I’m entering a whole new realm today. I’m completely stepping on the lovely Lottie’s toes and talking about crafts. (Sorry about that Lottie. I promise no one can ever steal your Craft Queen crown). And specifically, handmade Christmas crackers.

I love the Meri Meri crackers and spotted them in a gift shop recently, but was reluctant to spend over forty quid on just crackers! (We are going to be hosting Christmas dinner for seven people and two little people so I would’ve needed two boxes). So I decided to make my own. Here’s how you can too.

What You Will Need

The brilliant thing about these crackers is that you probably already own everything you need to make them:

White paper (I just used ordinary A4 printer paper)
Empty loo rolls*
Cracker snaps
Sellotape
Black pen
Printer
Twine/ribbon/wool

*I only had four empty loo rolls and wanted to make five crackers, so our bathroom currently looks like the Andrex puppy has had a field day in there.

Step 1

Decorate your paper. For the top cracker in the header image above I drew black lines across an A4 piece of paper to create a grid pattern, and for the bottom cracker I used plain kraft paper. And for the rest I downloaded some printable wrapping paper. I found the geometric Christmas tree printable on Homey Oh My (another fab blog and insta for you to follow…you’re welcome). And here’s the link for the brush-painted Christmas tree and Fa La La printables.

I’m SO going to print off some more sheets to use as gift wrap as well as for crackers. (It’s also handy to know that you can print off wrapping paper if you’re caught short and have a teeny prezzie to wrap last minute).

Step 2

Line up your loo roll along the edge of the paper. At this point I would have threaded a cracker snap through the loo roll if I’d been organised and bought some!

Step 3

Attach the loo roll to the A4 paper using sellotape.

Step 4

Roll the paper around the loo roll and secure the end with another bit of sellotape.

Step 5

Create one of the twisty ‘tails’ of the cracker by carefully holding the edges of the loo roll and twisting the loose bit of paper in the opposite direction. Pop in a paper hat, a joke, and a little gift, and then twist the other end to create the other ‘tail’.

Step 6

Wrap a little bit of twine or ribbon around each end to make it look pretty. And then enjoy!

The beauty of these crackers is that they’re super easy and you can spend as much or as little time on them as you like. You can keep the designs simple, or you can go to town decorating the A4 paper. I’m thinking of making some more with Lyra and I reckon some hand drawn stars and maybe some potato-stamp penguins would look cute.

And if you want to make the super stylish version then pop over to Rock My Style today.

Are you going to be indulging in any Christmas crafts with your littles over the festive period?

{IDEAS FOR FILLERS}
{PIN THE CRACKERS}