Christmas Craft Corner

I love decorating for Christmas (and all other occasions really)! Instead of buying all our decorations though, I often make my own. That way, I not only enjoy looking at decor, but I have the pleasure of taking time to prepare it as well. Here are a few that I have recently completed.

Christmas Stockings

 All it takes to make these darling stockings is some canvas material, scraps of Christmas-colored fabric, some ribbon, a sewing machine, and a serger. If you want to add more detail as I did here, you can use fabric paint and decorative buttons.

To make the stocking base, I simply cut out a stocking shape for both front and back. Next, I cut out a heel and toe for each stocking, as well as a strip of fabric for the top. After those got sewed onto the front of the stocking, I sewed an additional ribbon around each section for added cuteness. I cute out material to make the different figures on each stocking, but you can paint them on too, or even do an iron-on photo/image if you'd like. I used embroidery thread to place the names on each, but again, you can just use fabric paint.

That's basically all it takes for the design part of the stocking. Next, serge the tops of both the front and the back, SEPARATELY. Now all that's left to do is place the front and back together and serge them; this leaves a nice finished edge. I simply sewed red ribbon on the top corners for hanging purposes.

And that's it! These are very fun to make. You definitely get to put your creative juices to work.

Greeting Card Picture Frames

Mom sent me some greeting cards that she thought were super cute from last Christmas. She didn't know what to do with them and gave me the chore to figure out some creative way to utilize them. This simple craft is so neat around Christmas time, especially for decorating.

For the two cards shown above, I simply cut them to fit a 5x7 frame. That's the easiest way. However, for the card shown below, I pasted the image on some cardstock paper that resembled a matte frame and placed it in a large 8x10 frame. This gives it a more elegant look if that's what you're going for.

Again, super easy. And a great way to use those beautiful Christmas card fronts that you don't know what to do with!

Evergreen Wreath

It is very easy to come by evergreen branches when you live in North Idaho. It's not so easy in the suburbs. This year however, we bought a Christmas tree that was just a bit too large and had to cut it back some. That left us with some unused evergreen bows lying around. What to do with them? Make a wreath of course!

You can buy wire wreath bases at craft stores like Michaels or JoAnnes. I used the kind that get hammered down to keep the branches in place. All you do is take bunches of branches and stick the stems in between the wire slots; hammer them in and move onto the next slot. In the end, you have a nice FULL circle of Christmas! (Mine was done very quickly; you can definitely keep the branches a little more symmetrical around the circle. They don't have to stick out so much). You can decorate with berries, pinecones, leaves, ornaments...basically anything you have lying around. I just tied a simple red bow around the bottom corner.

This is a darling addition to my front door :)