Handmade Christmas
Fabric-Covered Journals, Board Games & Dinner with Young Friends
We had three of Morgan’s friends and one of Sean’s friends over last night. It was such fun! We enjoyed an early dinner, then visited two different living nativities before coming back to our house for a devotional, gifts and homemade doughnuts.
I made fabric-covered journals for the girls using the Journal Cover Tutorial at Moda Bake Shop for the basic construction.
These go together really quickly, and the girls loved them! I also included a nice pen and some hot cocoa, microwave popcorn and chocolate.
I had a much harder time coming up with a gift for the college-age guys. Some brainstorming for ideas and a few minutes spent roaming around the toy department, though, and here’s what I came up with:
Each one got a travel-size version of a classic board game (perfect for storing in the dorm) along with popcorn, hot cocoa and chocolate.
I’m pretty sure that everyone enjoyed their gifts as much as I enjoyed putting them together for them!
Mmmm . . . Biscotti!
I am a huge lover of coffee and biscotti, especially in the cold winter months. I love to sit down with a cup of coffee and a biscotti in the afternoon during naptime and just enjoy a few quiet minutes to myself. Store-bought biscotti is good, but home-made is so much better.
Our homeschool moms’ group is meeting at my house for a Christmas cookie exchange tonight, and that was just the motivation that I needed to bake up a couple of batches of biscotti. I used my favorite recipe: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I love it just the way it is, but I also like to substitute sliced almonds and mini-chocolate chips for the cranberries and pistachios. (I decrease the vanilla to 1 teaspoon and increase the almond extract to 1 teaspoon for the almond ones.)
When they’re all cool, I drizzle them with chocolate because, really, who doesn’t need a little more chocolate in their diet? And, it makes them so pretty. If you like biscotti and haven’t made it before, give it a try. It’s really easy–I promise!
Table Runner Tutorial
I really like having something simple to decorate our table — something that isn’t too big to leave on the table when we serve our guests. I just finished sewing up this quick and easy table runner and thought I’d share the instructions with you. It’s a really fast project that will give you years of enjoyment! You could make a different one for each month or for every holiday.
You can even make it reversible like this one that I made for a friend. She’ll be able to use one side for fall and Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas.
Here’s the link to the pdf tutorial for you: Table Runner Tutorial. I’d love to see what you create with the tutorial! Please feel free to comment or email me if you have any questions.
100th Post Giveaway and a Chance to Give!
Wow! Just over a year of blogging, and I’ve reached my 100th post! I love sharing my family, my ministry and my sewing with each of you, and I especially enjoy hearing from you and getting to “know” each of you. It’s exciting to watch how my number of blog readers is continuing to increase. (Of course, our family size is increasing a bit, too, as you can tell by the size of my belly in the picture to the right.) Christmas is quickly approaching, so I want to offer a gift to each of you, a chance to win an even bigger gift and the opportunity to know the joy of giving something to a family in need.
First, a way for you to give a gift to a poor family in Asia and maybe even mark off a few names on your Christmas list at the same time: Having trouble coming up with a gift idea for that relative who already has everything? Perhaps a gift in his or her honor for the poor in another country would be the perfect thing! 
As Gospel for Asia staff members, my husband and I often get to hear the incredibly heart-warming stories of how blessed people are to receive the gifts given through the GFA Christmas Catalog. Because I love to sew, the ability to give the gift of a sewing machine to a poor family in Asia brings me great joy! You can read for yourself a few stories on the GFA website about how much the gift of a sewing machine can help out a family in need: Christmas Gifts Warm Body and Heart and Stitching Her Garments with a Grateful Heart. If you’d like to check out how you can give a sewing machine, or other gifts like chickens, blankets, even a water buffalo, visit GFA’s Christmas Catalog online.
Second, a gift for all of my readers: This week only, from November 30th through December 6th, you can use the code “BlogPost100” in my store to receive a 15% discount on any pattern order. I’m even adding a preorder option for the new Little One Jammies Pattern which should be ready to ship by Monday, December 7th.
Finally, the big giveaway! In celebration of my 100th post, I am giving away a full set of all eight of my patterns and 5 yards of knit fabric to sew into beautiful clothing for your little one. The winner will get to choose from one of the two sets of fabric shown–either the boys’ set or the girls’ set.
For your first entry into the drawing, just leave a comment on this post with which of my patterns you like the best and why, or leave a comment about which of my patterns you’d most like to try and why. For an additional entry, blog about this post or blog about GFA’s Christmas catalog and email me the link to your post. You can enter anytime between now and noon central time on Friday (December 4, 2009). (Please note that I will cover the postage if the winner is inside the US. If you win and you live outside of the US, you’ll need to cover any postage cost above $10.)
Handmade Christmas: Advent Calendar
I’ve always loved the idea of having an Advent Calendar with an activity to do each day of December up to Christmas, but I’d never found just the right one. Early in November this year, I saw and fell for this one on the Sew Mama Sew Blog: Advent Calendar. I modified the calendar slightly (I really am planning to practice free-motion machine quilting one of these days). Overall, though, I followed the instructions there, and the result is exactly what I was hoping for.
It actually took me more time to come up with the activities than it did to sew up the calendar. I really wanted activities that were centered around spending time as a family and giving to others.
Here’s my list of activities–feel free to use any or all of the ideas! In fact, I’d love to hear what you think!
1. Make button wreath ornaments.
2. Color pictures for troops overseas.
3. Visit a relative (or a friend) for lunch. (We’re driving out to visit our oldest daughter at college.)
4. Go see a family Christmas theatre production. (Our local playhouse is doing A Christmas Wizard of Oz.)
5. Walk in (or you could just watch) the city Christmas parade.
6. Buy gifts for a needy family. (We choose one from the Angel Tree at our church, but there are many organizations that you can give through.)
7. Have a family game night. (Board games and popcorn! Our favorite family games are Mexican Train and Speed Scrabble.)
8. Buy canned goods and deliver to a local food pantry. (You might want to call ahead and ask what they are specifically in need of. Our church’s pantry actually told me that need meat and bread more than canned goods right now.)
9. Watch Frosty the Snowman (or any other classic animated movie).
10. Make jar mixes for our Christmas dinner guests. (Jar mixes are nice gifts to have on hand for expected or unexpected Christmas guests. They’re fun and easy for kids to put together, too.)
11. Attend company (or ministry or other group) Christmas party.
12. Visit a living nativity. (We have a local church that does a beautiful one each year.)
13. Make Christmas card ornaments.
14. Make cards for Nana and Papa.
15. Make cards for MawMaw.
16. Bake cookies.
17. Take cookies to the local firestation. (We’re actually going to invite some other local homeschool families to join us in this one.)
18. Go out for dinner. (Enjoy a special night out at your family’s favorite restaurant. I’m not sure whether it’ll be Italian or Mexican for us.)
19. Go Christmas shopping for siblings. (We give each of our children a budget and let them shop for each other.)
20. Watch A Christmas Story (or another live-action Christmas movie).
21. Drive around to see Christmas lights. (You could drive around your neighborhood or go see a big light presentation somewhere close by.)
22. Make playdough and play with Christmas cookie cutters. (This is one of my kids’ favorite activities, and we don’t do it often enough. We like to make Kool-aid playdough. I thought this one would be a great calming activity for just before Christmas when things can get a little overwhelming.)
23. Visit and take pictures with Santa Claus.
24. Make a birthday cake for Jesus. (This a traditional family activity of ours that helps us to put the focus back on what the Christmas season is really about. We even gather around the table, light candles and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.)
I have a two back-up ideas on hand in case something doesn’t work out, too: string popcorn to hang outside for the birds and plant an indoor herb garden. My husband also suggested that next year we see if we can ring the bell for the Salvation Army one day.
Here’s our calendar hung on the wall and ready for Tuesday:
The kids are really excited about finding out what each activity is going to be. (We’re keeping them a secret until they open the envelopes each morning.) I’m really excited about getting started, too!
Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree
Since we don’t currently have any crawling babies or pets, Ray suggested that we skip using our artificial tree this year and buy a real one. I love real trees, so I was easily convinced. We’ve never cut down our own tree before, and I thought it would make a great family memory to do just that. A little bit of hunting turned up a tree farm less than an hour from our house, and the whole family got excited about choosing and cutting our own tree!
The day after Thanksgiving was a beautiful day here in Dallas, even if it was a little un-Christmas-like. The temperature was around 70 degrees when we arrived at the tree farm. . . we just pretended that it was cold and enjoyed some free apple cider anyway. Then we boarded a hayride to travel out to the fields of trees.
Jamie was worried that the big ones wouldn’t fit in our house. He thought this one was perfect. Thankfully, we managed to convince him that we could fit one a little bit taller in our living room.
A little browsing among the trees brought us to this beauty which the kids decided was absolutely perfect.
Daddy cut it down. (He did let the kids each have a quick turn with the saw, too.)
Then it was back to the gift shop while we waited for our tree to be gathered, wrapped and tied onto the roof of the Suburban for the trip home.
A day later, and it’s beautifully decorated with an array of handmade (mostly kidmade) ornaments and ready to enjoy in our livingroom for the rest of the Christmas season.
Handmade Christmas: Personalized Perpetual Calendars
I think these calendars are quite possibly the coolest thing that I’ve ever made! I have to thank Rashida from i heart linen for the amazing idea. You can find Rashida’s original calendar here: Prairie Girl, Calendar Girl. When I first saw the calendar, the idea of putting fabric photos in it popped in my head, and I couldn’t wait to run to Joanns to get all the supplies. I am so happy with how these turned out, and I hope that the recipients love them! I emailed Rashida and found out that she has instructions for how to make these in her new book, I Love Patchwork: 25 Irrestible Zakka Projects to Sew, which is due out in just a few weeks and available for preorder right now. (I have it on my Christmas list–I can’t wait to see what other great ideas she has in there!)
I altered mine a bit from the original by putting a magnet strip on the back of each one so that they can be hung up on the refrigerator:
The days are made from fabric-covered buttons and the months are made from tiny popsicle sticks. Both mount with velcro.
Messenger Bag Tutorial
I really like sewing new bags for my sister, nieces and daughters every Christmas, and I think they really like receiving them. (I heard that my oldest niece loves to tell her friends when they ask about her bags that they’re one of a kind!) Handmade bags for the girls have sort of become my annual tradition. This year, I’ve been sewing messenger bags for everyone and thought I’d share my pattern with you. I hope that you’ll enjoy creating with it for yourself and your loved ones.
The tutorial is for the laptop-size messenger bag, but there are suggestions at the end for how to alter the size to your own specifications.
You can find the pattern and instructions here: Messenger Bag.
I’d love to hear from you and see pictures if you make one, and I’m always happy to answer questions. Just leave me a comment, and I’ll do my best to get back with you as soon as I can!
Don’t miss my Art-On-The-Go Kit Tutorial which makes a great stocking stuffer and, of course, my Christmas Stocking Tutorial, too! I hope they help to get you on your way to your own Handmade Holiday traditions!
Handmade Christmas Gifts – Preschool Memory Games
I used the Memory Game Tutorial at Kindershop Online to make these Memory Games for almost three-year-old Jamie and Ray’s nephew who is the same age. I know that they’ll get a lot of use!
Both sets:
The fronts (both sets are almost exactly the same):
All packed up in their drawstring bags and ready for giving:
