Festive Flannel Reindeer

First of all, Happy New Year! For me, 2012 was a year full of crafting and stitching and I expect 2013 to be no different. Thank you to all who have followed my blog, I appreciate all your views and comments, and I look forward to sharing more projects with you over the coming months!

Over the festive period I made a number of Christmas crafts – some of which I’ve already written about – but this final one is a Christmas project I’ve had to save until after the New Year, just in case the recipients of said craft are subscribers to my blog, thus spoiling the surprise.

So, what is the final Christmas craft? Flannel reindeer of course! I got this idea from a picture I saw on Pinterest and decided that I just had to try and copy it. I already have a multitude of pipe cleaners, Christmas-coloured ribbon and googly eyes in my craft kit so all I had to do was source some reindeer-coloured face cloths and come up with a suitable treat to put inside. I think the original face cloth reindeer are filled with bars of soap, but I decided on a few small sachets of hot chocolate instead. Much more useful!

To make the reindeer, put your filling diagonally in the middle of the flannel and fold two opposite corners of the face cloth neatly into the centre. This will form a tube shape. Pull the two remaining corners together on top and hold them in place with a ribbon. Push in some pipe cleaner antlers, add a face, and there you have it! I made a reindeer for each of my friends back home and think it’s a lovely alternative to a traditional shop-bought gift.

Take a look at this paisley print cushion I made for a family member too. I cut a paisley scarf into strips and then alternated it between two shades of pink material to create a striped effect. The back of the cushion is a corresponding, plain pink fabric with two shiny buttons for decoration. The intended recipient has just bought her first house so I’m hoping this cushion will find a space somewhere on her new sofa!

Teeny-Tiny Gingerbread Houses

How adorable are these miniature gingerbread houses? Made by Polish blogger Cake Time, these are not for the few of you with clumsy fingers. I suggest using Google Translate to understand the recipe, but once you’ve got there, these are a great little Christmas party favour for your guests.

Download the free PDF templates to make them here.

With only 5 more days at work before my Christmas week off, these might just be the perfect last minute make.

Dolly Peg Angels

I’ve opened three doors on the Advent calendar, we’ve put up our first Christmas tree and I’ve watched Disney’s A Christmas Carol: it’s clear that Christmas has definitely arrived chez-nous. We even went on a shopping trip with work this morning to buy lots of tacky decorations for the office. I now have a festive lava lamp and some fake, felt snow on my desk.

Anyway, amongst others, dolly peg angels are one of the handmade Christmas decorations I’ve decided to make this year. These are something I used to make when I was little and, I’m happy to say, are just as fun to make 15-20 years on.

All you need to do is adorn a wooden, dolly peg with paper doilies and white lace. I made a pleated fan from half a doily to create the wings and stuck on some yellow wool for hair. I even managed to find a peg that already had a smiley face drawn on from last time I (or my sisters) decided to create peg angels!

The angel I made now hangs proudly near the top of our Christmas tree and I plan to make a few more when I get chance. Give it a go – it’s a great first time craft!

I’d also like to give a quick shout-out to my sister’s toilet roll angel – inspired by my very own toilet roll nativity scene…

The Finished Toilet Roll Nativity Scene

After a lot of cutting and sticking, tying of ribbons and drawing on faces, I’m finally proud to say that my handmade, cardboard toilet roll nativity is complete! Let me introduce you, though you probably know them all already…

First we have the shepherd and his sheep: whilst the shepherds were busy tending to their flocks, an angel came to them and said ‘Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped incloths and lying in a manger.’

Next we have the three wise men: three magi ‘from the East’ spotted the Star of Bethlehem in the sky and followed it all the way to the birth place of the baby Jesus. Here they worshiped him and presented Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And finally we have Mary, Joseph, angel Gabriel and the baby himself (below): the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she will have a baby whom she will name Jesus. Joseph accompanies his wife from Nazareth to Bethlehem and Mary gives birth in a stable (because there was just no room in that inn).

All the people in my homemade nativity scene are made from toilet roll tubes that I’ve bedecked with glitzy papers, ribbons and materials out of my craft box. Look closely and you’ll see the three wise men are carrying their gifts, that the sheep is made of cotton wool, that angel Gabriel has a golden pipe-cleaner halo and that the baby Jesus is wrapped in swaddling and balanced on a lollipop stick manger tied together with string!

This is definitely one of the best Christmas crafts I have ever made. Thanks to my sister for the inspiration, this lovely nativity scene will stand proud on my dining room table this year – let me know what you think!

Preview… #loorollnativity

After the success of my toilet roll choir, my sister said to me ‘Louise! Those loo-rolls are amaazing!!! Hahah! You could do a whole nativity scene!!’.

A whole nativity scene made out of cardboard toilet-roll tubes? What idiot would I be not to accept this kind of challenge…

And so the #loorollnativity2012 begins. I commence with the toilet roll shepherd – who says you can’t get something for nothing?

Check out the finished nativity scene here!

Toilet Roll Choirs

This morning I uttered a phrase that I don’t think has ever been uttered in the history of utterances: ‘Oh no’ I said, ‘I’ve put all the empty loo-rolls in the recycling box. I’ll have to go fish around and get them back out so I can make my loo-roll choir’. It’s fair to say that my other half had no response.

The story goes like this: I was looking online for ideas of handmade Christmas crafts and I came across the photograph above. It’s from a fellow craft-blogger’s website which can be found here. I’m also in the process of writing a kids’ Christmas article for ReallyKidFriendly, so thought it would fit in nicely.

This craft is also perfect (almost too perfect in fact) for those innocent smoothie woolly hats that have been circulating the UK for the past few years. Don’t know what I mean? Check the innocent website here. Around Christmas time, each of their smoothie bottles comes with its own, miniature woolly hat in a grand attempt to raise money for Age UK. And they just happen to be toilet-roll size.

I used half a kitchen-roll tube and a toilet-roll tube for my choir of two singers that you can see in the picture. I wrapped each tube in coloured card, securing it with double-sided tape, and put a circle for the face near the top. I drew on the face in permanent marker and used a bit of red, Crayola pencil to highlight the rosey cheeks.

I cut out mitten shapes from some patterned card and a song sheet for each choir member from an old magazine. Crease the magazine down the middle and then carefully attach it, with the mittens, to the tube. Pop on a woolly hat and there you have it!

Bet you didn’t think a toilet roll choir was going to be on your wish list this year, did you?

And a quick update – check out my toilet roll nativity scene - what more could you need this Christmas?

The Gingerbread Man

Run, run as fast as you can… next up on my list of Christmas crafts is this adorable, felt gingerbread man decoration. With felt, ric-rac icing and big, Christmassy buttons, what’s not to love?

This guy’s made from two pieces of brown felt sewn together by machine and stuffed with a bit of wadding. I’ve used a red ribbon to hang him from the tree and chose three of my biggest, brightest buttons to adorn his tummy.

Want to copy him yourself? This gingerbread chap took me about half an hour. I drew the pattern freehand and took it from there. Give it a go!

How To Make Your Own Christmas Stocking

This weekend I’ve been fairly busy preparing both house and soul for this year’s Christmas; my first Christmas in our new house. Handmade is the theme – I plan to stitch as much as I can so that when the big day arrives I can marvel at my greatness and have a range of items that I can use for years to come. I’ve also created a new Christmas category – click here to see it! It’s full of all my posts that feature Christmas crafts, including Christmas cards and decorations.

Whilst you’re busy clicking, if you could all just click here and vote for my blog too, that’d be great. You don’t need to fill anything out, just click!

Anyway – this weekend I was paid a visit from my uttermost favourite, crafty friend. She brought with her a plan to make Christmas stockings, sheets of colourful material and bags of sparkly felts and threads. We are one and the same.

Everything was laid out on my dining room table (and all over the floor) and we set to work creating our homemade Christmas stockings. First we drew the pattern on baking paper, traced it onto the outer fabric and lining fabric and cut it all out. I’ve used a mixture of green and red patterned and plain Christmas fabrics (all fat quarters). If you’re doing this yourself, you’ll need 4 stocking shapes altogether – 2 for the lining and 2 for the outside (2 fat quarters in all). I decided to do different patterns on the back and front and then plain inside and for the cuff.

Next we machine-stitched the pieces together as following the pattern (a very easy tutorial that my friend found online) and turned them right side out. At this stage, the lining is pushed down into the inside so that you can fold over the top of the stocking and create a contrasting colour cuff.

And then it was time to embellish. I chose to stitch a gold ribbon around the edge of the cuff, with a line of gold braid to cover the stitching at the top. I then sewed 10 little gold bells all the way around the ribbon so that the stockings sound just like Christmas with even the slightest movement (a foolproof plan to catch Santa in the act this year no doubt). I added a piece of gold rope to the side so that we can hang them up and again covered my stitching tracks, this time with a red bow. I even cut out our initials in felt and attached them alongside a Christmas-themed button just to make sure Santa knows he’s got the right house.

If you’re looking for something super-personalised this year, I suggest giving this idea a go. The pattern is very easy to follow, they don’t use a lot of material and then end result looks great!

Make Your Own Felt Robin Christmas Decoration

Recently, browsing the DIY & Crafts board on Pinterest has been one of my favourite past times, so when I came across various photos of some adorable felt Christmas decorations I couldn’t exactly turn a blind eye. Whilst Pinterest is great for fuelling my imagination it does not, however, give you instructions on how to make what you see. That’s why I’ve decided to have a go at creating my own pattern for these handmade decorations and blog about it for you all to have a go too.

First up is the felt robin decoration. Begin by cutting out 4 shapes from greaseproof paper (baking parchment) in the shape of the robin’s body, an oval for the red chest, a triangle for the beak and a heart shape for the wing. Click on my template image to the right to enlarge it. The felt I’ve used is in dark brown, golden brown and bright red.

Next, trace around the shapes onto your coloured felt and cut them out (see picture left). Make sure you do 2 of each shape so that you have two robins to stitch back-to-back later on. I also recommend you cut out a few spares in case you go wrong. You’d be surprised how easy it is to accidentally chop off a beak!

Once your robin parts are cut out, assemble them neatly and stitch around the edges using matching embroidery thread. I used a sequin for the eye too, but you could use a bead or a round piece of felt if you prefer. Again, remember to make two of each and this time make sure you sew them as mirror images. You don’t want to end up with two robins facing the same direction and suddenly find your plan to sew them back-to-back has gone awry (this is just as easily done as cutting off a beak).

Step four is to sew your two robins together. Use white or cream embroidery to make it look a bit like a Christmas gingerbread. Try to get all your stitches the same size too – it’s quite difficult but the end result will look much neater! Leave an inch gap at the top to push a bit of wadding in, insert some ribbon and then sew it up.

Here’s a picture of my first attempt. Not quite as professional looking as I’d hoped for but definitely a step in the right direction for our ‘homemade Christmas’!

I gave my felt decorations a second attempt too – click here for the felt pudding decoration and felt Christmas tree decoration, and the felt gingerbread man!

Bienvenue le Noel

So Christmas is upon us again already and for the 8th year in my life – although it feels like the 23rd – I find myself in retail, lovingly putting those festive needs of pushy, impatient, panicked and obnoxious others before my own. Last Christmas I promised myself this wouldn’t happen, yet here we are. At least I have a day off today, albeit to play Santa by delivering peoples’ presents and making mince pies for the staffroom at work.

Take a quick look at my photos here too. This year I have my miniature Paperchase  tree on my windowsill, bedecked within an inch of its life in super cute Paperchase wooden decorations. They’re all so smiley! You can’t help but smile along when you look at it.

I also have some AMAZING crocheted snowflakes hanging from the side of my cupboard this year. Thank you so much to my amazing friend Marianna for making these for me last festive season!

And finally is the little row of tiny glass baubles I have stringed along the front of my DVD cabinet. Paperchase seem to have an incredible knack for making super cute Christmas accessories.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and an even better New Year… keep subscribing/refreshing this page in 2012 for even more of my exciting craft and sewing projects. And this time next year, I PROMISE YOU that I will NOT be working in retail…