Nice weather this weekend, wasn’t it? Yeah, I know. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. I’m boring myself as I write this on Sunday night, so I’m not even going to try to be light-hearted. The rain pisses me off, end of.
Anyway, ahem, to the point of this post: a kind of kids-crafty-rainy-day sort of idea that will also tick something off your pre-Christmas to-do list. It kept my boys occupied for a full hour on Saturday morning (quite something).
But I’m not going to pass this idea off as my own – it belongs to my friend Ellen (founder of Sideline, a clothing label that will appear in Flint early next year, and that will get you in some trouble! You’ll recognise the label’s name as it was featured in the first LALASB post). So thanks be to her!
For Christmas wrap that is cheap, thoughtful and different to anything else, buy a nice fat roll of brown craft paper (the cheapest I’ve found in Lewes so far is in Waterstones, a 70cm x 10m roll for £2.99) and some white pens and let them scrawl whatever Christmassy motifs come into their heads. You don’t need to be too precious about this (as in, it doesn’t matter if it ends up a scribbled mess) because it’s probably not going to be that recognisable anyway once it’s snipped up and wrapped around presents.
We bought white pens at TashTori on Station Street last year, and the chalky white looks so lovely on the brown paper. But this year my older son wanted to move on to fat and thin silver pens (from Clarkes in Cliffe Precinct) and red and green felts.
You can also build on this with potato printing, glitter glue or, as I have here (trying to art direct the younger one just a little!) give them Christmas cookie cutters to draw around or inside. Just plain felts do the trick though and cause minimum mess (you can really tell I’m not a crafter!)
Anyway, just roll the paper right across the floor and let them get busy. Simples.
P.S. Have you entered the giveaway competition to win a hardback copy of Katharine McEwen’s ‘Bear Hug’? If not, head over to the post and scroll down to see how. If you share it on Facebook, please let me know by email or in comments so I can register your entry. It’s a beautiful book – one you and yours are going to want, and to treasure!
Disclosure: No compensation, financial or otherwise, was offered or accepted for the writing of this post by any of the Lewes businesses mentioned in it. There is one affiliate link included, because I happened to look at the Boden website and spot that they are running a discount period again, and also happened to put their socks on us all that morning and capture them in one or two pictures.
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Little Lewes 
Genius idea! That’s just occupied my three year old for the best part of an hour. Keep them coming for a fellow non-crafter who is on maternity leave and suddenly finding myself with a lot of hours in the day to entertain the big brother! X
Well done even getting this together Sally! Have you tried salt dough? So SO easy (even for a crafting dunce like me) and keeps them occupied for AGES. I did some with cookie cutters and made holes in them with a chopstick a few years ago and bigger son covered them in glitter glue. They are still hanging on our tree years later and we sent one to each family member with Xmas cards. Bonus. x
Nope but I will thanks. That will do nicely as one of my advent calendar ideas! X
Lovely idea, and pleased to see the festive snowfall back again – this year has passed so quickly! xxx
Hasn’t it Chloe – that’s planning a wedding for you though! Loved your post about that! x