What a cracker (plus tutorial)...

14 more sleeps to go, 14 more sleep 'til Santa.....

Have you made any Christmas decorations this year or have you just been concentrating on your cards?  Well here's an idea to either brighten up your Christmas table or your mantel piece.  I've even included a tutorial of how to make them so all of the hard work has been done for you, you've just got the fun bit of making and decorating them in your own style.  Why not email me a picture of your finished cracker (email in the side bar) and I'll add the photo to the bottom of this post?

Here's my cracker using a design which is less traditional, but still as much fun to make  You could always put a little gift inside before you tie the ribbons at each end or insert the cracker strips to create the band when you pull it open too!

Materials used:

Digi - robin set

Coloured with promarkers
Glossy accents
Digi papers - coconut ice
Printed onto card
Sentiment - vintage Christmas sentiments
Distress Ink - victorian velvet
Ribbon - carnival collection
Pearls from my stash

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

I Love Promarkers - anything goes
Whimsy Stamps - anything festive
Joanna Sheen - with love at Christmas
Emerald Faeries - Christmas
Cupcake Craft - merry Christmas
Fashionista Challenge - winter
Hooked on Craft - Christmas
Love To Create - anything goes
Cutie Pies - cutie Christmas
Dream Valley - Christmas
One Stitch at a Time - more than one fold
Ribbon Girls - ho, ho, ho


If you'd like to make your own crackers I've included a tutorial below! As I said above I thought it would be nice to share a gallery of them, so if you'd like to show your finished cracker along with this tutorial please send me an email (email in the side bar) and I'll add it to the bottom of this post.

Right here we go...

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Materials needed:

1 x piece of A4 card (plain or decorated)
Hougie board (or similar with cm measurements)
Ruler & pencil
Craft knife (or scissors)
Cutting mat
Double sided tape (or glue)

1)  Take your A4 piece of card and place it right side down onto your Hougie board in a landscape orientation.  Working from the left hand side score down the narrow edge at 2cm, 5cm and 8cm.  Turn the card around and repeat at the other end (see diagram 1 below).  Alternatively measure the intervals with your ruler, mark lightly with a pencil and use a scoring tool

DIAGRAM 1 (click to enlarge)

2)  Do not fold your card at this time as it makes it easier to complete your other measurements (believe me it's tried and tested!)

3)  Leaving your card right side face down but this time in a portrait orientation on the Hougie board, you now need to work from the left hand side and score along the long edge at 6cm, 12cm and 18cm (see diagram 2 and 3 below)

DIAGRAM 2 (click to enlarge)

DIAGRAM 3 (click to enlarge)

4)  Do not fold your card at this time as it makes it easier to complete your other measurements (believe me it's tried and tested!)

5)  That's the work done with the Hougie board, now you need your pencil and ruler

6)  With your card in a landscape orientation, starting at the left hand side and working on the previously scored 5cm line along the narrow edge, you need to measure and mark intervals at 2.5cm, 3.5cm, 8.5cm, 9.5cm, 14.5cm, 15.5cm and 20.5cm starting your measurements from the top of your card.  Turn the card around and repeat at the opposite end (see diagram 4 below)

DIAGRAM 4 (click to enlarge)

7)  As per diagram 5 below, match up the intervals on the 5cm line with the sections where the horizontal and vertical 2cm and 8cm lines cross.  This is easier to understand by looking at the diagram than it is trying to explain to you.

8)  You should now have diamond shapes on your card which need to be cut out and discarded (see diagram 5 above)

DIAGRAM 5 (click to enlarge)

9)  You now need to fold your card to form the cracker shape (see diagram 6 below).

DIAGRAM 6 (click to enlarge)

10)  Place either double sided tape (if you're feeling confident) or wet glue ( if you want to be able to adjust it) along the narrow edge (see diagram 6 above).  Where the folds overlap to form the join the cut out pieces should match it you have followed the instructions carefully.

11)  All that's left to do now is to decorate your cracker

Here is another example of a cracker where I've used pearlescent card and a small holly berry stamp to create the card base and then used a contrasting paper to highlight.

I'd love to see your projects, who's going to be first in the gallery?

CHRISTMAS CRACKER PHOTO GALLERY

Please feel free to reference this tutorial, along with your project on your blog and any craft sites but PLEASE spare a thought for the time and effort that has gone into producing this and a link to this tutorial would be very much appreciated.

xx Happy crafting and season glittery hugs xx