Tuesday 20 December 2011

Make your own crackers from scratch

So, you may know by now I'm cheap.


Far too cheap to spend more than £20 on crackers that are full of things no one wants. (There's 14 of us at my parents for Christmas dinner)


Even too cheap to buy the 'make it yourself' kits.


So I played around a bit and figured out how to make my own using thickish paper, sellotape, ribbon and whatever I had around to decorate them. Plus whatever goodies you want inside.


First fold the paper in on itself nearly to the middle and then cut out triangles along each folded edge. You'll notice you don't have to be perfect.



Unfold and you'll have something like this:

Flip it over and decorate. I went boring. (classy?)

But my kids were more adventurous.



Roll it up when it's dry and stick it down with sellotape.



Tie one end up with a piece of ribbon, stuff and then tie the other end too.


A few of mine, but I like the kids ones best.


One of Izzy's.


And Ethan's. Just in case you didn't believe that I used what I had on hand to decorate! (one even had googly eyes!) 

But come on, who wants to be doing any more shopping than absolutely necessary this week?

And in the interests of keeping it real...


Most of the backs look like this, but I'll just arrange them like this:


So no one will notice. And you could add the snaps, but my kids HATE when they bang so I left them out.

Nosey? Here's what I put inside mine:


Just some pretty little baubles and a bell. Izzy also put a funny face picture inside some (instead of a joke), her idea too! The kids ones have little disc gliders. My husband has already been playing with them, so I'm thinking I should have done more like that...must be getting boring as I'm getting older!

Such a nice easy craft for the kiddies. But one that also helped me tick something off my list. Mine both loved decorating and Izzy loved stuffing and then passing them over for tying. Great to occupy them this week. 

Anyone else's kids crazy this week? And with no nursery school I am running out of fun ideas for them! (any help is welcome in the comments! :) )

4 comments:

  1. Have them string cereal onto yarn then drape on an outside tree for the birds Christmas treat! Great idea for the crackers, will be trying this myself!

    ReplyDelete
  2. try getting them to make them christmas presents like painting some really nice pictures or making cards with them, that is a good activity for when its christmassy! Or..... you could have walks around in the park. Or.... lots of baking like cookies and other christmas things, cause it is that time of the year. hope you have fun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the kid ones best too! You are all so creative. What a fun activity for all of you. I am a mew Twitter follower visiting from Someday Crafts. Vicky from Mess For Less

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with Vicky! How cute! When I lived in the States, I never encountered crackers, now I can not get enough of them. I think I might try my hand at this

    ReplyDelete