X Factor star and nation’s sweetheart Stacey Solomon has made a name for herself as a crafting and home decor extraordinaire. She is a huge fan of an at-home hack or fix, and loves to make her place look beautiful for her, husband Joe Swash, and her four kids, Leighton, Zachary, Rex and Rose.
Well, this Christmas she is treating her fans to a crafting extravaganza with Stacey Solomon’s Crafty Christmas. And with the help of professional organiser and Sort Your Life Out co-star, Dilly Carter, Solomon will transform a nearby barn into a Christmas grotto for a party with her local community, putting all the family’s crafty creations to good use.
“Crafting is something I can really lose myself in,” says Solomon, 33. “Life for many people is really fast and busy, and when I craft my mind has to focus on the task at hand. You can have all these thoughts running around in your head but you have to push them to one side to focus on the thing in front of you. It’s so relaxing.”
And she says it’s fine if it goes wrong: “That’s part of the fun! I’d say the bauble wreath is one of the easiest crafts you can do. It’s literally threading baubles on a hanger. It’s minimum effort and maximum satisfaction, because it looks really posh.”
Here’s a taste of some of the awesome crafts you can expect from Solomon. Glue guns at the ready!
Homemade bauble wreath
Equipment:
Baubles (these can be spray painted to your preferred colour palette)
Wire coat hanger
Jewellery pliers
Glue gun
Ribbon
Scissors
Instructions:
1. Open the coat hanger using the small pliers.
2. Shape the coat hanger roughly into a circle.
3. Slide the baubles down the metal wire one by one, making sure you alternate the colours and, more importantly, the sizes. The smaller baubles will fill in the spaces between the bigger baubles, making the wreath look full.
4. Rotate the baubles around the wire to fit snugly against one another as you place them one by one.
5. Once the wreath is full, use the pliers to bend and wrap the end of the wire back into position.
6. Glue gun and wrap the coloured ribbon around the exposed hanger. Add a bow using the ribbon.
Homemade wrapping paper
Equipment:
One roll of brown paper
Acrylic paint
Sponges
Old pen
Paper plate
PVA glue
Instructions:
1. Get a sponge and cut it into the shapes of holly and berries.
2. Stick sponges to an old pen using glue, to make it into a dabber.
3. Roll out your paper.
4. Get a paper plate and pour the two desired paint colours.
5. Take the leaf dabber and dab your design onto the roll of paper.
6. Take the berry dabber and repeat.
7. Leave to dry for approximately four hours.
Marbled baubles
“Me and Rex made these marbled baubles by dipping them in old nail varnishes in a bowl of water, which I thought was really cool and easy,” says the TV star. “He loves messy play, so it kept him occupied for an hour – he didn’t leave the table! He’s three years old and his attention span is questionable, but he loved it.”
Equipment:
Baubles
Plastic container/bowl
Toothpicks
Nail varnishes
Water
Disposable gloves (if desired)
Instructions:
1. Fill a plastic container with water.
2. Choose two to three colours of nail polish.
3. Add several drops of the first colour from the brush of your nail polish into the water. Put the brush close to the water to help drop the polish. If the brush is too far away, the polish will sink to the bottom of your container.
4. Add several drops of the second colour inside several of the dots already in the water.
5. Add more drops with a third colour, some inside the other colours and some outside. There’s no right or wrong way to do this! You can just drop polish randomly into the water if preferred.
6. Using a toothpick, quickly swirl a line or two through the nail polish.
7. Dip the bauble face down into the water. The polish will adhere immediately.
8. Hang the bauble to let it dry and repeat the process.
Stacey Solomon’s Crafty Christmas will air on BBC One and iPlayer on Thursday, December 15th
