Crafty Christmas

This year turned out to be quite the year for making things. It is fun to create things, but most of the time I sign up for things...go to the event, and then never fully finish the projects. I am proud to say that I completed many things this year! I made this adorable little nativity set at Jaylee's craft night. I have to say it is one of the cutest things! We do have the Little People Nativity also, but this is fun for the kids to play with too. My craft night was a success...It was fun to have so many people over just working on stuff. I didn't make any money, but that wasn't the point. I just wanted to be able to offer alot of different things, and then work on them together...because really...I hate doing this stuff alone. It is so much better when you have someone to talk too. The blocks above are double sided...so they work for Thanksgiving too. It was a fabulous idea from my new friend, Cami! You can see all her fun craftiness over at From Hands to Home. She has some really cute stuff, and she is really fair in prices.
I also did this triple frame at my Craft Night. Shelley put alot of hard work at putting them together. I think it turned out perfect!
A few weeks ago this popped up on Cami's blog. I just had to have one. A few of my friends also ordered them, and we got together one morning and worked on them. It was fun to see the different varieties. Stephanie painted hers all red, and Becky brought some scrapbook paper, mod podge, and some blue paint. They all turned out awesome. I just wish I would have taken a picture of theirs. It fits perfectly above my stove...It makes me smile everytime I walk into the kitchen.
One of my favorite projects this year was these "P.J. Pail's." I went to Home Depot, and bought some empty paint cans, and then mod podged the paper onto it! The idea is this...I give my kids new pajamas for Christmas every year. That is the present that they open every Christmas Eve. From here on out...I will 'wrap' their PJ's in these cans. I also went to the Dollar store and picked up a little photo book (the ones that you can insert pictures into), and printed out all the past years of them in their "Christmas PJ's". The can doubles as a little time capsule...so every year they will open their pj's, and then be able to look at themselves through out the years. I forgot to pick up a paint key while I was at Home Depot, but next year we will also 'hide' the key on the tree so the kids will have to find it in order to 'open' their present.My final project for the season were the stockings. When Shawn and I got married we were given some stockings. They worked fine, but when I started having kids...every year I thought about making stockings. I would get annoyed every year when Santa had a hard time putting things in them, and ended up leaving half of his 'stocking stuffers' outside of the stockings instead! But every year...I never got around to it.

This year I had an epiphany. When Sydney and Thomas were born, my cousin Karma was making these beautiful 'minky' blankets. She made each of them one. Sydney's was purple dot minky with a Tinkerbell satin back. Thomas's was green camo minky with a brown satin back. They absolutely LOVE them...so I had the idea to make each of their stockings to MATCH their blankets!

My sister, Cathy, just had a neighbor make her some stockings...and they were just the right size. Big (wide) enough to fit things in, but not overly large. So I borrowed it, and cut out a 'pattern' for me to work with. Then this Wednesday, Karma and I went to work cutting out the stockings.

Yes, they aren't the most 'Christmasy' of stockings, but I LOVE THEM! Here is a close up of mine. The nicest thing about it is if we have more kids...I can just make a new one...and they will all match!

Yay for FINISHED projects!!!