Christmas projects

This year Christmas was full of lots of handmade gifts.  I knew I was going to be down for a few weeks after my surgery, so over Thanksgiving when I was in Idaho Falls with my mom, we put together several kits of craftiness that I would be able to do later.  Surprisingly enough, I actually finished them!  So here is a sampling of my projects that I gave to my kids for Christmas.Here we have a cute little hand puppet I stitched for Mari.  I did this one in the hospital. 
    
Notice the cute little tail in back.

And here are the finger puppets that go with it: three mice  and a cheese!  

And here we have the MONSTROSITREE.  Ask my mom:  this was quite a project.  I made up the pattern and cut it out of an old pair of corduroy pants.  Then my mom sewed them together because this was still when I couldn't really sit up... And I stuffed it with like two full bags of fluff.  Luckily, no one in my family could tell what it was, so the surprise wasn't ruined.  Jason thought (and still does think) that it looks like a turkey.  So anyway, I started cutting out tons of pieces of multi-hued green felt for the leaves.  *** I should note here that much of my wonderful felt came from my amazing sister, Valerie, who has spent hours at thrift shops, finding wool, felting it, and readying it to be used in lovely projects.  Currently, I think she has several- like nine or ten?- large Rubbermaid bins of it!*** Anyway... So then I spent forever sewing veins in the leaves and then attaching them to the tree.  And then, Christmas Eve night, Jason helped me to stick  wires (old hangers) into the branches to lend some support.  And then I sewed a bladder of sorts,  filled it with rice, and stuck it in the bottom of the trunk to keep it balanced.  And finally I sewed the bottom on.  These pix are actually before the final leaves were added.  So there you have my long-winded explanation of a whole lot of effort going into something that didn't really deserve it.  Oh well.

But, cuter, I made a forest friend for each of my kids to play in the tree.

A raccoon for Zander, my sneaky little elf.   And a fox for my clever Drake.  

And a squirrel for Amari, who is rather plush herself,

a bunny for hoppy little Jo,

and an owl for irie, because . . . she likes owls.  (The tree pictured actually gained many more leaves than what is shown.  Just fyi.)

Next. . . a kitty for my kitty girl.  Mari named her Nikki.

And also I made a couple cute purses for the little girls.

And a purse for the big girl.  This one was trickier, because I wanted to use this cute bird that Irelynd always draws for me, so it required lifting her sketch, making a pattern, and doing a bit of embroidery.  So the cuteness is not really mine - it's Irelynd's art!  It is a tri-fold with a snap enclosure.

And here we have my gifts for Christmas kick-off (not as grand this year than in years past, but still - I tried to do a bit.)  This picture isn't great, but it's me a Jason under the mistletoe!  :) 

They are snowglobes.

with reindeer on them. 

and they hang on the kids' doorknobs.

I tried to give each one a bit of a different accessory. 

Just a note. . . do you see the snowglobes' falling snow?  These little sparkly sequins came from a fancy dress I bought for a black tie business dinner a few years back.  I am a repurposer.

So here is one of the three scripture/church bags that I made for my girls.  I say "I" loosely, because I did only minimal cutting out:  my mom picked out and bought the fabric, and after my surgery, my sweet neighbor came and stole them and finished them. 

This was one of the most successful of my creations.  Each of my kids got a tent.  (This is Irelynd's.)  They're made with twin bed sheets in my kids' favorite colors:  Irelynd - green, Drake - orange, Zander - blue, Amari - red, and Jovianne - pink.  This was a humongous task, involving cutting wood and PVC pipe, sanding and sanding and sanding more, screwing things together, and then stapling a bit.  I have to give almost complete credit to another amazing neighbor, who stole these partway through and finished them.  Yet another instance of productive thievery!  These tents are really great because they are big enough for the kids to put a sleeping bag in for reading or playing or sleepovers, but then they can fold up flat and slide under their beds for quick and easy clean-up!  And saving space is important to me right now.

Here is the project we did for Irelynd's friend presents.  We found all of my old 8X10 frames and painted them.  This one is black, but we did most of them silver, because that was the color of spray paint that I had in my cupboard, but it looked good!  Then we painted the background cardboard with chalkboard paint, put it all together with some twine, clothespins, a picture of her and her friend together, and a little note handwritten in chalk for each.  I think they turned out cute.

And here we have the classic magnet fishing game.  I made one for a niece and nephews, and irelynd made one for her little sisters.  I was lucky to have Irelynd on board because she drew the fish for me, so I just had to cut them out and glue a few things, including a washer onto the backs.  (Washers courtesy of dad's small things cabinet.)  Then we sawed a dowel in half, attached some string and a magnet (from Drake's magnetix), decorated a #10 can, and we were in business!  (fishing business)

 

Let's see. . . there are a few things that I don't have pictures for: some chalkboard centerpieces,  a couple pieces of jewelry, and many, many pillows made out of my old sweaters and ribbon.  Those took a long time.  Maybe someday I will take pix and post them.  But for now, I am already late enough on this post as it is.  So I am going to hit publish, without even editing.  Please forgive me.  ;)