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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Present Wrapping Hacks

These are some great tips to help you wrap a mountain of presents, quickly and efficiently!

1- ALWAYS get a tape dispenser!

These are the easiest ways to wrap presents because you can quickly get some sellotape without spending 5 minutes trying to find the end of the sellotape!

2- Always put the scruffy edge underneath the neat one!

Usually when you wrap a present there is a scruffy edge and a neat edge, to make the present as neat as possible, always put the scruffy edge underneath the neat one!

3- Fold the side for a neater wrap!

When you are wrapping the sides of the present, to make it neater, fold the flap in so you are left with a straight side rather than a messy one …

These were some simple and easy tips for present wrapping!

Another post tomorrow,

Sparkle Girl x

 

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Snowman Cake

This is a cute cake for the whole family!

Ingredients:

  • 125g Unsalted Butter
  • 125g Caster Sugar
  • 125g Self-Raising Flour
  • 2 Medium Eggs
  • Vanilla Essence
  • White Fondant Icing
  • Orange Fondant Icing
  • Blue Fondant Icing
  • Black Fondant Icing
  • 1tsp Baking Powder

Method:

  • Heat the oven to 180C and line the baking tin with baking parchment and butter
  • Beat the sugar and the eggs together until they look a bit like buttercream
  • Whisk the eggs together until they have lots of bubbles
  • Sieve the flour – optional
  • Gradually – while mixing the butter and sugar a bit more – add in the flour and the eggs
  • While doing this add in 1tsp of Baking Powder and a few drops of Vanilla Essence
  • Bake in  the oven for 20-30 mins – or until a knife comes out of the mixture/cake clean

Decoration:

  • Roll out the white fondant icing until it is roughly a 1cm thick, cover the entire cake in this (you may need to cut excess icing off)
  • Roll out the blue fondant icing, and cut a long strip of it out
  • Cut a triangle out of the blue icing for the hat, put this on the top of the cake – using the picture below to copy from:
  •  
  • On the strip of blue icing leftover, put small marks vertically across it copy the picture above if you need to
  • Roll out some orange icing into a sausage-like shape, press the top of the icing gently to create a nose and this time put small line marks horizontally across it
  • Roll out a little bit of the black icing into little flat balls and place them where they are in the picture above

Now enjoy the cake! 🙂

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Girl xx

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Ideas for Present Wrapping!

These are some ideas to make presents for children even better, instead of just plain and boring!

Tinsel Wrap:

All you need for this is tinsel, you just wrap it round the present either side (as if you were putting ribbon on it) and stick it to the bottom of the present. This is just an alternative to ribbon which isn’t as sparkly!

Pop a Joke Inside:

While you are writing the tag, you just write a  Christmas joke on the tag as well! Put the answer upside down somewhere.

Heart of Bows:

Using any colour of stick on bows, stick them in a nice heart shape. You could even use this to cover up a mistake!

Back again tomorrow,

Sparkle Girl xx

 

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Christmas Cutlery Holder!

You will need:

  • Green and Red Paper
  • Scissors
  • Sellotape
  • Extra Decoration (Bows, ribbons)

Method:

  • Cut the green paper into a small square and then fold it in half like this: 
  • Sellotape the green paper together like this:
  •  
  • Cut out a long strip of the red paper and stick it to the green paper like this:
  • If you want add some decorations like I have in the first picture!

Back with another post tomorrow,

Sparkle Girl xx

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – DIY Snowflakes

These are some cute little Christmas decorations which are so simple to make!

Your will need:

  • Scissors
  • Plain Paper

Method:

  • Fold a piece of paper in half
  • On the folded side, cut in anything you want:

  • Unfold the paper and….

SNOWFLAKES!

Sparkle Girl xx

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Shortbread Snowflakes

These are very fun to bake and , of course, eat!

Ingredients:

  • 125g Unsalted Butter
  • 55g Caster Sugar
  • 180g Plain Flour
  • White/White Chocolate Icing

Method:

  • Heat up the over to 190C
  • Beat the butter and the sugar together until it looks a bit like buttercream
  • Mix the flour into the butter and sugar until it looks like a paste
  • Chill them in the oven for 20 minutes then roll them out on a flat surface
  • Using a circular cutter, cut out the paste then bake for 10-15 minutes until they are a light golden brown
  • Put them on a cooling rack for 10 minutes
  • Copy the icing design  on the picture above

I hope you enjoy using this recipe!

Sparkle Girl xx

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Pretty Pinecones

These are great decorations and look really nice on a mantle piece or with a fruit bowl.

Equipment:

  • Pine cones (you  can buy these in wilkinsons for £1)
  • Glue
  • Green glitter

Method:

  • Mix the green glitter with the glue until it has a soup-like consistency
  • Using a small paintbrush, dab a little bit of the glitter glue onto each section of the pine cone

This was a really easy quick decoration to make.

Make sure you see tomorrow’s post!

Sparkle Girl xx

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24 Days of Sparkle Girl – Places to Put Your Christmas Lights!

Although most people put their lights on their tree… If you want some extra sparkle around your entire house, here are a few ideas:

  • If you have a fireplace, hang them from the mantelpiece
  • On your banisters or handrail of any stairs
  • On bookshelves or even just shelves
  • Round window frames
  • Along the curtain rail
  • At the top of the bed’s headboard!

Basically any flat surface would work!

Sparkle Girl xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same rules apply to tinsel!