Last Minute Gift - Hand Tie Bouquet

Uh oh! We are due to visit a friend and are stuck for ideas for gifts. Whoops. 😰 Left it a bit too late again.

As we are officially in spring, flowers come straight into mind. We love gifting handmade gifts - to us, it's the personal touch, there is just something magical and touching about it. Something unique, something you have created, your own mark.

Recently in our local supermarket, we have been spotting some really beautiful tulips, they have two color shades on them, a bit like oriental lilies but with a more rounded edge. So why not make a hand tie bouquet since tulips are in season? 🌷

To add a personal touch, we have used our wrapping paper, which is perfect for this occasion as it is perfectly trimmed for small bouquets e.g for half to a dozen of tulips, or roses. Thought about using mini roses too for this bouquet as there was a beautiful orange bunch, but the heart has been stolen by the beautiful dual tone on the tulips. 

This is how we made our bouquet:

1) Trimmed the leaves and ends of the stalks 

2) Blot dry any excess water. If you are traveling a long distance or have a good few hours to go before you pass on your gift. You may wrap a soaked cotton wool with water and bind it with cling film. Making sure the water doesn't seep through the cling film to dampen the paper but enough to keep the flowers moist. 

3) Tie the bouquet with a rubber band

4) Choose and tear a sheet of wrapping paper from the Gift Wrapping paper book 

5) Lay the wrapping paper in a landscape view. Lay the flowers on top about 45 degrees of the wrapping paper.

6) Roll wrapping paper to form a cone around the bouquet.

7) Secure with your choice of ribbon.  

Et voilà ! A little quick and easy handmade gift, (That you made it yourself! High five! 🙌) - a perfect, small personalised present. 💐 

How to Make A Match Box Advent Calendar

1st Decemeber! That's one of our favorite dates in the year. Why? It's 24 days to Christmas - and every morning, we can pop open the windows of our advent calendar, which only happens in the month of December. Every day, we eagerly look forward, to unveiling a little surprise - and of course, every day just gets that little bit closer to Christmas. Yay!!!

If like us, you like making something, and like gifting sweet little gifts, this tutorial on making your own advent calendar may be just up your alley.

Tools, Materials and Ingredients

• 24 match boxes ( recycling old match boxes will be the best )
• scissors
• double sided tape or glue ( our preference is to use a sticky tape roller such as the "Bostik Sticki Tape Roller" available from Ryman, as it keeps all sticking job dry and neat)
• 24 little gifts to fill the match boxes
• 3 pieces of A4 paper to print the numbered Match box wrappers that can be downloaded here

Cut each individual dates out and use either double sided tape or glue to attach the designs to the boxes. The designs will work for small rectangular boxes too. The idea is to make sure the designs cover the top of the box, or wrap around the box in the case of a match box. 

After the boxes are numbered with the individual days, fill them with little gifts. Our favorites have included: 

• tictacs 
• gold / silver chocolate coins available from Waitrose
• finger tattoos available from Paperchase
• hair bobbles
• key rings
• glitter paper clips
• stickers  
• hand written messages  
• vouchers
• pin badges
• lottery ticket  
• nail clipper
• cute buttons
• matches (why not?) 

After the boxes are filled. Mix them around to mix around the dates.

To display the match boxes, you can affix these boxes on to the wall with tape that does not strip off the paint from the wall e.g. 3M Command Poster Mounting Adhesive Strips, or simply line them up on a mantelpiece.

Have fun and happy counting down to Christmas!