Putting up and decorating your tree is an annual tradition for many.

To me, it's not just something that I have to do each year. It's the sort of creative responsibility I love. We have two trees in our house, a large green tree in the living room, and a smaller pink tree in my bedroom. For the tree in the living room, I like to stick to more traditional colours; red, silver, gold, and a lot of metallics. I love to keep it simply beautiful with a little modern twist.

Now, for the tree in my bedroom, I, of course, have to go a little over the top. You can't make anything that is pink boring - it's literally impossible.

The usual attire for my tree are shiny and glittery baubles, little pink floral printed angels, small wrapped presents, tinsels of many colours. I also have two of these sequined fish that have neon plastic fins, which is sort of strange but I dig it. You know me, I love anything and everything sentimental; I collect things just because it would remind me of a time I enjoyed, or I'll be able to listen to a song and travel back (in my mind) to the exact moment I heard it. I'm that person who will keep a receipt because it was the first time I bought something abroad, and even though the text is starting to fade away, it still means something.

I wanted to give that emotional attachment feeling to my tree, which is why I have created a range of clay decorations inspired by my 2018.

I would definitely describe my year as being very memorable; for both good and bad reasons, but either way, I feel like I have started to understand myself and gain more confidence. Whether that's physical confidence or confidence in my abilities and skills. I feel like I have learnt...

... okay, this is starting to sound like a farewell to 2018 post, when clearly we are here to find out about these clay decorations.

For my decorations, I pulled ideas from things that mean a lot to me, and moments I want to remember next year when I put up my tree. They have been inspired by blog posts, my favourite foods, important events, or just traditional Christmas shapes.

• A macaron, love bug, ice cream cone cupcake, and a slice of watermelon cake - three bakes I am most proud of.
• An elephant - as I adopted a family of elephants in Kenya for my birthday.
• A Bomb Cosmetics candle - as I am now a Bomb Cosmetics ambassador. Exciting stuff! I can't wait to start sharing my thought on their products.
• A pair of white socks - I don't think I need to explain this one to you.
• A slice of bread, pizza, and taco - which are some of my favourite foods.
• Mermaid tail, Christmas wreath, Christmas pudding truffle, and Santa doughnut - inspired by some of my current and previous blogmas crafts and bakes.
• Candy canes, Christmas jumper, tree, Elf hat, and mitten - as we need some festive decorations too.

Your tree decorations can take any theme you like, but I would love you to try creating your year too.

Making your clay decorations are very easy. I used ultra-soft polymer clay. I bought mine from Ebay in a selection of colours. You don't need any fancy tools, you can find things to slice, cut, make holes etc from around your home. I found it easier if I was looking at an image of what I was making so I was able to visualise the different layers and colours. There are plenty of tutorials online if you need a little more inspiration or help. Also, check out fondant modelling tutorials as though they're using rolled icing, the method is still the same. You can buy silicone moulds too, to press your clay into. You are able to mix clays together to make new colours, add glitter to create a lovely shimmer, twist different colours together to create a marble effect. So many different ideas you can experiment with.

Once you have finished your decoration, use a thick needle to make a hole so you're able to hang your decorations once they're dry. Try not to make the hole too close to an edge as you don't want it to tear through. My clay is air drying, so after about 24 hours, they were ready for the tree, though the thicker decorations like the love bug and Christmas pudding truffle needed a little more time. You can also buy oven baking clay, so follow the instructions as written. Once they have dried, thread through a piece of twine or string and hang beautifully on your tree.

Let me know in the comments below what decoration would best represent your year. We are just a little over our first week of blogmas, but we still have two weeks to go! Check out my advent calendar to catch up on all you've missed so far.

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