About
How to Make Christmas Crackers!
One of the most depressing things about Christmas is buying crackers. A quick scan of the shelves in various stores reveals that you can either buy 'standard' ones filled with cheap worthless junk or 'Luxury' ones filled with expensive worthless junk. The 'Luxury' ones cost £30 for six. Seriously.
In an attempt to avoid this Christmas cruelty I decided to make my own and after a trip to Paperchase and my local haberdasher, I set to work! The trick is to use fairly thick, stiff paper which folds in neatly.
Tags
-
Belle W. favorited Christmas Crackers!
02 Jul 13:23
-
kelly.koopman added Christmas Crackers! to paper
15 Apr 21:58
-
Anna J. favorited Christmas Crackers!
06 Dec 19:29
-
Charlotte G. commented on Christmas Crackers!
26 Sep 02:04
You Will Need
-
Step 1First, get your "inner tube" - if you don't get through as much loo paper as me you can make this from a bit of card. Cut your paper so the height equals the circumference of the tube plus 4 cm for folding over. The width should be three times the length of the tube. Next mark up the paper: You can see here that the inner lines are the length of the tube and the outer ones match the diameter.
-
Step 2With a knife, make slits between the lines, which will allow the paper to fold round the ends of the tube.
-
Step 3Fold the paper as above.
-
Step 4Stick some lace or decoration on the right side of the paper (the decorative side).
-
Step 5Put double-sided sticky tape on the wrong side of the paper at each end and down the middle, then lay the tube on the paper and roll it up; the little slits and folds you made in the paper will create the cracker shape. Then all you need to do is slip in a cracker snap, a prize, a party hat and a well-chosen joke and tie the ends with ribbon.
-
Step 6Here are some other designs I created using the same colour scheme:
-
Step 7The only problem with making your own crackers is that once you start you don't want to stop! Here are some other ideas:
-
Step 8Silver paper, white lace and pink ribbon, finished off with a gemstone button.
-
Step 9Sexy black with a bit of bling.
-
Step 10Gold paper with a cosy tweed wrap.
-
Step 11The little pouch beside these crackers is a lavender eye pillow - perfect for a Boxing Day hangover. I also made some paper party hats to go inside.
And the cost? The materials make six crackers should cost no more than £5 and if you have a stash of paper, ribbon and fabric, you should be able to make these for next to nothing. Have fun and get cracking!
but how do they "snap"? i thought the toilet roll should break in 2 pieces...