A Year of a Twiggy Pom Pom Tree

Last year I made some twiggy trees in jam jars to decorate the tables at our office Christmas party. Dog wood twigs from the garden painted and sprinkled with glitter, topped with red wool pom poms created the tree framework. With cheapo star battery lights from Poundland woven through the twigs, a Happy Christmas garland made from ink stamping, bakers twine and an old book completed the look.

After the party I gave each of my Pom pom crew (the girls helped make the pom poms) a tree and took one home for myself, adding a vase in place of the jar and my twigs have gone a full year and decorated our table and mantel with each season.

Christmas 2012

Easter 2013

with the edition of handmade fabric eggs

Summer 2013

Multi coloured poms and a robin!

Christmas 2013

Silver mini baubles in place of poms, a feather bird and glitter festive greeting (lights still working!)

Now 2014 

Loads of feathered birds and a pom to match each one, adding a little colour

on these wet, windy days.

My twiggy tree has made me smile with happiness all year, not sure my OH would agree though!

The birds came from Tiger (2013) and only cost a few pounds 

The lights - Poundland £1!

Multi Pack batteries for lights ( I had originally 6 sets of lights) Poundland £1

Paint, Glitter and Wool for Pompoms - already owned.

Easter

Hope you all had a Happy Easter even though it was a chilly one!

i've updated my tree with feather birdies from Tiger (brilliant Shop) and I made the eggs from a pattern in Making and made a few more poms! 

My Easter started Wednesday as I don't work Thursdays. One of my work colleagues retires this month and took us all out for dinner, about twenty of us! I'm third from left

I baked Banana bread

I knitted egg cosies for my Niece and Nephew (these were the free pattern from a daily newspaper

I cheated a little on the design) They're keeping Kinder eggs warm

We watched ITV3 and enjoyed the old films. I did some knitting to those too

My tree is now an Easter Tree in now in the front room,

you may remember this tree for here and here!

Notice my little owl, I knitted this over Easter, if you look closely, you can see the pattern in the previous picture! Its from a Christmas knit book I mentioned before, here he is close up

Isn't he Tweet!

ps I've been very good and only chomped two Cream Eggs (honest)

Pom-pom's

I love Pom-poms, easy to make and cheerful too, like fairy lights, I just get enough! A few years ago I scored a pom-pom maker from a car boot sale, new in its box, never used, such waste. I used to make poms the old school way,  two circles of card with small balls of wool from mum and nans scraps. Now I have scrap's of my own to turn into things of beauty…well that might be over doing it just a little bit…

My little white bird is made from air dry clay, I pushed him onto a clear drinking straw so I could stick him in to the foliage of pot plants such as herbs. Now all my herbs are dead  *ekk! So he's in with the twigs!

**This would be a simple easter project with or without little ones, you could make bunnies from clay or little eggs which you could then paint, or why not make Pom-Pom Bunnies????! Why didn't I think of that before...

A little light craft

Last year I went to a lovely wedding , two good friends tied the knot with a lovely reception at RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects) building in Portland Square in central London, a beautiful day was had by all.

The theme was green and white, a team of us went pom pom crazy and I emptied the local area of vintage and pressed glass vases to decorate the small outside terrace. 

 I can't really believe a whole year's gone by, to celebrate the passing it's traditional to give paper.

An afternoon of sticking and glueing later and I'd made a small token of a handmade gift, a cracker complete with moto, snap, gift and confetti!

You can find easy tutorials to make crackers on the net or just wing it like I did! I used three loo rolls (romantic) removing the end two when the cracker was rolled up, double sided tape, paper (various types) ribbon and a paper pricker thingy to help when pulling the cracker apart!

I finished off my cracker with a paper fan yoyo, vintage button and ribbon.

A card was also made from vintage material, a stamp, a little stitching with a transfer to finish.

and my moto… you both pulled a cracker!