Finally got photos taken of SOME of the holiday crafts made up and Mom and Dad's this Christmas. I didn't get photos of everything, though.
This year we focused on felt projects. Some we made with shapes cut out using metal dies, and others we made with free-hand cut shapes using hand-drawn patterns or ideas from books and magazines. Usually we take over Mom's dining room table with our project mess, but this year we got to enjoy the new quilt room Dad built for Mom. We spread out our supplies along the counter, and pulled in the old (retro-old) kitchen table as our work surface. There was a large stack of felt on the counter, as well as boxes of felt from Mom and Aunt Patty's stash, too! I brought cutting dies from my house to use for our projects (why pack clothes when I can bring craft supplies instead!), and we used Mom's die cutting machine. There were beads in every color imaginable, buttons galore, and every embroidery floss color, all right at our fingertips.
One of the projects we made was made with the Gift Card Envie die from The Cat's Pajamas. We made needle keepers that we decorated with various cut flowers, beads, and embroidery. On my needle case, I used the Sunflower Rosette die from The Cat's Pajamas to create the large flowers for the front of the case.
The backside is embellished with two buttons that also act as the closure for the case.
Inside, yellow felt "pages" work perfectly for keeping my needles safe and secure.
We also made cookies! I remembered seeing this idea on Linda's Catered Crop blog last year. Her project turned out so cute, I knew I needed to bake up my own batch of cookies! If you do a Google image search for "felt cookies" you'll find all KINDS of great ideas! It's amazing how long a project like this takes... it might actually be faster to bake real cookies! *grin* But using metal dies to cut the felt into shapes works great! We used Spellbinder dies for our cookies and frosting.
I made a gingerbread girl using the Sizzix gingerbread die, and various other dies for embellishment. My favorite is the Icing die, by The Cat's Pajamas! It's the perfect size for these little woolies! To create her dress, I sandwich'd her between two pieces of red felt and carefully cut out the shape of her dress. Once cut, I hand stitched the side seams of the dress together, as well as the arms and shoulders. The white scalloped collar was added last.
And of course I had to make a gingerbread boy, too. Dressed in tidy overalls, he's ready to hang on our tree. A quick way to create clothes for the boy is to cut out a second gingerbread body using the color you want to use for the clothing; for my project I used blue. Then just chop off the extra parts on the colored cut-out, like the feet, the arms, and a little area to create the neckline. Easy peasy, you've got overalls shaped perfectly for your fella!
By FAR, the funniest project completed during the week was this hula gingerbread girl that Mom made. Quietly working away, Mom used the small Sizzix gingerbread die to cut out two body shapes from brown felt. She did a short row of blanket stitching for hair, and embellished the body with two mother of pearl buttons, green embroidery floss for the skirt, and two beads for eyes. It's perfect in every way! We laughed and laughed when she showed us what she had been secretly working on!
Aunt Patty made pretty red felt cardinals and attached lapel pins to the backside. Here, mine is pinned to my sweatshirt, all festive and cheery!
Using a project from one of her many books as inspiration, Mom made this cute little partridge ornament. Won't she be a cutie on the tree!
Using a Spellbinders flower die I made this snowman face ornament.
On the backside, I used the beautiful Snowflake die from The Cat's Pajamas to quickly and easily embellish the back. I love the stark contrast between the black and white wool felt.
And finally, using an idea from a magazine article Aunt Patty brought with her, I made this snowman face mug rug. The mug is one that I hand painted years ago at a paint-your-own-pottery shop, and just happened to be the mug I used this morning for my coffee!
Each scallop on the mug rug has a simple snowman face -- two knot eyes, and a quickly stitched carrot for a nose. The sample in the magazine article was so perfect, I didn't change a thing!
We sure had a ball creating our projects this year! Wonder what we'll dream up for Christmas 2012!
