Thrift and Fun crafts 1.

Over the last year I have enjoyed a variety of activities and gatherings with the idea of making and creating. Of going out into the countryside to forage and gather ingredients which we can make into tasty treats, and trying out arts and crafts. Things that include traditional crafts, or new adaptions.

I have gathered together other pagan friends fortnightly to have an evening of creative fun trying out some of these crafts. Our group calls our fortnightly wednesday night 'Witches Stitches'. And though originally we intended to mainly do some kinds of stitch crafts, it has widened to include various others too.

And at other times, I have been able to attend local craft fairs, traditional village and goose fairs, or other events that promote traditional crafts and activities. All in all, this year has been full of creative fun, and certainly fuelled the creative juices in me, my family and friends too.

What is wonderful is sharing the fun, learning something together and ending up with something to remember the evening too. Some of the things we have made will become gifts and with the Winter Solstice coming up, I thought I would share some of the fun and ideas we've had to use for gift ideas, maybe over a couple of seperate blogging sessions.

Bath bombs



Thanks to my friend Sarah for this. We made some of these during a Witches Stitches a few weeks back. Easy to make and for children too.

2 tablespoons of cornflour,
2 tablespoons of citric acid and
60g of baking powder into a bowl.

In another bowl, put 3 tablespoons of oil
a few drops of food colouring
a few drops of essential oil
if you wish, add a few dried herbs too

Mix all these ingredients together into a damp crumbly mixture.

Pack into moulds - a ping pong ball cut in half is excellent.
leave for a few days to dry out a bit and then pack a few into cellophane wrapping and tie with a big bow

Button Craft

Another fun evening in Witches Stitches was suggested by Jane. Button craft is fun and easy to do and you can create some lovely decorations and items.




You need an assortment of buttons
wire
ribbons
any other decorative items you want to use.


Thread long wire through buttons and bend into different designs. Great for country type wall hangings, yule tree/xmas tree decorations.

some people put 2 or 3 buttons together to make different contrasts.

You can use ribbons or elastic to make hair decorations too. Or put wire and ribbons together for extra decorative effects.

And a last creative tipple.


Orange Liqueur

Walking around a well known supermarket with my friend Sarah recently we noticed the price of Grand Marnier liqueur, a lovely orange flavoured brandy type drink. We've already been making sloe gin and damson gin recently, and a forest fruit brandy is maturing in my cupboard at the moment.


However, we decided to make our own orange brandy too.

Cheap brandy with several orange slices and the same weight of sugar as that of the fruit is placed in a sealed jar or large neck bottle. Leave for at least a month in a dark cupboard. Decant the liqueur into clean bottles and put the fruit into jars to use as decorations on adult puddings.

Enjoy!