I Made It! Christmas Craft Recap...

I made a lot of cool stuff this year though I'll admit that I usually make more of the gifts we send out. Christmas snuck up on me and I am still blaming the baby for my tiredness... I'm a bit bummed at all the stuff  I didn't get to make that I had wanted to. Oh well, next year! Here is what I did do this season...

For Stinky's teacher, who has a major thing for Owls...

Inspiration came from here and was found through this site. She's got some neat stuff there. I would advise you to remember to sew the cute little feet into the seam on the bottom or you'll have to sew them on by hand, which may or may not result in the offering of a blood sacrifice to the teacher gift gods. I'm just saying. At least I bled on the brown part right?

For my good friends Bekah and Mary I made stamped pendants with the names of their kids... awwww. Right?

I actually ended up teaching a class on this at our Super Saturday this year. I made a lot of them this year... I wear mine without the pearl and I love it! Inspiration came from here of course, but I found the tutorial here and tweaked it a bit and wha la! If you're interested in the how to's let me know. They aren't hard to do but there is an initial investment in the tools... like I said. I can send all the info to you, complete with illustrated instructions. Just let me know.

I saw these pillows not too long ago and it was love at first sight. I made a set for me and set for each of Dad's married siblings.

Inspiration came from here. Hers are made of burlap. I am my father's daughter when it comes to burlap and the thought of having in on my bed made my skin crawl, so I just used some cottony stuff that had a few natural flecks to it. They were out of the June Taylor iron-ons when I went to WalMart the first time so I tried what they had. Not the same. You must find the right iron-ons. Since these pillows had less texture to hide the iron-on-ness than the burlap ones did I had to trim around each word, to about 1/8 of an inch. But I was thrilled with the end result. They go in my room but I like the look of them in the chair in the living room too. So-buy the right iron-on transfers and trim the lettering closely.

For my sister's boy I made an awesome advent calendar out of socks. (Thanks Meggie for taking pictures and posting them to FB so I could steal them)

So cute. I loved it. Wish that I had had time to make one for my monsters... though the socks would have had to have been much bigger to accommodate four kids worth of daily treats.

Baby socks (on sale at Old Navy), stuff to stuff the sockies with, wired ribbon and clothes pins. Add some cute tags (Cassie may recognize them... I loved these penguins this year) and presto! Inspiration came from here... though mine is better because Link can wear all of those socks this year :) AND you would not believe how expensive cute Christmasy baby socks are and how few you can find when you want them.

For my awesome bloggy AND real life friend Sam I made this...

Feel free to Oooo and Aaahhh some more. This thing sat in my living room for several days just so I could look at it. Can't wait to get one of my kids made. It's hard to pinpoint the inspiration for this one, they're all over the interweb nowadays, though the method came from here. This gal is BRILLIANT! I've done the traced heads with lights thing before and this method works SO much better. This was my favorite project this year...

For my adorable newborn niece Kayli I made this ball.

My Mom makes these. She has probably made hundreds. I am not sure I'll be making very many more. This thing was a pain. And I do not like sewing on minky. (On a side note: Pickles got a new cat bed... doesn't she look cozy? I was SO relieved to be able to toss the old, nasty, stained, Princess chair she had been calling hers.)

There were a couple more but I didn't remember to take pictures... probably because I was in such a rush to get them finished and boxed and delivered. I am usually DONE with Christmas crafting by mid November but this year I was still working on stuff on the 23rd. Ughhh. Dang sneaky holidays... Here's hoping I can be more on the ball this year. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...