(Bethlehem Nativity by Loyd Fannin. Loyd Fannin Online Gallery)

This year for the (great) grandmothers, I made some little felt birdies for Christmas. (You may remember me making similar here. That was a trial run for this round.) Fun fact: the legs are made from paperclips, and the noses are cut off from toothpicks!

My goal was to keep them organic-looking, “homespun,” so I didn’t allow myself to be precise or correct mistakes. There’s a little voice inside my head that is screaming about this, because although I very much love imperfection in other people’s work, sometimes I just can’t handle it in my own. But, truthfully, I do still love them just as they are.

Then the kids picked out little wooden birdhouses and worked together to paint each one. I rather expected them to be a bit of a mess, with two artists at work in their own haphazard styles, but I’m actually loving how the birdhouses turned out too. I think they’ll be a hit.

Well, so, Christmas is close, and I’ve shown you what I can of handmade gifts for now. The shop is on holiday through January, and I will be, too, ‘though I’ll probably be popping in here and there as I feel inspired. Hope you enjoy this last run-up to the big day!

So. This year’s goodies boxes. The jumble you see here is sort of representative of my brain right now, ha! But they’re much more organized—and prettier—in person, I assure you.

The boxes themselves are made of scrapbook paper using this tutorial.

They work a treat, but be forewarned that if you use thinnish paper as I did, they are not meant to be sturdy (i.e., carry them from the bottom).

Their four sections prompted me to make up four little goodie bags. I used plastic baggies I already had and printed up simple card stock labels, which I stapled on top.

They include my usual Tiger Fudge (why mess with a good thing?), two spice packets for cooking, and a little cloth bag filled with spices for mulling cider or wine. (Upon seeing prices for pre-made cloth spice bags, I promptly found some muslin in my stash and spent all of a few minutes whipping up my own version.)

The final touch, of course, was the snowflake ornaments.

The pattern for these came from here. (Here’s a little tip: If you mix your glitter right into your glue mixture, you’ll save a step, it’ll be a little less messy, and you’ll get a more even coat of sparkle.)

I’m still a bit in denial, but it really is “the most wonderful time of the year,” and it’s time to make merry. Sparkle away!

Every year I make ornaments to give as gifts to family and special friends, and this year is no different. I’ve got half of them crocheted and ready for the next step, which isn’t bad for a day’s on-and-off work.

I’m feeling (a bit alarmingly) ahead of the game compared to last year, but that may have something to do with the fact that this year I’ve purchased most of our gifts from Etsy sellers instead of making them all myself. (Which has been lovely, except for the almost triple cost of buying compared to making things with supplies I had on hand, eek!)

The decorations are up, and the ornaments are in progress. Quite a few gifts are already bought and wrapped, and I have the supplies for my popcorn garland. The month’s calendar is filled up, and ‘though I haven’t ordered them yet, the Christmas cards at least are not forgotten like they were last year. Maybe I will actually sit back and soak up some extra holiday cheer this year!

I’ll be taking some time away from blogland, a couple weeks or so (‘though, knowing me, I’ll still be around from time to time). While I’m “gone,” I’ve got posts scheduled to run on my regular routine so that I can show you the Christmas gifts I wasn’t able to write about during the year.

I’ll be making some changes to my “get ahead” plans for next year, but I really was quite happy to have so little gift-making stress at the end of the year.

And, as mentioned in last Wednesday’s post, what I accomplished amounted to a total of 35 gifts, 14 ornaments, and 12 goodies bags spread among 22 people. This was in the midst of quite a good number of other types of gifts and even a few custom orders, so I’m frankly a little amazed that I did it!

Enjoy the next couple of weeks of pressie posts, and I’ll see you on the flip side!

(Creche by Cindy Ferguson, used with permission.
http://papercutting.blogspot.com)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

In the wee-est hours of the morning of the party (and I mean that very literally), I whipped up a couple of Lumberjack Hats for two little monkeys. (The big sister needs something of her own to open, you know.)

They are made using fleece and sherpa, and because of the small amount needed, are quite inexpensive. They’re also much simpler than they appear once deconstructed.

The tutorial is here; my only word of warning is that there will be a lot of measuring involved, as there are no actual pattern pieces included. (And mind your mathematics; she doesn’t point out a couple of the measurements that need to be adjusted if you resize the other bits.)

The ornaments were packaged up with some goodies: vanilla chai tea mix, pumpkin spice hot chocolate mix, and some tiger fudge.

Some “bakery bags” from the dollar store were a very economical way of wrapping everything up, with an ornament to decorate the outside. I’ve got to make the rounds to distribute the last few today.

And with only a sweater vest and a few small other bits to stand in my way, Christmas is indeed almost here. Ho, ho, ho!

I’ve got a certain almost-two-year-old’s birthday party to think about at the moment, but I did manage to finish the things on my list this week. I have a feeling next week is going to be just as busy.

One of the things I completed was a pile of felt wreath ornaments inspired by this post.

I didn’t have sweaters to felt, so I just cut up almost every single last bit of red or green felt that I had on hand. (It took twice the amount because the felt was thinner than the sweaters would be.) My criteria for picking a project was something that would be easy and fast and something that didn’t require me to run to the store. Check, check, check.

It’s a good bit of cutting, but if you have a rotary cutter, ruler, and mat, it isn’t so bad, and putting them together really doesn’t take long at all. I think it took me longer to sort the squares and decide which colors to put together.

Phew! One to-do list tackled, another to go. And I’m off!

My Creative Space has ended for the year, but I’m a creature of habit, so here I am again to show what I’m up to this week.

Although I’ve been working on Christmas gifts since the beginning of the year and was way ahead, I still managed to get behind. I’m good at that! I think I may have gotten a little too relaxed in the home stretch, and now I’ve realized I haven’t made up my ornaments or goodie boxes for friends yet—I normally give those out a few weeks prior to Christmas to ensure I catch everyone before their holiday travels.

Nor have I finished the gifts I intended to make for my son’s birthday, which I need this weekend. And there are still a few gifts left and Christmas is … Oops.

So now I’m quickly whipping through my to-do list, pulling some late nights as usual, to get it all done. There will be some revising of my “get ahead” plan for next year, I think. This was a little too crazy.

What are you working on in your space this week?

So today I’m offering a free Winter Matryoshka embroidery pattern. (Or use it as a coloring sheet or some other sort of paper decoration.) Here she is; just click on the image to download.

If you want to see some more Winter and holiday-themed ladies, I’ve got a new pattern set in the shop. If you do any stitching, I hope you’ll share your photos in my flickr group! And, while I’m at it, let me point you to some freebies from Christmases past:

A tutorial for felt gift card holders.

A pattern set for snowflakes stitched in the chicken scratch embroidery method.

(Of course, if you poke around the “free patterns” or “tutorials” links in the sidebar, you may find other suitable goodies as well.)

Merry, merry!

P.S. The Creative Space game is on holiday until the new year, but I’ll still be popping in with my usual updates. Old habits and all!