CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 3 DAYS!! Every year I seem to spend various amounts of money buying Christmas cards for people and always end u...

Every year I seem to spend various amounts of money buying Christmas cards for people and always end up with far to many cards left over at the end which I can never end up finding the next year. I also find that store bought cards aren't as personal as I would like them to be. For this reason I have decided that this year I'm going to make my own cards. As I've never done this before I thought it would be a nice DIY challenge. I thought I would share with you my favourite card design and how to recreate it yourself.

Snowman
This design is probably my favourite design of the two as it is easy to make and looks like alot of effort has gone into it!

You will need:

card
Christmassy decorations (optional)
ribbon
tissue paper
glue

Directions
The first step is to choose the colour card you want to use for your card, this will act as the background for the snowmen.

The next step is to cut out two snowman shapes out of white paper or foam, I used pre-cut shapes from a Christmas decoration pack I had found.

Once you have your snowmen you will want to decorate them! This is the fun part! For this part you can either choose to colour in your snowmen or you can use any bits and bobs you have lying around the house.


I decided to use tissue paper for the hats, left over ribbon for the scarves and stickers for the buttons, eyes and nose.

I then decided to add some snowflake gems I had so it looked like snow!


The last step was to add the letters to the bottom of the card to spell out Merry Christmas! This is an optional step as you could add some snow at the bottom instead!

Here is what my finished card looked like!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 4 DAYS!! I think it's safe to say I've missed a few days of Blogmas! I've been so busy with work an...

I think it's safe to say I've missed a few days of Blogmas! I've been so busy with work and Birthday & Christmas celebrations that I've honestly not had the time to edit posts :( but I'm back! This week hopefully won't be as hectic as last week, so hopefully there will be posts up every day until Christmas Day! (And maybe also on Christmas Day!)

So for this post I wanted to fill you in on the past week!

MONDAY & TUESDAY!
Monday & Tuesday were mostly spent last minute Christmas shopping! I can now say that I have most people's Christmas presents and only have one or two people left to buy for! For me this is a major achievement as I am one of those people who is still buying presents on Christmas Eve!

WEDNESDAY!
Wednesday was the start of the birthday celebrations! After work I went out for dinner with a friend at a Chinese restaurant in town where we enjoyed a mini Christmas celebration and exchanged presents!

THURSDAY!
Thursday was also spent working! However after work we decided that instead of eating out at a restaurant we would all enjoy an Indian takeaway! We have a tradition in our family where we try to always go out to dinner for someones birthday, so this was part of the celebration! I honestly don't think I've ever eaten so much food!

FRIDAY! - BIRTHDAY!
Friday was the day I finally turned 20!  Sadly there wasn't much celebrating done on my actual birthday as I had to work a double shift at work :( However this did mean that I got to spend my birthday with some of my favourite people which made the day more enjoyable!

SATURDAY - STAFF PARTY!
Saturday night (19th) was our work Christmas party! I can honestly say it's always one of the best days of the year, and this year was definitely no different! Me and a few other friends from work arrived together at the hotel early so that we could all get ready together and have a mini get-ready celebration!

At around 7pm we all went down to the bar/restaurant area where we would be spending the rest of the night! Everyone looked amazing all dressed up! and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves outside of work! After enjoying the meal it was time to enjoy the rest of the night! This involved alot of dancing and also quite alot of alcohol!

Loved this photo! and am beyond gutted its not in focus! (Although it looked like it was at the time..)

 

What was your favourite thing you did last week?

Hope you enjoyed this little catch up! 

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 11 DAYS!! I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that Winter is a time where you need to be kinder an...

I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that Winter is a time where you need to be kinder and more caring to your skin. This can often mean changing alot of the products you would usually use during the summertime in order to adapt to the colder temperatures which can be harsh for your skin. So for today's Blogmas post I wanted to share with you my Winter pamper routine and the different products I use during the Winter months.

The first thing I will do is run a bath, this is my favourite thing to do during the Winter as it's not only relaxing but also a great way of warming up after you've been out in the cold! Most of the time I will use either a bath bomb or bath melt from Lush as I love the scents and the way they make the bath look, however sometimes I will decide to use bubble bath's such as the ones pictured below.

The next and probably most important part is finding the perfect relaxing music to listen to whilst in the bath.  I will usually play this through my Bluetooth speakers which are waterproof so are fantastic to use in the bath. At this point most people will probably light a candle or two in order to make it more relaxing, however our bath isn't suitable for candles so I make sure to use a bath scent that is soothing without needing to use a candle too.

The aim of a pamper routine is to end up feeling refreshed and calmer so the next thing I will do is apply a face mask , at the moment my favourite is the Radiance Face Mask from balance me which contains extracts of walnut shells and fruit acids which are designed to cleanse and exfoliate the skin.

The last thing I will normally do is either paint my nails or put on a nail treatment such as the Rimmel Nail Rescue or a nail strengthener as this helps to make my nails stronger and less likely to break.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 12 DAYS!! For this post I thought it might be a good idea to share with you some throwback photos taken around ...

For this post I thought it might be a good idea to share with you some throwback photos taken around Christmas time! 

My family are definitely the kind who take lots of photos especially around Christmas so prepare yourself for a collection of lots of very Christmassy photos!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 13 DAYS!! For today's post I wanted to share with you how I decorated my Christmas cookies! For the rec...

For today's post I wanted to share with you how I decorated my Christmas cookies! For the recipe I used the 'Heart Tree Cut Out Cookie' recipe from A Spicy Perspective

I used a range of different cookie cutters including Christmas Trees and circles (regular cookie shape) and put the cookie shapes into the oven for around 6-8 minutes. This gave them the perfect sugar cookie colour. I then put the cookies onto a cooling rack to allow them to cool down before decorating. (I actually ended up leaving them for a few days as I was so busy with work!)

Before making the cookies I decided to do some shopping to make sure I had the perfect decorations for how I wanted my cookies to end up. I found various different icing colours, Christmas decorations, edible colour sprays, gems and hundreds & thousands in my local supermarket for a very affordable price.

What's your favourite thing to bake around Christmas time?

Have an amazing day/night and I'll see you tomorrow for Blogmas Day 13!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 14 DAYS!! As a massive fan of Instagram it was only a matter of time before this post happened and what bette...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - 15 DAYS!! Opening a stocking on Christmas morning is something that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age as it...

Opening a stocking on Christmas morning is something that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age as it's always an exciting way to start off Christmas morning! I have memories of when I was younger sitting on my parents bed opening our stocking presents all together!

So today I wanted to write a post that would hopefully help to provide ideas of how to create the perfect socking! (For those too old to receive presents from Santa of course!)

Most of the stockings I've recieved often contain some sort of jewellery or novelty items and chocolate & sweets and I feel like the best stocking presents include a mixture of both of these as well as something which may be personal to the person receiving the stocking.

Items Included 
(most of these items can be adapted to suit a mans taste)

Hand cream - especially good for the winter months when you need to keep your hands moisturized
Hand Warmers - probably my favorite item on the list to help you keep your hands warm. Especially useful for someone who always gets cold hands
Lip Scrub - I thought this would be a cute item to add to someones stocking and it's Christmas themed!
Novelty Items - novelty items are in my mind one of the best things you can put into a stocking, anything Christmassy is great!
Chocolate & Sweets - If you can't eat chocolate and sweets at Christmas when can you?
Nail Polish - Nail polish is mostly always a good idea for a stocking filler (unless buying for a man)