I'm delighted to be working with Swiftcover again this week as part of their #swifthomehacks campaign, to show you a cheap and super easy DIY to make your own Xmas baubles!

Last Christmas I noticed that there was a real trend in the more upmarket department stores for tree decorations that were miniature glass bottles featuring glamorous feathers inside. The stores were selling these decorations for about £4 - £7 each. After having an early October nose through the Christmas departments this year (yes I know, I'm keen to get a head start!) I saw that these types of decorations are again popular for 2016. These tree decorations are really effective, contemporary and beautiful, but they are also so easy to DIY at home and so cheap to make. You could decorate your whole tree with these decorations for the price it costs to buy four or five pre-made ones from the shops! A great idea would be to give them as small gifts for Christmas, or as favours if you are throwing a pre-Xmas dinner party. 

All you need to make these decorations is the following:  

• 50ml glass bottles with corks (simply Google and you will find a multitude of places to buy them as single items or in multipacks). 

• Pack of 'luxury feathers'. You can buy these from craft stores.  

• Twine

Simply take off the cork top to your bottles, insert a few feathers until you are happy it looks complete, then pop the cork lid back on until it's secure. 

Take some twine and wrap it around the lip of the bottle and tie it securely. Create a loop with the twine so the bottle can be hung loosely on the tree.

You can mix up different feathers with different shaped bottles. You could also add in glitter with the feathers, or print off a name or xmas message to create a 'message in a bottle'.