In the café days, I used to take a lot of pride in decorating the Christmas tree. It was always done early, carefully timed to meet the unspoken expectations of December marketing and festive photos. This year has been different. The tree went up in the middle of December, quietly, without a plan. And strangely, that feels about right.
This year there is no café to decorate, and no rush to make things look festive by a certain date. Life has been slower, but also fuller. We are still very much in the middle of settling in. Paperwork, house things, admin that never quite ends. The sort of tasks that fill your days without leaving much space for “projects”.
If I am completely honest, most of this was done while the kids were at school, squeezed into small pockets of time between everything else. Not a full afternoon of making, but fragments. And that is exactly how this project came together.
I have wanted to try foil embossing for a long time. It felt like something that would suit the Friendly Forest world. Simple lines, texture, something tactile. The problem was materials. I still have not found my go-to craft shop here and I feel a bit lost in that department. So instead of waiting for the right supplies, I improvised.
The foil came from a supermarket roasting tray. Not glamorous, but it worked, with a bit of help from my trusty dough scraper that usually earns its keep with sourdough.
The gold colour came later, via a spray can from the Christmas aisle. I always prefer gold over silver, so that part was inevitable.
Some experiments worked, others didn’t. The first attempt was done outdoors and left to dry in the outhouse. Moisture turned out to be a definite no for this combination and the gold simply rubbed off.
Spraying indoors worked much better. The finish still isn’t perfect, but it felt good enough to let it be.
The templates themselves came from my Friendly Forest characters. Mrs Nettle, the small forest mouse, a bird, a star. I kept them intentionally simple. These are not finished illustrations. They are outlines, meant to be traced, pressed into foil, and then taken somewhere else entirely by whoever is using them. You can add patterns, textures, leaves, lines. Or keep them plain.
It works beautifully as a quiet creative project. Something to do with your hands, away from screens, without needing everything to be perfect. The templates are there to be borrowed, adapted, and taken somewhere else entirely.
And no, this post is not late. This is exactly the time I like making things. Not before Christmas, when everything is about preparation and pressure. But during Christmas. That in-between space. After the roast, before the cheese. When the table is cleared, the day slows down, and there is time to sit and make something without it needing to be productive.
If you feel like trying this yourself, this is how I approached it.
Start by cutting out the template. Place it on your foil and trace around it with whatever you have to hand. I used a pencil. No special tools, no clever setup. If you don’t have embossing tools, don’t let that stop you. A pencil, a skewer, the back of a spoon, even a dough scraper can work surprisingly well. You’ll also need a soft backing underneath. Felt or foam is ideal. I used an incontinence pad I found in the house from the previous owner’s puppy-training days. It worked perfectly.
Once traced, go back over the lines to define them a little more. This is also a lovely time to add details if you feel like it.
Once you’re done, turn the piece over and decide which side you like best. Sometimes the raised lines feel right, sometimes the reverse does. I preferred the raised lines on Mrs Nettle, but liked the opposite side for the star. There’s no rule here. Once you’ve decided, cut the shape out.
Finally, make a hole if you’d like to hang it. A hole punch works well, but a sharp tool will do just fine too.
Finally, add a ribbon, twine, or any yarn you have to hand, and thread it through.
And that’s it! Hang them on the tree or wherever else you fancy 🙂
I’m sharing these templates not as a finished answer, but as an invitation. To borrow, adapt, change, and see where it takes you. Nothing here needs to be rushed. Or perfected. Or even finished in one sitting.
Wishing you a gentle Christmas, and plenty of space for making, resting, and doing very little at all.
Rasa x
