DIY Sock Snowmen | Blogmass 2016

Hello, Lovely People !

Christmas is a great time to get crafty with your kids or younger members of your family! But with so many different things to make that are too long or difficult to keep there attention, it can be hard to keep those little bundles of energy entertained throughout the holidays. Fortunately, my girlfriends mum is fabulously creative and showed me how to make these adorable sock snowmen with only an old sock, a bag of rice and a couple of buttons ! So here we go :

What You'll Need : 

• One Plain White Sock 
• One Patterned Sock
• 6 Little Buttons ( all colors, shaped and sizes are great ! ) 
• One Piece of Christmas Ribbon 
• A Lil bit of string 
• One Bag of Rice 

Step One : Cut the plain white sock along the ankle line 

Step Two : Fill almost to the top with rice and tie a piece of string around the top of the sock and double / triple knot it to make sure it's completely secure and no rice can escape ! 

Step Three : Tie a second piece of string around two thirds of the way up your snowman's body to separate his head from his body and wrap the string around a few times before double knotting again so that it stays put. 

Step Four : Fold the patterned sock up a couple times to form a little hat that you can put on your snowman's head 

Step Five : Glue on two button eyes, a nose and three little buttons down his tummy 

Step Six : Finally tie a lil bit of ribbon around your snowman's neck to make his scarfs annnddd... VOILA ! Your own personal snowman buddy ! 

Why not make a whole family of snowmen friends ? It's a great activity that costs barely anything to make and is brilliant fun for the whole family ! If you give them a try then I'd love to hear how it went in the comments ! 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smile :) 

Lots of love,  Marianne xxx

DIY Star Garland | Blogmass 2016

Hello, Lovely People !

Handmade gifts are always well received and I have come up with a DIY that looks amazing , would be a great gift and is super easy to make ! So it's win-win all round ! Why not make one for the whole family ? So today I thought I'd share with you, how to make a DIY star garland. I hope you enjoy it !

What You Need :

• Air Drying Clay 
• A Gold Permanent Marker 
• Rolling Pin 
• Star Shaped Cookie Cutter 
• String 
• Pencil

Step One : Roll out your clay so it's about 0/5 cm thick

Step Two : Cut out four stars with your cookie cutter and poke a whole through two opposite points with a pencil.

Step Three : Leave the clay to dry for twenty-four hours ( Be patient, it's worth it ! )

Step Four : On each star write one letter with your gold pen on each star "N", "O", "E", "L" . If you're worried about slipping up then you can always lightly draw them on with a pencil first !

Step Five : Thread the string through each hole and tie a loop at either end.

TAADAAAAA ! It's really as easy as that ! All that's left to do is wrap it up in some pretty paper to give as a gift or even hang it over your own fire place as part of the Christmas decorations !

What's your favorite thing to make at Christmas time ? If you give this adorable little star garland a go, then I'd love to hear how it goes in the comments !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Hot Chocolate Gift Sets - Three Ways ( DIY )

I am feeling VERY Christmassy ! OH MY GOSH I'M SO SO SOOOOOO EXCITED !!! :D

* Annnndd Breathe *  

As you can tell I'm feeling the festive spirit and am ready to sing carols from the rooftops hehe . I always say that I'm going to make lots of my Christmas presents myself and then I never get around to it. But this year me and my best friend have been really into making things so every Saturday we've been scrolling through Pinterest and flicking through endless magazines for inspiration and then coming up with ideas for quick and easy Christmas DIY pressies that you can give to anyone . Yes, even the person who you didn't realise you were friends with until they presented you with a gift making you feel awful upon the realisation that you have nothing to give them in return !

Everybody loves hot chocolate and earlier in the year I posted my recipe for an extremely yummy hot chocolate which you can find here ( You'll need it if you're going to try and make any of these ) . These gifts are all based around the mixture people need to make this recipe, so marshmallows and chocolate chips and I came up with three fun and easy ways to present them .

 

Gift #1 Packets Of Love 

 

Take a cellophane bag ( I found these in poundland ) and fill it with with two bags of chocolate chips and then a handful of marshmallows. Fold the top of the bag down and then cut some Christmas themed wrapping paper so that it folds neatly over the top on the bag and staple it to the cellophane bag. I then stuck a few snowflakes in the corner ( I bought them at The Works for £1 ) and wrote the recipe on the back of the wrapping paper and Voila :) 

Gift #2 Marshmallow Goodness 

 

Fill a mason jar halfway up with chocolate chips and then on top, layer up some normal sized marshmallows. When I've made these before I've used edible ink pens to draw little faces on the marshmallows and that had a really nice affect ( If you want to do this you can buy eidible ink pens in lots of different colours from hobbycraft at £3 each ). Then all you have to do is tie on a tag with instruction on how to make up the hot chocolate on ! 

Gift #3 Give It A ( Chocolate ) Shot ! 

 

For this one a bought these cute little test tubes ( From The Works for only £1 ) and filled them with the hot chocolate mixture so they would be little shots of hot chocolate that you just tip into the cup and then make according to instructions I wrote on the tag. Then I stuck one of the snowflake decorations on the lid before screwing it back on and popping it in a cute Christmas themed mug ( From asda for £1.50 ) and surrounding it with folded tissue paper. You can then tie it in a cellophane bag and that saves a lot of time wrapping ( especially if you're anything like me and can't wrap anything square aha ) . 

These are all really easy to make and everybody appreciates something cute and home-made. I'd love to hear how they go if you try them out or which idea is your favourite ! What are your favourite things to make at Christmas ? Let me know in the comments :) 

If you want to make any of these, you can find the recipe to pop on the label and how to make the mixture here : 

http://myhappybubblexx.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/recipe-hot-chocolate.html

I can't wait to make more Christmas DIY's to share with you ! 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx