Only a few more days until we get to “officially” celebrate the birth of Christ, but why wait? I love to pray over the people I’ll be gifting to, and, of course, for those I know and love who need a prayer.
Next to wood, my favorite sewing/stitching/crafting medium is felt, particularly wool felt. It’s so scrumptiously soft and is very forgiving. My focus is mainly for children today (why not, I have 6 of them), with some simple ideas for the young at heart.
Ready for the last week of Handmade Holidays? Let’s go! (You can find the links to the previous 3 weeks below)
One of my all-time favorite craft blogs is
Ikatbag. Lorraine is a witty, creative, crafting, sewing nut much like myself. I have used her tutorials over the years to create, but her work has also stimulated me to come up with creations of my own.
Need a cake to celebrate Christ’s birth? How about a felt one?!
Triple-decker with a 6-slice chocolate layer and a 8-slice strawberry layer….yum!
Dainty candles that make the celebration special.
Need to change the occasion? Just take off the frosting and embellish to suit the holiday.
For a healthier treat, how about a garden?
You can use any veggie you like or flowers if you prefer. We have cabbage, carrots, beets, beans, and strawberries…
…perfect for picking!
Thanks to
ikatbag, she’s got a tutorial all ready for you to create your own garden, including produce. I just took it up a notch and made it bigger because we have several children who’d love to have a row of their own.
I used two cushions my mother had bought to reupholster her bench, but changed her mind and passed them on to me. Some hot glue between the 2′ x 2′ square cushions, cut with a hacksaw, glue fabric on to the “rows” and cinch the ends with needle and thread. I covered my cardboard with fabric, but you could leave it as is.
Once you get your produce, you need a stand to sell it at right? Again, thank you Lier, for the inspiration.
This vegetable stand used to be a Craisins display at my local supermarket. They were more than happy to give it to me, so don’t be shy and ask!
Plenty of choices to be had, including some homemade pasta.
For the side shelf units, I took boxes that held spinach from Aldi, and wrapped them in wrapping paper. The shelves are cardboard hot-glued to the sides, and the pull-out drawers are the cardboard flats that canned beans come in (also from Aldi) wrapped in white contact paper. I couldn’t believe they fit in the spinach boxes perfectly!!
Seriously, I thrifted most of the cups and plasticware. The stand is made of cardboard covered in thrifted sheets, so outside of purchasing some wool felt off of Etsy, along with the synthetic felt – the cost was so minimal. All you need is a hot-glue gun and a utility knife. Money set is a
Melissa & Doug Play Money Set that we use in our home school frequently.
What better than a sweet shoppe located right next to a produce stand?
Don’t they look delish? I wish I had a set like this as a kid.
After a day out shopping, who wouldn’t want to relax by a warm fire?
Wooden dowel covered in a textured paint with a felt marshmallow roasting over a felt fire. Perfect!
No pattern for this one, just created my own, but I do believe there are patterns on Pinterest and Etsy.
For my little guy, this fun slingshot set made from scrap wood, rubber bands, a piece of an old leather purse. More details on this set from this post
here.
I have done oodles of other felt projects, but the last I’ll mention are for the older (younger at heart) group.
My smartphone covers are perfect for most anyone – I wrote about them in
this post.
Everyone could use a journal or notebook, and what could be better than one made from a felted wool sweater found at a thrift store?
The pattern for this journal is found in
Warm Fuzzies – cute and easy wool projects.
Using the same sweater I used on the journal, I made the beaded cupcakes shown above in the sweet shoppe.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the Handmade Holidays series and are able to make some wondeful creations! Please feel free to email me with questions.
Merry Christmas!!!
More Handmade Holidays for you!
…with all the fixings to go bird watching – a favorite pastime in my family.
I will never deny that I am a thrifty person and this project is not exception. After all, Thomas Edison said it best, “The scope of thrift is limitless.” My kind of man.
I found all the fabric at Goodwill ($1 a yard minus my 20% off coupon = cheap!)and it was brand new denim, pinstripe blue, and sort of stretch cotton canvas for the lining – all found at different times. Never miss an opportunity to peruse the aisles of fabric for great finds!
See the tutorial here at 
With the idea of giving my little guy a bird-watching bag, I wanted to add that theme to the outside, but definitely my style is vintage, so off to my all-time favorite graphics site, 
One last tidbit. I never throw anything that purpose away and it always pays off. I couldn’t find, for the life of me, a sliding adjustable clip for the strap at JoAnns or ANYWHERE! I didn’t have time to order it online, so I went to my stash of deconstructed purses, which includes all sort of hardware, and found exactly what I needed. A cast-off dog collar I found in my yard.
You see, my neighbor has an escape artist husky dog that chews out of the collar in a matter of hours and left this one in my yard. It had the exact hardware I needed – bingo!! I love it when things work out like that.
