Fortunately I have managed to squeeze out a few small crafts, so I thought I'd share what I've been up to. These are projects I decided I wanted to do and then went on the hunt for tutorials where I needed help filling in the gaps. Most involved supplies around the house that I already had. The only thing I purchased was the drinking straws for the last project. How about that?
Hopefully my projects and those projects that inspired me will help inspire you this holiday season!
I love a good novelty print fabric, and I love gnomes. When my friend Elisa gave me a piece of fabric featuring mini gnomes, I knew it would have to become something fun for Christmas. My first idea was a small table runner for a side table, but then I thought why stop there?
- less than 1/3 yard of cotton fabric
- matching thread
- scraps of quilt batting (if you don't have any, you can always use 2 or 3 layers of muslin or other cotton)
- sewing machine
- I followed this tutorial for how to make quilted coasters. Mine are about 4.25" x 4.25". It really was simple, even the most beginning sewist could tackle these. I know nothing about quilting and was able to figure it out.
- I quilted each coaster, sewing concentric squares starting at the outer edge and working my way in. When I got towards the middle I was bored with squares, so I finished them off with an X.
- I made more. Four total, to be exact.
- I went a little crazy with one of them and used this tutorial for making mini pom poms with a fork, sewing little pom poms onto each end.
- I used this tutorial for how to make a mitered corner hem and made a small table runner with the rest of the fabric. (If you'd prefer, you could make cocktail napkins!)
- I walked around the house until I found a place for the runner. It fit our vintage Cosco bar cart perfectly!
Tutorials used to help me make these crafts:
- Sew Happy Geek: Quilted coasters
- Bored Blog Almighty: wrap fork pom poms
- Sew4Home: How to Sew a Corner (aka Mitered) Hem
I have always loved garlands of all kinds. Being a knitter there's no shortage of yarn in my house, so I grabbed up some reds, greens and sparkly white yarn and got to work. While I was at it I cooked up the idea to make pom poms for my hair, too. My initial idea was to make a bunch to put out during our Christmas party with a cute note telling people to feel free to take one to adorn themselves, too, though that never happened. (Feel free to steal my idea!)
- yarn (I used fingering weight)
- scrap cardboard or pom pom maker
- wide-eyed needle
- scissors
- bobby pins
- I gathered up some holiday-colored yarns. You really don't need a lot of yarn. I used fingering weight, but heavier yarn will produce more full pom poms.
- I didn't have a pom pom maker so I used two pieces of scrap cardboard to make my own, using this tutorial.
- I cut a length of yarn and using a wide-eyed needle, strung up several pom poms through the center. If you knot each end of the strand of yarn, you can hook them over a nail, a mini command hook (thanks to my SIL for introducing me to these) or push pin.
- I adorned our doorways!
- As well as a few other things that looked like they needed pom poms, such as this vintage ornament. Because... well, just because.
- I wanted to adorn myself as well. So before cutting off the tying strands of yarn, I knotted them around the end of a bobby pin.
Tutorial used to help me make these crafts:
My mom always makes cheese flags for parties. I knew that I'd be doing that for our Christmas party, but I wanted to take it a step further and make flags for straws, too. I've seen this done a hundred times online, but I like my twist on it. It lets you remove the flags in case they don't get used (so you can create new ones next time!), and leaves a blank space for your guests to write their name. Like wine charms for cocktails.
- heavy paper
- color printer and editing software (or you could always draw them by hand!)
- scissors or X-acto knife
- drinking straws (Gray Goose is one place to order heavy duty paper straws like I used)
- cocktail toothpicks
- glue stick
- I decided what size I wanted my flag. After trial and error I settled on 5.5" by 0.75", and set it up in Photoshop, with a space big enough to write a name. When I was happy with it, I repeated it several times on the same sheet of paper and printed 2 sheets. I cut out each flag with an X-acto knife.
- I folded each flag in half around a straw, creasing it slightly along the edge where the arrow is pointing. This makes a little tube that you can slide the straw into later. (I wanted the flags removable.)
- I glued both sides together with a glue stick, leaving the tube open.
- I placed the flags (with tube sticking out) under a few heavy books to let the glue cure for a bit. (Otherwise it'll want to open back up.)
- When the glue was dry, I snipped out the ends.
- Of course I wanted cheese flags too, so I wrapped a few around cocktail toothpicks. (I did the writing on the computer.)
- And poked the flags into my cheese.
- I put some of the straw flags on straws, but left others in a dish with markers nearby for guests to write their name in the blank spot.
- It was fun seeing the straws in action!
Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my Christmas crafting. Stay tuned for a few pictures of our Kitschmas cocktail party soon. What holiday crafts have YOU been up to?
