Today’s advent calendar message is to ‘Create a DIY gift for someone special’ and I decided…

that the ‘someone special’ is myself. Both because loving oneself is important and

because I in particular am ‘special’…

I can call myself that. And I made a video to tell you whether you can too, it’s in

the card above.

[bell sfx]

This video is sponsored by Skillshare and today I’m going to be taking you through

making three ultra-Christmassy DIY hairpieces and the fun hairstyles you can do with them!

I was inspired to make this video both because I went to see Last Christmas and spent the

whole time staring at the lead character’s festive headbands-

And because I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing Skillshare recently to get inspiration

for crafting and learn some new skills. For those who don’t know: Skillshare is an online

learning community targeted at creatives, whether that’s on the amateur or professional

level. The tutorial videos on the site, known as ‘classes’, cover a wide range of skills

but also a whole spectrum of abilities: business, fine art, graphic design...

the list goes on and on.

I’ve personally found the creative writing course particularly interesting as they cover

so many essential skills that will help strengthen a story as well as any characters within them.

And I'm very much into writing my fiction

Such as their Storytelling 101 was really great

and the Writing Authentic Fiction classes. Those were really good too.

They also have

closed captions on all of their Skillshare Originals and Staff Picks videos.

[gasp] We are blessed!

And videos on flower crowns, which helped me a lot today!

[sparkle sfx]

As a member you also have the chance to give and receive feedback on projects through

the creators community which can be a huge help to anybody learning a new skill or improving

on an old one.

With premium membership comes the benefit of unlimited access to all courses on their

website. Meaning you can find the course and community that works best for you.

Whatever it is you like to do.

Whether you want to fuel your curiosity, creativity, or even career, join the 7-million-plus people

currently using Skillshare to further improve their skills. Skillshare is giving away a

free 2 month unlimited access trial to any of my subscribers who click the link in the

description box! And after that it’s only around $10 a month.

And it’s… genuinely worth it.

Which you’ll see as I make my very own Christmas flower crown! Technically has no flowers.

It’s just a Christmas crown. I just wanted a crown.

[cheerful Christmas music]

[VO:]

My childhood home had a huge fireplace: the ceiling in my living room was probably fourteen

feet high and in the middle of the room was a fireplace wide enough for six people to

warm themselves around. Above the fireplace was an antique cast iron double wall light

in which we put candles and let it stand alone as mantlepiece decoration. But… in winter

every year, with the trimmings from the Christmas tree, my parents would let me create elaborate

decorative foliage sculptures with wire and greenery above the mantle. It was one of my

favourite parts of Christmas decorating but since they moved house I haven’t had the

chance to flex my wire and fir tree muscles so I’m very excited to be making this now.

I measured my head and snipped some wire to length… later realising I should have made

it twice as long! I lapped each cutting halfway over the next and tied a knot with the wire

leaving a little extra at the two ends so they could be tied together.

[cheerful Christmas music]

Next I added my chopped up fake mistletoe (FYI, real mistletoe is poisonous so bear

that in mind if you’re working around small animals), which I tied on using some lovely

gold wire with cream beads that I picked up at Hobbycraft. I’ll leave a link to that

in the description along with some other crafting supplies that I use in the video.

Since the wire is so thin this part was really quite tricky but I genuinely have the best

time playing with wire so I was having a GREAT time!

Finally, once I’d woven mistletoe in all the way around the crown I considered putting

these red holly berries on it but then Coco Chanel reigned me back in with: take off the

last thing you put on. So we skipped those- and I would say it was a success!

I’m really pleased with this little crown, it’s the first flower crown-adjacent thing

I’ve ever made but I think it turned out quite well! So thanks to Skillshare for the

crown tutorial!

[cheerful Christmas music]

[VO:]

For this piece I really wanted to build upon one of my favourite winter hairstyles: the

vintage roll. I don’t tend to wear my hair up much during the warmer months but I think

it’s lovely during the festive season… which is probably a little strange as that’s

when your neck gets cold!

I love fancy hair slides but I really don’t get enough wear out of them so having one

that only lasts a few days seems like a great and sustainable answer. I had a couple of

plain slides lying around- again, I’ll link similar in the description- so wanted to jazz

them up for the season.

And yes, that does mean using a lot of wire again because wire is my friend. Remember

to keep that wire tight as you twist it around… I once made a meter long star out of bamboo

cane, decorated with tree trimmings to hang above the fireplace- it was essentially a

Christmas wreath in the shape of a huge star- but didn’t quite tie it tightly enough to

its moorings and it fell off the wall, almost smacking me on the head.

I say that… it probably did smack me on the head.

I have memory loss.

Genuinely anything

could have happened to me.

[VO] To get this look, first follow the hair tutorial I’ve linked in the card above and

then simply side your grip into place! Voila! Beautiful.

[cheerful Christmas music]

[VO:]

And finally, this look is deceptively simple and really quite cute. It uses just your average

everyday hair slides- or ‘kirby grips’ for you Americans- I’m a fan of the matte

kind.

Grab two grips, some fake holly and a bit of bush. Clip a long length of wire and tie

the two grips together you’re going to be attaching things to the top half of your grips

but having two together obviously makes them much sturdier.

Once you’ve finished wrapping around the grips, use some pretty ribbon to finish off

the end.

It’s important to make sure you leave the curved edge of the grips free at the back

so that you can slide in a third grip, which will be the one that actually attaches the

piece to your hair!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video! Quite a few of you asked for crafty, DIY and hair

related things when I posted about vlogmas a few weeks ago so I really hope you like

what I’ve made.

Which one is your favourite? The Christmas Crown? The Holly Slide? Or the Berry Grip?

Remember to subscribe if you haven’t already, click the like button and make sure you try

Skillshare using my link in the description!

I’ll see you tomorrow for another vlogmas video

[kiss]

[Off camera] Clara: Spin slowly...

You mean, spin slowly so I don't vomit?

Clara: Yeah [laughs]

That's fair

It's probably gonna happen really soon

Probably when we stop filming this video

Clara: Focus on Jessica! Oh no, it's lost the face!

Clara: There we go!