Handmade Christmas 2012

Hello and happy holidays friends!

I apologize for the severe lack of movement here the past weeks. My Husband and I just bought a new (old) house and we have been busy moving, fixing, renovating, painting, and all the things that come with home ownership!

I have been so behind trying to get our home in some kind of livable condition that I have fallen behind on my usual Christmas crafting escapades.

This year we kept hings pretty simple. I used a lot of the decorations I made last year -

* Budget Anthropologie Mitten Garland

* Budget Anthropologie Mason Jar Snow Globes

* Pinecone Garland

* Wrapping Details

(Be sure to visit my Etsy shop for some downloadable Gift Tags and other great gift ideas!)

And did a few new projects!

* Budget Anthropologie Pom Pom Garland Tutorial 

I also added some more found/natural elements that were quick, easy, and most importantly, free! Take a look for some holiday inspiration.


We got our first real tree this year, (my first ever!) and we needed a tree skirt so our cats would stop drinking all the water! Again we are on a budget, so I tried to use only what I had. I still had some painter's dropcloth left over from these basket liners, I also had some cream fabric trim with a red crocheted edge on it that I got at an estate sale a while back that was perfect for the job. I didn't use a pattern, I basically just winged it and was able to do it in under 45 minutes. It  turned out perfect!

(If you would like a tutorial leave a note in the comments!!)

When we bought our Christmas Tree I asked for some extra cuttings off the trunks to use for decorations. I stacked them over the mantle and interspersed them with the DIY Mason Jar Snowglobes I made last year.

Trimmings from the pom poms make snowy vase filler! I made arrangements with curly twigs from our yard.

I used some small chalkboards I had on hand to write seasonal messages for the mantle!

You can see the tutorial I made for the pompoms here. I strung them into a garland, and used the extras and trimmings as vase fillers with some pine cones and twigs from my yard!

The tree! See the teeny vintage crocheted angel we use as a topper?

Extra pom poms and pinecones as vase filler!

Happy decorating and thanks for reading!

Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthropologie Pom Pom Garland!

12/ 17 EDIT: I just realized that Anthropologie currently has a pom pom garland in their shop! So this doubles as an edition for Budget Anthropologie! Yay for happy accidents! To make your garland more like the Anthropologie version, braid or crochet the chain you attach the pom poms to!

***

In preparing my Christmas decor this year, I am obsessed with pompoms! I originally wanted to created a felted wool garland like (this one at West Elm), but we are on a tight budget this year and I didn't have the money for the supplies nor to buy one from West Elm directly. So I settled on the next best thing... pom poms! They have the same feel that I was going for, but as I already had plenty of yarn lying around and a few spare hours to operate as a pom pom factory, they were completely free!

Supplies:

Cardboard, or your hands

Yarn

Sharp Scissors

How-To:

1. Find a small scrap of cardboard, wood, or wrap yarn around your hands or fingers depending on the size you are going for. 

2. Wrap until you have a thickly padded section of yarn.(Here I have wrapped several sections at once to save time!)

3. Cut yarn end, pull the wad of yarn off the cardboard or wherever you have it.

4. Using another piece of yarn securely double knot around the midsection of the yarn wad.

5. Cut open the loops on either side the tie.

6. Trim pom pom ends until it is full and fluffy looking, depending on the look you are going for.

7. Leave the tie ends long to attach to gifts, garlands, wreaths, etc!

8. MAKE MOREEE

Here's what I did with mine:

 

I made a Garland for our tree, and I used the extra yarn trimmings and extra pom poms as snowy vase filler!

Thanks for reading!!

Handmade Christmas - Details

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year friends! 

I hope that no matter your situation this holiday season, you know you are loved and cared for. 

 I wanted to continue my handmade Christmas series with some details I did for the gifts we made and purchased this year. I found this custom stamp set at Michael's marked way way down right before Christmas, and it was perfect for making some personal details for our Christmas gifts!

I hope these inspire you all year with your gift giving! Stay tuned for another post on our holiday goodies!

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

I used the interchangeable letters to create a moniker that I used on some of gifts, as well as gift tags!

Using cheap $1 stamps I picked up from Michael's and a local thrift store, I created some patterned wrapping paper for various gifts!

Rearranging the lettering on the stamp block allowed me to customize each gift tag label!

Kitty says "For meeeee?"

Handmade Christmas - Pinecone Garland

Today's issue of Handmade Christmas is brought to you by Pinecones! They may be sappy, but they're free!

I made this pinecone garland for next to nothing, and you can too! It's a great, cheap way to bring the outdoors into your home this Christmas season!

Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthro Mitten Garland

 I saw this adorable mitten garland on Anthropolgie's website last year, but had no idea how to go about making them. I can knit, but I'm not good enough to make up a mitten pattern when I have never made them before!

Anthropologie's Mitten Garland

This year however, I found this ( perfect tiny mitten pattern! ) If you have basic knitting skills, and can crochet a chain (that's about all I can do...) these are very simple, even if you have never made mittens before! They take about 30 minutes each to knit, and I made my garland over a few nights watching TV and knitting a few pairs in a sitting.  They don't even have to all be the same, if you mess up and miss a row or an increase, its okay! They will still look great.

This is a great project to use up leftover yarn, is not a breakable decoration (our precocious kitties make it impossible to use any kind of breakable Christmas decor...) and it is super adorbs.

I made 6 pairs of 3 different yarns, 18 mittens. I crocheted the garland strand and attached the mittens by crocheting little loops on and through the garland strand. You can also just knot yarn through the corner to tie them to the strand!

tiny.... mittens...

Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthro Mason Jar Snowglobes

 Today's edition of Budget Anthropologie is brought to you by water-less Mason Jar Snowglobes!

Anthropologie's Snow Globes

These little guys are sweet as can be, but, having a number of empty glass jars floating around my house, I knew I could recreate a host of these for a fraction of the price!

Materials:

- Mason jars or empty food jars with lids: I used basically every empty jar in my apartment, from empty salsa containers, spaghetti sauce jars, a few mason jars, even emptied and cleaned wax candle mini jars with lids and a tiny hotel jelly jar.

- Fake snow! I got mine at Target for about $1.50, which was as cheap as I could find it. Other ideas include crumpling up bit of foam into tiny pieces, shredded paper bits, glitter etc. 

- Bottle brush mini trees, or other fake mini trees. I found a pack of 2 larger ones at the thrift store for $1.00, and I got a few packs of 7 or 8 bottle brush trees of varying sizes for $2.00 each at Michaels.

- Hot glue and hot glue gun, or adhesive of your choosing.