5 Fun Christmas Crafts for the whole family

Ok, Christmas is really on it's way now, and a lot of Christmas decorations have started popping up on my social media. All the pretty ornaments, tinsel, plants and decorations.
But sometimes, we want to add a personal touch to our Christmas decor, so here are a few fun Christmas craft ideas for you! These are easy to make together with the whole family, and will give you Christmas joy this year, and many more. Just remember to be careful with hot glue and sharp tools, especially if you are making these crafts with your kids.

Make your own snowglobe

• A Mason jar
• Glycerin (optional but recommended as it makes the glitter fall slower
• Glitter(preferably a mix between fine and big flakes, to create that snowy effect.
• Waterproof glue
• Figurines, ornaments or anything you would like to display in your globe
• Water, distilled water gives the clearest result
• Tinsel, ribbons or twine

1. Start by making sure your jar and its lid is clean and dry.
2. Attatch your figurine, ornament or decoration to the lid with your glue. Let dry completely.
3. Pour the water into the jar, and leave a few cm to make sure it wont overflow. Add your glycerin, 2-3 drops for a small jar, and 4-5 for a slightly bigger one.
4. Add your glitter to the water
5. Slowly close the lid, and make sure it is tightened properly before turning it upside down.
6. Do a shake test, shake your jar around over a sink to make sure there are no leaks.
7. Decorate the outside whatever way you want, tie something around the lid, add glitter to the outside, or even add another trinket or figurine on the bottom of the jar.

Make your own advent calendar

Advent calendars have exploded during the last couple of years. I remember when the only ones available were chocolate or picture advent calendars, and now there is an advent calendar for everyting. So I thought, why not make your own personalised advent calendar this year?

• A long garland, or a sturdy string of lights
• 24/25 small gifts or notes
• Twine
• Something to put the gifts in, like fabric or burlap bags, envelopes, or even just small fabric leftovers
• A felt tip marker in the color of your choice
• Clothespins
• Glue
• Decorations, like glitter, small flowers, or anything you like

1. Start by deciding on what kind of calendar you want to make, I personally like attatching these small packages to my Christmas tree light string, but hanging it on the wall with a garland or twine works just as well.
2. Use your marker to note down numbers onto your fabric, envelope or burlap sack, from 1-24 if you live in the nordics, and 1-25 if you live anywhere else.
3. Glue on your decorations, if you want any, and let dry.
4. Put your little gifts into your sacks, or put it in the middle of a piece of fabric and tie the corners up with twine.
5. Attach your gifts to your garland or string of lights in any order you want, either randomly or in numerical order.
6. Hang it up in your tree, on your wall, or even vertically in a door opening.

And you're done! You now have a beautiful, personal advent calendar to help you count down the days until Christmas.

Cardboard Snowflake Ornaments

When we buy Christmas gifts online, most of them come in some form of cardboard packaging. And even if it is recyclable, cardboard is one of the best materials to use for fun crafts. One of the many things you can use cardboard for is to make your own ornaments. An added bonus, is that these ornaments match our Top Star deluxe amazingly.

• Twine
• A pen
• Cardboard
• Scissors (Or an exacto knife)
• White paint
• Glitter

1. Start by drawing up your design onto your cardboard. If you find freehanding a snowflake a bit hard, you can always print out a snowflake, then trace the pattern onto the cardboard.
2. Use your scissor or knife to cut out the pattern from the cardboard and make a small hole for the twine to go through.
3. Apply your paint onto the cardboard, and sprinkle on glitter before it dries.
4. Take your twine, and put it through the hole. If the paint has covered the hole, simply take a pen or your tool from before and push it away.
5. Tie the twine with a double knot or a bow, then you're done!

An elf door:

This is something that has really gained popularity in Sweden recently, and it is so cute! Creating a small door with windows, to sprinkle a little bit of extra magic onto the holidays. And super easy to make, most of the things you need are probably already in your home.

You will need:

• Some cardboard
• Twine or tinsel
• Paint
• Scissors and a secateur
• A paintbrush
• Small Decorations, such as buttons, toothpicks,beads and similar
• Cotton, pine branches, moss, rocks or anything you would like around your door
• Popsicle sticks

1. Start by cutting your cardboard into a rectangle, 4-6 inches in height should be enough. Round off the top of it.
2. If you want to give it a more 3D, "woody" look, glue popsicle sticks onto your cardboard, and use a secateur to cut them into the right length. Use a secateur to cut the popsicle sticks if needed. 
3. Paint your door into whatever color you like, and if you want to give it a more aged look, use a darker paint and lightly brush it on top of your first color when it has dried down completely.
4. Add your decorations, like a button or a bead for the door handle, a smaller cardboard circle as a window, add some ornaments or really whatever you make want on your door.
5. Create a doorframe by gluing together a few popsicle sticks, and putting tinsel or twine onto them. Glue the frame onto your door.
6. Decorate around the door start by taking another piece of cardboard and gluing the bottom of your door to the edge of it, then put some cotton to symbolize snow, or some moss or pine branches to give it more of a ground look. Add rocks or other decorations onto your piece of cardboard.
7. Place your door once everything has dried down, and it can go anywhere, down on the floor against a wall, in a bookshelf, behind your shoe rack, really anywhere you want it.
8. Leave small gifts, like candy or notes outside the door before the kids wake up, to really sell that feeling that an elf is living there.

I think this is such a fun surprice for the kids to get them exited about Christmas.

Miniature Natural Christmas Tree

I will, like a lot of people, be using a natural Christmas tree this year. But sometimes we get the size wrong. And that's okay! We can always use the leftover branches to make something beautiful and decorative for our home. The first thing that comes to mind for me is to make a miniature Christmas tree, using either the branches of your big tree, or the top.

To make your own, you will need:

• Pine branches or the top of your Christmas tree
• Burlap
• Gravel
• Twine

1. To make these, start by cutting a square out of burlap, big enough to hold both the gravel and the base of your tree.
2. Place the gravel onto the burlap, then place your pine branch in the middle. Take the corners, and bundle them up towards the stem.
3. Tie everything together like a Christmas sack, and that's it!
4. These are perfect to place around the house, to not only decorate, but to help spread the Christmas tree scent in your entire house.