day 195: little stockings for the kittens

the completed kitten stockings

day 195 and we need some little stockings for our kittens ;)  the peeps are very keen for their kittens to have stockings so today i set aside some time to help them with this project.  i found some really easy stockings that had an A4 pattern you could download on pinterest and pinned the image to my 2011 advent crafts board.  the tutorial for the stockings comes from amy at diary of a quilter, who was guest posting on ucreate.

i absolutely loved that amy provided an A4 template for the stocking shape and then provides really detailed instructions on how to make these fully lined cuties.

the template and fabric i used

half way their ... love that it is sewn all in one!

the finished stockings all ready for the peeps to decorate :)

outcome:  a real pleasure to help the peeps make these.  i did the cutting and sewing, the peeps did the ironing and decorating (we were all a bit tired today to further their sewing lessons).

sincere thanks to amy at diary of a quilter for providing a simple, but totally lined stocking that is the PURRFECT size for our kittens and the goodies santa may fill them with ;)

christmas must be fast approaching, my posts are getting shorter!

day 194: terracotta pot reindeer

our latest christmas decoration, so sweet!

day 194 and we are crafting with the peeps for today's creation.  these terracotta pot reindeer are so cute and a great idea for making with the peeps.  the idea comes from rhonda at dollar store crafts and is pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board.

you need some terracotta pots, googly eyes, pompom noses, brown pipe cleaners, a sharpie, ribbon, and a hot glue gun or craft glue.  we didn't end up painting them or putting the bells underneath to make them ring because the peeps didn't want to wait for the paint to dry (see, totally buzzed about christmas!)

what you need :)

glue on some eyes and a nose

add ribbon for hanging

finally add a brown pipe cleaner fashioned
into some antlers :)

our set of reindeer is growing!!

outcome:  these were lots of fun for the peeps to make and not too taxing which is good for over excited little ones who are madly counting down the days to christmas!

a big thank you to rhonda at dollar store crafts, what a great website, plenty of inspiration for budget crafting and the terracotta reindeer is just one of the cool ideas they have for christmas :)

day 191: s'mores caramel popcorn for our polar express sleepover

the festive looking popcorn for the sleepover

day 191 and the peeps are having a sleepover ... 2 friends each for a polar express sleepover!  every good sleepover needs comfort food and their is no better comfort food for movie watching than popcorn.  today's creation goes a little further and puts the s'more into popcorn ... yummo!  this delightful idea is from leigh anne at your homebased mom who was guest posting on thirty handmade days and is pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board.

leigh anne makes her OWN caramel popcorn, i didn't want to go THAT far today so i am using store bought and the other change i am making is actually a fundament to s'mores but not available in nz.  we don't have graham crackers or cereal here so i am omitting that ingredient as well :(  i wish we did have them and i'm not sure what to substitute them with, so luckily we have the popcorn to hold the melted chocolate and marshmellows together!

what you need

lay out the popcorn

top with marshmallows 

drizzle over chocolate

wait for the chocolate to harden, then break into a bowl
and serve to hungry peeps!

outcome:  the peeps and their mates thought it was awesome.  i thought it was really good too until i got a lolly headache from all the sweetness, not complaints from the peeps in this area though ... like i would have got any fessing up about that anyway.  the peeps had a great time with their friends, the popcorn was perfect for the polar express sleepover and that was all that counted!  i had some fruit and felt much better ;)

my thanks to leigh anne from your homebased mom for this cool kid friendly, treat popcorn ... it was perfect for a movie that features lots of hot chocolates!

day 189: candy cane reindeer

a very cute candy cane reindeer :)

day 189 and we are off to do a big grocery shop today for christmas ... so today's creation had to be quick!  i saw these reindeer made out of candy canes and thought the kids and i would really enjoy making them.  we have had such a great time this festive season making all sorts of crafty things together and it has actually been my favourite part of december so far.  the candy cane reindeer are pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board.

for this pinterest creation from jean's crafty corner you need candy canes, googly eyes, brown embroidery floss, and some coloured pompoms.  i am going to use a hot glue gun for the assembling of these cute little reindeer.

what you need

hot glue canes together and then wrap with
embroidery floss to make the face

add eyes, a nose, and some christmas cheer and you are
good to go :)

outcome:  fast, fun, totally kid friendly craft ... perfect for the peeps to give out at their polar express sleepover this weekend as party favours!  seriously though, what's not to love, i am constantly amazed at peoples crafty ability to make the cutest things out of everyday items.  these little beauties would also be perfect for gift toppers on peeps presents instead of a bow :)

my gratitude to jean at jean's crafty corner for blogging about her candy cane reindeer so the rest of us can admire her talents and then recreate it with our peeps ... they are so cute and perfect for christmas favours :)

day 186: free colourable gift tags

happy birthday my not so little boy/man, 10 years ago today your dad and i started a family and we have never been happier :)

free, printable and colourable christmas tags!

day 186 and it was a busy day of lego building for someone in the family today.  we had full on festive birthday enjoyment intermingled with a hockey final (ben's team won 7-0), a movie with friends, a dinner with family, and some christmas wrapping ... yes it was a busy but wonderful day for our birthday lad! 

we started with some gift wrapping and that meant we needed tags.  as the presents we were wrapping were from the peeps to their cousins and people who have helped them learn throughout the year, i wanted a homemade element from them on the presents.  these tags i found on pinterest from raggedy scrappin were ideal as they were designed to be coloured, something my peeps love to do so they were pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board.  this site has lots of free printables for all sorts of uses and plenty of wonderful things for using in card making and scrapbooking.

and away they went colouring .... 

... and colouring some more :)

away the peeps went with the colouring and i got the parcels wrapped and ready to adorn with home made flowers and bits.  it was fun, i really appreciated the peeps helping with the giving to others, especially on a day when they were given so much :)

the perfect tag for this present to their cousin

a present from the peeps to their grandparents :)

another tag, another cousin, another
happy parcel finished and adorned with
ben's cool tag :)

outcome:  i really think the presents look awesome with the peeps home made tags!  our family, friends, and activity teachers will hopefully know that extra special effort was put into their gift with a big heap of love and plenty of the peeps time!

my thanks to raggedy scrappin for the freebie tags, small things like getting the peeps involved in the present giving process really help them understand charity towards others ... and these tags were a big help in aiding that learning, not to mention how cute the tags were to begin with and they just became more vibrant with colour :)

day 183: xmas pudding bean bags

the finished xmas pudding bean bags ... great for tossing,
throwing, warming, and juggling!

day 183 and i am halfway through my 365 days of pinterest creations :)  today's creation was found on pinterest and pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board!

for today's pinterest creation we made these cool xmas pudding bean bags, instructions from activity village.  if you aren't into christmas puds there are plenty of other felt creations and instructions on activity village, which you can link to here :)  we were quite short on time today so rather than showing the peeps how to blanket stitch, we used the sewing machine and also went with some store bought holly to adorn the top of the puddings.  something i have learnt over the last few days of crafting with the peeps is to make things easier (rather than learning intensive) to keep them coming back for more crafty home made goodness!

i used the fiskars circle template to cut my circles out, but
a glass would work just as well :)

sew around the edges leaving a gap to add the fill

i used rice in our beanbags as i thought it would be a great
idea to heat them if it was cold during summer ... teehee!

then finish sewing around the circle once filled, and once
that's done you simply glue some frosting on and a piece
of festive holly ... so cute don't you think!

outcome:  today's projects were a triumph because i have learnt!  i have learnt i love crafting with my peeps and they love crafting with me when the projects are achievable for them.  i have learnt that the peeps have years of learning ahead of them and it doesn't all have to happen right now!  the christmas puds have been tossed EVERYWHERE!  i am having a ball this festive season thanks to pinterest and all the creative goodness it offers, which i otherwise would not have had time to find.  and also thanks to my family who have completely supported me with each day's creating, you guys rock!

and finally thanks to activity village for the awesome tutorial for making christmas pudding bean bags, these have been a huge hit with my peeps!

just a couple of photos of my peeps, we had a fantastic day :)

day 182: fabric house ornaments for the christmas tree

the finished barn ornament!

day 182 and the kids were keen to get back to the sewing machine today after their successful pillow making yesterday.  just as well because today's pinterest creation AND book advent craft are to make fabric houses to go on the christmas tree.  i was absolutely inspired to make some after seeing this one of astrid's from red red completely red on pinterest.  it looked so sweet and i thought they would look absolutely adorable hanging from the tree.  the idea is pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board.

the other aspect i liked about the fabric houses was the the ability to individualise them ... we could make them however we wanted!  this was particularly appealing because we currently live in a barn shaped house and i thought it would be neat if we could recreate that look on a christmas decoration!

the templates i made for making the houses

ben studiously working away!

the starting of a little barn ...

ben's finished ornament ... he was so so
HAPPY

polly's finished ornament ... she thought sewing each
day for the summer holidays would be a great idea!

outcome:  mental note, don't complicate an already perfectly beautiful craft.  the peeps AND i found it really tough to sew around the round "barn" roof.  individualisation is overrated! we should have stuck with the triangle roof, mastered that and then moved on to barn shaped ornaments.  so while i struggled with the imperfection of my ornament, my peeps thought they had made gems.  they were so PROUD of their creations, i had to take a step back and realise just how awesome they are.  here they are learning to sew and loving it!  while today's pinterest creation was the fabric house ornaments, in reality today's pinterest creation was teaching two enthusiastic little peeps the joy of making something with your own two hands ... and that my friends was priceless :)

my sincere thanks to astrid from red red completely red for this fabulous idea.  i feel in love with her site, this week she made pen holder as a male christmas present (very cool idea), so of course i now follow all her creations!

day 181: christmas pillows

pollyanna's finished pillow

ben's finished pillow

day 181 and today the peeps and i made christmas pillows.  we started out by looking through pinterest for ideas which we pinned to our 2011 advent crafts board and then selected the ones we thought we could make today using the printing on fabric technique i LOVE so much :)

ben chose this design ... totally him, he loves the concept of naughty or nice and frequently finds himself on the edge of the cliff!  i am sure over the festive season the pillow will be turned frequently ;)  if you are not into sewing, the lovely debra from joshua by oak sells them on etsy.  it looks like this design is copyrighted so ben and i decided not to copy it and instead did the nice and the naughty on different sides of the pillow.  after using freezer paper to print on fabric (you can see me attempt it for the first time here!) i got ben to do some sewing and stuffing to complete his pillow.

what's required to print on fabric

it's so nice having help with my pinterest inspired
creations!

are you feeling ....

.... or this?

pollyanna chose this design and luckily it comes with a tutorial and is not subjected to copyright!  the tutorial from the 36th avenue is fantastic but i thought would be a little challenging for my little seven year old peep, so we modified the idea.  we used an envelope feel for the front and then on the flip side of the pillow we wrote her letter to santa. once we had printed off both sides, pollyanna sat down for her first attempt at sewing and then stuffed the resulting pillow!

the typesetting on the computer

one happy girl learning to sew under the watchful eye
of her big brother!

side one of polly's pillow

side two of polly's pillow :)

outcome:  the peeps did so well, i think i may employ them to do my straight line sewing!  actually both their pillows turned out so well i made some more of my own using the same designs.  i thought pollyanna's pillow was such a great reminder of what she wanted from santa for 2011, i made one for ben as well and thought we could make yearly ones to sit on their beds during december.  then i decided to make more of ben's because every one should have access to a pillow like that!  the only downside was we made so many pillows to be stuffed we ran out of stuffing!

my thanks to debra from joshua by oak for the inspiring idea to use nice and naughty on a pillow for christmas and also many thanks to desiree at the 36th avenue for a wonderful tutorial and the very inspiring design of her christmas photos!  She is incredibly crafty so i suggest having a look at her blog and being wowed!