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!

Last year I sat down and made multiple copies of the same card and sent those out to everyone.  This year, with 2 little ones underfoot, I haven’t had time to be that creative so I resorted to digging through my stash of previously completed cards.  I did manage to sneak away to a card making workshop this year so I had 2o new ones to pick from.  These are some of my favourites.  I particularly like the little trend of choosing colours that aren’t traditionally associated with Christmas.  It’s a nice change from the usual red and green!

I don’t remember about each individual card but I know some of them are made with Stampin’Up supplies and some are make it Close to My Heart.