We love our friends at All by Mama. If you haven’t already discovered them, go look at their fabulous website. It’s a place to help Mums to sell their creative wares, and this in turn means that these mums can work flexibly around the demands of a family but still maintain their entrepreneurial streak! What better than to support working mums supporting other working mums. Check out our Christmas gift guide if you haven’t already.

One of our favourite Mamas, Caz Preston has shared a few of her creative crafts for Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, and an awesome origami craft. Today shares another one of her wonderfully creative crafts. I particularly love this, as it upcycling a piece of rubbish – an empty tomato puree tube! So go forth, make a wonderfully green Christmas project and don’t forget to check out Caz’s shop too.

You will need:

Scissors
Cloth
Empty tomato purée tube
Biro pen
Card/triangle template
Screw/nail
Needle and thread
Ribbon and whole punch (optional)

upcycled christmas decoration, make your own christmas decoration, all by mama, case preston,

This is a very satisfying and surprising way to recycle something you find in the kitchen: A TOMATO PURÉE TUBE!
You’ll be AMAZED by its potential!!

Step one:

Cut the top, bottom and ONLY ONE SIDE of the tube so that you can open it up and clean it out. Parts of this can be sharp so please do be careful to create, cut and clean this with care.

Step two:

Fold the tube inside out to reveal its golden interior. Use a triangle/star template to scribe a star (or any other shape) out of your tube. With the metal on the cloth you can easily scribe the outline of your shape into the metal with a biro.

upcycled christmas decoration, make your own christmas decoration, all by mama, case preston,

Step three:

Cut each shape out. (You should be able to create a double sided shape if you folded the tube in half as above.) I recommend rounding off each point so your decoration isn’t sharp.

<img src="http://www.trulymadlykids.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" alt="upcycled christmas decoration, make your own christmas decoration, all by mama, case preston, " width="478" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13470" />

Step four:

Place the star/shape on the folded up cloth. Use the sharp end of the screw/nail to pierce small holes through the star/shape. Make each hole big enough to sew through and space these holes every few centimetres and at the points you think might come apart.

<img src="http://www.trulymadlykids.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" alt="upcycled christmas decoration, make your own christmas decoration, all by mama, case preston, " width="478" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13470" />

Step five:

Sew through each hole front to back with needle and thread to secure and embellish your decoration. Knot the thread so that you can hang it for display/give it as a gift: ENJOY!

<img src="http://www.trulymadlykids.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" alt="upcycled christmas decoration, make your own christmas decoration, all by mama, case preston, " width="478" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13470" />

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