Bastelesel

Three years ago I found these lovely ornaments in a german magazine called landlust and since then I just get them out every year again. That’s why today I’ll tell you how to do them. The following ingredients are needed and supposedly available in nearly every household.

1.8oz cinnamon, 2 tbsp finely ground cloves, 1 tbsp nutmeg, about 3/4 cup of applesauce

Mix spices in a bowl and add applesauce step by step to obtain a firm moldable pastry. Roll it out about 1/4″ thick and cut stars, hearts or anything else with cookie cutters. Make a small hole to hang them up lateron. You can use a toothpick, a thick needle or a knitting needle. Put them on a rack and let them air dry for 3-4 days. Then you can hang them up directly or decorate them with some star-anise which is best to be fixed with hot glue. They’ll spread a light scent of cinnamon for holiday.

This kind of advent wreath will need some space and goes best with country style furniture or on a roofed terrasse. Then the candles should be replaced by glass candle holders. The rack is made with three birch tree logs being 4 feet long and having a diameter of 1.5-2 inches. Just beneath the upper third the logs are tied with a strong cord which is hidden behind a large felt bow and a pine cone. At their bottom the birch logs are bolted together with thin branches giving the rack its firmness. Decorate an advent wreath with candles and other holiday accessories and place it between the birch tree boles at the top. A wooden Christmas tree and two firewood angels standing beside a further candle are completing the arrangement. After Christmas you may use the rack for a spring or Easter decoration.

One of the quickly done calendars. Simply choose a wicker heart and decorate it with a Christmas ribbon matching with the color of the wall behind it. Mine will hang on a light brown wall. The lovely Santa box is made with the template of the mini gift box which I showed last October. For this calendar I glued a small hat on top of the box to mark the “6”. If the box will stand like on my book shelf calendar you can even creat a hat with a quadrant and glue it to the upper side of the closed box with a small auxiliary strip. Border and point of the hat are covered with some wadding. Beneath its front border I glued some wadding formed as a beard and placed a little wooden ball in its middle giving a nose. To open the box simply fold the hat backwards and lift the upper flap.
Get free printable numbers from 1-24 with my proposal number III.