Merry Christmas!

Well, we've reached that time of the year again; have a great Christmas Day!

It's probably a little late now, but if you're still dissatisfied with your decorations then here's something that might help: my guide to making Impossibly Easy-Peasy Cardboard Baubles (Guaranteed 78% Not Tacky). All you need is a bit of spare time, plenty of cardboard and lots of split pins...

1. Cut the cardboard into long, thin, strips, all of which should have the same dimensions. Punch three small holes in each strip: one near each end and one right in the middle.
2. Once you have plenty of strips, take a few of them (four is best) and lay them on top of one another. If the cardboard you're using is only decorated on one side, make sure that side is facing upwards. Then push a split pin downwards through the central holes in the strips.
3. Turn the whole construction over and arrange the strips in an eight-pointed star formation by fanning them out. Open the split pin to hold them all together.
4. Take one of the points of the 'star' and bend it upwards and inwards, forming a semicircle. Holding it in place, push another split pin downwards through the hole at its end.
5. Still holding your initial point, take another point and attach it to the split pin in a similar manner to the first. Continue to attach points until there are none left, and you should be left with a roughly spherical bauble. Finally, open up the split pin to hold the points in place.

Once you've made a few baubles, you can use them however you so please. The obvious answer is to hang them up as recession-busting Christmas decorations, but there are plenty of other uses for them. Place them in unusual, yet aesthetically pleasing, locations around the house. Hurl them across the room without fear of breaking something. Give them to the cat to play with, perhaps. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination (and some minor physical constraints, of course, but we'll ignore those for the time being).

Well, that's all for now. See you in the New Year! (Or possibly sooner.)

JakeC