Mini Christmas Trees

These little trees are exactly what crafts should be: they're cheap and really satisfying to look at. How sweet for the center of a table, your buffet, or an end table. Amongst candles, lights, or ornaments, they would be especially lovely.

I used thin cardboard from a tissue box and a dryer sheet box from the recycling bin, duct tape, green floral tape, pretty tinsel-like yarn with lots of texture, scissors, and a glue gun. Depending on the items in your stash, this project is very nearly free!

First, you'll cut your cardboard into square/rectangle shapes. It doesn't really matter. And they don't have to be perfect. Because you'll be curling those pieces into a cone shape. Use the duct tape to hold that shape together. Then, cut the excess from the bottom so that your cone stands upright.

                                              

Next, use your floral tape, wrapping the entire tree. I used a dab of hot glue to hold the starting and finishing ends down. Floral tape just requires a little tugging as you work your way around the tree. The yarn that I used was not all that dense, so without this step pieces of cardboard and duct tape would be seen. Ick. The green of the floral tape is, of course, much nicer peeking through.

And now, we've got them all covered.

They're ready for the fun part now. Again, a little dab of hot glue at the beginning to hold down your yarn and you're ready to wrap them up. I didn't use glue throughout the process because it's not necessary. A dab of glue at the beginning and end holds everything together nicely.

Enjoy your beautiful, little trees!

Mini Christmas Wreaths (from Shower Rings!)

I bought a package of 12 shower rings at the thrift store for super cheap, knowing they'd make great napkin rings. See my earlier post for fall napkin rings here. But, they also make sweet little Christmas wreaths that can be made into a garland, ornaments, or another festive decoration.

My supplies for this project included textured green yarn (use whatever color/texture you like!), scrap booking poinsettia flowers (on sale at Michael's after Christmas last year, but a ribbon or any other pretty findings will work, too), a glue gun, scissors, and plastic shower rings.

I began with a dab of glue to hold the yarn in place. Then, I wound it around the ring, using the opening in the plastic to feed yarn through.

When I ended, I snapped the shower ring shut and finished winding the small amount of remaining yarn, which I had cut from the skein, using another dab of hot glue to hold the end in place.

A pretty little poinsettia is glued on at the joining space to finish it off.

And then, I made a few more.

So easy. So pretty. So inexpensive. They will make such a pretty garland for Christmas!

Poinsettia Pomanders

These are very simple. Hardly worth any sort of tutorial. But, I had to share pictures since I think they came out so pretty. I used poinsettia scrap booking flowers and a glue gun to completely cover 4" styrofoam balls, creating pretty little pomanders. Usually, these flowers would be too expensive to consider using in such a project. But, these were on sale. Of course. Because I buy off season, that's why. :)

The directions are simple. Just slap those little flowers on there and glue them down with your glue gun. You might choose to pin them on or use another type of glue. Super easy and really lovely when they're done. You can add a loop or ornament hook to hang them on your Christmas tree or perhaps from the backs of chairs. I think they look lovely in a pretty bowl. Or sitting atop these mason jars filled will little tea lights.

Enjoy!

Home Made Christmas Cards

I love to make homemade Christmas cards each year. I think there's something special about receiving mail anyway. But when the card is homemade, it's even more special. And if there's ever a time of year that warrants spending the time to make such things for friends and family, it's the holiday season.

These are very elegant. The texture is to die for. And the simplicity of the green wreath on silver is beautiful.

You'll need a glue gun, scissors, thin ribbon, textured yarn, a small jar (or other container whose opening is the size of your desired wreath), and blank cards of your choice (I got these on sale at Michael's and I LOVE the varying textures of each one).

First, trace your jar's opening onto the center of each of your cards. This will guide you for placing your wreath later.

Next, wind your yarn around the jar twice (or as many times as you'd like in order to get the desired thickness for your wreath; this might vary depending on the gauge of your yarn). Hold the meeting point in place before slipping it off the jar.

With one hand holding the wreath and the other operating the glue gun, place a thin line of glue around the circle you stenciled earlier in the center of your card. You will then quickly place the wreath down onto this area, first making sure to place the two loose ends so that your wreath maintains its size. I placed the two ends on the lower center of my circle so that the bow I would add later could cover any unsightly joinings. Then, quickly spread out the circle so that your yarn is secured in a circle. 

If you need to secure it with extra glue after the fact, go ahead and do so. And remember, nothing needs to be permanent! If you misplaced a section, heat up the glue a bit with the tip of your glue gun until it becomes loose enough to re-situate. 

Next, tie lots of little bows with your thin ribbon. These can be whatever size you'd like them. A dab of hot glue secures them firmly to the lower center of your wreath.

I also printed out my card messages and used a large paper cutter to size them to my cards. I then glued them in after we had signed each one. It was so much easier than writing for each card.

And, voila! You have made pretty cards your friends and family will (hopefully) be very happy to receive.

Christmas Stockings

Look, look! Pretty Christmas stockings! 

I love how these turned out. I think they're pretty, traditional, but also modern in their simplicity. Plus, I already had the fabric! So, buy the trimmings and I'm all set! 

You could really use any fabric at all for these. I had some indoor red canvas type fabric hanging around from an old sewing project. I also had some white cotton fabric from a set of old sheets that I used for lining. My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of them to make pillow cases. Well, I've made quiet a few pillow cases (they're so fast on a serger - have I sung the praises of my serger yet?) and had plenty left over. 

So, first I ironed that fabric. Of course, it was already pre-washed and dried. 

I made myself a template for the stocking. I just taped together three pieces of paper and drew it out free hand. I love having the ability to choose my own shape.

Now, I'm super lazy, so I don't usually use pins for placement when sewing. In fact, I didn't use any pins at all for this project. I have no patience. I just laid out the template and traced around it with a pen. In my opinion, all of this hullabaloo about erasable/vanishing ink is nonsense for this kind of thing. None of those lines will ever show. Ever. So use whatever you have. Not a big deal here.

Of course, I tried to place the template in such a way that I would conserve the most fabric possible. Then, I cut out my shapes. Don't forget that you'll need two for each stocking! Ha. Do the same for the lining.

Once you're finished cutting them out, you'll need to stitch each one together. Since they're Christmas stockings and don't have to fit any bodies, you can choose whatever seam width you're comfortable with on the machine. Just make sure to use the same one consistently so things are uniform.

Then, clip your curves. It makes turning your stockings so much easier! Of course, you won't be turning the linings. They're going to be plopped right down inside your turned red ones. So, I guess it's up to you whether you want to clip them. I didn't think it mattered. I didn't clip them. My hands said no. I'm sure my grandma would slap me.

 Okay, so we know the linings fit inside. But before sewing them in place, we get to do the fun part. Trimmings! Lace and ribbon and bows and other pretty things! I gathered all the ribbon I would need and measured it to fit around the stocking. Of course, trimmings could have been done before the stockings were sewn together, but this way made it so much easier for me to see exactly where things were going in order to line them up. So, that's what I did.

 I found these great snowflake buttons at Joann and the initial charms at Walmart. The awesome thing is that the charms actually fit through the button shank! They dangle and sparkle and please me very much.

I kind of laid out the way that I wanted the ribbon to look on the stocking. Though the thin silver ribbon can be seen in the plans, it didn't make the cut. Just couldn't cut it. Didn't look right. That is all.

Here are all of the trimmings laid out. The top shorter ribbons will be looped (as seen on the far right) in order to hang the stockings. I also ironed flat the ribbon at the bottom. That stuff had a crazy attitude after being wound so tightly for so long. So, I hit it with heat. And it worked. Also, because I wanted to add some more interest and texture to the white ribbon, I sewed thin colored ribbon on top of the white (silver and red), so it was all attached and ready before I began stitching it to the stocking. You could, of course, use whatever decorations you want!

I measured with a ruler where I wanted the lowest ribbon to be sewn. I liked the placement at three inches.

I went ahead and marked around each stocking at three inches down. Then, I sewed around my ribbons, simply folding the ends as I finished and securing them with a back stitch.

When I was finished with the lower ribbons, it was time to stuff the lining. Put your fingers down in the toes and make sure that your curves are all matching up. Since I used a template, they all fit really nicely. I decided to use the top ribbon as a binding. This way, I didn't have to finish and hem the top. So much easier. So much lazier. So me. I did iron the ribbons for this binding in half, long ways. This made them so much easier to handle and was really necessary. Lastly, I folded the short ribbon into a loop and sewed it on to the side where I wanted the stocking to hang. I sewed a nice, strong rectangle to secure that guy in place. Why? To hold lots of nice, heavy stocking stuffers. For me, of course. Wouldn't want someone to have to consider weight when picking me a gift....

Finally, I sewed on those beautiful buttons with the initial charms. And hung them up to snap loads of pictures.

 Seriously, what's better than a stack of pretty Christmas stockings? Not much.