Christmas gift ideas | DIY and baking

To me it seems Christmas shouldn't be this Wednesday, it's just all gone too fast! But the time has come when we all venture out on gifts and presents to give to our family or friends. Sadly this year I didn't have much money, but appropriately was asked to baby-sit 3 times in the duration of a month - Good for me! So I gained a decent amount to spend on presents, most of which I spent on family and leaving 20 or so pounds for friends. 

Christmas is all about giving and giving a gift which you've put a lot of thought into. I'm a strong believer of not giving money, although that's what my grandma is giving me this year, she didn't actually want to. I can understand as it shows there is minimal thought and just shoving some paper in a card, so I told her I will keep it aside for a warm winter coat! But this year I really wanted to make the presents myself, as well as buying something I know the person will love. 

I'm fond of baking and also a bit of 'Do It Yourself' i.e. DIY. Therefore this year I thought it would be a lovely idea to bake and make something. I decided upon some festive biscuits and a DIY 'Sharpie mug', however I used a 'paint marker' to do this and I actually think this worked better. As well as this I thought I would add some extra personal gifts too. To present this I actually thought it would be a lovely idea to place the biscuits and extra presents within the mug I decorated!

DIY - 'Sharpie Mugs'

This is something I have seen a lot around Pinterest and the internet, originally people use Sharpies - as seen by the name. However I actually used a metallic paint marker which I think worked just as well. If anything I recommend paint markers as they show up more and don't loose their colour in the oven, like the Sharpies would. 

 I recommend buying cheap mugs as normally, the cheaper the mug the thinner the glaze. In this case that is appropriate as it helps the marker sink into the glaze easier when being heated. Once you have finished your design, another tip is when heating the mugs make sure you heat them around 220 degrees Celsius, as well as letting them heat up and cool down in the oven. If you don't do this the china will crack due to the sudden change in heat.  If you are to use a sharpie, two coats will prevent the marker from fading - but only one is needed for a paint marker. When finished hand washing them will also avoid the marker from chipping at all!

Festive Baking!

Baking is something I thoroughly enjoy, no matter how much I go wrong I still find it a very therapeutic hobby - learning from your mistakes is key so you can improve and not make the same mistakes again. So to give some of my baking as a gift I thought would be nice and also a nice idea to inspire whoever reads this.

I decided upon making gingerbread men and shortbread snowflakes!

You can simply look upon the internet to find a recipe, but I chose to use one from Sainbury's recipe book!

The fun part... 

Shortbread snowflakes

Gingerbread men 

Finished!

Time to decorate! (my favourite part)

After baking the shortbread snowflakes I thought adding some edible glitter would give it a festive touch!

Decorating the gingerbread men was very fun, however I decided to package them in cellophane bags and the icing I bought didn't dry so I ended up adding on two small smarties for the eyes! (I recommend using icing that dries to prevent smudging).

Personalise your present

This is the part in which you can simply personalise this gift by adding whatever else you wish! So far this present is all homemade, therefore not costing a huge amount - so if your budgeting this year this is useful. It's not about the cost and its the thought that counts! Therefore I simply added some extra gifts from an online shop at e.l.f. and of course whilst shopping online for friends I couldn't help but buy myself some e.l.f. products as I don't own many, and some products they provide are amazing for the price!

Something I love to do is package my gifts all pretty, therefore I went and bought some cellophane bags and ribbon. 

Alternatives

As well as giving 3 larger presents to 3 of my friends, I also gave others some of my baking wrapped nicely with a card. I think this is a lovely thoughtful and yummy gift, I gave one of these to my form tutor and she was very grateful. If you don't have time you can alternatively just buy some sweets or chocolate and package them nicely, this is what I did for a secret Santa gift!

I hope you liked this post, I have been posting quite spontaneously and not on a weekly basis, which is bad! But as it's the holidays I shall have more spare time i.e. no school, so I will be posting more regularly. 

Merry Christmas!

♥

Festive Makeup Look | Blue Eyes

Christmas is only 1 week away now and I think its time to explore some different festive makeup looks, therefore I decided to create a simple yet festive deep gold makeup look. I did this with my friend Kathryn (effievanity.blogspot.co.uk) who has also posted a makeup look, which is lovely so I recommend you check it out after this! I have blue eyes and think gold and pinks compliment this eye colour well, looking through the photos I took it really shows how much the gold makes the blue stand out. I have heard silver compliments blue eyes too, however I personally don't feel silver is a very versatile colour for me as I love my neutrals - if I was to ever use silver I would use it in the inner corner, apart from that I don't think it’s for me. 

As a result in this look I opted for faded gold, bright gold, deeper gold, matte browns and a darker shimmering brown. To accomplish this look I mostly used my MUA undress me too palette - this palette is a dupe of the Naked 2 palette by urban decay, MUA also supply an undress me palette (Naked 1 dupe). I use these palettes on a daily basic and I highly recommend them! 

Face

For the face makeup I kept it really simple, as always, I just apply a concealer my current favourite being the Maybelline 'Fit Me' concealer. Recently I have been using the 'make up for ever' HD high definition powder, but only small amount underneath my eyes to set my concealer in place. For blush I thought I would use my Estee Lauder blush in Nude Rose, I hardly use this palette as I find the bronzer to shimmery (I think a matte bronzer is a must, no shimmer for me).However I love the blush that comes in this palette, it’s a fairly muted rose shade and looks lovely for Autumn or Winter! As well as this I also used an e.l.f. all over colour stick in Persimmon I used this as a highlight above Nude Rose. To finish of the face and keep it lasting all day I use my trusty Rimmel Stay Matte powder. 

I don't actually wear foundation anymore, as much as I find it therapeutic to apply (weird I know, haha) I just find it will clog up my pores and there's no need unless I have a major breakout, which luckily for me they're rare. 

Eyes

This is my favourite part by far, I just love experimenting with so many different combinations, I have to admit I not the best when it comes to eyeshadow and don't actually own very good eye brushes. Luckily Kathryn has recently received some a Nanshy Eye Brush Set, therefore she let me try them out and use them for this post. No word of a lie, I do love them, the set contains 7 brushes of which most I used for this look. 

As mentioned before I used the MUA undress me too palette for this look, with an exception of Natural Collections single eyeshadow in Barley. I used Barley as a base and thought it looked lovely (I also applied it in the inner corner as seen above). However before applying Barely to the lid and inner corner, I applied Artdeco's eyeshadow base and also e.l.f.'s eyelid primer in sheer, I used two primers to increase the pigmentation of the eyeshadow as well as it helping the eyeshadow last longer. 

After applying both primers and Barley, I took Devotion from the MUA palette (dupe for UD's Half Baked) and compacted this onto the inner half of the lid with the Nanshy large shader brush. Then applied fiery (UD's Chopper) to the outer lid and slightly into the crease, again using the large shader brush. At this point I had very harsh lines as a didn't blend them but did this on purpose and I then took Lavish (UD's Tease) and used the Nanshy eye crease brush to blend this into the crease, taking away the harsh lines. To follow on from this I then Obsessed (UD's Busted) and applied this directly into the crease with Nanshy's tapered crease brush. I then used Nanshy's blending eyeshadow brush to blend out any imperfections or harsh lines. Last minute I decided to take Devotion and fiery underneath the bottom lash line, using Nanshy's flat definer brush - I applied devotion in the inner half and fiery on the outer half. I finished off the look with Naked (UD's Foxy) and applied this on the brow-bone as a highlight. 

Moving on to the lashes and lash-line, I used e.l.f.'s cream eyeliner to apply a thin layer of this to the top lash line; I used Nanshy's precise bent eyeliner brush to do so. I feel this increased the volume of my lashes before applying benefits they're real mascara. 

Lips

It was hard to pick a lip colour, but I opted for Chanel's rouge allure luminous intense lip colour in 217 radieuse, this lip colour has an obvious blue undertone and therefore suits my skin-tone well. However the consistency of this lipstick is quite drying on the lips therefore I applied a balm before this and finished it off with a BarryM lipgloss!

I hope you enjoyed this post and tell me if you want anymore makeup looks in the future! Have a lovely rest of your week and enjoy the weekend ahead!

♥