Thursday 2 December 2010

Scented Fir Cones

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping warm and safe. We are well and truly snowed in today with school closed and roads impassable, so no work either. Overnight, we had about 6-8 inches of the lovely white stuff.


So, what better way to spend the day, than a bit of crafting for Christmas. Now, for the life of me I can't remember where I saw this tutorial, so I must apologise if it was one of "yours". I gathered the fir cones a while back and have been drying them out by the woodburner for a couple of weeks now.
In a pan I melted some cheap and cheerful candles. I didn't bother doing it over a pan of boiling water, just threw them straight in and turned the heat on low.


When it was melted, I added some silver glitter and a good few drops of spicy christmas oil to the mixture. The glitter is optional I suppose, but as these are scented firelighters, the oil is not. I bought mine in Sainsbury.


Now you have to wait a few minutes until the wax cools and starts to set slightly when you dip the fir cone into it. You have to be fairly quick at this stage and get as many done as you can before it becomes too gloopy. When this happens just put it back over a low heat and start the process over again. I had to do this several times as I had quite a lot of fir cones to cover.

They should look soemthing like this when they are done...

Tap off any excess wax as you go and place on some newspaper to dry thoroughly...and that's all there is too it. A pile of gorgeous, sparkly smelling fire lighters.

These are an ideal pressie for friends and family who have open fires or woodburners that they will be lighting over the festivities. I have some cellophane and pretty ribbon to make them look nice and will write on the label what they are for in case they should mistake for pot pourri. I just wish that we had smellyblog, because the whole house smells gorgeous now!!
On other crafting matters, I bought an advent panel a couple of years ago and told myself that I would get it done. Alas, it has been sat in a bag until now that is. A friend of mine has just made a beautiful one and it stirred me into action.

I wish this picture was better, but we have no natural light here today, but as you can see from the close ups above, it is very sparkly and bright.



Anyway, I will say bye for now and leave you with a lovely snowy dove picture. Take care all of you and stay safe.

Dev x

6 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

Lovely idea - maybe with a note to keep in a cool place rather than by the fire or you might end up with a pack of fir cones in a pool of candle fat! Love the advent calendar. Keep cosy.

Jane

...Nina Nixon... said...

Not nearly as much as that here, but it hasn't stopped snowing all day.

I love the scented was dipped fir cones - I always mean to every year and always forget.

Keep warm and snug,

Nina xxx

salty pebble said...

how wonderful and festive x
the advent calender is really great ;0)
love the doves on your banner x

Toria said...

Nice idea about the fir cones. And the advent calendar is lovely. I think your panel must be the same brand as the panel I have - the way you were attaching the pockets looked like the way I had to attach mine. Anyway, lovely work.

melanie said...

What a wonderful idea :) Love the advent calender too :) xxx

Sheila said...

Oooh how totally fab!
I love that so much, i really want to do it but the list of to-dos is growing by the day!
x