Handmade Holiday Idea 5

For a little something for the neighbors who all have kids I gave the gift of hot Chocolate.

(These are bad pictures. My apologies)

I rounded up all the jars I could find and filled them with hot chocolate mix I made from this recipe. Then I baked some banana bread from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I also made some homemade marshmallows from this recipe. To finish it off I tied together a bundle of chocolate covered peppermint swizzle sticks.

I placed all the components on a festive green plate and delivered them.

I attached directions for mixing the hot chocolate.

Handmade Holiday Idea 4

I made these Barbie purses for two special girls that we know. They are similar to the Polly Pocket Purses I made, but on a larger scale.

I did some more reverse applique for the names. I found a font I liked on the computer, printed it and then traced it on the fabric. I just free handed around the letters with a satin stitch.

The back.

I made some smaller pockets to hold smaller dolls.

This one has two zippered compartments. One will hold shoes etc and the other will hold clothes.

This is the second one I made.

The front.

The back.

This one has more smaller compartments because I know this girl has a lot more smaller dolls.

Shoe compartment.

Clothes compartment.

Handmade Holiday Idea 3

I found these adorable towels when I was at IKEA last month for 50 cents. I appliqued a Christmas tree on them and added a couple of buttons for ornaments and a star.

I’ve been collecting jars to use for giftwrapping and spraypainting the lids red. Now that its too cold to spraypaint, I might just wrap them in fabric and tie with a bow.

I rolled up the towel, put it in the jar, and added some crinkled paper.

I’ll add a giftcard and use these as teacher’s gifts.

Handmade Holiday Idea 2

Do you have a Jedi in training in your house?

Luckily we have two and its wearing off on their sister too. When we walk into a store with automatic sliding doors they “use the force” to open them.

Anyway, I came across this tutorial for a jedi cape. Its super easy. To make it even easier I made the first ones out of plush felt, so I didn’t have to hem it! The next two I made out of fleece, because it was way on sale. I think I like the fleece ones better. I used a little bit of scraps to make a tie for the waist.

These should go well with the Ultimate Blasters that Santa is bringing for them.

Holiday Bingo

I’m always at a loss when it comes to classroom games at holiday parties.

I found this great free printable bingo game at BlackDog.net. I’ll probably have to change it from S A N T A to J E S U S for Piper Ann’s party, and then change it to S N O W Y for Nathan’s party.  Oh the political correctness of the holidays. Gotta love it!

Handmade Holiday Ideas

Over the next few days/weeks I’ll be sharing with you some great ideas for a handmade holiday. I might not be making them all myself, but I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my brain. I just hope I have time to blog about them!

I found this tutorial and decided to make some wired ribbon flowers.

I added some stringy fringe and a shiny button to the center.

I hot glued it to a headband…

…and a pin to make a brooch.

It might be a little obnoxious to wear them together, but separately they’re cute as can be.

New Curtains

When I painted my dining room last year,  I searched high and low for fabric for which to make some curtains.
This chocolate fabric was all I came up with. I loved it, but wasn’t really inspired by it. We don’t get much light in that room, so I was afraid of covering up the window. It faces the backyard where we have common ground, so I wasn’t super worried about privacy either. I decided not to make curtains and leave the window open. I was just going to use the chocolate fabric to reupholster some chairs, so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Well, my favorite fabric store was having a sale a couple of weeks ago. I just went to browse when I stumbled upon this fabric…

It was love at first sight. Immediately I knew that I would use it to make curtains for my dining room. It matched perfectly.

This is a horrible picture…

This ones not much better…

I made the top of the panel with the “Wild Thyme” put a coordinating red stripe at the bottom and then made a gathered skirt out of the chocolate polka dots for the bottom.

I think these are my most favorite curtains I’ve ever made.