Feeling Festive

It's feeling more Christmassy here now that Little L is off school for the holidays. I love those few days that she is home before Christmas when we have our films planned out to watch together.
We did end up buying a white Christmas tree ... in fact we bought two. The first one we purchased on line but when we put it up it did look quite gappy, not like the tree on the online photo. I wasn't too bothered by that but when I hung my first bauble which was very light, the branch drooped and it was obvious there was no way the branches would take any weight at all (really the tree was only suitable if you wanted to chuck some tinsel at it) Then same day we drove to three of our closest garden centres for a white tree and not one could be found. The day after we went further afield and came home with a pre lit one. We did ring before hand to enquire if they had any and they only had one. I never thought a white tree would be so difficult to find. Plus it wouldn't fit in the boot we had to remove it from it's box and wrestle it in to the boot of the car.

It does look lovely lit up. Other years we have decorated the tree with tinsel and beads but this year we've only used hanging decorations.
  

Lots of glass ornaments,

glittery ones,

even more deers

and a couple of Boston terriers have been added too.

This year I won't be able to use my Christmas table cloths because we changed the table when we decorated so I made this Christmassy table runner. It was made using materials I already had and now my table won't look so bare.

Crafting For Christmas

Over the past couple of months I've been making a few bits and bobs ready for Christmas. These are what I've made some far.

A poinsettia cushion. I have seen a few versions of these on Pinterest. The tutorial that I used can be found here.

Simple hearts using Christmas print fabric and free motion embroidery holly leaves. 

Some mini gingerbread men magnets for my Mum. 

A Father Christmas hanging decoration. The triangular Santa design is something else that I have seen in Pinterest. 

The hanger at the top is a curtain grommet covered with felt with all the bits and bobs glued on.

Christmas Jackalope Ornament

Today I've been making some Christmassy jackalopes to hang from our tree.

I drew a silhouette of a rabbits head using a photo then added some antlers. The head and antlers were cut from thin vinyl taken from showroom sample books.

A hole was made with a hole punch in the top of the head and the antlers were painted. I didn't have any metallic paint and wasn't keen on Little L's glitters so I painted mine using nail polish.

When the paint (nail polish) had dried, the antlers were then glued on to the head and a length of thin ribbon was used for hanging up the ornament .

This is the template that I made to make the jackalopes.

Woolly Christmas Ornaments

At this time of year I start searching the internet for Christmas ornament patterns. Usually I look for something using felt but this year decided to make some knitted and crocheted ones instead. Once I began looking I founds loads of free patterns. These are the ones that I made. I've put the links for the patterns that I used underneath each photo.

Crocheted Star Ornament

Crocheted Christmas Tree

Small Knitted Trees

Toy soldier Christmas ornament

Knitted mini Christmas stockings

These are what Little L has made for both of her Grans. They just need some magnets gluing on to the backs now. As long as the charts aren't too complicated she makes these on her own but I tend to get the job of being the bead sorter. 

Christmas Rocking Horse

Last Christmas when my decorations were out Little L seemed particularly fond of my rocking horses. I would find them moved from where they had been originally placed to being clustered together in a little herd. None are valuable or would easily break so I didn't mind Little L playing with them. Before they were stored away I took some photos of them with the idea of making some felt ones for our Christmas tree. This is the first one which I have made.

MATERIALS

Felt - grey, green, red and white

Embroidery thread in colours to match the felt plus small amounts in light grey, yellow and black

Ribbon

All the patterns pieces were cut from felt, cutting 2 pieces for the body, rocker and tail. The parts were placed and sewn on to one of the body shapes with small straight stitches using two strands of embroidery thread.

The details on the saddle, harness and rocker were added using french knots and chain stitch in yellow thread and light grey on the mane and tail. The eye, nostril and ear were added using black thread.

The two tail pieces were sewn together then the two body pieces, inserting the ribbon for hanging and the tail as I went along. The two pieces for the rocker were sewn together inserting the feet.

Small circles of white felt were glued on for the spots.

Quick Christmas Embroideries

With Christmas not too far away I didn't want to start making anything which will take too long for me to complete as I still have a couple of unfinished projects lingering around so this week I made these two small embroideries. Both are free and can be found on Kitschy Digitals.

The robin is part of the Festive Bird Set designed by Bridgeen Gillespie. My Mum loves this one so now it's finished it will be going to live with her.

The Yule Tree Sprite is designed by Cate Anevski. I'll be keeping this one as it is Caleb's favourite and he likes Cate's designs

Last night while reading through my blog list I saw a recipe posted on by the babbling brooke ,for chocolate shortbread. Instead of making a shortbread round I cut the mixture into biscuits for the children. I did have to try one myself, just for a little taste test and I can't see these lasting for long when the children come in or Anders for that matter. Thanks for posting the recipe Kate :)

Handmade Gifts

It has been a busy week here so far especially for Little L who has been in her first nativity play at Primary school, been to her first school Christmas party and will be going to her first disco this week. The boys are going to the cinema and bowling with their school. I can't wait for them all to break up for the holidays because then it will feel more Christmassy but that maybe because I subject them to every Christmas film going on TV.

Little L has gave out the teachers presents which I made for her yesterday as I think that the rest of this week is going to be hectic for them. For her teachers and classroom assistant I knit these circular scarfs using a free pattern which can be found at Hand Knitted Things . Thank you for sharing your pattern Julia :)

Key rings were made for two more classroom assistants.

This tea cosy and egg cosies were made for friends. The tea cosy was knitted using a pattern from the book Kirstie's Homemade Home and it can also be purchased from Ravelry - Kirstie's Tea & Egg Cosies by Suzie Johnson. I only used the pattern for the main body of the cosy and made up the rest as I went along. For the egg cosies, I just used an egg cup for size and started to knit until I was happy with it.

Christmas Crafting

Its starting to feel Christmassy for me already in our house. That's due to us Christmas shopping, Little L going to her first school fair last week and all the Christmas films I have subjected the rest of the family to over the weekend. No tree up yet though because if I put it up too early I'm sick of the sight of it by the time Christmas arrives. Andy has been dropping hints about it but I think he'd be happy to have it up all year round.

This week Little L has been busy cutting decorations out of this book, Christmas Decorations to Cut, Fold & Stick  . My sis bought it for me as a pressie on her last visit.

The pages are printed with Christmas decorations, paper chains, angels, snowflakes, hanging decorations, etc.

The instructions for all the decorations are printed inside the cover, the cut and fold lines clearly shown and all you need is some sellotape to construct them.

Its a great book for children. Little L finds some of them a bit tricky for her to cut out yet but she managed to make some paper chains by herself with me just cutting the sellotape for her.

I've been making some quick decorations using felt. These mice required no sewing, just some cutting out and gluing. The tutorial can be found here

I only stumbled upon a tutorial for these felt Santa's on Flickr the other day. These are designed by Shelly from the Gingermelon Dolls blog who also makes dolls and animals using felt. Gingermelon Dolls patterns can be purchased from Etsy. I only wish I'd have found this blog sooner as I know my mum would love the gingerbread men and snowman but I think I'd be cutting it a bit fine to start them now. The tutorial for the Santa's can be found here.

Winter Woolly Hats

These little woolly hats are an excellent wintery project for children to make. If the wool and cardboard is precut, great for little tiddlers to join in ( until their limited attention span wavers that it is ).

I found the tutorial for the little woolly hats .. here. Thank you Lisa

Noel Hearts

I've finished these hearts off just in time for when my Mum nips here for a brew and natter after work. My Mum loves Christmas and I made these with her in mind. The free tutorial can be found here. There are more tutorials and recipes plus lots of lovely photos on Cherry's blog so it might be worth a visit if you have not popped over there before.

Winter House

This week I have been making more of these Christmas trees which I made last year and this little winter house decoration.

All the pieces are cut from felt and sewn together using tiny straight stitches. Seed beads were sewn on to look like snow. A small length of ribbon was inserted at the top for hanging and it was slightly stuffed before closing. The pieces I made for the house are below.

Feeling Christmassy

It doesn't feel as though Christmas will soon be upon here at the moment but I think that is just because we haven't put the tree or decorations up yet so I decided to start the Christmassy feeling off with some seasonal tunes and paper chain making. I discovered that Little L does not care much for Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby. She likes something a little more upbeat. Also I found out that the strips of paper for making paper chains these days have changed since I made them with the boys. They have glue ! . No more waiting for the gallons of slobber to dry then bodge them up with sellotape.

In the afternoon I rustled these up for my mum. Last week my mum had been to a garden centre (she haunts the places at Christmas, drawn to all the lights and decorations) and told me about some little felt trees she had seen. She told me that they were plain felt and just glued together. Now I know she was a bit disgusted at the prices charged for these thrown together items but I don't know if it was also a hint for me to make some or not .. so I made her some anyway. Just hope mine don't get the comments that the offensive little trees in the garden centre did.

For theses I cut out 2 tree shapes with pinking shears and used straight stitch round the edges inserting a small length of ribbon at the top for a loop and a piece of brown felt at the bottom. When I had nearly reached the end, I pushed in a small amount of stuffing. I then sewed on tiny buttons for baubles

Felty Christmas Tree

This is another christmassy picture that I finished last night.

I used a 6in embroidery hoop, cotton fabric for the background ( I love this snowy looking one - purchased from Ebay UK ), scraps of felt, tiny buttons and embroidery thread to match the felt colours.

The pattern shapes that I used for the tree are pictured below. I used simple straight stitch throughout.

Let It Snow

A quick little snowflake pic using back stitch and a few french knots and lazy daisy stitches

I used a 5in embroidery hoop, jute fabric to fit and Anchor thread no. 46. I used 3 strands of thread throughout.

 This is the first pattern I have made myself and I'm not entirely happy with aspects of it (especially the wording) Its not brilliant by any means but its here if you want it.