Holiday Crafting & Giveaway

"I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song in morning and star-shine at night"
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Once again we're making as many gifts as we are able this holiday season. We started crafting sometime after SAW in September. That way we could take our time and still be done WAY before Xmas.

I always want to give Satch at least one handmade gift each Xmas, so when Satch was napping, I made him this Chalk Cloth Mat with instructions I found here.












It is the size of a place mat with a little pocket for stowing a box of chalk. It rolls up and ties shut for travel. I didn't photograph the back because it's nothing more than black oil cloth and not very exciting. I bought the Bubble Fabric and Sock Monkey fabric here. And I bought the oil cloth here. I only purchased a yard of each and have enough left over to make several more to give to family and friends. So, a few of you might be finding these in your mailbox.

While I was at it I made some marker/pencil rolls out of dishtowels for a few budding artists. I cut the towel in half and made two rolls per towel, and I only had to sew one seam. I'm guessing if you made these out of cloth napkins it would be even faster because you would only need to sew the lines that hold the markers/pencils.


























It's a variation from this book and inspired by this mama who made one for Satch in September.

Last year the snowballs that I made him were such a big hit that we decided to make more this year for some of the tots in our family.

For the wee babes, we made these Peppermint Swirl Jingle Bonbons! They are just the right size for dimpled fists to jiggle.

*Some terrific instructions can be found here!

*I buy my wool here!

And since we still have a half bucket o' broken crayons...I decided to find a soap mold in the shape of river stones and we made some "coloring stones" for the lilliputians. Another terrific way to recycle your broken bits of wax!

*I bought the "River Rocks" mold here! Scroll down because it's near the bottom of the page on the right. This is NOT a food mold, it's rubber and stinky when it arrives. I let it air out on the deck a few days and now it's fine.


*They were inspired by the gorgeous soy wax Crayon Rocks, that I would very much like to try out, but am unable to find anywhere in our area.

For two adorable, elfin wees, I made a little felted fairy orb necklace...




and some felted barrettes to go with it. (*Instructions from Amy)


And for Satchel's cousins, Hanna & Kiran, we made two Glove-Puppies. I sewed and Satch stuffed. The eyes are buttons that came from my late grandmother's stash and the dresses are made from vintage table cloth scraps.

*Free Instructions and video here

and Miyako's book here

The grandparents will be receiving a calendar that I created over at Lulu.

Our holiday postcards that I designed are printed and arrived by post yesterday. We decided on post cards because the text box interface would not open for their greeting card line. But, postcards are inexpensive to print and the postage is less too - so it all works out. *A word of caution regarding Snapfish. My postcards arrived with the white border cut off at the bottom. I'm not sure if they printed them off center or cut them wrong. I've asked if they can reprint them correctly before I return these and am left with nothing and after three email exchanges, they still have not been able to tell me if they will be able to do it right.

My goal was to finish our holiday to-dos before Thanksgiving so I started chipping away at our list in September, doing a little bit each day. Now we're finished, no stressing...Satch had fun helping and we didn't have to set foot in a single store.

*In the spirit of the season of giving, and in honor of crafty mamas everywhere, the very generous folks at Chronicle are allowing me to give away a copy of Amy Butler's, "Little Stitches for Little Ones". Simply leave a comment here by 12pm on Sunday November 16th and my sweet little elf will pick a name from his hat. I'll post the winner on Monday November 17th! (Please include a way to contact you)I will be taking a short blogging break this week to wrap and package these nifty gifties with Satch, but I'll be back on Monday to announce the winner.

Have a great week!