Christmas Crafting

Once again, I went with homemade Christmas gifts for the family. I am really good about starting early with the ideas and purchasing of materials, but then I postpone the actual making of the items until the last minute. I am sure I am the only one who does this, right? Here are some of the gifts created this year.

Stockings made with fabric I purchased last year. It's probably a good thing I waited though, because instead of three stockings, I needed to make four in anticipation of the new baby who will be here next Christmas:

Hard to see everything here, but this is an overall shot of everything we made

Magnetic Advent calendar.

The large red magnets say GIVE MORE, SPEND LESS, LOVE ALL, WORSHIP FULLY The smaller magnet is for moving to the appropriate date.

Fabric journal with freezer paper stencil. I took bundles of paper and sewed them together. Then the bundles were glued onto chipboard that was covered with fabric on the outside and decorative paper on the inside.

Leather journal with visible decorative stitching on spine to bind paper and leather together. With both journals, I included some info about One Thousand Gifts . The idea is to start writing your blessings down until you reach 1000.

Glass Tile pendant necklaces. I took art from magazines, photos, and quotes to create necklaces specifically for the intended recipient.

Photo scrapbook made for my nephew who is graduating this year. Inside, are blank pages, with some inspirational quotes.

Cornstarch Goop

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I made cornstarch goop from this book last week. Ella LOVED it. I know this looks like a disaster area, but once the cornstarch dries, it comes up really easy. I just swept off the counter and chair and then vacuumed it all up. I threw the clothes in the laundry 

and there were no stains even with the coloring we added. 

That is not to say that I had a hard time 

not hovering, wiping, and admonishing. 

Ella is an "exuberant" child, 

but her Momma needs to relax sometimes! 

I poured what was left into a jar to see how well it can be used again.

Recipe:

Pre-measure 2 cups cornstarch into baking pan/dishtub. Child can help.

Pre-Measure 1 cup water

• Let child pour the cornstarch in pan and let them feel it while dry.
  
• Add water and mix with bare hands. Feel the difference.
  
• Children love color! Squeeze drops of food coloring and mix with hands. Watching it swirl and blend
  
• Explore the mixture with spoons, cups, or other kitchen items.
  

Tips : 

• cornstarch is non-toxic, though not particularly appetizing (unless you ask Ella who tastes everything and says "good"). It will not harm children who cannot resist.
  
• Scrape dried drips off the floor with edge of a dustpan and sweep up.
  
• Add more cornstarch for a thicker mixture or more water for runnier mixture.

sidenote: Notice the jar in the background on the left. That is dough rising from a recipe from this book. An amazing and quick way to make bread and keep it on hand all the time. Check out the Youtube video of how to make the dough for the master  recipe from this book. I make this recipe and also one for the whole wheat sandwich bread.

Christmas Crafting

Once again we made most of our Christmas gifts like last year. I didn't want to post them here until the recipients had opened them. Since 1/2 of our gifts had to travel with us in our luggage to California, almost everything was small and unbreakable. I also wanted to create a way to wrap the gifts that met TSA airline regulations, so that if they opened our luggage, the gifts were easy to open and I wouldn't have to spend time wrapping them after we arrived at our destination. Here's what I came up with- I sewed fabric pouches and attached ribbon, threading it through large button holes. The gift tags were the recipient's initial. 

Below is a photos showing all of the gifts together:

I participated in our church's DIY Craft Fair again this year. On my table I displayed jersey fabric scarves with ideas on how to embroider or stencil them. I also showed felt necklaces and hair clips, "fingerprint" necklaces and shrinky dink necklaces.

hair clip for Ella (above)

felt necklaces for nieces (below)

matted photos using these templates from Little Hut blog

Mom B's birthday is Dec 22nd. We celebrated it in California, 

so I brought her birthday gift with us as well. Ella helped make it :

hot pads for my sister-in-laws:

...with magnets showing measuring and baking pan equivalents:

Fingerprint bead necklaces. 

These didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped, but I think I spent the most time on them trying to figure out better ways to make them.

Here is the card that accompanied the necklace:

Certain people influence our lives in such a way that

they leave “fingerprints” behind.     

Wisdom, teaching, inspiration, support

and encouragement make lasting impressions on

each of us.

Thank you for the impression you are leaving 

on Ella’s life. We hope this gift of Ella’s 

fingerprint will be a reminder to you how 

much we appreciate your love,

prayers, and influence on her.

Use as a bookmark, necklace,

or hang on the wall.

Love, Kevin, Stephanie, and Ella

-----

Quilted fabric coaster for my Mom

Fabric notecard holders for the teachers in my family (tutorial on Little Hut blog):

"Artsy clutches" for my nieces from Amy Karol's book, Bend the Rules Sewing

Snowflake ornaments with my favorite cookie recipe for my nieces. 

Every year they get a Christmas ornament from us.

Perpetual Calendar (for listing birthdays and anniversarys)

on left: packaging, on right: the calendar

We used fabric scraps behind the letter cutouts and bent hangers for the hooks. 

We used this template from Little Hut blog.

Handmade stationary for my nieces and nephews:

Latest Projects

$3 boy's sweatshirt. I removed the rubber patch that said "football" and added something a little more interesting. I stole this idea from a kid's catalogue where they were selling a t-shirt with this design for around 30 bucks.

Wool felt jacket with embroidery. I finally finished this, but I bet Ella won't even fit into it by the time it gets cold enough again for her to wear it. Oh well, it was good practice for both sewing and embroidery. The felted wool was from discontinued fabric swatches from the furniture store where I work, so it was free.

Easter dress. Made from cotton voile with muslin lining. Lace is vintage from Kevin's Grandma Breuner. I (sort  of) used the pattern from Ella's Halloween costume. It is Burda Easy 9645.

"Pillowcase Dress" Normally you would take an old pillowcase, cut armholes and add string ties/bias trim at the neckline. Instead I used two napkins from Target.  I put elastic at the neck on the front and back instead of using long strings which could potentially be a strangling hazard. You can find all sorts of tutorials online for this type of dress. 

This is a dress for Ella from Simplicity Pattern 5695 view D without the bottom ruffle. I used a vintage sheet from my Grandma Green's house. When I first brought the sheet home, I kept burying my nose in it because it smelled just like my Grandma's house.

And last, but not least, something for me.  A "Built By Wendy" Simplicity pattern 3835. This is my second attempt at this pattern. Both of them turned out really well, but I am especially proud of this one. Some of the bias trim is vintage from Grandma Breuner's house. I am thinking about making another one using the same vintage sheet as Ella's dress, but I would need to make sure we didn't wear them on the same day. I wouldn't want to look like I was going to a Mother/Daughter fashion show.

It's funny that I have been using old sheets, recycled fabric swatches, and cheap store bought sweatshirts because I have a huge stash of NEW fabric in my cupboards. Here are some photos of where I store my fabric and sewing supplies as well as my sewing table.

Crafty Women

I have started meeting with a group of ladies, once a month, for some time of craftiness. Boy, that makes me sound like an old lady, but really, Portland Oregon has become the hotbed of craftiness for women in their 20's and 30's rediscovering, or learning for the first time, how to knit, sew, crochet, or what have you. Portland is home to many well-known craft bloggers such as Angry Chicken, Shim+Sons, All Buttoned Up, Sew Mama Sew, and Super Eggplant to name a few. Ok, I lost most of ya who are now clicking away from my blog to go check out all these other ones, which are far cooler than mine (and way more prolific- my last post was Feb 5th). 

Anyways, some of the ladies in my group are full-time artists or sell their wares on Etsy. All of us attend Imago Dei Community Church and some of us met at the DIY Craft Fair back in the fall.

At each meeting we try our hand at a craft of some kind with one of us acting as host/leader/teacher. Then, we are given a challenge to create a specific project over the course of the month to share with the other members when we meet again. At last month's meetin, we learned how to screenprint and we brought our Artsy Clutches (pictured above) or baby quilt. Both were projects from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol (of Angry Chicken). My Artsy Clutch is the one in orange wool felt with the "e" cut out. I made it for the baby journal I bought for Ella.

Since we had a fabric challenge in February, March's challenge is to do some sort of paper cutting. I am inspired to do something like what you can find on A Little Hut's blog:

or these cool silhouettes:

I also saw these amazing manipulations of paper: 

This is where you can find us: Crafty Women

Gift Making

The motto this year for our Christmas was worship more, spend less, give more, love all I believe that we succeeded and I am excited to try again next year. It's funny how things coincide. I was never super crafty until Ella was born, so if I had felt like I had to hand make everyone's Christmas gifts at some other point in my life, I would have failed miserably or spent way more money doing that than just going out and buying stuff at the mall. This year, even when things were down to the wire, I really enjoyed the creative process (except those few times-ok many times, I needed to use the seam ripper) Also, from September-early December Kevin and I participated in a budgeting class that has really changed the way we spend money and this too was reflected in how we "did" Christmas.

Here are some of the projects I completed for gifts this year:

dishtowel for a lovely lady originally from the south.

The towel depicts the places she has lived.

I also made dishtowels for the moms and sister-in-laws

using fabrics from other projects I made for them.

Scrap belts for the nieces and nephews

Kevin wrote a song that was included on this album: PDXmas.

Proceeds went to Toys for Tots

Reusable Grocery bags.

They can be folded and stuffed into a small pouch to keep in your purse

Fabric covered button magnets. It was a lot of fun going through my fabric stash and finding fun ones to use for this. You start looking at the patterns on the fabrics differently when you are looking for small bits that will look good on a little circle

Thrift store shirt with felted wool scraps in a NW theme:

Sasquatch and pine tree for my brother

Kevin got the shirt "on sale" at the thrift store for under $2

because everything "purple" was 1/2 off. Apparently, Goodwill thinks blue is purple.

One of my favorites: a superhero finger cape for a special boy to go with this

I also created a carrying case for it out of an Altoids tin.