Christmas gift crafted: birch tree accessories!

My dear sister-in-law has purchased an awesome condo. You know – along the river, in the heart of downtown, converted from an old furniture factory, exposed brick, don't you wish you lived there, cool type condo. I would almost be jealous except for how much I love my quaint brick bungalow and my walkable neighborhood.

Anyway, one wall of her place is done in a sweet birch tree wallpaper. You honest to goodness feel like you're in a forest. It is striking and very well done and perfect in the place she put it. So when I started thinking Christmas crafts I started thinking birch tree! I sent out an email plea at work for supplies and happily was able to find someone who was willing to let me pick through her nice stack of birch wood and branches.

Here's a list of what I came up with (as in totally invented, I am so proud of my craftiness):
1. Fridge magnets with cute fabric designs, these are about the size of a quarter
2. Drink coasters, sealed and finished with felt bottoms
3. Christmas ornaments: flat with baubles
4. Christmas ornaments: 3D stack of tree slices with beads and buttons

Christmas gift crafted: chalkboard ornaments!

I found this idea on Whip Up from a guest post by blogger Curly Birds over a year ago. I was originally aiming for the little people shapes as shown. And I had the thought to throw in pets too – little dogs and cats. But then I could not find the flat wooden people and decided to go with flat round discs instead, which made things simpler anyway.

Each one is painted with chalkboard paint and served double-duty this season as gift tags! Every family also got a box of colored chalk along with their individual ornaments to inspire future creativity.

My 4-year-old daughter helped me paint them this past Septembert. My only regret was that we did not paint them on a better surface – perhaps wax paper. Our generous application of paint made little puddles that ended up sticking to the newspaper. When everything was dry, we'd have little shreds of newspaper to pick off! The ornaments were unfinished so they soaked up the paint. I think we did 2 coats on each side.

I am hoping to keep up a similar craft in the future that can involve my little ones. I like the idea of them experience the joy of creating and giving and not just receiving.

Felt ornaments for kids of all ages!

For the second time, I prepared a Thanksgiving craft for our family gathering (anyone remember ornamental balls?). I was inspired by the book Holiday Crafting and Baking with Kids: Gifts, Sweets, and Treats for the Whole Family. Of course, our actual intention was to get the grown-ups crafting too!

Because this involves cutting felt with fabric scissors it is not the best craft for the littles. However, one of my nephews who is only 3 years old was happy to arrange scraps and even glued them himself. The 4-year-olds had mixed interest. The older kids actually really enjoyed it. On the second day of crafting, we even saw some out-of-the-box formats – large rectangles, fringe, tassels, and, eventually fake moustaches!

The premise is very simple – take a felt circle, cut out various felt shapes, and glue them on. The instructions suggest using a hole punch to create a spot to thread the ribbon through. We found it easier to just pinch the fabric and make a small snip with the scissors. The sparkly, fancy, beaded ribbons were a hit embellishment option.