French Knitting Christmas Decorations + video

I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with my French knitting machine and it was about time I made some Christmas decorations using it! So here are 5 decorations that I came up with using French knitting.

The first decoration is a super simple one. I made a red and a white piece of French knitting, put wire in them and then twisted them together. I sewed the two ends together and there we go - a cute candy cane.

Next up I made a snowman. I wrapped a long length of white French knitting around a plastic bauble, and then attached ear muffs made of red French knitting, and then added the facial features. This method of wrapping the French knitting around a bauble can be used as the base to make lots of different characters and designs.

This Rudolph has a more minimalist design and is pretty easy to make. There's wire through the circle and the antlers, and everything is sewn together. 

This little wreath was made by threading beads on the wool before making the French knitting and sending them through the machine one by one. I made two strands in this way which I then wrapped together. I added a matching bow made of ribbon for a finishing touch.

This angel features light up wings which I made by threading a small string of led lights through the French knitting. I hid the battery pack in the body which I made by wrapping the wired French knitting around a cone. I used a bead for the head, wool for the hair, and a tinsel pipe cleaner for the halo.

Check out the video below for a more detailed look at how I made these decorations.

Felt Woodland Decorations

Felt seems to be my go-to material for making decorations. My felt dogs have been doing really well so my boyfriend suggested I try making some different animals. 

I decided to start with a fox because the woodland theme is quite popular. I went for a simple style and am really pleased with how it turned out.

Next, for something a bit more festive I made a reindeer. I wanted it to match the fox so I refrained from adding a red pom-pom nose!

Then, for something even more festive I made a cute little felt Santa! There are lots of elements to this pattern so it was a bit fiddly to put together but I love the end result.

What cute little character should I make next?

Lolly Stick Sledge

On a recent trip to Harrod's Christmas World I saw some cute little wooden sledge decorations which inspired me to try making my own version.

On several blogs I'd seen that you can bend lollypop sticks by boiling them so I did just that to try and get the curved runners of the sledge.

Once the sticks had boiled for about half and hour and were cool enough to handle, I left them to dry against the fridge weighed down by the toaster and sugar pot to keep the curve. Kitchen resourcefulness!

I cut the other lolly sticks to size with a craft knife and stuck them altogether with E6000 glue, hoping everything would stay at right angles and not fall apart.

Once the glue dried I decided to paint the little sledge so it didn't just look like a bunch of lolly sticks stuck together. 

I thought the sledge might make a great gift with some chocolates tied to the back.

Miniature Christmas Jumpers

I've still got a lot of the Christmas coloured felt left so I decided to make these cute miniature Christmas jumpers. The inspiration came from the ugly sweater ornaments on Crafts by Amanda. 

I made a paper template of the jumper and used that to cut out two felt pieces which I sewed together once I'd put the decoration on the top one.

I think this Rudolph jumper is my favourite. He has a pom-pom nose!

To make the jumpers into hanging decorations I made little clothes hangers out of wire.

How else do you think I could use these little jumpers? Stuck on the front of Christmas cards? Gifted with a candy cane through the middle?

Elf Baubles

It's another Christmas one folks, and another chance for me to use up some of my Christmas coloured felt.

How cute is this Christmas elf bauble?? That's right, it's a bauble, not an egg, as a few of my family members have thought.

To make it I painted a bauble skin colour and stuck on some card ears.

I sewed the little felt hats and added a pom pom, which is wear the thread for hanging comes out. I painted on the face with a tiny brush and then they were done.

Once I'd figured out the pattern for the hats they were really quick to make, so I could see myself making a whole bunch.  

Crochet Baubles

I recently saw some knitted baubles online and wondered if my Mum could crochet something similar.

Of course she can, she's a crocheting magician!

She just crocheted around a plastic bauble. Half way through it looked like the bauble had a little beanie hat. Then when she was done I added the stars for some bling. 

My Mum also tried some more lacy designed so the colour of the bauble showed through. Which style do you prefer?

Cornflour Ornaments

Any guesses on what these stars are made out of?

Ok, I'll tell you. Cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and water. So simple!

I found this tutorial on Full of Great Ideas and really wanted to try it out. Since she made Christmas ornaments I decided to do that too.

The quantities I used were 1/2 cup bicarbonate of soda, 1/4 corn flour and approximately 5/16 cup of water which is just over 1/4. I only used a quarter of the amount from the original tutorial, hence the weird fractions.

After mixing the dry ingredients in a saucepan you add the water, eventually getting a liquidy mixture.

Then you put the saucepan over a medium heat and continuously stir. It starts to thicken pretty quickly and as soon as that started to happen I took the saucepan off the heat and kept stirring. It's pretty magic how it goes from a running liquid to a doughy sort of consistency. 

Then you need to let it cool. Check the original tutorial for the full instructions.

What I love about this project is that it only uses food stuff so you can use regular kitchen equipment, like a rolling pin and cookie cutters.

After cutting out all my shapes I left them to dry out.

I decided to paint some of my ornaments with nail varnish. The glittery kind!

Since we have a dalek cookie cutter in the house I had to make a couple of dalek ornaments for my sister. I painted these with spray paint and then added the black details with a brush. I finished them off by gluing sequins and gems on to the front.