Handmade Christmas Tree Decorations

Made some trees:) After seeing some ideas on pinterest --

last year right after the Holidays I pinned the wire ones because I had just made a slew of wire stars...

See that post here....

I had thought about using cardboard cones then as forms to help make the wire ones.  My sister used them to make angels years ago recycling cereal boxes and pop boxes 

(or soda boxes whichever you prefer...)

The styrofoam ones are expensive--

Or maybe I'm just cheap

Then this morning I saw this post...
Time to make some trees!

At this point I decided to spray paint our little cones just in case the salts or whatever I put on them didn't cover completely 
we used silver and gold of course--

We colored some Epsom salts for the 3 small ones. Rolled the trees in Mod Podge and then the salts.... 

And that was probably a good idea since the salts don't really cover it solidly...glitter would probably have been a better choice.

The one on the far left is gold with lentils glued on...

They're a nice little handmade decoration to add to the ever growing collection at our house...

Wedding Gift Ideas

 We were invited to this couple's wedding 
--obviously you can figure out the wedding date!--and I wanted to make some very personalized gifts for them....

I used stencils for the lettering/numbering on the pillow and my acrylic paints as usual...

Just thought I 'd share what I made them...

I also framed an engagement photo along with the  invitation they sent us...so for those of you out there that think you can't be "crafty" this is a great idea for shower or wedding gifts.

It would be great for a graduate or a new baby with a birth announcement as well...

Happy Monday everyone!!!

Jess Brown style Doll pattern

I'll start by saying this is not a tutorial....but I have noticed that the post about the Jess Brown style doll I made for my daughter Mighty gets a lot of traffic on my blog,

 so I thought I'd share some photos of the pattern I used....

I have no idea how big her dolls really are.  I saw them in Martha Stewart and drew my own pattern to be the way I wanted it.  I've never seen an actual doll in person....

 Below is the body pattern (folded in half so you would place this on a folded piece of fabric)

 The body itself is about 12" long, however you'll be sewing it so you'll lose a little for the seam allowance.  But she also has some long legs so that adds to the overall doll length.  You'll be cutting 2 pieces for each body part (a front & a back) to sew together....

 I made it about 6" (this is half in the photo) across at the base....

 This is the arm & leg pattern.  I used the same pattern for all 4 arms and legs....

It's about 8" in length

 And 1&1/4" wide.  If I were new to sewing I would make this quite a bit wider maybe closer to 2" wide...just to give yourself plenty of space for your seam allowance.  These are very long and narrow.

You can see that I sewed the 2 body pieces together all the way around EXCEPT for the bottom....so I could stuff it and then sew the legs into that seam on the machine.  If you have a zipper foot you can use that it helps sew right next to the bulk of the stuffed body.  But you can do it without one.

 So here she is all put together and I think she's close to 18" long...

 I said previously that I used the same pattern for the arms and legs.  For the arms I folded the unsewn, raw edge under for the arms....

 Then I cut a little round piece of wool coating material to make a sort of fabric button...this is because the fabric of the doll is flannel which is a pretty lose weave of fabric.  I wanted to sew through the doll's body arm to arm to attach them

and these help keep the thread and knots from pulling through.  You could use real buttons.  I made this for my 1 year old daughter and didn't really want buttons.

 I did notice in the photos that she had used a dark thread even though it was a lighter fabric...I really like the look...

I think she based her doll on a vintage rag doll she found or saw so I'm sure that one was hand sewn...

 I used embroidery thread for her face along with a small piece of fabric for her mouth, and sewed right through to the back of her head as you can see here....

 And here....

 Her hair, which is just torn strips of cotton fabric, hides those knots.  I just wrapped the hair on there and kept stitching through to keep the fabric covering most of her head....

I see there is food of some sort smeared at the bottom of her head there!  She's well loved...

I will probably end up making these as gifts at some point...there is something really beautiful about simplicity....

Coffee Filters with a Spin

 Back in the fall our church nursery moved to a new location within our church.  And our children's leader came the title "Kidventure Island"

 So this is the sign that I came up with for our new location.  And we lucked out and got two nice rooms directly across the hall from each other....

Our infants are in one room, and then once they start walking confidently they move to the other room.  So, we are now "Baby Bay" and "Tiny Tot Landing"

 I also decided it might be fun to try coloring some coffee filters.  Our rooms are large so I wanted some nice pops of color but in large quantities...

 And I did some wreaths at Christmas so the "how to" post is here.  For these I used several packages of styrofoam balls...

 I wanted some pretty intense colors so we used quite a bit of food color.  These little bowls hold about a cup of water but I only filled them about 1/3 full with water....

 Doodlebug was WAY into this...and we colored ALOT of coffee filters....I'd say at least 14 packages of 200 filters each.

 So I did them in stacks of about 50 filters---turned them upside down pressed them into the liquid...

 Gave them a few twists and turns in the bowl...

 And set them on my cookie racks to dry....

 And drying takes a few days....

 I've been working on these over the past 2 months just doing a few stacks at a time and gluing gluing gluing!!!

 We actually went in to church today and got almost everything put up ...FINALLY!!!

So I took a few pictures...all 4 of us were there so it was just a little crazy....but I did remember to take a few shots of things "up" where they go...

Simple Handmade Doll

Before Christmas I really wanted to make Mighty a simple fabric doll....I just didn't get around to it before the Holidays hit....

I have to admit that while shopping for her in the girls' toy section, I was a little disappointed in what was on the shelves...

 So in the most recent issue of Martha Stewart magazine they featured a doll maker, Jess Brown, and her beautiful simple fabric dolls....

Some great inspiration!  I drew up my own pattern although I think there is one on the MS website.....

 It was hard to get photos without my daughter (notice the boa and charm bracelet...and pigtails that are practically falling out) in the picture; she kept pointing and picking her up to hug her....so sweet....

She's going to need a name and definitely a bigger wardrobe if Mighty keeps playing with her....

Cinnamon clay

Ok all you mommas out there who are about to have kids at home on Christmas break....

This is a good one....

You'll need Cinnamon and Applesauce and that's IT!

 For those of you who need "exact" measurements I don't have 'em....dump out some cinnamon into a bowl.

 *BEFORE* you let your 4 year old dump it out explain that ground cinnamon DOES NOT taste like cinnamon rolls....

 Start adding your applesauce in a little bit at a time and mixing it up...

Your house will smell like a picture out of Country Living or Martha Stewart :)

Yes I said it will smell like a picture.....

 You might want to save back some of your cinnamon (we had two jars) to use in case you add too much of the applesauce.  It also works well as your playing with your clay to keep the clay from sticking to everything...think flour on cookie cutters or your hands...

It should look something like this.....you'll know when you've got it right it will work just like clay.

 We used the nonstick silicone cooking mats and our mini cookie cutters 

 And of course just PLAYED!  Don't forget to use a toothpick to make holes if you want to be able to hang them...

They make great little ornaments.  They also smell really great if you sit them on your stove top ~~~ of course you have to actually use your oven to warm them up so they smell good :)

 The beautiful ornaments below were made by Doodlebug who got a little stressed that his hands were getting dirty... This from a child who LIVES in the dirt all summer....

But it reminds me to tell you that it will stain your towels if you don't get it all washed off your hands.  I'll let you decide how I learned that one....