For my Christmas cards this year I used a stamp I cut during a Jean Wells Keenan workshop this past spring. I've never done much stamping or stamp carving, but I had fun with this. It took me a while to get the printing right, but by the end I had it going well. It was so fun to use different brightly colored cardstock and paint colors in all different combinations! I did miss sending out a picture, but we just didn't have any good ones from this year. Hopefully next year we will, as I love getting family pictures from others.
Another Christmas project this year isn't really mine and has actually been going all fall, but as it was a Christmas present for someone else, I didn't want to jinx it by posting it ahead of time. This quilt was made by my good friend Trish (my mom quilted it for her), using all fabric she saved from making clothes for her daughter back in the 80s. It was her first quilt, so I've been advising a bit along the way. It turned out super super awesome, and I was majorly impressed. I warned her at the beginning that a tumbling block quilt was virtually all y-seams, but she persevered, and it's fabulous. I don't have the dimensions but it's a generous lap size- maybe something like 55 x 75 or so. It was so fun to hear all the stories behind all the fabrics, and I know her daughter (the recipient) loved it.
As has been my tradition for the last few years, I made Christmas ornaments again this year for some friends and family. I wasn't sure what to do (even though I have a pinterest board full of holiday projects to try), but after cutting paper snowflakes with my nieces and nephews at Thanksgiving I thought I'd run with that idea. Unfortunately because I couldn't just use white paper, many of them don't look like snowflakes exactly, but it was fun cutting them. They were smallish (I think the medallions were 3.25 inches wide), so I couldn't get as much detail in the snowflakes as I would have liked, but I think they turned out ok. A little more crafty and less sewy than I usually do, but something a bit different. The backgrounds are just the little wooden medallions you can get at craft stores which I painted and then decoupaged on the snowflakes using some old matte medium. As always I made a special ornament for Mike reflecting his interest (although I don't think he particularly cares about Christmas ornaments). This year I did one from him similar to these only with a red Jeep on it, as he's taken up Jeep off roading this year. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture before packing away all the decorations yesterday! Oh well, I'll get a picture next year.
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Finally, I wanted to share a craft project my sister did over the break! We did bunches of crafts, especially with the kids, but I forgot to take pictures of most of them. I thought this was especially cute and useful though. I don't know how many of you have Candy Land aged children, but trust me when I tell you the little game pieces you move along the path are really terrible. They're large, very light, and extremely top heavy. As a result, they are constantly tipping over, constantly getting bumped off their places, and in short make an already fairly boring game really really painful. So my sister decided to make these new little game pieces out of leftover buttons, felt, beads and hot glue. At the last minute she added the googly eyes and faces, and they're adorable! They're big enough to easily pick up for the kids, but not at all tippy, and fit well on the game squares. The felt makes them slide really nicely over the game board, and they were so nice to play with. It took only about fifteen minutes, and I think it would work for any game with pieces that move along a track.
That's it for Christmas crafts, I'll be back later with a 2016 wrap-up/2017 plan and then back to quilts!
Update: I found a picture of the Jeep ornament!!
Love your Christmas cards and the ornaments.
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