#christmas crafts

[makinguselessthings]

It's Christmas crafting season! I actually set aside some time this year to have fun and make some presents. I dressed up some taper candles with pressed flowers. I attempted to make taper holders with air dry clay. Disaster. Air dry clay is very tricky to work with. It will take a bit more practice on my end. I made some homemade ornaments. I also knit some cute little beer koozies.

Hope you are all having a very crafty Christmas!

[theworldinstitches]

[tessawinterbourne]

[brightsunsmeanshello]

Fives, delighted: Echo, look! We’re balls! 😃

Echo: Ornaments, Fives. 😒

[1lifeinspired]

~ Fantastic Gingerbread Houses ~

[badstitched]

⋆｡°✩ Vaporwave Gingerbread House ✧˖°.

Are people still stitching Christmasy stuff? I present my Vaporwave Gingerbread House!

This month's pattern is bright and festive and vaporwave! It's a quick stitch if you're in the seasonal stitching mood. I stitched the white outlines first, so that the rest was easy fill like a coloring book! Perfect for zoning out stitching and watching TV.

I stitched this on 16ct Mediterranean Sea by Wichelt with DMC floss. Find this + a boatload of community and patterns on my Patreon!

[smasterilli]

Hello, friends! I'm in a hurry to show you my new design for Christmas. This is a pattern for cross-stitch with a cat and snowflakes around. It is quite small - only 70 * 70 crosses, which is about 5*5 inches for 14 canvases. I plan to dismiss it in the near future. I think this ornament will look great in small round hoops on a Christmas tree.

You can find this pattern on my web site: https://smasterilli.com/product/winter-cat-and-snowflakes-cross-stitch-pattern-pdf-easy-christmas-ornament-0422/

[cosy-crafty-corner]

Gift Bag Tutorial

In this tutorial, I will explain how to create cute fabric gift bags. I was shown this method several years ago by a quilter as a nice technique to work with jelly rolls (rolls of fabric strips) but I don't know what the actual origin of this technique is. These instructions are based on me figuring out how to do it from the vague memory of what I was shown once when I was first experimenting with quilting.

You will need:

Fabric

General purpose sewing thread

Needle

Pins

Thin ribbon

Step 1: pick your fabric

You will need 8 strips of fabric, 4 to make the outside and 4 to make the lining. You could do all 8 strips the same fabric, you could do all 8 different fabrics, or keep a few of them the same. I like doing pairs of strips, so for my demonstration, I will be showing it using 2 fabrics for the outside and 2 for the inside. Quilting cotton is great for this, but the key this is that you want the fabric to be non-stretch and you want all the fabrics you're using to be about the same weight. You could get away with having the lining pieces be of a lighter weight fabric than the outside fabrics, but aim for consistency in the outside pieces.

Step 2: measure and cut 8 strips

You want your strips to be approximately three times as long as they are wide. You can get away with a bit of variation and if you have longer strips, you'll end up with a taller gift bag. What really matters is that all your strips are the same size. For my demonstration, I cut out a piece of cardboard that was 2 inches by 6 inches and then drew round that as a template.

Make sure you leave yourself a seam allowance that you're comfortable with.

Step 3: Place your pieces to get the relative position correct

For each layer (outside and lining) you are going to want to position the four pieces that make it up so that the bottom of one strip is against one end of the long side of its neighbour. The end result is that you get a sort of spiral cross (if there is an actual name for this shape, I don't know it). All four pieces should meet in the middle.

You will want to do the same for the outside and lining layers, but you want their directions to be reversed. This is so that when you place the layers together in the final bag, they will spiral in the same direction. It's not the end of the world if you get this wrong, but the end result will be a lot neater if you get it right. This is the step I have to check repeatedly to make sure I'm getting it right.

Step 4: Pin pairs of strips

Once you're happy that they're placed correctly, pin the fabric strips in pairs so that the bottom of one strip is pinned to the end of the long side of its partner. Once it's done, your two lining pairs should be identical and your two outside pairs should be identical, but when you compare a lining and an outside pair, the placement should be mirror-images.

Once you've got them pinned, check one more time that you can get them back into the correct spiral cross shapes to make sure you haven't pinned the wrong side.

Step 5: Sew your pairs

Sew the short seams that you pinned in the previous step.

Step 6: Pin & sew your pairs together

Pin your two outside pairs together and your two inside pairs together to make the spiral cross shape and sew along these seams.

Step 7: Cut into the long side so it can turn

When we do the next bit of sewing, you're going to need to turn the long side of your strips at about a 90 degree angle but, as per step 1, we're not working with stretch fabric, so it's not going to want to turn like that. In order to make the next step work nicely, you're going to need to cut into your seam allowance on the long side at the point where your seam ends between the long side and the bottom edge of its neighbour.

I'm sure there's a technical name for this sort of cut. If you know it, please let me know what it is.

You're going to need to make this cut once on each of your eight strips of fabric, right at the point where that long side meets the short side. Cut as close as you dare to your seam without cutting into the seam itself.

Step 8: Pin and sew the long sides together

If you're doing this for the first time or you just want to play it safe, start with the lining as this will be less obvious if you make a mistake. Take one of your strips and find the long side that is joined to the short side of the neighbour. Fold this strip at the cut you just made so that the strip lies against the long side of the neighbouring strip and pin the front sides of the fabric together. You will find that the first strip stops partway up the length of the second strip. The difference in lengths will be the same as the width of the strips, because of the way the long and short sides are attached together at the bottom. This is what will create the triangular close flaps in the final gift bag.

Sew the two long sides together.

Repeat this process for the other three edges of the lining. Then repeat it for the four edges of the outside.

This will give your gift bags shape and you'll see the strips spiralling up the sides and ending in the triangular flaps.

Step 9: Cut your closure ribbons

You want a nice thin ribbon. I'm using 1cm wide ribbon. If you do bigger strips, you could get away with a thicker ribbon, but this width works nicely for the sizes I'm using. I cut 4 lengths each of approximately 5 inches, but I wasn't really measuring them precisely. As long as the 4 lengths of ribbon are pretty close to the same length and long enough to comfortably tie into bows, it should be fine.

Step 10: Assemble your bag - right side to right side

Turn your outside layer so that it is inside-out, with the nice side of the fabric to the inside of the bag. Turn your lining layer so that the nice side of the fabric it facing out, then place your lining layer inside your outside layer so that the good sides of the fabric are facing each other. Position the lining so that the triangle flaps line up with the flaps of the outside layer.

Take one of your ribbon pieces and put it between the two layers and pin one end of the ribbon at the point of the triangular flap where the outside and lining flaps meet. Do the same at the other three points. Make sure that the main length of each ribbon is tucked between the sides of the fabric that will be facing out when the bag is finished, and also take care that it's point straight down so that you won't end up sewing it on at an angle. While you're at it, make sure that the rest of the ribbon is well away from the seams so you don't accidentally sew any of it.

Use more pins at each V where two of the triangular flaps meet. Take your time over this stage to get the lining and the outside layer to line up nicely. The points and the dip of the V are the places that you need to take care with because the remaining edges should all be the same length, so if you get those positioned correctly, the rest of the edge should sort itself out.

Step 11: Sew most of the top

You want to sew a seam around most of the top of the bag to connect the lining to the outside. Note that I said "most" there because you need to leave yourself a gap so that you can turn it all the right way round. It's best if you leave this gap in one of the Vs rather than at a point, so you don't need to worry about the ribbon and so that it will be less noticeable when you sew the final bit closed.

Start about halfway up one of the flap sides and sew towards the point. When you reach the ribbon, sew straight across. If you sew to a point then the ribbon will be weird when you turn it the right way round because the point will be going the wrong direction. So straight across the ribbon and then down the other side of the flap. Keep going around the rest of the top until you're about halfway down the side next to where you started. At this point, the whole of the top should be secure apart from a small gap in the dip of the final V.

Step 12: Turn right side out and finish

Poke the entire thing inside-out through the small gap you have left. You may need to tug gently on the ribbons to get the points of the flaps to be nicely pointy. Once everything is the right way round, finish it off by sewing closed that little gap. Use small stitches in a thread that is a similar shade to your fabric if possible (this may be a challenge if you're using pieces in lots of different colours) to try and make these stitches unobtrusive. I used whip stitch to finish mine.

Step 13: Fill with chocolates

Fill your gift bag with chocolates and tie the ribbons closed. It is now ready to present.

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

[girlwhofellfromthemoon]

Kid-friendly holiday crafts !! 🐣 I've created a list of all the crafts i want to do this year for the holidays. Most of them are kid-friendly as well and especially fun to do with regressors 💕 I've also included difficulty ratings of one to three stars. If a craft is more difficult littles might need some extra help to make them ! Homemade Gift Wrapping Difficulty: 🌟 Such a cute and easy way to make Christmas more creative !! And a good way to use the cute paper and stickers I've been hoarding all year because I don't know what to do with them 😖

Felt Christmas Cookie Ornaments Difficulty: 🌟🌟🌟 These ones are a little tricky but they're so cute, I love the colourful beads on them that look like sprinkles !! And a Christmas tree would look so good with lots of these hanging up🎄

Scented Salt Dough Ornaments Difficulty: 🌟 I only gave these a one star difficulty because they're very easy to make. But keep in mind that they do use the oven ! Other than that, they're cute and smell nice, it's like the best of both worlds 😆

Christmas Bunting Difficulty: 🌟🌟 I love bunting, not only Christmas themed, but all year round !! It's my favourite wall decoration and makes my room feel like I'm having a party every day 🎉

I also found some other bunting patterns in different shapes, these ones are more holiday themed ! But that means that they're a little more difficult to make. Here's the links for star and Christmas tree patterns. Difficulty: 🌟🌟🌟

And also, another one because I just love bunting. This one's Christmas tree shaped but is much easier because it doesn't require any sewing ! Difficulty: 🌟

Gingerbread House Gift Wrapping/Advent Calendar Difficulty: 🌟 These ones are very similar so I grouped them together. Decorating brown paper bags with white markers to make little gingerbread houses ! Which you can use for wrapping presents but also to make a whole village for an advent calendar 🏡

Fabric Paperchains Difficulty: 🌟🌟🌟 I love paperchains but they always tear when I try to make them. These one's won't though and because they have velcro you can mix and match the patterns when you get bored of them 💭

Gingerbread House Card Difficulty: 🌟 You can probably tell I love gingerbread houses. I just think they're so cute and Christmassy ! And it would be so fun to make these cards but also everyone would be so happy to receive such a cute card ! 🌈

And that's all !! I might update this post as I see more crafts during the month but I think this is a good list to start off with. Also if anyone does any of these please post a picture ! I'd love to see them 🥰💖

[dizzymaiden]

Want to smell like a yummy fresh baked gingerbread cookie?!

Make this for yourself or make a bunch for gifts!

Prep: 5 mins - EASY

1 cup of dark brown sugar

1/4 coconut solid oil

1 Tablespoon blackstrap molasses (FACT: molasses contains lactic acid and can help treat acne, eczema and rosacea. It also has anti aging antioxidants and it sooths skin!) So yeah...use it!

1 teaspoon cinnamon, dried ground ginger and 1/3 teaspoons of dried ground cloves.

Option: a teaspoon of vanilla

Mix all well in a bowl then transfer to mason jars. Add labels that say put on damp skin and scrub lightly. Wash off.

Also - warn them that they will smell like a snack so they might have to sing "catch me if you can I'm the gingerbread man" or replace with correct name :)

[goodmorninglovelies42]

Very proud of this Heartstopper ornament I’m working on for my sister!

[msnogood]

Woolen Snow Baby

Made a little snow baby star because I had a spare doll head that longs for a body. Guess winter is just going to be star-themed for me.

Needle + welt felted wool with an upcycled 90's ceramic doll head.

Available for adoption at my Kofi shop!

[katiecraftsstuff]

Christmas Crafts!!!

These are some of the advent calendars I've made. The puzzle box had different fidgets and puzzles in the squares.

The book case one had different types of tea in each book.

The plant one had different types of seeds in each pot.

I wanted calendars that were tailor made for people and it was really hard to find any that were out of my budget so I ended up making them from bits of cardboard I had in the house. It one of the things I love about being a general crafter there is always random stuff laying around that can be repurposed.

[handmadeblossoms]

December craft to do list

Latest finish: Weathertop Scarf by Susan Pandorf. Made my niece’s 7th birthday coming up in December. I’m actually ahead of schedule for once! She loves aqua and this variegated yarn has been sitting in my stash for ages. Just kept going until I finished the skein (79-80 pattern repeats I think)

[kiacreates]

Christmas Journal Inspiration!

Who is excited for Winter Journal Challenge 2024 to start??

#WinterJournalChallenge is a December daily christmas-themed journaling challenge. There is a prompt for (almost) every day in December. Interpret the prompts in your journal.

Find out more here or follow the host on IG: kia.creates and inspiringjournals or find the Winter Journal Challenge collaboration playlist on YouTube 🎄