I don't have kids of my own yet, but we sure have a lot of little ones in our life! Many of our good friends have had babies in the past two years, and I knew that I wanted to make something handmade for their gifts this Christmas.
I decided on some cute and comfy PJ's for the boys. I used my applique technique to embellish onesies and tee shirts for the pajama tops, and then sewed matching PJ pants out of flannel.
PJ pants are so quick and easy to sew, and flannel often goes on sale at the major fabric stores and comes in a large selection of prints. I was really pleased at how these came out!
What hand-made gifts did you give and receive this Christmas?
In May of this past year, I was in the midst of knitting a scarf for my friend Heather's birthday. By the time her special day arrived, it wasn't done. I'd only been knitting a few months at that point and the yarn I had chosen was proving very difficult to knit with. I wrapped up the unfinished scarf, needles and all, and gave it to her - letting her know that I'd finish it ASAP.
Flash forward seven months:
The Scarf is FINALLY finished.
But let me explain! Shortly after Heather's birthday, I screwed up the original scarf. I don't even remember what happened. I think I dropped some stitches off the needles and panicked. I hated the yard anyways so I started over.
For a whole variety of reasons, scarfs 2, 3 and 4 didn't work out. Not enough yarn and the yarn store that sold it closing (seriously!), dropped stitches, yarn that didn't knit up nice. What a disaster!
I finished it just in time (days before!) to give to Heather for Christmas. Better late than never, right?! Merry Christmas!
It's finally here! A very super happy merry Christmas Eve to you!
I have been soooo thankful for everyone that has stopped by from PEAR, SITS, and elsewhere over the past month or so - and for all of my lovely, lovely followers and the wonderful comments people have left me. I appreciate it all so very much!
I was especially thankful these past two weeks to have such wonderful guest posters sharing fabulous holiday projects with us. Thank you all! Did you miss any of them? Check them out and leave them some crafty lovin'!
Interested in guest posting on Ready, Set, Craft? I'm setting up guest posters for January and February - so don't hesitate to drop me an email at joanneroehm(at)yahoo(dot)com if you'd like to participate!
I'm looking forward to all kinds of crafty, artsy, sharing, and blogging fun with you all in the new year, and have all kinds of projects up my sleeve. I've also got big plans in the works for my ONE YEAR BLOGAVERSARY at the end of January... stay tuned for that!
I'm off bright and early tomorrow to travel up and down the state of Michigan and spend some wonderful holiday time with family and friends. I have posts set up to post daily while I am gone, featuring some of the Christmas gift projects I couldn't show you until after the big day, and some fabulous roundups of Christmas projects from across the web that you should put in your files for next year. I won't be consistently responding to comments during this time... but know that I appreciate the comment love and will get back to you after the holidays!
I'll be back live and in person on New Years Day!
Here's to a beautiful Christmas season for us all, and bright beginnings for 2010! My love to you and yours.
I'm very excited to bring you the final guest in a series of four holiday-themed guest posts here at Ready, Set, Craft! Today I'm very happy to have Lindsey of Your Memory Mosaic guest posting and sharing her scrapbooking talents with us. Enjoy!
Two-Page Holiday Layouts
Hi Everyone! Thanks Joanne for the chance to do a guest post on your wonderfully crafty little piece of the world. I’ve known Joanne since we were 14 and 15 singing in show choir and doing musical theater together… she is my favorite Sumo Ballerina. (You can ask her about that one!) When Joanne asked me to do a post for her blog I was nervous, but excited at the chance to share something I love with all of her readers.
Alright – here we go! I don’t know about other scrapbookers out there, but for me I have A LOT of different things just lying around my scrapbook area. For this layout I wanted to use the stuff I already had on hand. If nothing else it proves to me that I don’t actually have to run out and buy the latest and greatest papers and embellishments available.
(I do apologize if the photos aren’t the best quality – my craft room is in the basement and while I love having my own space the lighting isn’t the best!)
What you’ll need:
2 pieces of dark sage green 12x12 papers
1 piece light sage green 12x13 paper
1 piece coordinating dark red paper
1 piece of your favorite 12x12 holiday paper
6 Mini Silver brads
White sticker letters (not shown or you can use your Cricut Expressions as I did)
½ thick white ribbon
Two holiday stamps
Gold stamp pad
Tape
Adhesive
Red Pen (for some reason I wasn’t thinking and included a black pen in the picture)
Personal cutter(s)
(For the solid papers if the dark/light green and red don’t match your pattern paper – no problem. Just select whatever papers you want from what you already have on hand. I picked these papers because I felt their either matched or went well with the colors in my pattern paper.)
Step 1:
Use your pattern paper and cut out one 4 ½ inch and one 1 ½ inch strip and adhere them to the darker green paper as shown:
Step 2:
Use your white sticker letters to spell out the words, “Silent Night” and “Holy Night” or whatever title trips your trigger. I picked this because I had the song in my head. I didn’t have enough white sticker letters to make out the words so I used my Cricut Expressions to cut the letters out for me. Adhere “Silent Night” to the top of one page as shown. Adhere “Holy Night” to the middle of second page like you see in the photo below.
Step 3:
Cut out two 14 inch or so pieces of ribbon. Adhere one piece to the bottom of page one a big inch from the bottom. Adhere the second ribbon to the top of the second page a big inch from the top edge. I am pretty lax on how I adhere ribbon. I just wrap it around the edge of the paper and use some scotch tape to hold it in place. It hasn’t failed me yet so that is how I do it.
Step 4:
Cut out 2 mattes in the red, 2 mattes in the dark green – both 4 ½” x 4 ½”. After that cut out 4 white mattes 4 ¼” x 4 ¼” (These will be the perfect size to add your 4x4 photos after the holidays!) Glue the mattes together and affix them to the pages as shown.
Step 5:
Create two little mattes – 1 green and 1 red (2 ¼” x 2 ¼”) and 2 white ones (2” x 2”)
Step 6:
Use your two holiday stamps and gold ink to stamp the images on the small mattes on the diagonal as shown. Adhere one to each page like you see in the photos. (After I stamped these I felt they needed a little something extra and added a little red ink on them so they had a little more pop!)
Step 7:
I love me some mini brads! Use your 6 silver mini brads to add a little shine to your page. On the first page I used three along the bottom left hand corner spaced an inch apart. On the second page I placed them on the right edge toward the top. I like them there, but you can put them wherever your little hearts’ desire!
AND YOU ARE DONE! I hope you enjoy putting together this two page holiday layout as much as I did creating it for you! I hope it is quick and easy to put together so you can add four 4x4 photos after the holidays.
Thanks again Joanne! Merry Christmas everyone!
A little bit about my work. I started Your Memory Mosaic recently after much thought and prodding by my husband and friends. I love scrapbooking when I’m not playing wife, mom or paralegal so moving it toward something for extra income made sense. I really enjoy making pre-made layouts and scrapbooks for people to use themselves or give as gifts. There is nothing better for a new mom or newlywed couple than a beautiful scrapbook to admire for years to come. Especially when they just have to add the photos! If you are interested at all in speaking to me about making a scrapbook for you please email me at yourmemorymosaic@gmail.com.
Thanks so much Lindsey! Be sure to leave Lindsey a comment and let her know that you enjoyed her tutorial, and then head over to her blog to check out more of her work. And don't forget to tell her that Joanne at Ready, Set, Craft! sent you over!
Gah! Where did the day go?! It's 7:00pm and I'm just getting around to posting. Are you feeling the Christmas scramble, too? I bet you are! Thank you sooo much for popping by today, especially with life being so busy for all of us right now. I truly appreciate it! And now on to today's project...
Who says the feline friends in your life don't deserve a little Christmas lovin' too? As a cat-lover and kitty mama to two (plus kitten fosters on occasion) I wanted to whip up a little something for my furbabies, and to give as gifts to fellow cat-parents.
These catnip stuffed kitten toys were really fun to make - and are a good way to use up scraps of felt that you have in your stash.
Felt Cat Toys
Supplies:
Felt scraps
Sewing machine and thread (or you could hand sew these if you wanted to...)
Jingle bells
Catnip
Polyfil stuffing
How to:
Create a template (I chose a fish!) from cardboard and cut out. Pin to felt and cut TWO of your shapes per cat toy... you can stack two sheets of felt together to speed up this process and cut out two at a time.
Sew around the outline of the shape, leaving a small seam that can be trimmed later. Leave one end of the toy open for stuffing.
Fill half full with stuffing, add a couple of generous pinches of catnip and two jingle bells. Top off with more stuffing until firmly packed.
Sew the opening closed, and trim off loose ends.
Trim around the shape as needed / desired... and you're done!
And the final step? Let your kitty ENJOY!!!
PS... please forgive the TERRIBLE lighting in these photos! Things are so busy around here that crafting is taking place waaaay later in the day - and there's just no hope of good light in the craft studio after dark!
