Christmas is Coming

I know... it's November and it's too early for Christmas talk, but it is already everywhere! I was in a shop last week in Edinburgh, albeit in a year-round Christmas shop, and the lady wished me a Merry Christmas! I of course defaulted to parroting it right back at her, as is the norm at Christmas time, but so early in November I am just not sure how I feel about it!

Clearly it played on my mind, because all I have been thinking about since returning is Christmas! What presents to get people, what events and market to go to, all of the yummy food there will be to eat, and most importantly all the Christmas crafts there are to do. The only problem being, I have found myself having started multiple crafts all at once in attempt to do all of them, and while I am having a whale of a time, deep down I know there is no way that I will complete even one if I carry on like this. So I find myself in a bit of a pickle.

Do I try and sneak some crafting in on my commute, can't do so in the mornings because I tend to get in quite a nice nap then and I can't give up nap time. In the return commute, a whole different issue, nowadays I have a lovely commuting friend to return home with and we get some of our best gossips in on the train. So I don't want to interrupt that. I knew this return to office lark wasn't to my liking, I just hadn't foreseen just how much of a bother it would become to my crafty times. 

In the midst of balancing multiple different projects, I obviously tried making something for the very first time and became addicted, so much so that I am now only interested in making one thing! Little wooly Christmas trees. They are so much fun, so easy to make and take so little time, I am essentially a one person factory and if I carry on at this rate by next Christmas I will have enough to open a shop! All it takes, if following the traditional aesthetic of a Christmas tree, is some green wool, brown wool, a 4cm bit of string or a hook, and cardboard template, a glue stick, and some decorations. 

As unhelpful as this is, the first step is to decide how big the tree should be and draw the template, which is an isosceles triangle on top of a little rectangle - typical tree style. I kept the original to the side and used this to trace out the shape to make others. When cutting the shape of the base, I cut a little further into the section of the stump that is connected to the base of the tree to create a join where the loose wool will be threaded in at the end. 

This cut-out is used to form the structure of the tree, but from now on is when it gets a bit messy. Cover both sides of the template in glue. If using a piece of string, fold this in half and place each end on either side on the tip of the tree to form a loop from which the tree can be hung. Now continually loop the green around the tree section, do this until the cardboard can no longer be felt and the overall feel is just a bit squishy. Make sure to end the wrapping near the base so that the loose end can be pulled taught through the slit made in the cardboard cut out to secure the work. Cut the end and thread this into the looped wool. Repeat the same with the brown wool for the stump, just ending at the top of the stump to secure that piece of wool in. 

Finally, the fun decorative part! I was limited to only owning a glue stick so my decorations were either some miniature bauble garland (which I had originally planned to use as gift wrap) or some sparkly pipe cleaner. With each I wrapped these around the tree in a pattern I liked and tied into the wool to secure. If I were the proud owner of a glue gun I may have added pom poms or beads or anything else which could have been glued down more efficiently. 

That's the joy of making these, the trees can be any colour and the decorations can be anything that is lying around. There really are no craft police, if someone else were to make these they could look completely different but just as fabulous! All that matters is that making these trees was a chance to use some creative skills and have fun, they can be used as gift tags, lots of them could be connected together to make a garland, if i had a bit more faith in the glue they could become accessories or keyrings. Crafts are mean as inspiration, as a wise person once said "they're more like guidelines than actual rules".