Christmas Goodies

Warning: Picture heavy post...

So here's what "Santa" made for Christmas this year for some of the family members...

Top and skirt set for a 4 year old - the buttons and ribbon I used for trimming were actually from Stampin' Up (The free Ice-Cream Parlour bundle that came free during the year)

Ballet Neck Toddler dress from the "One-Yard Wonders" book - I made two of these for my 5 and 6 year old nieces:

Top and skirt - I can't find the tutorial I used for the skirt, but its very similar to this skirt here.

Shorts made from the Champion Cargos pattern by Make It Perfect:

The Junebug Dress by Craftiness is Not Optional:

A Mommy and Mia Apron from Sew Much Ado for my sister:

Kids Messenger Bag from One Yard Wonders:

A freezer-paper stencilled shirt for my brother:

And some Stick By Me goodies...

This one is a tile bought from Bunnings which I've stamped with Staz On in and Fifth Avenue Floral stamps from Stampin' Up. I had to be so careful not to smudge, but I'm really happy with how it turned out :-)

And a block set with the Stick by Me stickers:

And the biggest thing I learned from all this... if you want a handmade Christmas, you probably have to start in June! :-)

Christmas Crafting

Now that Christmas is over I can share some of the homemade things I did for Christmas presents :-) I will say that even though I find crafting fun, crafting to a deadline when you have 2 little boys to look after is STRESSFUL... Thanks to both my parents and the in-laws for all the baby-sitting! I think I'm going to have to start Christmas crafting in say June next year so I don't leave it until the last minute!

First up - Christmas Cards:

Next was some glass blocks with vinyl stickers of Christ from Stick By Me:

Then some frames... The little house frames were pretty labour intensive... I made my own letters by using 3 layers of cardstock, a layer of paper and then Crystal effects on top. And I had 9 families to do :-)

Next some handbags for my nieces - I made 3 of these. The pattern is from here.

Another small tote bag for a friend. This is loosely based on this tutorial from Homemade by Jill and is made out of tea towels :-)

And last of all, this dress for my niece. The pattern is Simplicity 4711.

No wonder I was worn out by Christmas :-) I'm looking forward to moving onto more projects for me and my family now ;-)