Claire Williams Craft portfolio clwilliams81@hotmail.com 07841373368
aRtS & cr Aft
A Handmade Christmas Create your own unique, personalised Christmas gifts for friends and family. Words and projects: Claire Williams. Photographs: Alex Tapley
HaNgiNg BiRd cakES
These hanging feeders are the perfect present for a bird lover. Not only will they provide essential food for over-wintering birds, they’ll add a touch of Christmas cheer to your garden. Materials • 400g bird seed • One pack gelatine (20g) • Spray cooking oil • Cookie cutters (we used heart, star and Christmas tree shapes) • Baking parchment • Drinking straws • Twine
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Make up the gelatine sheet mixture according to packet instructions. Gently heat the mixture until all the gelatine has dissolved, ensuring you don’t let it boil. Add the melted gelatine to a large mixing bowl containing the bird seed. Mix well. Line a baking sheet with parchment and spray the inside of the cookie cutters with the oil so the bird mix doesn’t stick to the sides. Once the bird seed mixture is cool, spoon it into the cookie cutters and pat down to compact. Cut a drinking straw into thirds and push one third into the centre of each mould. This will create a hole for the twine. Next, put the bird seed cakes, still in their moulds, into the freezer to set for about three hours. Once set, push the cake out of the mould and pull out the straw. Thread a piece of twine through the hole and tie together to make a hanging loop.
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dESigNER cRackERS
Make your own pretty Christmas crackers using offcuts of wrapping paper. Choose a colour theme to run throughout and use a range of patterns. Materials (makes four crackers) • Four 20cm x 30cm rectangles of good quality wrapping paper • Six cardboard toilet rolls • Four cracker snaps • Four tissue paper hats • Ribbon • Glue gun and glue sticks • A toy or a sweet for inside the cracker • A tracing wheel (sometimes called a paper perforator) • Ruler, pencil and scissors
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ANiMAl jARs
These cute jars are perfect for presenting homemade preserves or filling with sweets. You can paint them all the same colour or alternatively use two or three shades. Materials (makes six) • Six jam jars and lids • Six small plastic animals • Hot glue gun • One can of spray paint (we used Liquitex acrylic paint spray)
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Begin by cutting out a rectangle of wrapping paper roughly 20cmx30cm
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Wash your jam jars and lids in a dishwasher at a high temperature to sterilise them. Next, decide which plastic animals you want to glue to the lids
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Using a hot glue gun, dab the underside of an animal with glue. Try to glue just the feet or the base so the glue can’t be
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Using the glue gun, stick a cracker snap across the widest part of the paper at the bottom edge. Use a small amount of glue on each end of the snap.
seen. Before the glue dries, place the toy in the centre of a jam jar lid. Hold down for a few seconds, then leave to dry
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to getting an even coat is to spray the lids a little at a time, leaving the paint to dry for a few seconds before spraying again. Gradually build the colour with short, even sprays. Leave to dry outside for at least an hour
Once all your animals are securely glued, it’s time to paint them. You’ll need to do this outside. Place your lids on a table lined with newspaper. Follow the instructions on the can. The key
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stay inside, whist those on the outer edges are there just to shape the cracker and will be disposed of later. Just before you reach the cracker snap, apply a few blobs of hot glue along the edge, then roll over to seal.
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Fill with homemade jam, chutney, sweets or chocolates
Now insert the hats, toy and joke into the other end of the cracker.
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Draw a line in pencil 10cm in from the short edge on both sides. Next, use the tracing wheel to go over these lines. This will perforate the paper, enabling the cracker to come apart when pulled
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Place three cardboard rolls in a line along the top of the paper (opposite side to the cracker snaps) and carefully begin to roll the cracker. The middle one will
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Gently pull down one of the cardboard rolls at one end and scrunch the paper together to close one end. Tie closed with a piece of ribbon.
Finally, seal the other end together by scrunching again and using a ribbon. Follow the same steps to make the next three crackers. To present your crackers, gift wrap a small cardboard box (a shoe box is ideal), line with tissue paper and fill with the crackers.
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When cut straight from the garden and placed near a window, just a few stems of honesty can light up a room
Papery discs of light • Photography: Richard Faulks • Styling: Claire Williams
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Pods can be stuck to each other to form a beautiful window display. Here the dried seeds are also used for decoration
Honesty seed cases can be turned into earrings by attaching a pair of fish hook findings to the top of each pod
A simple sprig of honesty, secured with twine, is a natural and beautiful way to decorate a wrapped present
The flat, translucent, papery seed cases of honesty orbit each stem like glowing moons. Winter is when this spring flowering plant is at its best. Whether touched by frost or glistening in the winter sun, the delicate seed pods are spheres of light in an otherwise muted garden.
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To make this mobile, honesty discs are sewn together with cotton, then tied onto an embroidery hoop
A candle in a glass is placed within a vase full of honesty. When backlit like this, every detail of the honesty’s fragile cases can be seen
Lunaria annua Honesty, Lunaria annua, is grown for its unique seed heads that dry in winter, and its bright purple flowers in spring and early summer. It is a biennial plant belonging to the brassica family. This is a plant that chooses where it wants to live, often seeding in unusual places like banks and verges. Once the papery discs are blown away the seeds are scattered far and wide, allowing new colonies of honesty to spring up. Seeds should be sown from May to June and can be planted in full sun or partial shade. It will grow in most soil types. This low-maintenance plant will offer the garden a different kind of beauty every season.
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Winter berry bird feeders Isabella and Sam pick a variety of berries in the nearby fields to mix with birdseed and lard to make the feeders
Colourful birdseed cakes provide a tasty meal for hungry birds and a fun activity for the family
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ith winter in full swing, garden birds are busy looking around for any morsel to keep them going until spring. Four-year-old Isabella and seven-year-old Sam wanted to make sure the birds in their garden had plenty to eat, so with a little help from Mum, they decided to make birdcake feeders. They planned to use mixed seeds, freshly picked berries such as pyracantha, rowan and rosehips, and melted lard. Biscuit cutters would mould the cakes into heart, circle, star and square shapes, before they were hung up outside with string. The first job was to forage for berries, so armed with a bowl for collecting the children headed over to the fields next to their house. After pulling handfuls of shiny orange, yellow and red fruits from the bushes they had a colourful collection of berries to return home with. Back in the kitchen Mum helped them carefully pluck each berry off its stem and Sam and Isabella mixed them into a bowl filled with seeds. Then ›
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A coating of dried lard holds the birdseed cakes together so they can be hung from tree branches
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The freshly-picked berries are mixed with a variety of different birdseeds
Melted lard is poured into the mixture and stirred vigorously to cover the berries and seeds
A wooden skewer is pushed into each cake and left in place while the mixture sets to create a hole for the string
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The different-shaped biscuit cutters are filled with the mixture, which is packed tightly
Isabella and Sam thread string through their birdseed cakes then hang them from tree branches in the garden
Mum melted the lard into a thick, clear solution and carefully poured it into the bowl. Sam worked the melted lard into the berries and seeds until they were all coated, while Isabella laid out the shaped biscuit cutters on to a sheet of baking paper. The children began spooning the wet mixture into each mould, making sure they packed plenty of seeds and berries into each one. Mum found some wooden skewers to push into each individual birdcake. Once the lard had set and the cakes were hard, the skewers could be pulled out, leaving a hole for string to be threaded through. To allow the feeders to set properly they had to be stored in the fridge for a few hours.
Later that afternoon, Sam and Isabella retrieved their feeders and pushed the firm, cold cakes out of their moulds, threading each one with string. Then it was time to find the perfect spot to display them. The children choose to hang their feeders on a tree branch at the end of the garden, so that the birds would feel safe feeding there. This spot was also perfectly visible from the kitchen window, which meant Isabella and Sam were able to watch the birds feed while they stayed warm and cosy indoors. • Photography: Richard Faulks
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Fruit of the rose The bright red hips of the rose offer up a splash of colour as the landscape turns golden brown • Photography: Richard Faulks • Styling: Claire Williams
The blood-red rosehip berries are entwined into a wreath using dried plant tendrils such as honeysuckle
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“Blackberries juicy, for staining of lips; And scarlet, O scarlet, the Wild Rose Hips! Gay as a gipsy, all Autumn long, Here on the hedge-top, this is my song.” The Rosehip Fairy Poem, Anon
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Left: delicate hips coupled with textured bark make a striking table display. Right: dried Honesty and poppy seed cases make ideal decorative partners with rosehips
In old clay pots The bright tomato-like hips of the Rosa rugosa (Beach Rose) burst with colour but the plant’s thorns can be severe, so thick gardening gloves should be worn when handling. The colours of dried cream Helichrysum flowers and rosehips work well together in two old terracotta pots. Fresh cut hips will last for weeks without wilting if watered every few days.
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a ring of roSehipS As one of the last fruits of the season, rosehips are ideal for making syrups and wine. Rosehip syrup contains 20 times more vitamin C than oranges. During World War Two, when citrus fruits were rare, parents gathered wild rosehips in order to make a vitamin C rich syrup for their children.
a baSket of light
Simple table decorationS
An old wicker basket and pillar candle can be transformed into a seasonal decoration by gently winding rosehip cuttings around the inside of the basket. The bark from a silver birch tree can be worked around the candle and held with glue.
Shards of tree bark, a sprig of rosehips and a small crocheted doilie form a simple but attractive arrangement for entertaining on cold autumn evenings.
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A circle of rosehips decorates a homemade bottle of rosehip wine. The small red berries are threaded onto a ring of thin wire
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