Free Christmas Crafts

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Homemade Victorian Christmas Crackers

Commercical boxes of Christmas crackers are often very pricey, but you can make your own from paper napkins and pretty embellishments.

Copyright © 1999-2008 Susan Spatone All rights reserved.
Published with permission from CraftAtHome.com

Material:

Coloured paper napkins
White paper doilies
Gold metallic paint
White pearl paint
Toilet tissue rolls or paper towel rolls cut to size
Ribbon
Cracker snap inserts (optional; available from Michaels)
Craft glue
Pinking sheers or other decorative edge scissors

Craft Instructions:

Insert a cracker snap (if you're using one), plus a small gift into the tissue roll. Roll tissue roll inside a colored paper napkin, as shown at right, and secure the end with a dot of craft glue.

Cut each end of the roll with pinking sheers or decorative edge scissors, to a length that will keep your cracker to a total of about ten to twelve inches long. Twist the ends of the cracker gently, being careful not to tear the napkin as you work. Tie a piece of ribbon around each end to secure the twist in place.

There are photos of four different crackers shown above and all are just paper doily pieces glued to the napkin. I cut the centers of some doilies and painted them with either gold or pearl white paint and once the paint dried, I glued the pieces to the cracker. I also cut small pieces and edges from doilies to create some.

Experiment with different cutouts of paper doilies and simply glue them to the cracker.