DIY Lifestyle

My Colourful Summer Christmas with a DIY and a sunny theme tree.

christmas-wreath-ideas-little-big-bellWelcome to the colourful world of Little Big Bell, this Christmas season.

A big hello to those of you coming from Stephanie’s wonderful blog Renovation Bay-Bee, on the UK Home Blog Hop, organised by the talented Kimberly of Swoon Worthy.

Christmas is less than three weeks away, and to be honest, I haven’t started decorating my home yet.

However, all is not lost, as I have at least made a festive Gumdrops wreath and decorated a little Christmas tree.

The theme for my decor is a Colourful Summer Christmas. You guessed it! I love Christmas, but somehow I can’t bring myself to decorate in dark Winter tones. Light and colour makes me happy.gumdrops-wreath-for-christmas-little-big-bellI had so much fun making this gumdrops wreath, and I can’t wait to eat the candy too! Maybe I shouldn’t have divulged that.

Finding these huge and colourful gumdrops was a major task. I believe they are easier to find in the United States, but in London, it took me quite a while to hunt them down.

To my joy, I found them in the American sweet section in Selfridges. They were however quite expensive to buy, and the lady at the cash till gave me a rather disapproving ‘sweet tooth’ look, as I handed her my heavy bags filled to the brim with candy.

The next day, I had to return to the store, as I had ran out of candy for my DIY. Oh no! I wanted to hide, it was the same lady at the till.3m-command-hooks-little-big-bellYou may be wondering how I made this wreath. The most common method is to stick the gumdrops onto a polystyrene wreath with a hot glue gun.

However, as those candies were so expensive, I couldn’t bring myself to use glue. I actually used small pins which I stuck into the gumdrop base and attached the other end into the wreath.

You’d be surprised how many gumdrops I needed to cover the wreath, perhaps 600 or even more.gumdrops-sweet-wreath-styled-and-photographed-by-little-big-bellWhen finished, just tie with a pretty bow. Does the end result make you smile?

The wreath felt heavy with so many sugared candies. I needed something strong to hold it up.command-3m-detachable-wall-peg-little-big-bellIt was such a relief to have discovered this Command 3M chrome metal hook . It can hold up to the weight of 1 kg.

Even better, I found out that this hook is able to be cleanly removed, without damaging the surface below. These hooks would be perfect for rented accommodations.

Hook removal was easy too, simply grasp and slide the hook upwards to remove from the mounting base. The base was stuck to the door with a Command strip below. To remove the strip, I held the base gently and pulled the strip tab vertically downwards in a long stretch which released the base from the wall.

So cool right? You can use it on any surface except wallpaper.gumdrops-christmas-wreath-little-big-bellHere’s my gumdrops wreath. What do you think?most-colourful-christmas-tree-london-little-big-bellNext, I’d like to show you my colourful Summer Christmas tree.

This rather sleek and modern looking artificial tree had been hidden away in our attic for at least 10 years.

Since it was still too early to buy our real Christmas tree, I was happy to re-discover this artificial one to showcase the beautiful sunny themed decorations that Oliver Bonas had sent me to style with.flamingo-and-pineapple-baubles-little-big-bellI actually like the sparseness of the tree, as you can see the colourful ornaments well.flamingo-bauble-from-oliver-bonas-little-big-bellI can’t decide which one is my favourite. The flamingo?gold-pineapple-bauble-little-big-bellor the pineapples?pink-pineapple-bauble-photo-by-little-big-bellHow could I resist a pink pineapple?cactus-tree-decor-little-big-bellAdd the cactus into the equation and I’m torn. I love them all.colourful-tropical-christmas-tree-by-little-big-bellThat concludes my colourful Summer Christmas post. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

Wishing you all a wonderful mid-week.

( All photography and styling are by Geraldine Tan, editor of Little Big Bell. This is a collaborative post with 3M command but all opinions are my own).

UK Home Blog Hop

Do take a look at all the other wonderful Christmas theme posts in the blog hop. Head over next to Jenny’s Christmas home tour on Seasons in Colour.

Links for the blog hop will be updated each day at 11am as more posts are added. Do check back.

Mon 5th Dec : Swoon Worthy / The Pink House/ Candy Pop/ Don’t cramp my style / Renovation Bay-Bee.

Tuesday 6th Dec : Seasons in colour/ Love chic living/The Ordinary Lovely/ Lucy Loves Ya

Wednesday 7th December : Sarah Akwisombe / Mademoiselle Poirot / French for Pineapple/ Lust living

Thursday 8th December : TidyLife / Old Fashioned Susie / Dear Designer / We Love Home / Melanie Lissack interiors

Friday 9th December : Fresh Design blog / Ana Mum diary / Well I Guess This Is Growing Up / A Beautiful Space.

34 Comments

  1. Oh I just love that you used such happy colours in your Christmas decor! That wreath looks amazing and can’t believe what you went through to make it!! I think you deserve a sweet treat after that 😉 And I am loving those Oliver Bonas tree decorations – I am really tempted to get a few pineapples for my own tree now, they are just so cute! Thanks so much for taking part in the hop! xxx

    • littlebigbell

      You should get some pineapple baubles for youe tree Kimberly. The pink and gold ones will fit in nicely with your decor. x

  2. Oh my goodness, so much sweetie loveliness! The gumdrops wreath is making my mouth water. Gorgeous! x

  3. Wow full of colour this post, it’s great. I don’t know how you resisted eating those sweets as you were making it….or is that why you ran out! What a fab wreath and so unusual. Great idea

  4. that wreath definitely made me smile- love it!

  5. that wreath definitely made me smile-love it!

  6. I want to eat that wreath – it looks amazing! Love the tree too and your pretty baubles! X

  7. This is my kind of tree!!! Bring forth the colours!! It’s so cool, Geraldine. And good luck with not snacking on the wreath before the big day 🙂

  8. Fabulous post. I am definitely going to make a gumdrop wreath now! Yours looks fantastic xx

  9. That wreath is amazing! I wonder if it will last until xmas? Gorgeous post!

  10. Aww how sweet is that wreath! Like really sweet haha :0 you always have such a beautiful items around you <3

  11. Love the gumdrop wreath, definitely my kind of decoration. So clever and, er, tasty too!

  12. I love your wreath G. I had to smile at the thought of you buying so many sweets. I’d have felt guilty too 🙂

  13. you’re such a talented stylist Geradline!
    I love the simplicity of the tree but it’s still packed with personality. It’s so gorgeous. Absolutely loving the tree ornaments!

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  15. Nom! Nom! Nom! Oooooppse, I meant Ho! Ho! Ho! Gosh, I would eat most of your xmas decorations before Santa came (oopse) Amazing as ever x

  16. Love your candy wreath! Although in this house it would be looking a bit threadbare already! X

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