Crafty Christmas Hamper - Part 2

It’s time for part 2 of our Christmas Craft Hamper project, and after making our blackberry gin, Christmas chutney and lipsticks for last month’s edition (click here for that blog post), we’re really excited to get stuck into the goodies we have planned for October into November. For this month we have three great gifts to suggest to you, the first being DIY body scrubs, then our mulled wine starter kit, and finally some leather belts or journals.

We’ve also made a Pinterest board for the hamper as it’s been an invaluable source of inspiration for DIY gifs, so we thought we’d share it with you! Check it out here.

1.  DIY Body scrub

This is so so quick and simple to make, and honestly, you’re likely to have most - if not all - the ingredients already waiting to be used in your kitchen cupboards. You may have to buy yourself the small pots to put them in, but if you have any small jars or containers lying around then recycling is the way to go.

To make the scrubs you can choose any combination of the following ingredients, so long as you have at least oats, sugar (as long as it’s abrasive) and an oil base. Watch the video to know just what to do…

Possible ingredients:

·      Oats

·      Granulated/Demerara Sugar

·      Coffee grounds

·      Coconut/Avocado/Almond/Walnut/Olive Oil

·      Sea Salt

·      Essential oils (whatever scent you’d like)

2.    Mulled Wine Starter Kit

 When Gem lived in Shanghai she wasn't able to get hold of pre-made mulled wine… shock horror, haha! However there were a lot of guys selling spices around the city so she’d have to take her chances sniffing the ingredients they offered and place anything Christmassy into tea bag bags. And that was it, she decided never to return to the pre-made bottles. This coming month we'll make a video and explain which ingredients are best – all of which we source from Spice of Life on Inverness Place, but in the meantime here’s enough information for you to make them at home. Remember, 1 sachet is enough for one bottle of mulled wine.

 Things you’ll need (per sachet):

·      3-4" cinnamon stick (7-10cm)

·      30 cloves

·      20 allspice berries

·      3 cardamom pods

·      1tsp orange peel or mixed peel

·      6” square of cheesecloth, muslin or plain cotton fabric (remember this will be placed into the wine to infuse)

·      Cotton threat to bind shut the sachet

Click here to visit the website we used for the rest of the instructions.

We’re also holding two workshops on November 12th where you can learn to make gift bags for your Christmas gifts, and it’s a perfect way to make present giving more sustainable (rather than using all that un-recyclable wrapping paper). You’ll make between 8-10 bags, so if you’re interested click here to book into one of the workshops.

An example of the belts made at our workshops

3. Leather Journals / Belts

These are a perfect gift idea for the men in your life (not exclusively, though!), and as they’re a little more on the tricky side we suggest coming along to one of our workshops to make either one of them. For leather belt making, there’s a workshop on Friday October 25th at 6:30pm (click here to book), and for leather journal making there’s a couple of workshops on Wednesday December 4th at 1pm and 6:30pm (click here to book). We’ll provide all the materials of course, and all the expertise to go home and make them away from the workshop. We’d love to see you there!

That’s that for our Crafty Christmas Hamper this month, so if you decide to follow along or do anything similar make sure to tag us on social media! We’d love to see what you’re up to, and we’re most inspired when we see what other people are getting up to.

Happy crafting!

Gem & Em

x