty, 3-4 cm diameter cardboard tubes, the inside of an aluminium foil tube is a good size. 
• White emulsion or spray paint primer.
• Acrylic paints and paint brushes  
• Beads and ribbon for decoration 
• Scissors or craft knife
• PVA glue or glue gun 
• Bottle tops 
• Tape to mask off the sections (optional)

Instructions

1. First to prep the crisp tube by painting it completely white with the white emulsion/spray paint primer.  Put to one side to dry completely.
2. Cut the inside of 2 tin foil tubes in half and glue bottle tops onto the 2 cardboard tubes, these will form the arms. 
3. Paint all 4 tubes with an undercoat of white acrylic paint and put aside to dry completely.
4. Paint  your desired colours for the arms and legs.
5. Divide up the crisp tube into 3 sections.  You can do this using a pencil or for a sharper line you can use tape. 
6. Make 2 smaller sections at the lid end, one for the hat, one for the face and a larger section at the bottom for the body.
7. Paint these in your desired colours. 
8. Once dry, it’s time to attach the legs and arms to the body using PVA glue or glue gun. 
9. Now it’s time to get creative.  You can repurpose old necklaces, use the gems and beads to embellish.
10. For the face, you could glue on a printed face, use a stencil or coloured circled dot stickers.