Homemade Christmas Crackers

Something a Christmas table can't do without is the traditional Christmas Cracker.

Items were acquired to stuff into the crackers!

I cut up some cardboard that my awesome sister gave me.  (NEED SOME MORE CARDBOARD AWESOME SISTER  hint hint).  This is the same cardboard I used for my scented trees.  Click Here  if you would like to see the tutorial for these.  I made seven of these crackers so  I cut seven pieces 6"x12". 

I rolled them into a tube, overlapping maybe 1/2 inch.  I needed the bodies to be big for all the  awesomeness I was stuffing in there.  I hot glued the seam and reinforced with duct tape, but I must confess, I only did two that way.  The rest were just hot glued. 

It had to be big cuz I wanted to pack them full!

Bigger is Better!

I took the tube and hot glued it to the edge of some wrapping paper.

The snapper part was put inside of it but not glued in.

I cut fourteen more pieces of cardboard.  These were for the ends that held the snaps.  I put a bit of hot glue on the edge and attached a tube to each end of the snapper.  Through trial and error, (that's why you only ever see six in the photos),  I realized that they needed to be smaller than the center tubes.  I cut these at 3"x7".  Rolled them into tubes and hot glued them.

Now you get to roll up your stuff to fit in the tube.  Good Luck!  Nah, it was pretty easy.  I rolled the goodies up  inside the hat,  and stuffed away.

Roll your paper tightly around the center tube and hot glue it together.  The end tubes must be free from the paper so no glue is applied to these.  I did glue the ends where you see my fingers, just to hold  paper to paper.

Now this is a bit tricky.  Kinda scrunch up the paper between the end tube and center tube on each side.  I did one at a time so that I wasn't putting tension on the snapper.  Once one end is done, you can push it towards the center tube so that the other end has a little more play for you to scrunch it up.   

  We are almost done!  You get to put your pretty ribbon on the end and tie.  My ribbon had wire in it so it was pretty stable without a knot or a bow.

I must admit, I could have made them a little more glitzy, but this project turned into a four hour ordeal.  I quickly put initials on the round stickers.  You could put names on but nobody has the same initial in our family. 

I poked a hole through the sticker with my scissors and hot glued on a pretty button.

I used my trusty glitter glue and went around the perimeter of the sticker.

Next year these babies will be all decked out with this and that.  They are pretty simple but I think the family will enjoy them.

Cheers!