Nostalgic Christmas Gifts

My oldest daughter asked for a Nintendo NES for Christmas. It was the first video game system that she remembers playing as a child. When she mentioned it last week, the system was selling used on Ebay for about $25. Yesterday when she was gone, I tried to purchase the system on Ebay. We still own two controllers, the gun and a dozen games, so I only need the actual system. The NES is now selling for $50-$100. Yikes!

I waited until she came home from work and asked her how much she wanted the NES? She looked at me strangely, so clarification was necessary. After learning that the system is now substantially more than it was last week, Amy decided that reliving her childhood wasn't that important.

It would have been fun to have the game in the house again, but I think we can wait until January or February to relive the past.

Christmas Crackers

My children have all loved the Harry Potter movies. Each time they watch Harry and his friends opening crackers at the dining table, my children want us to have crackers at Christmas dinner. I've made them several times using tissue paper, but the mess becomes a problem. This year I decided to make crackers using Christmas printed material scraps.

Supplies:

Fabric scraps from Christmas prints
ribbon
empty toilet paper rolls

Cut a square from fabric about 4 inches wider than the width of the empty toilet paper roll. It doesn't need to be exact. I eyeballed all the measurements for this project.

Cut two pieces of ribbon approximately 12 inches long. Set aside.

Roll the toilet paper roll tightly in the fabric, making sure that the "right" side of the fabric is facing outside.

Use the two pieces of ribbon to tie one side of the cracker. Place surprise treat inside the toilet paper roll. I use holiday candy, small dollar store toys, special pencils, junk jewelry and of course silly hats.

Tie the other side of the cracker. This fabric cracker will not work for using the popping noisemakers.

Tie the other side of the cracker.

Christmas Sewing

A dear friend presented me with some fabric last weekend. Instead of making costumes earlier in the week, I spent last Monday and Tuesday sewing Christmas projects.

Christmas Cards and Gift Tags

The kids have been hanging out in the pool all weekend because it's been so hot and muggy. My method for keeping cool is to stay inside by the air conditioner and make Christmas cards and gift tags. It probably seems weird to make Christmas cards now, but free time is so scarce for me in the fall and winter that it is much more fun to make them in the summer. I chose very simple cards this year. The original plan was to use colored pencils to shade and color the designs. After adding color to one card, I realized that I preferred the cards to be colorless.




These are the gift tags that I will use on my children's presents. It's nothing fancy, but is a big improvement over writing their names on the gift wrap with black permanent marker.

Candy Wreaths

Several years ago, the older children and I made candy wreaths out of hard candy. It's an easy project and normally extremely successful. The candy is placed in a circle on a foil lined cookie sheet.



The edges of the candy need to touch each other.



The cookie sheets are placed in the oven at 350 degrees. In about 4-6 minutes the candy melts together for form a colorful candy wreath. After the candy cools, a ribbon bow is glued at the top and a ribbon hanger is tied through the center of the wreath. We used the Cut Rock candy, which melted into color-edged white circles with designs in the center. Eventually, the wreaths were destroyed. My littlest girls hadn't made the candy wreaths yet, so we decided to make them again this year. I searched all over town for the Cut Rock candy and couldn't find any. In desperation, I purchased several pounds of bulk hard candy to use instead.

When the kids created the first batch of wreaths, we discovered that the melting point of each type and color of candy was different. Some of the candies were still hard circles, while other candies had melted all over the place. The kids ate the first set of wreath disasters.

Today, we tried the wreaths again. The red Starlight mints melted fairly consistently.



Unfortunately, the other candies didn't work out well. The green "Starlight Mints" foamed before they melted and created another candy disaster. (Something more for the kids to eat."



We ended up with 5 fairly recognizable wreaths. Next year, we'll order the candy well in advance.

I found directions for a simple paper ornament here and decided to make a few with my 4 and 6 year old daughters. We used some of my scrap-booking papers. The girls found cutting perfect circles difficult and asked me to cut them out. They put the ornaments together themselves. It was fun and quick, which is important to me this year. We hung some of the ornaments on the tree and placed others in the entryway to the family room. The entryway ornaments slowly spin around as the air temperature fluctuates. Wow, we're even learning science!

Snowman Craft

These snowmen are so easy to make.

Supplies:

Men's white ankle sock
fiber fill
scrap material
buttons
permanent marker
glue

Fill the sock with fiber fill.



Tuck the ends of the sock up into the snowman.



Cut a piece of fabric 1" x 14" tie around snowman's neck. Pull tight enough to create the head of the snowman.

Cut a rectangle of fabric 2 1/2 times the width of the snowman's head and 7" tall.

Fold the fabric in half and sew up the width, using 5/8" seam allowance. Fold up one edge 1/2" twice. This will form the bottom rim of the hat.

Place the hat on the snowman. Use string to tie the hat closed at the top. I also tied raffia over the string, for a more festive look.

Use permanent marker to draw nose, eyes, and mouth on the snowman.

Glue buttons on the body of the snowman.

Pine Cone Christmas Tree Craft

It's holiday crafting time! The younger kids and I made rustic Christmas trees using large pine cones, colored pasta, pompons, shiny ribbon, pony beads, and glue. To dye pasta, simply put food coloring in rubbing alcohol and add uncooked pasta. After the pasta reaches the desired color, remove from color solution. Allow to dry. The trees went together really quickly and the girls were thrilled with their results.

Paper Garland

It's time to start making Christmas crafts. My youngest two girls (ages 4 and 6) really enjoy making things. Today, we made paper garland, which is a traditional Swiss decoration. The girls had a blast and were pleased with their creations. We will probably make more to put on the window sills in their bedroom.

The project started by drawing a simple tree outline. The lower branches and base will keep the trees connected.



The tree outline is placed on a long sheet of paper. I used paper from a large sketching pad. The paper was cut in half lengthwise, then taped together to form a long, narrow sheet.



Fold the long sheet of paper back and forth, accordion style.




I gently taped the tree outline to the front of the long, folded sheet of paper. Cut the tree outline, being careful to not cut the branches and base where they connect to the next tree. For cleaner edges use a craft knife.




Unfold the paper and decorate the trees as desired. My two girls glued various sequins on the trees as ornaments.

Christmas Kitchen Towels

These towels were so quick and easy to make! I used a paper-piecing pattern to create 4 small blocks. After trimming and sewing two blocks together, the newly formed block was appliqued onto a kitchen towel using an overcast stitch. Each towel took about 1/2 an hour to complete. I'll be giving these away as Christmas gifts to Sunday school teachers, etc.

Christmas Stockings

With 5 daughters, I have made a lot of Christmas dresses which are usually only worn once or twice. The fabrics are in like-new condition and I hate to waste good fabric. These Christmas stockings are some of the items made from recycled Christmas dresses. They went together really quickly and my younger girls are thrilled with their new stockings!

Christmas Winter Crafts

I had some fairly large winter print scraps in my material stash, so I decided to make winter napkins. There was enough fabric to make 9 napkins that were 12" square. My family has gotten a great deal of use from the napkins that I made earlier this summer. The napkins have washed up very well and have remained free of stains!


Recently, I purchased Christmas print pillow material from a garage sale. Storage is always a concern at my house, so when I sewed the pillow pieces together, I used snap tape to close one side.







In December, our normal throw pillows will get placed inside the Christmas pillow covers. The pillow covers can be stored with the Christmas tree skirt during the rest of the year.

Tote Bag and Pot Holders

After taking off a few days from sewing projects, I'm back to feeling creative. The Tote Bag was made using material that I tie-dyed 13 years ago during a 4-H leader training session. All of my kids loved the fabric, so I didn't make anyone anything out of it to not show favoritism. The bag has heavy interfacing and is fully lined with a lightweight beige canvas.

When I finish changing the color of my kitchen, I'm going to place a variety of coffee cup-themed potholders around the top of my cabinets. This is the first one that I completed. I don't like how the handle is applied, so I will continue my search for a quick coffee mug quilt block pattern.

Handbag and Hairbands

We had a rainy morning, so I was able to knock out a couple of simple easy projects. The first is a quilted handbag with an outside velcro-closure pocket and an inner pocket. The main opening of the bag is also closed with velcro. My daughter loves skeletons (who knows why?) which is the inspiration of this skeleton bag.


The second projects were a couple of reversible headbands. The photo isn't particularly good and my models are off riding bikes, so I'll post a better picture later. The tutorial for this project was found here on the blog The Long Thread. The blog features a number of great projects and many tutorials.

More Hand Bags

This afternoon, I was able to spend some more time in my sewing room (okay it's actually a desk in the school room, but school is out for the summer) and was able to complete a couple of projects.
The first hand bag is lined with the coordinating dotted fabric and has an interfacing for stability.


The second bag is made from one of my favorite fabrics. The lining is a coppery-brown, which worked for a lining, but not for contrasting straps and flaps.

Quilted Christmas Ornaments

I'm still in my Christmas crafting mode. Yesterday, I completed two ornaments using scraps from my daughters' Christmas dresses from past years. The batting was scraps from other quilting projects. The pattern for the ornaments was in Easy paper-pieced keepsake quilts : 72 quilt blocks for foundation piecing. Throwing out supplies is so difficult for me that bits and pieces are saved for future projects. Unfortunately, the time for these future projects never materializes. This is the summer to reduce the Too Good To Throw Out stash in my hall cupboards!