Christmas Stocking Ornaments

I have a friend who inherited her Gma's crocheted Christmas stocking ornaments. She wanted to make some to add to the collection, but didn't have a pattern, so I set out to figure it out. It was pretty simple to do, but I found a pattern online thinking it might be nice to have a twist to Gma's stocking. This stocking pattern went super fast too and my sister loved it's outcome, I'll be making her some for her family this week for next year. But in the end my friend and I liked the Gma's pattern more. I liked it so much that I made a set for me and hope to make more.

The 1st two are from the pattern, the 3rd is Gma's stocking, and the 4th is my replica of Gma's stocking ornament.

Coffee Mug Cozies

A lot of times when I want to do a project I look for several different tutorials for help. I found two that I ended up pulling from when I made coffee mug cozies for a friend. The first one here I used the template and materials suggested. The 2nd one here I really liked for the suggestion on using a toothpick to put the button on.

Hot Cocoa Snowmen

I made a few of these snowmen for gifts this year. They were large mouth pint jars. I found this picture for inspiration. There wasn't a tutorial, but I thought they were pretty self-explanatory. For the bottom jar I filled one with Andes mints and the other two with mint and chocolate chips. I tole painted the faces and buttons and used Mod Podge to seal them. I used felt for the hats.

Felt Envelopes

We have an annual Christmas tradition where we individually give Jesus a gift. Typically it's something that we're trying to work on for the year. Last year my 8 y.o said he wanted to have more charity and do more service, I think he did a great job working on this gift all year. Before Christmas we talk about the previous year's gift and how we did. This year my hubby and I decided we wanted to create an ornament which we could put the letters into. I Googled and searched Pinterest for felt envelopes and my children chose this tutorial. Each person of the family chose their felt and buttons.

Doll Clothing

For Christmas this year, my daughters are getting Melissa and Doug dolls. They're 14" tall and perfect for my little girls.

 

 I knew I wanted to make doll clothes for them, I however didn't realize that the bug would hit me and I couldn't stop making them. I had to tell myself to quit after 3 outfits because I have plenty of time to make more after the holidays. 

The first outfit I made was these cute crochet dresses. I found the pattern here. I changed the dress a bit and joined a lot earlier than she did. I wanted my girl's to be able to just slip it on and not have to deal with buttons. Because the dolls are 4" smaller than what the pattern was made for I dropped down 2 hook sizes and used a lighter weight yarn. I love the sparkly yarn.

I found the top of the next outfit from the same creator as the dress above. It's an adorable sweater, however I did make some changes , joining sooner than she had and I used the same worsted weight yarn, but dropped down 2 hook sizes. On the 2nd sweater( one on the left) I didn't do the increases she calls for towards the bottom of the sweater. I think that did the trick for getting the correct size. The pants I used this pattern and tutorial. I shrunk down the pattern to fit the dolls and used knit instead of fleece. This pattern was super easy and I plan on making a lot more pants in all different types of material.

You cant live in the West and not have a western outfit. I used this great pattern for the top. I've used it many times and its super easy and fast. I did make the straps a bit shorter so it would hug their dolls better. For the skirt I used jersey and the same principals in this tutorial I've used before.

This is what the back looks like.

That's it for NOW, oh but there definitely will be more clothing to come.

Christmas Cards

I'm annoyed at myself. I'm typically good about saving an image or link to give credit for an idea that someone else had but I used for inspiration, but this time I can't find the site where I found these cute cards with trees made out of bright colored paper. It inspired me to make my Christmas cards using Christmas print material and heat-n-bond. I also used my new shears given to me from my friend Molly. LOVE THEM!! Everyone needs a pair of these!! I ended up with a few different looks. 

This is one of them up close.

 

Hand Warmers

 I wanted to do a practical gift for my children's teachers and some of the school staff. I also wanted to not spend a single penny doing it and I was successful. I found this great post about hand warmers. I knew I owned all the supplies and I could get the kids involved. I had them pick out the fleece they wanted to use and then we made the heart template. I cut, sewed and stuffed all 23 pairs in a few hours. I put them into a little bag with a label that read "You warm our hearts, let us warm your hands." We delivered them today, which was very fitting since it had snowed several inches and was still coming down.

Rainbow Scarves

I've completed several projects, but because they're gifts I can't post them on here until after I give them to the receiver. I have a friend who has 3 beautiful daughters. I made them rainbow scarves with their initial on them. I use this scarf as inspiration.

 

I used Red Heart yarn for the scarf, felt and ultra heat-n-bond for the clouds and letters.

 

Chain Loop Scarf

I love scarves and cowls and so when I saw this chain loop scarf, I knew I needed one...or two...or maybe eventually three. I'm limited on my bulky yarn so I decided to use two strands of Caron's Simply Soft yarn. I enjoy the variegated look. Each scarf took me about 45 minutes to do. A very easy project for gifts or for yourself.

  

A Christmas Stocking for a Missionary

My BIL is currently serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I wanted to surprise him with a fun Christmas gift. I came across this blog and I thought it was a cute stocking. I decided I was going to make it. So I started out with a little boy's white shirt and black felt. 

I used a regular stocking for a pattern for our missionary stocking. It took me about 10 minutes to sew it together and then added an old tie of my son's. Here's the results.

I can't wait to fill it with his favorite candies and notes and pictures from our family.

Yarn bowls

I dont save all my yarn scraps, I will for bird nesting in the spring, but a lot of it I throw away, NOT ANYMORE!!! For our scouts' Christmas present this year they made these cool bowls out of yarn. I found the idea here. I loved the vibrant colors and shape. I didnt have scraps of yarn so I ended up cutting a ton of different colors of yarn into 3 different sizes. 

The original plan was to put cookies the scouts made into the bowls, but a smoky church oven had other ideas. Instead they tied their bows and gave just the bowl as a gift. I love how some scouts made their bowls with yarn all over the place while some took a more circular approach.

I have  a lot of yarn left over and I plan on doing this craft project with my kiddos real soon!

Kitchen Remodel Done

We got it DONE!!!! Almost, there's only a few things to do such as the kick board and the trim. I'm so impressed with my hubby. He laid the laminate floor by himself and then his father came over to help him with the cabinets and counter tops. The granite is beautiful! We've owned it for 8 yrs and have moved it 3 times, so its nice to finally have used it in one of our kitchens. I didn't have any pins that we used, but DH did use YouTube videos on how to cut and install granite.

 

 

Its amazing how more open it feels even though its the exact set up as before. I haven't finished refinishing the kitchen table yet, hopefully this upcoming week.