Homemade Christmas Crèche

 A project that 1st graders do at our church is work together as a family and create a simple Christmas Crèche (crèche is the French word for cradle). To keep with the simplicity of the story of the birth of Jesus, families are encouraged to use simple materials, for example, items that can be easily found around the house. Ours is all done and ready to go to church to be blessed with holy water by our priest.

We made Mary, Joseph, Jesus, an angel, 3 wise men, 2 shepherds, 1 gray donkey, and 1 white sheep.

Our inspiration came from:

• painted cork people with wood bead heads from KJ from let's go fly a kite who linked to this one
• wood peg and wool felt nativity set

 Supplies:

• wine corks (for bodies)
• wood beads (for heads)
• wool felt (for clothing, angel wings, donkey fur, star of Bethlehem)
• wool roving (for angel hair, wise men beards, sheep wool)
• nails (1.5 inches in length, used to attach the wood bead to the cork)
• craft gems (for the gold, frankincense and myrrh)
• pipe cleaners (for angel's halo, wise men's crowns, shepherd's staves, and to hold up the star of Bethlehem)
• permanent markers (to add faces to wood beads)
• toothpicks (for the legs on the donkey)
• scraps of beige yarn (leftovers from a knitted sweater and bunny, for the hay in the manger)
• cardboard tube (for manger)
• cardboard box (packaging from a doll my daughter got, for the stable)
• cardboard circle from a frozen pizza (for the base)
• hot glue gun

 A very quick explanation on how to make one of the figures… cut out a piece of wool felt to wrap all of the way around a cork, attach it to a cork with a hot glue gun. To attach the wood bead to the cork, put a nail through a wood bead and push the nail into a cork. Baby Jesus was half of a cork and for the animals the wood bead and nail were put into the side of the cork. All of the figures stay in place thanks to the hot glue gun, so nothing will move or tip over.

 The only thing I bought were the wood beads which were a couple of dollars. Otherwise everything else came from around the house, from our stash of craft supplies, items that could be found in a recycling bin, etc.

 All of the 1st grade nativity scenes will decorate the tables as centerpieces in our church's community room during Advent. After that ours will come back home to stay.

Happy 790th anniversary of the Christmas crèche! It was 790 years ago when St Francis of Assisi staged the first nativity scene back in 1223.

Red Riding Hood Doll

  I had been wanting to make this doll for months, so it feels good to have finally made it.

The pattern and instructions came from the book We Make Dolls! Top Dollmakers Share Their Secrets & Patterns by Jenny Doh. It's called Red Riding Hood and was designed by Suse Bauer.

It was so nice that all of the supplies (fabric, felt, button, embroidery floss, stuffing) were basic, you know, what most crafty people already have on hand, so all of these came from my stash and no need for a trip to the craft/fabric store.

One thing I really liked about this craft book is that the pattern didn't need to be enlarged so I didn't have to make a trip to the copy machine.

This doll turns out kind of long, 18 inches!

Red Riding Hood is a little gift for a little person :)

Off to my next project...

The 12 Days of Christmas series

 

Just a quick announcement today to share that there is a super fun new handmade children's clothing series coming up just around the corner. It's called the 12 Days of Christmas and is being hosted by Suz of Sewpony and Laura of Craftstorming.

Sewists from all around the world will be contributing, offering inspiration for sewing children's holiday garments, it will also be fun to learn other peoples Christmas traditions.

You are invited to join in on the fun, too. Sew some Christmas clothing for your child/ren and add a photo to the The 12 Days of Christmas flickr group. I hope you will join us.

Holiday 13 Ideas House

 {This is not my house}

Are you thinking about and planning for Christmas? I know I already am. Maybe this photo tour of the Bachman's Holiday 13 Ideas House will offer you some inspiration. This time around the theme is "A Cozy, Contemporary Nordic Celebration"… simplicity, a clean white or ivory slate with layers of fresh green and traditional reds… Northern European influences, metallic accents, natural driftwood pieces...

Are you interested in 'visiting' some of the previous Ideas Houses? If so, these are just a click away: Fall 13, Spring 13, Holiday 12, Fall 12, Spring 12, Holiday 11, Summer 11, Spring 11, Holiday 10, Summer 10, and Spring 10.

 On the front porch, vintage metal cart used as a winter accessories storage, screen door transformed into a chalkboard

 Hot chocolate bar, mini sled used as a serving tray

 In the living room, fabric inside cabinets appears as stacked wood

 Salvaged wood as art, mittens layered with stockings on mantel

Wall hangers display Christmas cards

 Baby cradle holds presents, presents wrapped with paper placemats and decorative tape

 In the dining room, salvaged wood mounted on wall as candleholers

 In the kitchen, hanging red heart vases, lantern holds soap and lotion

 Large vintage tray used as a kitchen organizer

 Vintage bed spring hung as pot rack, dentist cabinet used as kitchen organizer

 In the main floor bathroom, drawer used as toilet paper holder

 In the gardener's room, live plants become wall art

 Paper placemats hung as wallpaper, roll of moss garland appears like a holiday wreath

 Hanging bottles vases embellished with craft paper, decorative tape, and rubber stamped images

 Chandelier made of small terra cotta post and garland

 In the tablescapes ideas room, traditional Christmas gathering, place setting 'wrapped' like presents

 Winter wedding with white "fur" throw blanket on wall and table

 In the upstairs bathroom, driftwood snowflakes accented by painted shadow, birch baskets for towel and soap holder, copper leaves accented with stems and berries as shower currain embellishments

 In the master bedroom, headboard made from cedar shelves

 Birch branch used as ornament hanger, jewelry holders made from birch rounds

 Christmas tree accented with copper wire

 My favorite room in this house is the girl's bedroom with a soft turquoise and white winter wonderland fairy theme (I could stare at it all day long!), stuffed reindeer, galvanized wash basin used as tree base holder, framed fairy hanging as ornament, gift wrapping embellished with decorative tape

 Vintage vanity shortened and used as play desk

 Window valences decorated with ornaments, paper and crystal snowflakes

 Stickers became art work with a painted faux frame and vintage door pulls, vintage garden table and chairs used as coloring space

 Large basket used as nightstand, bird cage turned into a miniature fairy garden, metal owls used as bookends

 Sparkly taxidermy

 Porch posts used to make a canopy bed, accented with lights

 I'll leave you with my favorite photo…

And what is your favorite thing from the Holiday 13 Ideas House?

PS I hope you get a chance to visit this Holiday 2013 Ideas House (there are so many more ideas to see than are in these photos) it is open November 7th - December 15th, 2013.

Even More Little Geraniums

I can't stop sewing these Little Geranium dresses (here are my 1st 'bouquet' and 2nd 'bouquet').

Earlier this month I was reorganizing my fabric stash and came across pieces that were less than a third of a yard. Just enough to make baby dresses, I thought. This batch of dresses were made from simple quilting cottons except for the gray which is a mystery fabric (it has a bit of stretch), the bodice lining is simple white cotton blend. These baby dresses were made for and will be donated to Dress A Girl Around the World.

If you are ever interested in sewing up a Little Geranium (free pattern, size 0-3 months), here are the amounts that are needed. Just something to keep in mind when you are going through your fabric stash and are wondering what could be made from those smaller fabric pieces.

5.5 X 6 inches (2 of these are needed for the bodice back)
6 X 10 inches (1 of these is needed for the bodice front)
11 X 34 - 11 X 44 inches (1 of these is needed for the skirt)

Do you have fabric pieces in those sizes in your fabric stash?

PS this little blog celebrated it's 4th birthday yesterday ~ thank you for reading, subscribing, and for all of your sweet comments over the years :)

Marzipan Day of the Dead Skulls

 Kids can make their own festive and yummy snack for Day of the Dead {Mexican holiday celebrated November 1st (All Saints' Day) and November 2nd (All Souls' Day)} with these marzipan skulls. They are super easy to make and very inexpensive.

Marzipan Day of the Dead Skulls Tutorial

What you need:

• Silicone ice cube tray with skull shapes (I bought this one for $1.00 at a dollar store, but others with skull shapes can be found at large craft stores for about $10.00)
• Marzipan (I bought some at IKEA for $2.29)
• Cake/cookie sprinkles

 What you do:

• Take a small amount of marzipan and with fingers press into the mold

•  Pop the marzipan skull out of the mold (the 7.1 oz. package of marzipan made 14 skulls)

• Decorate with sprinkles

Bon appetit!

PS When decorating the plate I added orange flower sprinkles because marigolds are the traditional flower for Day of the Dead. I also added some Mexican treats that I found in the Mexican section of a regular grocery store: Canel's chewing gum and de la Rosa peanut marzipan.

For Day of the Dead Skull Crayons go here. For even more Day of the Dead ideas go here.