Christmas Crackers

Hello! Today I have a fun Christmas project to share. As children we used to make our own Christmas crackers from kitchen towel rolls and crepe paper, and I have very fond memories of that. Now there is a new Sizzix Treat Popper die by Brenda Walton, which makes it so easy to make Christmas crackers.

 

I made three crackers from Tim Holtz patterned paper. The finished size is almost 9 in long. They are so easy to make, since the die both cuts and scores the paper. This is also a great die for kiddies craft. While I made these, my soon-to-be 4-year old made three of these from cardstock. I only helped him with the die-cutting, the adhesive and to tie knots. He filled them with small toys. I would have photographed them for this post, if they had not been handled a bit too roughly in the process of getting those toys out again.

 

I die cut the crackers from three different patterned papers, assembled them and inked the edges. On the die there is also a decorative edge wrapper to go around the cracker, which I die cut from vellum. This is an XL die, so you need the extended cutting pads.

 

The flowers were die cut with the new Holiday Greenery die, also by Brenda. I love flower dies and this one is fabulous. It's got five differently sized and shaped flowers, and five different leaves. The leaves are very intricate and so pretty. I die cut the flowers from the same paper used for the crackers, but used the back of the paper instead. Some were also die cut from vellum.

 

Sentiments were stamped on Tattered Banners, also die cut from the same papers. If you use different papers and colours, these crackers can be made for lots of occasions.

I inked the edges of the flowers and shaped them with the Susan's Garden Tool Kit, which works great when it comes to giving life to any kind of flower. The flowers were smeared with just a little bit of Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

Here you can see the vellum wrapper around the crackers better. The crackers were tied with Tim Holtz Linen Ribbon and paper twine.

On the last one, I used tinsel to tie the ends, for a festive feel.

I also die cut stars from a Mirrored Sheet and tucked them in here and there. They look like real mirrors.

There wasn't space for the banner on the front, so I glued it on the side instead. If you tie a string to the crackers, you can hang them in your tree.

 

Thank you so much for looking!

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Holidays Pasts Paper Stash, Mirrored Sheets; vellum
Dies: Sizzix: Holiday Greenery, Treat Popper, Tattered Banners, Crescent Moon & Stars
Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz: Simple Sayings
Ink: Archival Ink Jet Black; Distress Ink: Gathered Twigs
Stickles: Ranger Distress Stickles Rock Candy
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Silver Tinsel Twine, Linen Ribbon, Paper String Stripes
Tools: Sizzix: Big Shot, Susan's Garden Tool Kit