A sweet little ornament made by Mollie! Such an awesome surprise. I’ll have to get her back at some point. And guess we’ll have to get working on another project for 2012. We’ve done
this, this and this so I wonder what’s next?

We’re enjoying more present craziness, breakfast and lupper before we head off on the first part of our journey to Belize. Have a great bunch of days everyone!

I should have thought of this sooner, I’ve already started a 2011 “don’t forget to blog” list, but most people should still have their trees up and I thought we could have a show and tell.  All of the ornaments on our tree are special in some way.  They’ve been bought while travelling in other countries, or given to us as a momento of some occasion, or are handmade by me or the kids.

For years I would buy those plaster ornaments at craft stores and spend time painting them.  I’ve built up quite a collection.  This one’s my favourite.  Makes me chuckle every year.  I picked up about 5 when I found it and attached them to gifts and such.  It’s so silly.

Picked this one up while in Germany pregnant with Nate.  He was due December 26th so I didn’t really know when his first Christmas was going to be and most ornaments seemed to have a date on them.

Last year I picked up 2 little soldiers for the boys on Boxing day.  We were foolish enough to venture into London that day.  It was insanely busy.

Here’s my cute little Happy Sew Lucky ornament.  It turned out really well and I think I just might have to get a few more for the tree next year.

Sooooo if you’ve got some time and a special ornament with a story to share post a comment or, better yet, send me an email and I’ll post the story and a picture.

On her blog, Pam did a 7 weeks of Christmas challenge and she found a bunch of neat tutorials and projects and then made them using Colorful Christmas by My Mind’s Eye for Riley Blake, with great results.  She whipped up a selvage needlebook coasters, little trees, tiny totes, placemats, a tree skirt, and a table runner.  Check them out over at her blog.

Here are the fat quarters I picked up at her booth, only a few since I was trying to curb myself and slow down before I wouldn’t be able to walk for all the fabric I was carrying.  Plus I wanted some pretty prints that would be easy to match up with other stuff.

]]> http://www.sewtara.com/2010/11/01/fun-fabrics-from-the-creativ-festival/feed/ 0 http://www.sewtara.com/2010/01/04/taking-down-the-tree/ http://www.sewtara.com/2010/01/04/taking-down-the-tree/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:41:45 +0000 SewTara http://www.sewtara.com/?p=438 Continue reading →]]> We got in from England on Friday night at about 9:30 and were ready for bed! With England 5 hours ahead we were a tad tired. Then of course my wonderful little baby boy woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning. He was ready to go, it was 9:30 for him. The rest of us weren’t so ready. Wesley spent about 10 minutes awake before he had a meltdown and I marched him back up to bed. But being up early wasn’t so bad I started to explode our luggage and dig out all the gift and souvenirs we bought, and the Christmas tree needed to come down!

So, while Christmas is over I had ornaments on my mind while I took down the tree and unpacked some I had bought on the trip.

Now while I didn’t make these, they would be pretty easy to whip up some that are similar. They’re by Maileg. It’s been our thing when we travel to get Christmas decorations/ornaments so I picked these 2 up sort of for the boys. Most of the decorations on our tree are painted by me. I used to buy some every year and sit and paint them. I figured I’d have a tree full in a while. Travelling and collecting them is just as much fun.

This one is just cute! It has 2009 on it and says Rudolph on the other side.

I haven’t had much time to be crafty with the trip and returning to work today, which is going to be tough after over a year off! I fully intend to keep crafting in 2010, and posting, and creating, and being me.

Here’s what you need

1. ring of something pretty sturdy, cardboard works, or you can buy the fancy ones from a craft store and sometimes a dollar store.

2. gingerbread man cookie cutter

3. glue gun and glue sticks for it

4. tacky glue

5. 1 1/4 cups of cinnamon

6. 56 scraps of fabric, measuring 1″ x 9″, It’s more rustic looking if you tear the fabric but you can cut it too.  9 1′ x 4″ fabric scraps, cut these ones.

7. rolling pin, cookie sheet and wire cooling rack

8. some acrylic craft paints, colours can vary but I used a tan, and pinkish colour.  A paintbrush and I had a black marker on hand, rather than paints, for details.

Here’s the handy steps!

1. Mix one cup cinnamon with 4 tablespoons of tacky glue and 3/4 cup water.  Mix it around until you have a stiff dough.  Add more of something to achieve that consistency.  Place the dough on the counter and sprinkle with cinnamon so it won’t stick to the roller.  Roll dough out to about 1.4″ thickness.

2. Cut out 9 gingerbread men and transfer them onto the wire rack.  Place the wire rack on a cookie sheet and bake at 200 for about 2 1/2 hours.  Turn the men over every 20-30 minutes.  Your house will smell wonderfully of cinnamon!  Leave the cooked men on the rack overnight.  They might curl slightly.

3. Paint most of the men with the tan paint, leaving a little bit of the gingerbread edge showing.  This may take a few coats to cover the way you like.   Add little rosy cheeks and eyes and a mouth.

4.  Tie the little 4″ strips into bows and glue gun them to the men to look like little bow ties.

5.  Set the men aside and pick up whatever you have for a circle!  Tie the 1″ x 9″ fabric strips around the circle until it is entirely hidden by fabric.  Photo shows the back.

6. Once it’s entirely covered place the ginger men around the wreath with room at the top for your hanging device, be it ribbon or an actual hanger from a door.

As I’ve learned, and you can see from a few of my men, they are fragile and can break so store your wreath lovingly.  The men also smell like cinnamon for some time, so if you can keep it in some sort of sealed box that will help preserve the smell.  What’s more festive than yummy smelling cinnamon!

Then I got ambitious and made a matching onesie for Baby Nate.

I started with our old stocking.  I believe I got them at the dollar store years ago, and they say our names and I figure we should be Mom and Dad now so it was time for new stockings anyway.  So I disassembled them to re-use the fabric.

With the help of my friend google, I searched for an image of a stocking and sized it to a size I liked and began cutting!

I recovered enough fabric to make 6 stockings.  We’re travelling at Christmas this year and won’t need our stockings and so I have a whole year to make us something snazzy and neat.

I don’t have any wonderful dishes but you get the idea.

Here are the other stocking friends.  They could also be used as place holders if you stitched names on the stockings.  Perhaps I’ll get to that for next year.

I picked the red and green design just to make it look a little boyish. i didn’t have a star button for the top, and I was eager to finish it so it’s a circle, I’m sure he’ll cope. I cut the ribbons and planned them out based on the sayings. Then I stuck them to my new friend, Steam-A-Seam and ironed away. Once again, I am impressed.

I came across the idea online in the last few days but can’t find exactly where. Today when I searched in google I found some other tutorials on it as well. So while I can’t claim I invented this craft I also can’t really know who did. But I do know it’s neat, easy and I like it!