Christmas light

My first married Christmas we decided to hunker down and not spend it with family.  We did not want to begin a tradition of one year at his parents and one year at mine.  

It was a strange yet magical Christmas, 

Salt dough heart ornaments for the Christmas tree

made all the more special because John sat with me to create our own ornaments for our very first Christmas tree together.  It set the tone for all the years that have followed.  

That year, 26 Christmas' ago we made heart-shaped troll deig (salt dough) ornaments and hung them on the tree with red ribbon.  We made them with love and laughter and who knew they would last for more than ten years.  We are now on our third set of red troll deig hearts and every year as we hang them, enough to fill the tree, my heart leaps a little in joy.

One of the many things that I love about the winter and the lead up to Christmas is all the lights, so many cultures have the same idea, light at this time of year is so important.  Adding that much-needed cheer and lightness to otherwise dark difficult and daunting months. 

Using troll deig and inspiration from a tealight holder that we have had for many years, I decided to try my hand at 3D troll deig and see if I could recreate my own tea light cone tree.

The tealight cone tree that gave me the inspiration

You can clearly see the two I made but in the dim
light of December days, I think I can get away with it

Troll deig (salt dough)

You will need:

250g plain flour 

125g salt 

100-150ml water 

template or design your own 

cardstock 

pen 

ruler 

knife

small cutters or a straw

sellotape

white acrylic paint

 

Template for cones

For the template:

♥  Cut out the template for cones onto heavy-duty card stock, the large cone needs sides of 15cm and the small cone needs sides of 9cm.

For the dough:

♥  Mix the flour and salt thoroughly.

♥  Add the water slowly until the mixture begins to form a dough and you can make it into a ball.  You do not want the dough to be too dry nor too wet, unhelpful of me I know, but it should be pliable without cracking and not sticky.   

The salt dough needs to be pliable without
being sticky or cracking too much

♥  Divide the ball into two pieces and then on a floured surface roll out one piece to about a thickness
of 3-4 mm.

♥  Place the template on the dough and cut out, I used a ruler to create straight edges and a sharp knife.

Use the template to cut our the cone shape

♥  Carefully cut out shapes for the light to be able to shine through, I used a very small cake decorating star cutter, but you can use a straw or cut out shapes freehand.  Remember to not cut out too many as that will reduce the stability of the 3D shape.

♥  Where the area is for the fold/glue line score some little marks on the salt dough to aid adhesion when forming into a 3D shape.

♥  Shape the template into a 3D form and secure on the fold glue line with sellotape.

♥  Next carefully repeat the template process with the salt dough, forming it into a 3D shape and carefully joining the seams together with a little bit of water and some gentle pressure.  The salt dough cone is fragile at this stage, so carefully place it over the 3D template and place on a baking sheet.

♥  Bake in the oven on the lowest setting for about 3 hours or until solid.

Bake the salt dough on the lowest temperature
of your oven for about 3 hours

♥  Once completely cooled, paint with acrylic paint, remember to NOT paint the inside!

♥  I have been using a real tea light inside mine but it would perhaps be safer using an electrical battery operated tea light instead.  I never leave mine unattended.

♥  With any spare salt dough, you can make ornaments or anything you like.  I made some star and heart cocktail stick toppers, they can be used for food or for jazzing up your house plants for Christmas!

Add salt dough decorations to your house plants

Homemade Fimo Nisse, salt dough
tea light Christmas cone trees and
plant decorations made from salt dough too

Can you spot the shop-bought cone and
my two homemade cones in the dining room?

A trio of Christmas tea light tree cones

♥  Happy hump day to you all, 

only 9 days till Christmas day!  ♥

Christmas decoratoins the Scandinavian way

Tree decorations made from troll deig 
(Salt dough) 

December 4th

Troll deig/salt dough Christmas decorations

My first Christmas with John I introduced him to the Scandinavian way of celebrating and we decided that our tree should only have handmade decorations.  In Norway when you ask what their favourite Christmas decoration is, the most treasured one,  it tends to invariably be the handmade ones either passed down the generations or ones the newest members of the family have made.  I have a now very fragile angel that my mother made when she was a little girl.  It's precious.

But onto my first Christmas with John.  My mother provided us with the troll deig recipe and we began to make our Christmas decorations together, all hearts in different sizes and eventually painted red.  The little tree we had that year was the smallest I've ever had but it was the prettiest adorned with my future husband to be and my handmade decorations.

What is troll deig?  It is the humble salt dough, if you have never made any or used it before, I urge you to have a go, it's very versatile and made correctly can last for many many years.  I am not totally sure but think I remember saying to the family last year that our troll deig decorations were beginning to show their age.  Therefore I made some more this year, only time will tell when I venture into the loft and bring out the Christmas paraphernalia whether I needed to make more or not.  This year's decorations are the third set we will have made in 26 years.  Not bad going for a bit of salt and flour!  As adults, we have fun making them, and teenagers pretend it's a chore, but secretly enjoy this make and it is a brilliant thing to entertain the small ones in the family.  Give it a go, be as creative or as silly as you like with it.

Troll Deig

You will need:
1 part salt: 2 parts flour: 1 part water

1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Instructions:

♥  Mix the flour and salt well in a bowl.  This is essential to ensure the salt will dissolve and allow for a smooth dough.

Cut out using any seasonal shapes,
don't forget to add a hole if
you are going to hang them

♥  Next, in a separate container mix the oil and the water together, then pour over the dry ingredients.

♥  Knead well for 10-15 minutes.   This too is important to ensure a smooth dough.  The dough should now be quite firm, a good test to see if it is ready is to roll it into a ball if it retains it shapes after 3 minutes the dough is ready. 

♥  You can at this point add food colouring to dye your dough, I do not do this and prefer to paint them with acrylic paint once they are cooled. 

♥  For best results place the troll deig (dough) in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. 

♥  When ready create your Christmas tree decorations or any other shape either 2D or 3D.  Remember for hanging decorations to make a hole, I use a straw, to allow for the thread for hanging or even a matchstick if the ornament is small.

Pace the troll deig shapes on
a baking tray with greaseproof paper

♥  Place the troll deig on baking sheets with greaseproof paper and put into a preheated oven at 100 degrees Celcius for about 4-5 hours or until fully hardened.  Allow to cool thoroughly before painting.  If you can I leave a few days before painting, but this is not essential.  Especially if working with small children they are generally too impatient to wait that long!

♥  I paint my troll deig with either ready mixed poster paint or acrylic.  Make sure to cover the whole decoration and the sides too!

♥  Once the paint has dried, add ribbon and decorate your tree.

Troll deig Christmas heart decorations

Make hole in your troll deig for hanging with
either a straw or a matchstick

Once dried in the oven and cooled troll deig
is ready for painting and decorating

Remember to paint the sides of the troll deig too

Troll deig paint drying, side one

Once the paint has dried turn the troll
deig over and paint the other side

Add ribbon to complete the look of troll deig hanging decorations

Add some ribbon to the troll deig decorations 
and hang on the tree!

A tree full of troll deig decorations

Christmas tree at night

♥  How are your Christmas preparations coming along?

Norwegian hearts

5th December




Even the kitchen Christmas
curtains have hearts ♥

Both in Norway and at home, Christmas time is filled with red hearts, they are just everywhere.  No one really knows why but it is assumed that it is to do with love and warmth and welcoming of family and friends within the home.  The Norwegians fiercely defend that the 'woven' heart comes from Norway but the Danes and Germans also claim rights.  In fact whenever you search for woven hearts on the web, Danish hearts flourish!  The first known woven heart was made by Hans Christan Andersen and can be found in the museum dedicated to him in Denmark, it was made in 1860, but it is known that they were made long before that.

More hearts in my kitchen
♥

All Norwegian school children can make woven paper hearts and they have always been made to adorn the Christmas tree and are filled with nuts and raisins.  The hearts are made into little baskets and are hung on the Christmas tree.  I have made them for as long as I can remember and have taught many children and adults alike along the way.  They can be fiddly to do, but once you have the hang of it, can be very addictive.  I prefer with most things to keep it simple and make only the straight plain weave hearts, but over the years people have become very inventive and skilful managing to include the pattern with the weaving or weaving with curved edges or ones of different widths, this really is taking it to another level.  These woven hearts if filled and put on the tree quite often do not survive from year to year, they are only made out of paper after all.  It becomes another tradition to spend an afternoon or evening making these each Christmas season.

This is a great thing to do this year, take a coffee break have a go yourself and then maybe invite a friend or two or your children and have some paper fun. Anyone can do this and you will have a piece of your own Scandinavian homemade decoration.  In Norway, you can buy glossy paper especially to do this, called 'glanspapir', but you can try it with any paper of medium strength and pliable.  Decoupage paper might be good or even lovely good quality wrapping paper.  I have also made them with card and used them just on the mantelpiece rather than as hanging baskets too.  In case you have not come across it, there is a fantastic online shop, (they do have retail shops dotted around) and are found in most major towns in Norway, they are erm, well, Swedish, but hey ho!  Check them out at http://www.pandurohobby.co.uk/ 

A couple of good instructional web pages to visit to create your own woven hearts are:


Woven paper hearts with a crocheted heart bunting below
♥.

http://craftandcreativity.com/blog/2011/12/08/flatadehjarta/  SCROLL DOWN and the instructions will be in English too!

or

http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Special_Occassions/Valentines_Day/wovenheartbasket/wovenheartbasket.html


But why stick to paper woven hearts when you can make a knitted one I say?  I just love this, although it does not look quite so good and becomes a little baggy if I put anything in it, so it is more of a hanging piece of decoration.  For a similar pattern for those of you into knitting this Christmas, have a look at:     (I think actually this might be the original pattern!)

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=3917&lang=us

or a crochet version, I might try this next, again, another to add to my wish list of things to create!

 http://alipyper.com/2012/12/03/free-danish-heart-crochet-pattern/



In our front room where we snuggle down on a winters evening in front of the wood-burning stove which chucks out an incredible amount of heat, we have three wall lights that over the Christmas period cry out for being adorned, so what do I give them?  Hearts of course.  These were a very quick make and can be sewn either by hand or by machine.  Simple and effective don't you think?  At the moment I have some hanging up in the hallway too, just to add a splash of Christmas along the common thoroughfare.

Most Norwegians had only home made decorations on their trees, but as with all things in life we move forward?!!? Many have now beautiful shop bought adornments, I however, cannot bring myself to do that in its entirety.  So we have about 90% homemade on our tree and then about eight bought baubles of glass and glitter.  What are our home made decorations, can't you guess yet?  Hearts of course, red hearts!  Lots of hearts, many hearts.  These hearts are made out of trolldeig or as the English would call it, salt dough.  In the twenty years I have been married, we are only on our second set of home made trolldeig hearts.



Trolldeig (salt dough)

1 part salt: 2 parts flour: 1 part water
1 table spoon of cooking oil


Mix the flour and salt well in a bowl.  This is essential to ensure the salt will dissolve and allow for a smooth dough.

Next,in a separate container mix the oil and the water together, then pour over the dry ingredients.

♥ 



Knead well for 10-15 minutes.   This too is important to ensure a smooth dough.  The dough should now be quite firm, a good test to see if it is ready is to roll it into a ball, if it retains it shapes after 3 minutes the dough is ready. 

♥



You can at this point add food colouring to dye your dough, I do not do this and prefer to paint them with acrylic paint once they are cooled. 

♥



Place it for best results in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. 



When ready create your Christmas tree decorations or any other shape either 2D or 3D.  Remember for hanging decorations to make a hole, I use a straw, to allow for the thread for hanging! 

♥

Oven temperature should be about 80 Celsius. (175 Fahrenheit).  Depending of the thickness of your decorations and or 3D figures, drying time in the oven can be from 2 hours to 24!  Keep an eye on them, dry them on a pizza tray with holes in to allow for quicker drying.  Once cooled, decorate!

                                                                               





                                                                                                                             

So What else can we find in heart shapes in a Scandinavian Christmas house, umm...food!

Waffles with locally caught salmon, home smoked of course accompanied by freshly made fragrant pesto sauce, of course in the traditional heart shape! 

Let's not too forget the pepperkake, has anyone made them yet?  Would love to hear if you have and better still to see some photos too!