A Crafty Christmas

Craft fever has hit me again - I was waiting for it. I was not in any mood to do crafts when we came back from out of town, but since school has been out I'm all into it.

We have a new annual tradition with my friend Allison and her kids. The Randall's (grocery store) sells pre-made gingerbread houses and you can decorate them at the store. This was our fourth year to make one. I put the icing on the house and Ella placed all of the candy herself. The houses always turn out so cute.

I'm not sure how long the gingerbread house will last, though. The other day I noticed that our house was awfully quiet...that usually means Christian is getting into something. Sure enough, Christian had climbed up a chair to pick candy off of the gingerbread house. After I saw him, Ella came over and decided to help him reach the candy that he couldn't get to.

This isn't a craft, but I change out seasonal toys in front of the fireplace for each holiday. The basket is filled with Christmas books and Christian is playing with the Little People Nativity set in this picture. I think he looks so sweet sitting in front of the fire with his little sweater on!

I found a great tutorial for making felted wool wreaths (click here). We went to Goodwill and bought 100% wool sweaters, washed them on high heat so they would felt, then cut them into squares. Once the squares were cut, it only took a few minutes to make each one. They were simple enough that Ella could make them herself. As of today, we've made at least a total of twenty of these things! Court asked if we would make eleven of them for him to give away to people at work for Christmas gifts. Fortunately for me, he sat down and made several of them with me. I think he enjoyed it :o)

Ella figured out a way to thread the felt without poking herself with the needle. She stabbed the felt on the table and then pulled the felt onto the thread - pretty smart, eh?

I jokingly said that this was the Campbell Sweatshop since child labor was involved :o) Ella had a great time helping make crafts and Court caught on to the crafty spirit himself that night.

He found a tutorial online to make paper ornaments out of old catalogs and magazines.

I was really impressed with the final outcome.

I had so much felted wool left over that I started to think of other things to make out of it. This little tree only took about 15 minutes and turned out pretty cute, I think. I wish I could say that I made the card in the background, but I didn't. My Aunt Vicki sent it to me and I thought it was so cute that it deserved its own special spot.

I almost didn't post this picture. I made this pillow from some of the leftover sweaters and I'm not 100% happy with it. My hand-stitching skills are beginner-level at best so the part that I sewed after stuffing the pillow looks awful and needs to be re-done. However, the pillow isn't that bad for a beginner, I guess.

This is my second attempt at sewing a t-shirt dress for Ella. It turned out much better than the Halloween dress did. It's definitely not professional quality, but I am getting better with each thing I sew.