Belle Amour Less of the traditional & more of the original

I’m afraid it’s that time of year where I take on too many massive projects with stupidly tight deadlines. It appears to be what I’m best at :/ So as I have no time to blog I hope you don’t mind me reposting a few festive past posts… not particularly wedding related but everybody likes a bit of craft now and again right?! :)

I love all things creative. I love Christmas. And so last year I combined the two and made hampers for gifts! I thought I’d share some photos and recipes with you as ideas for not only Christmas but also for winter wedding favour ideas…

Here’s what I put in the hamper:

• Chilli jam.
• Cranberry liqueur.
• Snowflake felt decoration.
• Candle.
• Chocolate.
• Candy canes.
• Christmas CD.

Chilli jam

I used this recipe to make the chilli jam but I removed all the seeds as I thought it would be far too hot otherwise! I’d definitely take care when making this; handling chillies and then accidentally touching your face is just not fun! Also it kind of felt like my hands were on fire when I was stirring the cooking jam so maybe gloves would be an idea. Don’t let this put you off making the jam though as it is insanely tasty; amazing on cheese and biscuits. I packed it in jars that I bought here and then added a label, with red and white baker’s twine. The label had the Alice in Wonderland words ‘eat me’ and notes on the ingredients and best before date. I used a snowflake punch so I could attach the label to the jar.

Cranberry liqueur

Using this recipe I made bottles of Christmas coloured alcohol that had a gorgeous festive taste due to the ginger and cinnamon. I used swing top bottles found here and added a label as with the chilli jam but swapping the words to ‘drink me’.

Snowflake felt decoration

Inspired by this tutorial I cut circles of red felt (my sewing machine couldn’t handle two pieces as in the tutorial) and stitched a snowflake design. I added red and white ribbon and a little star bead in the centre.

Candle

The candle was a Lily Flame candle picked purely because the colours matched my red and white theme. Luckily it smelt nice too and, at the time, I worked in a shop that sold them so I got a good discount; these candles aren’t the cheapest!

Chocolate.

Bought from Thorntons. Cheating a little but I made quite a lot of other bits for the hamper and Christmas is a busy time of year :)

Candy canes

Perfect for the red and white theme. I also bought more for the Christmas tree.

Christmas CD

I put together a CD of Christmas tunes and used my printer’s handy CD printing function to put a red and white design with tracklist on it. Here’s what went on, have fun listening to some Christmas tunes!

1. Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin Stevens
2. Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea
3. Step Into Christmas – Elton John
4. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – The Jackson 5
5. I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day – Wizzard
6. Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
7. 2000 Miles – The Pretenders
8. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl
9. A Spaceman Came Travelling – Chris De Burgh
10. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – John Lennon & Yoko Ono
11. All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey
12. Last Christmas – Wham
13. All Alone on Christmas – Darlene Love
14. Mistletoe & Wine – Cliff Richard
15. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – The Carpenters
16. And, as an Alan Partridge fan, I had to include…Gaudete – Steeleye Span

I wrapped the completed hampers in recycled white paper, tied them with baker’s twine and added a glittery heart (from Hobbycraft) and a jingle bell (from Paperchase) to the gift tag…

I’m currently in the midst of making this year’s Christmas hampers. It’s a lot of work but fun to do and I love to give a gift that you can’t buy. I can’t share what’s in the hampers yet just in case any of the intended recipients are reading this but I’ll share after Christmas as there are a few more ideas in there you could use for wedding favours :)

Debs

Originally posted Thursday, December 23rd, 2010.