DIY Christmas Pudding Pom Pom Wreath

It's been a year since I made my first ever Christmas wreaths- some simple DIY felt and pom pom wreaths-  and now I know how fun and easy they are to make, I've been looking forward to making some new festive designs ever since.

As you'll know, Christmas wreaths are traditionally made from foliage- most commonly boughs of evergreen or holly decorated with natural decorations like dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, pinecones, berries, and seed pods, and finished with festive ribbon. The wreath I made a few weeks ago? It's about as far from traditional as you can get!

I decided to do something a little different this year and made a Christmas pudding pom pom wreath! A wreath in the shape and colours of a Christmas pudding made almost entirely out of pom poms!

I was inspired to create this wreath after stumbling up on a Christmas pudding pom pom wreath craft kit in John Lewis this Autumn. I'll admit I was tempted to buy it but it was expensive and over-priced, and I knew I could make my own for a fraction of the price, so that's what I decided to do. If I can make something myself, I will usually give it a go. I got myself down to Hobbycraft, bought the supplies, and saved myself about £15 in the process! The materials for the wreath came to just £7- although, I already had my own glue gun, glue, and pom pom makers, which will set you back around a further £10. £17 is still extremely reasonable for a wreath- especially a handmade one- and much cheaper than many mass-produced wreaths you will find in store. I personally think it was worth every penny!

Back in November, I set to work, and spent a few evenings making close to fifty brown and white pom poms while relaxing in front of the TV. Once I had enough, I was able to start building my wreath. This part was so easy and therapeutic, and while I spent two evenings putting it together, it only took me two or three hours in total to complete the construction process. You could easily make the entire wreath in an afternoon if you'd prefer to make it all in one go, so it's the perfect rainy day craft. (And let's face it; we've been having a lot of those kinda days this December!)

I'm really pleased with how well my wreath turned out for a first attempt. I don't know why I'm so surprised it worked out, because it was one of the easiest and simplest crafts I've ever made, but I didn't expect it to take shape so well.

If I'm honest, I would have liked to have added an extra circle of pom poms to the centre, and a another layer of pom poms along the middle of the two rows I've created, but I ran out of wool, and decided to keep it simple to keep the cost down. If my wreath is a little flat and uniform for you, though, you could add more pom poms to make it fluffier. You'll just need to buy two balls of each shade of wool instead of one, and attach the extra pom poms to the others with hot glue.

Don't worry if you're new to crafting or not particularly crafty at all, this Christmas pudding pom pom wreath is so easy to make. Anybody could make it- even older children. You don't need to have craft skills or experience to be able to make one, just the ability to use your hands, and a little patience (because making forty-two pom poms soon loses its appeal). Trust me, if I can make this without following a tutorial, you sure can! I'm not a skilled crafter. If you'd like a little guidance, however, I'm here with a tutorial for you to follow.

Unfortunately, I don't have step-by-step photos to guide you today, as the ones I took turned out so badly I couldn't salvage them or share them with the world. I've had to make do with these photos as I've not been able to reshoot them, but I will try to add tutorial photos at a later date if you want to bookmark this post and return to it later. In all honesty, this wreath is so easy to make, I think you'll know how to make it just by looking at my finished wreath.

How To Make A Christmas Pudding Pom Pom Wreath

You Will Need

♥ Flat wreath frame. (I used a metal 10 inch frame. You can go bigger or smaller if you'd prefer; you'll just need more wool for the pom poms if you go with a larger size).

♥ 100g ball of brown wool.

♥ 100g ball of white wool.

♥ 45mm pom pom maker.

♥ 4 small red pom poms.

♥ Dark green felt. 

♥ Scissors.

♥ Hot glue gun and glue stick.

♥ Fabric pen / pencil. (If you don't have one, a Biro will do).

♥ Green embroidery thread.

♥ Sewing needle.

How To Make The Pom Poms

1. Gather your brown and white wool, pom pom maker, and scissors.

2. Take your pom pom maker, and wrap wool tightly around one side until the arch closes in (about five layers), then close it shut.

3. Repeat step 2 on the other side of the pom pom maker.

4. Using your scissors, cut through the centre of the wool on both sides, being careful to hold the pom pom maker tightly closed as you work.

5. Thread a length of wool through the centre of the pom pom maker, tie it tightly in place, and double knot.
6. Carefully open your pom pom maker, and remove the pom pom.

7. Roll the pom pom between your hands, and use your scissors to neaten it by trimming off any uneven strands of wool.

8. Repeat until you have approx. 22 brown pom poms, and 20 white. (You'll obviously need more if your wreath frame is larger than mine).

How To Make The Holly Leaves

1. Draw two holly leaves on to the green felt, and cut out with sharp scissors. (If you're not good at drawing free-hand, just Google for a holly leaf template, print or trace it, and draw around it).

2. Thread a needle with two strands of green embroidery thread.

3. Backstitch a line of thread down the centre of the leaf, and add four or five pairs of diagonal stitches either side of the line so that they each form a v-shape. This will create the 'veins' of the leaf.

If you're not handy with a needle, you don't have to embroider the leaves; they'll look just as great without it, too. I am a stitcher, so I decided to embroider mine at the last minute to give my wreath a little extra something, and to add some texture.

How To Assemble Your Wreath

1. Take your wreath frame, pom poms, scissors, glue gun, glue, and holly leaves.

2. Starting at the bottom centre of the wreath frame, take a brown pom pom, and tie it tightly to the outer ring of the frame. Double knot it in place, and trim off the excess wool.

3. Now tie a brown pom pom directly above it on to the inner ring. Tie, knot, and trim.

4. Continue tying brown pom poms to the frame besides the others until you've filled at least half of the wreath frame.

5. Now repeat the process with the white pom poms, until the rest of the frame has been filled, and the circle is complete.

6. Next, take your glue gun, and add a little glue between pom poms to stick any loose pom poms together. This will help to keep everything in place. You can do this as you go along, but I personally think it's best to wait until all the pom poms are in place, and you know you're happy with your layout before gluing anything together.

7. Add a little glue to the back of the holly leaves, and stick them at an angle just off centre at the top of the wreath.

8. Take your little red pom poms and glue them in a diamond shape between the two holly leaves at the top centre of your wreath.

9. (Optional). Tie a length of ribbon to the back of the wreath at the top centre to hang it from. I'd recommend using a wide ribbon and matching it to one of the four colours in the wreath. You could also hang the wreath using a wreath hanger, command strip, or a nail on the wall, so you don't have to add a ribbon if you don't want to.

10. Voila, your Christmas pudding pom pom wreath is complete! Well done!

And now all you have to do is hang it on your door or above the fire place, and admire your hard work! I'd recommend hanging it indoors, unless you have a sheltered porch, as it's not weather-proof, and will get ruined by the elements.

So, there you have it; that's how easy it is to make your own Christmas pudding pom pom wreath. There really is nothing to it, so what are you waiting for?

If you decide to make your own Christmas pudding wreath, be sure to leave me a link to your photos so I can check it out- I'd love to see them! If you haven't got time to make one this Christmas, why not bookmark this post to come back to next Christmas?

Will you be making a Christmas pudding pom pom wreath this Christmas?

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Currently | July 2018

It's been a couple of months since I last sat down and wrote a 'currently' post about some of the things I've been doing and enjoying lately, so I thought it was about time for a catch up. 

Let's start with what I've been watching...

Watching

I haven't actually been watching much of anything new over the past few months, because I've not been in the mood to concentrate, or start anything new. Do you ever get days / months like that? I've been enjoying season two of The Handmaid's Tale, and Timeless, but apart from that, I've mostly just been watching old favourites like The Big Bang Theory, and Home and Away. I think the only new film I've watched this summer is The Greatest Showman, which I absolutely love. It's one of the best musicals I've seen in years, and I love that it unapologetically celebrates people of all shapes and sizes, colours, abilities, and conditions. It's so refreshing, and sends out such a positive message. I only wish they had featured more actors who have the health conditions- real albinos, real bearded ladies, real conjoined twins- to truly celebrate and help normalise such conditions, but I suppose finding actors with the conditions who can also sing and dance can't be easy in this ablest society. Regardless, I really enjoyed the movie, and I can't seem to get the songs out of my head.

Listening

I can't say I've been listening to a lot of music lately, just a bit of Linkin Park here, a bit of Fall Out Boy there... but I've been loving Panic! at the Disco's new album 'Pray For The Wicked'. It's full of amazing, upbeat, catchy songs.

 Reading

Since my last 'currently' post, I've been having a bit of a Frances Hardinge reading binge, and have worked my way through A Skinful of Shadows, A Face Like Glass, and Cuckoo Song. All three were fantastic page-turners that kept me gripped until the end. Hardinge has such a beautiful way with words, and her fantasy stories are so unique and original. I'd definitely recommend the three above.

Earlier this summer, I also read The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, a novel based on the true story of Lale Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner of Auschwitz who was forced to tattoo numbers on to the arms of the men, women, and children entering the concentration camps. The importance of his role earned him some protection in the camps, and he secretly used his privilege to help his fellow prisoners and the girl he was falling in love with, while risking being caught at any moment. Lale's harrowing story was fascinating and one of the best Holocaust stories I've read, but difficult to read at times, when the horrors he witnessed and friends experienced were described. Still, I flew through this book in two days, and highly recommend it if you have an interest in reading about the Holocaust.

  

Stitching

As I've been busy working on other craft projects over the last few months, I haven't done as much cross stitching as I'd like, and I'm still working on the colourful Spectrum Mandala cross stitch from The World in Stitches that I showed you in my last 'currently' post. I'm back to cross stitching daily again now, though, and I'm finally beginning to close in on the three quarter mark. I'm really happy with how it's coming together; seeing all those colours blend together is super satisfying. I'm hoping to get it finished by the end of August so I can spend Autumn working on some Christmas craft projects.

Crafting

In June, I finally finished the four felt spring wreaths I taught myself to make during the Spring, (which I blogged about here), and they came out so well it's given me such a sense of accomplishment. I've decided to make Christmas wreaths in a similar style, and as the Spring wreaths took months of work, I've already began working on them so that they'll be ready in time for Christmas. I've started making red felt roses and poinsettias to use, and next I'm going to figure out how to make felt amaryllis flowers, and possibly even pinecones and mistletoe. I can't seem to stop making felt flowers now I know how!

Painting

I haven't done heaps of painting lately, but I recently treated myself to a cheap set of gouache paints, and I've been having fun getting to grips with them. I've wanted to try painting with gouache for years, and I'm loving how vibrant the paints are compared to the watercolours I usually work in.

Buying

I had a nice little rebate earlier this year, so I've been able to treat myself to some amazing Erstwilder brooches, and lots of beautiful pieces from the Cath Kidston Alice in Wonderland collection lately. I've also been buying some Body Shop body butters and lotions, a few books, and a couple of Kimchi and Coconut brooches. I'll be blogging about most of them really soon!

Winning

I was recently lucky enough to win copies of Breathe magazine, and Breathe Special Nature Journal from Emma of The Cornish Geek (thanks, Emma!), which I'm absolutely loving. I've never read Breathe magazine before, but it's filled with inspiring articles on wellbeing, mindfullness and creativity, and illustrated with beautiful art. It's been such an enjoyable read, so I'm definitely going to be picking up future issues. 

The Nature Journal, which is designed to help you connect with nature to improve your wellbeing, is even better, with gorgeous art and illustrations on every page, and tasks to complete throughout the year. From writing down your favourite things about each season to exploring nature and recording the animals and plants you see, it's full of fun projects to help you connect with the natural world. If you love nature and enjoy being creative like I do, you'd love it, and need to get yourself a copy. I'm really looking forward to getting started on all the Summer and Autumn tasks, but it's so pretty I almost don't want to make a mark in it.

Needing

a holiday, a life, and some clothes I can wear in the heat without melting.

Wanting

Everything from the new Cath Kidston Otters and Mini Badgers and Friends collections, all the Erstwilder jewellery, some new bookshelves, a holiday by the sea, to spend some time out of the house, and my heart to calm the fuck down.

Wishing

the heat would cool down, and we could have Autumn weather already. If you haven't heard the UK is currently basking in the hottest and longest heatwave since the sixties. We've had over four weeks straight of 30'C+ weather here in Oxfordshire (it's been up to 34'C!), which is not normal English weather. We might get a week of it each summer, but that's usually it. Our houses are designed to keep the heat in and we don't have air conditioning in our homes, so it's been unbearable. I'm always overheated from my chronic illnesses, and can't regulate my own body temperature, so I feel so uncomfortable in the heat. I've not had the energy to do anything, and I feel like I've lost a couple of stone sweating from places I didn't know could sweat. I'm so ready for the weather to change, and for Autumn to begin. It doesn't sound like it's going to happen any time soon, though.

Celebrating

On the 2nd, I celebrated my 33rd birthday (man, I'm getting old!). I'm not one for parties and don't really have anyone to celebrate with any more, so I had a quiet one with a trip to the zoo, and an evening in eating birthday cake and a buffet tea with my family. I was given some lovely presents, too, which I'll be blogging about soon.

Playing

My younger sister bought me a Nintendo 2DS for my birthday earlier this month, so I've been having fun playing Mario Kart 7 almost every day since. It's been years since I last played it (on the Wii), and it's great fun. Does anyone have any 2DS game recommendations? I need to buy some new games to play on it.

Eating

I've basically been living on ice cream and all the cold drinks I can get my hand on, to survive the heatwave. Maxibons and Haagen Daaz lollies have been two of my recent faves- but nothing beats a 99 from the ice cream van!

Loving

I'm loving Insta stories at the moment. I could spend hours watching them from my fave Instagrammers every day (and sometimes I do). It's so addictive, and I love seeing what everyone is getting up to or enjoying. I began putting my own stories together a couple of months ago, and I'm really enjoying sharing little snippets from my life, like things I've been buying or crafting, and I'm having fun getting creative with it. It's definitely my favourite platform to use right now- although, I don't post every day because I haven't always got anything exciting to share. It's not easy coming up with interesting content when you're housebound and have no life!

So, that's what I've been doing and enjoying lately. What about you? 

What are you loving right now?

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My Handmade Felt Spring Flower Wreaths

In January, I set myself a list of goals for the year, and one of those goals was to make a spring wreath. Now here we are in July, and I'm proud to say I've smashed my goal by not only making one spring wreath this year, but four!

I originally intended to make a pom pom wreath with a few felt flowers mixed in, similar to the ones I made last Christmas, but as I got stuck in to the project, I changed direction and decided to ditch the pom poms and made floral wreaths almost entirely out of felt instead.

I started the project back in March, hoping to have the wreaths ready by Easter, but it took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Each stage was time-consuming, with each flower taking up to half an hour to make, and the leaves taking three hours to glue to each wreath alone. I was also hindered by my pain which only allowed me to spend up to an hour on them a day, so I didn't complete my last wreath until early June.

Okay, I might not have finished them in time for spring, but I like to think I'm ahead for next year!

I'd never made anything like them before, but I didn't follow any tutorials (except for how to make the roses, which seemed too complicated to figure out without a little help- they weren't), and made it all by hand through trial and error. I admit, I did have to Google for templates for the petals and leaves because I'm not brilliant at drawing free-hand, and needed something to draw around, but I made everything else up as I went along, using photos of flowers as a guide. I taught myself how to make felt daffodils, tulips, and pansies (with hand-embroidered faces), and enjoyed learning how to make felt roses using this tutorial from The Flower Art. Making the flowers was fun and super satisfying; after a while, I could almost do them with my eyes closed, and began to feel like a felt florist as felt flowers overflowed from jars and bowls around me. Once I got started, I found I couldn't stop making them! It's an addictive process.

I tried to make the flowers look as realistic as a felt flower can, and used a variety of bright and pastel felt sheets from Hobbycraft and The Felt Fairy in shades of yellow, pink, purple, peach, orange, and white, with three to four shades of green for the leaves. Two of the wreaths I made are made of pastel-coloured flowers, while the other two are a little bolder. Unfortunately, I haven't captured the true colours of the felt well in the photos as I suck at photo editing and couldn't get the photos right, but they're much deeper and brighter in real life. The yellow daffodils are bright and cheerful, and the dark green leaves are grass green, not forest, but you get the idea. I can't decide which style I like best- although, I decided to keep the second wreath I made with the purple ribbon, so perhaps I prefer the deeper coloured flowers after all.

To make the wreaths, I began by wrapping spring green wool tightly around one ring of a wooden embroidery hoop for the base, which took about an hour and a half for each one. The next step was attaching the felt leaves to the hoop with a hot glue gun, I used three shades of green felt for the leaves, and it took about three hours just to glue them on to each one- and that's not counting the time it took to cut them all out first. Once the leaves were in place, I played around with different arrangements of the flowers I'd pre-made until I found a look I liked, and then spent a couple of hours gluing them securely to each wreath. To finish the wreath I've completed, I tied a length of pretty ribbon to the screw of the hoop to hang it from (although, for the inner hoops, which don't have a screw on top, this is best done before you glue on the leaves, as you have to tie the ribbon around the embroidery hoop).

I still need to buy ribbon to finish the last three wreaths as I haven't got anything suitable in my stash, but other than that, my felt spring wreath project is complete!

Obviously, I'm not a craft blogger, but I had hoped to blog a tutorial to show you guys how to make a felt spring wreath, but spring has been and gone, and now summer is swiftly ticking away, I guess it's going to have to wait until next spring instead. If anyone wants to know how I made anything, though, just send me a message, and I'll try to talk you through the process. I am planning to show you how to make a felt Christmas wreath before the year is through, though, so watch out for that this November / December! 

I've moved on to making felt Christmas wreathes already, so that they'll actually be ready to hang on time this Christmas, and have been busy making red felt poinsettias and roses over the last few weeks. I'm going to figure out how to make felt amaryllis flowers next. Once you get started, it's hard to stop! 

Without meaning to toot my own horn, I'm really pleased with how well the felt wreaths came together, and proud of them for a first attempt at felt flower / wreath-making. Apparently, you really can do anything when you set your mind to it!

Have you ever tried to make a felt wreath or flower? What was the last thing you crafted?

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Currently | April 2018

It's been ages since I last wrote a 'Currently' post (like more than six months ago), so I thought it was about time I put a new one together and updated you on some of the things I've been doing and enjoying lately. Today, I'll fill you in on what I've been reading, watching, buying, making, loving and much more.

Shall we start with the books?

Reading

Since the last time I did one of these 'currently' posts, I've worked my way through the Me Before You series by Jojo Moyes, Me Before You, After You, and Still Me, which I absolutely adored (although, After You wasn't the best). I reread a little of Little Women, A Christmas Carol, and Carrie, and most recently finished How To Stop Time by Matt Haig, and Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon, both of which I really enjoyed. I've now moved on to A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge, the author of The Lie Tree, but I've only read a few chapters so far, so I couldn't tell you much about it yet, except that I'm hooked already. I'm really enjoying reading again at the moment, so if anyone's got any book recommendations, let me know in the comments! I read a bit of everything. 

Watching

I haven't watched many new films or TV shows lately as I just haven't been in the mood to concentrate on anything new- plus I've misplaced my Amazon Fire Stick remote so I haven't been watching Netflix in bed as much. I've mostly been enjoying The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, Timeless, and Home and Away, and I've got in to watching The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie in the middle of the night because I haven't been sleeping well. I used to love both shows when I was a kid. (FYI, I watched reruns in the nineties; I wasn't alive when they were first out! I'm not that old!) I've also enjoyed watching Little Women (the BBC series), The Miniaturist, Suffragette, The Cloverfield Paradox, Belle, and re-watching The Theory of Everything and Beauty and the Beast (live action).

Listening
I'm currently obsessed with Fall Out Boy's new album, 'Mania', and have basically been playing it on repeat since it came out a couple of months ago. It's such a catchy album, and it's full of great tunes; I'm hooked on every single one. I particularly love 'Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)', and 'Bishops Knife Trick' and haven't been able to stop playing them this week. I also love Panic! at the Disco's new song 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)', (the music video for it is pretty epic, too) and I can't wait for their new album. It's like 2005 all over again!

Wreath-making

Lately, I've been getting handy with a glue gun, and have made a garden of felt flowers and leaves to add to the Spring wreaths I'm currently making. I've taught myself how to make felt roses, daffodils, tulips, pansies, and their leaves so far, and they've turned out surprisingly well, so I'm pretty darn proud of myself for it. Once I've embroidered faces on to the pansies, I should be ready to start putting the wreaths together... unless I decide I want to make yet another type of flower. in the meantime. I'm finding it really addictive. I've also been breaking out the pom pom makers, and have made a shed load of pastel-coloured pom poms for the Spring wreaths,



Making
In addition to making felt flowers and pom poms, I've also made some polka dot fabric hoop art using the loveliest pastel polka dot fat quarters, and wooden embroidery hoops from Hobbycraft. All I did was frame the fabrics tightly in the hoops, and blanket stitch some felt on to the backs to finish them. They're so quick and easy to make! I then turned the left over fabric in to bandannas for my dog, Rosie, and made her a few others as well. You can see her modelling the mint green one on Instagram here.

Stitching

I'm currently almost half way through a rainbow-coloured spectrum mandala cross stitch from The World In Stitches, and I'm really enjoying stitching with all of those colourful threads. Well, you know me and anything colourful! Moth to a flame. It's the same design as the spectral mandala I made last Summer (which you can see here), except the colours are reversed, with this one edged with red and the rainbow bleeding inwards to purple. The colours are so beautiful and cheerful, and I think it's going to look so pretty when it's finished. If you fancy giving the spectrum mandala cross stitch a go yourself, you can find it on The World in Stitches' Etsy shop here.

Painting

I haven't done a lot of painting lately as I've been too busy crafting, but I have bought a couple more Johanna Basford canvases to paint this Spring. I really need to get back in to it soon because I miss it.

Wanting

To own all the Lindy Bop dresses, Erstwilder brooches, Sophie Conran for Port Meirion Colour Pop crockery, and Too Faced's Life's a Festival make up collection.

Needing

Some new ballet pumps, sandals, ankle boots, clothes I can wear in the heat without melting, and to dye my hair. My roots are getting ridiculous, and the greys coming through are depressing me big time. There's no way I'm getting old already. No way at all. *Cries.*

Wishing

I could have a holiday, and go on some more concert adventures. I also wish my tachycardic heart would go back to normal already and let me sleep, and the back and joint pain would give me a break for a little while, but that's probably too much to ask.

Having
Blood tests, blood tests, blood tests, kidney scans, DEXA scans (bone density scans), yet another new anti-inflammatory drug that weakens the immune system... Don't worry, though, I'm fine! I'll try to do a proper health update to fill you in soon.

Buying

I've treated myself to a few new bits and bobs lately, including some Lindy Bop tea dresses, four Erstwilder Christmas brooches in the sale, some books, craft supplies, the Urban Decay Heavy Metals palette (oh, it's so pretty!), and a Cath Kidston Park Wildlife fox ring dish and fox and rabbit crockery.

Loving

The sunshine that has finally put in an appearance after a long dreary grey winter and given us the hottest April in something like seventy years. I've not been able to go out and enjoy it, sadly, but I'm appreciating the sunshine flooding through the windows, having some decent light for blog photos for a change, and the obligatory ice creams. (By the way, Haagen Daz's Vanilla Caramel Brownie ice cream is amazing)! It's helped to lift my mood, even if I have been melting in the heat. I'm not crazy about the heat, so I'm glad it's cooled down again this week

Missing
Rosie, who is away in the kennels this week while my parents are on holiday, as I haven't got the pain tolerance to look after her single-handedly for so long. I feel so guilty leaving her there when I'm home, but needs must. The house is far too quiet without her, though, and I don't like it. I can't wait to get her back this weekend.

Seeing
Fall Out Boy live at the O2 in London a few weeks ago. It was the third time I've seen them live, and they were phenomenal! I'd go as far as saying it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen! I wish I could go back and experience it all over again; it was over waaay too soon. If you'd like to read about it, I blogged about the experience here.

And that is basically what I've been up to lately in a nut shell.

What about you? What have you been enjoying lately?

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